Jesus and Messianic Prophecy - Debate About Prophecy Fulfilment

Debate About Prophecy Fulfilment

Among Christian believers, opinion varies as to which Old Testament passages are messianic prophecies and which are not, and whether the prophecies they claim to have been fulfilled are intended to be prophecies. The authors of these Old Testament "prophecies" often appear to be describing events that had already occurred. For example, the New Testament verse Matthew 2:14 states, "So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'" This is referring to the Old Testament verse Hosea 11:1. However, that passage reads, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." Skeptics say that the Hosea passage clearly is talking about a historical event and therefore the passage clearly is not a prophecy.

According to modern scholarship, the suffering servant described in Isaiah chapter 53 is actually the Jewish people. According to some, the rabbinic response, e.g., Rashi and Maimonides, is that although the suffering servant passage clearly is prophetic and even if Psalm 22 is prophetic, the Messiah has not come yet, therefore, the passages could not possibly be talking about Jesus. As noted above, there is some controversy about the phrase "they have pierced my hands and my feet".