If you've ever debated a Christian apologist claiming that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God you've probably encountered a claim like this the Old Testament written over a 1,000-year period contains nearly 300 references to the coming Messiah and all of these were fulfilled in Jesus Christ during Jesus lifetime he fulfilled more than 300 prophecies and he fulfilled them literally down to to the smallest Detail after careful examination of the first coming Prophecies of Messiah it is undeniably clear that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled them all all the intricate details of Jesus's life death and
resurrection that all of those details were for told by prophets centuries before Jesus was born things like he'd ride in Jerusalem on a donkey he'd be betrayed by a friend he'd be born in bethleem he'd be called out of Egypt he would be sold for 30 pieces of silver He'd be crucified and you know Jesus fulfilled all 300 of those predictions how could one man fulfill all of these prophecies unless he was the son of God who is predestined to one easy response to these claims could be to say well Jesus didn't exist at all
he was a fictional character so of course he fulfilled prophecies because the gospel writers made up his biography using the Old Testament some Scholars like Dr Richard Carrier have made compelling arguments that Jesus of Nazareth did not exist as a historical figure if that's true then the whole Christian argument from fulfilled prophecy goes out the window however most Scholars including atheist Scholars like Bart Airman and those outside of New Testament studies Franchesca stavra aulu agree that there was a historical Jesus of Nazareth but regard the stories about him performing Miracles and raising from the dead
to be Myths no Jesus um most Scholars would agree that he existed yeah yeah if we assume Jesus did exist do the details of his life his place of birth his childhood his baptism his ministry his arrest and his crucifixion do any of these actually fulfill Old Testament prophecies that is the question we will be diving into today you shall come forth for me this was done to make the scripture come true all for he promises to send the Messiah is from old from Ancient he is born out be call his name a scripture that
says will look at him of hey real quick I want to give a special shout out to the queen of myth Vision my partner Ryan Lambert she actually runs the MVP courses side where we have academics who've been featuring on myth vision for many years now they're teaching courses in Walking students through their specialty and some of the Stuff they've learned along the way to help you at the convenience of your own home or wherever you may go you own the course for life but educating people bringing this knowledge to the public you're helping the
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that you'll go there and help the queen out help yourself out and let's keep this uh public Insight public information going forward thank you so much many Christians claim Jesus Fulfilled 300 or more prophecies from the Old Testament unfortunately we don't have time to go through all 300 of these because if we spent 2 minutes on each and every one this would be a 10hour video instead we're just going to focus on the prophecies that Christian apologists find most compelling and normally bring up in debates usually the list of prophecies Christians come up with start
with a whole bunch of predictions about the Messiah's ancestry for example they say the Old Testament writers predicted the Messiah would be a descendant of Abraham and a descendant of Isaac and a descendant of Jacob and of the tribe of Judah and of the line of David then they count these as five distinct prophecies about Jesus's ancestry and lineage this is pretty silly and a little dishonest if you think about it being a descendant of Abraham Isaac Jacob Etc just means the Messiah was supposed to be a Jew is it really that surprising that the
Jewish Messiah predicted by the Jewish prophets was supposed to be Jewish not only that but if Jesus was a descendant of David then by definition he would also be from the tribe of Judah since David was from the tribe of Judah and if he was from the tribe of Judah then by definition he would also be a descendant of Abraham Isaac and Jacob so These five prophecies are actually just one prophecy that the Messiah would be a descendant of David this isn't even bringing in critical scholarship who thinks that Abraham Isaac and Jacob probably never
existed to begin with davidic ancestry there is no question that the Old Testament predicts the Messiah would be a descendant of David but did Jesus really fulfill this prophecy the gospels of Matthew and Luke based their claim of Jesus's davidic ancestry on two lists of genealogies provided at the beginning of their gospels however both lists completely contradict each other making it doubtful that either one is true in his book The Birth of the Messiah Raymond E Brown explains where the genealogical lists in Matthew and Luke probably came from Matthew's list of names for the Post
exilic period is too short to cover the span of time and neither his names Nor those of Luke's longer list coincide with the descendants of zerubabel listed in the Old Testament even if there were official genealogies of the Royal House of David in the postexilic period there is nothing to support the thesis that Matthew Drew upon one it is far more plausible to assume that at most he may Echo a popular genealogy of the royal lineage that circulated in greek-speaking Jewish circles as part of their speculations about the coming of The Messiah such a popular
tradition would have been subject to changes losses inaccuracies and vagaries of the imagination what one may say with shity of Luke's list is that in part it is artificially arranged in numerical patterns of seven and that it contains enough inaccuracies and confusions to suggest a popular provenance rather than an archival provenance among greek-speaking Jews while the two new testament Genealogies tell us how to evaluate Jesus they tell us nothing certain about his grandparents or his great-grandparents since there is no sound historical basis for accepting Jesus's Royal lineage as factual the Christian claim that Jesus fulfilled
the requirement for the Messiah to be a descendant of David is probably Christian propaganda as IM David litwa writes tracing Jesus's line through King David was a bolder claim historically Speaking however Matthew's claim is as little Justified as anas being the descendant of king dardanus or Julius Caesar being the descendant of King enus marcius Jesus's davidic ancestry is a Mythic claim with a culturally specific meaning for Jews and prelit except the rightful King in the gospel of Matthew we get several claims that Jesus fulfilled five Old Testament prophecies by his birth and childhood alone Matthew
1:23 states That Jesus being born of a virgin fulfilled Isaiah 7:14 Matthew 2:6 states that Jesus being born in Bethlehem fulfills Micah 52 Matthew 2:15 claims that Jesus being brought to Egypt fulfills Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:18 claims herod's Massacre of children fulfills Jeremiah 31:15 in Matthew 2:23 it says Jesus being raised in Nazareth is also a fulfillment of prophecy but he doesn't say which Prophet predicted this and he doesn't quote any passage from the Old Testament most Christians assume Matthew is referring to Isaiah 11:1 but that verse also doesn't mention Nazareth or say the
Messiah will be a Nazarene all it says is that the Messiah will be a branch from the stump of Jesse and the Hebrew word for branch is neter which sounds a little bit like Nazareth needless to say claiming this is a prediction of the messiah's hometown is Quite a stretch now let's go through the rest of these Old Testament passages see if any of them actually make the predictions that Matthew claims they make first of all Isaiah 7:14 says Behold a virgin shall bear a son and shall call his name Emanuel at first glance there's
a big problem with this prophecy the claim that Jesus's mother got miraculously impregnated by the Holy Spirit while she was a virgin cannot be proven historically in fact you pretty much have to already be a Christian to accept that Jesus was really born of a virgin another problem is that this verse in Isaiah 7 has been mistranslated in most Modern English Bibles the Hebrew word Isaiah uses to describe the woman who will conceive is Alma and that word just means young woman not virgin the word that means virgin in Hebrew is Betha in fact the
famous Christian Apologist Michael L Brown and James White admit that the wording of Isaiah 7:14 does not support the Christian interpretation of the Virgin birth now does alma in itself mean virgin no it yeah but does it in in itself mean virgin no it has to do with youthfulness not virginity so could well be a virgin but in of itself it doesn't mean virtue even atheists are aware of the fact that the Hebrew term Alma does not technically mean virgin Alma in the Hebrew language can simply mean a young woman a young woman of marriageable
age what you don't need to be doing as a Christian is attempting to argue against the lexical meaning of Alma moreover Isaiah 7:14 clearly states that the child born would be called Emmanuel not Jesus or Yeshua the context of the verse makes it absolutely clear that it could not be referring to Jesus because this child named Emmanuel was Supposed to be a sign for King ah has that God would protect the kingdom of Judah during the C ephraimite war in the 8th Century BC the next prophecy Micah 52 does appear to claim the Messiah will
be born in Bethlehem the verse reads but you o Bethlehem ephra who are too little to be among the clans of Judah from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel whose coming forth is from of old from ancient Days the claim that Jesus was born in Bethlehem doesn't seem as far-fetched as the claim that he was born of a virgin however many secular Scholars doubt that the Traditions about Jesus's birth are historically reliable only Matthew and Luke actually claim that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and both writers invent
wildly implausible and contradictory narratives to explain how he was born in Bethlehem but raised in Nazareth the author of Matthew has Jesus's family start off in Bethlehem and then end up in Nazareth to escape a massacre of children by King Herod the author of Luke has Jesus's family start off in Nazareth and then take a trip to Bethlehem to register for a census both versions of the Nativity Story are incompatible with each other so it's unlikely that either one is historically accurate as the renowned biblical scholar EP Sanders said it is not possible for both
these Stories to be accurate it is improbable that either is they agree only on the two sets of facts in Real History Jesus was from Nazareth in Sal salvation history he must have been born in Bethlehem Dell Martin another biblical scholar from yel University stated Jesus was a lower class Jewish peasant from Nazareth a small village in Galilee there is no reason to believe the later legends that he was born in Bethlehem finally Bart armman a new Testament scholar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill writes we also have good reason for doubting
that Jesus was born in Bethlehem not only is the tradition rooted in the belief that the Messiah was to come from the city of David but the two accounts of how it came about hopelessly contradict each other the next prophecy claimed from Matthew's infancy narrative is that Jesus's family fulfilled Hosea 11:1 by leaving Bethlehem to go to Egypt and Then leaving Egypt to settle in Nazareth Matthew writes this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet out of Egypt I called my son if we look at the original verse in Hosea 11
we can see that it is obviously not talking about the Messiah when Israel was a child I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son the more they were called the more they went away they kept sacrificing to the bells and Burning offerings to Idols not only does the text specifically state that the son is Israel it even talks about how this son turned from God and sacrificed to Pagan Idols after being called out of Egypt if this text really is about Jesus then Jesus was a sinner who committed idolatry holy smokes obviously
Hosea 11 1 is not about the Messiah it's about the people of Israel being led out of Egypt by Moses and then strain from God by sacrificing to Idols like the golden calf the exact same cherry-picking and omission of context happens with Matthew's citation of Jeremiah 31:15 the verse reads in Rama was there a voice heard lamentation [Music] weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her Children and would not be comforted because they were no more Matthew claims this is a prophecy about herod's order that all the male children in Bethlehem 2 years old or
young hunger should be slaughtered however if we just read the next two verses it's clear what this lamentation and bitter weeping is really about keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears for there is a Reward for your work declares the Lord and they shall come back from the land of the enemy there is hope for your future declares the Lord and your children shall come back to their own country now notice how it says they shall come back from the land of the enemy and your children shall come back to their own
country obviously this is referring to the Babylonian exile the book of Jeremiah Was Written between 627 and 586 BCE during which there were Several deportations of Jews by the Babylonians Rachel the wife of the patriarch Jacob is not weeping for toddlers murdered in Bethlehem in 4 BCE she is weeping for the thousands of Jews who were taken into captivity after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem that's why the text expresses hope that they will one day return Jeremiah famously prophesied that the Exile would last 70 years and then that Jewish captives would be allowed to return to
the land Of Israel Jewish babies murdered in Bethlehem obviously couldn't come back to their own country furthermore virtually all new testament Scholars agree that Matthew's account of King Herod massacring infants and toddlers in Bethlehem is fictional since that event isn't attested in any extra biblical sources including Josephus as the biblical scholar Maurice Casey writes Herod was cruel but he was not so foolish as to launch such a point L attack on his own people and the absence of this atrocity from Luke and from Jewish sources must mean that it did not occur virtually all biblical
Scholars share this skepticism for example EP Sanders rights Herod was ruthless and he did kill people who seem to pose a threat to his Reign did he Slaughter all male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were 2 years old younger it is not likely Josephus Narrated a lot of stories about Herod dwelling on his brutality but not this one finally as we already saw the claim in Matthew 2:23 that the prophets predicted the Messiah would be called a Nazarene is completely false no Old Testament passage states that the Messiah would be from
Nazareth in fact the town of Nazareth is never mentioned in the Old Testament Forerunner moving on to the main Narrative about Jesus's adult life the gospels claim that John the Baptist fulfilled the role of the messiah's Forerunner prophesied in Malachi the verses read behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his Temple and the messenger of the Covenant in whom you Delight behold he is coming behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the
Lord Comes and he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers most Scholars and historians agree that John the Baptist existed as a historical figure since he is mentioned by Josephus they even accept that Jesus probably was baptized by John in the Jordan River however Malachi does not say just any random apocalyptic preacher will be the messiah's Forerunner he predicts that Elijah himself will Fulfill this role why because according to 2 Kings 2:11 Elijah was taken directly to Heaven by Chariots of Fire and a whirlwind like
the pre- deluvian figure Enoch Elijah never died that's why some Jews like Malachi expected him to return prior to the Messianic age John the Baptist clearly wasn't Elijah he didn't drop out of the sky he was born into a Priestly family his parents were Zechariah and Elizabeth and According to the Gospel of Luke he was Jesus's cousin not only that many scholars consider it doubtful that John the Baptist actually regarded himself as the messiah's Forerunner or that he viewed his ministry as a preparation for Jesus's Ministry in the Jewish annotated New Testament David B levenson
writes the gospels showed John subordinating himself to Jesus historically this is unlikely Given that John baptized Jesus and that John's followers remained loyal to him after Jesus appeared appeared on the scene had John thought Jesus to be the Messiah he would not have retained his own disciples the connection of John to Elijah also suggests that John was not historically Jesus's Forerunner in the Tanakh Elijah's role is to prepare Israel for the great and terrible day of the Lord not to announce another agent of God it may not even be the case that John the Baptist
expected the Messiah at all as John P Meyer writes we do not know whether John the Baptist ever acknowledg Jesus as a special figure John the Baptist may not have anticipated any further agent in the eschatological drama except God himself Christian apologists normally claim that John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah based on Luke 1:17 but this of course is a theological claim that cannot be verified Historically Parables another alleged prophecy Christian apologists normally bring up is that the Messiah would teach using Parables Matthew 1335 claims that Jesus using Parables was
predicted by Psalm 78:2 which reads I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings from of old once again this is a clear example of cherry-picking and ignoring the Context the full passage in Psalm 78 reads I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings from of old things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us we will not hide them from their children but tell to the coming Generation The Glorious Deeds of the Lord and his might and the Wonders that he has
done in context this Psalm is telling the Israelites to pass on the Traditions about God's glorious deeds and wonders To their children it has nothing to do with fictional stories told to convey moral wisdom which Jesus was known for the word in this verse that is translated as Parable is mashal which according to John S kelman and Michael l bar does not just mean Parable Hebrew masal has a wider range of meanings than Parable here it means wise instruction triumphal entry next Zechariah 9:9 is a prophecy About a king presenting himself to the people of
Jerusalem AKA Zion riding on a donkey Rejoice greatly oh Daughter of Zion shout aloud oh daughter of Jerusalem behold your king is coming to you righteous and having salvation is he humble and mounted on a donkey on a cult the full of a donkey obviously there isn't anything particularly remarkable about riding a donkey into Jerusalem donkeys were a Popular mode of transportation for people 2,000 years ago so there were probably millions of people who entered Jerusalem this way usually Christian apologists specify that this is a prediction that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem as a king
which of course refers to how the gospels portray Jesus being welcomed by crowds of people shouting hosana to the son of David blessed is the coming Kingdom of Our Father David blessed is the king who Comes in the name of the Lord and blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord even the king of Israel however there is a big problem with this big dramatic entry if Jesus entered Jerusalem with crowds of people helling him as their King this would have appeared to the Romans like a political rebellion was about to start
and they definitely would have interrupted the celebration with some violent crowd control EP Sanders writes If there was actually a large crowd we must explain how it is that Jesus lived for another week a public demonstration accompanied by shouts of king or even Kingdom would have been highly inflammatory Passover was a prime time for troublemakers to incite the crowd and both the high priest and the Roman prefect were alert to the danger Bart Airman also expresses doubt that this event is historical even though this account is multiply attested It is very difficult to accept it
as historically accurate the day before Passover were a tense and potentially dangerous time in the view of the Roman authorities if Jesus actually entered the city with such Fanfare crowd shouting their support for him as their new ruler the king who fulfills the prophecies it's nearly impossible to understand why he wasn't arrested and taken out of the way immediately it's not hard to believe That Jesus entered Jerusalem riding a donkey unless he was actually greeted loudly and publicly by crowds of people helling him as their new king people knew this kind of behavior would have
been seen as treasonous so why would they do it in the capital city which was crawling with Roman soldiers waiting to strike in case something like that should happen betrayal for 30 pieces of silver the next alleged prophecy which Is probably one of the top five or at least top 10 passages Christian apologists bring up is another verse from Zechariah one that supposedly predicts that the Messiah would be betrayed for exactly 30 pieces of silver and that this Blood Money would be thrown into the temple and that the money would then be used to purchase
a Potter's field this is a very popular passage because it seems so incredibly specific ific and there's no possible Way it could be fulfilled by chance there are it turns out mountains of issues with this prophecy claim to start off let's look at how the passage is quoted in Matthew 27 9-10 then compare that with the actual verse from Zechariah according to Matthew 27 the verse reads and they took the 30 pieces of silver the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel and they gave them
for The Potter's fiill as the Lord directed me Now let's look at how Zechariah 111 12-13 actually reads and they weighed out as my wages 30 pieces of silver then the Lord said to me throw it to the treasury the lordly price at which I was priced by them so I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the treasury Matthew changes almost every single word in this passage he changes the lordly price at which I was priced by them to the price of him on whom a
Price had been set by some of the sons of Israel and he changes I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to they gave them for The Potters filled as Robert J Miller writes the prophecy quoted in Matthew 27 9-10 is neither copy nor paraphrased from any biblical text it is Matthew's own construction most of it based Loosely on Zechariah 11:13 however the central action described in the prophecy and the deed That Matthew narrates as its fulfillment the purchase of a field from a Potter is not found
in Zechariah and not anywhere else in the Old Testament some Bibles actually have Zechariah say Potter rather than Treasury but this is actually a mistranslation as Robert J Miller also explains most Modern English Bibles deviate with good reason from the Hebrew text of Zechariah 11:13 and read treasury rather than Potter relying on the wording in the ancient syak and Aramaic translations of this verse the two words are almost identical in Hebrew the Potter is heater and the the treasury is haer the Aramaic and the syak version were apparently translated from the original wording treasury which
was later miscopied as Potter into the standard Hebrew since Potter makes no sense in the sentence and since treasury fits the context this Is one case where the standard Hebrew text is clearly mistaken so in Matthew the 30 pieces of silver are thrown into the temple then given to the Potter but in Zechariah the 30 pieces of silver are simply put into the temple treasury the details clearly do not line up as Christians claim Zechariah 11 also does not say the 30 pieces of silver will be used to betray the Messiah if you actually read
the context the pieces of silver are the wages paid to the prophet Zechariah by three Shepherds for tending a flock of sheep for a month it is not Blood Money Paid to the messiah's betrayer there is no mention of the Messiah anywhere in Zechariah 11 there is one more problem with this alleged prediction of Jesus's betrayal even if the passage in Zechariah 11 was a real prophecy and said exactly what Christian apologists claim it said there's still the question of whether the det details about judas's betrayal of Jesus are Historically accurate 30 pieces of silver
would have only been a few months wages many biblical Scholars find it very unlikely that Judas would have betrayed a man he had devoted 3 years of his life to for such a small amount as William Classen States the poultry sum for which he allegedly betrays Jesus is hardly an adequate motive to account for the action it's it's also hard to imagine how exactly Matthew could have come by The information about What Judas did with the money and how it was used to purchase a field the public had no way of knowing how the chief
priest had spent the money that Judas had flung back to them only Matthew tells of this and he describes it as a decision reached in a closed meeting if what Matthew narrates really happened only a few insiders would have known about it if one wonders how Matthew could have known about this the Answer is that Matthew like all the evangelists tells his story from the perspective of an omniscient narrator who by definition knows everything and so can inform readers of things an actual narrator would have no way of knowing so this alleged prophecy fails in
multiple ways first the verse in Zechariah 11:1 12-13 does does not say what Christians claim it says and Matthew has to completely change the wording in order To make it fit his narrative second the context of the verse shows that it's not a prophecy it has nothing to do with betrayal or blood Money it says nothing about a Potter or a Potter's field and it says nothing about the Messiah third it's unlikely that Judas was paid such a small amount to betray Jesus or or that any of the Disciples of Jesus could have acquired such
specific information about The Blood Money the most popular Old Testament Passages Christian apologist claim or Prophecies of Jesus are those that are interpreted as descriptions of his suffering and death I am of course referring to Psalm 22 Daniel 9 Zechariah 12 and Isaiah 53 the first one Psalm 22 is a poem of lament in which the poet cries to God because of his terrible suffering the poem contains a lot of generic and somewhat contradictory descriptions of the psalmist Situation some verses describe him in a desolate Place being attacked by wild animals but others describe lots
of people around mocking him his enemies Roar and bite him like dogs and lions but they also steal his clothing like Highway Bandits his Affliction sounds a lot like illness in some verses but in others it seems like he's being violently attacked Christian apologists assert that the entire poem is a perfect Description of Jesus's suffering on the cross but it really isn't some verses do sound like they are describing crucifixion but not all of them for example look at verse verse two I Cry by day but you do not answer and by night but I
find no rest here the poet is describing insomnia possibly because of some chronic pain or illness according to the gospels Jesus's suffering only lasted half a day he wasn't experiencing sleepless nights as described in Psalm 22 in verse 17 the psalmist says I can count all my bones indicating that he is so malnourished that his ribs are visible according to the gospels Jesus ate a meal with his disciples the night before his execution so there's no way he was emaciated like this verse describes as much as this Psalm may appear to resemble Jesus's situation there's
another biblical figure it resembles even more the famous righteous Sufferer job if we look at how the Book of Job describes the main character's suffering the resemblance to Psalm 22 is remarkable but I am a worm and not a man scorned by mankind and despised by the people he has made me a byword of the peoples and I am one before whom men spit all who see me mock me they make mouths at me they wag their heads surely there are mockers about about me and my eye dwells on their provocation I am poured out
like water And all my bones are out of joint my heart is like Wax it is melted within my breast and now my soul is poured out within me days of Affliction have taken hold of me the night racks my bones and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest my strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws you lay me in the dust of death my bones stick to my skin and to My Flesh and I have escaped by the skin of my teeth since job was obviously
not being Crucified it is clear that the descriptions in both job and in Psalm 22 can apply to a variety of situations not just crucifixion Christian apologists however point to one particular verse that they think Settles the case Psalm 22 is about Jesus's death for dogs Encompass me a company of evildoers encircles me they have pierced my hands and feet what these apologists don't usually mention is that there is a lot of Uncertainty about how the verb in the second half of the verse should be translated Psalms 22:16 is actually a corrupted text the word
word Karu which is translated by Christians as they pierced does not exist in the Hebrew language so Scholars have been trying to figure out what the original word might have been the word Kar is supported by the septu rendering arakan but this word means to cut or to dig not to pierce so if Kar was the Original word then the verse should read they dig into my hand hands and my feet they dug through my hands and my feet or they hacked off my hands and my feet in the Vulgate the first Latin translation of
the Bible Jerome originally used the word photun meaning they have dug but in his second translation he used vixer meaning they have bound the second century translations by Aquilla of syop and sakas also favored words meaning to bind other Scholars have proposed the Translations they have picked clean my hands and my feet based on the verb AR and my hands and my feet have shriveled based on the hypothetical verb Kari in the 10th Century masera text the Hebrew word is Kari which means like a lion but most Scholars don't think this option is plausible because
the text is very late and because the word Kari would make the verse like a lion my hands and my feet with no Verb of all these possible translations they pierced my hands and my feet is the least likely since Kar does not actually mean Pierce anywhere it is used in the entire Hebrew Bible therefore we have no good reason to regard Psalm 22 as a clear description of crucifixion another big problem with taking Psalm 22 as a literal prediction of Jesus's death is the extremely diverse and conflicting descriptions of the psalmist Situation if this
poem is about Jesus being crucified by Roman soldiers then why does the psalmist talk about bulls lions and dogs attacking him Jesus obviously wasn't attacked by any wild animals at gtha as Christians see it those predictions are just poetic metaphors but if the parts about vicious animals are metaphorical then how do we know the parts about hands and feet being pierced and clothing being divided aren't also Metaphorical for all we know the psalmist could have meant for the animals to be literal and for the pierced hands and feet and stolen clothing to be metaphorical or
the entire poem is metaphorical and none of it was meant to describe a real situation in the end there is no indication in Psalm 22 that the suffering figure is the Messiah and the poem never claims to predict any future events it is just a poem that uses a lot Of vivid imagery and metaphors to depict feel ings of misery and hopelessness so taking any of the descriptions literally completely misses the point before we get into the other major prophecies related to Jesus's death Daniel 9 Zechariah 12 and Isaiah 53 there's another verse in a
different part of Psalms which Christian apologists claim predicted a minor aspect of Jesus's crucifixion in Psalm 69 another poem of Lament The Speaker complains about his enemies hating him without a cause attacking him with lies and seeking to destroy him these are also verses that Christians see as predicting the conspiracy against Jesus by the Jewish leaders but none of these are interesting or compelling enough for us to debunk obviously Jesus was not the only person who had enemies falsely accuse him and plot his downfall the only verse in the psalm that is Worth looking at
is verse 21 which reads they gave me poison for food and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink according to the gospels Jesus was offered two drinks during his execution wine mixed with myrrh prior to his crucifixion and a sort of watered down wine vinegar while he was on the cross neither of these really fulfills Psalm 69:21 the psalmist describes enemies giving him vinegar to insult or harm him in the same way they tried to poison his Food neither drink the soldiers offered Jesus was harmful the wine mixed with myrrh was actually
a highquality drink that also functioned as a mild anesthetic the wine vinegar was a cheap beverage that soldiers normally drank Jesus refused the first drink the myrr infused wine but only because he didn't want anything thing to ease his suffering not because there was something wrong with the drink itself the second drink was given to Jesus to Quench his thirst the original Hebrew of Psalms 69:21 uses the word rush to describe the food the pist enemies give him the word almost always means poison or Venom in one verse it refers to a poisonous herb probably
Hemlock however in two vers verses from Lamentations it simply means bitterness the septu it renders rash with the Greek word Ki which is usually translated G and often refers to any kind of bitter herb including warmwood and Myrr the gospel of Matthew which puts the most effort into making these drinks fulfill Psalms 69:21 takes advantage of the sepagan wording by replacing the wine mixed with myrrh in Mark 15:23 with wine mixed with gall using the ambiguous Septuagint word that can include bitter herbs like myrr basically they gave me poison for food turned into they gave
me G for food which then turned into they put myrrh in my Drink the myrr wine and sour wine Jesus received from the soldiers did not fulfill Psalm 69:21 it fulfilled a very loose exes of a mistranslation of Psalm 69:21 70 weeks timeline Daniel 9 the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9 is another Old Testament passage that Christian apologists regard as an impressive prediction of Jesus as Christians see it Daniel presents an incredible timeline Of History stretching from the restoration of Israel in the 5th Century BCE all the way down to the 1st Century CE
when Jesus was executed in fact many apologists claim that Daniel supernaturally predicted the exact year of Jesus's death however these apologists can't seem to agree which year Daniel's timeline begins this prophecy is going to start with a going out of an order to rebuild Jerusalem now now when was there an order that was Sent out to rebuild Jerusalem well many people believe self-included that this is talking about when arzer sees the king told Nehemiah to go rebuild Jerusalem and this happened on March the 5th 444 BC from the going forth of the command to restore
and build Jerusalem until Messiah the prince here he gives the starting point of the prophecy and we know the Persian dates very accurately and that this was 458 BC and this I believe is the starting point is The starting point of Daniel's timeline in 444 BCE or is it in 458 BCE Christian apologists differ from each other which shows that there's a lot more uncertainty in the interpretation of Daniel 9 than Christians admit in this case we don't even need to debunk either of these interpretations we could simply let the Christian apologist debunk each other
others would say yeah but there was a decree of Arctic xus it was like 445 BC and it and if you look at a Prophetic year like a prophetic year is 360 days versus 365 days and we can prove that and if you'll do that and then compute for 445 it gets you right up to the time of the crucifixion of Yeshua the problem is it's it's a bit of an obscure decree to say that was the decree to start it and then the 360 days the prophetic calendar and so on somewhat debatable this particular
edict we read about in Ezra chapter 7 was given in 458 BC clearly in the way these Verses read permission was there to rebuild the Temple but they were not giving permission to rebuild the walls they were not given permission to turn the city back to a fortress City in 458 BC the timeline does not yet start most Scholars who are not Christian apologists believe that the starting point of Daniel's 70 weeks is actually the Divine Oracle of Jeremiah which took effect in 586 BCE when Jerusalem was destroyed as Richard A Henshaw States 70 Weeks
meaning 7 * 70 equaling 490 years the elaps time since the destruction of Jerusalem 587 BCE mentioned in verse two Martina agrees the first week and the entire period commences with the going forth of the word that is the utterance of the Divine decree or Divine communication through Jeremiah on the return from Exile and the rebuilding of Jerusalem Frederick J Murphy explains Gabriel starts the Reckoning of the 70 weeks by Saying there were 7 weeks 49 years from the time when there was a decree to rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed Prince would come the decree
to rebuild Jerusalem cannot be that of Cyrus because the temple was rebuilt just 18 years later the most likely time is 586 BCE when the destruction took place this interpretation is even supported by Lewis F Hartman the first section the first seven weeks of years 49 years is said to last from the Utterance of Jeremiah's prophecy to the coming of an anointed leader the first part of the 490e period almost certainly refers to the time that ended with the return of the first Exiles from Babylonia to Jerusalem in 538 BC this would put the end
of the timeline in the 2 Century BCE a 100 years before Jesus was born in order to understand Daniel 9 we have to look at the historical context in which it was written virtually all Scholars agree that the Book of Daniel was completed around 164 BCE this was a very important year because it was when the antia Keen crisis ended for those who don't know the antien crisis was one of the worst events in Jewish history it occurred during the reign of a brutal saluci Tyrant Antiochus IV also called Antiochus epiphanies who basically wanted to
eradicate the Jewish religion and replace it with the Greek religion the crisis started in 171 BCE when the Jewish high priest onias iiii was murdered by his brother minus who was allied with the solids the conflict between the Jewish conservatives and the heners escalated until in 168 B.C Antiochus epiphanies banned Judaism completely outlawed the ritual burnt offerings and even defiled the Jerusalem Temple by setting up a shrine to Zeus and sacrificing a pig on it this led to the famous maban Revolt in which a group of Jews led by Simon Macabus successfully drove out the
cusd and restored the Jerusalem Temple this great victory in 164 BCE is the event that is commemorated annually to this day as the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 fits the tyak crisis perfectly verse 24 says that the conclusion of the 70 weeks will finish the transgression specifically the transgression of Antiochus and the heniz it will put an end to sin the atrocities Committed against the Jewish people and against the temple will be stopped and the so usds would be expelled from the land the verse also says it will atone
for iniquity and bring in Everlasting righteousness because the author of Daniel thought that after the defeat of Antiochus the end times and Judgment Day would arrive the last part of the verse in verse 24 to anoint a Most Holy place is a clear reference to the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple and Christian Apologists have no good explanation for how the anointing of a Most Holy Place fits into their christological interpretation the anointed one cut off in verse 26 is obviously onias III the people of the prince who is to come are the cusd under Antiochus
who destroyed the city and the sanctuary by torturing and murdering countless Jews and by desecrating the temple verse 27 states that the prince who is to come Antiochus shall make a Strong Covenant with many for one week referring to Jewish helist like Jason and menus allying with the cusd against their fellow Jews the next part for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering clearly refers to Antiochus outlawing Jewish sacrifices from 168 to 164 BCE about 4 years or half a week there is no other event in Jewish history where
the temple sacrifices were temporarily stopped for a few years and then brought back this Never happened under the Persians the Greeks or the Romans this verse can only be referring to the Antioch crisis and the maban Revolt Christian apologists have no explanations for most of these descriptions they have no clue who the prince who is to come refers to some say it's a Roman Emperor like Nero Titus or Vespasian and others say it's the Antichrist they have no explanations for the strong Covenant with many for one week or the end to sacrifice an offering For
half a week all they're sure of is that the anointed one cut off must be Jesus they also try to claim the destruction of the city and the sanctuary in verse 26 refers to the destru destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE however this doesn't work because it's supposed to happen within 7 years after the anointed one is cut off and the destruction of Jerusalem happened 40 years after Jesus's death it also doesn't explain why the end to Sacrifice and offering only lasts half a week when the destruction of the temple by the
Romans put an end to sacrifice per permanently and remember verse 24 mentioned that the 70 weeks would end with the anointing of a Most Holy place which means the sanctuary which was defiled will be restored and rededicated this cannot refer to the events of 70 CE so it cannot refer to the time of Jesus pierced figure the next verse Zechariah 12:10 Describes an unn Nam figure who was pierced by the inhabitants of Jerusalem and there is another scripture that says people will look at him whom they pierced there are a variety of different identifications of
this mysterious pierced figure in Zechariah 12:10 some regard him as a great military leader who will be killed in a future eschatological War others regard him as a prophet or religious reformer Killed during some intrac community Strife in the second temple period Christians of course claim that this figure is Jesus Christ but there is no evidence either for or against this assertion John J Collins sums up the overall scholarly opinion nicely the one whom they have pierced has been identified with a range of historical figures from Josiah to Simon mcabe more probably it refers to
some incident that is no longer known to Us Near the time time of composition inevitably it has also been interpreted in a Messianic sense so some Scholars find In this passage a martyrdom of the eschatological Good Shepherd or davidic King there is nothing in the text however to confirm that the one who was pierced was a king since there is no parallel for such a notion of Messianic martydom in second temple Judaism it seems unwise to derive it from such a cryptic and controversial text as Zechariah 12:10 the suffering servant Isaiah 53 the last and
most well-known passage that Christians claim is about Jesus is the fourth servant Psalm Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12 which describes the Affliction and exaltation of the mysterious suffering servant the precise IDE identity of this figure has been debated for centuries some claim it refers to the nation of Israel during the Babylonian captivity Others say it is a righteous Remnant or Pious minority of Jews during the Exile still others say it's about an individual either a Jewish King like Hezekiah or jeim or a prophet like Jeremiah or the author of second Isaiah himself there is no
concrete scholarly consensus on who the suffering servant originally was meant to be as John J Collins states there is no consensus on the identity of the servant in the original context of Dudo Isaiah the most popular views are that the servant represents an ideal Israel or the prophet himself or the Israelite King in Exile Benjamin D summer agrees the identity of the servant has erated much debate most rabic commentators and some Modern Scholars argue that dudo Isaiah speaks here in the first person and that these verses describe the prophet's own mission others argue that the
whole nation Israel is the servant and some Suggest that an ideal Israel or a faithful subset of the nation is the servant Christian apologists feel extremely confident that the suffering servant is Jesus but if you really break down and dissect the passage becomes clear that the descriptions of the servant that sound most like Jesus are theological claims that are not historically verifiable for instance lines like he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows with his wounds we Are healed the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all and he will make many
to be accounted righteous are all religious doctrines about the spiritual significance of this figure's suffering that could be applied to other figures not just Jesus for instance ancient Jewish rabic literature identifies the servant with a range of figures including Moses phoas Jeremiah and Rabbi aka the Apostle Paul who wrote decades before any of the gospel writers Actually identifies himself as the suffering servant for I will not venture to speak of anything except that Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel not
where Christ has already been named lest I build on someone else's Foundation but as it is written those who have never been told of him will see and those who have never heard will understand the typical Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 53 is that it refers to the nation of Israel during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th Century BCE this identification is supported by many other verses in the chapters preceding Isaiah 53 which explicitly call the servant Israel according to this interpretation the Jewish people bore the sins of the Gentile Nations through their persecution and Exile
and they brought healing to these Gentiles by showing Them who the one true God is in the Book of Daniel the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and the Persian king Darius come to believe in the god of Israel because of the unshakable faith of Daniel and his companions like the suffering servant these righteous Jews remained faithful and obedient to God even when threatened with death if we ignore the theological claims about vicarious atonement in Isaiah 53 and focus just on the Historically verifiable descriptions of the servant there really isn't anything in that passage which points exclusively to
Jesus all it clearly states is that the servant has had a humble origin was despised and persecuted was punished with the guilty even though he was innocent was cut off out of the land of the living and was rewarded with a long life and children all these descriptions could apply to hundreds of Jewish individuals from the Exile or to the entire group of righteous Jews personified as a servant if we had to pick one biblical figure who best fits the description of the suffering servant a good choice would probably be Jeremiah who suffered tremendous persecution
throughout his life Jeremiah had a humble beginning giving up his Priestly ha Heritage to become a prophet he was despised and rejected by his own people repeatedly beaten and imprisoned over at least 20 Years of his career and he was thrown into a well and left for dead yet his life was prolonged when someone pulled him out and eventually ended up in Egypt where he lived out the rest of his life and was buried among Wicked pagans the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 could easily be Jeremiah where Prophet very similar to Jeremiah or all the
righteous Jews during Exile including Jeremiah Daniel King jeho and many others professional Scholars who specialize in The book of Isaiah do not agree on who the exact identity of the suffering servant was meant to be by the author of the poem whether a specific historical figure or a group of righteous Jews however they all agree on who this figure is not he is not the Messiah for instance Christopher R North's classic work the suffering servant in dudo Isaiah and historical and critical study analyzes and evaluates all the interpretations of Isaiah 53 both Ancient and modern
over the past 2,000 years North concludes at the end for my part I do not think that anything is to be gained by attempts to prove that the servant is the davidic Messiah of Isa Isaiah 9 And1 though there are undoubtedly kingly features in the servant there's nothing in the songs to indicate that he was to be an anointed king in more recent work on Isaiah 40-55 John L McKenzie goes further in His assessment by explaining in Greater detail why Isaiah 53 is not Messianic in fact the servant exhibits no clearly Royal trait and the
antithesis between the vant and Cyrus pointed out above is equally valid when the servant is compared with the Messiah no Royal trait can be ascribed to him except the proclamation of judgment and law in 42 1-4 and these terms more obviously have another meaning ear the servant is not The same figure as the Messiah but a parallel figure which as it stands cannot be reconciled with the Messianic King a higher synthesis of of the two figures such as Christians believe was fulfilled in Jesus Christ was not within the vision of the prophets of the Old
Testament even though Christians assert that Jesus fits the description of the suffering servant perfectly this is not exactly true for instance the servant is portrayed as Suffering pain and grief throughout his whole life not just during his death Isaiah 533 calls him a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief this does not match the gospel's portrayal of Jesus as an enormously successful and popular teacher who only suffers at the end of his life verses 10- 12 also describes how the servant will be rewarded for his obedience he shall see his offspring he shall prolong his
days and he shall divide the spoil with the strong in Other words the servant will be rewarded with a long life children and material wealth clearly none of this applies to Jesus who never married or had any children was killed at the age of 33 and was homeless and dirt poor all the way to the Grave even if Christian beliefs about Jesus are true this last part of Isaiah 53 does not fit him according to Christian theology Jesus sacrificed himself not for any reward but out of Pure love for Humanity we can also look at
the first three servants songs in the earlier chapters of Isaiah and see that the servants Mission takes place during the Exile in the 6th century B.C Isaiah 49:6 says the servants mission is to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel this only makes sense in the historical context where the Jews were scattered among the Gentile Nations Isaiah 49:7 calls this Figure the servant of rulers Jesus was never a servant of rulers obviously this is referring to Jews like Daniel and King jeaken who served in the courts of Babylonian
and Persian kings during the Exile when defending the Messianic interpretation of Isaiah 53 against Jewish or secular identifications of the suffering servant as Israel as the righteous Remnant as dudo Isaiah Etc Christian apologist almost always bring up the tarum of Jonathan bin uzil a First century Jewish text which is basically a paraphrase of Isaiah 53 these apologists claim that this is the oldest Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 53 and that it supports the identification of the servant as the Messiah therefore the Messianic interpretation is the earliest attested interpretation and the Jewish and secular interpretations are later
reinterpretations that should be dismissed let's briefly Look at the tarum and compare this text with Isaiah 53 the first verse in the suffering servant passage reads behold my servant shall act wisely he shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted the tarum of Jonathan paraphrases it as behold my servant Messiah shall prosper he shall be high and increase and be exceedingly strong as the house of Israel looked to him during many days this seems like a pretty straightforward interpretation Until you read a little further Isaiah 52:14 as many were astonished at you his
appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind the tarum paraphrases that as because their countenance was darkened among the peoples and their complexion beyond the sons of men clearly there is more going on here than a simple Messianic interpretation the tarum has identified The figure whose appearance was marred as a collective not an individual let's keep reading then he will be despised and will cut off the glory of all the kingdoms they will be prostrate and mourning like a man of pains and like one destined for
sickness and as though the presence of the shakina had been withdrawn from us they will be despised and esteemed not the one suffering here is not the Messiah but all the kingdoms who Despised the Messiah the tarum has completely changed Isaiah 53 so that the servant no longer suffers but actually causes his enemies the Gentiles to suffer for opposing him even the well-known and often quoted line he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken Smitten by God and Afflicted is changed to then for our sins he will pray and
our iniquities will for his sake be forgiven although we were accounted stricken smitten from Before the Lord and Afflicted the vicarious suffering for the sins of others is completely gone so the tarum of Jonathan is not nearly as big of a Checkmate as apologists think it is in fact we actually have a trump card of our own that's even bigger despite what apologists typically claim it turns out that this tarum is not the oldest Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 53 there is an older text called the wisdom of Solomon Which was composed at least half a
century earlier than the targum of Jonathan in the second and third chapters of this book the author describes the suffering of righteous Jews at the hands of the wicked who despise them for their righteousness and piety wisdom of Solomon 2:20 let us test him with insult and torture so that we may find out how reasonable he is and make trial for his forbearance let us condemn him to a Shameful death for according to what he says he will be protected in the eyes of the foolish they seem to have died and their departure was thought
to be a disaster and their going from us to be their destruction but they are at peace for though in the sight of others they were punished their hope is full of immortality having been disciplined a little They will receive great good because God tested them and found them worthy of himself like gold in the Furnace he tried them and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them in the time of their visitation they will shine forth and will run like Sparks through the stubble the connection between wisdom 2-3 and Isaiah 53 is widely acknowledged
by biblical Scholars Christopher R North writes that the writer of the wisdom of Solomon was familiar with Isaiah 40- 66 needs no proof and his description of the sufferings of the righteous man in Verses 1-7 reads like a paraphrase of Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 53 Joseph blinkinsop agrees we are probably justified in picking up Echoes of the last Servant Song in this account especially since the righteous sufferer calls himself the servant of the Lord David Winston writes the description of the suffering and Vindication of the child of the Lord in verse 13 is based on
the fourth Servant Song in Isaiah Addison G Wright says the picture of the Just here and in 3 1-9 is based on the fourth Servant Song this is not however our trump card there is one more Jewish text even older than wisdom of Solomon which contains the actual oldest interpretation of Isaiah 53 in existence this text is none other than the Book of Daniel itself most people don't know this but there's actually an illusion to Isaiah 53 in the last chapter of Daniel and those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky
above and those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever in the original Hebrew the word for those who are wise is mascal these are the heroes of the Book of Daniel the faithful Jews who were persecuted during their Exile but remained faithful to God in Daniel 12:3 the author describes the Glorious Vindication of these mascal by taking Words directly from the suffering servant passage in Isaiah in Isaiah 52:13 the servant is described as yasil wise the root word for masculine in Isaiah 53:11 it says the servant will make many to be
accounted righteous and these exact words are mirrored in Daniel 12:3 in 1953 Harold Lewis Ginsburg wrote undoubtedly our author has identified the many of Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12 with the masses in the time of the antien religious persecution and the servant with the minority of steadfast anti-h heliz this conclusion is supported by John J Collins who states HL Ginsburg has shown that the heroes of the book The mascal Wise teachers are modeled on the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 Richard J Clifford States Daniel 11:33 through1 1210 has been called the Earliest interpretation of the fourth
Servant Song it interprets the Jewish loyalist of the anti King period in the 2 Century BCE as the servant of 5213 through 5312 Michael a nib also mentions the application of the fourth Servant Song to the group described in Daniel 123 as the wise and and as Those Who led many to righteousness through the illusion of Isaiah 53:11 and Isaiah 52:12 let me say this again the author Of The Book of Daniel who Christian apologists believe was inspired by God agrees with the collective interpretation of Isaiah 53 for Daniel the suffering servant is not the
Messiah but the righteous Jews who remained steadfast in spite of persecution so Christians who is the suffering servant it's not the Messiah it's not Jesus it's the Jewish people who remained faithful to God according to the divinely inspired Prophet Daniel Himself this is the correct interpretation of Isaiah 53 Checkmate Case Closed Mike drop if you disagree with this interpretation you're disagreeing with the prophet Daniel who you believe was inspired by God that concludes our video today all of the best most compelling most popular Old Testament passages that Christian apologists point to as miraculous predictions of
Jesus turn out to be nothing but false claims mistranslations And really bad ex of Jesus the Jewish people are right for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah Jesus did not fulfill even a single Messianic prophet Prophecy from the Old Testament if you enjoyed this documentary on prophecies please like comment share this thing far and wide get people's attention and I'd love to see reactions from some of the apologists I'm fairly certain they'll have much to say but I want to thank Step Ford for writing this script and helping craft this video if you haven't already consider
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