Messiah. Creator: pst.

What are the…
Messianic prophecies fulfilled by Jesus?

Introduction

“Messiah” means “Anointed One”

Biblical prophecy specialists Peter and Paul LaLonde have noted that:

The Old Testament includes about 60 different prophecies, with more than 300 references, of the coming of the Messiah. It was through the fulfillment of these prophecies that Israel was told she would be able to recognize the true Messiah when He came. The 4 gospels record several times when Jesus said that He was fulfilling a prophecy of the Old Testament. Luke 24:27 records, for example,

“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.”

And verse 44 notes,

“And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and the prophets and the psalms, concerning me.”

—Peter and Paul LaLonde, 301 Startling Proofs & Prophecies (Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada: Prophecy Partners, Inc., 1996).

Jesus Christ Himself said,

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me” —John 5:46 NKJV

Likewise, Christ’s closest companions, His disciples confirmed and taught that He fulfilled all Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah (e.g., Acts 3:18; 17:2-3; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

Partial list of prophecies about the Messiah

story of Moses
Click to learn the story of Moses in our God’s Story section.

  1. A prophet like Moses

    This was prophecied by Moses, himself:

    “The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, according to all you desired of the LORD your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying,

    ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’

    And the LORD said to me:

    ‘What they have spoken is good. I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him’.” —Deuteronomy 18:15-19 NKJV

    Fulfillment—

    Like Moses, the prophecied Messiah would be…

    More similarities…

  2. The Messiah would be a descendant of Noah’s son, Shem.

    Noah said,

    “Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” —Genesis 9:26-27

    Fulfillment—

    Lineage from Shem to King David, a legal ancestor of Jesus Christ—
    Noah → SHEM → Arpachshad → Shelah → EBER (founder of the Hebrew race) → Peleg → Reu → Serug → Nahor I → Terah → Abraham → Isaac → Jacob → Judah → Perez → Hezron → Ram → Amminadab → Nahshon → Salmon → Boaz → Obed → Jesse → KING DAVID—a legal ancestor of JESUS CHRIST through both his mother Mary and his legal father Joseph.

    Chapter 10 lists descendants of Shem, noting that he was ancestor of Eber (Heber: Luke 3:35), the founder of the Hebrew race.

    Noah associated Shem especially with the worship of Jehovah, recognizing the dominantly spiritual motivations of Shem and thus implying that God’s promised Deliverer would ultimately come from Shem. The Semitic nations have included the Hebrews, Arabs, Assyrians, Persians, Syrians and other strongly religious-minded peoples.

    …Shem was peculiarly His [God’s] steward with respect to the propagation of God’s will and plan for mankind, especially the transmission of His saving Word. (Henry M. Morris, The Defender’s Bible)

  3. More specifically, he would be a descendant of Abraham (a descendant of Shem).

    Genesis 22:18; Gen. 12; Gen. 17; Gen. 22

    Fulfillment— see Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1.

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    More specifically, he would be a descendant of Abraham’s son, Isaac, not Ishmael

    Genesis 17; 21

    Fulfillment— see Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1.

  5. More specifically, he would be a descendant of Isaac’s son, Jacob, not Esau.

    Genesis 28; 35:10-12; Numbers 24:17

    Fulfillment— see Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1.

  6. More specifically, he would be a descendant of Judah, not of the other 11 brothers of Jacob.

    Fulfillment— see Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1.

  7. More specifically, he would be a descendant of the family of Jesse in the tribe of Judah

    Isaiah 11:1-5

    Fulfillment— see Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1 and Luke 3:23-38.

  8. More specificially, he would be of the House of David

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    2 Samuel 7:12-16; Jeremiah 23:5; Psalm 89:3-4

    Fulfillment— see Christ’s genealogy in Matthew 1; Luke 1:27; 1:32; 1:69. Note: Since the Jewish genealogical records were destroyed in 70 AD, along with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, it would not be possible for a Messiah imposter who was born later to prove his lineage back to David and thus fulfill this prophecy.

  9. He will be born in a small town called Bethlehem, specifically the one formerly known as Ephratah.

    Micah 5:2

    Fulfillment— Luke 2:4-20. Note: Christ’s birth in Bethlehem was apparently not by the choice of Mary and Joseph; it was forced upon them by Caesar Augustus’ taxation decree which required Joseph to leave his home in the city of Nazareth and return to his place of origin to pay the tax.

  10. He will be born of a virgin.

    Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. —Isaiah 7:14 LSB

    Fulfillment— Matthew 1; Luke 1.

  11. The Messiah would be the “seed of a woman” come to destroy the work of the Devil.

    Not long after Creation, God prophecied to the serpent Satan,

    “And I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    And between your seed and her Seed;
    He shall bruise your head,
    And you shall bruise His heel” —Genesis 3:15 KJV

    The implication was that Eve’s descendant would undo the damage that Satan had caused.

    The “seed of the woman” can only be an allusion to a future descendant of Eve who would have no human father. Biologically, a woman produces no seed, and except in this case Biblical usage always speaks only of the seed of men. This promised Seed would, therefore, have to be miraculously implanted in the womb. In this way, He would not inherit the sin nature which would disqualify every son of Adam from becoming a Savior from sin. This prophecy thus clearly anticipates the future virgin birth of Christ.

    Satan will inflict a painful wound on the woman’s Seed, but Christ in turn will inflict a mortal wound on the Serpent, crushing his head. This prophecy was fulfilled in the first instance at the cross, but will culminate when the triumphant Christ casts Satan into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).

    This primeval prophecy made such a profound impression on Adam’s descendants that it was incorporated, with varying degrees of distortion and embellishment, in all the legends, mythologies and astrologies of the ancients since they are filled with tales of mighty heroes engaged in life-and-death struggles with dragons and other monsters. Mankind, from the earliest ages, has recorded its hope that someday a Savior would come who would destroy the devil and reconcile man to God. (Henry M. Morris, The Defender’s Bible)

    In the New Testament, Christ’s apostle ohn confirms that this was His Master’s purpose, “He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” —1 John 3:8, also see: Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 20:10

  12. He will be a priest after the order of Melchizedek (Melchisedec).

    Yahweh has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” —Psalms 110:4 LSB

    Fulfillment— Hebrews 5:6 (see: Melchizedek)

    Q & A

  13. The scepter shall not pass from the tribe of Judah until the Messiah comes.

    In other words, He will come before Israel loses its right to judge her own people. The patriarch Jacob prophecied this:

    “The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
    Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
    Until Shiloh comes,
    And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. —Genesis 49:10

    As Dr. Henry M. Morris’ The Defender’s Bible explains:

    This important prophecy has been strikingly fulfilled. Although Judah was neither Jacob’s firstborn son nor the son who would produce the priestly tribe, he was the son through whom God would fulfill His promises to Israel and to the world. The leadership, according to Jacob, was to go to Judah, but this did not happen for over 600 years. Moses came from Levi, Joshua from Ephraim, Gideon from Manasseh, Samson from Dan, Samuel from Ephraim and Saul from Benjamin. But when David finally became king, Judah held the scepter and did not relinquish it until after Shiloh came. “Shiloh” is a name for the Messiah, probably related to the Hebrew word for “peace” (shalom) and meaning in effect, “the one who brings peace.”

    According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the Sanhedrin of Israel lost the right to truly judge its own people when it lost the right to pass death penalties in 11 AD (Josephus, Antiquities, Book 17, Chapter 13). Jesus Christ was certainly born before 11 AD.

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    Click to learn more about the life of Jesus in our God’s Story section.

    He will come while the Temple of Jerusalem is standing.

    Malachi 3:1; Psalm 118:26; Daniel 9:26; Zechariah 11:13; Haggai 2:7-9

    Fulfillment— Matthew 21:12, etc. Note that The Temple did not exist at certain periods in Jewish history, and it was eventually utterly destroyed in 70 AD, and still is destroyed.

  15. He will perform many miracles.

    Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
    And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
    Then the lame will leap like a deer,
    And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. … —Isaiah 35:5-6 LSB excerpt

    Fulfillment— Jesus performed an enormous number of miracles as a Messianic sign to the people—the most intense period of miracles in Earth’s history. See list of “Miracles Recorded in the Gospels”.

  16. He will open the eyes of the blind.

    On that day the deaf will hear words of a book… —Isaiah 29:18

    Fulfillment— Matthew 9:27-31; Matt. 12:22; Matt. 20:29; Mark 8:22-26; Mark 10:46; Luke 11:14; 18:35; John 9:1-7.

  17. He will speak in parables.

    I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will pour forth dark sayings of old —Psalm 78:2

    Fulfillment— Matthew 13:34, etc.

  18. The Gentiles will believe in Him, while His own people (the Jews) will reject him.

    Isaiah 8:14; 28:16; 49:6; 50:6; 60:3; Psalm 22:7-8; 118:22

    Fulfillment— 1 Peter 2:6-8; etc.

  19. A messenger (a man of the wilderness) will prepare the way for Him.

    Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1

    See John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-3; Matt. 11:10; John 1:23; Luke 1:17).

  20. Prophecied the exact day of His public revealment to Israel—and subsequent death

    The precise timing of Jesus’ crucifixion was also given to the Jews when God revealed to the prophet Daniel (Dan. 9:24) how the Jews could calculate the day of the revealing of the Messiah. Talking of a 490 year period, the prophet foresaw that it would begin “from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem” (Dan. 9:25). In the book of Nehemiah we learn that this command was given “in the month Nisan [on the Hebrew calendar], in the twentieth year of the king” (Nehemiah 2:1). The king was Artaxerxes Longimanus who ruled from 465 to 425 BC.

    The prophet Daniel said that 483 years from that date, the Messiah would be revealed to Israel, but He would then “be cut off, but not for himself” (Daniel 9:26). This prophecy refers to the crucifixion when Jesus died, or was cut off, for the sins of the world.

    Fulfillment—

    483 years later, to the day, was Sunday, April 6, 32 AD On that day, which we commemorate as Palm Sunday, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and revealed Himself as Israel’s Messiah. He was killed four days later, thus fulfilling the prophecy that He would be revealed and then slain. [Peter and Paul LaLonde, 301 Startling Proofs & Prophecies (Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada: Prophecy Partners, Inc., 1996).]

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  21. He will enter Jerusalem riding a donkey—the colt of an ass.

    Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is righteous and endowed with salvation, Lowly and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a pack animal. —Zechariah 9:9 LSB

    Fulfillment— Matthew 21:5; Luke 19:32-37

  22. He will be hated for no just reason.

    Psalm 69:4

    Fulfillment— John 15:25

  23. He will be betrayed.

    Fulfillment— Matthew 27:3-10.

    Q & A

  24. More specifically, He will be betrayed by a friend.

    Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
    Who ate my bread,
    Has lifted up his heel against me. —Psalms 41:9 LSB

    Fulfillment— Matthew 27:3-10; Matt. 26:47-48.

  25. The price of his betrayal will be 30 pieces of silver.

    And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. —Zechariah 11:12 LSB

    Fulfillment— Matthew 27:3-10.

  26. The betrayal money will be cast onto the floor.

    Then Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that valuable price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them… —Zechariah 11:13 LSB excerpt

    Fulfillment—

    Matthew 27:5

  27. More specifically, it will be cast onto the floor of THE TEMPLE.

    … I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh. —Zechariah 11:13 LSB excerpt

    Fulfillment—

    Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him… felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? See to that yourself!” And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. —Matthew 27:3-5 LSB excerpt

  28. The betrayal money will be used to buy a potter’s field.

    Zechariah 11:13

    Fulfillment—

    And the chief priests took the pieces of silver and said, “It is not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood.” And taking counsel together, they bought with the money the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers. For this reason that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. —Matthew 27:6-8 LSB

  29. He will not open his mouth to defend Himself.

    He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
    Yet He did not open His mouth;
    Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
    And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
    So He did not open His mouth. —Isaiah 53:7 LSB

    Fulfillment— Matthew 27:12.

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    He will be beaten and spit upon.

    I gave My back to those who strike Me,
    And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard;
    I did not hide My face from dishonor and spitting. —Isaiah 50:6 LSB

    Fulfillment— Matthew 26:67; Matt. 27:26-30.

  31. He will be “numbered with the transgressors.”

    …Because He poured out His soul to death,
    And was numbered with the transgressors;
    Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
    And interceded for the transgressors. —Isaiah 53:12 LSB excerpt

    Fulfillment— Jesus was crucified as a criminal in between two thieves (Matthew 27:38).

  32. He will be pierced.

    “And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. —Zechariah 12:10 LSB excerpt

    Fulfillment— John 19:34

  33. Both His hands and feet.

    A band of evildoers has encompassed me;
    They pierced my hands and my feet. —Psalm 22:16 LSB excerpt

  34. Crucifixion foretold

    Psalm 22 graphically prophecies the Messiah’s manner of death. At the time the psalm was written (and long after), the penalty for blasphemy was stoning.

    Fulfillment— However, at the time Jesus was condemned by the Sanhedrin, it no longer had the legal right to put people to death. Thus, the case was taken to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate who crucified Him according to Roman custom (see: Crucifixion).

    Q & A

  35. The Jewish Passover sacrifice and Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death coincide exactly.

    Fulfillment—

    The dates on which Jesus was taken by the Roman authorities, and then slain, also coincided precisely with the Jewish Passover. Jesus became the Passover Lamb, “without blemish.” At the first Passover, described in Exodus 12, God instructed the Israelites to kill a lamb with no blemishes and to put its blood on their door posts. When the angel of death passed through Egypt where the Israelites were being held as slaves, it would pass by any house that had the blood of the a Passover lamb on its door posts. Jesus fulfilled Moses’ prophecy of the Passover Lamb because it is through His blood that we can be saved from, or passed over by, death. —Peter and Paul LaLonde, 301 Startling Proofs & Prophecies (Niagra Falls, Ontario, Canada: Prophecy Partners, Inc., 1996)

  36. His bones will not be broken.

    He keeps all his bones,
    Not one of them is broken. —Psalms 34:20 LSB

    Exodus 12 states that the Passover lamb’s bones are not to be broken.

    Q & A

    Fulfillment— see: John 19:33

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    They will divide his clothing and cast lots for them.

    They divide my garments among them,
    And for my clothing they cast lots. —Psalm 22:18 LSB

    Fulfillment— John 19:23-24

  38. He will be given vinegar and gall to drink.

    They also gave me gall for my food
    And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. —Psalm 69:21

    Fulfillment— Matthew 27:34, 48.

  39. He will say: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

    Psalm 22:1

    Fulfillment— Matthew 27:46.

  40. He will be buried with the rich.

    So His grave was assigned with wicked men,
    Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
    Because He had done no violence,
    Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. —Isaiah 53:9

    Fulfillment— Matthew 27. According to Henry Morris,

    This passage [Isaiah 53:9] could also be read, “they planned His grave (to be) with the wicked, but it was with a rich man [Joseph of Arimathea] in His death.” —Henry M. Morris, The Defender’s Bible

  41. He will not decay after death.

    For You will not forsake my soul to Sheol;
    You will not give Your Holy One over to see corruption. —Psalms 16:10

    Fulfillment— Acts 2:31

  42. He will be resurrected from the dead.

    Psalm 16:10

    Fulfillment— Acts 2:31, etc.

    Q & A

  43. He will ascend into heaven.

    Psalm 68:18

    Fulfillment— Acts 1:9.

  44. He will be seated at the right hand of God.

    Yahweh says to my Lord:
    “Sit at My right hand
    Until I put Your enemies as a footstool for Your feet.” —Psalm 110:1

    The superscription of Psalm 110 calls it a Psalm of David. David is the speaker, and he refers to someone else as “my Lord”—someone greater than himself who is invited to sit at Yahweh’s right hand (the place of highest honor and authority).

    Fulfillment— Hebrews 1:3.

    Jesus explicitly applies this verse to himself in Matthew 22:41–46 (also Mark 12:35–37 and Luke 20:41–44). He asks how the Messiah can be both David’s son and David’s Lord, forcing the conclusion that the Messiah is more than a mere human descendant.

    The New Testament consistently applies Psalm 110:1 to the risen Jesus:

    • Peter (Acts 2:34–35)
    • The writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 1:13; 10:12–13)
    • Paul (1 Corinthians 15:25)

  45. He will be the Son of God.

    “I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh:
    He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
    Today I have begotten You. —Psalm 2:7

    Fulfillment— Matthew 3:17, etc.

    Q & A

More information

Compiled by: Paul S. Taylor.
Article Version: November 5, 2026