Kingship and Messiah
Israel’s kings, the promise of a lasting throne for David, the loss of the monarchy, and the hope for an anointed deliverer that the New Testament applies to Jesus.
Messiah means anointed one, the title of Israel’s kings. After Babylon ended the monarchy, the promise made to David became a hope for a future king. The Gospels tell the story of Jesus as the fulfilment of that hope, in a form that few expected: a king who is crucified.
The thread from start to finish
- about 2085 BC, traditional dateMelchizedek Blesses Abram
Genesis tells how Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, meets Abram with bread and wine after a battle, blesses him and receives a tenth of everything. Psalm 110 names a priesthood after him, and Hebrews applies it to Jesus.
- about 1100 BC, traditional dateRuth and Boaz
A Moabite widow follows her mother-in-law Naomi to Bethlehem, gleans in the fields of Boaz and marries him. Their son Obed is the grandfather of David, and Matthew names Ruth in the genealogy of Jesus.
- about 1050 BC, traditional dateSaul Becomes Israel’s First King
Israel’s elders ask the aged Samuel for a king “like all the nations”. Samuel warns them, then anoints Saul of Benjamin, who is chosen by lot at Mizpah and made king at Gilgal. Saul is later rejected for disobedience.
- about 1025 BC, traditional dateDavid and Goliath
Samuel anoints David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem. In the valley of Elah the young shepherd kills the Philistine champion Goliath with a sling and a stone, and his fame turns King Saul against him.
- about 1010 BC to 1003 BC, estimated dateDavid Becomes King
After Saul dies in battle on Mount Gilboa, the men of Judah anoint David king at Hebron. Seven and a half years later, when the war with Saul’s house is over, the elders of all Israel anoint him king over the whole nation.
- about 1003 BC, estimated dateDavid Takes Jerusalem and Brings the Ark
David captures the Jebusite stronghold of Zion, makes it his capital and brings the ark of the covenant there with music and dancing. Jerusalem becomes both the royal city and a centre of Israel’s worship.
- about 1000 BC, traditional dateGod’s Covenant with David
David proposes to build a temple for the ark. Through the prophet Nathan he is told instead that God will build him a house, a dynasty whose throne will stand for ever. The promise becomes the root of the hope for a Messiah.
- about 995 BC, traditional dateDavid, Bathsheba and Nathan
Samuel tells how David takes Bathsheba, the wife of one of his warriors, and when she is pregnant has her husband Uriah killed in battle. The prophet Nathan confronts him. The child dies; a second son, Solomon, is born.
- about 966 BC to 959 BC, estimated dateSolomon Builds the Temple
In the fourth year of his reign Solomon begins a temple for the Lord in Jerusalem, with cedar and craftsmen from Hiram of Tyre. Seven years later the ark is carried into its inner room and the house is dedicated.
- about 930 BC, estimated dateThe Kingdom Divides
After Solomon’s death the northern tribes reject his son Rehoboam at Shechem and make Jeroboam their king. Israel in the north and Judah in the south become separate kingdoms, and Jeroboam sets up his own sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan.
- 841 BC, firm dateJehu’s Revolt and Tribute to Assyria
The army commander Jehu, anointed at Elisha’s word, kills the kings of Israel and Judah, Jezebel and the house of Ahab, and destroys the temple of Baal in Samaria. In the same year Assyrian records show him paying tribute to Shalmaneser III.
- about 840 BC, estimated dateThe House of David Inscription from Tel Dan
A king of Aram sets up a victory stele at Dan in which he claims to have killed a king of Israel and a king of the “House of David”. Found in 1993 and 1994, it is the earliest clear mention of David’s dynasty outside the Bible.
- about 740 BC, estimated dateThe Call of Isaiah
In the year King Uzziah dies, Isaiah sees the Lord enthroned in the temple and is sent as a prophet to Judah. When Syria and Israel attack, he tells King Ahaz to trust God, gives the sign of Immanuel and speaks of a coming king from David’s line.
- 722/721 BC, estimated dateThe Fall of Samaria
After a siege of three years the Assyrians take Samaria, deport its people and settle others in their place. The northern kingdom of Israel comes to an end. Kings, a Babylonian chronicle and the inscriptions of Sargon II all record it.
- 701 BC, firm dateHezekiah Withstands Sennacherib
Sennacherib of Assyria overruns Judah, takes Lachish and shuts Hezekiah up in Jerusalem. Hezekiah pays tribute, Isaiah promises that the city will not fall, and it is not taken. Assyrian annals and reliefs record the campaign from the other side.
- 609 BC, firm dateJosiah Falls at Megiddo
Pharaoh Necho marches north to the Euphrates in support of Assyria. King Josiah of Judah goes out against him at Megiddo and is killed. Three months later Necho deposes Josiah’s son Jehoahaz and makes Jehoiakim king as Egypt’s vassal.
- about 605 BC to 536 BC, traditional dateDaniel at the Babylonian Court
The book of Daniel tells of a young Judean taken to Babylon who serves its kings and stays loyal to his God through the furnace and the lions’ den, and who sees “one like a son of man” receive an everlasting kingdom.
- 16 March 597 BC, firm dateThe First Deportation to Babylon
Nebuchadnezzar takes Jerusalem, deports the young king Jehoiachin with thousands of Judah’s leading people, and puts Zedekiah on the throne. Babylon’s own chronicle dates the capture to the day.
- 587/586 BC, estimated dateThe Fall of Jerusalem and the Destruction of the Temple
After a long siege the Babylonian army breaches Jerusalem, burns Solomon’s temple and the city, and deports most of the remaining people. The kingdom of Judah comes to an end.
- about 550 BC to 539 BC, estimated dateThe Prophecy of Comfort and the Suffering Servant
Isaiah 40–55 tells the exiles that their punishment is over, names Cyrus as the Lord’s anointed who will send them home, and speaks of a servant who suffers for the sins of many.
- 142 BC, firm dateJudea Gains Independence under the Hasmoneans
Simon, the last of the Maccabee brothers, wins freedom from Seleucid tribute and is made high priest and ruler by a national assembly. His son John Hyrcanus enlarges the state by conquest. Judea is ruled by its own priest-princes for some eighty years.
- 40 BC to 37 BC, estimated dateHerod the Great Becomes King of Judea
The Roman senate names Herod, son of the Idumean Antipater, king of the Jews. Three years later he takes Jerusalem with a Roman army, and the last Hasmonean king is executed. Herod rules as Rome’s client until his death.
- c. 6–4 BC, estimated dateThe Birth of Jesus
Matthew and Luke each tell, in a story set in the days of Herod, that Jesus was born at Bethlehem to Mary, a virgin betrothed to Joseph of David’s line, and grew up at Nazareth in Galilee.
- c. AD 26–29, estimated dateThe Baptism and Temptation of Jesus
Jesus comes from Nazareth to the Jordan and is baptised by John. The Gospels tell of the Spirit descending on him and a voice from heaven naming him the beloved Son, and then of forty days of testing in the wilderness.
- c. AD 28–29, estimated dateJesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee
Mark and Matthew tell how, after John’s arrest, Jesus returns to Galilee, announces that the kingdom of God is at hand, calls four fishermen and makes Capernaum, on the lake, the centre of his teaching and healing.
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated dateThe Feeding of the Five Thousand
In a lonely place by the Sea of Galilee, all four Gospels relate, Jesus feeds a crowd of about five thousand with five loaves and two fish. John adds that the crowd wanted to make him king, and the discourse on the bread of life.
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated datePeter’s Confession at Caesarea Philippi
Mark and Matthew tell how, near Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples who they say he is, and Peter answers: You are the Christ. Jesus then begins to speak of his coming suffering and death. Matthew adds the saying about the rock and the keys.
- c. AD 29 or 32, estimated dateThe Transfiguration
Mark, Matthew and Luke tell how three disciples on a high mountain see Jesus changed in appearance, his clothes shining white, with Moses and Elijah beside him, and hear a voice from a cloud call him “my beloved Son”. The Gospels do not name the mountain.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Raising of Lazarus
John reports that Jesus called his friend Lazarus out of the tomb at Bethany four days after his death. Many believed, and the council in Jerusalem, on the advice of the high priest Caiaphas, resolved that Jesus must die.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateJesus Enters Jerusalem
A few days before the Passover Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey from the Mount of Olives. Crowds spread cloaks and branches on the road and hail him with words from Psalm 118, as the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Trials before the Council and Pilate
The Gospels tell how Jesus is questioned before the high priest Caiaphas and the council, judged guilty of blasphemy, and handed in the morning to the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, who has him flogged and orders him crucified as “King of the Jews”.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Crucifixion
Jesus is crucified outside Jerusalem at a place called Golgotha, on the order of Pontius Pilate, under the charge “King of the Jews”, and dies the same afternoon. Tacitus mentions the execution, and so does a passage of disputed wording in Josephus.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Burial and Resurrection
The Gospels tell that Jesus was buried in a rock tomb on the evening of his death and that on the first day of the week women found the tomb open and empty and were told that he had risen. That God raised him from the dead is the central claim of Christian faith.
- AD 30 or 33, estimated dateThe Ascension
Luke reports that the risen Jesus, after telling his apostles to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, was taken up from the Mount of Olives and hidden by a cloud. Acts places this forty days after the resurrection.