Upvote:1
In "The Last Days" by Ward Fenley, he says the following:
In order to determine whether we are in the last days, we should determine how the phrase was originally used in the Hebrew Scriptures. This will help us immensely in regard to our interpretation of the New Testament usage of the term "last days." First, I would like to consider the first usage of the phrase "last days" and consider those who are primarily addressed:
Gen 49:1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
Jacob, in this swan song, basically pronounced the general evil that would come upon the twelve tribes. So, clearly, Israel is the subject of the last days and the last days concern the Jews.
This means that in the Genesis 49 passage, what is being discussed is the last days of the Israelites. The last days of the Israelites occurred after Jesus' ascension, up until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. This is consistent with New Testament passages which talk about how the current generation of that time was in the last days.
Such a position is also taken by John Lightfoot, Milton S. Terry, John Owen, J. Stuart Russell and many others of Reformed heritage.
This affects our understanding of the rest of the passage as referring to the end times of the Israelites, and thus not directly applicable to the modern church. In addition,
until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
is typically understood to be a reference to the coming of Christ. This is also consistent with the last days being just after Christ; until Christ came and gathered the elect out of Israel before destroying Jerusalem and the Israelite nation, Judah was the giver of the law, and the location of Jerusalem, the centre of religion in the Israelite nation.
Upvote:1
Here is what the Jewish scholar Rashi has to say on this verse:
The scepter shall not depart from Judah: prophetic; the line of the kings will remain unbroken from David on down
until Shiloh come: 1) the King Messiah, to whom the kingdom belongs 2) the combination of two words "shy" and "lo", a gift to him, possibly related to Psalm 76:12 "and they shall bring a gift to Him who is to be feared"
unto him shall the gathering: a number of nations who unite to serve God under the single banner of the King Messiah.
Actually, with these interpretations, from a famous Jewish scholar, I find the predictions for Christ early in the Pentateuch to be quite convincing. The Jews' contention wouldn't be with the title or the role, but with Jesus of Nazareth as the fulfillment of prophesy.
Upvote:3
Jewish scholars admit that the meaning of the Masoretic Text in Genesis 49:10 is obscure. In some interpretations "Shiloh" is understood to mean "shai loh" - "tribute to him". This would be more consistent with the Septuagint, which is based on a Hebrew text centuries older than the Masoretic Text:
A ruler shall not fail from Judah, nor a prince from his loins, until there come the things stored up for him; and he is the expectation of nations.
This verse could be interpreted to refer to the first coming of Christ, not the end times, since when Christ was born a ruler had, in fact, failed to come from Judah: Herod's father was an Edomite who had converted to Judaism and was therefore not from the tribe of Judah.