Branch Prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah
Three Hebrew prophets over the span of 200 years – Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah – had one particular prophecy in common.[1] All foretold of the coming “Branch” or the “Sprout” in Jewish Bible translations.
Generations after King David’s reign, some 700 years before Jesus of Nazareth was born, the remnants of Israel were in a downward death spiral. For centuries, despite many warnings from numerous prophets, the Hebrews and their kings failed to abide by their contractual Covenant made with God at Mt. Sinai.[2]
Renowned as a foremost prophet of God by both Judaism and Christianity, Isaiah warned Kings Ahaz and Hezekiah of the consequences their nation faced. Isaiah prophesied the “King of Babylon” would one day take away their descendants to serve as eunuchs in his palace.[3]
Warnings also came with good tidings when Isaiah prophesied about the coming future Messiah.[4] In one, Isaiah foretold of a male “Branch” or “Sprout” who would grow out from the root of Jesse:[5]
Is 11:1-2 “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.”(NKJV)
A century after Isaiah’s prophecies, defiance by the Hebrews continued leading to the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of judgement at the hands of the King of Babylon.[6] Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the city and captivity of some of Israel’s finest are documented in the Book of Daniel.
Prophet Jeremiah added more bad news prophesying that the secession of sitting kings in the House of David would end with Jeconiah aka Jehoiachin.[7] Amidst the doom and gloom forecast, Jeremiah also predicted good news about the coming Messiah. Twice the prophet foretold that God would raise up a King in the lineage of David who will be a righteous judge:
Jer 23:5 “”Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth…”” (NKJV)
Jer 33:15 “‘In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David A Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth…’” (NKJV)
Moving ahead another century since Jeremiah’s prophecies, the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity had ended with the Medes and Persian invasion.[8] One of Isaiah’s prophecies was fulfilled two centuries after he had foretold that a future ruler named Cyrus would arise allowing Jerusalem and the Temple to be rebuilt. Cyrus, ruler of the Persian Empire, conquered Babylon and took control of the Hebrew captives issuing a decree:[9]
‘The Lord God of the heavens has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has appointed me to build for him a temple in Jerusalem in Judah. May the Lord your God energize you who belong to his people, so you may be able to go back there!”(NET)
Darius honored Cyrus’ decree for the Hebrews to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple.[10] “In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.”[11]
Describing his fourth vision in which Zechariah was present, Joshua the Priest stood before the angel of the LORD along with Satan who was there to accuse the priest. Satan was rebuked by God and Joshua was given fine new clothes.[12] In the vision, God then spoke directly to the high Priest:[13]
Zech 3:8 “‘Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you—indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My servant the Branch.’” (NASB)
God identified the Branch as “My servant” in Zechariah’s prophecy. “My servant” is the focus of Isaiah’s parashah prophecy of Isaiah 52-53 issued two hundred years earlier where the Servant is subjected to unusual cruelties consistent with a Roman crucifixion described in the Gospels.
Narrating his eighth vision, Zechariah received instructions from God to choose people from among the exiles to make a crown of gold and silver, then set the symbolic crown upon the head of Joshua, the high Priest. Zechariah was then directed to deliver this message to the Priest:[14]
Zech 6:12-13 “…‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, saying: “Behold, the Man whose name is the BRANCH! From His place He shall branch out, And He shall build the temple of the LORD; Yes, He shall build the temple of the LORD. He shall bear the glory, And shall sit and rule on His throne; So He shall be a priest on His throne, And the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’” (NKJV)
In the vision prophecy, there is no one person present at this event who is the focus of God’s message. As such, the prophecy pointed to someone else in the future named the Branch who would sit upon the throne as both King and priest who would build the Temple.
Jewish sage Rabbi Rashi commented he believed the prophecies were in reference to Zerubbabel while acknowledging others viewed it as referring to the Messiah.[15] Jewish sage Rabbi Maimonides viewed the Isaiah and Zechariah prophecies to be about the Messiah.[16]
Prophecies from Isaiah before the Babylonian captivity, Jeremiah during the Babylonian captivity and Zechariah after the Babylonian captivity, point to a future figure called the Branch. Combining the characteristics of these prophecies, the foretold Branch will be a wise, understanding King and priest from the lineage of David who will build the Temple and righteously judge the earth with a counsel of peace as a Servant of God.
What are the odds that Jesus of Nazareth is the fulfillment of the Branch prophecies?
Isaiah is considered by Judaism and Christianity to be the greatest of all the prophets making the Book of Isaiah the greatest of all the prophetic books in the Bible.[1] The Talmud contains many references and interpretations of Isaiah’s prophecies with Sanhedrin tractate 98 alone making ten references.[2]
Paramount to the prophecies of Isaiah is having confidence that his prophecies are reflected accurately in today’s Bibles.[3] The sciences of archeology and textual criticism enhanced by technology play a major role in making that determination.
Produced from 285-247 BC, the Septuagint LXX translation is the primary foundation for Christian Bibles.Josephus, a Jewish Pharisee, described in detail the origin of the translation. Egypt ruler Ptolemy Philadelphius wrote to Priest Eleazar in Jerusalem requesting six of the best elders from each of the 12 tribes of Israel to make a Greek translation from the official Hebrew text.[4]
Elders including priests traveled to Egypt with scrolls from the Temple for the translation project.[5] King Ptolemy was most impressed with the condition of the scrolls:
“…and when the membranes, upon which they had their law written in golden letters, he put questions to them concerning those books; and when they had taken off the covers wherein they were wrapt up, they showed him the membranes. So the king stood admiring the thinness of those membranes, and the exactness of the junctures; which could not be perceived, (so exact were they connected one with another;)…”[6]
Upon completion, the Greek translation was reviewed again by “both the priests and the ancientest of the elders, and the principal men…” and finalized with a promise that it would never be changed.[7] “Septuagint” in Latin means 70 as does the Roman Numeral “LXX” representing those who worked together on the translation.[8]
Hebrew Bible translations are based on two surviving Hebrew Masoretic Texts (MT), the Aleppo Codex dated to 925 AD and the Leningrad Codex circa 1008-10 AD.[9] About a third of the Aleppo text was destroyed in a synagogue fire resulting in a dependency on the Leningrad manuscript to fill in the missing text.
Spanning the timeline between the Septuagint and the MT is at least 1150 years. In the interim, many events transpired in Judea– the Greek Empire with its language and Hellenism influences; the rule of King Herod; and domination by the Roman Empire which destroyed Jerusalem with the Temple in 70 AD.[10] These seismic events affected the purity of the MT translations.
Addressing these impacts opened the door to the Miqraot Gedolot HaKeter Project to produce a “precise letter-text” translation of the Masoretic text. Director Menachem Cohen, Professor of Bible at Bar-Ilan University of Israel, said the project was intended to address the “thousands of flaws of the previous and current editions.”[11]
The Great Isaiah Scroll
Dead Sea Scroll discoveries at Qumran, beginning in 1947 continuing over the next decade until 1956, revealed a treasure trove of ancient scrolls determined to be about 2000 years old.[12] Two scrolls of Isaiah were among the discoveries, one virtually complete scroll known as “Qa” and the second scroll known as “Qb” which is about 75% complete.[13]
For good reason, the Qa scroll has been dubbed “The Great Isaiah Scroll” and is on display in Jerusalem at the Shrine of the Book.[14] “The Scroll” can be viewed in its entirety on the Internet.[15]
Dated to c. 125 BC, The Scroll was compromised of 17 pieces of leather sewn together, each strip containing from 2 to 4 pages of text.[16] It serves as a side-by-side older Hebrew text comparison for the MT and, by predating the arrival of Jesus of Nazareth, it precludes the claim of any Christian influences.
A precept of the science of textual criticism is the shorter the time interval between the original and the existing text, the greater the level of textual purity – the shorter the time frame, the fewer number of interim handwritten copies where variations are inevitably introduced.[17]
Josephus revealed the translation of the Greek Septuagint is based on a side-by-side Hebrew text taken directly from the Temple suggesting textual purity of the highest degree.[18] Translation nuances are to be expected in the Greek translation because some ancient Hebrew characters do not have a direct Greek equivalent.[19] As with any translation, some words or phrases must be deciphered by the translators with a heavy dependence on the context.[20]
Inevitably, the lack of not having a side-by-side text significantly impacted the MT purity. The variations posed a huge challenge to the Miqraot Gedolot HaKeter Project team where even the spelling of “Israel” appears differently.[21]
“…the aggregate of known differences in the Greek translations is enough to rule out the possibility that we have before us today’s Masoretic Text. The same can be said of the various Aramaic translations; the differences they reflect are too numerous for us to class their vorlage as our Masoretic Text.” – Menachem Cohen[22]
Focus is placed only on the two major controversial prophecies of Isaiah 7:14 and the Chapter 52-53 parashah. The differences are found in the very small vowel punctuations seen more easily with technology enhancements.[23]
“The major difference between the Aleppo Codex and the Dead Sea Scrolls is the addition of the vowel pointings (called nikkudot in Hebrew) in the Aleppo Codex to the Hebrew words.” – Jeff A Benner[24]
Isaiah 7:14 is entirely written in the future tense making it an undisputed prophecy although there are several potentially meaningful differences between the MT and Septuagint reflected by The Scroll.[25] Variations include the translation controversy of the two Hebrew words ha-alamah; a text pronoun difference and two name differences.[26]
MT translates ha-almah as “a young woman” while The Scroll translated the words as “a young maiden.”[27] In Hebrew, ha exclusive means “the” – specific to the noun that follows.[28] The Septuagint translated the Hebrew words ha-almah into Greek as “ha Parthenos” precisely meaning “the virgin.”[29]
Pronoun differences appear where the MT says “she” will call his name; The Scroll says “he” will call his name; and the Septuagint generically refers to “you” earlier in the text.[30] “He” refers to God in The Scroll whereas “she” refers to the mother in the MT and “you” refers to the audience.
Two other noteworthy differences are the MT and Septuagint use of the word Adonai for “Lord” (rather than “LORD”) while The Scroll translation uses YHWH, the name of God.[31] At the end of the verse, the MT writes Immanu-el as two words; however, The Scroll writes it as a single word “Immanuel.” In Hebrew, one word always indicates a name.
Interestingly in Column XLIV, The Scroll begins the Isaiah 52-53 parashah with the reference to “my servant.”[32] Most differences are grammatical and do not change the general text; however, there are some notable exceptions found in The Scroll.[33]
An omission begins the differences in 53:2 where The Scroll includes in the margin, two words, “before us” while the MT says “before him.” No Bible translation includes these words in the first sentence which would otherwise say something like, “out of dry ground before us or him.”[34]
Perhaps the most significant difference between the Septuagint and the MT is Isaiah 53:7 with the Hebrew word חֹ֑לִי (choliy), but the issue is not settled by The Scroll. The word has been translated mainly in Bibles as “grief,” “suffering” or “disease.”[35]
One last possibly significant difference revealed by The Scroll is the appearance of the word nephsho meaning “light” in the equivalent verse 53:11. The Septuagint includes the word as do several Christian Bible translations (BSB, CSB, ISV, NAB, NHEB, NIV, NRSV, WEB*); however, other Christian and Jewish Bibles including the MT translate the word as “it.”[36]
How likely is it that The Great Isaiah Scroll more accurately reflects the original Hebrew text written by the prophet Isaiah?
BSB = Berean Study Bible
CSB = Christian Standard Bible
ISV = International Standard Version
NAB = New American Bible
NHEB = New Heart English Bible
NIV = New International Version
NRSV = New Revised Standard Verson
WEB = World English Bible
Often asked is the question of whether crucifixion was predicted in the prophecies. When Jesus of Nazareth was asked this question, he pointed to prophecies to be fulfilled by the Messiah.[1]
Prophecies are seldom as clear as Micah’s Bethlehem prophecy predicting the Ruler of Israel would come from Bethlehem or Zechariah’s prophecy foretelling the King of Israel would come riding on the foal of a donkey.[2] Some are delivered in perplexing, oracle-style prophecies often requiring knowledge of historical context, analogies or symbolisms, and intermingling the present and future.[3]
Three parashahs or passages from the Old Testament, the Tenakh, are the focus of potential crucifixion prophecies – Psalms 22:1-24, Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and Zechariah 12:8-14. Historical and modern medical analysis are consistent with them.
Historical context substantiating these prophecies first comes from Cicero, Rome’s most celebrated orator and lawyer. In a murder prosecution case, he described how a victim of a Roman crucifixion was first scourged, “exposed to torture and nailed on that cross” – it was “the most miserable and the most painful punishment appropriate to slaves alone.”[4]
Jewish historian Josephus wrote several accounts about the terrors of crucifixion and how it became a commonplace means to kill Jews, convicted or innocent. Rescued victims did not even survive an attempted crucifixion as attested by his own personal experience.[5]
Modern forensic medical expert analysis of a crucifixion provides further context. The act of merely trying to take a breath added to the excruciating pain of being nailed to a cross by pulling at the nail wounds driven through nerves in the wrists while pushing up full body weight on nailed feet. Many of the crucifixion victims most likely died by asphyxiation. Add to that the psychological suffering from enduring scorn, humiliation, taunting and insults.[6]
Psalms prophecies might include the well-known yet controversial, Psalms 22, depicting a man whose “bones [are] out of joint,” “heart has turned to wax,” “tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth,” and “they have pierced my hands and feet.” The parashah also describes the psychological torture of enduring agony and humiliation.
Zechariah 12:10 succinctly says the Messiah will be killed and “… they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” While both Judaism and Christianity have disagreements, even among themselves, on the exact meaning of the prophecy, they agree the Messiah would be killed by being “thrust through” or “pierced.” Gospel accounts describe Jesus being pierced by nails and thrust with a spear.[7]
Isaiah chapters 52-53 parashah of “My Servant” describes the manner of death that is wholly consistent with a Roman crucifixion. His plight is depicted to have a physical “appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.” Graphically, the parashah describes the mental anguish of “My Servant” who experiences “suffering of his soul,” is “despised and rejected by men” and is considered “stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.”[8]
Hebrew word chalal in Isaiah 53:5 is one of those words that have multiple meanings, in this case, over 20 definitions and variations. The primary definition in a negative context is “to profane, defile, pollute, desecrate” and in a positive sense, “begin.”[9]
Virtually all Bibles translate chalal, in about a 50/50 split, as either “pierced” or “wounded” including the Jewish Publication Society and the William Davidson translation of “wounded.” However, The Complete Jewish Bible translates chalal as “pained” with Rabbi Rashi’s commentary, “…he was chastised so that there be peace for the entire world.”
Jewish authorities are virtually silent on the Isaiah 52-53 parashah’s graphic depiction being consistent with that of a crucifixion and thus it does not foretell the death of “My Servant.” However, certain verses within this parashah of Isaiah are acknowledged in the Talmud and by Rabbi sages as Messiah prophecies.[10]
Rabbi Jose the Galilean quoted Isaiah 53:5 declaring the prophecy referred to “King Messiah” who would be “wounded” for our transgressions. Jose the Galilean was a Talmud contributor recognized for his authority on sacrifices and the Temple. Independently he wrote the Messiah would be wounded for our transgressions quoting from Isaiah 53.7.[11]
Rabbi Maimonides similarly identified the Messiah as the subject of Isaiah 52:15 and 53:2. The Rabbi expounded the Messiah could be identified by his origins and his wonders. Talmud tractate Sanhedrin 98b quotes Isaiah 53:3 as the basis for one of the names of the Messiah.[12]
Rabbi Moshe Kohen ibn Crispin said “My Servant” in Isaiah 52:13 refers to “King Messiah.” Crispin is renowned for his twelfth century authorship of Sefer ha-Musar meaning the Book of Instruction. Crispin boldly disagreed with the prevailing Jewish view that “My Servant” is a metaphor referring to the nation of Israel.[13]
Six of the 15 verses of the Isaiah 52-53 parashah – Isaiah 52:13,15, 53:2, 3, 5, 7 – are considered by various Jewish authorities to be prophecies about the Messiah. For this reason, it becomes challenging to claim the entire parashah is not a prophecy about the Messiah.
Jesus of Nazareth himself referred to the prophecies describing the manner of death for the Messiah. Days before entering Jerusalem for the last time, Jesus forewarned his Disciples predicting in precise detail of what he was about to endure as foretold by the prophets:
LK 18:31-32 “Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be turned over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him.”(NIV)
History, Judaism and Christainity affirm that Jesus of Nazareth was subjected to the horrific physical and psychological designs of a crucifixion consistent with accounts of historians and modern forensic science analysis. Is crucifixion predicted in the Messiah prophecies foretelling the manner of suffering and death by the Messiah?
Rabbi Crispin profoundly summed up the challenge for each person to arrive at his or her own conclusion about the prophecies:
“… if any one should arise claiming to be himself the Messiah, we may reflect, and look to see whether we can observe in him any resemblance to the traits described here: if there is any such resemblance, then we may believe that he is the Messiah our righteousness; but if not, we cannot do so.”[14] – Rabbi Crispin
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