Jewish Reasons For Their Unbelief
I’ve been doing some research and ran across a Jewish site that explains why they do not believe in Jesus. I would like to know your point of view over the subject and what would be the Bible answers to their claims.
Q. I’ve been doing some research and ran across this Jewish site that explains why they do not believe in Jesus.
Their first claim is that Jesus didn’t fulfill the Messianic Prophecies. Of course they do not take into account that He will do it in His Second Coming, because they say that there is no such concept in the Old Testament.
The second is that Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah. They say that the Messiah should be a prophet and that there has been no prophet in Israel since the death of the last prophets (Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi). They also say that there could be no prophet in Israel without it being inhabited by a majority of world Jewry, so Jesus couldn’t be a prophet because this condition hasn’t occurred since the time of Ezra. Also the Messiah should be a descendant of David. The ascendancy is traced from the father’s lineage, and since Jesus is not the natural son of Joseph, He couldn’t be a descendant of David. In addition they say that the Messiah should be faithful to the Torah observance and cite for example John 9:14 to show that Jesus did not observe the Torah and even said that it wasn’t applicable anymore.
The third is the mistranslation of passages of the Old Testament like Isaiah 7:14 where it’s said that the Messiah would come from an “alma”, which means a young woman and was translated as a virgin. Another passage is Isaiah 53, which they claim to follow the theme of chapter 52 about the exile and redemption of the Jewish people, not pointing to the suffering of the Messiah at all.
The third claim is that Jewish belief is based upon national revelation not individual. So, if Jesus was the Messiah it should have been revealed to the hole nation, not to Him alone. Of course they overlook the prophecies that point directly to Him as being who He claims to be.
I would like to know your point of view over the subject and what would be the Bible answers to their claims.
Thanks for your concern on helping God’s People to solve their doubts an to prosper in their religious life.
A. I’ve found that sites like this count on their readers lack of Biblical understanding. For centuries the school of thought has existed among Jewish scholars that all of Messianic Prophecy can be listed under two headings, “suffering servant” and “conquering king.” The Essenes of Biblical times saw these two groupings as being so different that they became convinced the Scriptures had to be talking about 2 different people. They named one Messiah son of Joseph and the other Messiah son of David. These sites conveniently ignore over 300 specific Old Testament prophecies of the 1st Coming, all of which were fulfilled, sometimes dramatically, by Jesus) and focus only on the ones intended for the 2nd Coming.
As for the claim that there hasn’t been a prophet since Ezra Zechariah and Malachi, God sent His own son to be the Prophet for the last days, and He told them exactly what would happen to their nation because of their failure to recognize Him (Luke 19:41). In the last verses of the Old Testament Malachi had told them what would happen if they rejected John the Baptist as Elijah. Earlier prophets like Ezekiel had also warned them, and had told them when the time of restoration would begin. These things have happened just as they were foretold. And Jesus never said that the Torah was no longer applicable, but in fact swore that not one stroke of the pen would disappear from the Law until all was accomplished. (Matt. 5:18)
The oldest prophecy of the Messiah is in Genesis 3:15 calling Him the “seed of the woman” a biological impossibility that hints at the virgin birth. Both Mary (Nathan) and Joseph (Solomon) were of the tribe of Judah and the House of David. In becoming Mary’s husband Joseph adopted Jesus giving Him both legal and biological standing in the line of David and the only man born since 597 BC who has a legitimate claim to David’s Throne.
Isaiah had to use the word “alma” in Isaiah 7:14 because in the next chapter his wife partially fulfilled the prophecy to confirm it and there could only be one virgin birth. Alma can mean virgin but can also mean a young woman. But remember, Isaiah was offering King Ahaz a sign from God. What kind of a sign would a young woman giving birth be? Several hundred years later, when 70 Hebrew scholars translated Isaiah into Greek, they unanimously chose the Greek word “parthenos” which can only mean a person who has never had sexual intercourse. They were expecting a virgin birth.
The language of Isaiah 53 simply does not support reading it as an allegory. The pronouns are personal with the “we” being Israel and the “He” being the Messiah, and the plain sense of the chapter clearly foretold the events leading up to the Lord’s death and resurrection. This is a desperate attempt to re-interpret the one chapter of the Bible that’s been responsible for more Jewish conversions to Christianity than all others combined.
As for revealing Jesus as the Messiah to the whole nation, they’re called the People of the Book, and the Book clearly reveals Him right down to using His name in the some of very passages written about Him. (For example, in Isaiah 49:6 the Hebrew word for salvation is Yeshua, the Lord’s name in Hebrew, and the passage is about the Messiah) He wasn’t bragging when He said the Old Testament was written about Him (John 5:39)
I could go on but I think you get the idea. Anyone who’s done a little homework can easily refute these claims. Websites like this one are part of a concerted effort to halt the ever increasing Jewish conversions. As one of their leaders has said there have been more in the last 19 years than in the previous 1900. I personally think that part of this is due to the fact that more are willing to come out of the closet now than before, since they see the end coming.
