3. What fulfillments do the prophetic words of Isaiah chapter 61 have?

³ This restoration is foretold in Isaiah chapter 61. However, while that prophecy clearly had a fulfillment in 537 B.C.E., it is fulfilled in greater detail at a later period. The more detailed fulfillment involves Jesus and his followers in the first century and Jehovah’s people in modern times. How meaningful, then, these inspired words are!

“The Year of Goodwill”

4. Who is commissioned to tell good news in the first fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1, and who in the second?

⁴ Isaiah writes: “The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me, for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me to tell good news to the meek ones. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to those taken captive and the wide opening of the eyes even to the prisoners.” (Isaiah 61:1) Who is the one commissioned to tell good news?

5. Who have been preaching the good news for some 2,000 years?

⁵ Moreover, Jesus taught his followers to be evangelizers, or preachers of the good news. At Pentecost 33 C.E., about 120 of these were anointed with holy spirit and became spiritual sons of God. (Acts 2:1-4, 14-42; Romans 8:14-16) They too were commissioned to tell the good news to the meek and brokenhearted. Those 120 were the first of 144,000 to be anointed in this way. The final ones of this group are still active on earth today. Hence, for about 2,000 years, anointed followers of Jesus have been witnessing “about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.”​—Acts 20:21.