Messiah in the Old Testament, The Paperback – August 21, 1995

There are a number of scholars today who claim the Tanach, the Old Testament, does not hold any information about the Messiah. The point being, of course, that if they can untie the Old and New Testaments, they can deal a severe blow to either Christianity in general --by making the New Testament stand without reference-- or they can deal a blow to conservative Christianity, by taking the New Testament as a belief system completely unrelated to Judaism. Dr. Kaiser, in this book, a part of the Old Testament Theology series, takes great issue with this contention.Dr. Kaiser focuses on reading the Scriptures in a "single meaning," sense."Let us begin by admitting that the nontraditionalists have been justified in their insistence on the two criteria that must be used for interpreting prophecies: (1) the meaning of the OT references to the Messiah must reflect the author's own times and historical circumstances, and (2) the meaning must be a meaning that is reflected in the grammar and syntax of the OT text. To deny these two working hypothesis introduces pandemonium into the interpretive process. -Page 23"Using this methodology, he traces various Messianic prophecies and promised throughout the Tanach. He begins his book with an overview of studying the Messianic texts in the Tanach. The remainder of The Messiah in the Old Testament is arranged based on the Tanach itself; the Pentateuch, the Davidic Monarchy, the Psalms, the ninth and eighth century Prophets, Isaiah, the seventh and sixth century Prophets, and the postexilic Prophets are each covered in their own sections. Any one of these pieces could be made into a book in it's own right, so each chapter is necessarily something of an overview, only diving deep where there is significant controversy or some interesting detail to interact with.The strongest arguments here come in relation to Noah's prophecy in Genesis 9:27, Abraham's faith in Genesis 22, and Isaiah's prophecy of the child to come by a virgin.In the case of Noah, Dr. Kaiser concludes that this prophecy can only refer to the Messiah because of the context surrounding the prophecy. No other reading makes sense. In the case of Abraham's faith, Dr. Kaiser argues that Abraham understood the meaning of the Akedah because God revealed it at that time --that Abaraham's statement that he would return with Isaac is a clear indication that he understood resurrection. Finally, in Isaiah's prophecy, Dr. Kaiser shows that a virgin is in view, not just a young woman, and that Isaiah would have clearly understood the near meaning as a sign of the far meaning, rather than as a fulfillment of the prophecy.Overall, this is an interesting and enlightening defense of the connection between the Tanach and the New Testament. It is complementary to Dr. Kaiser's other work in this area, rather than strictly overlapping. Highly recommended.

In this study of the messiah and messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, Kaiser avoids the proof-texting approach in prophecy but instead builds upon the cumulative approach of the "promise-plan of God." In this he follows clearly after Willis Beecher's seminal study The Prophets and the Promise or, as Kaiser explains it, "we are attempting to carry out a diachronic study of the messianic materials as part of a biblical theology" (61).The first chapter deals with the question of "messianism" thus clarifying the rest of the book. Then chapters two to nine deal with the messiah in the history of redemption starting with the Pentateuch and ending with the post-exilic prophets.The conclusion in chapter ten deals with three final issues: "exegesis, biblical theology, and Jesus" as well as the question of continuity and discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments and finally "prediction and fulfilled prophecy."There are two appendices giving charts listing the Old Testament prophecies.Some scholars will disagree with Kaiser's translation and subsequent interpretations of messianic statements. One example of this is found in Genesis 9:27: "May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem..." Kaiser interprets this, "the meaning of Genesis 9:27 is God's announcement that his advent will take place among the Shemites, later known through the Greek form of their name as Semites" (45). However one understands this text, it will be good to look at Kaiser's reasons for his interpretation.This reviewer highly recommends working through this book in order to have a purview of messianic doctrine and thus build a biblical theology of the Messiah.

It is rare for me to rate a book as 5 stars even when it was written as recently as 20 years ago; it is even rarer for me to rate a non-fiction book so. For me, five stars means a book is not only good now, but it will be good for fifty or a hundred years. Yet Walter Kaiser's book 'The Messiah in the Old Testament' will be regarded as a standard apologetic work on Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament at least 50 years from now.Dr. Kaiser begins by examining different methods of prophetic interpretation and settles on: '1) the meaning of the OT references to the Messiah must reflect the author's own times and historical circumstances, and 2) the meaning must be a meaning that is reflected in the grammar and syntax of the OT text'. Using these criteria he filters out many OT messianic references.Dr. Kaiser then goes through the Messianic scriptures in chronological order, from Genesis 3:15 to Malachi 4:2. His second criterion necessarily requires him to delve extensively into Hebrew grammar. This is where his writing may become difficult for the lay reader of the Bible.Persistence through these grammatical sections will lead the reader to a deeper understanding of the progressive revelation of the Messianic theme through the OT and how it unites the OT and NT. Detail upon detail concerning the coming Messiah will be revealed until the conclusion is inescapable: Jesus Christ is the Messiah.

In the complex topic of the presence of the Messiah in the OT, there have been numerous approaches. Although several of them are good, I think this is a milestone. The author's method is exposed in the first chapter, and it is clear and understandable. All his expositions are illuminating and hermeneutically robust. If you give it a chance, you'll be amazed at his interpretations and biblical-theological connections that shed light on how OT readers could clearly see the Promise-Plan of God, i.e., the Messiah and his Kingdom.

Very readable, good presentation of Kaiser's view.