The Resurrected Messiah

THE RESURRECTED MESSIAH
By
James Scott Trimm

Anti-missionaries like Tovia Singer insist that the idea of a resurrected Messiah is non biblical.  In fact the Messianic prophecies of the Tanak do speak of the resurrection of Messiah.

One of these is to be found in Psalm 16:

10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sh’ol,
neither will You suffer Your righteous one to see the pit.
(Ps. 16:10 HRV)

Another is found in Isaiah:

1 Come, and let us return unto YHWH: for He has torn, and He will heal us; He has
smitten, and He will bind us up.
2 After two days will He revive us; on the third day, He will raise us up, that we
may live in His presence.
(Hosea 6:1-2 HRV)

The pashat (literal) interpretation of this verse applies to the House of Israel, however there is an allagorical relationship between Messiah and Israel (see my recent article Out of Egypt I have Called My Son, which deals with Hosea 11:1 as an allegory between Messiah and Israel http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/out-of-egypt-i-have-called-... )

Moreover there is a special allagorical relationship between the the House of Israel (as opposed to the House of Judah) and the role of Messiah as the Suffering servant "Messiah ben Yoseph" who dies to redeem hs brothers.  See my recent article  PaRDeS and the Two Sticks: An Examination of the Two Sticks Prophecy of Ezekiel 37

on All Four Levels Part 3 The Drash http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/pardes-and-the-two-sticks-e... )

Another prophecy of the Resurrection of Messiah is to be found in Isaiah 53:11.

One of the most important Messianic Prophecies in the Tanak is the "Suffering Servant Song" of Isaiah 52 and 53 (See my recent article "Of Whom Does the Prophet Speak?" http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/of-whom-does-the-prophet-sp... ).

Among the Messianic prophecies we read in the "Suffering Servant Song" of Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of the resurrection of Messiah.

In the Hebrew of the Masoretic Text Isaiah 53:11 has a serious grammatical problem.

The Hebrew of the Masoretic Text reads literally:

    From the travail of his soul he shall see ________
    shall be satisfied in his understanding.
    My Righteous servant shall justify many
    and their iniquities he bears.

There is very clearly a missing word in the Hebrew resulting in two verbs in a row "shall see" and "shall be satisfied". What shall he see? Many translations have sought to force sense out of the Masoretic Text where there is no sense.

Now the missing word "light" DOES appear in the Septuagint and has also now turned up in two Hebrew copies of Isaiah found at Qumran.

The passage SHOULD read (as it does in the Hebraic Roots Version):

    From the travail of his soul he shall see light
    and shall be satisfied in his understanding.
    My Righteous servant shall justify many
    and their iniquities he bears.
    (Is. 53:11 HRV translation)

(In the HRV the missing word "light" is restored with an explanatory footnote).

(See the Hebraic Roots Version at http://nazarenespace.com/page/books-dvds )

(As covered in my recent article How the Anti-Missionaries Misrepresent the Text
http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-anti-missionaries-m... )

Now if we look at the verses leading up to verse 11 we see that this figure who "shall see light" died and was buried in the grave in the previous three verses:

8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away, and with His generation who did
reason? For He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of
my people to whom the stroke was due.
9 And He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich, His tomb: although He
had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased YHWH to crush Him. He has put Him to suffering to see if His soul
would offer itself, as a guilt offering: that He might see His seed, prolong His
days, and that the purpose of YHWH might prosper by His hand.
(Is. 53:8-10 HRV)

So then in verse ll we see this figure resurrected as he sees light after his death and burial:

    From the travail of his soul he shall see light
    and shall be satisfied in his understanding.
    My Righteous servant shall justify many
    and their iniquities he bears.
    (Is. 53:11 HRV translation)

One of the most diffinitive prophecies of the resurrection of Messiah is found in Amos 9:11:

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up
the breaches thereof. And I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the
days of old,
(Amos 9:11 HRV)

There is a tradition recorded in the Mishna tractate Sanhedrin which deals with which “apostate doctrines” were regarded as worthy of disfellowshipment. The Mishna passage in question reads:

All Israelites have a share in the world to come…
And these are the ones who have no part in the World to Come:
He who says, the resurrection of the dead is a teaching which is not
derived from the Torah…
(m.San. 10:1)

The Talmud is made up the Mishna and the Gemara. In the Talmud a passage of Mishna is followed by commentary known as Gemara. In the Talmud the Gemara to m.Sanhedrin 10:1 begins at b.Sanhedrin 90a and runs through b.Sanhedrin 99a.

At around b.Sanhedrin 97a this section of Gemara transitions from a discussion of the doctrine of the resurrection (in 90a-96b) to a discussion on the timing of the coming of Messiah (in 97a-99a). This is not just a random shift, but a logical transition.

The transition point of this Gemara reads as follows:

Rabbi Nahman said to Rabbi Isaac: “Have you heard when Bar Nafle will come?”
“Who is Bar Nafle?”, he asked.
“Messiah,” he answered,
“Do you call Messiah Bar Nafle?”
“Even so,” he rejoined, “As it is written: “In that day, I will raise up the
tabernacle of David ha-nofelet [that is fallen]. (Amos 9:11)”
(b.San 97a)

This Gemara defines “David” in this passage to refer to the Davidic Messiah and the “tabernacle” to refer to his physical body. Since the context of this Gemara is that of the resurrection, “raise up” in this context most certainly refers to
“resurrection” This is very profound, because we have in this Gemara a reference to a “resurrection” of the physical body of Messiah being seen in Amos 9:11.

There is also evidence that this understanding of the “Tabernacle of David” in Amos 9:11-12 as being a reference to the Messiah existed by the first century. A document found among the Dead Sea Scrolls in cave 4 gives the following commentary in Amos 9:11:

“I shall raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen” (Amos 9:11).
This passage describes the fallen Branch of David,
whom He shall raise up to deliver Israel.
(Q174 III, 12-13)

The "Branch of David" is a clear reference to the figure described in Isaiah 11 which everyone agrees is a Messianic prophecy.

The “Tabernacle of David” was understood as a reference to the body of the Messiah, and that its being “raised up” was understood as a prophecy of a resurrection of the Messiah after he had “fallen” (died).

The death and resurrection of Messiah can clearly be seen in the prophecies of the Tanak.  

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