The tablet containing 'Gabriel's Revelation' predating Christ's first coming.
The buzz around the blogosphere regarding Gabriel’s Tablet is rather interesting. The recent find helps solidify the fact that Christ wasn’t speaking something completely new in His day but it hadn’t been completely put together before Christ. Instead, it was something that wasn’t totally understood or settled. The Messiah ben Joseph and the Messiah ben David were argued about and thought of as two seperate Messiah’s, not the same Messiah with two comings.
The debate goes something along the lines of “…if we can prove that what Christ taught was completely new and that He made it up, then the case for Christ is diminished…“ But that can’t be done as there is just too much evidence to the contrary. You just wouldn’t know that with the way the topic is being discussed regarding the writing on the tablet. A lot of the thoughts of the New Testament were already put in place in the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly 4q521 and 4q285 among others.
The point is that Gabriel’s Revelation is but another of the many proofs that Christianity’s core doctrinal beliefs were indeed predicted well beforehand. Christ was the expected Messiah ben Joseph and He wasn’t just making it up. He fulfilled specifications laid out well in advance and what makes it most unique is that those specifications weren’t totally understood until He was able to make them clear – without a doubt – to the point that only a literal reading, a literal understanding of God’s Word could be used (a man, born in Bethlehem, of a Virgin, etc.)
I do find one thing interesting that I haven’t seen quite picked up on yet in the articles I’ve read, and that is: Gabriel was really made known by the Book of Daniel, making his introduction in Daniel 8:16. For years scholars have tried endlessly to date Daniel as late as possible, mostly because the prophecies contained within (Chapter 11, in particular) are too specific, detailed and perfectly laid out as we know them to be in the 400 years prior to Christ’s first coming. But Christ Himself authenticates the book and the book was included in the LXX. The dating of this tablet is showing it to be early first century BC and it is making reference to the very Gabriel within Daniel 8 and 9. One of them must have come first, would be the world’s logic, and the question would be ‘which?’ Odds are Daniel which makes it date earlier than the ‘higher criticism‘ would like to admit. Pray that their eyes be opened – afterall, Daniel 9:25-27 predicts to the very day that Christ would present himself as King of Jews.
For more information and worthwhile reading see the following:
- Extra!! Extra!! New Discovery Challenges Beliefs About Jesus!! Read all about it!!
- The Messiah Son of Joseph: “Gabriel’s Revelation” and the Birth of a New Messianic Model
- New Evidence for an Old Question? The “Gabriel’s Revelation” text and the question of a suffering Messiah
