MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Prophecies Fulfilled

All the PropheciesThe Lineage, the Identity, and the Birth← The Identity
Movement 1, part 3 of 3 · 22 prophecies

The Birth

from The Lineage, the Identity, and the Birth

How and where and when he would come: born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, a king to whom kings bring gifts, called out of Egypt, a Nazarene, coming to his temple in the time Daniel numbered.

Born of a virgin

Isaiah gives the house of David the sign that a virgin will conceive and bear a son; Matthew and Luke record Jesus' virginal conception by the Holy Spirit.

Hebrew almah means a young woman of marriageable age; the pre-Christian Septuagint chose parthenos ('virgin'), which Matthew quotes. Jeremiah 31:22 ('a woman shall compass a man') and Ezekiel 44:2 (the shut gate) are patristic readings (Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose), not predictions in the strict sense; Irenaeus also read Daniel 2:34 ('a stone cut without hands') of the virgin birth.

The Virgin Shall Conceive — Emmanuel
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Emmanuel: God with us

The virgin's son is named Emmanuel, and Isaiah calls Judah 'thy land, O Emmanuel'; Matthew reads the name fulfilled in Jesus, in whom God dwells among his people.

Matthew's Gospel opens with 'God with us' (1:23) and closes with 'I am with you all days' (28:20). Leviticus 26:12 is referred to the latter, messianic days in Yalkut 62.

'Until she that travaileth shall bring forth' — the Mother of the Messiah

Micah, just after naming Bethlehem, says Israel is given up until she who is in labour brings forth; the Virgin of Isaiah 7:14 brings forth her firstborn at Bethlehem.

Keil-Delitzsch, Poole, Barnes and the Pulpit Commentary identify 'she which travaileth' with the mother of the Messiah of Isaiah 7:14; others read Zion in travail. Isaiah 66:7 (birth before pain) is applied to Mary only by Catholic interpreters and is contested.

Born in Bethlehem Ephrata

Micah names little Bethlehem Ephrata, David's town, as the birthplace of the ruler of Israel; Jesus is born there, and the chief priests cite the verse to Herod.

Micah 5:2 (5:1 in the Hebrew numbering) is read messianically in the Targum and Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer 3, and John 7:42 attests the first-century expectation. Some critics hold the Bethlehem birth narratives were shaped to fit the prophecy; Catholic tradition and both infancy narratives affirm it.

And Thou, Bethlehem Ephrata — the Birthplace Foretold
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The tower of the flock: shepherds near Bethlehem

Micah promises that dominion will come to Migdal Eder, the 'tower of the flock' where Jacob camped beyond Bethlehem; the Messiah's birth is first announced to shepherds keeping flocks in those fields.

FulfilledLuke 2:8-18

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis 35:21 calls the tower of Eder 'the place where King Messiah will be revealed at the end of days'; Edersheim drew the connection with the Bethlehem shepherds (Mishnah Shekalim 7:4 places Temple flocks there). An inference from rabbinic tradition rather than an explicit prediction.

The ox and the ass know their master's crib

Isaiah's reproach that the ox knows its owner and the ass its master's crib was read by the Fathers of the manger at Bethlehem, where beasts acknowledged the Lord whom Israel's rulers ignored.

ForetoldIsaiah 1:3

A patristic and liturgical accommodation (Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus; the Septuagint of Habakkuk 3:2 'between two living creatures' was also invoked) that gave the Nativity scene its ox and ass. Isaiah 1:3 is not predictive in its own context; Benedict XVI discusses the tradition in 'The Infancy Narratives'.

Born King of the Jews

The prophets foretell a king set by God upon Zion, reigning in justice; the Magi ask for 'him that is born king of the Jews', and Jesus affirms his kingship before Pilate.

Psalm 2:6 is applied to the Messiah dwelling in Zion in the Midrash on 1 Samuel 16:1; the Jerusalem Targum reads 'King' in Numbers 24:7 of the Messiah.

Kings of the East bring gold and frankincense

The psalmist and Isaiah foresee kings of Sheba and the nations offering gold and incense to Israel's king; the Magi open their treasures of gold, frankincense and myrrh before the Child.

Matthew calls the visitors Magi, not kings; the Church's Epiphany liturgy applies Psalm 72:10 and Isaiah 60:6 to them, which is the source of the 'three kings' tradition (Catholic Encyclopedia, 'Magi'). Psalm 72 is regarded as messianic throughout in the Targum; Bereshit Rabbah reads 72:10 of gifts brought to King Messiah.

A light to the Gentiles and the glory of Israel

The Servant is given as a light to the nations and the Gentiles come to his rising; Simeon hails the infant as 'a light to the revelation of the Gentiles', and the Magi are the first of those nations.

Isaiah 11:10 ('Gentiles shall seek him') is messianic in Bereshit Rabbah 99; Isaiah 60:1-3 is extensively applied to the Messiah's light in the Yalkut. The Vulgate of Genesis 49:10 reads 'the expectation of nations'.

A Light to the Gentiles — the Lord Comes to His Temple
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The kings of the earth rise up against the Lord's Anointed

Psalm 2 opens with rulers conspiring against the Lord and his Christ; Herod, troubled at the Magi's news, seeks the Child's life, and the apostles read the psalm of the powers arrayed against Jesus.

ForetoldPsalm 2:1-3

Acts 4:25-27 applies Psalm 2:1-2 explicitly to Herod Antipas and Pilate at the Passion; the application to Herod the Great's plot at the Nativity is a traditional extension. Psalm 2:2 is applied to the Messiah in Abodah Zarah and the Midrash on Psalms.

Out of Egypt I called my son

Hosea recalls that God called his son Israel out of Egypt; Matthew sees the words fulfilled when the Holy Family returns from Egypt with the Child, Israel's story relived in Israel's Messiah.

Hosea 11:1 is retrospective in context (the Exodus); Matthew reads it typologically, Christ recapitulating Israel. Exodus 4:22 ('Israel is my son, my firstborn') is referred to the Messiah in the Midrash on Psalm 2:7. Jerome and later Catholic writers (Salmeron) applied Isaiah 19:1, the Lord entering Egypt and its idols falling, to the flight into Egypt; Protestant commentators reject that application.

Out of Egypt Have I Called My Son
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Rachel weeping for her children

Jeremiah hears Rachel weeping in Ramah for her lost children; Matthew hears her again when Herod slaughters the infants of Bethlehem, the town beside Rachel's tomb.

In Jeremiah the weeping is for the exiles of 587 BC gathered at Ramah, and the oracle continues with hope (31:16-17). Genesis 35:19 and 48:7 place Rachel's tomb 'in the way to Ephrata, which is Bethlehem', the geographic hinge of Matthew's application.

Rachel Weeping for Her Children
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He shall be called a Nazarene

Matthew says the prophets foretold the Messiah would be called a Nazarene; the Holy Family settles in Nazareth, and Jesus is known by that despised town's name.

No Old Testament verse contains the words; Matthew says 'spoken by the prophets' (plural). Most commentators (Jerome onward) see a play on netzer, 'branch', in Isaiah 11:1; others the theme of contempt (Isaiah 53:3; cf. John 1:46); the Nazirite reading of Judges 13:5 is generally rejected on spelling and sense.

The child grows in wisdom and the fear of the Lord

Isaiah says the Emmanuel child will eat curds and honey and learn to refuse evil and choose good, and that the Spirit of wisdom and fear of the Lord will rest on Jesse's shoot; Luke records that Jesus advanced in wisdom, age and grace.

Isaiah 7:15-16 belongs to the sign given to Ahaz and is usually read of the child's ordinary upbringing; the Talmud (Sanhedrin 93b) reads Isaiah 11:2-3 of the Messiah's discernment, the test at which Bar Kokhba failed.

The Lord comes suddenly to his temple

Malachi foretells that the Lord whom Israel seeks will suddenly come to his temple; forty days after his birth Jesus is carried into the Temple and recognized by Simeon and Anna.

Malachi 3:1 also foretells the messenger before his face (John the Baptist, Matthew 11:10). The Church reads the Presentation (Candlemas) as the first literal fulfillment, the cleansing of the Temple and the return of the glory (Ezekiel 43) as its fuller sense. Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer 29 reads the messenger as Elijah.

The consolation and redemption of Israel

Isaiah promises that God will comfort his people and redeem Jerusalem; Simeon waits for 'the consolation of Israel' and Anna speaks of the Child to all who look for the redemption of Jerusalem.

'Menachem' (Comforter) is a rabbinic name of the Messiah derived from Isaiah 49:13 (Midrash on Proverbs 19:21); the Goel (Redeemer) of Isaiah 59:20 is identified with the Messiah in Sanhedrin 98a.

The glory of the latter house greater than the former

Haggai promises that the Desired of all nations will come and fill the rebuilt Temple with a glory surpassing Solomon's; the Messiah entered that second Temple before its destruction in AD 70.

'The Desired of all nations' is the Vulgate; the Hebrew reads 'the desirable things [treasures] of all nations shall come'. Traditional apologetics treat this with Malachi 3:1 as a timing prophecy: the Lord must come while the second Temple stands. Haggai 2:6 is applied to the coming redemption in Debarim Rabbah 1.

Daniel's seventy weeks: the time of the Messiah

Gabriel tells Daniel that seventy weeks of years run from the decree to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the prince, who is then cut off; the Gospels date Jesus' coming to a time of heightened messianic expectation under Rome.

Christian chronologies reckon 69 weeks (483 years) from Artaxerxes' decree (457 or 445 BC) to the public ministry or Passion of Jesus. Most critical scholars read the chapter of the Maccabean crisis, the 'anointed one cut off' being the high priest Onias III (171 BC); the rabbis (Nazir 32b) referred Daniel 9:24 to the destruction of the second Temple.

The Seventy Weeks of Daniel — Messiah Cut Off
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A kingdom set up in the days of the fourth empire

Daniel sees a stone cut without hands strike the statue's iron-and-clay feet and become a mountain, a kingdom God raises 'in the days of those kings'; Jesus is born under Caesar Augustus and proclaims the kingdom of God at hand.

The traditional Christian sequence is Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome; critical scholars read Media and Persia separately, ending with the Seleucids. Daniel 2:35 is referred to the Messiah's kingdom in Bemidbar Rabbah 13; Irenaeus read the stone 'cut without hands' of the virgin birth.

From the fallen tent of David: born in lowliness

The prophets foresee the Messiah springing from a felled stump, a tender shoot in dry ground, raising David's collapsed house; Jesus is born in a stable to a poor family that offers the sacrifice of the poor.

Amos 9:11 gives the Messiah the rabbinic name 'Bar Naphli', son of the fallen (Sanhedrin 96b); Ezekiel 17:22-23, the tender twig planted on a high mountain, is referred to the Messiah in the Targum. Luke 2:24 cites the offering permitted to the poor in Leviticus 12:8.

The almighty Word leapt down from heaven in the silence of night

The Book of Wisdom describes God's almighty Word leaping from his royal throne in the midst of the night's silence; the Church's Christmas liturgy applies it to the Incarnation, when the Word became flesh and was announced by night to shepherds.

In context Wisdom 18 describes the destroying Word at the Passover night in Egypt; the application to Bethlehem is liturgical (the Introit 'Dum medium silentium' of the Sunday within the Christmas octave) and patristic, a sensus plenior rather than a literal prediction.

'Afterwards he was seen upon earth and conversed with men'

Baruch says of God, who gave Wisdom to Jacob, that afterwards he was seen on earth and conversed with men; the Fathers read this of the Incarnation, and John testifies to what was seen and handled of the Word of life.

The Vulgate's masculine 'visus est' refers the sentence to God; the Greek and the NAB (3:37) read it of Wisdom personified ('she appeared on earth'), parallel to Sirach 24:8. Athanasius, Augustine and the Advent liturgy use the verse of Christ; cited here as a traditional, not a primary, prophecy.