Bible Study Now

Reader question:

“In reading your 9-21-2020 article about the Messiah coming in 5781, why do you say the 9-month rule referred to by Netanel ben Yeshaya per the Gemara is referring to the “rule by Edom” and not the rule of the “the evil Roman kingdom” as referred to in Sanhedrin 98b of the Gemara that you gave the link for in that article? If the Edom kingdom ended in  5780 as Netanel predicted, how can that kingdom still yet rule for the 9-month period in 5781 that Netanel referred to?”

Answer:

The actual words in the Talmud do not refer to either Edom or Rome. The text was written during the Babylonian exile (before the Roman oppression and exile) and is generic. (In the screenshot from Sanhedrin 98b, see highlighted the word “malchus” in Hebrew which means “kingdom.”) 

The literal translation of the Hebrew is:

“Rav (the great sage Abba bar Ayvoh) said: ‘The son of David [the Moshiach or Messiah] won’t come until the kingdom [the evil or oppressive kingdom] will propagate itself on Israel [it will oppress Israel, be numerous] for nine months, as it says in Micah 5:2: “Therefore He (God) will give them (the Jews) over (to the evil ones), until the time that the pregnant woman shall give birth (nine months), and the remainder of their brothers (those who are not following God, the disobedient ones) will return to the children of Israel (to the congregation, meaning that they will become religious.””

For Jews, “Edom” is used interchangeably with “Rome” because “Edom” (another name for Esau) actually was the forefather of the Roman empire, the earliest globalists, which absorbed cultures and religions but used them only for the purpose of military expansion. 

Jewish people believe that we have gone through four exiles, Babylon, Persia (later Iran), Greece, and Rome, from which we have never emerged. Egypt was the prototype for all the exiles to come (Here is a good but somewhat lengthy video by Rabbi Alon Anava which explains how “Rome” is actually what modern people refer to as the “New World Order,” which goes back to ancient Egypt and its use of the occult.)

As far as the question of timing, meaning, how can it be that Edom’s rule is over in 5780 yet it persists for nine months into 5781 – there are really two answers to that one.

• The first is that it’s a bad idea to rely on predictions that very specifically relate to time. If something doesn’t happen, then we’re disappointed and this can leave us open to spiritual attacks.
• The second is that what we’re seeing in terms of the current oppression is not genuinely the end of Edom’s rule, but rather the beginning of the Messianic era, almost like labor pains. (That is why Jews talk about the “birthpangs” of the Messiah.)

So, to be literal about it, when a child is emerging from the mother’s womb, he or she is no longer in the fetus stage, but actually in the process of being born, which is the next stage.

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By Dr. Dannielle (Dossy) Blumenthal. All opinions are the author’s own. Public domain. Image by Ana_J from Pixabay.