One Who Is to Come

"Messiah" is one of the most popular and most contested terms in the biblical interpretation. To understand this concept is to understand one of the earliest terms applied to Jesus.

While many often read the concept back into early Old Testament texts, Joseph Fitzmyer carefully and comprehensively tells the story of its development from Daniel 9 to the New Testament. "The One Who Is to Come" begins with the term itself, then discusses passages that reveal the developing understanding of the Davidic dynasty and those that are often seen as Old Testament precursors. It also takes on the place of the term in the Septuagint and extrabiblical Jewish writings, as well as the New Testament, Targums, and Mishnah.

Fitzmyer's masterful work takes issue with the excessive claims for the concept of messiah in the Old Testament, pointing instead to the proper (and no less full) tradition of "messiah" that emerged in the intertestamental period. "The One Who Is to Come" presents a novel yet biblical thesis that will appeal to scholars, students and all who wish investigate the origins of the concept of "messiah."