ABSTRACT
The claim running through the New Testament is that Jesus fulfils the prophecies of the Old Testament. A useful definition is given by John Barton and John Muddiman: “Prophecy,” like “wisdom,” is something of a catch all term covering a wide diversity of material. France writes: ‘It is thus for Matthew not only the explicitly predictive portions of the Old Testament that can be seen to be “fulfilled” in Jesus, but also its historical characters, its narratives, and its cultic patterns, even the law itself. Claus Westermann believes that this is still genuine prophecy, written before the event, given that things did not turn out exactly as predicted. A vitally important passage, in view of Jesus’ self-description, is the Son of Man passage in Daniel 7. What is truly remarkable is how, in a completely unexpected and even shocking way Jesus fulfils both kinds of prophecy, that of a King-Messiah and a Suffering Servant.
