Pre-Existent Messiah

The Jewish view of the messiah in Jesus' time was of a man appointed by God to be their new king, and so necessarily a direct male-line descendant of David, who would be adopted as God's son, and would lead Israel to victory over the oppressor of the day.

Clearly this changed in Christianity; and modern Christians have a very different idea of what messiah means. How quickly did the concept evolve?

Obviously the idea that the messiah would lead Israel to victory died when Jesus was crucified, but it was mutated into a victory over death, at least by the time Paul was writing.

1 Corinthians 15:55-57 ’Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”

I believe that other than that, Paul's view of the messiah was the Jewish view. He certainly believed Jesus was a descendant of David, who was appointed to the position of messiah by God.

Romans 1:2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life[a] was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power[b] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

Something of a stumbling block here is the claim that the messiah was pre-existent. This is made very clear in John 1, but that was written decades later. It is, however, also hinted at in Paul's letters.

Col 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

Clearly that does not fit with the Jewish view of a man appointed by God... Or does it?

It turns out that a pre-existent messiah was also part of the Jewish belief, at least in some sense, as this examples of Midrash show. These were written much later, but draw on earlier ideas.

 “So it came to pass on the day that Moses had finished.” Let our master instruct us: How many things preceded the act of creation? Thus have our masters taught: Seven things preceded the world. These are the following: The throne of glory, the Torah, the Temple, the ancestors of the world, Israel, the name of messiah, and repentance. And some say also the Garden of Eden and gehinnom.

https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Nasso.11.1?lang=bi

Before the world was created, the Holy One, blessed be He, with His Name alone existed, and the thought arose in Him to create the world. He began to trace (the foundations of) the world before Himself, but it would not stand. They told a parable, To what is the matter like? To a king who wishes to build a palace for himself. If he had not traced in the earth its foundations, its exits and its entrances, he does not begin to build. Likewise the Holy One, blessed be He, was tracing (the plans of) the world before Himself, but it did not remain standing until He created repentance.

Seven things were created before the world was created. They are: The Torah, Gehinnom, the Garden of Eden, the Throne of Glory, the Temple, Repentance, and the Name of the Messiah.

https://www.sefaria.org/Pirkei_DeRabbi_Eliezer.3.3?lang=bi

These both refer to the name of the messiah, but 1 Enoch (written 300 BC to 100 BC) indicates it was the actual messiah that was pre-existent.

48:1 In that place I beheld a fountain of righteousness, which never failed, encircled by many springs of wisdom. Of these all the thirsty drank, and were filled with wisdom, having their habitation with the righteous, the elect, and the holy.

48:2 In that hour was this Son of man invoked before the Lord of spirits, and his name in the presence of the Ancient of days.

48:3 Before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven were formed, his name was invoked in the presence of the Lord of spirits. A support shall he be for the righteous and the holy to lean upon, without falling; and he shall be the light of nations.

The Assumption of Moses was written in the first century, and in it we see Moses proclaim:

He designed me and prepared me before the foundation of the world that I should be the mediator of the Covenant.

https://ia601306.us.archive.org/22/items/assumptionofmose00unknuoft/assumptionofmose00unknuoft.pdf

I am not sure if Moses was technically a messiah - he was not a descendant of David or a king. But the passage shows that pre-existence was a concept at least some Jewish accepted with regards to certain men.

More here: https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/12/judaisms-views-on-the-messiahs-prehuman-existence/


So Paul's understanding of the messiah actually aligns very well with the Jewish view.

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