prophecy: predictive vs. fitting after-the-fact

This morning, I was reading Matthew 2 and began to think about the distinction in the title of this blog. Matthew writes to a Jewish audience and so, is particularly interesting in the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies about Jesus Christ.

Matthew 2 has four such examples:

The first is the one that caught my attention: the wise men come to Herod looking for "the king". Herod has no clue so he calls in the teachers of the law and the chief priests and asks them. The text does not provide conclusive detail, so perhaps there was delay or debate. But in a seemingly reflexive manner, they answer: Bethelem-- in fulfillment of the prophecy in Micah 5:2.

Why is this impressive? Because the prophecy was seen as-- and more importantly, had-- predictive power. Along those lines, 2:15 is less impressive-- what Matthew sees, through Holy Spirit, as a second fulfillment of Hosea 11:1. Even moreso, 2:18 will be less impressive to a skeptic or objective outsider. (Not that I doubt it, but if the prophetic evidence amounted to that, it would be a slender reed on which to base an argument!) In 2:23, it's a tougher call, depending on how one of the terms is translated.

Anyway, of the dozens of OT prophecies about Jesus, some are presumably more impressive than others to the seeker.