Is Jesus the Messiah Promised in the Hebrew Scriptures?

"The Messiah was supposed to bring peace and rebuild the Temple. How can Christians call Jesus the Messiah?" It is a serious question from people who love the same Scriptures we do, and it deserves a respectful answer.

Short answer: Catholics believe Jesus is the Messiah because He fits the Hebrew prophets as no one else has: a ruler from Bethlehem whose origin is "from of old" (Micah 5:1), an innocent servant who suffers for others and is then exalted (Isaiah 52:13–53:12), a pierced one who is mourned (Zechariah 12:10). He came while the Second Temple still stood, as Daniel's timeline requires, and He drew the nations to Israel's God, as Isaiah foretold. His work began at the cross and will be completed when He returns.

Key verses on the Messiah

• "See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted." (Isaiah 52:13)
• "But he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity." (Isaiah 53:5)
• "From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel" (Micah 5:1)
• "an anointed one shall be cut down with no one to help him" (Daniel 9:26)
• "when they look on him whom they have thrust through, they will mourn for him" (Zechariah 12:10)

Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What Catholics Actually Teach

The Church speaks of the Jewish people with gratitude. They are "the first to hear the Word of God." "The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant" (CCC 839). God's gifts to them stand: "the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29).

Jews and Christians share a hope: both "tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the return) of the Messiah" (CCC 840). We differ on whether He has already come. Catholics believe "Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of Israel in his threefold office of priest, prophet and king" (CCC 436), and that "Jesus' redemptive death fulfils Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant" (CCC 601).

What Catholics do not teach:

• That the Jewish people are to blame for Jesus' death. The Council taught that "what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today" (Nostra Aetate 4). Sinners "were the authors and the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured" (CCC 598).
• That God has rejected the Jewish people. Although the Church is the new people of God, "the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures" (Nostra Aetate 4).

The Biblical Case

1. Isaiah 52:13–53:12: the servant who suffers for others

The passage opens with exaltation: "See, my servant shall prosper" (Isaiah 52:13). Then it describes "a man of suffering, knowing pain" (Isaiah 53:3). Notice three things:

1. The servant suffers for others. "We had all gone astray like sheep... But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). The servant was "struck for the sins of his people" (Isaiah 53:8). The Hebrew reads "my people," as Jewish translations such as the JPS Tanakh render it.
2. The servant is innocent. "Though he had done no wrong, nor was deceit found in his mouth" (Isaiah 53:9).
3. The servant's death is an offering for sin. "By making his life as a reparation offering" (Isaiah 53:10). The NABRE note explains that the Hebrew 'asham is a sacrifice offered for guilt. Yet afterward "he shall see his offspring, shall lengthen his days," and "My servant, the just one, shall justify the many" (Isaiah 53:10–11).

An innocent man dies for the guilty, then lives and is exalted. An Ethiopian official reading this passage asked the right question: "about whom is the prophet saying this? About himself, or about someone else?" (Acts 8:34).

2. Micah 5:1: a ruler from Bethlehem

"But you, Bethlehem-Ephrathah least among the clans of Judah, From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; Whose origin is from of old, from ancient times" (Micah 5:1). The NABRE and Jewish Bibles number this verse 5:1; many other English Bibles call it 5:2. The NABRE note calls this ruler "a 'messiah,' an anointed ruler." Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and the chief priests and scribes cited this verse to name the Messiah's birthplace (Matthew 2:5–6).

3. Daniel 9:24–26: an anointed one cut down

"After the sixty-two weeks an anointed one shall be cut down with no one to help him. And the people of a leader who will come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" (Daniel 9:26). This is debated: the NABRE's own notes identify the anointed one with the high priest Onias III (171 B.C.). Christians have long read it of Jesus, cut off before the Temple fell in A.D. 70. It is support, not proof.

4. Psalm 22: the righteous sufferer

Jesus cried out its first line from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" (Psalm 22:2; Mark 15:34). The sufferer is mocked (22:8–9), and "they divide my garments among them; for my clothing they cast lots" (22:19). The NABRE reads verse 17, "They have pierced my hands and my feet." The standard Hebrew text is usually read "like a lion"; "pierced" follows ancient versions such as the Greek Septuagint.

5. Zechariah 12:10: the pierced one who is mourned

God will pour out "a spirit of mercy and supplication, so that when they look on him whom they have thrust through, they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child" (Zechariah 12:10). The NABRE note allows another rendering, "they shall look to me concerning him," and calls the victim "an enigmatic figure." The Talmud records one rabbinic view that the mourning of 12:10–12 is "for Messiah ben Yosef who was killed," citing this very verse (Sukkah 52a). So a slain messianic figure is not a Christian invention. St. John applies the verse to Jesus (John 19:37).

6. Genesis 49:10: the scepter of Judah

"The scepter shall never depart from Judah" (Genesis 49:10). The next line is hard to translate; the NABRE note says the reading "until he comes to whom it belongs" "has been traditionally understood in a messianic sense." So did one rabbinic school in the Talmud (below).

Objections Answered

(a) "The servant in Isaiah is Israel, not the Messiah."

At its strongest: Isaiah names the servant: "You are my servant, in you, Israel, I show my glory" (Isaiah 49:3; compare 44:1). Israel has suffered terribly, and the kings who "stand speechless" (52:15) could be nations amazed at Israel's vindication. The medieval commentator Rashi (1040–1105) did more than anyone to popularize this reading, explaining that the prophet "mentions all Israel as one man." The view is older than Rashi: Origen, in the third century, records a Jewish scholar who said these prophecies "bore reference to the whole people, regarded as one individual" (Against Celsus 1.55).

Answer: Read two verses further. This servant is formed "That Jacob may be brought back to him and Israel gathered to him" (Isaiah 49:5). Then: "It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations" (49:6). The servant called "Israel" has a mission to Israel: one who embodies the people, as a king represents his nation, without simply being the nation. And in Isaiah 53 the speakers confess, "We had all gone astray," while the servant "had done no wrong" and is struck "for the sins of his people." The two are distinct.

(b) "The Messiah was supposed to bring world peace."

At its strongest: The prophets promise that "They shall beat their swords into plowshares" (Isaiah 2:4) and that "the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:9). Look around: that has not happened.

Answer: The same Scriptures speak of an anointed one "cut down" (Daniel 9:26) and a servant crushed before being exalted (Isaiah 53). The Messiah suffers first; full peace comes when He returns (CCC 840). Part of the promise is already visible: the servant was to be "a light to the nations" (Isaiah 49:6), and nations that never knew the God of Abraham now pray Israel's psalms. "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD" (Psalm 22:28): that verse, from the psalm Jesus prayed on the cross, has been coming true for two thousand years.

(c) "The Messiah must rebuild the Temple and gather the exiles. Jesus did neither."

At its strongest: Maimonides set the classic test. A king from David's house who keeps the Torah and fights "the wars of God" may be presumed the Messiah; "If he succeeds in the above, builds the Temple in its place, and gathers the dispersed of Israel, he is definitely the Mashiach" (Mishneh Torah, Kings and Wars 11:4). He adds that Rabbi Akiva hailed Bar Kokhba as Messiah "until he was killed because of sins. Once he was killed, they realized that he was not the Mashiach" (11:3). By that test, a crucified Messiah is a failed one.

Answer: Test the test by the prophets. Isaiah's servant is killed, yet not "because of sins": "he had done no wrong" (Isaiah 53:9). His death is the plan, not its failure: "it was the LORD's will to crush him" (Isaiah 53:10). And Daniel puts the anointed one's death before the sanctuary falls (Daniel 9:26), which means the Messiah had to come while the Second Temple stood. Bar Kokhba came after it fell; Jesus came before. As for the Temple, Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up," and "he was speaking about the temple of his body" (John 2:19–21). As for the gathering, Isaiah foresaw God gathering "all nations and tongues" and taking "Some of these" "as priests and Levites" (Isaiah 66:18–21). That gathering began at Pentecost, when "about three thousand persons were added that day" (Acts 2:41), and it has not stopped. The Church holds that the rest awaits His return (CCC 840). The criteria are met in order, not abandoned.

What Ancient Jewish Sources Said

• The Targum. This ancient Aramaic paraphrase of the Prophets renders Isaiah 52:13: "Behold, my servant the messiah shall prosper" (Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 52:13). It also reinterprets much of chapter 53, applying the sufferings to others rather than to the Messiah.
• The Babylonian Talmud. Discussing the Messiah's name, "the Rabbis say: The leper of the house of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi is his name," citing Isaiah 53:4. In the same passage, the school of Rabbi Sheila says, "Shiloh is his name," citing Genesis 49:10 (Sanhedrin 98b).
• Rashi. Rashi's servant-as-Israel reading became the most influential one in later Jewish interpretation (Rashi on Isaiah 53:3).

The Earliest Christians Read It the Same Way

• Pope St. Clement I (St. Clement of Rome) (First Letter to the Corinthians 16, c. A.D. 96) writes that "Christ is of those who are humble-minded," "as the Holy Spirit had declared regarding Him," and then quotes Isaiah 53 at length (newadvent.org). Before the first century ended, the Church of Rome read the servant as Christ.
• St. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 13, c. A.D. 155–160), arguing with a Jewish teacher, says believers are cleansed "by faith through the blood of Christ, and through His death, who died for this very reason, as Isaiah himself said," and goes on to quote Isaiah 52–54 at length (newadvent.org).
• Origen (Against Celsus 1.55, c. A.D. 248) shows that the Christian reading was argued openly with Jewish scholars, not imposed later (see objection (a) above).

Conclusion

We write as friends. The Church owes the Jewish people the Scriptures, the prophets, the apostles, and Jesus' own mother. We simply want to share why we believe Israel's Messiah has come: born in Bethlehem, cut off before the sanctuary fell, pierced and mourned, risen, and now worshiped by the nations as the Son of David.

So here is our invitation: read Isaiah 52:13–53:12 slowly, in whatever translation you trust. Then ask the Ethiopian's question: "about whom is the prophet saying this?"

Come and see. The One born in Bethlehem and pierced for His people still gathers Israel and the nations into one family in the Catholic Church. If Jesus is Israel's Messiah, His Church is not a foreign religion. It is the home He built for Israel and the nations, and He sent His Jewish apostles to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). That Church is the Catholic Church, and she teaches that "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body" (CCC 846). With respect and love, we invite you to meet the Messiah in the Catholic Church.

Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.

FAQ

Do Catholics blame Jews today for Jesus' death? No. His passion "cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today" (Nostra Aetate 4).

Why do verse numbers differ between Bibles? In some places the NABRE follows the Hebrew numbering. Micah 5:1 is 5:2 in many English Bibles; Psalm 22:17 is 22:16.

How do Catholics view Judaism? With deep respect. It "is already a response to God's revelation in the Old Covenant" (CCC 839). We differ on whether Jesus is the Messiah (CCC 840). Because Israel's Messiah has come, the Church cannot keep Him to herself: "all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body" (CCC 846), and "the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men" (CCC 848).

Sources

Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Genesis 49:10; Psalm 22:2–19, 28; Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 44:1; Isaiah 49:3–6; Isaiah 52:13–15; Isaiah 53:1–12; Isaiah 66:18–21; Daniel 9:24–26; Micah 5:1; Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 2:5–6; Matthew 28:19; Mark 15:34; John 2:19–21; John 19:37; Acts 2:41; Acts 8:32–35; Romans 11:29. NABRE notes on Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 53:10–11, Daniel 9:24–26, Micah 5:1–6 and Zechariah 12:10.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 436; 598, 601; 839, 840, 846, 848.

Second Vatican Council (vatican.va): Nostra Aetate 4.

Jewish sources (sefaria.org): Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 52:13 (London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871); Babylonian Talmud (William Davidson Edition): Sanhedrin 98b, Sukkah 52a; Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Kings and Wars 11:3–4 (trans. Eliyahu Touger); Rashi on Isaiah 53:3 (Judaica Press, trans. A. J. Rosenberg); Isaiah 53:8 (Hebrew text and JPS Tanakh).

Church Fathers (newadvent.org): Clement of Rome, First Letter to the Corinthians 16; Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 13 (ANF vol. 1); Origen, Against Celsus 1.55 (ANF vol. 4, ccel.org).