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The prophet Daniel saw a vision of 4 successive kingdoms rising to dominance, and that the Messianic kingdom would be established at the same time of the 4^th kingdom to eventually surpass and engulf them all:

“You, O king, were looking, and behold, there was a single great image; that image, which was large and of extraordinary splendor, was rising up in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.The head of that image was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

“This was the dream; now we will say its interpretation before the king. You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength, and the glory;and wherever the sons of men inhabit, or the beasts of the field, or the birds of the sky, He has given them into your hand and has made you rule with power over them all. You are the head of gold. But after you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze, which will rule with power over all the earth. Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; inasmuch as iron crushes and shatters all things, so, like iron that breaks in pieces, it will crush and break all these in pieces. Now in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron; it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have in it the toughness of iron, inasmuch as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so some of the kingdom will be strong and part of it will be brittle.And in that you saw the iron mixed with common clay; they will combine with one another in the seed of men; but they will not cling to one another, even as iron does not combine with clay. And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will cause a kingdom to rise up which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself stand forever.Inasmuch as you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it crushed the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what will happen in the future; so the dream is certain, and its interpretation is trustworthy.” Daniel 2:31-45

 Daniel identifies these 4 kingdoms as:

1. Babylon.
2. Greece/Macedonia.
3. Medes and Persia.
4. Rome.  

Daniel even foresaw the 3^rd kingdom, which was that of Alexander the Great, being broken up into four horns, which are the four kings or generals that divided Alexander’s kingdom. The little horn that arose from the midst was Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who serves as a type or picture of the Antichrist.

“In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar the king, a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one which appeared to me previously. And I looked in the vision. And it happened that while I was looking, I was in the citadel of Susa, which is in the province of Elam; and I looked in the vision, and I myself was beside the Ulai Canal.Then I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, with the longer one coming up last. I saw the ram butting westward, northward, and southward, and no other beasts could stand before it, nor was there anyone to deliver from its power, but it did as it pleased and magnified itself.

“And while I was considering, behold, a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole earth without touching the ground; and the goat had a conspicuous horn between its eyes.Then it came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and ran at it in his strong wrath.And I saw it reach the side of the ram, and it was enraged at it; and it struck the ram and broke its two horns in pieces, and the ram had no strength to stand in opposition to it. So it threw it down to the ground and trampled on it, and there was none to deliver the ram from its power. Then the male goat magnified itself exceedingly. But as soon as it was mighty, the large horn was broken; and in its place there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven.

“And out of one of them came forth a rather small horn. And it grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the Beautiful Land. Then it grew up to the host of heaven and caused some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth, and it trampled them down. And it even magnified itself to be equal with the Commander of the host; and it removed the regular sacrifice from Him, and the place of His sanctuary was thrown down. And on account of transgression the host will be given over to the horn along with the regular sacrifice; and it will throw truth down to the ground and do its will and succeed. Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, ‘How long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression causes desolation, so as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled?’He said to me, ‘For 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the holy place will be made righteous.’

“Now it happened when I, Daniel, had seen the vision, that I sought to understand it; and behold, standing before me was one who had the appearance of a man. And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai, and he called out and said, ‘Gabriel, give this man an understanding of what has appeared.’ So he came near to where I was standing, and when he came I was terrified and fell on my face; but he said to me, “Son of man, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end.’

“Now while he was talking with me, I sank into a deep sleep with my face to the ground; but he touched me and made me stand upright.Then he said, ‘Behold, I am going to let you know what will happen at the final period of the indignation, for it pertains to the appointed time of the end.The ram which you saw with the two horns is the kings of Media and Persia.Now the shaggy goat is the king of Greece, and the large horn that is between his eyes is the first king.And the broken horn and the four horns that stood in its place are four kingdoms which will take their stand from his nation, although not with his power.

“‘In the latter period of their reign,
When the transgressors have run their course,
A king will stand,
Insolent and skilled in intrigue.

“‘His power will be mighty, but not by his own power,
And he will destroy to an astonishing degree
And succeed and do his will;
He will destroy mighty men and the holy people.
And through his insight
He will cause deceit to succeed by his hand;
And he will magnify himself in his heart,
And he will destroy many while they are at ease.
He will even stand against the Prince of princes,
But he will be broken without hands.

“‘And what had appeared about the evenings and mornings
Which has been told is true;
But as for you, conceal the vision,
For it pertains to many days in the future.’

“Then I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days. Then I rose up again and did the king’s work; but I was appalled at what had appeared, and there was none to make me understand it.” Daniel 8:1-27

The prophet identifies the King of God’s Kingdom, that which is of stone and grew until it became a mountain, as the Son of Man:

“In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel saw a dream and visions in his head as he lay on his bed; then he wrote the dream down and said the following summary of the matter. Daniel answered and said, ‘I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; and a heart of a man was given to it.And behold, another beast, a second one in the likeness of a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, “Arise, devour much meat!”After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it.After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, fearsome and terrifying and extraordinarily strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great boasts.

“‘I kept looking
Until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days was seated;
His clothing was like white snow
And the hair of His head like pure wool.
His throne was ablaze with fire,
Its wheels were a burning fire.

“‘A river of fire was flowing
And coming out from before Him;
Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,
And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him;
The court sat,
And the books were opened.

“‘Then I kept looking because of the sound of the great boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was killed, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was given to them for an appointed season of time.

“‘I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And came near before Him.

“‘And to Him was given dominion,
Glory, and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not be taken away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed.

“‘As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, and the visions of my head kept alarming me.I came near to one of those who were standing by and began seeking out from him the exact meaning of all this. So he said it to me and made known to me the interpretation of these things: “These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth. But the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, for all ages to come.”

“‘Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, extraordinarily fearsome, with its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, and which devoured, crushed, and trampled down the remainder with its feet, and the meaning of the ten horns that were on its head and the other horn which came up and before which three of them fell, namely, that horn which had eyes and a mouth speaking great boasts and which was larger in appearance than its associates. I kept looking, and that horn was waging war with the saints and overcoming them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given in favor of the saints of the Highest One, and the season arrived when the saints took possession of the kingdom.

“‘Thus he said: “The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, which will be different from all the other kingdoms and will devour the whole earth and tread it down and crush it.As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will make low three kings.He will speak words against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make changes in seasons and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.Then the reign, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him.”

“‘At this point the matter of this revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me, and the splendor of my face changed, but I kept the matter in my heart.’” Daniel 7:1-28

Both the New Testament and Jewish writings identify this Son of Man as the Messiah, whom Christians and Muslims believe is Jesus:

“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay each one according to his deeds. Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Matthew 16:27-28  

“‘He had one more, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” But those vine-growers said to one another, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!” And they took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others. Have you not even read this Scripture: “The stone which the builders rejected, This has become the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes”?’ And they were seeking to seize Him, and yet they feared the crowd, for they understood that He spoke the parable against them. And so they left Him and went away.” Mark 12:6-12  

“But He kept silent and did not answer. Again the high priest was questioning Him and said to Him, ‘Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’” Mark 14:61-62  

“Now it happened that on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. And when they had placed them in their midst, they began to inquire, ‘By what power, or in what name, have you done this?’ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers and elders of the people, if we are being examined today for a good deed done to a sick man, as to how this man has been saved from his sickness, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.’” Acts 4:5-12

“But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’” Acts 7:55-56

And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, And he who believes upon Him will not be put to shame.’ This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, ‘The stone which the builders rejected, This has become the chief corner stone,’” 1 Peter 2:4-7

“Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Yes, amen… Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. And His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters, and having in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp two-edged sword which comes out of His mouth, and His face was like the sun shining in its power. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, ‘Do not fear; I am the first and the last, 18 and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:12-18

“Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the sanctuary, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sits on the cloud, ‘Put in Your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ Then He who sits on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.” Revelation 14:14-16

And in the days of these kings. in the days of these kings, when the kingdom of Rome is still in existence.		וביומיהון די מלכיא אנון.  ביומיהון של מלכים הללו בעוד מלכותם של רומיים קיימת:
the God Of heaven will set up a kingdom.The kingdom of the Holy One, blessed be He, which will never be destroyed, is the kingdom of the Messiah.		יקים אלה שמיא.  מלכות הקב”ה שלעולם לא תתחבל מלכו והיא מלכות מלך המשיח:
it will crumble and destroy.It will crumble and destroy all these kingdoms.		תדק ותסף.  תדק ותכלה כל אלו המלכיות:

(The Complete Jewish Bible with Rashi Commentary https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16485/showrashi/true#v45; emphasis mine)

Until evening and morning, two thousand and three hundred. I saw an interpretation in the name of Rav Saadia Gaon for this matter, but it has already passed, and he interpreted further “until evening and morning,” that evening about which it says (Zech. 14:7): “and it shall come to pass that at eventide it shall be light,” and we are confident that our God’s word will stand forever; it will not be nullified. I say, however, that the עֶרֶב and בֹּקֶר stated here are a gematria, and there is support for this matter from two reasons: 1) that this computation should coincide with the other computation at the end of the Book, and 2) that Gabriel said to Daniel later on in this chapter (verse 26): “And the vision of the evening and the morning is true.” Now, if he had not hinted that the computation was doubtful, why did he repeat it to say that it was true? And the seer was commanded to close up and to seal the matter, and to him, too, the matter was revealed in a closed and sealed expression, but we will hope for the promise of our king for end after end, and when the end passes, it will be known that the expounder has erred in his interpretation, and the one who comes after him will search and expound in another manner. This can be interpreted [as follows]: namely, that עֶרֶב בֹּקֶר has the numerical value of 574, ע = 70; ר = 200; ב = 2; ב = 2; ק = 100; ר = 200. Added together, this equals 574; plus 2,300, we have 2,874.		עד ערב בקר אלפים ושלוש מאות.  ראיתי פתר בשם רבינו סעדיה לדבר וכבר עבר ופתר עוד עד ערב בקר עד שיבוא אותו הערב שנאמר בו והיה לעת ערב יהיה אור ובטוחים אנו כי דבר אלהינו יקום לעולם לא יופר ואני אומר כי הערב והבוקר האמור כאן גמטריא הוא ויש סמך לדבר משני טעמים האחד שיהא חשבון זה מכוון עם חשבון אחר שבסוף הספר, והב’ שאמר גבריאל לדניאל למטה בענין ומראה הערב והבקר אשר נאמר אמת היא, ואם לא רמז החשבון הוא תלוי למה חזר וכפל אותו לומר אמת הוא, והחוזה נצטוה לסתום ולחתום הדבר ואף הוא לא נגלה בל’ סתום וחתום ואנו נוחיל להבטחת מלכנו קץ אחר קץ ובעבור קץ הדורש נודע כי טעה במדרשיו, והבא אחריו יתור וידרוש דרך אחרת יש לפתור ערב ובקר בגי’ ה’ מאות ושבעי’ וארבע ועוד אלפי’ ושלש מאות הרי אלפים וח’ מאות וע”ד:
and the holy ones shall be exonerated.The iniquity of Israel shall be expiated to bring an end to the decrees of their being trodden upon and crumbled since they were exiled in their first exile to Egypt, until they will be redeemed and saved with a perpetual salvation by our king Messiah, and this computation terminates at the end of 1, 290 years from the day the daily sacrifice was removed, and that is what is stated at the end of the Book (12:11): “And from the time the daily sacrifice is removed, and the silent abomination placed, will be 1,290 years,” and no more, for our king Messiah will come and remove the silent abomination. The daily sacrifice was removed six years before the destruction of the Second Temple, and an image was set up in the Heichal. Now that was the seventeenth day of Tammuz, when Apostomos burned the Torah, put an end to the daily sacrifice, and set up an image in the Heichal, as we learned in Tractate Ta’anith (26b), but for the six years that I mentioned, I have no explicit proof, but there is proof that the daily sacrifice was abolished less than a complete shemittah cycle before the destruction, for so did Daniel prophesy about Titus (9:27): “… and half the week of years [shemittah cycle] he will curtail sacrifice and meal-offering,” meaning that a part of the week of years before the destruction, sacrifices will be abolished. So it is explained below in this section. Let us return to the earlier matters, how the computation of “evening and morning, two thousand and three hundred,” fits exactly with the time commencing from the descent to Egypt to terminate at the end of 1,290 years until the day that the daily sacrifice was abolished: 210 years they were in Egypt. 480 years transpired from the Exodus until the building of the Temple. 410 years the Temple existed. 70 years was the Babylonian exile. 420 years the Second Temple stood. 1,290 should be added until the end of days, totaling: 2,880. Subtract six years that the daily sacrifice was removed before the destruction, for Scripture counted 1,290 years only from the time that the daily sacrifice was removed. Here you have the computation of “evening and morning, and 2,300” added to the computation. Fortunate is he who waits and reaches the end of days 45 years over 1,290 [years]. We may say that the king Messiah will come according to the first computation, and he will subsequently be concealed from them for forty-five years. Rabbi Elazar HaKalir established (in the concluding poem of the portion dealing with the month of Nissan): in the foundation of his song: six weeks of years, totaling 42. We may say that the three years that did not total a week of years he did not count. And I found it so in Midrash Ruth that the king Messiah is destined to be concealed for forty-five years after he reveals himself, and proof is brought from these verses.		ונצדק קדש.  יכופר עון ישראל לבטל גזרות מדרסן ומרפסן מאז גלו גלות ראשונה למצרים עד יגאלו ויושעו תשועת עולמים במלך משיחנו וחשבון זה כלה לסוף אל”ף ור”ץ מיום הוסר התמיד והוא שנאמר בסוף הספר ומעת הוסר התמיד כדי לתת שיקוץ שומ’ ימים אלף ור”ץ יהיה ולא יותר שיבא המלך משיחנו ויסיר שקוץ השומם והתמיד הוסר ו’ שנים לפני החורבן ב”ש והעמיד צלם בהיכל ויום י”ז בתמוז היה ששרף אפוסטמוס את התורה ובטל את התמיד והעמיד צלם בהיכל כמו ששנינו במסכת תענית, ושש שנים שכתבתי אין בידי ראיה מפורשת אך יש ראיה ששבוע שלם לא בטל התמיד לפני החורבן שכן ניבא דניאל על טיטוס (לקמן ט’) וחצי השבוע ישבית זבח ומנחה כלומר מקצת השבוע שלפני החורבן יבטלו הקרבנו’ כך מפורש למטה בענין נחזור על הראשונו’ כיצד מכוון חשבון ערב ובקר אלפי’ ושלש מאות מיום רדת ישראל למצרים להיות כלה לסוף אלף ור”ץ ליום שהוסר התמיד, ר”י היו במצרים ד’ מאות ושמונים מיום צאתם עד ויבן הבית ד’ מאו’ וי’ היה הבית וע’ שנה גלות בבל וד’ מאות וך’ בית שני תן עליהם אלף ור”ץ של קץ הימים הרי אלפים וח’ מאות צא מהן ו’ שנים שהוסר התמיד לפני החורבן שלא מנה הכתוב אלף ור”ץ אלא למעת הוסר התמיד הרי לך חשבון ערב ובוקר ואלפים וג’ מאות עוד נוסף בחשבון אשרי המחכה ויגיע לקץ הימים מ”ה שנה יתרים על אלף ור”ץ יש לומר על חשבון הראשון יצא המלך המשיח ויחזור ויתכסה מהם אותם מ”ה שנים ורבי אליעזר הקליר יסד (בסילוק יוצר של פרשת החדש) ביסוד שירו שבועים ששה הרי מ”ב, וי”ל הג’ שנים שלא באו לחשבון שבוע לא מנה ואני מצאתי כך במדרש רות שעתיד מלך המשיח להתכסות מ”ה שנים לאחר שיגלה ומביא ראיה מן המקראות הללו:

(Ibid. https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16491/showrashi/true#v14; emphasis mine)

one like a man was coming. That is the King Messiah.		כבר אנש אתה.  הוא מלך המשיח:
and… up to the Ancient of Days.Who was sitting in judgment and judging the nations.		ועד עתיק יומיא.  שהיה יושב במשפט ודן את האומות:
came.arrived, reached.		מטה.  הגיע:

(Ibid. https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16490/showrashi/true#v13; emphasis mine)

Daniel is even given a prophetic timeline that includes when the Messiah would arrive, and which announces that he would die, and that the the second temple and Jerusalem would also be destroyed. This inspired chronology dovetails with the appearance of the Lord Jesus who was subsequently killed by crucifixion:

“Seventy weeks have been determined for your people and for your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. So you are to know and have insight that from the going out of a word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be restored and rebuilt, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are decreed. And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will make sacrifice and grain offering cease; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.” Daniel 9:24-27

The rabbis concur that this prophecy culminated with the Roman general Titus destroying Jerusalem and the second temple in 70 AD:  

Seventy weeks [of years] have been decreed. on Jerusalem from the day of the first destruction in the days of Zedekiah until it will be [destroyed] the second time.		שבועים שבעים נחתך.  על ירושלים מיום חורבן ראשון בימי צדקיהו עד שיהיה בשניה:
to terminate the transgression and to end sin. so that Israel should receive their complete retribution in the exile of Titus and his subjugation, in order that their transgressions should terminate, their sins should end, and their iniquities should be expiated, in order to bring upon them eternal righteousness and to anoint upon them (sic) the Holy of Holies: the Ark, the altars, and the holy vessels, which they will bring to them through the king Messiah. The number of seventy weeks is four hundred and ninety years. The Babylonian exile was seventy [years] and the Second Temple stood four hundred and twenty [years].		לכלא הפשע ולהתם חטאת.  שיקבלו ישראל את גמר פורענותם בגלות טיטוס ושעבוד וכדי שיכלו פשעיהם ויתמו חטאתם ויתכפר עונותם כדי להביא עליהם צדק עולמים ולמשוח (עליהם) קדש קדשים. הארון והמזבחות וכלי הקודש שיבואו להם ע”י מלך המשיח ומנין שבועים ארבע מאות ותשעים שנה, גלות בבל ע’ ובית שני ת”ך:

(Ibid. https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16492/showrashi/true#v24; emphasis mine)

And after. those weeks.		ואחרי.  אותן שבועים:
[the] anointed one will be cut off.Agrippa, the king of Judea, who was ruling at the time of the destruction, will be slain.		יכרת משיח.  יהרג אגריפס מלך יהודה שהי’ מושל בימי החורבן:
and he will be no more.Heb. וְאֵין לוֹ, and he will not have. The meaning is that he will not be.		ואין לו.  כמו ואיננו:
the anointed one.Heb. מָשִׁיחַ. This is purely an expression of a prince and a dignitary.		משיח.  אינו אלא ל’ שר וגדול:
and the city and the Sanctuary.lit. and the city and the Holy.		והעיר והקדש.  והעיר והמקדש:
and the people of the coming monarch will destroy.[The monarch who will come] upon them. That is Titus and his armies.		ישחית עם נגיד הבא.  עליהם הוא טיטוס ואוכלוסיו:
and his end will come about by inundation.And his end will be damnation and destruction, for He will inundate the power of his kingdom through the Messiah.		וקצו בשטף.  וסופו לקללה ואבדון שישטיף כח מלכותו ע”י משיח:
and until the end of the wars. of Gog the city will exist.		ועד קץ מלחמ’.  גוג תהא העיר:
cut off into desolation.a destruction of desolation.		נחרצת שוממות.  חרץ של שוממות:

(Ibid. https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16492/showrashi/true#v26; emphasis mine)

And he will strengthen a covenant for the princes for one week. לָרַבִּים, for the princes, like “and all the officers of (רַבֵּי) the king,” in the Book of Jeremiah (39:13).		והגביר ברית לרבים שבוע אחד.  לרבים לשרים כמו וכל רבי המלך בס’ ירמיה נ”ב:
will strengthen. Titus [will strengthen] a covenant with the princes of Israel.		והגביר.  טיטוס ברית לשרי ישראל:
for one week. He will promise them the strengthening of a covenant and peace for seven years, but within the seven years, he will abrogate his covenant.		שבוע אחד.  יבטיחם בהגברת ברית ושלוה עד ז’ שנים ובתוך השבוע יפר את בריתו:
he will abolish sacrifice and meal-offering. This is what he says in the first vision (8:26): “and in tranquility he will destroy many.” Through a covenant of tranquility, he will destroy them.		ישבית זבח ומנחה.  וזהו שאמר בחזיון הראשון ובשלוה ישחית רבים מתוך ברית שלוה ישחיתם:
and on high, among abominations will be the dumb one. This is a pejorative for pagan deities. i.e., on a high place, among abominations and disgusting things, he will place the dumb one, the pagan deity, which is dumb like a silent stone.		ועל כנף שקוצים משומם.  כנוי של גנאי עכו”ם הוא כלומר ועל מושב גובה בין שקוצים ותיעוב יניח את השומם את העכו”ם שהיא נאלמת כאבן דומם:
high. Heb. כְּנַף, lit. wing, an expression of height, like the wing of a flying bird.		כנף.  ל’ גובה ככנף עוף הפורח:
and until destruction and extermination befall the dumb one. and the ruling of the abomination will endure until the day that the destruction and extermination decreed upon it [will] befall it, in the days of the king Messiah.		ועד כלה ונחרצה תתך על שומם.  ותתקיים ממשלת השקץ עד יום אשר תתך עלי’ כלה ונחרצה הנגזור עליה בימי מלך המשיח:
befall the dumb one. Heb. תִּתַּךְ, reach; and total destruction will descend upon the image of the pagan deity and upon its worshippers.		תתך על שומם.  תגיח ותרד כליון תרוץ על העכו”ם ועל עובדיה:

(Ibid. https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16492/showrashi/true#v27; emphasis mine)

What this means is that the Messiah had to have arrived prior to this event and must have been killed. Knowing this, and in an obvious act od desperation, Rashi tries to identify this Messiah as King Agrippa who was murdered in 44 AD. Rashi conveniently ignored the fact less than ten years earlier the one and true Messiah, the Lord Jesus, had been killed by the Romans via crucifixion.

For more on Daniel’s timeline the readers can peruse the following articles:

The Time of Messiah’s Advent Pt. 1

The Time of Messiah’s Advent Pt. 2

MORE ON DANIEL’S MESSIANIC TIMELINE

MESSIANIC TIMELINE OF DANIEL REVISITED AGAIN

RABBINIC JUDAISM ON THE TIME OF MESSIAH’S APPEARANCE

RASHI’S INTERPRETATION OF DANIEL

I will be citing the interpretation of 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, particularly verse 6, by renowned New Testament Michael F. Bird. Bird agrees that v. 6 divides the Shema, the name given to Deuteronomy 6:4, which the Jews recited twice a day, between the Father and the Son. Here’s what that verse says:

“Hear (shema) O Israel! YHWH our God, YHWH is one.”

“Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord (Kyrios heis estin).” LXX

Bird sees, along with a number of NT scholars, this passage as a Christianizing or a Christian form of the Shema. The formulation of 1 Cor. 8:6 leads Bird to believe that Paul and the early Christians were identifying and confessing Jesus as that one YHWH/Lord of the Shema.

With the foregoing in view, I now proceed to the quotes. All emphasis will be mine.

The inference of Jesus’ deity is hardly illegitimate, considering explicit New Testament affirmations about Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Jesus is the “Word” who was “with God,” “was God,” and “became flesh” (John 1.1-2, 14), the divine Son who makes himself “equal with God” (John 5.18), who declares that everyone should “honor the Son just as they honor the Father” (John 5.23), and in his resurrected body is hailed by Thomas as “my Lord and my God” (John 20.28). Looking at the Pauline corpus, Jesus is called “our great God and Savior” (Titus 2.13), and—assuming some grammar—the subject of acclamation as “the Messiah, who is God over ail, forever praised! Amen” (Rom 9.5). We could add to these various Yahweh texts from the Old Testament that are applied to Jesus by Paul (e.g., Deut 6.4 in 1 Cor 8.4-6; Isa 45.23 in Phil 2.9-11) and the nature miracles attributed to Jesus by the Evangelists, where he exhibits theophanic qualities like walking on water (Mark 6.45-53). It is far more likely than not that the New Testament corpus as a whole identifies Jesus as a divine being and ascribes the qualities of divinity to him.¹ (Bird, Jesus Among the Gods: Early Christology in the Greco-Roman World [Baylor University Press, Waco, TX 2022], p. 10)

Fifth, it would be straining some monotheistic sensibilities to include an angelic figure within the shema (Deut 6.5) as Paul does with Jesus Christ (1 Cor 8.6).³⁸³ The knowledge of the one God over and against idols and in distinction to the many gods and lords (1 Cor 8.1-5) includes the priority of “one God, the Father” as Creator along with “one Lord, Jesus Christ” as demiurge and deliverer (1 Cor 8.6). Importantly, Jesus is not a second god beside or below God the Father, but God’s oneness (eis) is predicated of him as well as the exclusivity of Israel’s devotion to the one God from the shema. In addition, this oneness operates only in the context of a God-Jesus unity as they are “for us.”³⁸⁴ Angels do not have a part in monotheistic confession, its exclusive devotion, and a mode of deliverance that puts the delivered in a relationship with them! Tilling’s conclusion is apt: “There is no angel or intermediary being of any kind in any text that parallels the way Paul speaks of this Christ-relation. Rather the way Paul describes the relation between Christ and Christians is analogous only to the relation between Israel and YHWH.”³⁸⁵

³⁸³ Here I disagree with McGrath (Only True God, 39-44) that Paul includes Jesus alongside God as a deputy rather than beside God as an equal in the shema. Paul, like Philo (Her. 166; Plant. 86; Somn. 163; Abr. 121, 124; Mos. 2.99-100; Spec. leg. 1.30, 307), splits the Creative and executive functions of Israel’s one God, in Paul’s case, between God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, it appears, can seamlessly relate Jesus Christ to God in terms of “subordination, coordination, and belonging” while declaring that Christ’s “origin and essential being … belongs entirely on the side of God” (Udo Schnelle, Apostle Paul: His Life and Theology [Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005], 396-97). For Feldmeier and Spieckermann (God Becoming Human, 252): “With regard to Christ this means that precisely by submitting himself freely to the Father and letting God alone be God, he becomes completely one with the Father as the Son. This is why dominance and subordination are inadequate terms for the relationship between Father and Son. The relationship is determined by reciprocal sharing; and this is a biblical legacy.” (Ibid., pp. 261-262)

(a) In 1 Cor 16.22 we have a continuation of the pattern of Jesus devotion exhibited across the letter. The monotheistic confession of Deut 6.4, pertaining to Israel’s one God and one Lord, was split by Paul in 1 Cor 8.6 to include one God the Father and the one Lord Jesus Christ. Then, in 1 Cor 16.22, the command to love God in Deut 6.5 is applied by Paul to the Lord Jesus. Such love has the character of covenant loyalty, and the absence of such love puts one under a covenant curse. Paul binds Jesus to Israel’s God in a matrix of divine worship (1 Cor 1.2; 11.26; 12.3), divine faithfulness (1 Cor 1.9; 10.13), divine oneness (1 Cor 8.4-5), enduring faith (1 Cor 2.5; 16.13), loving loyalty, and future hope (1 Cor 1.7-8; 12.3; 16.22). Thus, the identity of the Lord Jesus and the type of loyalty that is appropriate for him are determined by Israel’s traditions of monotheistic devotion and obligations of covenantal loyalty to Yahweh.⁶⁹⁴

(b) The application of lordship language to Jesus is made in a “cultic” setting, perhaps eucharistie (1 Cor 11.26; Did. 10.3), calling on Jesus as to a deity, indicating that Jesus is the object of divine worship.⁶⁹⁵ (Ibid., p. 372)

Second, schemes where Jesus is identified with the creative action of God, either as mediator of creation or as cocreator with God the Father, which separate God from creation, signify a distinctly Jewish metric for divinity and denote an intense association of Jesus with Israel’s God.⁸ Theologians like Irenaeus certainly hardened the God/Christ and creation divide, but Irenaeus was not wildly innovating here and was working with earlier texts and traditions from Jewish and Christian corpora. Of course, it is certainly true that not all christological schemes posited Jesus as the mediator of creation. Many Gnostics did not attribute a demiurgical function to Jesus, except perhaps as the curator of the pleroma. The many exaltationist and adoptionist Christologies could see Jesus as a human being promoted to divinity within the created order and make him a deified human. Nonetheless, the identification of Jesus as the mediator of creation is incredibly significant. Greco-Roman philosophers could speak of a divine creator, yet the supreme gods, Zeus and Jupiter were not ordinarily attributed a creative function; they were progeny of the old gods, Kronos and Saturn. The Olympian gods were not creators of the world as much as the most powerful forces permeating the world. While very few intermediary figures were attributed a demiurgical role or a mediating function in creation, it was not unprecedented. Wisdom and angels were sometimes given creative role, as was Plato’s demiurge with the young gods and Philo’s Logos. Even the Babylonian deity Marduk is among divine beings who create. Yet even these creator-gods and demiurgical figures are themselves created beings, and that is the difference. To attribute a creative function to Christ would not itself make him species unique or require his promotion within a divine hierarchy. However, when Christ is considered eternal, placed above angels and powers, and attributed a creative function, that is the telling point. Thus, when the early Christians confessed Jesus as the one by or through whom ‘all things’ were made (1 Cor 8.6; Col 1.15-18; Heb 1.2; Odes Sol. 16.19; John 1.3; Rev 3.14; Keryg. Pet. 2; Herm. 3.4; 91.5; Diogn. 7.2; Justin, 1 Apol. 6.3; Irenaeus, Haer. 4.11.1), with absolute preexistence and EVEN ETERNALITY (John 1.1-2; 17.5; Pol. Phil. 14.3; Diogn. 11.5), and differentiated him from and above intermediary figures (1 Clem. 36.2; Mart. Pol. 14.1; Herm. 59.2; Ascen. Isa. 4.14; 9.28; Irenaeus, Haer. 1.22.1; 3.11.1-2; 4.7.4; 5.18.1; Epid. 10; 40; 94; Gos. Pet. 39-40; Athenagoras Leg. 10.2, 5; 24.2; Diogn. 7.2-4; Justin, 1 Apol. 52.3; Tertullian, Carne 14.1-2; 6.3; Ps.-Clem. Rec. 1.45; 2.42; Hom. 18.4; Origen Cels. 5.4-5), they were placing him ON THE SIDE OF THE UNCREATED CREATING GOD in distinction from created creator-deities and their creation.

Again, what is telling is that this is all being said within the auspices of scripturally rooted monotheism. As early as Paul ( 1 Cor 8.6) we see that Christ as a creator-deity does not threaten the divinity of God the Father, as if Christ were a rival and rebellious sub-deity; in fact, the language from Deut 6.4 shows that Christ shares more of the Father’s divine identity AS AN UNCREATED CREATOR.⁹ In addition, the opening stichs of the Johannine prologue depict the Logos as the Creative instrument of the one, true, uncreated Creator, and presages the Logos’ participation in God’s own being (John 1.1-3). Now, as I have stated, some intermediary figures could have relative preexistence and a Creative mediating function attributed to them (e.g., Wisdom, Philo’s Logos, sometimes angels), but it is only with Jesus that we find absolute preexistence, eternality, and a creative mediating function.¹⁰ Jesus’ eternality and his role as mediator of creation implied that he was AN “UNCREATED” God, and that is what makes representations of Jesus stand out among creator-deities and other intermediary figures who pull levers in the Creative work. In the words of Buhner, “the notion of any kind of participation in creation or a Creative mediation cannot be proven for any eschatological salvation figure independent of the early Jesus movement,”¹¹ and “the specifically Johannine conception of Christ’s preexistence actually serves the purpose of describing the Logos, or Christ, as participating in the essence of the one God of Israel and thus attests a divinity that exceeds that of other Jewish mediator figures.”¹²

Third, in addition to resembling the intermediary figures of antiquity, Jesus also resembles the God above the intermediary figures of antiquity. Chris Tilling points out how the Yahweh-Israel relation of Jewish sacred literature mirrors the Christ-believer relation in 1 Corinthians. Also, Jesus, as the “Lord of Glory,” bears a closer resemblance to 1 Enoch’s “Lord of Spirits” than to 1 Enoch’s “Son of Man.”¹³ Or else, in Phil 2.6-11, for all the parallels with Adam, Wisdom, or imperial apotheosis, Paul casts the exalted Jesus in the likeness of Deutero-Isaiah’s kyrios. Now, to be sure, one can find God-language applied to various intermediary figures, 4Q491c and llQMelch are obvious examples, and the Yahoel appears to bear the divine name. However, the application of the title kyrios, not merely as a royal title, but as a representation of the divine name, and a signifier of the superlative sovereignty of Israel’s God, applied to a human figure, is without precise parallel.¹⁴ Even Bousset, who believed that the impetus for applying the title kyrios to Jesus came from Hellenistic ruler cults, recognized that the content of Jesus as kyrios was shaped by Jewish tradition of Yahweh’s exclusive worship: “The spirit of unconquerable and stalwart Old Testament monotheism is transferred to the Kyrios worship and the Kyrios faith!”¹⁵

Mapping parallels between Jesus and intermediary figures, useful as they are, perhaps exposes our bias, as we casually assumed that the cause and comparison of Jesus’ divine status exists from these intermediary figures. But what if we have been looking in the wrong place? What if the most appropriate analogue for Jesus’ divinity is not any single one of the exalted humans or intermediate heavenly powers, but the God who resides above the powers? Is Jesus like the Enochic Lord of Spirits or the Enochic Son of Man? Is Jesus parallel to Wisdom or like the Most High God of the Wisdom of Solomon and Ben Sira? Is Jesus like Yahoel or like the God who sends Yahoel to Abraham? I suspect the answer is, “a bit of both,” but rarely does a study of parallels and comparative intermediaries take into account literary representations of God beside a study of intermediary figures.¹⁶ (Ibid., pp. 385-387; emphasis mine)

These distinctive aspects are, in general, derived from Jewish specificities. The vast majority of distinctive points find their most natural analogue with Jewish messianism and its attribution of superhuman traits to a Messiah and Jewish wisdom traditions with their account of Wisdom or the Logos as plenipotentiary intermediary. Digging down deeper, we could say that only the God of Israel can have a crucified Messiah who is raised and exalted to his right hand. Only the God of Israel can invite a Son to cocreate with him. Only the God of Israel can share his divine name with the messianic lord. Only the God of Israel gives the Spirit to renew Israel, make people alive, raise the dead, and rescue creation. Only the Jewish religion with its account of monotheism and divine agency could transform into an incipient trinitarianism. In other words, Jesus could not be the type of divinity he was considered to be without the Jewish texts and traditions in which his divinity was articulated. There is no pagan version of 1 Cor 8.6. Further, while John 1.1-3 makes perfect sense within Stoicism or within Hellenistic Judaism, John 1.14 and 18 do not without a mutation of monotheism and messianism into the forms that they took in early Christianity.

Let me back up and offer an important qualification. The deity of Jesus is not contingent upon its uniqueness or distinctiveness. We need to avoid the specious reasoning that runs: Jesus shares in a special form or function that only applies to Yahweh, a form or function that has no parallel with Greco-Roman religion, therefore, Jesus is fully divine.²¹ This is not my argument because I have precisely argued that Jesus is similar to Jewish and Greco-Roman intermediaries in many ways and his divinity is no worse for it. Jesus was depicted as divine in various modes in the manifold Christianities from Paul to Arius. The burden of my song is three things: (1) Jesus was often treated as more than an intermediary, closer to an absolute deity, whether as unbegotten and eternal or as a true and living God; (2) there are dissimilarities with intermediary figures, even a distinctiveness in places, largely derived from a Jewish context where Jesus is identified as being under, beside, and united with Israel’s God in extraordinarily intense ways; and (3) early Christology appears to have been resourced from within Jewish tradition and yet also intentionally constructed to resonate with wider Hellenistic traditions. (Ibid., pp. 391-392; emphasis mine)

1 Cor. 8:6: The Christian Shema

HEAR O CHRISTIANS: YHWH JESUS IS ONE!

The Christian Shema: Confessing Jesus as Yahweh God the Son

THE CHRISTIAN SHEMA

JESUS CHRIST: THE ONE LORD OF THE SHEMA

JESUS: THE ONE AND ONLY ADONAY YHWH

The Christianization of the OT Shema

Jesus – The Shema’s One Lord [Part 1]

The Binitarian Nature of the Shema [Part 6]

Paul says there is only one God, and that is the Father, this means that Jesus is not God

JESUS CHRIST: SUPREME OVER ALL CREATION

Early Church Fathers & the Shema

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