Gabriel's prophecies—Christ foretold, Antichrist foreshadowed
The Angel Gabriel appeared on two occasions in the Old Testament—shedding light on the Incarnation of Christ and the reign of the Antichrist.
The Angel Gabriel appeared on two occasions in the Old Testament—and these two messages shed light on the Incarnation and the reign of the Antichrist.
The Angel Gabriel’s prophecy of the Incarnation
Before his Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Angel Gabriel appeared to the Prophet Daniel to foretell the coming of the Messias.
His message revealed not only the time and nature of Christ’s sacrificial mission, but also cast a shadow forward even further—towards the rejection of Christ by the Jews, and the rise of the Antichrist.
Daniel recounts that, whilst praying to God for the forgiveness of his people and their deliverance from the Babylonian exile, Gabriel appeared to him and delivered a very precise prophecy.
As I was yet speaking in prayer, behold the man, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me at the time of the evening sacrifice. And he instructed me, and spoke to me, and said:
O Daniel, I am now come forth to teach thee, and that thou mightest understand. From the beginning of thy prayers the word came forth: and I am come to shew it to thee, because thou art a man of desires: therefore, do thou mark the word, and understand the vision.
Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, that transgression may be finished, and sin may have an end, and iniquity may be abolished; and everlasting justice may be brought; and vision and prophecy may be fulfilled; and the Saint of saints may be anointed.
Know thou, therefore, and take notice: that from the going forth of the word, to build up Jerusalem again, unto Christ, the prince, there shall be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the walls, in straitness of times.
And after sixty-two weeks Christ shall be slain: and the people that shall deny him shall not be his. And a people, with their leader, that shall come, shall destroy the city, and the sanctuary: and the end thereof shall be waste, and after the end of the war the appointed desolation.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many, in one week: and in the half of the week the victim and the sacrifice shall fail: and there shall be in the temple the abomination of desolation: and the desolation shall continue even to the consummation, and to the end. (Daniel IX)
The “weeks” signify weeks of years—sets of seven years—amounting to 490 years from the command to rebuild Jerusalem. Gabriel thus not only delivered a timeline and a prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, but also revealed the Messias’ destiny: to be rejected by his own people, to be slain, to end the sacrifices of the Law, and to inaugurate everlasting justice.
Jewish expectations for the Messias’ arrival
St Gabriel’s prophecy gave rise to widespread expectation, not just among the Jews, but throughout the East. In his commentary on Holy Scripture, Haydock relates:
All the East was persuaded that a great king should arise about the time; when our Saviour actually appeared, and fulfilled all that had been spoken of the Messias. […]
Ferguson says, “We have an astronomical demonstration of the truth of this ancient prophecy, seeing that the prophetic year of the Messias being cut off was the very same with the astronomical.”1
It is no surprise, then, that Jewish tradition preserved this anticipation—even if later rationalisations sought to explain away its apparent fulfilment in Christ.
One striking tradition, recorded in the Talmud and attributed to the oral teachings of “the school of Eliyahu” (not to be confused with the later tenth-century text of the same name) preserved this anticipation with precision:
The school of Eliyahu taught: Six thousand years is the duration of the world. Two thousand of the six thousand years are characterized by chaos; two thousand years are characterized by Torah, from the era of the Patriarchs until the end of the mishnaic period; and two thousand years are the period of the coming of the Messiah.2
This appears to be a statement that the Messias would come precisely when Christ did.
However, the text is followed by a remarkable “explanation” which negates and rewrites St Gabriel’s prophecy and the words of “the school of Eliyahu”:
That is the course that history was to take, but due to our sins that time frame increased. The Messiah did not come after four thousand years passed, and furthermore, the years that elapsed since then, which were to have been the messianic era, have elapsed.3
It is intriguing to consider the implications of this text. It is an confession of sin on the part of the Jewish people, which was sufficiently grievous to have (allegedly) delayed the coming of the Messias.
But, if such grievous sin is to be admitted—again, admitted by the Jewish people themselves—does it seem plausible to say that God would punish it by revoking his own promise, which was in no sense conditional, and by failing to fulfil his own prophecy?
Such a punishment would do violence to God himself, who is “the very truth and can neither deceive nor be deceived.”
On the contrary, once the text has admitted such grievous sin—not just in itself, but also as calling for drastic punishment—it seems far more credible to hold that God has fulfilled his promises and prophecies, and permitted a veil of blindness to fall on those who are to be punished, and do not wish to see this fulfilment.
The curses
Fr Henry James Coleridge discusses elsewhere the clarity of Gabriel’s prophecy:
They [the Jews] must have been able to see also that the time defined by Daniel had come. These facts were used afterwards by the Christian writers against the Jews with unanswerable effect, and if that was the case, it must have been evident to the pious and thoughtful souls who were living at the time of our Lord’s Advent, that the time was come.4
Haydock gives some specific examples:
In a dispute between a Jew and a Christian, at Venice, the Rabbi who presided... put an end to the business by saying, “Let us shut up our Bibles; for if we proceed in the examination of this prophecy, it will make us all become Christians.” Watson, let. 6.
Hence probably the Jews denounce a curse on those who calculate the times, (H.) and they have purposely curtailed their chronology.5
Indeed, rabbinic texts contain curses on those who attempt such calculations. The Talmud says:
One who sets a definite time for the redemption of Israel through Messiah will have no share in the world to come. And the same applies to one who hates the scholars and their disciples. The same applies to a false prophet and a slanderer.6
Elsewhere, the Talmud recounts:
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says that Rabbi Yonatan says: May those who calculate the end of days be cursed [tippaḥ], as they would say once the end of days that they calculated arrived and the Messiah did not come, that he will no longer come at all.7
In spite of these curses, the rabbis continued to offer predictions of when they thought the Moshiach8 would come—explaining this apparent contradiction through a variety of technical distinctions, exceptions, and retrospective interpretations.
Nonetheless, these curses serve to suppress further investigation into prophecies like Gabriel’s—lest at least the common people conclude, as that Venetian rabbi feared, that they must all become Christians.
Other Jewish expectations
The Talmud also contains predictions which reflect the state of the world at the time of Christ. For example:
It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yehuda says: During the generation that the son of David comes, the hall of the assembly of the Sages will be designated for prostitution, and the Galilee will be destroyed, and the Gavlan, i.e., Bashan, will be desolate, and the residents of the border who flee the neighboring gentiles will circulate from city to city and will receive no sympathy.
The wisdom of scholars will diminish, and sin-fearing people will be despised. And the face of the generation will be like the face of a dog in its impudence and shamelessness.
And the truth will be lacking, as it is stated: “And the truth is lacking [ne’ederet], and he who departs from evil is negated” (Isaiah 59:15).9
This is remarkably close to Christ’s own descriptions of the corruption of the Temple, the hardness of heart, and the coming desolation of Jerusalem. Another passage aligns with Our Lord’s description of his effect upon society:
It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Nehorai says: During the generation in which the son of David comes, youths will humiliate elders and elders will stand in deference before youths, and a daughter will rebel against her mother, and a bride against her mother-in-law, and the face of the generation will be like the face of a dog, and a son will not be ashamed before his father.10
These prophecies—and even confusion behind some of the reinterpretations—come together to provide a striking proof of the claims of Jesus of Nazareth and the Christian Gospel.11
And yet this reinterpretation of Gabriel’s prophecy is not the end of the matter, but rather the prelude to a more terrible and tragic fulfilment.
The naturalist Moshiach and the Antichrist
It not always clear whether the Talmud’s opinions about the Messias/Moshiach pre- or post-date Our Lord (or whether they are a mix of different texts): in some cases, the texts are pointing to a false idea of the Messias; in others, they suggest a coming defeat of Christianity, after a period of ascendancy. For example:
It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Neḥemya says: During the generation that the son of David comes, arrogance will proliferate and the cost of living will corrupt people so they will engage in deceit. The vine will produce its fruit, and nevertheless, the wine will be costly. And the entire gentile monarchy will be converted to the heresy of Christianity, and there will be no inclination among the people to accept rebuke.
This baraita supports the opinion of Rabbi Yitzḥak, as Rabbi Yitzḥak says: The son of David will not come until the entire kingdom will be converted to heresy.12
For many Church Fathers and theologians, the Jewish expectation of a worldly redeemer, arising in a time of chaos and offering national deliverance, is pointing directly towards the Antichrist. Maimonides himself links the coming of the Moshiach with the unrest discussed above, and symbolised by the war of “Gog and Magog.” The Moshiach is expected as the one who will bring peace out of this conflict, and who will do away with the “idolatry” of the world—including Christianity.13
And indeed, many rabbinic sources speak of wars, persecution, moral collapse and apparent religious decline—conditions which the Christian tradition recognises in two senses, both different to that of the Jewish authorities:
The state of the Jewish religion at the time of Christ’s coming, which was marred by the corruption of the Pharisees and the worldliness of the Sadducees
The state of the world at the time of the Antichrist’s coming, which will be marred by naturalism, persecution, conflict, apostasy and the decline of virtue.
This brings us back to the Angel Gabriel, who was not only sent to Daniel as the herald of Christ’s coming.
Gabriel and the Antichrist
The Angel Gabriel first appears in Chapter 8, in which Daniel is granted a confusing vision of horns and goats.14 Gabriel is sent to Daniel to interpret the vision with clarity—and exposing the coming tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, the great “type” and image of the Antichrist par excellence.15
This prophecy contains vivid language, describing a desolating figure who removes sacrifice, persecutes the saints, and exalts himself even against heaven. Antiochus IV has long been considered a type and forerunner of the Antichrist, and his tyrannical reign a foreshadowing of what will occur in those last days. Fr John Laux gives the following account of his reign, against which the Machabees rebelled:
In the year 198 B.C., Antiochus III, the Seleucid king of Syria conquered Palestine and incorporated it with his own kingdom. The conqueror himself did not interfere with the religious life of the Jews, but his son and successor, Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), who ruled from 175 to 164 B. C., tried to force paganism upon all his subjects.
In 170 he plundered the Temple and slew many of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Two years later he threw a garrison into the citadel and ordered all the Jews under pain of death to adopt pagan rites and customs. A statue of Zeus was placed above the great altar of burnt-offerings, and an edict was issued ordaining the erection of heathen altars in every town of Palestine. Many apostatized; but many also preferred to suffer torture and death rather than transgress the law of God.16
This persecutor—unveiled by Gabriel—becomes the archetype through which Christians have long discerned the final enemy of the Church. Referring to a later prophecy from Daniel himself, Theodoret (d. 457) makes the link between Antiochus and the Antichrist clear:
After these remarks in reference to Antiochus Epiphanes, [Daniel] then moves from the image to the archetype, the archetype in the case of Antiochus being the antichrist, and the antichrist's image Antiochus.
In other words, just as he forced Jews to commit impiety and live a lawless life, so the sinful one, the son of destruction, the one lifted up and exalted above every so-called god or object of worship, as blessed Paul says, so that he enters and takes his seat in God's temple, presenting himself as God, with all signs and false portents—in this way he will do everything to deceive the godly, at one time endeavoring to delude and cheat by deceptive wonder-working, at another by the use of force and application of every kind of punishment to the devotees of piety.17
In a similar way, the Antichrist is expected to undertake a ferocious persecution of the Church, impeding the offering of Holy Mass, outlawing Christianity, enforcing apostasy and commanding idolatry (ultimately to himself as divine). In unveiling this dark figure, Gabriel's mission was to reveal what must come before the triumph of the Incarnate Word whose coming he announced to Our Lady.
Conclusion: Herald of the Redeemer, and of the Final Conflict
Gabriel appears at two decisive moments in the Old Testament.
First, in Daniel 8, he reveals a shadow of the future: a tyrant who will persecute the saints and exalt himself above God—a foreshadowing of the Antichrist par excellence
Second, in Daniel 9, he delivers a message of hope, foretelling the coming of the Redeemer and the timeline of salvation.
In both missions, Gabriel is the herald of divine intervention—first to reveal the shadow of the tyrannical persecutor and Man of Sin, and then to unveil the timeline and suffering of the Redeemer. His role is not only angelic but apocalyptic: the messenger who opens the drama of salvation and foretells its ultimate conflict.
The Jewish expectations (and the “reinterpretations”) prompted by Gabriel’s prophecies serve as a powerful confirmation of the Christian Gospel. They show us that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Messias foretold, and that every soul must recognise him as Lord and submit to the Church he founded.
It is fitting, then, that this same angel was later sent to Nazareth—to announce to the Blessed Virgin that the time had come, and that the Redeemer he had once foretold would now take flesh in her womb.
For more on St Gabriel, and further links to the Incarnation and the Gospel, see the following text from Fr Henry James Coleridge:
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Haydock Family Bible, commentary for Daniel 9.25.
The Talmud, Sanhedrin 97a.
Sanhedrin 97b
Preparation of the Incarnation, p 100
Haydock Family Bible, commentary for Daniel 9.25.
The Talmud, Minor Tractate Derech Eretz Rabbah, Chapter 11.
The Talmud, Sanhedrin 97b.
As we could call him, to distinguish this false Messias from Christ.
Sanhedrin 97a
Sanhedrin 97a
They are one means by which we may know with certainty:
That Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, the Divine Messenger and Christ
That every human person must submit himself to this Christ and to the Church which he founded.
Against agnostics and those who based their religion on internal experience, Vatican I emphasised the power of miracles and fulfilled prophecies to prove the divine origin of Christianity with certainty:
[I]n order that the submission of our faith should be in accordance with reason, it was God’s will that there should be linked to the internal assistance of the holy Spirit external indications of his revelation, that is to say divine acts, and first and foremost miracles and prophecies, which clearly demonstrating as they do the omnipotence and infinite knowledge of God, are the most certain signs of revelation and are suited to the understanding of all.
The canons follow:
3. If anyone says that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, and that therefore men and women ought to be moved to faith only by each one’s internal experience or private inspiration: let him be anathema.
4. If anyone says that all miracles are impossible, and that therefore all reports of them, even those contained in sacred scripture, are to be set aside as fables or myths; or that miracles can never be known with certainty, nor can the divine origin of the christian religion be proved from them: let him be anathema.
All this vindicates the Angel Gabriel’s later words at the Annunciation:
He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father: and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. […]
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren. Because no word shall be impossible with God.
Vatican I, Dei Filius, Chapters and Canons On Faith
Sanhedrin 97a
Maimonides writes in words which a) condemn Our Lord Jesus Christ and Christianity, and b) make clear that Christianity is to have no place in the kingdom of the “Moshiach.”
He credits Christ (and also Mohammed—“that Ishmaelite”) for having spread some knowledge of God throughout the world, and having made the world aware of the Messias and the Torah in a partial sense. Nonetheless, when he says that the Moshiach will brign the nations together in the knowledge and service of God, he means God specifically as understood by Judaism, and is specifically excluding Christianity (and Islam):
He will then improve the entire world, motivating all the nations to serve God together, as Tzephaniah states: "I will transform the peoples to a purer language that they all will call upon the name of God and serve Him with one purpose."
[…]
Jesus of Nazareth who aspired to be the Mashiach and was executed by the court was also alluded to in Daniel's prophecies, as ibid. states: "The vulgar among your people shall exalt themselves in an attempt to fulfill the vision, but they shall stumble."
Can there be a greater stumbling block than Christianity? All the prophets spoke of Mashiach as the redeemer of Israel and their savior who would gather their dispersed and strengthen their observance of the mitzvot. In contrast, Christianity caused the Jews to be slain by the sword, their remnants to be scattered and humbled, the Torah to be altered, and the majority of the world to err and serve a god other than the Lord.
Nevertheless, the intent of the Creator of the world is not within the power of man to comprehend, for His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts, our thoughts. Ultimately, all the deeds of Jesus of Nazareth and that Ishmaelite who arose after him will only serve to prepare the way for Mashiach's coming and the improvement of the entire world, motivating the nations to serve God together as Tzephaniah 3:9 states: "I will transform the peoples to a purer language that they all will call upon the name of God and serve Him with one purpose."
How will this come about? The entire world has already become filled with the mention of Mashiach, Torah, and mitzvot. These matters have been spread to the furthermost islands to many stubborn-hearted nations. They discuss these matters and the mitzvot of the Torah, saying: "These mitzvot were true, but were already negated in the present age and are not applicable for all time."
When the true Messianic king will arise and prove successful, his position becoming exalted and uplifted, they will all return and realize that their ancestors endowed them with a false heritage and their prophets and ancestors caused them to err.
Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Sefer Shoftim, Melachim uMilchamot 11.
Here is the vision:
In the third year of the reign of king Baltasar, a vision appeared to me. I, Daniel, after what I had seen in the beginning, Saw in my vision when I was in the castle of Susa, which is in the province of Elam: and I saw in the vision that I was over the gate of Ulai.
And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold a ram stood before the water, having two high horns, and one higher than the other, and growing up. Afterward I saw the ram pushing with his horns against the west, and against the north, and against the south: and no beasts could withstand him, nor be delivered out of his hand: and he did according to his own will, and became great.
And I understood: and behold a he goat came from the west on the face of the whole earth, and he touched not the ground, and the he goat had a notable horn between his eyes. And he went up to the ram that had the horns, which I had seen standing before the gate, and he ran towards him in the force of his strength.
And when he was come near the ram, he was enraged against him, and struck the ram: and broke his two horns, and the ram could not withstand him: and when he had cast him down on the ground, he stamped upon him, and none could deliver the ram out of his hand.
And the he goat became exceeding great: and when he was grown, the great horn was broken, and there came up four horns under it towards the four winds of heaven. And out of one of them came forth a little horn: and it became great against the south, and against the east, and against the strength. And it was magnified even unto the strength of heaven: and it threw down of the strength, and of the stars, and trod upon them.
And it was magnified even to the prince of the strength: and it took away from him the continual sacrifice, and cast down the place of his sanctuary. And strength was given him against the continual sacrifice, because of sins: and truth shall be cast down on the ground, and he shall do and shall prosper.
And I heard one of the saints speaking, and one saint said to another I know not to whom, that was speaking: How long shall be the vision, concerning the continual sacrifice, and the sin of the desolation that is made: and the sanctuary, and the strength be trodden under foot? And he said to him: Unto evening and morning two thousand three hundred days: and the sanctuary shall be cleansed.
Here is the explanation:
And he said to me: I will shew thee what things are to come to pass in the end of the malediction: for the time hath its end. The ram, which thou sawest with horns, is the king of the Medes and Persians. And the he goat, is the king of the Greeks, and the great horn that was between his eyes, the same is the first king.
But whereas when that was broken, there arose up four for it, four kings shall rise up of his nation, but not with his strength.
And after their reign, when iniquities shall be grown up, there shall arise a king of a shameless face, and understanding dark sentences. And his power shall be strengthened, but not by his own force: and he shall lay all things waste, and shall prosper, and do more than can be believed. And he shall destroy the mighty, and the people of the saints, According to his will, and craft shall be successful in his hand: and his heart shall be puffed up, and in the abundance of all things he shall kill many: and he shall rise up against the prince of princes, and shall be broken without hand.
And the vision of the evening and the morning, which was told, is true: thou, therefore, seal up the vision, because it shall come to pass after many days.
John Laux, Introduction to the Bible, p 55. Benziger Brothers, New York 1934.
Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on Daniel. Trans Robert C. Hill, (Writings from the Greco-Roman World), p 305. Society of Biblical Literature.