The maths of Jesus - by Ben Bonython
The Jewish people had expected a Messiah since the time of the destruction of their nation(s), Judah and Israel. By the time of Jesus, we read that Gamaliel spoke of others who had claimed to be the Christ.
Acts 5:36-37 offers insight into a heightened expectation of the Messiah. Even Herod was fearful about this (Mt 2:3,13,16).
The Old Testament, written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, contains over 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled through His life, death and resurrection. Mathematically speaking, the odds of anyone fulfilling prophecy are staggering. Mathematicians put it this way:
fulfilling 8 prophecies: 1 in 1017
fulfilling 48 prophecies: 1 chance in 10157
fulfilling 300+ prophecies: Only Jesus!
Examples relating the incarnation:
·Nations will be blessed through Abraham: Prophecy:(Ge12:3).Fulfilment:(Acts3:25–26).
The sceptre will come through Judah: Prophecy: (Gen 49:10). Fulfilment: (Lk 3:33)
David's offspring will have an eternal kingdom: Prophecy: (2 Sa 7:12–13). Fulfilment: (Mt 1:1)
Born of a virgin, and called Immanuel: Prophecy: (Is 7:14). Fulfilment: (Lk 1:35).
The Messiah will spend time in Egypt: Prophecy:(Hos 11:1). Fulfilment: (Mt 2:14–15).
The Christ will be born in Bethlehem: Prophecy: (Micah 5:2). Fulfilment: (Mt2:4–6).
Other believed that Jesus lived, and this includes historian Josephus who wrote about Jesus in the Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3:
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure.
He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things.
And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct to this day.”
Whatever you believe about Jesus, if you believe Jesus was born, and if you believe some of the things Jesus did, to explain the maths of what was said about Jesus years before His birth is nothing but astonishing!