Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§15.2 Who Did They Think Jesus Was?
a. Jewish Expectation of a Royal Messiah
The roots of the expectation are clear. David had been promised a son who would
secure his kingdom and throne for ever (2 Sam. 7.12-13, 16). This promise was
picked up and echoed in the confidence that God would raise up a shoot from the
stump of Jesse (Isa. 11.1-2), a royal 'branch' (Jer. 23.5; 33.15), a Davidic 'prince'
(Ezek. 34.24; 37.25). How far the hope so expressed was eschatological or simply
confidence for the continuation of the Davidic line is less clear. 16 The hope is
still being voiced in the difficult times of the post-exilic period (Hag. 2.23; Zech.
3.8; 6.12), but thereafter fades, presumably with the disappearance of the Davidic
line. John Collins, in one of the most recent assessments of the evidence,
concludes that there is very little evidence of messianism in Judaism in the period
500-200 BCE. 17
Equally, however, it is clear that the hope of a royal Messiah revived, presumably
in conjunction with the reemergence of the reality of kingship in the
Hasmonean period and its failure to realize the old hopes. 18 The most striking expression
of the hope is in Pss. Sol. 17.21-24:
See, Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, to rule over
your servant Israel in the time known to you, O God. Undergird him with the
strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers, to purge Jerusalem from gentiles
who trample her to destruction; in wisdom and in righteousness to drive out
the sinners from the inheritance; to smash the arrogance of sinners like a potter's
jar; to shatter their substance with an iron rod; to destroy the unlawful
nations with the word of his mouth . . . (OTP).
Very interesting is the further reference to this figure as 'their king . . . the Lord
Messiah' (17.32; similarly 18.5-7). 19
16. So also with 1 Sam. 2.10; Pss. 2.2, 6-9; 89.49-51; 132.10-18.
17. Collins, Scepter and Star 22-48, where the many exegetical issues are indicated in
regard to the texts cited. W. Horbury, Jewish Messianism and the Cult of Christ (London: SCM,
1998) 13-31, 36-63 heavily qualifies the conclusion by arguing that 'Messianism [was] a deeprooted
and long-standing influence in the community at the beginning of the Second-Temple
period' (25) and throughout the Second Temple period (63).
18. It is unclear whether the Dan. 9.25 reference to an 'anointed leader (masiah nagid)'
refers to Zerubabbel or Joshua the high priest; the reference in 9.26 to the 'anointed one' being
'cut off' is probably to the murder of the high priest Onias III (2 Mace. 4.33-38); similarly Dan.
11.22; see further J. J. Collins, Daniel (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993) 355-56;
Horbury, Messianism 7-12.
19. For the translation ('Lord Messiah') see R. B. Wright's footnote in OTP 2.667-68;
otherwise M. de Jonge, 7DJVr9.513-14 n. 107. Brock (in Sparks, AOT679, 681) translates 'the
anointed Lord' for 17.32, but 'the Lord's anointed' for 18.7, although accepting the consistency
of the phrase christos kyrios/christou kyriou.
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