When Universalist Truths Are Particular

Few biblical prophecies have generated as much heat as this week’s blessing of Judah: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet.” The verse following, however, adds the caveat, ad sheyavo shiloh, and therein lies the problem.
The JPS Bible translates the phrase, “so that tribute shall come to him,” but admits that its meaning is actually “wholly obscure.” The first two words, ad sheyavo could also mean “until there arises…” as if to say that sovereignty will last only until someone or something named Shiloh appears. So the Gemara [San. 98b] identifies Shiloh as “the name of the messiah” — a tradition that continues into the Middles Ages in such commentators as Ramban and Baal Haturim.
But Christians, too. knew this tradition and argued that Shiloh was Jesus who had already arrived. They pointed to the absence of independent Jewish rule in Jerusalem as evidence that the scepter of authority had passed firmly to them.
Read more here