Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus : Volume 3 , livre ebook

© 2003 by Michael L. Brown
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To my Jewish people, in Israel, America, and around the world. The time of our salvation is at hand!
Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Preface Part 4 Messianic Prophecy Objections 4.1. If Jesus is really the Messiah, and if he is so important, why doesn’t the Torah speak of him at all? 4.2. Nowhere in the Hebrew Bible are we told that we must “believe in the Messiah.” 4.3. Isaiah 7:14 does not prophesy a virgin birth! And it has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus, since it dealt with a crisis seven hundred years before he was born. 4.4. Isaiah 9:6[5] does not speak of a divine king (or Messiah). 4.5. If you want to know what Isaiah 53 is talking about, just read Isaiah 52 and 54. The context is the return of the Jewish people from Babylonian exile, 550 years before Jesus. 4.6. Isaiah 53 speaks of the people of Israel, not Jesus (or any Messiah). 4.7. The rabbis only applied Isaiah 52:13–15, not 53:1–12, to the Messiah son of David. 4.8. It is not true that the medieval rabbis were the first to apply Isaiah 53 to Israel instead of the Messiah. The Israel interpretation is actually very ancient. 4.9. Isaiah 53 contains the words of the repentant kings of the nations rather than the words of the Jewish people. 4.10. Several key words in Isaiah 53 speak of a servant in the plural. 4.11. Isaiah 53 cannot refer to Jesus because it says no one was interested in the servant of the Lord or attracted to him, yet the New Testament records that large crowds followed Jesus. 4.12. Isaiah 53 cannot refer to Jesus because it says the servant of the Lord was sickly and died of disease. 4.13. Isaiah 53 does not actually say the servant would die. 4.14. Isaiah 53 does not say the servant will rise from the dead. 4.15. Isaiah 53 cannot refer to Jesus because it says the servant of the Lord did no violence, yet Jesus drove out the Temple money changers with a whip. 4.16. Isaiah 53 cannot refer to Jesus because it says the servant of the Lord would not lift up his voice or cry out, yet Jesus cried out several times on the cross, once in near blasphemy (Psalm 22:1). 4.17. Isaiah 53 cannot refer to Jesus because it says the servant of the Lord would see seed, an expression always meaning physical descendants when used in the Hebrew Bible. 4.18. Daniel 9:24–27 has nothing to do with the Messiah. 4.19. Daniel 9:24 was clearly not fulfilled by Jesus. 4.20. Christian translations of Daniel 9:24–27 divide the seventy weeks incorrectly, and the dates have no relation to the times of Jesus. 4.21. Daniel 9:24–27 speaks of two anointed ones. 4.22. Psalm 2:12 should not be translated as “kiss the Son.” Only the King James Version and modern Christian fundamentalist translations still maintain this incorrect rendering. 4.23. Psalm 16 does not speak of the resurrection of the Messiah. 4.24. Psalm 22 is the story of David’s past suffering. There is nothing prophetic about it. 4.25. Psalm 22 does not speak of death by crucifixion. In fact, the King James translators changed the words of verse16[17] to speak of “piercing” the sufferer’s hands and feet, whereas the Hebrew text actually says, “Like a lion they are at my hands and feet.” 4.26. Some of the so-called Messianic prophecies in the Psalms actually speak of the psalmist’s sin and folly. How can you apply this to Jesus? 4.27. Psalm 40 is absolutely not Messianic in any way. 4.28. Psalm 45:6[7] does not say the Messiah is God. 4.29. Psalm 110 does not say the Messiah is L ORD . Also, the psalm is not written by David about the Messiah. Our traditions indicate it may have been written by Eliezer about his master, Abraham, and then added to the collection of the Psalms by David many years later. Or David wrote it for the Levites to recite about him (or a court poet wrote it about David). This much is sure: It does not teach that the Messiah is God! 4.30. You claim that Haggai 2 points to the fact that the Messiah had to come before the Second Temple was destroyed, since it says in verse 9 that the glory of the Second Temple would be greater than the glory of Solomon’s Temple. Actually, Haggai is speaking about only the physical splendor of the Second Temple, which surpassed Solomon’s Temple in the days of Herod. 4.31. Zechariah 12:10 has nothing to do with Jesus. 4.32. Jesus fulfilled none of the Messianic prophecies! 4.33. Jesus fulfilled none of the provable Messianic prophecies! 4.34. Even modern Christian scholars reject the so-called Old Testament proof texts about Jesus. Just check most modern Christian Bible commentaries and translations. 4.35. Jesus cannot be the Messiah because the Messiah was to be a reigning king, whereas Jesus was despised, rejected, and crucified. 4.36. Jesus cannot be the Messiah because the Messiah had to rebuild the Temple, yet the Temple was standing in Jesus’ day. 4.37. The only true prophecy about Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures is found in Zechariah 13:1–6 a passage dealing with false prophets. It even makes explicit reference to his crucifixion! 4.38. Paul claimed that the Hebrew Scriptures prophesied the resurrection of the Messiah on the third day. Nowhere in our Bible is such a prophecy found. 4.39. I can find prophecies in the Bible that point to Muhammad just as easily as you can find prophecies that point to Jesus. That’s because all of your so-called proofs are either distortions, make-believe creations, or Jewish midrash free, homiletical interpretations of the worst kind. Appendix Notes Glossary Subject Index Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Writings
Preface
In November of 1971, as a proud, rebellious, heroin-shooting, rock-drumming, Jewish sixteen-year-old, I discovered something I was not looking for, and the course of my life was completely altered. I found out that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah! I learned that he was God’s way of salvation for Jew and Gentile alike, and that through faith in him, my life could be transformed even though I didn’t want to be transformed. I loved my sinful ways! But God’s goodness overcame my badness, and in a matter of weeks I was a brand-new man.
Of course, it was important to show my caring Jewish parents that Jesus was actually our promised Messiah, the one spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures, so I handed them a gospel tract with passages from our Jewish Bible that seemed to point to Jesus. The verses really seemed quite clear to me, until a local rabbi began to point out to my father that the verses were actually taken out of context or were misinterpreted or mistranslated. But were they? The rabbi gave me a book written by a Jewish scholar who argued that the prophecies did not point to Jesus at all, and some of the arguments sounded pretty convincing. So I showed my pastor the book, hoping that he could provide answers. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much to contribute, despite his sincerity.
This left me in a quandary. If Jesus truly was the prophesied Messiah, then it was right for me as a Jew to put my trust in him. In fact, it was right for me to share this wonderful news with every Jew and Gentile who was open to hearing it. But if Jesus was not the Messiah of the Scriptures, then I had no right believing in him, let alone sharing my beliefs with others.
Certainly, I knew my life had been powerfully changed by Jesus, and some of the prophecies did seem to point to him. But there were other prophecies that didn’t seem as clear anymore. What was I to do? Th