The Messianic Temple Builder in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Midrash Rabbah, and Targum Jonathan

This article offers an appreciative and critical response to David Shepherd’s recent piece on the messianic temple builder texts in Targum Jonathan (“When He Comes, Will He Build It?”). Shepherd finds that each of the references to the messianic temple builder in Targum Jonathan is historical rather than eschatological: Tg2Samuel 7 still refers to Solomon; TgIsaiah 45-53 to (perhaps) Cyrus; and TgZech 6:12 to Zerubbabel. This article considers external evidence - messianic temple builder texts outside of TgJon, including 4Q522, 4Q174, the so-called Midrash Rabbah, and Sib. Or. 5 - as well as TgJon’s internal evidence to address the historical-eschatological question. I conclude that, while Shepherd is right to question cavalier eschatological uses of Targum Jonathan, the best reading of the texts is still the eschatological-messianic one.