Primary source
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a-b
Talmudic discussion of the Messiah’s coming, including a Messiah who comes in glory or in lowliness and a Messiah who bears the sicknesses of Isaiah 53:4.
- Publisher
- Sefaria
- Tradition
- Jewish rabbinic literature
- Accessed
- 2026-10-06
Citation
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98a-b, William Davidson Edition, Sefaria, accessed October 6, 2026.
Where this source is used
- The Messiah cannot die before reigningThe Tanakh and the rabbis both speak of an anointed one who suffers or is killed. The Christian claim joins suffering and reign in one person, and rests on the resurrection.
- The New Testament misuses the Hebrew BibleSome citations fail as predictions. Read as the pattern-reading Jewish interpreters also practiced, they make a different claim, one you can test against the Hebrew.
- The suffering servant is IsraelIsaiah does call Israel his servant. Isaiah 53 describes an innocent individual struck for "my people," who dies and then lives, a profile that strains the national reading.
- Jesus and messianic prophecyIsolated proof texts do not settle the question. A pattern of suffering and reign runs through Isaiah, Zechariah, Daniel, Micah, and the Psalms.
- The resurrection as messianic vindicationA crucified Messiah looked like a contradiction to Jesus' own followers. They read his resurrection as God overturning that verdict, and argued it from the Psalms and Isaiah.