It's obvious that Jesus fulfilled prophecies about the promised Messiah--or so the gospels make it seem. But the real story is more complex, and more compelling. In hindsight we can see that Jesus had help fulfilling prophecy. The gospel writers skillfully manipulated prophecies--carefully lifting them out of context, creatively reinterpreting them, even rewriting them--to match what Jesus would do in fulfilling them. The evangelists also used the...