What does Matthew 11:13 mean?
"The Prophets and the Law" are what we now call the Old Testament Scriptures. The law is God's specific instructions for the nation of Israel; these are mostly found in the Law of Moses: the first five books of the Bible. "The Prophets" includes the writings of all of God's hand-picked messengers: men like Isaiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, who delivered His words to His people and others.Jesus states now that all those writings pointed forward to the last prophet of that era: John the Baptist, who prepared the way for the Messiah (Malachi 3:1). Once John introduced Jesus to the world as the "one who is to come" (Matthew 11:3), those prophecies were fulfilled. Predictions about the coming of the Messiah were active "until John;" he ushered in the age of the Messiah and the nearness of the kingdom.