How do you know the Bible is the Word of God? Not a good book. Not an inspiring collection of ancient writings. The actual, literal Word of the God who created the universe.
Prophecy. That's how.
The Bible contains hundreds of specific predictions -- written centuries before they were fulfilled -- that came true in exact, verifiable detail. And nowhere is this more concentrated or more stunning than in the events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We're not talking about vague predictions like "a great leader will arise." We're talking about the specific city He would be born in. The specific amount of money He would be betrayed for. The specific method of execution -- described a thousand years before crucifixion was even invented. The specific detail about gambling for His clothing while He hung on a cross.
These prophecies were written by different authors, in different centuries, in different locations. They had no way to coordinate. And every single one of them was fulfilled in one Man, during one week, in one city.
If that doesn't get your attention, nothing will.
The Prophecies: Old Testament and New Testament Side by Side
What follows is not a complete list -- there are over 50 prophecies related to the crucifixion and resurrection alone. But these are the ones that should make any honest person stop and think.
1. Born of a Virgin
Prophecy (written ~700 BC):
"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." -- Isaiah 7:14
Fulfillment:
"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." -- Matthew 1:18
This was the first sign. Not a natural birth. A supernatural one. God entering the world through a virgin -- something no man could stage or arrange.
2. Born in Bethlehem
Prophecy (written ~700 BC):
"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." -- Micah 5:2
Fulfillment:
"And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel." -- Matthew 2:6
Not Jerusalem. Not Rome. Not any major city. Bethlehem -- a tiny, insignificant town. And notice what Micah says about Him: "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." This is not just a man. This is the eternal God, born in a specific, prophesied location.
3. The Triumphal Entry on a Donkey
Prophecy (written ~520 BC):
"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." -- Zechariah 9:9
Fulfillment:
"And they brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon." -- Matthew 21:7
All four Gospels record this event. The King of Kings entered Jerusalem not on a warhorse, but on a donkey -- exactly as Zechariah described 500 years earlier. The crowds shouted "Hosanna." Five days later, they shouted "Crucify Him."
4. Betrayed by a Friend
Prophecy (written ~1000 BC):
"Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." -- Psalm 41:9
Fulfillment:
"And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people." -- Matthew 26:47
Jesus even quoted this prophecy at the Last Supper (John 13:18). He knew it was coming. He identified the betrayer. And Judas went out and did exactly what had been written a thousand years earlier.
5. Betrayed for Thirty Pieces of Silver
Prophecy (written ~520 BC):
"And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver." -- Zechariah 11:12
Fulfillment:
"And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver." -- Matthew 26:15
Not twenty. Not fifty. Thirty. The exact amount, written 500 years before it happened.
6. The Silver Thrown in the Temple and Used to Buy a Potter's Field
Prophecy (written ~520 BC):
"And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD." -- Zechariah 11:13
Fulfillment:
"And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces... and bought with them the potter's field." -- Matthew 27:5, 7
Judas threw the money into the temple. The priests used it to buy a potter's field. Both details were written by Zechariah five centuries before Judas was born.
7. Silent Before His Accusers
Prophecy (written ~700 BC):
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." -- Isaiah 53:7
Fulfillment:
"And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing." -- Matthew 27:12
The God who spoke the universe into existence stood silent before men who had no power over Him. Not because He had nothing to say. Because the prophecy said He wouldn't.
8. Pierced Hands and Feet
Prophecy (written ~1000 BC):
"For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet." -- Psalm 22:16
Fulfillment:
"And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him." -- Luke 23:33
David wrote Psalm 22 approximately 1,000 years before Jesus was born. Crucifixion did not exist as a method of execution in David's time -- it was a Roman invention, centuries later. Yet David described it in exact detail: pierced hands and feet. How do you explain that without God?
9. Lots Cast for His Garments
Prophecy (written ~1000 BC):
"They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." -- Psalm 22:18
Fulfillment:
"Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled." -- John 19:23-24
The soldiers had no idea they were fulfilling a thousand-year-old prophecy. They were just dividing up a dead man's clothes. And they did it exactly as David described.
10. Not a Bone Broken
Prophecy (written ~1000 BC):
"He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken." -- Psalm 34:20
Fulfillment:
"But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs." -- John 19:33
This was the custom: break the legs to speed up death. They broke the legs of the two criminals on either side of Jesus. But when they came to Jesus, He was already dead. So they didn't break His legs. Another prophecy fulfilled -- not by Jesus, not by His followers, but by His executioners who knew nothing about the prophecy.
11. Pierced in His Side
Prophecy (written ~520 BC):
"And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced." -- Zechariah 12:10
Fulfillment:
"But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." -- John 19:34
12. Buried in a Rich Man's Tomb
Prophecy (written ~700 BC):
"And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death." -- Isaiah 53:9
Fulfillment:
"When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph... He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus... and laid it in his own new tomb." -- Matthew 27:57-60
A crucified criminal would normally be thrown into a common grave. But Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy man, claimed the body and placed it in his own personal tomb. Isaiah said this would happen 700 years earlier.
13. Rose from the Dead on the Third Day
Prophecy (written ~1000 BC):
"For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." -- Psalm 16:10
Fulfillment:
"He is not here: for he is risen, as he said." -- Matthew 28:6
Peter quoted this very psalm on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-31), explaining that David was not speaking about himself -- David died and his body decayed -- but about the Messiah, whose body would not see corruption because He would rise from the dead.
14. Slain on Passover -- The Lamb of God
Prophecy (written ~1450 BC):
"And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." -- Genesis 22:8
"Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year... And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening." -- Exodus 12:5-6
Fulfillment:
"The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." -- John 1:29
"For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." -- 1 Corinthians 5:7
This one ties everything together. Jesus was not just crucified -- He was crucified on Passover. The exact day. At the same hour the Passover lambs were being slain in the temple, the Lamb of God was dying on the cross outside the city walls.
Abraham told Isaac that God would provide Himself a lamb. Fifteen hundred years later, He did. John the Baptist saw Jesus and identified Him as that Lamb. And then, on the very day that every Jewish family was slaughtering a lamb and painting its blood on their doorposts -- the day God had instituted fourteen centuries earlier -- Jesus shed His blood for the sins of the world.
The day was not a coincidence. The method was not a coincidence. The timing was not a coincidence. No man could have orchestrated being executed on a specific Jewish feast day, by a specific Roman method, at a specific hour. And no group of enemies could have prevented it. The Pharisees actually tried to avoid killing Him during the feast (Matthew 26:5) -- and it happened during the feast anyway. God's timetable overruled their plans.
The Statistical Impossibility of Coincidence
Let's talk about the math for a moment.
Mathematicians have calculated the probability of any one person fulfilling just eight of these prophecies by chance. The number? 1 in 10 to the 17th power -- that's 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.
To visualize that: imagine covering the entire state of Texas two feet deep in silver dollars, marking one of them, mixing them all up, and then blindfolding someone and asking them to pick the marked coin on the first try. That's the probability of one man fulfilling just eight prophecies by coincidence.
Jesus fulfilled over fifty.
The probability of fulfilling 48 prophecies by chance? It's estimated at 1 in 10 to the 157th power. Here is that number written out:
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,
000,000,000
That is not a typo. That is 1 followed by 157 zeros. That number is so large it has no meaningful analogy. It is, for all practical purposes, impossible.
And yet it happened. Every single one. In one Person. During one week. In one city.
This was not coincidence. This was God, keeping His Word down to the last detail.
The Detail That Changes Everything
Here is a thought you cannot unsee once you see it:
All Satan had to do was prevent one of these prophecies from being fulfilled. Just one.
Have Jesus beheaded instead of crucified -- prophecy broken. Break one bone during the crucifixion -- prophecy broken. Have Him born anywhere but Bethlehem -- prophecy broken. Have the Pharisees split the money instead of buying a field -- prophecy broken.
Every enemy Jesus had, every power of darkness, every political and religious authority that wanted Him dead -- all of them had the ability to derail the prophecies simply by doing something slightly different. And not one of them did.
And this is not about fate or predestination. God did not force anyone's hand. He looked across all of time, saw how every person's free choices would play out collectively, and recorded the outcome in advance. The soldiers chose to gamble for His clothing. Judas chose thirty pieces of silver. The Romans chose crucifixion. Joseph of Arimathaea chose to offer his tomb. Every choice was free. And every choice fulfilled exactly what God had written centuries before.
That is not coincidence. That is not luck. That is the signature of a God who exists outside of time, who sees the end from the beginning, and who trusted His own Word enough to put it in writing before any of it happened.
Why This Matters Right Now
Here is the point that most people miss: if God fulfilled every single prophecy about the first coming of Christ with 100% accuracy, what does that tell you about the prophecies that haven't been fulfilled yet?
The prophets didn't just write about the crucifixion and resurrection. They wrote about what comes next. The return of Christ. The judgment. The kingdom. The restoration of all things. Those prophecies are still on the table. And the God who was right about Bethlehem, and the thirty pieces of silver, and the pierced hands and feet, and the borrowed tomb, and the resurrection -- that God does not miss.
"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." -- Isaiah 46:9-10
He declares the end from the beginning. His counsel stands. He does all His pleasure. He told us what would happen, and it happened. He's told us what's coming next. And it will happen too.
The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are not just historical events to commemorate once a year. They are proof -- mathematical, prophetic, verifiable proof -- that the God of the Bible is exactly who He says He is, and that His Word is exactly what He says it is.
The question is not whether the evidence is sufficient. It is. The question is what you're going to do with it.
"O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken." -- Luke 24:25
Don't be slow of heart. The prophets spoke. God fulfilled it. And He's not done yet.
Listen to More on the ALIVE With Jesus Podcast
This topic connects to several episodes of the Alive With Jesus podcast, including our deep dive into Palm Sunday and the Passover. If you want to hear these prophecies discussed verse by verse, browse the full library:
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Go Deeper
- Read the prophecies yourself. Open your Bible to Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, and Zechariah 9-13. Then read the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection. Let God's Word connect the dots.
- Explore the KJV Bible study tools on our site -- search verses, study cross-references, and explore topics: ALIVEwithJesus.com
- Get personalized Scripture through Your Scriptures -- God's Word with your name woven in.
- Read Passion for the Truth -- our book comparing what Scripture actually says with what Hollywood and tradition have taught: Available on Amazon
The evidence is not hiding. The prophecies are in your Bible. The fulfillments are in your Bible. The only question is whether you'll read them.