This is the week of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of First Fruits. Millions of Jews in Israel and around the world are celebrating the story of how the Jewish people were saved from the angel of death in ancient times if they put the blood of a perfect slain lamb on the doorposts of their homes in Egypt. This is also the week of Good Friday and Easter. Billions of Christians around the world are celebrating the death of Jesus of Nazareth, and His resurrection from the tomb three days later, and the belief that all mankind can be saved from the angel of death in our times if we, too, trust in the blood of a perfect slain Passover Lamb.
But did the Jews of the first century really believe the Messiah would one day come to earth, die as a suffering servant as an atonement for sins and the redemption of Israel and would then rise from the dead on the third day?
A respected professor and Dead Sea Scrolls expert at Hebrew University says yes. Based on concrete evidence, he argues that the death and third day resurrection of the Messiah is, in fact, a distinctly Jewish concept that actually pre-dates Jesus.
Dr. Israel Knohl has based on his conclusions on many years of research and recently analyzed archaeological evidence, including a previously unstudied Dead Sea Scroll. Indeed, Knohl argues that this notion of the Messiah rising on the third day is a pre- Christian concept that dates back to before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem Ephratah.
I had the opportunity to sit and discuss this with Dr. Knohl at length a few years ago and it was an absolutely fascinating conversation.
I first heard of him when he drew worldwide media attention several years ago for his research, including a major article in the New York Times and several articles in Biblical Archaeology Review see here, and here, and here.
The Times story, which ran under the headline, Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection, begins as follows: A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days. If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time. The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.
The tablet has been named by scholars as Gabriels Revelation because it suggests that the angel Gabriel was instructed by God to direct that the Messiah be raised from the dead on the third day.
The stone tablet was discovered about fifteen years ago and is owned by a Israeli-Swiss Jewish man by the name of David Jeselsohn who didnt understand its significance when he purchased it. The Times article was published in 2008. Dr. Knohl then published a book about all this in 2009 entitled, Messiahs and Resurrection in The Gabriel Revelation. That was a follow up to his previous book, The Messiah Before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls (first published in Hebrew in 2000 and then in English in 2002).
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Poster Comment:
In the book, Dr. Knohl explains the various Jewish theories about the Messiah, including the idea of a Messiah son of David who will be a reigning king on the earth like King David was, and a Messiah son of Joseph who will be rejected by his brothers, mistreated, left for dead but will eventually reappear and save not only the nation of Israel but the world like Joseph did in the book of Genesis.