Jesus was expected to bring back the Kingdom of Israel

The Jewish expectation for the messiah was a man who would be the new king of the resurrected kingdom of Israel. The messiah was the king of the Jews, adopted by God as his son. This was true of all the kings from David onwards, and the expected messiah was no different. He, of course, had to therefore be a direct male line descendant of David, as the gospels of Matthew and Luke are at pains to establish.

This is what was expected of Jesus.

Matthew 2:6 "‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”


Matthew 27:42 “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.


Luke 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Of special note is how Jesus was welcomed to Jerusalem.

Mark 11:9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

It is curious that later gospels play this down, so in Matthew we see:

Matthew 21:9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

That bit about the coming kingdom has been edited out. Why? Welcome because the kingdom never happened.

Similarly in Luke:

Luke 19:37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

And that is odd, because Acts was written by the same guy, and in Acts it says:

Acts 1:6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”




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