Decoding the Ancients-The Messiah Before Jesus

Back in 2007 a common thief in Jordan went robbing and discovered what is now known as the "The Gabriel Revelation Tablet", he sold this on the black market. The tablet is dated before the death of Jesus, closer to his birth. This tablet has interesting historical and theological implications. It is both good and bad for Christianity.

It is good for believing apologetics in the sense that it demonstrates second temple era Jewish beliefs had already contained the idea of a single resurrected individual, this is not a pagan or foreign concept adopted from the Greco/Roman World. It establishes the idea of a Jewish resurrected Messiah is part of the Jewish tradition of that era. In the past many authors have been perplexed as to why a Jewish Sect would be advocating the solely pagan idea of a dying and rising god and hence many concluding the new testament is largely a product of greek paganistic ideas.


Without further or do, here is the the story of this new evidence and the interesting detail of what the tablet says and entails.



I mentioned the good, and now the possible bad. There are two senses in which this new revelation makes the new testament a product of it's era and makes the end of the passion story less historically plausible in my view.

First the precise specification of the Messiah mentioned dying and rising in three days, confirms this was a more common idea floating around Palestine and Jordan. This means the authors of the New Testament documents could easily have adopted and edited this idea into the passion story, after the very devastating loss of Jesus, and the monumental expectation that Jesus the man right in front of them was the true and living Messiah. For more on the reaction of the disciples heart breaking loss of the crucified Jesus click here

So it certainly makes sense each gospel author would come up with a various role Jesus played during his earthly life and then add the specific inclusion of a known legend, which results in a failed, defeated Messiah triumphantly having defeated death and combing this with the glorious resurrected divine man returning to judge Jerusalem and all those who oppose the living kingdom of God.

However the tablet also undermines a very specific teaching of Jesus, the very mystery of the scripture itself. Jesus is reported to have said at the ending of the passion in the Gospel of Luke:

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther.  But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were OPENED and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and OPENED the Scriptures to us?”  NIV Luke 24:28-32

The greek word translated as "opened" in both instances here is Dianoigo. Dianogio is a verb, an action, Jesus is the agent causing something to occur here. But what is Jesus doing to them? Here are the possible meanings of Dianogio listed in Strongs Lexicon:

• to open by dividing or drawing asunder, to open thoroughly (what had been closed)
• a male opening the womb (the closed matrix), i.e. the first-born
• of the eyes and the ears
• to open the mind of one, i.e. to cause to understand a thing
• to open one's soul, i.e. to rouse in one the faculty of understanding or the desire of learning (source)

What this means then is these men were blind in both cases. Firstly they could not tell Jesus was breaking bread with them until he caused them to see who he was, Jesus being the agent who causes them to see him and recognize him. And second they could not tell what the Scripture taught about him, until Jesus caused them to read with open eyes.

Of course the same process is mentioned further down in the chapter:

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” NIV Luke 24: 44-49

Now the question that comes up to mind is if the divine mystery of the suffering and resurrected Messiah required a divine spiritual life giving opening of the scripture, then how could a false Jewish sect before the new testament era have known about this divine mystery? Did God give divine revelation and spiritual license to those self proclaimed false Messiahs and the ones who followed them? How could belief in a dead and rising Messiah be common knowledge before Jesus?

Of course the second issue is how could the passages inferring a suffering and resurrected Messiah been a divine mystery in the first place if just as Jesus had explicitly said: "This is what is written about me in the Law, Prophets and Psalms" and "This is what is written the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day". Clearly either 1) the Scriptures Jesus had were different to our currently known conception of Scripture in the first century or 2) The proclaimed statement of scripture must be inferred through a divine life giving spiritual opening.


However the final difficulty recorded in the very same chapter is the exact opposite of the current problem. The gospel of Luke also teaches the common knowledge of such a belief:

“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.” He (Jesus) said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. NIV Luke 24: 19-27

According to verse 15 of the same chapter, Jesus is speaking and rebuking them for not knowing, he even is expecting and requiring them to know that the Messiah had to go through all these things, he then proceeds to personally show them what the scripture have said vindicating his claim that they ought to have known this already! Hence the purpose of the rhetorical question: "Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" Of course this also presupposes the common knowledge of the suffering Messiah, this is not something Jews would have been clueless about.

Either this was common knowledge, or this was divine council removing the blinkers. I can't tell because the gospel doesn't give a consistent version of the story.