Christianity is rooted in the belief that Jesus is the promised and long-awaited Messiah of the Jewish religious tradition.
However, the Tanakh / Old Testaments actual Messianic prophecies[1] seem to portray the Messiah as someone vastly different from Jesus
In I Chronicles 17:11-13, YHWH tells the prophet Nathan to tell David, When your days are fulfilled and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your seed [descendant] after you, of one of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. And I will not take my love away from him
In II Samuel 7:10-16, YHWH tells the prophet Nathan to tell David, And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them so that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more. Wicked people will not afflict them anymore, as beforetime
I will set up your seed [descendant] after you and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will punish him with the rod of men, and with the floggings inflicted by men. But my love will not depart away from him Your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you
In Jeremiah 23:5-6, YHWH says, Behold, the days are coming when I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign and prosper, and execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. This is the name he will be called by: YHWH Our Righteousness.
In Jeremiah 31:31-34, YHWH says, Behold, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egyptthis is my covenant they broke, though I was a master to them. But this will be the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after this time: I will put my law in their internals, and write it in their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. They will no longer have every man teach his neighbor or every man his brother, saying, Know YHWH. For they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
In Jeremiah 33:14-17, YHWH says, Behold, the days are coming when I will perform that good thing I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time, will I cause the branch [descendant] of righteousness to grow from David, and he will execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely, and this is the name it will be called by: YHWH our righteousness. David will never fail to have a man sit on the throne of the house of Israel.
Isaiah 11:1-? says, And a rod will come forth out of the stem of Jesse [the father of David], and a Branch will grow out of his roots. And the spirit of YHWH will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of YHWH. He will have a quick understanding in the fear of YHWH. He will not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 says, Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Like as many were astonished at youhis appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of menso shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand.
To whom has the arm of YHWH been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didnt respect him. Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didnt open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didnt open his mouth. He was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people? They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased YHWH to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of YHWH shall prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Do all of these passages seem consistent with the New Testament account of Jesus?
Did Jesus fulfill the role of Jewish Messiah as portrayed in these Tanakh passages?
To some extent he did, but overall, it seems to me as if he clearly did not.
Most notably, he did not establish a physical kingdom on earth that united the Jews and lasted forever
Instead, he remained the regional leader of a Jewish religious sect who was executed not long after beginning his public ministry.
[1] (a) the overwhelming majority of the Tanakhs passages that are widely considered to be Messianic prophecies are really quite obscure and ambiguous, and seem to lack any clear and direct information regarding a Messiah (so much so that I would imagine very few people would interpret them to be about a coming Messiah if not told that beforehand), and (b) the concept of a Messiah is for the most part not a clearly and explicitly stated theme found in the Tanakh.
As for the Tanakh passages that most clearly seem to be Messianic prophecies, they, taken as a whole, seem to portray the Messiah as a descendant of King David who will, at some point in the future, reestablish and reign over an everlasting kingdom in Israel, be a righteous judge of the people, and found a new era of Judaism.