Genesis Prophecies of Messiah and His Enemy from the Tribe of Benjamin

Paul tells us in Romans 11:1, "For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin." Paul repeats this in Philippians 3:5, saying he is "of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin." ¹

Keeping this in mind, Genesis has a very interesting Messianic prophecy. Modern Christians are sadly generally unaware of this prophecy. It may be ignored because the nearby passage about a Benjamite ravening wolf in the latter days hits too close to home. It is better to ignore a clear Messianic prophecy than to risk seeing the Bible prophesied the emergence of Paul and the error he would propagate among Christians.

In Genesis chapter 49, Jacob, also known as Israel, utters a prophecy of the latter days. In this prophecy, Jacob identifies the role of each son and his tribe. The passage begins:

And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days. (Gen 49:1)

A. Prophecy That Judah Will Produce Messiah

Then Jacob delivers a prophecy about his son Judah and the tribe of Judah for the latter days. It is a clear Messianic prophecy.

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah [i.e., the right to rule belongs to this tribe], Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come: And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be. (Gen 49:10)

Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; He hath washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes. (Gen 49:11)

His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk. (Gen 49:12) (ASV)

The root word for Shiloh comes from Shalom, meaning peace. Shiloh means one who brings peace. Shiloh comes holding the sceptre of Judah. Shilo thus is a prince of peace.

This passage therefore clearly depicts Messiah, the Prince of Peace, with his garments bathed in the blood of grapes. All obedience will be owed him. The Genesis-Shiloh Messiah is then presented in similar imagery as the Lamb of God in the Book of Revelation. (Rev. 19:13 "garment sprinkled with blood".)

Ancient Jewish scholars also read this Genesis passage to be a Messianic prophecy. In all three Rabbinic Targums, the Hebrew scholars taught Shiloh was the name for Messiah. This was also repeated by many ancient Jewish writers. (Gill, Gen. 49:10.)

B. Benjamite "Ravening Wolf" Prophecy

So why is this Messianic passage so unfamiliar to Christians? Perhaps because in close proximity we find Jacob's prophecy about the tribe of Benjamin. This Benjamite prophecy follows many positive predictions for all the other eleven tribes.

Of whom does the Benjamite prophecy speak? When weighed carefully, there is very little chance that the Benjamite prophecy could be about anyone but Paul. This prophecy about Benjamin, if it was to be fulfilled and then verified, must have been fulfilled in the time of Christ. At that time, the tribes of Judah, Levi, and Benjamin still had survived. The others were the lost tribes of the Diaspora. (Gill, commentary on Gen. 49:10.) After the time of Christ, any distinguishable tribe of Benjamin soon disappeared. Thus, the prophecy about Benjamin is no longer capable of being fulfilled and confirmed. Accordingly, one must consider the possibility this verse is talking about Paul. In fact, the early Christian church, as demonstrated below, did think this was a prophecy about Paul. Somehow we lost memory of this teaching.

Let's turn now to Jacob's last prophecy about the Benjamites in the "latter days" when Shiloh comes. Here we read of the imagery of a ravening wolf that identifies the tribe of Benjamin.

Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth: In the morning she shall devour the prey, And at even[ing] he shall divide the spoil. (Gen 49:27) (ASV)

Let's analyze this verse--for there is a time-sequence to the ravening wolf's activity. In the morning, he devours the prey. This means he kills his prey. In the evening, he takes the spoils left over after killing the prey. There are many metaphorical similarities to Paul. He starts as a killer of Christians or as one who approves the killing of Christians. (Acts 7:58; 8:1-3, 9:1.) However, later Paul claims a right of division among his earlier prey--he exclusively will recruit Gentiles as Christians while the twelve apostles supposedly would exclusively recruit Jews. (Galatians 2:9.) ²

In fact, in the early Christian church, this entire verse of Genesis 49:27 was read to be a prophecy about Paul. However, the second part was then spun favorably to Paul. An early church writer, Hippolytus (200s A.D.), said Paul fulfilled Genesis 49:27 because Paul started as a murderer of Christians, fulfilling the first part of Genesis 49:27. The second part about `dividing the spoil' was interpreted by Hippolytus to mean Paul made Christian followers predominantly among Gentiles. However, this was read positively. Hippolytus believed Paul divided the spoil in a manner God intended. However, dividing the spoil means plundered. It does not have a positive connotation. This spin by Hippolytus on dividing the spoil as a good deed was wishful thinking. God instead was sending a prophecy of the evil that would be done by this Benjamite, not the good.

Here is the quote from the early church writer Hippolytus (estimated to be 205 A.D.) wherein he saw God prophesying of Paul in Genesis 49:27:

`Benjamin is a devouring wolf. In the morning, he will devour the prey, and at night he will apportion the food.' This thoroughly fits Paul, who was of the tribe of Benjamin. For when he was young, he was a ravaging wolf. However, when he believed, he `apportioned the food.' (Hippolytus, W 5.168.)[quoted Catholic Encylopedia.] See also footnote ³ below.

[Update: Many other sources in the early church also said Paul was the fuflillment of the Benjamite Wolf prophecy. See our webpage on that "Benjamite Wolf Research" material. There we discuss among several examples Hippolytus who saw the negative beginnings of Paul match the first stage of this prophecy. However, Hippolytus was misled by the Septuagint mistranslation of the post-murdering activity -- the second stage. Instead of the Hebrew "divide the spoil," the Greek Septuagint duped Hippolytus, rendering those words as meaning "distribute the food." Thus Hippolytus attributed goodness to Paul's post-murdering life.]

These writings from the early church demonstrates two things: (a) early Christians were more familiar than ourselves with the Shiloh Messianic prophecy in Genesis 49:10-12; and (b) if one knew the Shiloh prophecy, one could not avoid seeing in close proximity the prophecy of a Benjamite wolf (Genesis 49:27) whereupon one would realize it is unmistakably talking about Paul. As Hippolytus says, "this thoroughly fits Paul."

What do modern Pauline Christian commentators do with the Benjamite wolf prophecy? While some admit Genesis 49:27 is about Paul, and spin the divide the spoils aspect of the prophecy favorably toward Paul as a good deed, 4 the leading commentators take an entirely different approach. Gill, for example, adopts the ancient Jewish explanation of this prophecy of the latter days. Because Benjamin's territory was where the Temple was located, it was said the offering of the morning and evening sacrifice fell to his lot, i.e., territory. 5 Thus, this verse was supposedly intended to be talking about Benjamin's indirect role in the killing the sacrifice in the morning and evening. The performance of the sacrifices, of course, are positive God-serving actions if attributable to Benjamin's actions. Thus, rather than a ravening wolf being an evil beast who attacks innocent sheep, modern Christian commentators say Benjamin was being complimented for possessing wolf-like "fortitude, courage, and valour." (Gill.)

Gill ignores many key flaws in this application. First, the role of Benjamin's tribe in the killing was entirely passive, i.e., its territory was ceded to help locate the temple where sacrifices later took place. This passive role cannot evince any kind of courage or valour. It is a poor solution.

More important, Gill ignores the context of the passage itself. The word prey, raveneth, wolf, spoils, etc., all are forebodings of evil acts, not courageous valor in good deeds. A ravening wolf is a wolf that is prowling and eating voraciously. Furthermore, the sacrificed animals in the temple are hardly prey. Also, technically, Benjamin's land-lot was used to kill the sacrifice in both the morning and evening. However, if prey means sacrifice, this prophecy was about killing prey only in the morning. Thus, it is incongruous to read this prophecy to be about Benjamin's land-lot being used in the evening and morning sacrifice.

Furthermore, Gill also overlooked the motivation behind these Targum explanations. The other tribes were probably mystified why their father Jacob warned them about Benjamin's tribe in the latter days. Gill fails to realize the Hebrew scholars who wrote the ancient Targums were engaged in good politics. The other eleven tribes were reassuring Benjamin that he was trusted. What else could they say to keep peace?

As a result, we are not beholden to that ancient polite resolution of this latter days prophecy. We now can see the clear fulfillment of this prophecy in the deeds of Paul.

Ezekiel's Warning About the Ravening Wolves

Jesus said we would know the false prophets who are ravening wolves in sheep's clothing by their "deeds." ( Matt. 7:16.)

How could we know who the wolf is by their deeds? Does this mean their deeds are merely wicked? Or does it mean their deeds are precisely described elsewhere in Scripture so you could not possibly mistake who are the wolves in sheep's clothing? In light of Ezekiel's description of the ravening wolves, it is likely the latter. God made a highly specific description of the deeds of the ravening wolves so we would "know them by their deeds." (Matt. 7:16.)

The picture in Ezekiel chapter 22 of the time of the ravening wolves is startling in its parallel to Paul and Pauline Christianity. This description tells us what God thinks about the descent of Christianity into church-going that disregards the true Sabbath and the Law, dismisses the teachings of Jesus as belonging to a by-gone dispensation, and instead follows Paul because he claims a vision and boldly claimed to speak in the Lord's name. Ezekiel described the time of the ravening wolves in an uncanny parallel to Paulinism:

Her priests have done violence to my law, and have profaned my holy things: they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they caused men to discern between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. (Eze 22:26)(ASV)

Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, that they may get dishonest gain. (Eze 22:27)

And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, when Jehovah hath not spoken. (Eze 22:28)

The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yea, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully. (Eze 22:29)

And I sought for a man among them, that should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. (Eze 22:30)(ASV)

Thus, those leading the people are ravening wolves. They are called the princes (leaders) in the people's eyes. They are buttressed by those having false visions and claims to have the right to speak in the name of the Lord. Their leaders seduce the people from following the Law. They teach them they are free to ignore the true Saturday Sabbath. They say all food is pure, and none unclean. Their teaching also leads to the vexation of the poor and the foreigner. There will be a time when no one is left who stands against these principles. 7

Now look at the parallels between these wolves and Paul.

First, Paul claimed a vision of Jesus. (Acts chapters. 9, 22, 26.) Based on this vision experience, Paul wanted us to accept that he was speaking directly from the Lord. (E.g., 1 Cor. 14:37; 1 Tim. 2:11; 1 Cor. 2:13; 1 Thess.4:1-2,8; 1 Thess. 2:13; Eph. 4:17. cf. 1 Cor. 7:25, 40.)

Second, Paul's view that the Law is entirely abrogated is well-established. (2 Cor. 3:14; Gal. 5:1; Rom. 10:4; 2 Cor. 3:7; Col. 2:14-17; Rom. 3:27; Rom. 4:15; 2 Cor. 3:9; Gal. 2:16; Gal. 3:21; Col. 2:14.) 8 

[Update: Paul also said likewise in Romans 7:1-7, making this abrogation specifically true about the Law between Yahweh and Israel. On the latter, see also our webpage "Paul in Romans 7 Claims the God of Sinai is Dead."]

Third, Paul's view that we are free to ignore the Saturday Sabbath or any Sabbath-principle is undeniable. (Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:14-16.) ⁹ (Paul's followers typically behave like Jeroboam who offended God by moving God's set day to a "day he invented in his heart." (1 Kings 12:33 RV.)) ¹⁰ 

[Update: Luther, Calvin and most Protestants believe Paul legitimately abolished Sabbath altogether even though Jesus did not do so, and this justified in 363 AD the Roman Catholic church expressly "transferring" the Sabbath to Sun-Day. See our article "Paul Abolished Sabbath."]

Fourth, Paul's view that we are free to eat any food we like, including eat meat sacrificed to idols, is likewise plain. (1 Tim. 4:4, `all food is clean'; Romans 4:2.) ¹¹ Paul taught we only refrain from eating idol meat when others are encouraged to do what they believe is wrong even though we know such food is clean. ( Romans 14:21; 1 Corinthians 8:4-13, and 1 Corinthians 10:19-29.) ¹²

Fifth, did Paul give instructions to Christians which vex the poor? Some believe the following quote vexes the poor with a criteria for assistance never found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, If any will not work, neither let him eat. (2Th 3:10) (ASV)

How many people have resisted giving food to a poor person simply because they are unemployed and they do not pass a Pauline-inspired interview about their willingness to work for it? This work requirement sometimes will stall the urgent help that a poor person has for food. Nowhere in Hebrew Scripture is there any such barrier to God's command that you are to feed the poor. In fact, Scripture specifically intends for us to generously provide food for the poor to eat even if we have no idea whether they are willing to work. ¹³ Thus, Paul's principle that if any will not work, neither let him eat has served as a punitive vexation on poor people by Christians who follow Paul's dictum. (Many Christians, of course, do not follow Paul's dictum, and follow instead the Bible's rule of open-handed provision of food to the poor.)

[Update 2015: Paul also vexed poor widows. Paul instructs that as to widows who were not yet 60 years old, they must be denied any charitable donations which were given to the church to help the poor. In 1 Timothy 5:9-12 KJV, Paul instructs there must be no help to go to widows under 60, and explains his reason -- counter-logical in my opinion -- that somehow such charity promotes their desire to remarry rather than remain widowless, and this desire exhibits a wantonness against Christ (evidently because Paul teaches elsewhere a "married woman cares for the things of the world" (1 Cor. 7:32-34 KJV)); and Paul concludes that this desire to remarry denies their "first-faith" in Christ, bringing "damnation on themselves," so Paul says. His words were:

9 Let not a widow be taken into the number [for charity] under threescore years old [i.e., 60 years old],... 11 But the younger widows refuse: for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will marry (sic: "desire to marry" ASV); 12 Having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith.]

Alternatively, we also now realize the early church at Jerusalem was known as the Poor which would be, as an Hebraism, the name Ebionites. Paul was a vexing problem to them as well, as Acts chapter 21 clearly shows. Perhaps that is what vexing the poor means. It fits Paul any way you examine it.

Sixth, what about oppressing the foreigner? Did Paul and his followers do that too? Yes, in two distinct ways. By Paul saying all people born in Crete are liars, he forever slurred a whole nation of people. To be born a Cretan became synonymous with being born a liar, thanks to Paul. This is what Paul wrote:

One of themselves, a prophet of their own said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true (Titus 1:12).

Besides slandering all Cretans, Paul in another passage also slandered all Jews. He first labelled them as foreigners and then said they are enemies of all mankind. Let's review this with care.

One might at first think Jews cannot be viewed as foreigners in Judea. However, Paul in Galatians chapter 4 redefines Jews as foreigners in Judea. How did he do this? In our prior discussion, we saw how Paul said the Jews of Jerusalem no longer correspond to the sons of Abraham and Sarah. Instead they are now seen as Ishmael--the son of Abraham and Hagar. (Gal. 4:22-31.) Paul then says "cast out the handmaiden." This means Hagar and her children. In effect, Paul is saying the Jews in Jerusalem no longer hold the rightful position as owners of the land of Israel. They are Ishmaelites and foreigners to the covenant promise that gives them the right to the Land of Israel.

Second, after labelling Jews, in effect, as foreigners in Israel, Paul denigrates their entire race. Paul wrote "the Jews...both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are the enemies of the whole human race." (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16, Weymouth; cf. at same link, these commentaries agree this is the meaning: Gil, Wesley & Henry.)

The Greek in this verse means Jews oppose face-to-face every human being on earth. The various versions hold the essential meaning in tact:

Jews...who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and have persecuted us. They are displeasing to God and are the enemies of all people....(1Th 2:14-16)(ISV)

Jews...both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: (1Th 2:14-16)(KJV)

According to James, a different group is responsible for the death of Jesus: "Go now, ye rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you.... Ye have condemned and killed the just [one]; and he doth not resist you." (James 5:5-6.)

Regardless of Paul's accuracy on who killed Jesus, Paul redefines Jews to be foreigners in Judea, equivalent to Ishmaelite sons of Hagar. He then denigrates Jews as the enemies of the entire human race. Paul's words of denigration aimed at Jews later inspired Martin Luther in Germany to promulgate a doctrine of harassment of the Jewish people who were by then foreigners in Germany.

The renown scholar, William Shirer, in his classic 1400 page tome The Rise and the Fall of the Third Reich (1960) at 236 explains what Martin Luther did. Shirer writes:

It is difficult to understand the behavior of most German Protestants in the first Nazi years unless one is aware of two things: their history and the influence of Martin Luther. [At this point, Shirer writes in a footnote "To avoid any misunderstanding, it might be well to point out here that the author is a Protestant."] The great founder of Protestantism was both a passionate anti-Semite and a ferocious believer in absolute obedience to political authority. He wanted Germany rid of the Jews and when they were sent away he advised that they be deprived of "All their cash and jewels and silver and gold" and furthermore, "that their synagogues or schools be set on fire, that their houses be broken up and destroyed... and that they be put under a roof or stable, like the gypsies... in misery and captivity as they incessantly lament and complain to God about us"--advice that was literally followed four centuries later by Hitler, Goering, and Himmler.

Paul's words about Jews, when taken literally by his pupil Martin Luther, bore their inevitable fruit: the oppression of the foreigner including God's special people--the Jews.

Conclusion

Let's now pull all these Biblical references together, and see if the Bible identifies Paul as the Benjamite wolf.

Who is the Benjamite Wolf?

Thus, God prophesied a wolf from the tribe of Benjamin would emerge who would start out killing its prey but end up plundering and dividing its prey. Jesus said to look out for a wolf who would claim to be a Christian but is a false prophet. Paul repeats twice that he is of the tribe of Benjamin. Like the Genesis Benjamite wolf, Paul started out killing or participating in killing of Christians. Paul, as Jesus prophecied about the wolf, later claimed he was a Christian. Subsequently, this Benjamite Paul sought to split off the Gentiles from the main church so they would follow exclusively Paul's doctrine. God further prophesied the time of the ravening wolves would involve false prophets who would claim visions but they would be divining lies; these wolves would do violence to the Law, teaching it was permissible to disregard Sabbath and to disregard the food laws on unclean food--all of which we find precise fulfillment in the post-conversion letters of Paul.

When this mass of evidence is assembled as clearly as it is above, Paul must be the target of these prophecies. What we have done in the name of Christ to the teachings of Jesus in reliance on the Benjamite wolf warrant our expulsion from the kingdom. (Pray for mercy.) It is not merely that we have followed a false prophet from the tribe of Benjamin. (We should have known better because he first killed us and then divided us Gentiles from the mother-church.) Rather, what is so deplorable is we even followed the wolf's teachings when they contradicted the words of Jesus whom we claim is our Lord. It is astonishing, frankly, how we ever rationalized this behavior: claiming the name Christian but refusing to follow teachings of Jesus when we realize Jesus is incompatible with Paul such as:

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments [of the Law of Moses], and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Mat 5:19)

All we can do now is repent and obey.

Another Prophecy Aimed At Paul?

In addition to the Benjamite prophecy, it seems likely Jesus in Luke 21:8 additionally prophesied about Paul. Jesus warned us to beware of the one who would lead us astray. This deceiver would be a Christian preacher ("[he] will come in my name") who would tell you the "time is at hand." Those very words are in Paul's mouth in Romans 13:12, warning us "the day is at hand." The prophecy of a "time" is inclusive of the word day. Thus, Paul's phrase matches Jesus' prophecy exactly. This allows us to deduce that Paul (and Paul alone) is the Christian preacher who fits Jesus' prophecy in Luke 21:8.

[2011 ADDITION] Please note also how precise Jesus was being. He himself taught the "kingdom is at hand." (Matt 3:2.)  The word is the same, from "engiken." (See "Greek"). The difference between a false teacher and true treacher is Jesus uses the word "kingdom" and the false teacher will just use the word or concept of "time" being "at hand." Thus, the message of the kingdom's coming soon is not the same as saying the "time" is coming soon. And it is the latter which is the false gospel. In fact, the kingdom already arrived when Jesus was present, as He said "the kingdom of heaven is within you." But Paul meant the time of Jesus' return is "soon" - a different event.]

To repeat, what Jesus said would be the identifying mark of the deceiver was he will say "the time is at hand." Paul precisely matches this, saying "the day is at hand," in exactly identical Greek. Thereby, Jesus tells us Paul is one who comes in Jesus' name to "lead [you] astray." Jesus' warning was "do not go after them."

Will we obey Jesus?

FURTHER RESEARCH

After publishing JWO in 2006, we found further confirmation, and detail this in an article "Benjamite Wolf Research."

FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER FOURTEEN