The Case for the Real Jesus

by Lee Strobel

  He also has written a commentary on the book of Jeremiah for The Expositor’s Bible Commentary and contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of Jewish Religion, The Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, as well as several Semitic linguistic journals.

  Warm and gregarious, with a satisfying mix of a pastor’s heart and a scholar’s mind, Brown greeted me with an enthusiastic handshake as he ushered me into his office at the FIRE School of Ministry, where he serves as president and professor of practical theology.28 He was informally dressed, wearing a dark green shirt open at the collar. His wavy brown hair has almost totally surrendered to gray, while his graying mustache has now become nearly white.

  He sat behind his desk, surrounded by bookshelves brimming with Jewish and Christian tomes. Over his shoulder, the shelf literally sagging under the weight, was the twenty volumes of the Babylonian Talmud, the 2.5-million-word foundational text for Jewish religious study, oversized and with its covers colored crimson.

  Prior to the visit, I reviewed the most current objections to Jesus being the Messiah—an easy task since I had already overseen two debates on the topic. Frankly, I thought some of the arguments against Jesus’ fulfillment of the prophecies were weak, their answers so obvious that they weren’t worth bringing up, but I had to admit there were many others that raised significant and thorny issues. I wrote those down and then added the questions that had been troubling me personally.

  I was anxious to see how Brown would try to answer them. But rather than cross-examining him right away, I decided to do what I had done in my earlier interview on the resurrection: I invited Brown to first set forth the affirmative case, promising to withhold substantive questions until he could establish why he believes Jesus is the Messiah.

  “That sounds fair,” he said, removing his glasses and putting them on his desk. He cleared his throat. After gathering his thoughts, he decided to start with some background.

  “The Jews are God’s chosen people,” he said, “but it’s important to understand that when God chose Abraham and his descendants, there was a divine purpose. It was not just to have a separated people who would be loyal to him: it was so that through Israel the entire world would be blessed and come to know the one true God. We need to keep that in mind as we proceed.”

  I nodded in acknowledgment. Then, with virtually no interruption, Brown began to unfold the evidence for the messiahship of Jesus, fluidly moving from point to point, quoting scripture and rabbinic commentaries with equal ease, and weaving together a tapestry of facts and clues and arguments and history and implications. The pace of his impromptu presentation quickly outstripped my ability to take notes; instead, I sat back, crossed my legs to get comfortable, and let my tape recorder soak it in.

  THE CASE FOR JESUS THE MESSIAH

  “There are specific promises given to the tribe of Judah and to David, who was from the tribe of Judah and was the son of Jesse,” Brown said. “Genesis 49:10 says, ‘The scepter will not depart from Judah,’ while Isaiah 11:1 says, ‘A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.’ The term ‘Branch’ is commonly used to refer to the Messiah. It’s said there would be a lasting kingship through David. The Lord declares in Jeremiah 23:5 that he will raise up from David’s line ‘a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely.’”

  So far, nothing controversial.

  “When we get to Isaiah, we see references to the servant of the Lord. A number of these verses are also recognized as referring to the Messiah in some ancient Jewish traditions. Isaiah 42 says he will not falter until he brings justice to the earth.29 Isaiah 49 says the servant has the mission of regathering the tribes of Israel to bring them back to God. The servant feels as if he failed in his mission, but God says not only will he ultimately regather Israel, but he adds in Isaiah 49:6, ‘I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

  Then Brown brought up the most famous messianic passage of all—Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12. “These verses say the Messiah will be highly exalted but first will suffer terribly. He will actually be disfigured in his suffering,” Brown explained. “And the narrative says the people of Israel didn’t get it. They thought he was suffering for his own sins and wickedness; they didn’t realize he was bearing their sins, suffering on their behalf, and by his wounds there was healing for them. Then it speaks of his death and his continued life after that.

  “Now we narrow things even more. In 2 Chronicles 7, God says if Israel’s sin reaches a certain level, he’ll destroy the temple, exile the people, and leave them in a state of judgment.30 Sure enough, this comes to pass. The prophet Daniel prays in Daniel 9 that God would have mercy. God gives him a revelation about the temple being rebuilt. Before this new temple is destroyed, Daniel is told, several things are going to take place, including the bringing of everlasting atonement—the final dealing with sin.31

  “The prophet Haggai lives to see this second temple built, but it’s nothing like the first. The first one, Solomon’s temple, was not only a stunning physical structure far more imposing than the second temple, but it had the glory of God there. When sacrifices were offered, fire came down and consumed them. The second temple didn’t have the presence of God or the divine fire.

  “Yet Haggai said the glory of the second temple would be greater than the glory of the first temple. God would fill the second temple with his glory.32 The Hebrew word for glory can sometimes refer to great wealth and abundance, but when God says he’ll fill the temple with glory, that can only apply to his presence. Then the prophet Malachi, who lived later, says the Lord will come to his temple, purifying some of his people and bringing judgment on others.33 He uses a Hebrew term that always refers to God himself: the Lord—he will come to that temple.

  “Keep in mind the second temple was destroyed in AD 70. Atonement for sin had to be made and the divine visitation had to take place before the second temple was destroyed. There are even rabbinic traditions that put the Messiah’s coming around two thousand years ago—right when Jesus came. In fact, Rashi, the foremost Jewish commentator on the Tanakh, put the date at more than 1,750 years ago, but that was based on the most famous chronological error in the rabbinic literature. When the error is corrected, we find ourselves in the middle of the first century, within one generation of the time of Jesus!34

  “So it’s not a matter of maybe there’s another one who’s the Messiah. If it’s not Yeshua, which is the Jewish name for Jesus, then throw out the Bible, because nobody except him accomplished what needed to be done prior to AD 70. What divine visitation did take place if not for Yeshua? When else did God visit the second temple in a personal way? Who else atoned for sin? How else was the glory of the second temple greater than the first? Either the Messiah came two thousand years ago or the prophets were wrong and we can discard the Bible. But they weren’t wrong. Yeshua is the Messiah—or nobody is.”

  He paused for a moment to let the implications sink in. “Let’s keep going,” Brown continued. “The Talmud asks whether the Messiah will come ‘with the clouds of heaven,’ as written in Daniel 7:13, or ‘gentle and riding on a donkey,’ as in Zechariah 9:9.35 The rabbis said if we’re worthy, he’ll come with the clouds of heaven, meaning swiftly and powerfully; if we’re unworthy, he’ll come meek and lowly. They believed it’s ‘either/or.’ Actually, it’s ‘both/and.’ They’re both true—of the same person.

  “Shortly before he died, Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem, with the crowds hailing him as the Messiah. But then the people turned on him. Is it possible that he came ‘lowly and riding upon a donkey’ because we weren’t worthy of his coming, and in the future, when we recognize him as the Messiah, he will return with the clouds of heaven, as he himself specifically foretold in his trial before the high priest?”

  Brown moved ahead without waiting for an answer. “Now let’s think about the roles of
the Messiah,” he continued. “In addition to being a king, he would be a priestly figure.”

  “How do you know?” I interrupted.

  “Well, David is the prototype for the Messiah, and David performed certain priestly functions,” Brown said. “Second Samuel 24:25 says, ‘David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.’ That’s what a priest does. According to 2 Samuel 8:18, David’s sons were priests.

  “Then look at Psalm 110:4. It says, ‘The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’ Here we have the Lord making an emphatic oath that the king in Jerusalem was to be a priest forever in the order of the ancient priest-king of that city. Either this prophecy directly refers to the Messiah or it refers to David. If it refers to David, and he’s the prototype of the Messiah, it still means the Messiah will be priestly as well as royal.

  “In Zechariah 3, we encounter Jeshua, who was the high priest. Incidentally, Jeshua is the short form of the name Joshua, which in English would be Jesus. Jeshua is said to be a sign and symbol of ‘the Branch.’ Remember, Jeremiah 23 and other passages tell us the Branch is the Messiah, because he’s the branch that comes out from the tree, the root of Jesse. In Zechariah 6:11–13, Jeshua is sitting on a throne. They put a crown on his head. So think about this: in the most overt passage in the Bible where a human being is explicitly identified with a Messianic figure, it’s a high priest sitting on a throne.”

  Brown paused for emphasis. “A priestly king!” he stressed. “Typically, priests don’t sit on thrones and priests don’t have crowns.”

  “Why is this important?” I asked.

  “Because priests dealt with sin. Priests bore the iniquities of the people on their shoulders. They were intercessors. In fact, according to Numbers 35, the death of the high priest could serve as atonement for certain sins for which there were no other earthly atonement.

  “Now consider Psalm 22. This isn’t a prophecy; it’s a prayer of a righteous sufferer who comes to the jaws of death and is miraculously delivered. Yet Jesus said that everything written up to his lifetime finds its full meaning and expression in him. He even applied Psalm 22 to himself on the cross.36 And in Psalm 22, as a result of the righteous sufferer’s deliverance from death, all the ends of the earth will worship God.37 That’s quite a significant deliverance from death!

  “So let’s put all of this together. God’s intent was not to keep Israel as an isolated nation, but that through Israel the entire world will come to know the one true God. That has always been his heart. We see in the scriptures that this messianic figure will be both priestly and royal—he will deal with sin as well as rule and reign. He will first suffer before he is raised up and exalted; he will both come riding on a donkey meek and lowly, as well as come in clouds of glory.

  “He will first be rejected by his people and will be a light to the nations. He will suffer terribly for our sins as a righteous substitute. The power of his deliverance from death will cause the ends of the earth to worship the one true God. We also see that redemption had to come and there had to be divine visitation before the second temple was destroyed in AD 70.”

  Brown reached his hands toward me as if soliciting a response. “Who might that be?” he asked. “Is there any possible candidate? It’s not rocket science to say either the Bible is false—or it has to be Yeshua, also known as Jesus.”

  “IT’S HIM OR NO ONE”

  Brown wasn’t finished. “Yeshua said he came to fulfill what had been written in the Law and the Prophets. He predicted the destruction of the second temple. No other significant Jewish leader did that,” he continued. “Deuteronomy 18 says to pay attention to the prophet who’s raised up in each generation.38 Yeshua is the last great prophet who speaks to Israel. He brings this prophetic word: The temple is going to be destroyed, but the fulfillment of what’s written in the scriptures points to him.

  “In short, Yeshua fulfilled the essential prophecies that had a definite time frame and which had to be completed before the second temple was destroyed. This is not a matter of speculation; it’s historical fact. And since he fulfilled the past prophecies—coming as our great high priest and making atonement for our sins—we can be sure that he will fulfill the future prophecies, reigning as the worldwide king and bringing peace to the earth.

  “In fact, he already rules and reigns as a royal king over the lives of countless tens of millions of people from every nation under the sun. They give him their total allegiance and loyalty. His reign is already far greater and more influential than the reign of David himself. And that’s only the beginning; he will reign over all when he returns.

  “Think about this: for more than 1,900 years, traditional Jews have had no functioning temple. There has been no functioning priesthood with sacrifices. What happened? As you read through the Torah, or the first five books of the Bible, you find repeated references to sacrifices and offerings.39 Isn’t it significant that Isaiah 53 says the servant of the Lord will himself be a guilt offering?40

  “Either God has left us completely bereft of the major atonement system, a functioning priesthood, and a functioning temple, or else everything that we’re speaking of finds its fulfillment in the One who came when he had to come.

  “We’re not talking about things Yeshua could have arranged. How do you arrange being the most influential Jew who ever lived? How do you arrange bringing hundreds of millions of people into the worship of God? How do you arrange being rejected by your people and yet being accepted by the nations? How do you arrange being the only possible candidate who can fulfill the scriptures, prophesying the end of one system, and then bringing the reality of the new system?

  “So I look at the broad strokes and then I begin to see how the New Testament authors saw that, even in the details, he is prefigured by the nation of Israel. For example, Israel in its infancy went into Egypt—Hosea 11:1 says when Israel was a child, God loved him and called his son out of Egypt. The Messiah as a child goes into Egypt and is called out of Egypt. As it happened to Israel, so it happens to him. David was betrayed by a close friend; the Messiah was betrayed by a close friend. As it happened to Moses, having to flee for his life from pharaoh, it happens to Messiah, who had to flee for his life from Herod.

  “You begin to see these little details, which in themselves are not necessarily prophecies, but they prefigure him—they are types, shadows, and allusions. The rabbinic mind-set could extract from scripture things that we might not see. Actually, the New Testament is very conservative in its references to predictive scripture. It’s not wild or outlandish. The broad strokes can only apply to one possible candidate, and then we get to put in all the finishing details into a beautiful picture.

  “And here’s something fascinating: there’s a rabbinic tradition preserved in the Talmud that says on the Day of Atonement there were three different signs that the animal sacrifices the high priest offered had been accepted by God and atonement given to the nation.41 In the years when the signs would come up negative, the people would be ashamed and mourn, because God had not accepted their sacrifice.

  “Then it says that during the last forty years before the second temple was destroyed, all three signs were negative each and every time.42 Think about that: Jesus probably was crucified in AD 30, and the temple was destroyed in AD 70. So from the time of his death to the time of the destruction of the temple—a period of forty years—God signaled that he no longer accepted the sacrifices and offerings of the Jewish people. Why?”

  His answer was emphatic: “Because final atonement had been made through Yeshua, just as he had prophesied.”

  Brown let his words linger. Then, apparently sensing the need for elaboration, he said, “Please, let me explain how Yeshua fulfilled the Jewish sacrificial system.”

  My mind was racing to keep up with him. “Yes, go ahead,” I said.

  “If you go through the first five books of the Bible, called the W
ritten Torah, you’ll find several hundred references to animal sacrifices and offerings,” Brown said. “The fundamental concept was life for life, as recognized in some of the rabbinic commentaries. Why was it so important? Obviously, God was seeking to get something across—that sin required a penalty of death, and that God would receive a substitution on behalf of the guilty person. When an innocent lamb was slain and the blood drained out, that was quite a vivid lesson.

  “Remember, it was foretold the Messiah would be a priestly figure. What did the priest do? He went between the people and God. He went into the holiest place of all. By his stature, position, and calling, he did what nobody else could do. Yeshua, as the great high priest, prays for us and then literally carries our sins on his shoulders as Peter expresses—‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.’43 He takes the guilt, the punishment, and the suffering that we all deserve and bears them himself.

  “What sacrifice is great enough to cover the guilt of the entire world? Who’s pure enough? Who’s perfect enough? Only this one, the great Son of God, takes the sin and guilt of the entire world on his own shoulders and dies on behalf of our sins so we can now receive forgiveness, cleansing, and righteousness.

  “Hebrews 9:22 says that without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness of sins. Yes, there are secondary means of atonement other than blood, but the foundation of it all is blood atonement. On the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement, when the temple was purged, the people were purged, and atonement would come to the entire nation—all of that centered around blood. Take away the blood, and there’s no atonement.

  “God gave blood atonement because life is in the blood: it’s life for life. Leviticus deals with the topics of sacrifice and atonement, and whenever atonement is mentioned—all forty-nine times—it’s always in conjunction with blood sacrifices. Leviticus 17:11 says, ‘For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.’ An ancient midrash, or Jewish commentary, on Leviticus 1:12 says that when a sacrifice is killed, ‘I consider it as if you have offered your very selves.’44 In Leviticus 1:4, God says specifically, ‘He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.’