17-20. (a) What prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures spoke of the time of the Messiah’s coming and of his sacrificial death? (b) Why was it necessary for the Messiah to die?

¹⁷ Various prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures, long accepted as Messianic, were fulfilled through the suffering and death of Jesus. Such prophecies link the Messiah’s death with the forgiveness of sins. In the Christian Greek Scriptures, this atonement provided by the death of the Messiah is referred to as the ‘ransom sacrifice.’ (Matthew 20:28; Romans 3:24) What were some of these prophecies?

¹⁸ Notice the words of the prophecy at Daniel 9:24, 25 (JP): “Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to forgive iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness . . . unto one anointed [“Messiah,” Hebrew, Ma·shiʹach], a prince.” One cannot avoid noticing the link established in the text between the “Messiah” (the Anointed One) and the ‘finishing of transgression and making an end to sin.’ Verse 26 goes on to state that “after the threescore and two weeks shall an anointed one [“Messiah,” Hebrew, Ma·shiʹach] be cut off,” in other words, be killed. (See the box “Who Was the ‘Anointed One’? When Would He Come?”)

¹⁹ Another text that is related to the Messiah’s being “cut off,” or killed, as an atonement sacrifice, is found at Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12. (See the box “‘My Servant’—Who Is He?”) Rabbis in the first century applied this text to the Messiah, as did Rambam and others in the Middle Ages. The text makes it perfectly clear that forgiveness is linked with the Messiah and his death.

²⁰ For the above reasons, the teaching that the Messiah’s death would make possible the complete forgiveness of sin in God’s sight was readily understood by many first-​century Jews. They knew that the Scriptures spoke of man’s inherent imperfection. (Ecclesiastes 7:20) The need for sacrifice to atone for sin was a lesson perceived daily; it was implicit in the very framework and nature of the Law covenant. The events described in the accounts of Jesus’ life present him as a perfect man whose death could bring atonement for mankind’s sin.f (Matthew 20:28; Luke 1:26-38) When the Christian Greek Scriptures highlighted that the various sacrifices under the Law foreshadowed this one final and complete sacrifice, fuller meaning was given to the entire framework of the Law, as well as to other portions of the Scriptures.g​—Hebrews 10:1-10.