Remember the clues?
Could he have arranged it?
You've seen these promises come true: the clues from chapter 2, the lines from Isaiah's poem, and a few more. Now the skeptic's question: couldn't Jesus have read the prophecies and acted them out? Some he could have. Sort these twelve: could he have arranged it, or was it out of his control? Each one is tagged with when it happened, and each answer lights a lantern.
Prophecy 1 of 12
“I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom.”
2 Samuel 7:12What happened: Matthew opens by tracing Jesus's family line back to King David.
Matthew 1:1Nobody picks their ancestors. The family line was fixed a thousand years before he was born.
Before he was born: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah… out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel.” (Micah 5:2)
What happened: Jesus is born in Bethlehem, a small town, not Jerusalem. (Matthew 2:1)
Nobody picks where they're born. His family lived in Nazareth, and Luke says a Roman census sent them to Bethlehem just in time (Luke 2:1–7). And this wasn't a Christian invention: people already expected the Messiah from Bethlehem, and some used it against Jesus, thinking he came from Galilee (John 7:41–42).
Before he was born: “After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death… The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” (Daniel 9:26)
What happened: Jesus is crucified around AD 30. Rome destroys the Temple in AD 70. (Mark 15 · AD 70)
Nobody picks the century they're born in. And the second half came 40 years after his death, when Roman armies burned the Temple. No one in a grave arranges that.
A free man: “See, your king comes to you… lowly and riding on a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
What happened: Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. (John 12:14)
He could, and he set it up on purpose (Mark 11:1–7): a public claim to be the king. The crowd understood, shouting, “Blessed is the king of Israel!”
On trial: “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)
What happened: Accused before the priests, Pilate, and Herod, “he gave no answer.” (Matthew 27:12–14 · Mark 15:5 · Luke 23:9 · John 19:9)
He did say who he was (Mark 14:62), but he made no defense against the charges, though his life was at stake. All four Gospels record it, and Pilate was amazed (Matthew 27:14). A few words in his own defense might have saved him.
Nailed to a cross: “He trusts in the Lord,” they say, “let the Lord rescue him.” (Psalm 22:8)
What happened: At the cross, the chief priests mock him: “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now.” (Matthew 27:41–43)
By now he was nailed down and could do nothing. The chief priests chose their own words, and the men who wanted him dead ended up reciting the psalm about him.
Nailed to a cross: “…and was numbered with the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)
What happened: He is crucified between two rebels. (Mark 15:27)
He was the prisoner, not the judge. Pilate decided who else would be crucified that day, and the soldiers put Jesus between them.
Nailed to a cross: “They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.” (Psalm 22:18)
What happened: Soldiers gamble for his clothes at the foot of the cross. (John 19:23–24)
He had been stripped and nailed up. His clothes went to the four soldiers on duty, who split them “into four shares” and threw dice for the seamless undergarment (John 19:23–24). Psalm 22 is David's prayer from a place of agony, and from the cross Jesus cried out its first line: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
After he died: “He protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” (Psalm 34:20)
What happened: Soldiers break the other men's legs, but find Jesus already dead and leave his alone. (John 19:32–36)
The Sabbath was coming, so the leaders asked Pilate to have the men's legs broken to finish them off and get the bodies down (John 19:31). Soldiers smashed the legs of the two men beside him. When they reached Jesus, he was already dead, so they left him. A dead man can't talk soldiers out of anything.
After he died: “They will look on me, the one they have pierced.” (Zechariah 12:10)
What happened: A soldier pierces his side with a spear. (John 19:34, 37)
To make sure, one soldier drove a spear into the body, and out came “a sudden flow of blood and water.” John says he saw it himself (John 19:34–35). A corpse can't arrange to be pierced.
After he died: “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.” (Isaiah 53:9)
What happened: A rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, lays him in his own new tomb. (Matthew 27:57–60)
A dead man doesn't choose his grave. His disciples had run. His body could have gone into a grave with criminals. Instead Joseph, a rich member of the very council that condemned him, went to Pilate and asked for the body (Mark 15:43).
After he died: “You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.” (Psalm 16:10)
What happened: Three days after he dies, the tomb is empty. Peter tells a Jerusalem crowd this psalm was about him. (Acts 2:29–32)
Roman soldiers had confirmed he was dead. The tomb was sealed and guarded (Matthew 27:62–66). A dead body can't stage its own resurrection. If the tomb was empty on the third day, someone else did it. The apostles said God did.
Only two were in his hands. Look at when the rest happened: three before he was born, three while he hung nailed to a cross, and four after he was dead. A dead man can't arrange anything. Those depended on his family tree, a small town, the calendar, and what his enemies, Roman soldiers, and a rich stranger did. You'll see lists of 300 or more fulfilled prophecies; many of those are echoes and patterns rather than predictions. These are some of the hardest to explain away. Could the writers have bent the story to fit? They wrote while witnesses were still alive, and they kept details that made them look bad.