A core interpretive fork in the road we encounter in the NT is whether Jesus' ministry fulfilling or somehow becoming connected to an OT motif, such as the Exodus, the Temple, the Jubilee, the Davidic Monarchy, etc., implies that these motifs have become prophetically exhausted through his 1st-century ministry, or at the very least, to the point that any future fulfillment of these motifs will not involve the same literal features these motifs had in prior "OT times." E.g,, "Jesus will reign as king in a new cosmos in the future, fulfilling the Davidic promise, but he will not actually do so on David's throne in Jerusalem. Or, Jesus did partially fulfill the Jubilee from 27-30 AD, and will do so to an even greater degree when he returns, when he sets humanity free from ultimate bondage. However this future fulfillment of the Jubilee does not necessitate a literal restoration of Israelite land and cities as it did originally in Leviticus 25."

This preferred path of much of Christendom when they encounter the hermeneutical fork in the road is out of touch with the way first-century Jews conceptualized God's work through the Messiah, that is to say, it is out of touch with first-century Jewish eschatology, as evidenced for example in both the Pharisaic and Essene literature. First-century Jews, Jesus included, saw history as moving towards the tangible re-enactment and visible manifestation of Israel's prior history, including the prophetic motifs that comprise the fabric of her Scriptures. From a close reading of the prophets, they saw a grass-roots future Exodus, an Israel-centered future Jubilee for people and land, an actual throne for the Son of David in Jerusalem, a holy Temple made of stone on the Temple Mount, etc. Years of Greek philosophical influence on Christian thinking, w/its emphasis on ethereal realities and allegorical readings of the text has obscured the Church's ability to taste and see the goodness of the Lord epitomized in the blessed hope which He has outlined in Scripture. -Travis M Snow