The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem

In the Bible's Old Testament book of Micah, there is a prophecy that said the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, which is a village in the province of Judah, which is in the southern part of Israel:

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." - Micah 5:2 (NIV translation).

For Christians, this prophecy is powerful in a very simple way: It eliminates all other cities and towns throughout the entire world as a place in which the Messiah could be born. It narrows the possibilities to one tiny village, south of Jerusalem.

And throughout the span of the past 27 centuries, from the days of the prophet Micah up through the present time, Bethlehem is credited as being the birthplace for only one person who is widely known throughout the world. And that person is Jesus Christ.

The New Testament books of Matthew and Luke list Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus. Matthew 2:1-6 describes the birth of Jesus as the fulfillment of Micah's prophecy.

In recent years, however, some non-believers have attempted to discredit Matthew's interpretation of Micah 5:2 by claiming that the prophecy refers to a person named Bethlehem, and not a town named Bethlehem. This claim has been widely circulated on the Internet by a college professor who describes himself as a former Christian minister.

The first problem with this claim appears in Micah 5:1. In that verse, the prophet establishes that he is speaking of Bethlehem the town, not Bethlehem the person, by setting up a context in which he is contrasting the city of Jerusalem with the town of Bethlehem.

It would be awkward, at best, to argue that the goal of Micah 5:1 was to contrast the large and powerful city of Jerusalem (referred to as the city of troops) with a deceased person named Bethlehem, rather than to contrast the large and powerful city of Jerusalem with the lowly and humble town of Bethlehem.

A second problem with the claim is that there is evidence outside of the Bible that shows that Micah 5:2 was regarded as a Messianic prophecy involving the town of Bethlehem. One example comes from the Jerusalem Talmud, which is a collection of Jewish scholarly writings completed about 1600 years ago:

"The King Messiah... from where does he come forth? From the royal city of Bethlehem in Judah." - Jerusalem Talmud, Berakoth 5a.

It also is worth noting that the Talmudic passage above refers to Bethlehem as a royal city. This is because Bethlehem was also the birthplace of King David, who lived about 1000 years before the time of Jesus. The Messiah, as is prophesized elsewhere in the Bible, was to be a descendant of King David. And so, it is doubly appropriate for the Messiah to be born in David's hometown, as Jesus was, about 2000 years ago.


To learn more about Bible prophecy, visit our sister site at AboutBibleProphecy.com


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