Exile and Restoration From Exile in the Scriptural Quotations and Allusions of Jesus

Abstract

"The subject of exile and restoration from exile in the teaching of Jesus has received much attention in recent days. Fundamentally, the question is whether Jesus considered the Jews of his day still to be in the very exile imposed initially by the Babylonians and Assyrians. However, the biblical data is not straightforward since Jesus never explicitly states this. He does nonetheless frequently quote, allude to, and employ themes from relevant prophets. Either he, in midrashic fashion, is applying to his contemporaries passages and themes that were actually fulfilled years earlier, or he, in something of a pesher fashion, is directing them at people he considers to be their divinely intended, primary target audience (or a subset thereof). If the latter, the question remains: what proportion is midrashic and what proportion is pesher? Perhaps both occur. Another obstacle lies in our path"