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III. Between the Testaments

A. Raising the Son of David

As with all of these prophesies, Isaiah here recalls the original Davidic promise and covenant (see 2 Samuel 7:11-16; 23:5; Psalm 89).

And these promises, mediated by the writings of the prophets and the psalmists, animate a number of the texts written during the "intertestamental period."

For instance, the Psalms of Solomon, composed in the late first century B.C., express anger at the corruption of those who set up a "worldly monarchy" and "laid waste the throne of David in tumultuous arrogance" (see Psalms of Solomon, 17:5-9, 19-22).

The sins of this worldly monarchy are blamed for a foreign invasion of Jerusalem. Scholars believe that the psalmist is criticizing the rise of the Hasmoneans and blaming their corruption for the conquests of the Roman general Pompey in 63 B.C.

In light of these developments, the psalmist petitions the Lord to "raise up unto them their king, the son of David…that he may reign over Israel Thy servant."

All the Davidic promises are present in the psalmists’ appeal - most prominently the expectation of Israel’s restoration and Israel’s dominion over all the world.

It is hoped that the new Davidic king will purge foreign invaders from Jerusalem and "gather together a holy people, whom he shall lead in righteousness….the tribes of the people that has been sanctified by the Lord his God…For all shall be holy and their king the anointed of the Lord" (see Psalms of Solomon, 17:21-37).

Here, and throughout this collection of psalms, we find echoes of and allusions to the Davidic promises (compare Psalms 2,18,104,101; Isaiah 42).

This is the first time the word "Hebrew" appears in the Bible and it’s linked to the name of Eber, another son of Shem (see Genesis 10:21). This is why we refer to the chosen people the Hebrews. The descendants of Abraham are also known as "Shemites" or "Semites." Which is where we get our expression for hatred of Jews - "anti-Semitic," which means, hatred of the descendants of the righteous line of Shem.

B. From the Caves of Qumran

Similar hopes for a Davidic Messiah are found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls, too, reflect the views of Jewish believers opposed to both the Roman occupiers and the Hasmonean priests.

The scrolls use Davidic titles for the Messiah drawn from Scripture (for example, Isaiah 11:1-5; 2 Samuel 7:11-14; Jeremiah 23:5-6; 33:15-17; Ezekiel 34:23-24; 37:24-25).

They also reflect a faith in the promises of the Davidic covenant, notably the hope for a seed who reigns forever as an adopted son of God.

A fragment from Cave IV at Qumran (known as 4QFlorilegium or 4Q174) describes the awaited Messiah in these terms:

"The Lord declares to you that He will build you a House. I will raise up your seed after you. I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ‘I will be his father and and he shall be my son.’ He is the Branch of David who shall arise…in Zion at the end of time. As it is written, ‘I will raise up the tent of David that is fallen.’ That is to say, the fallen tent of David is he who shall arise to save Israel…."

As in the Psalms of Solomon, in this passage we have numerous quotations from the Davidic promise tradition (compare 2 Samuel 7:11-14; Amos 9:11).

We also have evidence of some Davidic expectation in the apocalyptic literature of the period - works like 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch and 1 Enoch, which date between the late second century B.C. to the first century A.D.

In these texts we find a composite picture of the Messiah - drawn from the royal Davidic promise tradition and the prophet Daniel’s visions of an everlasting kingship being given to "one like a son of man" (see Daniel 7:13-14).

These texts indicate that by Jesus’ time the Messiah was expected in terms that merged the Davidic promises and the prophecies of a quasi-divine son of man.

What we see then, in this overview of Jewish thinking in the years before Jesus, is that the contours and characteristics of the Davidic Kingdom promises were not abandoned.

It is true that between 500 B.C. and 100 B.C. there is not to be found a consistent or predominant strain of Davidic hope. But what we learn is that even without the witness of the New Testament, it would be possible to establish that among Jews of the first century A.D. there was a general expectation of a future restoration of the Kingdom of David by a messianic figure.

In our next lesson we will begin our study of how this Davidic hope plays out in the pages of the New Testament.

Continue to Section 4