"The Date of the Messiah is Foretold in It" (b.Meg. 3a) Proof that Yeshua is the Messiah

“The Date of the Messiah is Foretold in It.” (b.Megillah 3a)
Proof that Yeshua is the Messiah
By
James Trimm

Yeshua MUST be Messiah (regardless of whether or not any other "Messianic prophecies" are validly speaking of Yeshua)

Isaiah 29 ties the apostasy of Judah to a sealed book (29:10-12) but with the revealing of that sealed book comes an enlightenment and restoration (29:18).

Now it is very important to realize that according to Isaiah 29 our people (Judah) are in a state of general blindness/slumber until the sealed book is revealed (29:10-14, 18).

Now Isaiah does not tell us what the book is or when it is revealed.  However that information is given elsewhere in the Tanak. Daniel writes of his own book:

But you, O Daniel, shut up the words,
and seal the book to the time of the end...

...Go your way Daniel: for the words are closed up
and sealed till the time of the end.
(Dan. 12:4, 10)

So this "sealed book" would seem to be at least in part, the Book of Daniel and it seems to be come unsealed in the last days. Remember Daniel wrote after the days of Isaiah so Daniel knew about the sealed book of Is. 29:10-12, 18 when he wrote Dan. 12:4, 10.

So lets bring together Is. 29:10-14, 18 with Daniel 12:4, 10. What do we learn from these two sections of the Tanak taken together? We learn that our people Judah are in an apostasy until some information hidden in the Book of Daniel (and perhaps some other books) is revealed in the last days and the revealing of that information opens their eyes.

This means that mainline Judaism is in apostasy but in the last days there is a restoration of Judah when certain hidden (sealed) information in Daniel is revealed.

So what information is sealed in Daniel? The restoration of our people is usually tied to Messiah... could this hidden information in Daniel relate to the identity of Messiah?

A clue can be found in the Talmud:

The Targum of the Prophets was composed by Jonathon
ben Uzziel under the guidance of Haggai, Zechariah and
Malachi... and a Bat Kol (voice from heaven) came forth
and exclaimed, "Who is this that has revealed My secrets
to mankind?"... He further sought to reveal by a Targum
the inner meaning of the Ketuvim, but a bat kol went forth
and said, "Enough!". What was the reason?-- Because the
date of the Messiah is foretold in it.
(b.Megillah 3a)

Now the only prophetic book of the Ketuvim (the Writings) is Daniel and this is also a book of the Ketuvim for which no Targum was ever made.

The First Century Jewish Historian Josephus makes and interesting comment about Daniel that certainly points to Daniel as the book we are looking for.  He writes:

We believe that Daniel conversed with God; for he did not
only prophecy of future events, as did the other prophets,
but also determined the time of their accomplishment.
(Josephus; Antiquities 10:11:7)

Now the Qumran community who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls believed they had found just this information (the time of the Messiah) in the Book of Daniel:

The visitation is the Day of Salvation that He has decreed
through Isaiah the prophet concerning all the captives,
inasmuch as Scripture says, "How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news, who announces salvation,
who says to Zion "Your ELOHIM reigns"." (Isa. 52;7)
This scriptures interpretation : "the mountains" are the prophets,
they who were sent to proclaim God`s truth and to prophesy
to all Israel. "The messengers" is the Anointed of the spirit,
of whom Daniel spoke; "After the sixty-two weeks,
a Messiah shall be cut off" (Dan. 9;26)
(From 11Q13)

So now we have learned that there is good reason to believe that the sealed information in the Book of Daniel which opens the eyes of Judah when it is revealed in the last days is the time of Messiah sealed up in Daniel 9:24-27.

Now lets recap:

Anyone can see from Is. 29 that the apostasy of Judah ends with the revealing of a sealed book.

Anyone can see from Daniel 12 that this sealed book is (at least in part) the Book of Daniel.

Anyone can see that the information sealed up in Daniel is (at least in part) the time of Messiah.

Anyone can see that this information is to be found in Daniel 9.

Now here is Daniel 9 unsealed:

1 In the first year of Daryavesh, the son of Achashverosh, of the seed of the Medes, who
was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans,
2 In the first year of his reign, I Daniel, meditated in the books, over the number of the
years, whereof the word of YHWH came to Yirmeyah the prophet, that He would
accomplish for the desolations of Yerushalayim seventy years.
(Dan. 9:1-2 HRV)

Daniel has been doing some Tanak study. He has been reading Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10 about the 70 year exile.

The reason for a 70 year captivity had been that YHWH was punishing us for having forsaken the Torah. He punished us with the curses of Deut 28-29 and Lev. 26 as the Torah had warned us. The key issue here was that of the violation of the Sabbath of the Land (Ex. 21:2; 23:11; Lev. 25:2, 20; 26:2, 34; Deut. 15:1)

According to the Torah, if we as a people did not keep the sabbath of the land every seven years we would be cursed (Lev. 26 esp. verse 34)

3 And I set my face unto the YHWH Elohim, to seek by prayer and supplications:
with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
4 And I prayed unto YHWH my Elohim, and made confession, and said, O YHWH,283
the great and aweful El, who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love You and
keep Your commandments,
5 We have sinned, and have dealt iniquitously, and have done wickedly, and have
rebelled, and have turned aside from Your commandments and from Your ordinances.
6 Neither have we hearkened unto Your servants the prophets, that spoke in Your Name:
to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7 Unto You, O YHWH, belongs righteousness: but unto us, confusion of face, as at
this day. To the men of Y’hudah, and to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, and unto all
Yisra’el, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither You have
driven them: because they dealt treacherously with You.
8 O YHWH, to us belongs confusion of face: to our kings, to our princes, and to our
fathers, because we have sinned against You.
9 To YHWH our Elohim, belong compassions and forgivenesses, for we have rebelled against Him,
10 Neither have we hearkened to the voice of YHWH our Elohim, to walk in His
laws, which He set before us by His servants the prophets.
11 Yes, all Yisra’el has transgressed Your Torah, and has turned aside, so as not to
hearken to Your voice. And so, there has been poured out upon us, the curse and the oath
that is written in the Torah of Moshe, the servant of Elohim, for we have sinned against
Him.
12 And He has confirmed His word which He spoke against us, and against our judges
that judged us: by bringing upon us a great evil, so that under the whole heaven, has not
been done as has been done upon Yerushalayim.
13 As it is written in the Torah of Moshe, all this evil is come upon us: yet have we not
entreated the favor of YHWH our Elohim, that we might turn from our iniquities, and
have discernment in Your truth!
14 And so, YHWH has watched over the evil and brought it upon us, for YHWH our
Elohim is righteous in all His works which He has done: and we have not hearkened to
His voice.
15 And now, O YHWH our Elohim, that has brought Your people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and has gotten You renown, as at this day: we have sinned;
we have done wickedly.
16 O YHWH, according to all Your righteousness, let Your anger and Your fury, I
pray You, be turned away from Your city Yerushalayim--Your Set-Apart mountain.
Because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Yerushalayim and Your people
are become a reproach to all that are about us.
17 Now therefore, O our Elohim, hearken unto the prayer of Your servant, and to his
supplications: and cause Your face to shine, upon Your sanctuary that is desolate, for
YHWH's sake.
18 O my Elohim, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and behold our desolations,
and the city upon which Your Name is called. For we do not present our supplications
before You because of our righteousness, but because of Your great compassions.
19 O YHWH, hear O YHWH, forgive O YHWH; attend and do. Defer not, for
Your own sake, O my Elohim: because Your Name is called upon Your city, and Your
people.
(Dan. 9:3-19 HRV)

Daniel is very concerned. It has been 70 years and he wants to go home!  He is a very old man by now. But he has worried because he knows his Torah. He knows that the Torah warns that if Israel still does not repent after the curse is enacted that Israel will have the punishment multiplied by seven (Lev. 26:18) Daniel is hoping that YHWH will not be
enacting the next level punishment. For that would mean 70 * 7 or another 490 years!

20 And while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my
people Yisra’el, and presenting my supplication before YHWH my Elohim, for the Set-
Apart mountain of my Elohim;
21 Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gavri’el, whom I had seen in the vision
at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, approached close to me, about the time of
the evening offering.
22 And he made me to understand: and talked with me and said, O Daniel, I am now
come forth to make you skillful of understanding.
23 At the beginning of your supplications, a word went forth, and I am come to declare
it. For you are greatly beloved: therefore look into the word, and understand the vision.
24 Seventy weeks are decreed upon your people, and upon your Set-Apart city: to finish
the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and
to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal vision and prophecy, and to anoint the
Most Set-Apart.
(Dan. 9:20-24 HRV)

Daniel learns that there will indeed be at least another 490 years of curses for Israel. The "weeks" here are not seven DAYS but seven YEARS. In fact the Hebrew word here actually just means "seven [somethings]"

25 Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the word, to restore and to
build Yerushalayim unto Messiah, a prince, shall be seven weeks and threescore and two
weeks. It shall be built again, with broad place and moat, but in troublous times.
(Dan. 9:25 HRV)

Seven "weeks" here would be 49 years (a Jubilee cycle) plus theeescore and two weeks (3*20+2=62) is 69 "weeks" or 483 years.

But remember we are not counting years here but actual sabbath year cycles which are specific seven year blocks. In other words this is actually a count of how many sabbath year cycle blocks fall between these two points.

Our starting point is "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" which is Ezra 7:11-16:

11 Now this is the copy, of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the cohen,
the scribe--even the scribe of the words of the commandments of YHWH, and of His
statutes to Yisra’el--
12 Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the cohen, the scribe of the Law of the Elah of
heaven, and so forth. And now,
13 I make a decree that all they of the people of Yisra’el, and their cohanim and the
L’vi’im in my realm, that are minded of their own free will to go with you to
Yerushalayim, go:
14 Forasmuch as you are sent of the king and his seven counsellors, to inquire
concerning Y’hudah and Yerushalayim, according to the Law of your Elah, which is in
your hand.
15 And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely
offered unto the Elah of Yisra’el, whose habitation is in Yerushalayim,
16 And all the silver and gold that you shall find, in all the province of Bavel, with the
freewill-offering of the people and of the cohanim, offering willingly for the house of
their Elah which is in Yerushalayim.
(Ezra 7:11-16 HRV)

This gives us a start date of 457 BCE. Between that date and the Messiah 69 sabbath year cycle blocks would fall.

26 And after threescore and two weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself.
And the people of a prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. And
the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war, desolations are
determined.
(Dan. 9:26 HRV)

Messiah is cut off after ther 62 "weeks" which follow the seven weeks. This elaboration allows us to see that the division of these two blocks (the seven weeks and the 62 weeks) was to show that after the seven weeks "the street shall be built again, and the wall" but the Messiah would not come until after the 62 week block following that.

The Messiah would be "cut off" at that time. This is an idiom meaning that he would be executed. He would not be executed for himself, but for others. Then the people of a prince destroy Jerusalem after that time.

27 And he shall make a firm covenant with many, for one week. And in the midst of the
week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. And upon the wing of
detestable things, shall be that which causes appallment, and that, until the extermination
wholly determined, be poured out upon that which causes appallment.
(Dan. 9:27 HRV)

Remember there were 490 years or 70 "weeks" but we have so far covered only 483 (or 69 "weeks").

This is because the big test of our trust in YHWH is the Sabbath of the land. This is where Israel SHOWS our trust in YHWH by trusting him to provide. The curse would not end until we reinstitute the sabbath of the land (2Chr. 36:21).

So YHWH in his infinite mercy would send the Messiah seven years BEFORE the 490 years would end to call us to repent and return to Torah in time to reinstitute the sabbath of the land BEFORE the 490 years are over.

The curse will not end until we as a people repent and show that by reinstituting the sabbath of the land. When we do that we will finally kick off the last seven years of the curse we have lived with all of this time.

Now if our start point is 457 BCE and 69 "weeks" must fall between this point and the death of Messiah, then Messiah would have to be executed sometime in a window from 26 C.E. to 40 C.E. (depending on how the sabbath year cycles fall).

In fact the Talmud makes it clear that Messiah was expected to come during the first century, but then goes to great lengths to explain why he supposedly missed the appointment:

The Tanna debe Eliyyahu teaches: The world is to exist six thousand years. In the first two thousand there was desolation; two thousand years the Torah flourished; and the next two thousand years is the Messianic era, but through our many iniquities all these years have been lost....
Rab said: All the predestined dates have passed, and the matter [now] depends only on repentance and good deeds.
(b.San. 97a-97b)

This passage of Talmud tells us that the school of the prophet Elijah taught that the ages of this world could be broken down into three ages (each of about 2,000 years).  2,000 years of chaos, 2,000 years of Torah and 2,000 years of the days of Messiah.  This would place Messiah's coming right around the first century.  The Talmud then continues through page 99a trying to explain why Messiah did not come in the first century after all.

In fact Messiah did come in the first century just as he was expected to com, just as Daniel prophesied he would come.  If Yeshua was NOT the Messiah that was to come between 26 and 40 CE... then who was?