Bobzammel

In the Book of Zechiriah there is a mention to two "annointed ones"(4:14), and later this seems to represent Joshua and Zerubabell, who are identified with the "Branch" prophecies. Attempts to match Zechiriah 6 with Jesus are faulty--Christians state that "building the temple of the Lord" was a reference to a spiritual temple, but this is seen to be faulty when put in context; especially since the two *did* rebuild the temple, and also the following passages refer to a priest by the Throne(Probably Zerubabel) and Jesus had no priest co-ruled and nowhere is there mentioned there will be a co-priest in the second coming(Unless you really want to stretch things and state that it's a reference to John the Baptist). There's also a reference to a crown possessed by several contemporary individuals, so any attempt to link the passage to either Jesus or John fails. The reference in Zechiriah clearly seems to be the two co-rulers Joshua and Zerrubell, and it seems to be very clearly stated they fufilled the Isiah prophecy, although since Isiah probably was finished after the exile it is possible it's an edit. Jerubabbel is of the line of David so he fits perfectly.
Also I've read that the Dead Sea Scrolls also refer to two messiahs of some sort. Not knowing much of that apocrypha, though, I'm not sure...

CX

You need to distinguish between the Xian conception of The Messiah and the Jewish conception of messiah. There are numerous messiahs in the OT because the word itself simply identifes a person as "anointed of god" a sort of special human agent of god on earth. There is no The Messiah in Judaism as far as I know. Rather The Messiah is an invention of Gentile Xianity.

happyboy

that's the nature of religious texts: if you beat on them enough, you can get them to say whatever you want, support any behavior you want. especially when the religious text is riddled with inconsistancies........

happyboy