Was Jesus Foretold?

There are plenty of sites on the internet that proudly proclaim how Jesus satisfied various numbers of prophecies. This one for example, claims 360 of them!:

http://www.bibleprobe.com/300great.htm
"Over 360 prophecies foretold Jesus/Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach ben David)"

However, this web page cites ten, which is a more manageable number to start from:
http://theresurgence.com/2012/12/24/10-prophecies-about-jesus-birth

There are a number of features a prophecy requires to be considered valid. Firstly, it must be made before the event. All these are OT prophecies of Jesus, so no problem there. Secondly they must make a specific claim. Prophesying that a man will walk through a door is not going to cut it. Thirdly,  we must have some evidence the prophecy was fulfilled.

In my view, the supposed prophecies are either twisting the text to fit the story, or twisting the story to fit the prophecy. Or both! 

The Jews of Jesus time were not waiting for a crucified messiah, they were waiting for a leader, a new king, who would lead them to glory, and throw out the Romanse. This is why the charge sheets against Jesus sarcastically said "King of the Jews" (Mark 15:26). The crowds welcoming Jesus to Jerusalem were looking forward to being free of the Romans (Mark 11:10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”).

I am going to start with the ten from the above web site, and then add more as and when. Note that this post has been edited later (14/Jan/22), to include these additions and other changes.

1. Genesis 12

Jesus will come from the line of Abraham. Prophecy: Genesis 12:3. Fulfilled: Matthew 1:1.

Genesis 12:1 The Lord had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2 "I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you."

Nothing about a messiah there. This is about Abram (Abraham) being great, it does not even mention his descendants. Sure, Matthew traces Jesus' genealogy back to Abraham, but that does not magically turn Genesis 12:3 into a prophecy about him.

2. Isaiah 7

Jesus’ mother will be a virgin. Prophecy: Isaiah 7:14. Fulfilled: Matthew 1:18-23.

Isaiah 7:12 But Ahaz said, "I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test."
13 Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[c] a sign: The virgin[d] will conceive and give birth to a son, and[e] will call him Immanuel.[f] 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah - he will bring the king of Assyria."

A. The word here translated as "virgin" actually means young woman (it is virgin in the LXX, which is probably where Matthew got it from).

B. Let us suppose Isaiah really meant virgin. The prophecy is saying that a virgin will conceive. This happens. Virgins have sex, conceive and go on to have a baby. Nothing miraculous about it.

C. The "virgin" conceiving is a sign from God that the nations that the Jews were worried about would fall. This is God saying, in a couple of years the two kings you fear will be dead, so just try to bear up until then. If this was a Jesus prophecy, this would be God reassuring his people that the two kings would be dead in a few centuries! The reality is that this is a prophecy about the fall of two kings; the child merely gives a time frame.

D. Given the above, it actually makes more sense that the woman in question was already pregnant, and the original Hebrew does suggest this.

3. Genesis 17

Jesus will be a descendent of Isaac and Jacob. Prophecy: Genesis 17:19 and Numbers 24:17. Fulfilled: Matthew 1:2.

Genesis 17:19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

Like the first one, this so-called prophecy does not mention a messiah. It predicts that the leader of the Jews would have descendants!

4. Micah 5

Jesus will be born in the town Bethlehem. Prophecy: Micah 5:2. Fulfilled: Luke 2:1-7.

Micah 5:2 Marshal your troops now, city of troops,
    for a siege is laid against us.
They will strike Israel’s ruler
    on the cheek with a rod.
2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
    from ancient times."
...

5 And he will be our peace
    when the Assyrians invade our land
    and march through our fortresses.
We will raise against them seven shepherds,
    even eight commanders,
6 who will rule[c] the land of Assyria with the sword,
    the land of Nimrod with drawn sword.
He will deliver us from the Assyrians
    when they invade our land
    and march across our borders.

A. This is a prophecy about a military leader. Jesus never stood against the Assyrians (they were no longer an independent state from 605 BC, so no point). Jesus never had eight commanders, never ruled Assyrian with the sword. If this was a prophecy about Jesus, he failed.

B. It is also unlikely Jesus was from Bethlehem, given how dispoarate the two nativity stories are. More likely, this was made up to ensure the prophecy.

5. Hosea 11

Jesus will be called out of Egypt. Prophecy: Hosea 11:1. Fulfilled: Matthew 2:13-15.

Hosea 11:1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 But the more they were called,
    the more they went away from me.[a]
They sacrificed to the Baals
    and they burned incense to images.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
    taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
    it was I who healed them.

A. Again, not a prophecy. Read in context, this is about the people of Israel, who had been called out of Egypt centuries earlier.

B. Again, very unlikely this happened to Jesus. It was made up because of the text in Hosea.  

6. Genesis 49

Jesus will be a member of the tribe of Judah. Prophecy: Genesis 49:10. Fulfilled: Luke 3:33.

Genesis 49:8 "Judah, your brothers will praise you;
    your hand will be on the neck of your enemies;
    your father’s sons will bow down to you.
9 You are a lion’s cub, Judah;
    you return from the prey, my son.
Like a lion he crouches and lies down,
    like a lioness - who dares to rouse him?
10 The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
    and the obedience of the nations shall be his.
11 He will tether his donkey to a vine,
    his colt to the choicest branch;
he will wash his garments in wine,
    his robes in the blood of grapes.
12 His eyes will be darker than wine,
    his teeth whiter than milk.

This is a prophecy about the tribe of Judah, nothing about a messiah here.

7. Malachi 3

Jesus will enter the temple. This is important because the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70 and was never rebuilt. Prophecy: Malachi 3:1. Fulfilled: Luke 2:25-27.

Malachi 3:1 "I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the Lord Almighty.
2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, 4 and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.
5 "So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me," says the Lord Almighty.

So Jesus is just God's messenger now? But at least this is a prophecy of someone coming! It just fits better for that someone to be an angel or prophet, who would more accurately be described as a messenger.

Note that the Bible predicted someone would come, and that person would enter the temple. Impressive. I would guess every prophet in the Bible fulfilled this prophecy!

8. Jeremiah 23

Jesus will be from the lineage of King David. Prophecy: Jeremiah 23:5. Fulfilled: Matthew 1:6.

Jeremiah  23:5 "The days are coming," declares the Lord,
    "when I will raise up for David[a] a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
    and do what is just and right in the land.
6 In his days Judah will be saved
    and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
    The Lord Our Righteous Savior.
7 "So then, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 8 but they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land."

Did Jesus rule wisely, doing right in the land? Was Judah saved? Did Israel live safely? No, no and no. Jesus failed this prophecy.

9. Jeremiah 31

Jesus’ birth will be accompanied with great suffering and sorrow. Prophecy: Jeremiah 31:15. Fulfilled: Matthew 2:16.

Jeremiah 31:15 This is what the Lord says:
"A voice is heard in Ramah,
    mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more."
16 This is what the Lord says:
"Restrain your voice from weeping
    and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,"
declares the Lord.
    "They will return from the land of the enemy.
17 So there is hope for your descendants,"
declares the Lord.
    "Your children will return to their own land.

   
Again, nothing about a messiah here. It mentions children, but not specifically a birth, and if taken literally, Jesus' mother would be Rachel, not Mary (presumably it refers to Jacob's wife Rachel, and means her descendants, i.e., the Israelites as a people). This is about the Babylonian captivity, which is why it talks about people returning from the land of the enemy. It was obsolete by the time of Jesus.


10. Jesus will live a perfect life, die by crucifixion, resurrect from death, ascend into heaven, and sit at the right hand of God. Prophecies: Psalm 22:16; Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 53:10--11; Psalm 68:18; Psalm 110:1. Fulfilled: 1 Peter 2:21-22; Luke 23:33; Acts 2:25-32; Acts 1:9; Hebrews 1:3.

I guess they wanted ten as a nice round number, but could not decide which to skip.

10a. Psalm 22

Psalm 22:1My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.[b]
...
14 I am poured out like water,
    and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
    it has melted within me.
15 My mouth[d] is dried up like a potsherd,
    and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me,
    a pack of villains encircles me;
    they pierce[e] my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display;
    people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them
    and cast lots for my garment.

Sounds like a prophecy that someone will be crucified. But who? Someone who feels forsaken by God, as verse 1 makes clear. Someone whose heart has turned to wax. That certainly cannot be Jesus then, as he is God. This is a lament of Israel, not a prophesy of Jesus. The Jewish nation was surrounded by hostile countries, who argued with each other as to who would get their treasures.

This is a great example of the story being written to fit the OT text and at the same time the OT text being twisted to make a prophecy. Did Jesus really say "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"? That would be a very strange thing for one third of the Trinity to say!

More likely, the gospel author just made it up, as well as the soldiers casting lots for his clothing. They did not know what actually happened, so they looked to the OT for inspiration. This is what it says in the Psalm, so it only makes sense that that is what happened.

10b. Psalm 16

Psalm 16:9Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
    my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
    nor will you let your faithful[b] one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

I think this is interesting as all it is prophesising is the resurrection. Jews - including Paul - expected all the righteous to be resurrected, and these verses are an expression of that. What is there here is that at all specific to Jesus?

10c. Isaiah 53

53:4 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
...
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

If this prophecy was fulfilled then Jesus was so ugly, so disfigured he did not look like a man. Strangely art has not reflected that. Also, this would mean Jesus was buried in a criminal grave, and yet any Christian will insist that that did not happen.

What this is about is clear from the surrounding chapter. 

Isaiah 41:8 ‘But you, Israel, my servant,

    Jacob, whom I have chosen,

    you descendants of Abraham my friend,

9 I took you from the ends of the earth,

    from its farthest corners I called you.

I said, “You are my servant”;

    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

Isaiah 44:1 ‘But now listen, Jacob, my servant,

    Israel, whom I have chosen.

   

Isaiah 44:21  ‘Remember these things, Jacob,

    for you, Israel, are my servant.

I have made you, you are my servant;

    Israel, I will not forget you.

Isaiah 49:3 He said to me, ‘You are my servant,

    Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.’

   

Isaiah 49:7 This is what the Lord says –

    the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel –

to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,

    to the servant of rulers:

‘Kings will see you and stand up,

    princes will see and bow down,

because of the Lord, who is faithful,

    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’

It is clear that chapter 52 is about the Jewish people:

Isaiah 52:1 Awake, awake, Zion,

    clothe yourself with strength!

Put on your garments of splendour,

    Jerusalem, the holy city.

The uncircumcised and defiled

    will not enter you again.

 And chapter 54 likewise, now looking forward to life after the captivity:

Isaiah 54:1 “Shout for joy, infertile one, you who have not given birth to any child;

Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor;

For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous

Than the sons of the married woman,” says the Lord.

2 “Enlarge the place of your tent;

[a]Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not spare them;

Lengthen your ropes

And strengthen your pegs.

3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left.

And your [b]descendants will possess nations

And will resettle the desolate cities.

The suffering servant is not a prophesied messiah, but the nation of Israel again.

10d. Psalm 68

Psalm 68:11 The Lord announces the word,
    and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng:
12 "Kings and armies flee in haste;
    the women at home divide the plunder.
13 Even while you sleep among the sheep pens,
    the wings of my dove are sheathed with silver,
    its feathers with shining gold."
14 When the Almighty[f] scattered the kings in the land,
    it was like snow fallen on Mount Zalmon.
15 Mount Bashan, majestic mountain,
    Mount Bashan, rugged mountain,
16 why gaze in envy, you rugged mountain,
    at the mountain where God chooses to reign,
    where the Lord himself will dwell forever?
17 The chariots of God are tens of thousands
    and thousands of thousands;
    the Lord has come from Sinai into his sanctuary.
18 When you ascended on high,
    you took many captives;
    you received gifts from people,
even from the rebellious -
    that you, Lord God, might dwell there.
19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
    who daily bears our burdens.
20 Our God is a God who saves;
    from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.
21 Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies,
    the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins.

This is about God coming as a conqueror. Kings and armies did not flee in haste from Jesus, he crushed no heads. If this is about Jesus, Jesus has yet to fulfill it.

10e Psalm 110

Psalm 110:1 The Lord says to my lord:[a]
"Sit at my right hand
    until I make your enemies
    a footstool for your feet."
2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
    "Rule in the midst of your enemies!"
3 Your troops will be willing
    on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor,
    your young men will come to you
    like dew from the morning’s womb.[b]
4 The Lord has sworn
    and will not change his mind:
"You are a priest forever,
    in the order of Melchizedek."

The meaning of this is unclear. Some believe it is addressed to one of the patriarchs (David or Abram). The patriarchs did rule in the midst of their enemies, and would have been addressed as "lord". If we suppose it refers to Jesus, what exactly is the prophecy? Jesus sits at the right hand of God and is a priest forever. That may be the case, but prophecies of events beyond this realm are difficult to verify, to say the least. Can God be a priest of himself?

Additional Prophecies

Daniel 9

Daniel 9:24 “Seventy ‘sevens’[c] are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish[d] transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.[e]

25 “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26 After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.[g] The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’[h] In the middle of the ‘seven’[i] he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

Verse 24 is about the captivity. Verse 25 the subsequent rebuilding of Jerusalem. The annointed one in verse 26 is likely to be Onias III, a high priest murdered ca. 171 BC. The ruler is Antiochus, and the covenant was a deal he made with the Hellenised Jews. The abomination was likely Antiochus dedicating the temple to Zeus, as reported in 2 Macabees 6:2. Nothing about Jesus there - and no prophecy as the text was likely written after all this had transpired in about 165 BC.

Hosea 6

Hosea is all about the fall of the nation of Israel (as opposed to Judah, of course), rationalising it as a judgement from God. But it does include this:

Hosea 6:1 “Come, let’s return to the Lord.

For He has torn us, but He will heal us;

He has [a]wounded us, but He will bandage us.

2 He will revive us after two days;

He will raise us up on the third day,

That we may live before Him.

Is this prophesising that Jesus would be raised on the third day? Well, for one thing it says we will be raised on that day, not the messiah. This is about the general resurrection of all the righteous, like Psalm 22.

What we do see here is the inspiration behind the raising on the third day. As Paul writes (1 Cor 15:4) "He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures". He was not seen on the third day - those stories were invented later - the earliest Christians assumed Jesus was raised on the third day because that is what the OT told them would happen. The earliest Christians assumed that Jesus was raised on the third day because that is what the OT said would happen.

Genesis 3

I think this wins as the most ridiculous, and yet is the top of this list.

15 And I will [a]make enemies

Of you and the woman,

And of your [b]offspring and her [c]Descendant;

He shall [d]bruise you on the head,

And you shall bruise Him on the heel.”

The prophecy is that the "Messiah would be born of a woman". Imagine if the police are questioning you about a crime, and you say it was committed by that guy who was born of a woman... Does not narrow it down much,

Plus, this is nothing about the messiah. It is abut the enmity between people and snakes.

Genesis 12, Genesis 22, Genesis 17, Genesis 21, Numbers 24, Genesis 49, 2 Samuel 7, Isaiah 9

These are all of the same nature, so I am lumping them together. Genesis 12 was mentioned earlier, but fits here too.

There was a line of kings, starting from David, supposedly installed by God, and to whom God promised that their line would last forever. The rightful king of the Jews - that is to say, the messiah - had to a part of that lineage, a direct male-line descendant of David, Isaac and Jacob,  and hence of the tribe of Judah,

This was as much a requirement for messiahship as it was a prophecy.

And how specific was it? According to Luke there were 42 generations from David to Jesus. If each father had two sons (and remember, some of these guys had a lot of wives and concubines), that gives over 2 trillion guys in Jesus;' generation. That may be an over-estimate, but it is a lot of people.

Did Jesus fulfil it? It is dubious if he did, though the authors of Matthew and Luke would have us think he did. Consider these verses:

John 7:41 Others were saying, “This is the Christ.” But others were saying, “Surely the Christ is not coming from Galilee, is He? 42 Has the Scripture not said that the Christ comes from the descendants of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So a dissension occurred in the crowd because of Him.

This is discussed more elsewhere, so I will not look in detail here.

 

Psalm 45

This is similar to the above, but is noteable as it is quoted in Hebrews 1:8-9.

Psalm 45:6 Your throne, God, is forever and ever;

The scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of justice.

7 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;

Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You

With the oil of joy above Your companions.

This is about the Jewish kings, who sat on the throne, and was considered anointed by God, and hence the messiah. That is, it was about the guy currently sat on the throne, not about the wished for king to come.

Isaiah 40

This is supposed to prophesise that a messenger would prepare the way, and in fact is quoted in Luke 3 in respect of the John the Baptist.

Isaiah 40:3 The voice of one calling out,
“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;
Make [d]straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Let every valley be lifted up,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the uneven ground become a plain,
And the rugged terrain a broad valley;
5 [e]Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;

Isiah 40 is not about a messenger or the messiah, it is just about the greatness of God.

Daniel 2

Dan 2:44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.

Does this relate to Jesus? If it does, it relates to things Jesus supposedly has gone outside what we can see. Of course, it is possible he did that, but equally it is possible Christians have invented Jesus doing it based on this verse.

Certainly Jesus did not put an end to kingdoms.

Jeremiah 31

Jeremiah 31:15 This is what the Lord says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

Lamenting and bitter weeping.

Rachel is weeping for her children;

She refuses to be comforted for her children,

Because they are no more.”

This is supposedly a prophecy of Herod slaughtering the children when Jesus was born. However, it is far more likely the inspiration for that story, which never actually happened.

While Rachel was apparently buried near Bethlehem, I do not believe Ramah is anywhere close. This is, as with so many of these, about the Babylonian Captivity.