300 Times 0

An examination of the 300 Prophecies of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures

By Yaakov ben Chaim Tzvi

An examination of the 300 Prophecies of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures

Introduction

Less than 10%

Judaism; a different approach

What’s in a name?

Unity or Trinity?

Atonement & Salvation

Why 300 times 0?

What is prophecy?

The Prophecies

Micah 5:2

Genesis 3:15

Genesis 12:3

Genesis 22:8

Isaiah 9:6

Isaiah 7:14

Psalms 2

Malachi 3:1

Malachi 4:5-6

Isaiah 40:3

Deuteronomy 18:15

The parable of the “master” archer

Jeremiah 31:15

Psalms 72:10

Isaiah 53

Isaiah 8:14

Zechariah 9:9

Psalms 41:9

Zechariah 11:12

Psalms 35:11

Psalms 22:16

Psalms 110:1

Jeremiah 23:5

Daniel 9

Is the New Testament the reliable, inspired word of God?

Can we add anything to the word of God?

Absence of Proof is not proof

The 13 principles of Jewish faith

So what’s next?

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

300 Times 0

An examination of the 300 Prophecies of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures

By Yaakov ben Chaim Tzvi

Raised as an orthodox Jewish kid in New York, I lived what some might consider to have been a religiously sheltered life. My entire family is Jewish as were all of my friends until my teens. I went to an all-boy’s religious Hebrew school (Yeshiva), went to synagogue every week and frequented the local kosher restaurants and Jewish hot spots. Even though I lived in New York, the only part of the city I was truly familiar with was “Jew York”. As a result of my closed religious experiences, I had a strong desire to see what else was beyond the confines of my community; I wanted to experience the world as others saw it from outside the Jewish perspective. During my formative years I had been instilled with a deep love of country and a desire to serve something greater than myself (which is what Judaism is actually about) so in 1992 at the age of 20, I enlisted as a sailor in the U.S. Navy and was one of only three professed Jews on a ship of 1600 men.

During my years of service as I met people from all walks of life, I began to realize that many outside the major U.S. metropolitan areas knew very little about Jews and our beliefs. In addition, what little information people actually knew about us was heavily distorted and usually stereotypical. One sailor in my department who came from what must have been the backwoods in Alabama couldn’t believe I was Jewish because he thought we only existed in the time of the Bible. His exact words to me were “I thought you people were extinct?” I told him that we were still very much alive and that we practiced the same faith as our ancestors in the very Bible he held in his hands. Some of the others I had met tried to convince me that Jews apparently “forgot” that Jesus was God and that somehow we had ended up worshipping Satan instead. Most of the Christians that I came in contact with were wonderful people, however many times they had a religious agenda when they spoke to me. Instead of just allowing me to believe what I wanted and respecting me for it, they adamantly tried to convert me to their faith by telling me that I was going to Hell no matter how good of a person I was because I didn’t accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior. One of the most common arguments they used was that our very own Hebrew Bible contained over 300 prophecies that clearly showed Jesus as being the Jewish Messiah. They kept talking about all the prophecies that openly spoke of Jesus and that Jews who ignored these truths were blinded or uneducated. Until that time, I had never encountered this overt challenge of my belief system.

While I was very knowledgeable in Judaism having been brought up in an observant Orthodox family, I had never researched as to why Jews rejected Jesus as the Jewish Messiah other than he claimed to be God, which is certainly invalidation enough in Judaism. At some point in time during my naval service I had been given a book written by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan called The Real Messiah, which outlined some of the major reasons why Jews cannot accept Jesus, or any man for that matter, as a physical son or incarnation of God. It was that book which I still hold dear that sparked my interest in this subject and one that has continuously fueled my desire to educate both Jews and Christians as to why the religious dogmas of Judaism and Christianity are incompatible. While it’s true that Jews and Christians both share an identical ethical, moral and values based system, the role of Jesus in Christianity has created a chasm that is impossible to bridge. This book is not anti-Christian; it is merely a refutation to the Christian claim that the Jewish bible contains reference to Jesus as being the Messiah which was promised to the Jewish people.

This work is not intended to be all encompassing, but a brief introduction to Christians and others interested in this topic, as to how Jews have interpreted our scriptures with regard to the Jewish Messiah for the past three thousand years. There are dozens of Jewish websites and books, as well as millions of pages full of Christian apologetics that discuss and debate these differences however many of these works are written from a technical and scholarly level and that is where this book is different. My goal was not merely to rewrite the information that exists, but to try and simplify what is out there in a format that would become accessible to the average reader. As such, I have spent years gathering material from numerous Jewish sources and have spent many months trying to put the information into words, which is certainly the most difficult part.

The Torah was not given only to the sages but to the entire house of Israel. The Torah itself proclaims in Deuteronomy 30:11 “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.” The Torah itself testifies that its very words are in our mouth and heart, our mind and spirit, in the very soul of each and every Jew.

It is with this labor of love that I present to you the Jewish explanations on the 300 prophecies of Jesus.

Introduction

For 3,300 years, the Jewish people have preserved the Torah, the foundational document of the Jewish faith with meticulous detail. Comprising approximately 80 sheets of parchment, a Torah is cured, tanned, scraped and prepared according to exacting Torah law specifications and contains exactly 304,805 letters. Each handwritten scroll takes nearly an entire year to complete. The Torah scroll must be written by an observant, pious scribe, who carefully inks each letter with a feather quill, under the intricate guidelines of the Hebrew Ashurite Script. The sheets of parchment are then sewn together with the sinews of the animal to form the long Torah scroll we use today. Scribes have been performing this process the exact same way since the time of Moses, the first writer of the Torah. The Torah itself records that Moses gave scrolls to the leaders of each tribe and they copied multiple Torahs from each throughout history. In every generation, in every location, wherever Jews could be found, leaders and lay-people alike had access to the exact same Torah given by Moses.

The process of handwriting a scroll has in fact preserved the Torah far better than any other method as evidenced by the findings of ancient scroll copies over 2,000 years old. When compared with today’s Torah scrolls, the ancient copies were virtually identical with only 9 differences in letters over a 3,300 year period. In addition, the variations of the 9 letters throughout the total 304,805 letters in the Torah did not change the meaning of even one single word, thereby preserving the Torah for over 33 centuries. There is even some debate as to whether the errors are even errors at all since Jewish Law requires the burial of Torah Scrolls that are unfit for use. The entire reason these scrolls may have been buried is precisely because of the differences of those letters. Regardless of the reason, in addition to the meticulous writing style and care for each “jot and tittle” that Judaism has preserved, the exact meaning and context of each word, sentence and paragraph has also been passed down from generation to generation in both oral as well as written form. Jews from across the world share the same customs, rituals and laws even though they have no other obvious connection to each other. Jews in Spain, Australia, India and China have had the same system of beliefs and customs as Jews in America without any “modern” process of transmission between the two groups. No matter where in the world a Jew finds himself, the Torah is exactly the same. The Torah itself created both the means and the way for God’s word to be passed to the Jewish people regardless of where or when in history they lived. While the transmission process of the Jewish belief is one of the most carefully guarded processes among any religious system, knowing the nature of the God that we worship was the primary driving force that made everything else possible. In other words, the entire Jewish faith; the laws, customs, rituals and essence of the Jewish people have been that we possessed firsthand, verifiable knowledge of the true God of Israel.

The very first of the Ten Commandments states, “I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt”. This Commandment is more of a statement than a command because it was God’s way of introducing himself to the estimated 2,500,000 Israelites that stood at the foot of Mount Sinai. Every Jew, regardless of their observance level has engrained within them the guiding principle of Judaism which states; Sh’ma Yisrael, HaShem Elo-hainu, HaShem Echad. (Deuteronomy 6:4) “Hear O Israel the Lord is our God, the Lord is One”. This is the ultimate declaration of faith for every Jew. God introduced himself to Moses and the nation of Israel on Mount Sinai as a unified deity without form or division and this was shown to the people directly at that time. Moses told the nation, “You have been shown to know that the Lord your God is one above and below, there is none other” (Deuteronomy 4:35). The people didn’t hear about God from a prophet, they witnessed his introduction firsthand (Exodus 20:22). Never again had an event such as this taken place, where God introduced himself to an entire nation. Regardless of how a Jew acts, regardless of his or her observance level or participation in the Jewish faith, the single most important piece of information was and still remains the Sh’ma, the declaration that the God of Israel is not a man, but a complete, absolutely unified being. Every night, my children recite the Sh’ma with me. The Sh’ma has carried the Jewish people on the same faith walk for thirty-three centuries. It is the very first thing a Jewish child is taught to say when they learn to speak, and the very last thing a Jewish person utters at the moment of death.

Less than 10%

The Bible is by far the most widely published book of all time with an estimated 5 to 6 Billion copies, yet studies have shown that this current generation is the most biblically illiterate group in history. According to a 2009 survey by CBN Christian News, More than 60 percent of Americans can't name even half of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament or the four Gospels of the New Testament. In addition, some 80 percent of Americans including born again Christians believe that the statement "God helps those who help themselves" is a direct quote from the Bible. Across the country, countless surveys have shown that the actual number of Christians that have actually read the entire Bible cover to cover is incredibly low, it is estimated that number is less than 10%. The very same book that is used to profess the foundation of the Christian faith is read by a dismally low percentage of its adherents. How can these people be so sure of what’s in the Bible if they’ve never actually read what’s in it?

Since Christianity’s inception a little over 2,000 years ago, Christian scholars have continually mistranslated the Jewish scriptures in attempt to prove that the man they worship as the “Anointed one” (Moshiach in Hebrew or Messiah in English), is the man from Bethlehem known as Jesus the Christ. The fact that Christians believe in Jesus as their central deity is not of main concern to Jews; however, it is the distortion of Jewish scripture which is used to prove the validity of Christianity, a dogma which is diametrically opposed to the doctrines of Judaism which is of concern to us. Unlike other world religions, Christianity is the only one which shares the Jewish Bible as its foundation. As a Jew, the beliefs of others do not have any impact on my faith as they have a completely separate belief system from the one that I profess. I cannot prove that Buddhism is false since there is no basis with which to make my comparison, it’s just ‘my Bible against theirs’. Christianity however is different. Christianity has not only borrowed the entire Jewish system of belief and rewritten it, but it’s convinced that it actually possesses the true form of Judaism, which of course was created 1,300 years after Moses had already established it. Christianity believes that the Jewish people are correct about the scriptures, the Commandments, the rituals, the sacrifices, the Temple, and virtually every other aspect of the Hebrew Scriptures except the most important part, the nature of the God we worship. In order to be a Christian, one must believe that the same people that wrote the bible, translated the bible, and are the direct living descendants of the people in the Bible, forgot who and what they worship. This would actually be quite funny if it weren’t so sad.

As one who has been witnessed to by Christians countless times, I can attest to the genuineness with which Christians believe. The biggest insult to me personally has not been Christian people, in fact I have many Christian friends from different denominations and I find them to be wonderful people. They are kind, honest, God fearing people who want to do the right thing. In my opinion they act very “Christ like”; to borrow a Christian term. No, the biggest insult to me comes when my friends who have never read the original Jewish Bible (and can’t read or write Hebrew of course) tell me that they can interpret and understand Hebrew Scriptures better than the Jews who wrote the Bible can. Considering that all of my Christian friends have bounced between the various denominations and have now found the “right” form of Christianity, this is an insult. When they were Catholic they were absolutely sure they had the right translation, that is until they became Baptists then they were absolutely, positively sure. A 2008 USA Today survey found that 44% of Americans no longer practice the Christian faith they were born into. Today, there are over 41,000 different denominations of Christianity [Wikipedia] and many of these denominations argue about some of the most basic fundamental beliefs. The primary reason for the vast discrepancies among the multitude of Christian denominations boils down to differences in scriptural translation and interpretation. Judaism however does not possess that problem. The Hebrew translation has not changed nor have the dogmas of our faith. Jews practice the same Judaism today as the one Moses transmitted to our people 3,300 years ago.

How can Christians be so sure that they know what the Hebrew Bible says, when almost all have admitted to me that they never fully read it? Would you trust your life to a surgeon who only read bits and pieces of his medical books, or hire a lawyer to defend you in a criminal case who only reads selected quotes from a law journal? No? Then why would you ever trust your eternal soul to people who cannot read the scripture in the same language it was given. The Jewish people are a Nation of Priests who are raised from birth with the word of God in our mouths. Isaiah 59:21 says “As for me, this is my covenant with them [Israel]," says the Lord. "My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever," says the Lord. This covenant was God’s promise to the Prophets that the Jewish people would always maintain their faith and belief no matter what the circumstances and that we would always possess the true and proper interpretation of the Torah.

It would be illogical to believe that God could appoint a nation of priests and then not give them a way to properly transmit his word through the ages, especially since he made a covenant that his teaching would never depart from our lips. It would be foolish for someone to believe that the Jewish nation is right about everything else but not that God was actually a 33 year old Jewish man from Bethlehem born of a virgin woman. It’s completely illogical. It is for this, and many other reasons that Christianity bases itself on the premise of ‘Blind Faith’. Throughout my conversations with Christians the issue of blind faith inevitably comes up time and time again.

According to Webster’s dictionary, faith is defined as: 1. Confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another’s ability. 2. A belief that is not based on proof: He had faith that the hypothesis would be substantiated by fact. Hebrews 11:1 in the New Testament says “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”. In other words, faith makes us feel good. It gives us [sometimes false] hope that what we believe will come true.

Judaism does not base its belief system on faith; it bases its belief system on knowledge. Webster’s dictionary defines knowledge as: 1. acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition: knowledge of many things. 2. Familiarity or conversance, as with a particular subject or branch of learning: Knowledge of accounting was necessary for the job. 3. Acquaintance or familiarity gained by sight, experience, or report: knowledge of human nature.

Therein lays the difference between Christianity and Judaism. Christianity is based on the teachings of people who had no connection to Christianity today. There are no Christians alive who claim ancestry from Jesus or any of his disciples. There are no Christians alive today who are living ancestors of the original Christian church. The information that has been passed on throughout the generations has been changed dramatically to form what is now modern day Christianity. The reason for the vast discrepancies within various sects of Christianity, and there are many, is because Christianity is a system of faith. In a system of faith, dogmas change, customs evolve and rituals form. A faith based system has nothing solid to attach itself to. In fact, many Christians who claim to possess the ‘Holy Spirit’ worship however they are guided. Many don’t attend a Church and practice the form of Christianity that they believe comes from within their heart. It is impossible for a system guided by one’s heart to remain the same across billions of people throughout the centuries.

A faith based system leaves room for self-interpretation and divergence from the original intent of the word. A person that is guided by the Holy Spirit will not have the same practices, beliefs and rituals as another person guided by the Holy Spirit; each person is left to his or her own interpretation. This is proven by the fact that Baptists, Evangelicals, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Lutherans, Southern Baptists, etc. etc. all claim to possess the true form of Christianity yet each one worships differently and has different core beliefs than the others. How can a single spirit of truth guide thousands of Churches in contradictory paths? An often given answer is that each group claims the others are not real Christians. Each group claims to possess the true Holy Spirit, while the other denominations are misguided heretics. It is easy to see why a faith based system can never work in properly transmitting a set of beliefs across the ages.

One only needs to look at early Church history to discover that the Nicene Creed, the Christian Statement of Faith that describes the foundational beliefs of Christianity was created in 325A.D. by the First Ecumenical council over 300 years after the death of Jesus. Additional councils were held many years later to add statements of faith that were left out in the original council. The primary reason that the Roman Catholic Church convened the council of Nicaea was to address the Arian Heresy. This doctrine, which even some of the early Catholic Church fathers believed such as Origen, was the idea that Jesus was not a co-equal partner with God. Even during the earliest formation of the Catholic Church, its founders could not agree on Jesus’ exact nature and his place in the “Godhead”. Out of 1800 Bishops that were invited to the first council, approximately 200 or so actually attended. Of the 200 Bishops that attended, 22 were branded heretics because they held beliefs as early Christians that Jesus and God were not the same being. This was not a new concept; this religious philosophy had its roots in the very early development of the church. Early Christianity could not agree on the role of Jesus in this new religion. Throughout the centuries, additional councils and creeds were added into Christian doctrine. With each new addition, members who disagreed broke away and created the fragments which are the various theological groups within Christianity today. It is this editing and re-editing of Church canon, belief and custom that has given rise to the multitude of Christian Churches each claiming they possess the true meaning of Jesus’ original Church.

No single line of transmission throughout the Christian church has ever existed. No one branch of Christianity today has maintained the original teachings of the Church that Jesus spoke about in the New Testament. Matthew 16:18 proclaims “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Catholics of course use this passage to show that they are the original church, yet Protestant Christianity bases itself on the doctrine that the Catholic Church corrupted the original teachings of Jesus and that each person who is saved through Christ is a church unto themselves. It is completely impossible for a billion ‘little Churches’ to maintain the same teachings across the ages. The question of the ‘one true Church of Jesus’ has plagued honest Christians for centuries, and because no such Church exists today, Christianity was forced to re-interpret the meanings of that passage, as well as many others throughout the ages.

Image from Wikipedia

Judaism; a different approach

The God of Israel along with his co-author Moses took a very different approach. Moses ensured that by closing the Hebrew scripture in his generation and teaching the Israelites the entire belief system during the 40 year journey in the desert, he would guarantee that no conflicting belief systems would be introduced at a later date. This is why God presented himself to the Jewish people, because seeing something firsthand is always more powerful than hearing about it from others. The event at Sinai was witnessed by an estimated two and a half million people (the Bible says 600,000 men of military age which didn’t include women and children) and the exacting details passed down from generation to generation. This event did not require an act of faith because it was witnessed by the entire Jewish nation. The Israelites saw the 10 plagues, they saw the splitting of the sea, and they saw and heard God himself speak the 10 Commandments to them. For 40 years the Jewish nation ate bread that fell from heaven, the Jewish people didn’t have faith in God, they had firsthand knowledge of God. They didn’t think God existed, they openly saw that he existed. They had a tangible, visible relationship with the same divine being that freed them from bondage. The faith of a Jew comes only from the knowledge of our ancestors that he exists. The difference between the belief system of a Christian and a Jew is that a Christian’s faith comes from the Jewish nation’s personal written testimony of God’s existence. The faith of a Jew is supported by his knowledge of the Torah and the very words of his ancestors which are passed down from generation to generation in an unbroken chain of transmission.

The Judaism that is practiced today is the same belief system that was given by God to Moses on Mt Sinai. The deeper you scrutinize Jewish scripture, the more confident you are of its truth. Modern day Christianity however, cannot stand up to the same level of scrutiny. The reason for this is because most of the theology that Christians use to prove Christian belief system has been severely mistranslated or taken out of context from the Hebrew Bible. This is why I previously mentioned the importance of understanding the Hebrew language. Knowing Hebrew isn’t a nice thing to do, it’s a critical aspect in fully comprehending the Jewish scriptures.

What’s in a name?

In the Hebrew Bible, God uses 10 basic names when interacting with the Jewish people. Each name gives us a clue as to how God is communicating with us and in what capacity. The Hebrew names of God tell us if our interaction with him is one of mercy, anger, jealousy, etc. each name represents the role that God plays in the life of Israel. Imagine a man who works in a hospital; a surgeon. When he sees his patients, they refer to him as ‘doctor’. After a long day, the man returns home and is greeted by his children who call him ‘daddy’ and he is embraced with a loving hug by his wife who calls him ‘dear’.  A moment later he gets a call from his parents who passionately call him ‘son’. The man is the same person; however each name represents the role that he plays in the life of the people around him. The Hebrew Bible shows this detail with each name of God. Elokim is the name of God which is used when he is sitting in judgment, while Havaya, the Tetragrammaton is the name used to reflect infinite, abundant mercy. Shakai is the name of God used to reflect his interaction with physical nature and Tzivakot is the name God uses in battle when avenging his enemies and the enemies of Israel. Of course, the Christian Bible does not reflect any of this as he is referred to simply as ‘God’ throughout. This is but one example of the importance of learning the Hebrew language in order to fully comprehend the depth of Jewish scripture. Imagine if the same surgeon we spoke of previously was simply referred to as ‘mister’ in every interaction. You would miss the sincerity of his patients call, the love of his children and wife, and his significance in the life of his parents. The title of mister removes all feeling and emotion and leaves us with an empty shell which can be filled with our own interpretation; the Hebrew Bible does not leave room for that, the Christian Bible does.

Unity or Trinity?

The Triune nature of the Christian Godhead remains, even today, one of Christianity’s greatest mysteries. Christians accept that the God of Israel is One as explicitly stated in the Sh’ma, the Jewish statement of faith (Deuteronomy 6:4) and yet believe he is three separate and divided beings at the same time. One of the most convincing arguments I have heard for the nature of the Christian God was comparing him to water. Christians argue that God, like water, is one substance with 3 primary states; liquid, solid and gas. The analogy is brilliant, however since the Bible openly contradicts this hypothesis, we must reject it. It’s not that the analogy isn’t a good explanation; it’s just not based on Hebrew Scriptures. Let’s take a look at what the Hebrew and Christian scriptures say about the nature of God and see if he can be compared to water which changes form depending on the state.

Deuteronomy 4:15 - You saw no form of any kind the day the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman.

Deuteronomy 6:4 – Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.

Deuteronomy 4:35 - You have been shown to know that the Lord your God is one above and below, there is none other.

Deuteronomy 4:39 - Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

Isaiah 43:11 - I am the Lord, and there is no savior besides me.

Isaiah 44:6 - Thus says the Lord the King of Israel and his (Israel’s) Redeemer, I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.

Isaiah 45:5 - I am the Lord, and there is none else besides me.

Isaiah 45:6 – In order that those from the East and West would know that there is nothing besides me, I am God and there is no other. I am the one who forms light and creates darkness; who makes peace and creates evil; I am God creator of all things.

Hosea 13:4 - I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shall know no God but me; and there is no Savior besides me.

Psalm 86:10 - For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

Nehemiah 9:6 – You alone are the Lord, you made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, and all their Hosts.

1 Chronicles 17:20 - O Lord, there is none like you, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

One of the biggest biblical misconceptions that Christians have regarding the Trinity is the singular verse in Genesis 1:26 which says “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness”. Christians say that because God used “us” this proves he is a Triune God. However, the Bible explicitly states in the very next verse, Genesis 1:27 - So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them”. The verse itself states that God created man in his image, not their image, or our image as would suggest if God was a Trinity. All throughout the bible it says God is God alone as we just read above. Christians use this one single word from the entire 24 books of the Hebrew Bible to determine that God is made up of three separate beings.  The problem with the concept of the Trinity is that this one word contradicts all the other sentences that say God is not a man (Numbers 23:19/1 Samuel 15:29/Hosea 11:9), and God is God alone. Since the Hebrew Bible was written 1,300 years prior to the birth of Jesus and the concept of a Trinity never existed within Judaism what would a more likely answer be? If we look at existing Jewish literature we will find that it was not uncommon for kings and great leaders to use the plural of “we” when addressing subjects as opposed to the singular “I”. This is also one of the reasons that one of the Hebrew names for God, Elokim, is plural because it exemplifies infinitude, greatness and majesty. God’s use of the word “let us make man” teaches us that he was speaking to the heavenly court, the heavenly hosts and all the spiritual creations. God was preparing them for the main event, the finishing touches for the purpose of creation; the birth of mankind. In essence it wasn't only God that had a hand in our creation it was the entire universe, because everything was created specifically for humanity. The universe is a tool that mankind uses in our battle with free will. Once we understand this teaching, the words “let us make man” become crystal clear and completely support the verses we stated above. Understanding scripture from the Jewish perspective shows a distinctive harmony between the Hebrew Scriptures. To interpret God as a trinity disregards all other verses in the Bible which contradict a theology of complete unification as taught in the Jewish Bible.

As such, the Christian mystery is not how come Jews reject a triune God, but how Christians can believe in a Trinity when the very Bible they use to prove it openly contradicts it. In Judaism, the nature of God was never up for debate and the use of the word alone clearly confirms this. Jesus himself said in the Book of John 14:28 “The Father is greater than I”. This in itself should be enough to show that both Jesus and God are separate entities from each other and not equal. If this is true and Jesus is less than the Father, then worship of him as a God is nothing short of idolatry according to Judaism.

Atonement & Salvation

The concept of Atonement is another point of disagreement between Christianity and Judaism. Christians believe that only the shed blood of the perfect Lamb of God [Jesus] is capable of washing away sin. Besides the logical problems with this concept, such as God creating a world with sin and having everyone go to Hell until after the death of Jesus some 4,000 years after creation, the Hebrew Bible never required human sacrifices for atonement. It is incomprehensible how one can believe that a loving and merciful God would create a world containing sin, yet would not give mankind a way to atone for it until a 4,000 year waiting period was completed for the death of his son. This is tantamount to creating an office building and not putting fire exits in the structure until an actual fire broke out, by then it would be too late. The means [repentance] was built into the very fabric of creation. The fire exits were built, before the office building opened for business. In Judaism, repentance has always been a necessary and accessible means of atonement since the very moment of creation.

Judaism has always held belief in the biblical concept of Teshuvah, which means “return to God”. When someone is penitent and feels remorse and regret for the sins they have committed, they are immediately returned to favor with God and all their sins are forgiven. To a Jew, the most important question is not “how are we saved?” which is what Christians ask, but how can I best serve my God? As such, God gave the Jewish people 613 commandments to help us improve our lives and build a stronger connection to him. The more we strive to follow the commandments, the closer we come to understanding God and his role in our lives. Let us look at how the Torah instructs both Jews and Gentiles on the proper way to get saved.

Isaiah 1:16 - Wash, cleanse yourselves, remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes, cease to do evil. Learn to do good, seek justice, strengthen the robbed, perform justice for the orphan, and plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us debate, says the Lord. If your sins prove to be like crimson, they will become white as snow; if they prove to be as red as crimson dye, they shall become as white wool.

God requires more than just faith; he also requires that we stop doing evil and perform acts of kindness. In fact, Isaiah 3:10 says “Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds”. As Jews, we believe that what we do in this world, directly impacts us in the next which is why God is so concerned with how we live. A Gentile who lives a life of kindness and love for his fellow man is guaranteed a place in Heaven.

Hosea 14:2 “Take words with you and return [Teshuvah] to the Lord. Say to him: Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the bulls [sacrifices] of our lips”. Here, Hosea shows us that words enable us to return to the Lord If we ask him to forgive our sins, he will; this is the concept of repentance.

Psalms 51:16 & 17 “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise”.  King David shows us that sacrifices are not needed or wanted; God requires only a broken heart. If one is truly repentant, God always forgives. We do not need anyone’s shed blood to atone for us.

Hosea 6:6 “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings”. Once again, no sacrifice needed or wanted. God just wants our acknowledgement.

Jonah 2:1 & 9 “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord”. Again we see that Jonah’s song of thanks to the Lord was considered a sacrifice. God heard his call and saved him.

Psalms 50:14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me”. God desires the “sacrifices” of prayer and thank offerings for salvation. He does not desire the blood of goats or of men.

Psalms 40:6 “You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you have made me listen, I understand you do not require burnt offerings or sin offerings.” It doesn’t get clearer than this.

1 Samuel 15:22 “But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams”. Here, Samuel clearly shows that “faith” is only part of the equation. Obeying the voice of the Lord is better than sacrifice.

The Hebrew word for sacrifice is ‘Korban’ which is a derivative of the word ‘Karov’ meaning to ‘come close’. The concept of sacrifice is not that the blood itself atones for you; the concept of a sacrifice is that you feel remorse that it should have been you that is punished to die, but instead, an innocent animal is being killed because of you. The blood provides a way to help you atone and ‘come closer’ to God. The purpose of the sacrifice was that when you participate in slaughtering an animal, you commit yourself to try and sin-less because you don't want to take another creature’s life. The sacrificial process was designed to develop compassion, remorse and sensitivity in the offender; however, since the intentional sinner is unapologetic and lacks these necessary characteristics, the sacrifice cannot absolve him of guilt. This is why the Bible specifically states that the sacrifices were only for unintentional sins [Leviticus 4:2, 4:13, 4:22, 4:27, 5:15 and 5:18]. This is extremely logical because if someone sins intentionally, knowing full well that they would need to slaughter an animal, they really don’t care that another living creature must die and therefore the sacrifice itself will not expiate the sin.

The only way to completely atone for intentional sin is through repentance and this is the concept of the sacrifice. Now, blood was the best way for atonement because it required the sinner to play an active role in the sacrificial process by giving up and slaughtering his own animal, however not everyone owned animals which is why God arranged alternate processes to give flour and money as atonement offerings. Exodus 30:15 states “The rich shall give no more, and the poor shall give no less than half a shekel, with which to give the offering to the Lord, to atone for your souls. You shall take the silver of the atonements from the children of Israel and use it for the work of the Tent of Meeting; it shall be a remembrance for the children of Israel before the Lord, to atone for your souls." The fact that the Bible says that the money was atonement for your souls, shows that blood alone was not needed. In addition to money, when people were unable to give an animal they were permitted to use fine flour for the sin expiation process. Leviticus 5:11 “But if he cannot afford two turtle doves or two young doves, then he shall bring as his sacrifice for his sin one tenth of an ephah [measurement] of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall not put oil over it, nor shall he place frankincense upon it, for it is a sin offering. However, the flour and money also only worked when repentance was part of the process. In fact, money is still used as an offering today in conjunction with other forms of repentance. God provided Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, [Leviticus 16:30] once a year to atone for our sins. We are to afflict our souls by fasting, which is abstinence from eating or drinking for a 25 hour period. The Torah says in the passage that the day itself atones for our sins, once again, only if we are penitent.

Using this logic, it now becomes crystal clear why all the prophets above said God doesn't need sacrifices. It was because the whole purpose of the sacrifice was only to make you repent, if someone repents than that is truly what God wants. Active participation in the sacrificial process was the means through which the person was able to ‘come close’ to God in order to feel remorse. The concept that Jesus died for the sins of the world, and that the sinner had no part in the atonement process completely contradicts the entire point of the Korban Sacrifice. If however, we actively repent and feel remorse for our transgressions we come close to God through our own actions and do not require an animal sacrifice.  Human sacrifice and specifically the sacrifice of the Messiah was never part of the Jewish atonement or salvation process. This concept was born from the integration of other cultures and beliefs into the Christian faith. This has never been part of the Jewish belief system and runs contrary to its very foundation.

Why 300 times 0?

This brings me to the title of the book and why I chose to name it 300 times 0. As I mentioned in the opening of the book, a common argument I have heard time and again from Christians was how Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies in Jewish scripture. Christians, of whom less than 10% have read the Bible cover to cover, are completely convinced that Jews are ignorant of our own Bible. These people believe that if we don’t see the 300 prophecies that Jesus supposedly fulfilled, it is only because we are blinded to the very Bible we [our ancestors] wrote. My purpose in writing this book is not to offend Christians, even though I am sure that will be the case with some, my purpose is to have Christians dig for themselves into the Hebrew scripture and see if the 300 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled are actually valid Jewish prophecies. This book is for the Christian who is not afraid to confront his or her faith, it is not for the Christian who believes based on ‘blind faith’; there is no cure for that illness. This book is only for the Christian who desires knowledge, for the Christian who believes that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” [Habakkuk 2:14].

What is prophecy?

Prophecy is defined as; the foretelling or prediction of what is to come. What makes a prophecy unique is not only that it is the foretelling of an event, but that the event is significantly important in some way.

In the book of Isaiah 38:7, King Hezekiah fell ill and was given a sign from God that he would be healed. Isaiah was told to approach the King and prophecy to him that the sun would recede backward by ten degrees and according to scripture it did. What If Hezekiah was unable to see the sign? Would it still be considered a prophecy? Let’s say that every 100 years, the sun would move backwards by 10 degrees during the day. Would the event that happened to Hezekiah be significant at all? One could say that it would have been just a normal part of nature. The only reason this prophecy is important is because it happened once to Hezekiah and never happened again, ever. This is exactly the point of a prophecy.

All throughout the Hebrew Scriptures prophecy plays a central role. According to Judaism there are two types of prophecy; there is fulfilled prophecy and unfulfilled prophecy; things that came true and things that have yet to come true. Christianity however believes in a third type of prophecy; things that came true, things that came true again [after the first time], and things that have yet to come true. In other words, Christians believe that the same prophecy can be fulfilled multiple times, dual prophecy if you will. This concept has no basis in Hebrew Scripture. A dual prophecy removes the prophetic significance of the first event and makes the secondary event a rare, yet natural occurrence. Nowhere in the Jewish Bible are the same prophecies fulfilled once and then fulfilled again somewhere else. Each prophecy is unique and remains a one-time event. The prophecy of exile and redemption from Egypt was a singular, fixed marker in time commemorating a specific event. All other prophecies in the Hebrew scripture are the same way. An event which happens multiple times is not prophetic but a series of natural events. If the Red sea split every few years, would that have been a significant part of the Exodus? The fact that the sea split only once in the history of humanity makes it a seminal point in time that we can reference. Its grandeur rests in the fact that this happened only once and will never happen again. The concept of dual prophecy exists only within the Christian framework of understanding Jesus, otherwise it can be found nowhere else in the Hebrew Scriptures. As we move through the prophecies that Jesus supposedly fulfilled, keep in mind that without exception, every prophecy had already been fulfilled at some other point in time and by someone else long before Jesus. If a virgin woman had given birth centuries before Mary and it was already documented in scripture, would Jesus’ birth have such significant importance? Using this analogy let us now examine some of the 300 prophecies of Jesus and understand why 300 times 0 is zero.

The Prophecies

Micah 5:2 “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from old, from ancient times.” According to Christians, this sentence is used to prove that Jesus of Nazareth, who was born in Bethlehem is the person referred to in this passage. Since the identity of Bethlehem Ephrathah is in question, let us look at another reference in the Bible which may provide some information on who this is referring to.

If we take a look at 1 Samuel 17:58 it says “Whose son are you, young man?" Saul asked him. David said, "I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem. In this passage, the Bible makes clear that the one from Bethlehem is Jesse the father of King David. In addition, Genesis 48:7 says “On the road to Ephrath which is Bethlehem” so we see that Bethlehem and Ephrathah are the same. If we now re-read Micah 5:2 we see that in fact, Jesse is the one referred to in this passage as Bethlehem, Ephrathah. This prophecy was given to Jesse the father of King David about his future son who would rule over Israel. Jesus never ruled as a leader, but King David was the anointed [Messiah] King for 40 years of his life. During King David’s reign, the entire nation of Israel was at peace. If you continue to read the rest of Micah Chapter 5 you see that the one they refer to would [verse 5] “be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses”. The chapter itself tells us what would happen when this ruler takes the reigns. Did the Assyrians march through Israel when Jesus was king? The obvious answer is no. By taking one word, Bethlehem, and attributing it to Jesus, Christians make a connection where none exists. Since Jesse, the father of David already fulfilled this passage there is no reason for this prophecy to be fulfilled again by Jesus. By claiming this dual prophecy, Christians this also refer this prophecy to Jesus however by the same logic, we can use it to apply to every future anointed king of Israel.

Genesis 3:15 “And I shall place hatred between you and between the woman, and between your seed and between her seed. He will crush your head, and you will bite his heel." Christians believe that this passage refers to Jesus who symbolically crushed the head of Satan. This sentence is so vague and if one honestly believes that it could refer to Jesus, it could just as easily refer to any number of people in scripture. In fact, we find that in Deuteronomy 9:21 it says that “I Crushed the head” refers to Moses crushing the head of the Golden Calf which was the essence of sin. If we read this passage, we will see that this is actually a curse which begins in verse 14, where God tells the serpent, “ And the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed be you more than all the cattle and more than all the beasts of the field; you shall walk on your belly, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life” God continues cursing the serpent by saying that “he”, mankind will crush your head [to kill you] and you will bite his heel. The reason the serpent will bite the heel of man is because God just cursed the serpent that he must crawl on his belly and eat dust. This prophecy has no reference to Jesus at all and is part of the curse that God gave to the snake. To specifically attribute this passage to Jesus has absolutely no basis in Hebrew scripture, nor do the words of the passage itself allude to Jesus in anyway. If there is any prophetic reference to Jesus it is only because one chooses to see it.

Genesis 12:3 “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you." Christians use this passage to prove that since Jesus was from Abraham [as is every Jew]; this passage must be talking about him. If we read the previous sentence however, Genesis 12:2 says “And I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will glorify your name, and you shall be a blessing.” This passage refers to Abraham and the nation of Israel, as clearly stated in the passage. “I will make you into a great nation and bless those who bless you”. This prophecy is reiterated again in Genesis 22:18 which says “and through your offspring [plural] all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” This is obviously talking about the nation of Israel and Jesus has nothing to do with this passage. In fact, God makes it clear that the reason the nations of earth are blessed is because Abraham obeyed the word of God. Christians claim that Abraham was saved by ‘grace through faith and not works’. The Bible makes it clear time and again that God loved Abraham because of what he did which of course was an outward reflection of his inner faith. Had Abraham just believed and not obeyed he would not have had the relationship with God that he had. Faith without the physical expression of works is dead [New Testament James 2:14-26]. Regardless, this is not a prophecy of Jesus but of Abraham which is fulfilled in the nation of Israel and not the personhood of Jesus.

Genesis 22:8 “And Abraham said; God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And they both went together.” Since Christianity refers to Jesus as the lamb of God, Christians assume that this passage refers to him. When Abraham and Isaac get to the altar, Isaac realized that he was to be the sacrifice and willingly lets his father Abraham bind him to the altar. If God actually wanted a human sacrifice, he would have allowed Abraham to slaughter Isaac as an offering. The concept of human sacrifice is so repulsive to Jews and the God of Israel which is actually what made this test so difficult for Abraham. The binding of Isaac or the ‘Akeidah’ was the last of Abraham’s ten trials as recorded in the Jewish Scriptures. Abraham could not comprehend how God could request of him a human sacrifice as it contradicted everything he knew about the nature of God. Genesis 22:12 shows us that God did not want human sacrifices when he commanded Abraham “not to lay a hand on the boy” for it was only a test to prove that Abraham feared the Lord. So where was the lamb that God would provide? Genesis 22:13-14 says “Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. Looking back at Genesis 22:8 we read that the Lord would provide the sacrifice in place of Isaac and he did. The prophecy of God providing was fulfilled with Abraham’s own words. To say that Jesus also fulfilled a prophecy that Abraham had already completed just takes the passage out of context and forces Jesus into the verse. In addition, Abraham calls the name of the place “God will see” however most Christian Bibles misinterpret the Hebrew word “Re’eh” which means ‘see’, as ‘provide’. In other words, Christians misinterpret that God will ‘provide’ [future tense] the lamb [Jesus]. The correct scriptural translation however is, Genesis 22:14 “And Abraham named that place, The Lord will see, as it is said to this day: On this mountain, the Lord will be seen.” The same mountain where the Lord will be seen is none other than on Mt. Moriah where the Holy Temples stood and the Ark of the Covenant rested. This mountain is where the current Dome of the Rock stands and which will ultimately be removed with the restoration of the third and final Holy Temple. This is the place where the Lord ‘will be seen’.

Let us look at two translations of the next prophecy, the Hebrew version ofIsaiah 9:6 says “For a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us, and the authority is upon his shoulder, the wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name the prince of peace.” Next, let us look at the Christian King James Version of the Bible Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” There are multiple errors in the translation of this passage which we shall now discuss. First of all, let us look at the tense in this sentence. Isaiah lived 800 years before the birth of Jesus. Isaiah 9:6 says a child has been born to us, a son has been given to us and the authority is upon his shoulder. Had this prophecy been referring to Jesus, the birth would have been future tense, a son will be born a son will be given to us and the authority will be on his shoulder. Instead, the Hebrew Scriptures speak of an event that already happened, eight hundred years prior to the birth of Jesus. Even the KJV says “unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given” however the tense following that sentence was modified for “the government to be [future] on his shoulders” which is inconsistent with the rest of the text in the passage. In addition to the translational error in tense which changes an event that already happened into one that will happen; the KJV also changes the punctuation so that the child is called “Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”. The correct punctuation in Hebrew says that this child who is the wondrous advisor was called the Prince of Peace, by the mighty God, the everlasting father. In other words, it was God who called the name of this child, the prince of peace. By repositioning the Hebrew punctuation, the KJV misleads the reader into thinking that God himself is being born by being called, the mighty God. In fact, the reason this event is in the past tense [800 years before Jesus] was because this was speaking about the birth of King Hezekiah in the previous chapter [Isaiah 8]. King Hezekiah was called ‘Sar Shalom’ which means prince of peace in Hebrew. In addition, he was also called Immanuel or “God is with us” since the name Hezekiah means God is my strength. If one reads Isaiah Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 together, one will see that the Child that was born was the child in the previous chapter and not the birth of Jesus eight centuries in the future. The use of past tense on a future prophecy, as well as the repositioning of punctuation proves that this prophecy could not possibly be referring to Jesus born centuries later from the time this was written. This is nothing more than an error in translation and punctuation which is obvious if one reads the entire chapters 8 and 9 in succession.

The next Prophecy deals withIsaiah 7:14 and the Virgin birth. For this proof we will review both the original Hebrew and the mistranslated Greek/English text. Hebrew Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore, my Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, the young woman will become pregnant and bear a son, and she will name him Immanuel”. Now let us look at the Christian version of Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel”. Let us examine the problems with this verse.

First, the Hebrew word for virgin [Besulah] is used in the Book of Isaiah 8 times except for the prophecy of the Virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14. In fact, the very one place where Christians say it means virgin, the word ‘Naarah’ a ‘Young Woman’ is actually used instead. While it is true, that many times throughout the bible a young woman was also a virgin, we have precedent of a rape victim being referred to as young woman as well. In Genesis 34, Dinah the daughter of Jacob was raped by Shechem son of Hamor and was referred to as a ‘Naarah’, Young Woman after the rape. This is the exact same word used for the ‘virgin’ birth in Isaiah 7:14. The Greek Septuagint mistranslated the Hebrew word for Young woman to read virgin instead. If one insists that this Hebrew word must mean virgin, than the birth of Jesus was actually the second virgin birth in history. In Isaiah Chapter 8 the woman referred to in the prophecy gives birth to a son who is called Immanuel just as chapter 7:14 predicted.

It would be dishonest to use the exact same word to describe only the second virgin birth of Jesus but not the first birth of Immanuel. We cannot pick and choose where to apply virgin status if the word truly means virgin. The “child that was born”, [800 years before Jesus] in Isaiah 9:6 refers to the same child born in Isaiah Chapter 8, King Hezekiah, the son of King Ahaz. Now we can understand why the government falls on his shoulders, because he is the rightful heir to the throne of Ahaz. He is the crown prince, next in line to succeed his own father. Nowhere in the New Testament was Jesus ever called Immanuel, but Hezekiah in Hebrew means “God is my strength”. His birth, was God’s way of showing that “he was with us”, Ahaz and Hezekiah.

Even a cursory reading of Chapters 7, 8 and 9 together will reveal why this can absolutely not be speaking about the birth of Jesus centuries in the future. According to Isaiah 7, King Ahaz the ruler of Judah was afraid that his two enemies to the north, Rezin King of Aram and Pekah King of Israel were getting ready to attack him and annex Judah for their own territory. God sent Isaiah on a mission to let King Ahaz know that he would be safe from his enemies. Isaiah was to tell Ahaz that a son would be born and that when he sees the birth of this child [Hezekiah/Immanuel], he would know that God was with him. Logic would tell us, that a sign to Ahaz centuries in the future is no sign at all. How can the birth of a child so far into the future be a sign that he would not be defeated in battle when he would not be alive to witness it? The birth of his own son [Hezekiah] in Chapter 8 however was the visible sign that he needed for reassurance that he would not be defeated and his own son would reign after him. Refer to II Kings 16 and you will see that in fact, Rezin and Pekah attacked King Ahaz but as predicted by Isaiah could not defeat him. The son he had hoped for, King Hezekiah also called the “Prince of Peace” reigned after Ahaz just as this prophecy predicted. The government fell on his shoulders and he ushered in an era of peace all throughout the land such as had never been done before. This is the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 and Chapter 8 and 9 confirm this. Nowhere in Jewish scriptures do virgins give birth, and this is a mistranslation that is clearly seen when reading Chapters 7, 8 and 9 in sequence. As such, there has never been a prophecy that the Jewish Messiah would be born of a virgin and this verse was mistranslated and taken out of context by early Christians to assign a prophecy to Jesus that had no basis in Jewish Scriptures.

Psalms 2 verses 7 and 12

Psalms 2:7 I am obliged to proclaim that the Lord has said to me; “You are my son, I have begotten you this day” (Eylay B’ni Atah Ani Hayom Y’lidaticha)

Psalms 2:12 “Gird yourselves with purity, lest He become angry and you perish in the way” (Nashku Bar Pen Ye’enaf V’toavdu Derech Ki’Yivar) (Mistranslated in Greek as “Kiss the Son, lest He become angry and you perish in the way”).

Christians have pulled this verse out of context and have improperly translated them in order to point to the “Son” which refers to Jesus. This Psalm, written and composed by King David actually speaks of himself. Let us read the entire Psalm in context, explain the mistranslations and we will clearly see who this is referring to.

Psalms 2

Why have nations gathered and [why do] kingdoms think vain things? Kings of a land stand up, and nobles take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed? "Let us break their bands and cast off their cords from us”. He who dwells in Heaven laughs; the Lord mocks them. Then He speaks to them in His wrath; and He frightens them with His sore displeasure. "But I have enthroned my king on Zion, My holy mount." I will tell of the decree; The Lord said to me [David], "You are my son; this day have I begotten you. Request of me, and I will make nations your inheritance, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with an iron rod; like a potter's vessel you shall shatter them." And now, [you] kings, be wise; be admonished, [you] judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Gird yourselves with purity lest He [God] become angry and you perish in the way, for in a moment His wrath will be kindled; the praises of all who take refuge in Him.

In the first few sentences of this Psalm, King David is speaking stylistically to the readers saying, why do the leaders of nations think that they can stand up against the God of Israel and his anointed rulers. He is saying that people foolishly feel they can break themselves away from God and control their own lives. King David goes on to say that God laughs at them mocking their foolishness and then gets angry telling them that He [God] has enthroned his King [David] on Mount Zion as a testament to His will. David goes on to say that, I [King David] will tell my enemies that the Lord said to me, “you are my Son; this day I have begotten you”. In other words, I will not be overcome as my Father [God] promised me that all I have to do is request that your kingdoms be given to me and they will be. King David’s final words to those nations and kings in the Psalm is that if you serve the Lord with fear and gird yourselves in purity, you can be confident in the Lord’s salvation.

The “son” who is speaking in this Psalm is none other than King David who is begotten of God. Notice that the Psalm says I have begotten you “this day”. King David lived 1,000 years before Jesus and this work was composed at that time. If according to Christianity Jesus was the “begotten” son referred to in this verse, why was it 1,000 years before Jesus’ birth? As such, the “son” in this sentence is King David who was anointed as the King of Israel at that time and is the metaphorical son of God. Other Psalms such as Psalm 89 also talks about King David when it says in verse 26 He [David] will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.’ This father/son relationship is the epitome of what King David writes about in his prayers.

In addition to the opening verse being taken out of context, the Christian Bible also mistranslates the last sentence of this Psalm as “Kiss the Son, lest He become angry” however the original Hebrew says “Gird [arm] yourselves in purity, lest He [God] become angry”. Nowhere in this Psalm does it say to “Kiss the Son” [i.e. Jesus]. Early Christians mistranslated the word ‘Bar’ which means purify in Hebrew with the Aramaic word ‘Bar’ which means son, thereby making it the only Aramaic word in the entire Psalm in order to create a link to Jesus where none existed. Would King David use the correct Hebrew word for son in verse 7, ‘B’ni’ but then switch to the Aramaic word for son in verse 12 without using any other Aramaic words in the entire Psalm? The obvious answer is, of course he didn’t. In fact, some Christian bibles such as the Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible address this issue and correct the verse accordingly.

Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I am sending my messenger and he will clear a path before me; suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his sanctuary and the messenger of the covenant for whom you yearn, behold he comes says the Lord Master of Legions”. Christianity believes that this prophecy predicted Jesus. This however is only the first half of the passage. If one reads the remainder of this Prophecy it would be impossible to admit that this passage is speaking of Jesus. The second portion says “Who can bear the day of his coming and who can survive when he appears? For he will be like the smelter’s fire and like the launderers soap. He will sit smelting and purifying silver. He will purify the Children of Levi and refine them like gold and silver and they will be for the Lord presenters of offerings in righteousness”.

When read together, this Prophecy now paints a clear picture of what the Messiah is charged to do when he arrives. When the real Messiah comes, he will purify the Children of Levi, the Priestly Class, and enable them to resume their duty as Priests. In addition, the passage says that it will be the Levites who will be the presenters of offerings just as they were in the first temple. The very next sentence says “Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and in previous years”.  This prophecy speaks of a time when evil will be erased from the land as the prophet clearly says “who can survive when he appears?” When Jesus came, did the tribe of Levi resume their sacrificial offerings? When Jesus came, were the wicked smelted in fire? Obviously, since evil still exists the answer is no. By separating this prophecy, Christianity says that Jesus came to prepare the way, left for 2,000 years and is soon coming back to finish the rest of the prophecy. There is no precedent anywhere in the entire scripture of splitting one single prophecy into two separate parts. Since the silver has not been purified, the smelter has not arrived. As such, this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled and the Messiah has not yet come.

Malachi 4:5-6 “See; I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” Christians say that since John the Baptist came to precede and announce Jesus that he was in the Spirit of Elijah and fulfilled this prophecy. Let us examine this entire chapter and we will see that this has not yet been fulfilled by anyone. Chapter 4:1 says “For behold the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the wicked people and all the evildoers will be like straw; and that coming day will burn them up says God master of legions”. If we continue to verse 5, it says Elijah will come on “that day”, i.e. the day that the wicked people will be burned up like straw.

All one needs to do is look out the window to realize that evil has not diminished but has in fact increased greatly since that day. Since evildoers are still alive and performing evil, it is clear that the day that is spoken about has not yet happened. God makes a point in Malachi 4:4 to remind us that we should “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees which I commanded to him for all Israel”. Christianity claims that the Mosaic Laws were replaced, but yet God specifically points out in Malachi not to forget the Mosaic Law. How could the law be nullified [or fulfilled as Christians claim] when God specifically commanded they be performed? The prophecy clearly says that Elijah the prophet himself will be sent and not someone in the spirit of Elijah as Christians claim.

The Book of John 1:21 in the New Testament itself says that when John the Baptist was asked if he was Elijah he replied “I am not”, then they said “are you The Prophet?” and again he answered “No”. John himself admitted that he was not Elijah and therefore cannot be the one sent before the great and awesome day that Malachi speaks about. Since Christians claim that this event will take place in the “Second Coming” they separate Malachi 4:5 which says Elijah will come on that day. Either Elijah came as John the Baptist, or he is coming during the “Second coming”. Either way, this prophecy was not fulfilled and Elijah has not come, therefore this passage cannot be referring to the time of Jesus.

Isaiah 40:3 “A voice calls out in the wilderness, “clear the way of the Lord; make a straight path in the desert a road for our God”. Again, the messenger theme resonates and this proof is used by Christians to point to Jesus as the one who this passage was talking about. In the opening sentence of Isaiah 40: the prophet says “Comfort, comfort my people, speak consolingly of Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her period of exile has been completed, that her iniquity has been forgiven for she has received double for all her sins from the hand of the Lord. This passage cannot possibly be speaking of Jesus since the prophet Isaiah says that the Messiah will say that our “Exile has been completed” yet just a few years after the death of Jesus, the temple was destroyed and the nation of Israel was scattered and exiled across the world just as we are today. In addition the Prophet continues to say that when the Messiah comes, “Every valley will be raised up and every mountain and hill will be lowered; the crooked will become straight and the heights will become valley”.

This theme of the wicked paying for their sins and the Messiah coming to purify the earth is a recurring subject in Jewish scripture and is one of the main reasons for the Messiah’s appearance. Christianity splits the purpose of the Messiah to show that he came but didn’t accomplish anything tangible. In every prophecy when the Messiah arrives, the hills are lowered, wicked are punished, evil is eliminated but for a Christian this happens only the second time around. Clearly, no one can deny that this cleansing process hasn’t happened yet. Now with this knowledge we can understand why Isaiah says in verse 40:1 that your “Exile has been completed” because this passage speaks of the fourth and final exile which the nation of Israel is currently in. When Elijah the Prophet comes to prepare the way for the Messiah and calls back the children of Israel, he and the Messenger of God will both say the words of Isaiah “You have been punished double for your sins, your exile has been completed” which is when this prophecy will be fulfilled. Since none of the other parts of this prophecy have happened yet, we cannot attribute this one passage to Jesus. Either is has been fulfilled or it hasn’t, it can’t be both.

Deuteronomy 18:15 “A prophet from your midst, from your brethren, like me, shall the Lord your God establish for you”. Christians say that since Jesus was an Israelite whom they consider to be a Prophet like Moses, this passage foreshadows him. This verse was spoken by Moses just prior to the Jewish nation entering the land of Israel towards the end of his life. Moses was warning the people not to follow false prophets. By telling the nation that the future prophet would be like me [Moses] he gave the newly established Jewish nation the ability to know whom to follow. Let’s compare Moses to Jesus and see if any comparison can be made.

Moses was born from both an earthly mother and father, Jesus was said to have a virgin mother and no physical earthly father. Moses was married with children; Jesus shunned marriage and had no physical children. Moses gave 613 laws to Israel; Jesus nullified the Mosaic laws except for two. Moses sinned at the striking of the rock; Jesus is claimed to have never sinned. Moses was a human being; Jesus claimed to be God and/or the son of God. From this comparison it is clear to see that Moses and Jesus were nothing like each other and so this prophecy could not be referring to Jesus. If the comparison is just that they were both great men, we have many others who fit the bill to be more like Moses than Jesus. The most striking words to me however come at the end of the paragraph when Moses says to the Israelites, that the clearest way you can tell a false prophet is that “The Prophet who speaks falsely in God’s name, shall die”. In other word’s a true prophet of God will not be put to death for what he speaks [Abraham in the furnace of Nimrod, Jonah in the belly of the whale, Daniel in the lion’s den, etc]. The fact that Jesus was put to death and died proves that his message about being God was not in keeping with the values that Moses entrusted to the Jewish people. If we are to accept the possibility that the first part of Moses prophecy refers to Jesus, we can make the assumption that the second part of “only a false prophet dying” could refer to Jesus as well. It would be illogical to attribute only one part of his Messianic litmus test to Jesus and not the other. Since Moses and Jesus were certainly not alike and Moses warned that a false prophet would die, this passage is not referring to Jesus.

There is a Christian prophecy that the Messiah would be called out of Egypt and since Jesus was called out of Egypt, Christians make an assumption that the Hebrew Scriptures must have been talking about him. If we readHosea 11:1 it says “When Israel was a child I loved him, and since Egypt I have been calling out to my son”. All throughout the Jewish scriptures the nation of Israel [plural] is called the son [singular] of God. The notion of God having a physical son was never meant to be taken literally, it was always meant metaphorically. Where did the prophet Hosea get this idea from? If we read Exodus 4:22 it says “You shall say to Pharaoh, so said the Lord, my firstborn son is Israel”. The Five Books of Moses themselves record that the firstborn son [metaphorically speaking] of God is the nation of Israel. Deuteronomy 14:1 says “You are all children to the Lord your God”.  Every year since the very first Exodus from Egypt, Jews around the world commemorate this event with the Passover holiday. We mark the day when we as Israel, the “firstborn son” of God were called out of Egypt with miracles and wonders never before seen in history. Not only does this verse not refer to Jesus, but refers to all members of the Jewish nation who were freed from the house of bondage in Egypt. To attribute Hosea’s prophecy to Jesus ignores the very name “Israel” in the beginning of the prophecy.

As we can clearly see from the previous prophecies, we have a constantly recurring theme which has been making itself apparent and that is that each passage, without exception, has either been pulled out of its original context and shortened, or grossly mistranslated in order to force an application to Jesus as the Messiah.

The parable of the “master” archer

Rabbi Yaakov ben Wolf Kranz, better known as the Dubner Maggid who lived in the 18th century told a parable about a master archer that can also be used to accurately describe these Messianic ‘proof’ texts. One day a man was walking through the forest and he stumbled across a series of trees with arrows that had been perfectly shot in the center of painted bull’s-eyes. As an archer himself, the man was extremely impressed by the talent he had seen and would make it his life’s mission to learn the true identity of the master archer whose work impressed him so much. Years went by, and all throughout the forest as the man journeyed he saw residual signs of the master archer. There were trees all around with arrows all sitting pointedly on their mark. “This must be the greatest archer ever to walk the face of the earth” the man said. I will not give up until I meet this great master of archery. As the man continued in the forest he heard the sound of arrows piercing through the wind. Excited that he may finally meet his hero after all these years, the man rushed to get closer to where the sound was coming from. As he approached the archer, he saw a man with arrows holding a bow. He could hardly contain his emotions; he embraced the master archer, hugged him and kissed his feet. He begged the archer to share his secret with him, confident that his wisdom would have a significant impact in his life. I beg you master, cried the man, please, please share with me your secret. How have learned to master the sport of archery so well? “Let me show you” the master archer replied, it’s quite simple really.

The master archer placed an arrow in his bow and concentrated. Pulling back slowly but firmly on the arrow he fired a shot straight into the side of the tree. Once the arrow hit its mark, the “master archer” walked up to the arrow and painted a bulls-eye around it, thereby placing it squarely in the center of the target. You see said the archer, I told you it was really quite simple.

This parable accurately reflects how Christians use the Jewish scriptures to ‘prove’ that Jesus fulfilled the scriptural prophecies. As Jews, we do not paint a portrait of the Messiah by looking at proverbial arrows left on a tree; we know who the Messiah is by actually watching him shoot. In other words, we judge by actions, not hearsay. We won’t need to believe in the Messiah, he will show us who he is by fulfilling the requirements that are clearly set forth in the Torah. The real Jewish Messiah will usher in an age of peace and harmony in the world. The real Jewish Messiah will openly gather the scattered nation of Israel back to the land that God promised to our patriarch Abraham. The real Jewish Messiah will physically and miraculously rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and all nations will come to the house of the Lord to worship there. This is how we know who the Jewish Messiah is and who he is not. As Jews we don’t need to scour the Bible looking for vague hints and weak innuendos of the Messiah, God told us unequivocally how to know when the Messiah arrives. As long as evil exists and nations continue to worship false Gods we can be absolutely positively sure that the Jewish Messiah has not yet come.

Let us now continue with some additional prophecies.

Jeremiah 31:15 Christians say that this passage predicts the slaughter of children by Herod during the time of Jesus because it says “So says the Lord: A voice is heard on high, lamentation, bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children for they are no more.” This passage actually does not speak of the massacre of children by Herod but speaks of the massacre and destruction of Jerusalem described just a few chapters later in the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah Chapter 39 we read that Nebuchadrezzar, King of Babylon came with his army and besieged Jerusalem. Nebuchadrezzar captured Zedekiah the King of Judah and murdered his sons before his very eyes. His army captured and killed all the priests of Judah and bound Zedekiah in chains and blinded him. They burned Zedekiah’s palace and the houses of the people to the ground and smashed the walls of Jerusalem. The bitter weeping of Rachel is not for the supposed massacre of Children committed by Herod [of which history has no actual record], but for the destruction and exile of the Jewish nation from Jerusalem. The very next sentence in Jeremiah 31:16 proves this can’t be speaking of a massacre by Herod because it says “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, they will return from the land of their enemy”. In other words, the very next sentence in Jeremiah tells you that the exiled children will return. How can children who were massacred by Herod return from the land of their enemy? This prophecy clearly speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem and not another event.

Christianity says that the Hebrew Bible predicts that the Jewish Messiah would be from Nazareth and the following verses are used to prove that “Jesus of Nazareth” [born in Bethlehem] fulfilled this prophecy.Judges 13:5 “for the lad shall be a Nazirite of God from the womb”, Amos 2:11 “I established prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. Is this not true, people of Israel?" declares the Lord.” As we discussed earlier in this book, Christians say that since Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of being born in Bethlehem he was the Messiah. This prophecy however says that Jesus fulfilled the biblical verses of being a Nazarene, so which is it? Was Jesus from Bethlehem or Nazareth? This passage is quite an obvious error to Jews and shows clearly how the early Christians misunderstood Jewish scripture to try and fit Jesus into being from both. The inaccuracy however is that the Jewish Messiah would not be a Nazarene, i.e. from Nazareth but a Nazirite which is the term for a Jew who has taken a ‘vow of abstinence’. Bethlehem and Nazareth are nearly 100 miles away so the early church made up a story of Jesus going from Nazareth to Bethlehem to try and fulfill this ‘prophecy’.

Numbers 6:2 shows clearly what a Nazirite is; Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the Lord as a Nazirite, he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins.” The Nazirite vow was taken by people who wanted to consecrate or separate themselves and offer their lives to God for a holier purpose. Nazirites actually committed a sin by taking the vow in the first place which is why they are required to bring a sin offering upon completion of their service. The reason is, that God placed wine and fruit on earth to be enjoyed by his creations, the Nazirite, while good intentioned, actually disregards God’s blessings for mankind to enjoy his bounty and as such is required to offer a sin offering upon the completion of his service [See Numbers 6:13-21]. The early Church was unfamiliar with this special vow and misunderstood a Nazirite instead as one who comes from Nazareth. Since the Messiah must be from Bethlehem and also be a Nazirite [consecrated by a vow] they said the Messiah had to come from both Bethlehem and Nazareth at the same time. In order to ‘fulfill’ this impossible task, they created a plausible reason where both Nazareth and Bethlehem would be in the Jesus narrative. The truth however is that there is absolutely no prophecy in Jewish scripture that says the Jewish Messiah must be a Nazarene from Nazareth, it says he must be a Nazirite [consecrated by a vow]. Since Jesus was not a Nazirite he could not have fulfilled this prophecy. In fact, Christians say that Jesus never sinned, however the Nazirite vow itself was a sin in itself which is why God required a sin offering as we learned above. If Jesus had in fact taken the Nazirite vow, he would have automatically sinned; therefore this cannot apply to the Christian understanding of Jesus whom is credited with a sinless life.

Psalms72:10 “May the kings of Tarshish and the isles return tribute; may the kings of Sheba and Seba approach with a gift.” Since three Magi visited Mary with gifts, Christians say this prophetic passage must be speaking of Jesus. This prayer [Psalms 72] however is King David’s prayer for his son Solomon. The passage begins with David saying “For Solomon, O’ God, give your judgments to the King [David] and your righteousness to the King’s son [Solomon]. In the Passage above, David is asking God to have the nations of the earth pay tribute to his son. If we turn to 1 Kings 10:23 we see the fulfillment of this prophecy. “King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought gifts, articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.” To say that this also applies to Jesus [another dual meaning] means that this passage can apply to virtually anyone in the Bible who was ever brought gifts by others. To apply this to Jesus when it was already fulfilled by Solomon twists the meaning of the passage and what King David was praying for. In addition, the reason that Sheba is specifically mentioned in the beginning of the Psalm is that the Queen of Sheba presented herself as a gift to Solomon in 1 Kings 10. She is the “Gift” spoken about in Psalms 72:10 for Solomon. As such, this sentence cannot be speaking of Jesus.

Christians use the entire chapter ofIsaiah 53 to try and prove a number of prophecies that Jesus supposedly fulfilled as the ‘Servant of the Lord’. Before we identify who Chapter 53 is really speaking about [It’s not Jesus] let’s look at the different prophecies Christianity says Isaiah 53 contains about the Jewish Messiah.

a. He would be rejected

b. He would be silent to accusations

c. Oppressed and afflicted

d. Bore illnesses

e. Wounded for transgressions

f. Bore the sins of many

g. Grow up poor

h. Appearance was marred, ugly

i. Mankind would hide from association

j. Thought to be cursed by God

k. Would eventually prosper

l. Ultimately exalted by God

Based on what Christianity knows about Jesus, it certainly appears that these things must be speaking of him. However, what if there was someone else who fulfilled all of these prophecies and was even named by Isaiah and the Bible itself? What if these things were not speaking of an individual person, but an entire nation? What nation would fulfill all of these “prophecies”? Let us look at Isaiah so that we can learn who the real “Suffering Servant” of the Lord really is.

Isaiah 41:8 - But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen.  I took you from the ends of the earth; from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

Isaiah 44:1 - Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant and Israel whom I have chosen.

Isaiah 44:2 - Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun [righteous ones] whom I have chosen.

Isaiah 44:21 - Remember these, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant, I have formed you, you are my servant.

Isaiah 45:4 - for Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my elect.

Isaiah 48:20 - The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob.

Isaiah 49:3 - You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.

Israel is even referred to as God's servant in the New Testament

Luke 1:54 - He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy.

Not only was Israel identified as the Servant [singular] in the Book of Isaiah, but the identity of Israel as the Servant of the Lord is a recurring theme throughout the entire Jewish scriptures.

Psalms 136:22 - A heritage to Israel his servant, for his mercy endures forever.

Jeremiah 46:27 - But do not fear, O my servant Jacob, and do not be dismayed, O Israel!

Jeremiah 76:28 - Do not fear, O Jacob my servant, says the Lord, for I am with you for I will make a complete end of all the nations.

Jeremiah 30:10 - Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob, says the Lord, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from afar.

Now, that we understand who the servant really is, let us re-read Isaiah Chapter 53 in context with the previous chapter Isaiah 52, so that we can understand exactly what is taking place. Isaiah is prophesying what will happen to the Jewish nation [Israel] in the end of days.

Isaiah 52:13 - Behold My servant [Israel] shall prosper; he [Israel] shall be exalted and lifted up, and he [Israel] shall be made very high. As many wondered about you [Israel], "How marred his appearance is from that of a man [Israel is demonized and dehumanized], and his features from that of other people!" So shall he [Israel] cast down many nations; [The Gentile] kings shall shut their mouths [In amazement at the final salvation of Israel] because of him, for, what they had not been told [That Israel was still in covenant with God] they saw [The Messianic redemption of Israel], and what they had not heard [that Israel would be restored] they witnessed. This is exactly what those who believe in replacement theology will see when the Messiah finally comes to redeem the people of Israel.

Throughout the entire Hebrew scripture, the Bible refers to Israel in the singular even though it refers to an entire nation which is plural. The Bible itself testifies to this, when the Israelites received the Torah on Mount Sinai they all proclaimed with one voice “We will do everything the Lord has said and we will obey”. The Hebrew words used to convey this message are “Na’aseh V’nishmah” which is written in the singular form and not the plural. The Torah itself recognizes that the Jewish nation is ‘one heart’ as God himself calls Israel his ‘firstborn son’ in addition to his ‘Servant’.

Exodus 4:22 states; you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘So said the Lord, My firstborn son is Israel. So I say to you, send out my son that he may serve me, but you have refused to send him out: behold, I shall kill your firstborn son. Israel is referred to as God’s “son” and “he” in the collective.

Hosea 11:1 - When Israel was a lad I loved him, and since Egypt I have been calling out to my son.

With this knowledge and clear proof from the scriptures themselves, it is clear that the Nation of Israel is both the metaphorical “Son” of God and the “Servant” of God. This is a theme that is evident throughout the entire Jewish scriptures, in dozens of places and not in just one or two vague sentences. The idea that Isaiah would openly name Israel as the Servant from Chapters 41 through 49 and then inexplicably change the name of the servant to Jesus and not even mention his name once is completely illogical. Isaiah himself proves that our interpretation is correct by switching back from the singular [he] to the plural form [them] when referring to the Jewish People in verse 53:8. Isaiah says: “Now that he [Israel] has been released from captivity and judgment, who could have imagined such a generation? For he [Israel] had been removed from the land of the living, an affliction upon them that was my people’s sin”.

The "man" of pains and illness was not Jesus that Isaiah was referring to, but the entire nation of Israel. We continue to be persecuted, dehumanized and vilified at the hands of the gentile nations who believe we are cursed, rejected and afflicted by God. This is the image that Isaiah is trying to portray and one that Jews have accepted for thousands of years long before this was applied by Christianity to refer to Jesus. Let us now re-examine in context the prophecy of Isaiah 53 and see if it applies to the nation of Israel?

a. Israel is rejected by the world

b. We have been silent as a nation to those that have accused us throughout history for fear of persecution

c. Israel has been oppressed and afflicted because of the sins of other nations (Racism, Anti-Semitism, etc.)

d. We were accused of being a sickly and weak people, portrayed as diseased throughout history

e. We were wounded for our transgressions against God and severely punished through exile

f. Israel bore the punishment of the sins of the nations because we did not live up to God’s standard and properly instruct them as we were commanded to do. In essence we bear some responsibility for the nations’ failure to heed the word of God.

g. We grew up destitute and poor, being chased from nation to nation

h. The Gentile nations portray us as ugly, we are constantly vilified

i. Mankind has not wanted to be associated with Israel or Jews as a nation, even today

j. Christians say the Jews are cursed by God for rejecting his “Son”

k. Eventually we prosper and in the final redemption the entire world will witness that they have been wrong about Israel and that we are still the “Firstborn Son” of God

l. Once the exile is complete, Israel will be exalted among the nations and will be glorified in front of the eyes of all nations.

Isaiah points to Israel as being the true identity of the servant by referencing a prophecy from Hosea through his use of similar expressions about Israel. Isaiah 53:2 says “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.” Who is the “He” that Isaiah is talking about? If we look at Hosea 14:5 it says “I will be like the dew to Israel; he [Israel] will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he [Israel] will send down his roots; his [Israel's] young shoots [roots] will grow.” The young shoot out of dry ground is the nation of Israel which Isaiah is clearly talking about. Hosea says in 14:9 “Who is wise? One who will realize these things. Who is discerning? One who will understand them.” In other words, a wise and discerning person will recognize that the blessings bestowed upon Israel will ultimately come true. The despised and marred servant who has been persecuted throughout the ages, will once again blossom like a root out of dry desert ground just like the current nation of Israel.

Zechariah 8:23 - This is what the Lord Almighty says: In those days [The Messianic Era] ten men from all languages and nations [Gentiles] will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe [Tzitzit] and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.'

Jeremiah 16:19 - O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the [Gentile] nations come from the ends of the earth and say: Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless beliefs in which there is no profit.

The questions that Christians should be asking themselves are; why will Gentiles seek out the Jews in the end of days and ask Jews to teach them about God? If Christianity possesses the “truth” shouldn’t the passage read that Jews will seek out Christians instead? Second, what “lies and falsehoods” have the Gentile nations inherited from their ancestors? It is not we Jews who have inherited the falsehood, but the Christian nations that worship man as God. This is the falsehood that Jeremiah speaks about and why Zechariah prophecies that ultimately all nations will flock to the Jews to learn about the true God of Israel. Don’t wait until then.

Isaiah 8:14 And it shall be for a portent and a stone upon which to dash oneself and for a rock upon which to stumble for the two houses of Israel who came to be for a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Christians refer to Jesus as the foundation stone and believe that he is a “stumbling block” to Jews. They use this passage in Isaiah to show that he [Jesus] causes the two houses of Israel to stumble as stated in the above passage. This verse however is not referring to Jesus but the story unfolding in Isaiah Chapters 7, 8 and 9. As we mentioned in an earlier prophecy the Nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, Israel to the North and Judah to the South. King Ahaz, the ruler of Judah was under attack by the Northern Tribes of Israel under the leadership of King Pekah son of Remaliah and his allies.

The “stumbling” block spoken of in this passage is Jerusalem which Isaiah foretold to King Ahaz that the invading armies would not be able to conquer. What Isaiah is saying is that the Northern tribes will try and vanquish Ahaz but will stumble on Jerusalem and will not be able to conquer him. This passage has nothing to do with a stumbling block for Jews with regards to Jesus but speaks of the battle that Ahaz fought with Pekah and ultimately prevailed based on Isaiah’s reassurance from God that he would succeed. This is nothing more than an isolated passage from scripture pulled out of context to fit a Christian interpretation. It is not the Jews who have stumbled, but Christians who continue to mistranslate and misinterpret Jewish scripture in order to fit their own religious agendas.

Zechariah 9:9 Rejoice, O daughter of Zion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold! Your king shall come to you. He is just and victorious; humble, and riding a donkey and a foal, the offspring of she-donkeys. The New Testament records that Jesus entered the Gates of Jerusalem on an ass and therefore he fulfilled the above passage. The problem however is that the very next passage in Zechariah 9:10 says, “I will eliminate any [battle] chariot from Ephraim and any [war] horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of warfare will be eliminated; and he will speak peace to the nations. His dominion will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. In other words when the King comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, peace will prevail. Once again, Christianity has taken a single prophecy [verse 9 and 10] and separated them into two parts to fit a forced interpretation. The “King” supposedly came in the first sentence, and then left only to return 2,000 years later to complete the next sentence? When read together, it’s obvious that the whole purpose for the King to come to Jerusalem is to declare peace on earth. Since war and bloodshed are still here, the King has not come through the gates of Jerusalem. In addition, it says that his dominion will be across the ends of the earth. Has mankind had a single ruler to govern over us? Have all the nations accepted the God of Israel as their ruler? Since thousands of world religions exist and the Messiah does not yet rule from sea to sea or across the ends of the earth, this prophecy has not yet been fulfilled by anyone, certainly not by Jesus as Christianity claims.

Psalms 41:9 “Even my ally, in whom I trusted, who eats my bread, developed an ambush for me”. Christianity says that because Jesus was betrayed by Judas, this passage in Psalms foretells of Jesus’ betrayal. This Psalm however speaks of King David and not Jesus. If we look at verse 41:5 we will see clearly that the person spoken of in this Psalm cannot be speaking of Jesus, Psalms 41:5 I said, "O Lord, be gracious to me; heal my soul because I have sinned against You". The person that this Psalm speaks about is one who has “sinned against God”. Since Christians believe that Jesus never sinned, how can this passage be speaking of him? To attribute only one sentence to Jesus and not the other pulls the sentence out of context. What is interesting to note is that in the original Hebrew texts, the first sentence of this Psalm, 41:1 begins with, “For the conductor, a song of David”. In other words, the very Psalm itself shows that this Psalm is speaking of King David. The Christian texts however remove this passage from the Psalm and only use it for the title, thereby beginning the actual Psalm with “Praiseworthy is he who looks after the poor; on a day of calamity the Lord will rescue him”. This enables the Psalm to be used for anyone at any time and overlooks its originally intended purpose which was King David’s written expression of his own life’s events.

While it is true that according to Christianity, Jesus was betrayed by Judas, King David was also betrayed by his family and friends which is what this Psalm is speaking about. If we attribute verse 41:9 to Jesus, we must also attribute verse 5 to him as well, showing that Jesus did in fact sin against God. To use only one part of a sentence to refer to Jesus and not the other would be disingenuous. Therefore, we can assume that since Christians will adamantly say that Jesus never sinned, this “prophecy” cannot be speaking of Jesus, but of David.

Zechariah 11:12 “I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver”. Christians say that since Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver, this passage is a reference to him. Again, as has been common throughout all the previous passages we discussed, Christians pull single sentences out of context and apply them to prophecies that don’t actually exist. There is no prophecy in Judaism that the Messiah would be sold for 30 pieces of silver, instead this passage is fulfilled in the very next verse Zechariah 11:13 - And the Lord said to me: Cast it to the keeper of the treasury, to the stronghold of glory-of which I stripped them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver and I cast it into the house of the Lord, to the keeper of the treasury. In other words, this was not a prophecy but a command. God commanded Zechariah to weigh out 30 pieces of silver in verse 12 and he did in verse 13. Let us look at other passages involving silver coins which were also already fulfilled.

a. Genesis 23:16 - Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.

b. Genesis 37:28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

c. Exodus 21:32 If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull must be stoned.

d. Jeremiah 32:9 So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver.

e. Hosea 3:2 - So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.”

All of the passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that are attributed to Jesus as Prophecy are nothing more than sentences that refer to events that happened to different people at different points in time. The purchase of items for silver shekels was a frequent occurrence all throughout the Bible. The only reason that this passage is used, was because the early Christians were trying to make Jesus’ story fit with the Hebrew Scriptures so they combed the Bible looking for verses that can be used to support their teaching. As we stated above, there is no Biblical Prophecy that the Jewish Messiah would be sold or purchased for any amount of money at all. Only this passage when pulled out of context is used to support the Christian teaching, which itself shows that it was actually fulfilled in the very next verse. Christians are unfamiliar with the Hebrew Bible and many times fail to reference the “Old Testament” in order to verify the supposed prophecies. Proof of these errors are even found in the New Testament itself when the Gospel of Matthew mistakenly attributes this “Prophecy” to Jeremiah instead of Zechariah as shown above.

Matthew 27:9 – “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, and they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value.” Not only did Matthew try and fit Jesus into a Prophecy which never existed, but he mistakenly attributed this prophecy to the wrong prophet [Jeremiah instead of Zechariah 11:12].

Psalms 35:11 “False witnesses rise up; they ask me of things I know not” Since Jesus was falsely accused of being an anti-Government rebel, Christians say this passage in Psalms speaks of him. Again, sentences are split and modified to fit the Jesus narrative, however the verses themselves testify against such use. The opening verse in the original Hebrew text says Psalm 35:1 “Of David. O Lord, strive with those who strive against me, battle my foes.” Christianity removes “Of David” in the very beginning of the sentence thereby rendering the first sentence “O Lord, strive with those who strive against me, battle my foes”. By removing David from the picture, of who this entire Psalm is referring to, Christianity can re-use the verses to fit anything it wishes. The Psalm itself however has numerous verses which show it cannot possibly be speaking of Jesus. 35:9 & 10 – “And my soul shall exult in the Lord; it shall rejoice in His salvation. My whole being shall proclaim, who is like you O Lord?” If Jesus was the one speaking in this verse, or if he was being spoken of, how can Jesus’ soul rejoice in his own salvation? How can Jesus who is supposed to also be God proclaim of himself, “who is like you O’ Lord”? Instead, this Psalm speaks of King David who during his trials and tribulations relied on God for his salvation, even when his enemies falsely accused him of trying to steal the throne from King Saul [1 Samuel 22].

Psalms22:16 “Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet”. Christians say that this passage obviously refers to Jesus, since there was no one else in scripture who had his hands and feet pierced. I would admit that would be true if that’s what the actual verse said. Let us look at the original Hebrew version and see what it really says; Hebrew Psalm 22:16 “For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me, like lions they are at my hands and feet”. How is it possible that the original Hebrew version does not mention the word ‘pierced’ but yet this sentence is used to “prove” Jesus was pierced in his hands and feet?

The error occurs because the early Christians once again mistranslated a Hebrew word “K’Ari” which means “Like lions” to “Kari” which means pierced. In fact, lions are a recurring theme in this particular Psalm as we see in Verse 13 – “They open wide their mouth against me, as a ravening and a roaring lion” and then again in Verse 21 the Psalmist says – “Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.” The “lions” that the Psalmist is asking for rescue from are the same ones in verse 16 that are at his hands and feet. By simply changing one of the Hebrew words from “K’Ari” to “Kari”, Christians are able to “prove” that Jesus’ hands and feet were pierced. The use of the term “lions” all throughout the Psalm proves that it was not piercing that he needed saving from, but from those who acted like ravaging lions. In addition, if we look at Isaiah 38:13 we will see that he too uses the term, “I waited patiently till dawn, but like a lion he broke all my bones; day and night you made an end of me”. From this we can see that this term “like lions” was a commonly used term in scripture and does not refer to Jesus’ piercing. This is nothing more than a translational error which has been used to prove something which does not exist.

Psalms110:1 A Psalm of David. The Lord says to my lord; sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool. The Christian Bible uses this verse to show that Jesus was talking to the Father thereby “proving” the trinity. The problem with the Christian interpretation however is once again that the Hebrew translation does not support it. This Psalm was actually written by one of King David’s close servants who is praising the King for his loyalty to God. The Hebrew word for Lord, the Tetragrammaton [YHVH] is used in the opening sentence showing that the first “Lord” refers to God. The second “Lord” however does not mean a “God” but a man, a master. The Hebrew word for master or Lord is “Adoni” which is a title still used around the world as a sign of respect. As such, King David’s servant was writing about his master, that the Lord [God] says to my lord [King David] sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies my footstool. Nowhere in Jewish scriptures is God ever referred to as “Adoni”, master in the human terms. This goes back to our earlier discussion about the lack of Hebrew understanding in the Christian Bible. The same word for human “Lord” is used in multiple places throughout the Jewish Bible such as in Genesis 24:54 - Then he and the men who were with him ate and drank and spent the night there. When they got up the next morning, he said, "Send me on my way to my master [lord]." The word for master is the exact same word that is used in Psalm 110 meaning a human master or lord. Genesis 32:4 also uses the word Adoni when referring to the wicked Esau. He instructed them: "This is what you are to say to my master [lord] Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.

Nowhere in the entire Hebrew Scriptures is the word “Adoni” ever used for God. Adoni does not mean a divine being but a mere [sometimes wicked] mortal. As such, the error occurs because Christianity misinterpreted the Hebrew word for “lord” as “Lord” without understanding the difference. Clearly, this Psalm shows that it was written about King David and that his servant was speaking about his master and not King David speaking to God about Jesus. By simply capitalizing the “L” in Lord, the New Testament would have you believe that God was speaking to Jesus about David which is obvious from the Hebrew words themselves that this is not the case. Anyone with even a basic understanding of Hebrew would be able to spot this error instantly.

Jeremiah 23:5 The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely [hint, hint] and do what is just and right in the land. The New Testament book of Matthew Chapter 1 goes through great lengths to show how Jesus was a descendant of King David, and tries to prove that this ‘righteous branch’ was in fact Jesus. The problem with this however is that even though the New Testament traces the genealogy of Joseph, father of Jesus back to David, it claims that Jesus resulted from a virgin birth, and that Joseph was not his actual father. II Samuel 7:12 clearly says - When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. Why would God have specifically pointed out that the Messiah would come from David’s ‘own body’ i.e. physical child if that was not necessary as Christianity claims? In addition, why does the verse specifically say this King would reign ‘wisely’ and not justly, or faithfully, etc. The answer is because this verse is talking about the wisest of all Kings, Solomon, who requested wisdom from God. The verse itself continues to show it’s referring to a human king by saying, “When he [Solomon] does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men”.

If this passage also refers to Jesus as Christians claim then he did wrong [i.e. sinned] in the eyes of God. There is no Hebrew basis for the idea of a father passing on his tribal line by adoption.  A priest who adopts a son from another tribe cannot make him a priest, he must be a physical descendent of his father. In addition, Joseph could never pass on by adoption which he doesn’t have because Joseph descended from Jeconiah [Matthew 1:11] and fell under the curse that none of his descendants could ever sit upon the throne of David.  Jeremiah 22:30 clearly states This is what the Lord says: "Record this man Jeconiah [Coniah] as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah." Jeremiah 36:30 confirms this again by saying “Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Jeconiah [Coniah] King of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night.” How can Joseph pass on the mantle of leadership to Jesus when the Book of Matthew says that he is descended from one who was cursed never to have children on the throne of David?

To answer this obvious problem, Christian apologists claim that Jesus also traces himself back through his mother Mary, who allegedly descended from David, as shown in the third chapter of Luke. There are 2 major issues with this explanation however. According to the Hebrew Scriptures tribal affiliation only goes through the father and not the mother as recorded in Numbers 1:18 - and they called the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people indicated their ancestry by their clans and families, and the men twenty years old or more were listed by name, one by one. In addition, just like the problem with Jeconiah [Coniah], Luke 3:31 shows Mary as a descendant of Nathan and not Solomon which is where the actual Messianic line stems from as the verses below will show;

I Chronicles 22:6-11 Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. David said to Solomon: “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God. But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign.  He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He [Solomon] will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his [Solomon’s] kingdom over Israel forever.’

I Chronicles 28:5-8 says “Of all my sons, and the Lord has given me many, he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me: ‘Solomon your son is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving in carrying out my commands and laws, as is being done at this time.”

The question one should be asking is; how can Joseph, ancestor of Jeconiah and Mary, ancestor of Nathan claim to be the mother of the Messiah, when they are both descended from the wrong Davidic lines? Only a descendant of Solomon son of David can lay claim as the rightful heir of the Messianic line.  The real answer is that they can’t be. The Christian writers of the New Testament were unfamiliar with the promises and covenants given to King David and his offspring in the Hebrew Scriptures and were looking for any way to associate Jesus and Mary with him. As a result, both the lineage of Joseph and the lineage of Mary automatically render Jesus as impossible heirs to the throne of David. These are not my words, they are the words of the very Bible that Christians use to prove Jesus’ lineage.

Daniel 9 is often used by Christians as a prediction for the destruction of the Temple and the eventual death of Jesus. Let us examine both the Hebrew and the Christian KJV of the texts and see if Jesus is actually mentioned or inferred anywhere in this Biblical prophecy.

[Hebrew] Daniel 9:24-27 “Seventy weeks [of years] have been decreed upon your people and upon the city of your Sanctuary to terminate the transgression and to end sin, and to expiate iniquity, and to bring eternal righteousness, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. And you shall know and understand that from the emergence of the word to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem until an anointed king [shall be] seven weeks; and in sixty-two weeks it will return and be built street and moat, but in troubled times. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one will be cut off, and he will be no more, and the people of the coming monarch will destroy the city and the Sanctuary, and his end will come about by inundation, and until the end of the war, it will be cut off into desolation. And he will strengthen a covenant for the princes for one week, and half the week he will abolish sacrifice and meal- offering, and on high, among mute abominations, will be the mute one, and until destruction and extermination befall the mute one.”

Now let us examine the King James Version of Daniel 9:24-27 “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; but in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, even until the consummation, which is determined, is poured out on the desolate.”

This is one of the most misunderstood and mistranslated passages in all Christian texts, however by reviewing the entire chapter as well as the differences in translation and grammar in the Christian Bible, I hope to shed some light on the Jewish interpretation of this passage. First, we must understand that the Hebrew and Christian translations do not match.

The King James Version puts a definite article [the] before "Messiah the Prince" in verse 25. The original Hebrew text does not read "The Messiah the Prince," but is to be rendered a moshiach, "an anointed one”. The word moshiach is not used anywhere in Jewish Scriptures as a proper name, but as a title of authority of a king or a high priest. Therefore, a correct rendering of the original Hebrew should be: "an anointed one, a prince." The anointed one referred to in this passage in none other than King Cyrus, as it says in Isaiah 45:1 - This is what the Lord says to his anointed [messiah, moshiach], to Cyrus. The Christian Bible capitalizes the “M” which doesn’t exist in the Hebrew text so that the reader is convinced it is talking of “The Messiah” i.e. Jesus instead of “a messiah” Cyrus. Isaiah himself tells us the name of God’s anointed messiah in the following verses;

Isaiah 44:28 who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he [Cyrus] will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt," and of the temple, "Let its foundations be laid." Isaiah 45:13 also says I [the Lord] will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight.

In order to hide this obvious fact, the Christian Bible changes the location of the book of Ezra which was originally placed directly after the book of Daniel in the Hebrew Scriptures because the first verse of Ezra 1:1 reads “ In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah”, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing: This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.’ The ‘emergence of the word’ spoken about in Daniel 9:25 is the ‘word’ that Ezra 1:1 says Cyrus already fulfilled in the book of Daniel. Either it was ‘fulfilled’ by Cyrus as the prophets say, or it was ‘fulfilled’ over a thousand years later by Jesus. Since the prophet Ezra clearly states that it was Cyrus who already fulfilled this prophecy, there is no reason for an additional fulfillment to take place. Something that has been completed does not need to be completed again.

In addition to the mistaken attribution of this prophecy to Jesus instead of Cyrus, the King James Version disregards Hebrew punctuation marks. The Hebrew punctuation mark 'atnach’ is the appropriate equivalent of a semicolon in the modern system of punctuation which has the effect of separating the seven weeks from the sixty-two weeks: ". . . until an anointed one, a prince, shall be seven weeks [First event]; [atnach] then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again [Second event]. . ." By creating a combined sixty-nine week period, which is not divided into two separate periods of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks respectively, Christians reach an incorrect conclusion, i.e., that the Messiah will come 483 years after the destruction of the First Temple. These however are speaking of two separate events and not one event. The King James Version omits the definite article [the] in Daniel 9:26, which should read: "And after the threescore and two weeks. . . ." By treating the sixty-two weeks as a distinct period, this verse, in the original Hebrew, shows that the sixty-two weeks mentioned in verse 25 are correctly separated from the seven weeks by the 'atnach’. Hence, two anointed ones are spoken of in this chapter, one of whom comes after seven weeks [Cyrus], and the other after a further period of sixty-two weeks [Alexander Yannai].

Now let us review the entire Chapter 9 of Daniel to understand a clearer picture of what these verses are actually saying.

Daniel was part of the Jewish refugees from the land of Israel living in Babylon. He knew that the Jewish prophet Jeremiah had prophesied that after seventy years the Jews would return to their homeland as prophesied in Jeremiah 25:12 which says “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt," declares the Lord, "and will make it desolate forever. As the time of the seventy years was drawing close to an end, Daniel saw no change in his people and began to fear that God would decide not to bring them out of captivity even after the expiration of the punishment. Thus, he began to cry out to God and confess the sins of his people. Daniel begins to pray for the sake of the three things most dear to him (1) Jerusalem (2) The Temple (3) his people, the Jews.

Daniel followed Moses’ example and prayed for the nation of Israel to be spared judgment for her many sins and be brought to righteousness [Deuteronomy 9:26]. After Daniel's confession of his people's sins and his speedy intersession on their behalf the angel Gabriel visits Daniel to give him understanding concerning the three things he just completed praying about [Jerusalem, the Temple, and his People]. It is here that Gabriel announces a seventy week period concerning Jerusalem, the Temple and the Jewish people. He gives Daniel the understanding that the nation of Israel would indeed return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple but that this would be during a time of trouble [verse 25]. The seventy week period is a continued time of judgment towards Israel for her sins of forsaking the Law of Moses [verses 11-13].

From its beginning, the second temple did not hold the beauty and splendor of the temple of Solomon that it replaced [Haggai 2:3]. The second temple as Daniel 9:25 indicates was built during times of trouble. Even Jerusalem's protection wall had to be built with "sword in hand" [Nehemiah 4:18]. This was just the opposite circumstance of the time of peace as when Solomon built the first temple while the other nations assisted in the project, and while no nation would dare attack Israel. It was during this seventy weeks of Daniel that Israel lost their sovereignty [including the spiritual center of Jerusalem] over their scriptural promised land to other nations which in itself is a sign of judgment [Deuteronomy 28:49 / Daniel 9:7] while the temple itself was desecrated with foreign Gods and even pig's blood. This temple was destined to fall during Daniel's seventy weeks, along with its evil priests as the final verses of Daniel 9 indicates. To look further into the seventy week judgment period toward Israel, the number of years that the full seventy weeks amount up to is four hundred and ninety years.

God had already hit Israel with a seventy year period of judgment as Jeremiah prophesied concerning Babylon [Jeremiah. 29:10] but because Israel did not listen to God, He did as He promised in Leviticus 26:18 and issued a period of judgment "seven times more" the seventy years prophesied by Jeremiah [70 x 7 = 490 years]. The Hebrew text clearly shows that the 2 periods spoken of are the seventy year exile and the Second Temple [built in troubled times] which lasted four hundred and twenty years, [70 years for the 1st Temple exile + 420 years for the 2nd Temple = 490 years]. This is the “Seventy Weeks of Years” [70 x 7=490] that Daniel speaks of. In conclusion we see that Daniel does not speak of Jesus, but of two separate princes during the time of the exile and destruction of the Second Holy Temple.

In light of all the mistranslations by the New Testament writers, the question we must ask ourselves now is;

Is the New Testament the reliable, inspired word of God?

Christianity believes undeniably that the Torah, the “Old Testament” is the word of God and yet, they also believe that the New Testament is the word of God as well. Before we can decide if the New Testament can be considered a valid addition to the bible, let us ask ourselves two basic questions.

1. Does the New Testament contradict the Torah, the ‘Old Testament’ in any way?

2. Can anyone add anything to God’s word?

Let us address the first question. Jews and Christians both believe that God is a perfect being who cannot err. The only way that mankind can be sure to follow God’s word, is if we believe that his word has been properly transmitted over the centuries until today. If such errors and contradictions do exist, then we are obligated to question the way in which God’s perfect word is being transmitted. Since clearly God cannot contradict himself, we must look at the statements in the New Testament and see if there is anything there that contradicts his earlier word, the Torah, which Christians fully admit is also the inerrant written word of God.

In addition to openly contradicting the Torah, does the New Testament contradict itself? If there are errors in the New Testament, can we trust its message as the prophetic word of God? The reality is that there are serious contradictions in the New Testament and since everyone agrees that God cannot make mistakes, we must acknowledge that it was the writers of the New Testament who made these mistakes and that as such the New Testament is not a reliable, infallible transmission of God’s word. These errors are not being brought to light to disprove the Christian faith; they are merely exposed in order to explain to the reader that the New Testament cannot be looked at as a valid addition to the original Hebrew Scriptures which every religion admits was the original word of God. Let us look at some of these issues and you can judge for yourself;

Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” We see that extended life itself is given as a reward for honoring your parents. This commandment is so important that it is only one of two commandments where the length of our physical life is impacted by following it. This important verse is repeated again in Deuteronomy 5:16 "Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

Let us contrast this important commandment by God which promises extended life, with the New Testament where Jesus is quoted as saying;

Matthew 8:21 - Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.

How is it possible that the same God who commanded the Jewish people to “Honor your Father and Mother” ignored the call for a son to honor his father by burying him? In fact, we see that burial of a human being is of critical importance in the Torah in itself as we are not allowed to let bodies “bury themselves”.

Deuteronomy 21:23 - you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. [If we are so careful to bury one who is cursed then we must certainly take extra special care of a family member who is not under a curse, i.e. the disciple’s father.]

Joshua 8:29 “He hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take his body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.” We see that the prophet Joshua observed the biblical commandment given by Moses in Deuteronomy by removing the King of Ai from the tree and burying him that same day.

How can it be that even the enemies of God were offered a burial and not left overnight, yet Jesus told his own disciple to ignore his own father’s burial? Clearly this is not in keeping with the Torah and the word of God.

Let us look at another example from the Torah;

Deuteronomy 20:19 “When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its fruit trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?”

However in the New Testament, when Jesus went to a Fig tree and it did not bear fruit for him; he destroyed the tree and prevented it from ever bearing fruit again.

Matthew 21:18 - Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

The question is; if God commands us not to destroy a fruit bearing tree from our enemies, how can Jesus justify the destruction of a fruit bearing tree he stumbled upon that wasn’t even in fruit bearing season? The next passage says that “When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. Compare this passage with Mark 11:20 where it says "In the morning, as they [Jesus’ disciples] went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed [yesterday] has withered.” So while Matthew in the earlier verse says that the disciples watched the fig tree wither right before their very eyes, Mark says that it was actually the next day that the disciples saw the withered tree. Not only does the New Testament contradict the Torah, but even this supposedly significant event lacks continuity within the very same scriptures.

Let us look at some other examples;

Genesis 46:27 “With the two sons who had been born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob's family, which went to Egypt were seventy in all.”

Exodus 1:5 “The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.”

However, we find that the New Testament says that there were not seventy, but seventy-five that went down to Egypt. Look at Acts 7:14 “After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.”

How is it possible that the writers of the New Testament did not know how many went down to Egypt when they could have easily looked it up in Genesis and Exodus? Lastly, let us examine some other troubling verses in which the New Testament openly contradicts the Torah regarding the consumption of blood.

Leviticus 17:12 “That is why I have said to the people of Israel, ‘You must never eat or drink blood neither you nor the foreigners living among you.”

Deuteronomy 12:23 “But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the [physical] life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.”

Deuteronomy 15:23 “But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.”

However, we read that the Jewish disciples of Jesus contradicted the Torah by saying the exact opposite;

John 6:54 “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” For those of you who believe that John meant this passage only metaphorically, he continues to say in John 6:55 “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink”. In other words, John actually believed that the flesh and blood of Jesus to be consumed were not metaphorical in nature, but an actual mystical processes that take place upon consumption of consecrated bread and wine. One only needs to look at the Catholic Church’s concept of the Eucharist to see that they still believe today, that the wafer and wine they consume at Mass actually transforms into the real body and blood of Jesus through transubstantiation.

This very concept is so antithetical to Jewish belief that the Torah outlines the most severe punishment for violation of this command. Leviticus 17:10 says “Any Israelite or any alien living among them who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from his people.” The punishment listed is the very opposite of what Jesus and his disciples claim the consumption of blood does. While they assert that ingesting the blood of Jesus will bring everlasting life, the Torah says that God will set his face in anger against that person and cut him off from his covenant.  Which one is correct? For the Jew, there is absolutely no doubt.

These might seem like insignificant errors to a Christian, but if there is even one inaccuracy or contradiction in a book claiming to be the inerrant word of God then how can we be certain that the message has maintained its validity? The Torah itself testifies that if even one letter in an entire Torah scroll of 304,805 letters is rubbed out or improperly written, the entire Torah becomes invalid and cannot be used until the error is corrected. Yet, Christianity bases its entire religious belief on a book filled with errors, mistranslations and contradictions that has never been corrected. Let us look at just a few of the clear New Testament contradictions;

Who purchased the field of blood?

a. In Matthew 27:7 the chief priests buy the field.

b. In Acts 1:18 Judas buys the field.

How did Judas Iscariot, betrayer of Jesus die?

a. In Matthew 27:5 Judas hangs himself.

b. In Acts 1:18 he bursts open and his insides spill out.

Who saw the risen Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion?

a. According to Matthew 28:1, only "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary."

b. According to Mark 16:1, "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome."

c. According to Luke 23:55, 24:1 and 24:10, "the women who had come with him out of Galilee." Among these women were "Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James." Luke indicates in verse 24:10 that there were at least two others.

d. According to John 20:1-4, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb alone, saw the stone removed, ran to find Peter, and returned to the tomb with Peter and another disciple.

Where and when did Jesus’ ascension take place?

a. According to Luke 24:51, Jesus' ascension took place in Bethany, on the same day as his resurrection.

b. According to Acts 1:9-12, Jesus' ascension took place at Mount Olivet, forty days after his resurrection.

These are only a few of the many hundreds of errors and contradictions contained in the New Testament, the ‘inspired word of God’. These errors are not meant to ridicule the Christian Bible, only to show how it is impossible for Jews to accept the infallibility of the Christian Bible as a viable prophetic work. The Jewish Bible contains 24 books and each of those books does not modify even the tiniest detail of the other. Each volume is intertwined with stories, events and prophecies that 100% support, never contradict each other as the New Testament clearly does. Any book which changes the meaning of even the simplest word cannot possibly be given from the Holy Spirit and is not the word of God according to the very laws of Moses and Judaism. In an effort to rectify all the known errors, Christianity has provided millions upon millions of pages of Apologetics and explanations to try and come up with viable excuses to clarify these clear contradictory passages.

The truth is that one should not have to make ‘apologies’ for God. God’s word must stand on its own or one must logically question the validity of the author. If we accept on blind faith that errors exist, but ignore them because we are following our hearts and not our minds, we are convicting ourselves to a life filled with lies and falsehood, exactly what the Prophet Jeremiah said in Chapter 16:19 “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless beliefs in which there is no profit.” By allowing these lies to remain unchallenged, Christians are condemning their own children and passing on worthless beliefs in which there is no ‘prophet’.

Can we add anything to the word of God?

The Torah of Moses says that no one can add anything or take away anything from the Torah. Christians believe that Orthodox Jews add many laws to the Torah with the writings of the Mishnah and Talmud; however there is nothing that observant Jews do today that is not expressly written in the Torah. The Mishnah and Talmud do not add anything to the word of God; they merely explain how to properly perform the written commandments in the Torah. Throughout the Torah itself, there is clear evidence of the existence of the oral explanation of Moses and the sages. Let us look at a few examples in scripture that can quantify the existence of the Mishnah and Talmud, the oral explanations of the written Laws of Moses.

a. Exodus 25:40 – With regards to the Holy utensils Moses said “make everything according to what I have shown you here on the mountain”.  [The written Torah doesn’t say how to make these items. Do you mean to tell me that since there is nothing written, Moses never told anyone? On the contrary, everything that was “shown” to Israel was passed down in the Oral tradition and testimony of the Jewish people.]

b. Numbers 15:38 - Speak to Israel and say to them; “you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel.” [How many tassels are to be placed on each corner? What do they look like? How are they tied? What material should they be made out of? What colors are the other tassels that are not blue? It is utterly impossible to create tassels from this singular sentence, yet all Jews across the world make the tassels [Tzitzit] the exact same way. How is this possible? It’s because the details on how to create these tassels are written down in the oral tradition given from Moses which has been maintained for 3,300 years by the Jewish people.]

c. Deuteronomy 6:8 –“Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.” [Tie what? What are these things made out of? What do they look like? Again, no explanation or detail is given. Are we to assume that Moses told us to tie these things, yet never even told us what they were, or how to make them?]

d. Deuteronomy 12:21 – “slaughter your cattle and small animals, in the manner that I have commanded you”. [How are we to slaughter an animal? There is nothing shown or written down in the Scripture, however the Oral law explains all the details in order to follow this commandment.]

e. Leviticus 23:40 – “you shall take on the first day, fruit of trees, branches of palm, boughs of leafy trees, and willows; and you shall rejoice”. [First day of what? What kind of fruit? Can I use apples and oranges? How should we rejoice? Again, no explanation is given in the written word; however the Oral law explains it clearly.]

The obvious “problem” with all these verses quoted above is that none of the details are explained anywhere in the Hebrew Scriptures. It's impossible to understand how to follow any of these written commandments just by looking at the verses themselves and this is exactly where the Jewish Mishnah and the Talmud come in. These books explain details that the written word explicitly left out. It doesn’t add anything to the law; it just explains how to follow them in a precise, detailed manner. When you apply for a driver’s license at the DMV, there is both a written and a practical exam. The driving instructor only wants you to demonstrate what was written on the test, he doesn’t want you to add any of your own knowledge. The instructor himself does not add anything new to the exam; he doesn’t make up driving laws or rules, he merely shows them to the applicant in real world examples and expects you to demonstrate the same process. He physically shows you what the written words on the exam are trying to tell you.

The Talmud is the collective knowledge of the Jewish sages who applied the written word to everyday life. We learn about how to apply the law from their vast knowledge and experience. From the very moment that Moses gave the Jewish people the Torah; we have had practical, everyday awareness of how to apply the laws in every situation in life. As such, the Oral laws never supersede the written word. They are merely a detailed description of how our ancestors applied the word of God throughout history. Without a highly detailed oral and written explanation of the many vague commandments written in the Hebrew Scriptures, it would have been impossible for anyone to follow the word of God based on the text alone. The Jewish people are not only the keepers of the written word, but also the explanation of how to properly follow the written word as well.

As demonstrated earlier in the above verses from the Torah, Jesus and his disciples were guilty of changing much of the written word. Here are some additional examples,

According to Matthew 5:18, Jesus said that not the tiniest bit of the Law could be changed. However in Mark 7:19 Jesus declares that all foods are ritually and spiritually clean, thereby drastically changing the Kosher dietary laws which forbid the mixture of milk and meat and the ingestion of certain ‘unclean’ animals. In essence, the Biblical Commandment made in Deuteronomy 14:8 not to eat swine was nullified by Jesus. Anyone claiming to remove the kosher dietary laws cannot possibly be the Jewish Messiah whose very mission is to fully enforce the Mosaic Laws as we stated earlier.

In Genesis 17:13 God says “they must be circumcised, home born, and purchased alike. Thus shall my covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting pact.” However, let us contrast this previous verse with Acts 15:24 which says “We have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be circumcised to keep the law’ to whom we gave no such commandment.” This concept of the removal of the commandment to circumcise is reiterated again in Colossians 3:11 which says, “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ in all.” [Again, Paul nullifies circumcision thereby contradicting the deliberate word of God in Genesis]. Lastly, Philippians 3:3 says “For we are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit, and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh." [Again, circumcision in the “flesh” is expressly written in Genesis 17:13. No one can nullify this law, certainly not Paul.]

Circumcision is such an important part of the Jewish faith that God says in the very next sentence, Genesis 17:14 ”Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant." We see that in fact it is the lack of circumcision that breaks the covenant, not creates the covenant like Paul suggests. Either God is correct, or the Apostle Paul is correct. Since God cannot lie, we must logically assume that Paul was the one who made this grave error and abolished God’s law. God never removed circumcision and to infer that it is somehow no longer necessary openly contradicts the written word. The book of Romans 10:4 exclaims, “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” In other words, not that he has fulfilled the law which Christians say, but that with Jesus, the Law is no longer needed, it has ended. This is the exact opposite of what the Jewish Messiah is commanded to do. Moses and the Jewish prophets say that the Jewish Messiah will encourage people to keep and protect the law, not ignore it.

In Exodus 31:13 we read about the seriousness of the Jewish Sabbath, another eternal covenant between God and Israel. “Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.” This contradicts the New Testament where Paul says in Colossians 2:14-16 that Jesus was “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: In other words, Paul himself admits that the Law was ‘nailed to a cross’ and is no longer relevant as long as you have faith in Jesus. Paul said you can eat what you want, you can drink what you want and you can break the Sabbath just as long as you have faith in Jesus. These statements alone show why Jesus could never have been the Jewish Messiah. How are we to rectify Paul’s actions with the written word of God, which states below?

Deuteronomy 4:2 - Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

Deuteronomy 12:32 - See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.

Proverbs 30:6 - Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.

Ecclesiastes 3:14 - I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.

No man, especially Paul who never walked with Jesus yet claimed to have seen him in a vision has the authority to abrogate the Mosaic Laws. The whole reason that Moses closed the Torah after the 40 year journey in the desert was for this exact purpose, so that false prophets would not come by at a later date in history and change the words he had given. The very words which Paul uses to show the fulfillment of the Torah is the exact reason that we as Jews know that Jesus and Paul could not have been the ones prophesized by the Jewish prophets. The very thought of nullifying or ending the Mosaic laws run contrary to the very purpose of the Jewish Messiah. In other words, Paul’s own words convict him.

Every book that is contained in the 24 books of Tanach [Torah, Prophets, Writings], the Jewish Bible, adds nothing, or subtracts nothing from Moses’ teachings. Every Jewish prophet, without exception enforced the Mosaic Law, never modified or nullified it. Every book in Jewish scripture, whether it was the Prophets, or the later works such as the Mishnah and Talmud as we discussed are only enforcing that which was already given. These books cannot add, or subtract from the Five Books of Moses, for if they did they would be dismissed as heresy and never followed by the Jewish nation. In order for a work to be considered canonical it must fully support the Law of Moses. The great Rabbi, Moses himself said in Deuteronomy 13 “If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, “Let us follow other Gods” [Gods you have not known] “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. That prophet or dreamer will be put to death, because he preached rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.”

In other words Moses is telling us that we are being tested by God to see if we truly love him. Moses himself tells us that one who leads the people away from the Mosaic commandments is a false prophet; period. Jesus, Paul, John, and any other who nullifies the Mosaic Laws are false by Moses’ own account. How can a Christian accept the ‘Old Testament’ as the infallible word of God which says the commandments are forever eternal, and then turn the very next page to the ‘New Testament’ which invalidates the previous work and call it a continuation. The mere suggestion that such a thing is possible is in itself, a contradiction.

It is obvious that even within the New Testament there is much confusion as to how Gentiles should be integrated into the “Jewish Church”. Some argued that Gentiles should be circumcised; others argued that they should not. Some argued whether they were required to follow the Commandments, others argued they were not. These arguments were not based in Torah they were based on man's own ability to make those decisions; had the apostles followed the Torah of Moses there would have never been an argument on these clear violations of Jewish Law. It is therefore self-evident that Christianity is not the completion or addition of Judaism but an entirely separate religion with distinct customs and rituals that contradict the core principles of the Jewish faith.

Absence of proof is not proof

A common argument I often hear from those who try to prove to me that Jesus rose from the dead, is that because the tomb where Jesus was supposedly buried was empty the only logical conclusion was that he must have risen. The difficulty with this argument is that these Christians try to prove something by an absence of proof. Not only is this illogical but the same argument can be used to ‘prove’ virtually anything. A silly example might be that because we don’t see evidence of aliens on earth, they must have all left because the lack of alien evidence proves they were once here but must have left long ago. With the God of Israel, it is not lack of evidence that proved he was God but the open fulfillment of prophecy that we can still see today, right now, this very minute as you look at your clock. The Bible tells us in Leviticus 26:33 “I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out my sword and pursue you. Your land will be laid waste, and your cities will lie in ruins.”

Approximately 2,000 Years ago, the Jewish nation was exiled from the land of Israel by the sword of the Romans and scattered across the ends of the earth just as the Bible foretold 1,400 years earlier. Our holy city of Jerusalem was laid waste and the land of Israel was in ruins. As far as being conquered, the Jewish nation is certainly not unique. All throughout history, native people were conquered by others, hundreds possibly thousands of times throughout the ages. While most other cultures die out and assimilate into the nations they are scattered to however, the Jewish people has been the only nation in history to defy those odds and return to the land of their origin. The reason we survived as an independent people comes straight from Leviticus 26:44 “Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God.” It was God’s personal promise that we would not be assimilated like everyone else. It was only God’s faithful word to keep the covenant he made with our ancestors that allowed us to survive and defy the impossible odds against us. For 2,000 years through pogroms, inquisitions, crusades and holocausts the Jewish nation survived “never to be destroyed completely” just as promised in Leviticus. The Jewish people are living proof of these prophecies.

The Prophet Isaiah in Chapter 66:8 says something that should send shivers down your spine, he says “Who has ever heard of such things? Who has ever seen things like this? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.” This prophecy was fulfilled on May 14th 1948 when the nation of Israel was reborn in an instant just as Isaiah had prophesized nearly 3,000 years ago. The Prophet Amos in Chapter 9:14 says “I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God”. The return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel was a fulfillment of prophecy that everyone in the world currently sees and the Bible openly predicted. This coincides with what we discussed earlier when we spoke of prophecy being a revelation that is clearly witnessed by everyone.

There is no one alive today that can honestly claim the Jewish nation does not live in the land that God promised to us. In the 1500’s, the founder of Protestantism Martin Luther said that the Jews were so blinded as to be rejected and despised by God that they never had any hope of returning to the land of Israel. Apparently, Martin Luther was unfamiliar with his own Bible because time and again it openly rejects his statements. The Jewish nation living in Israel is a physical sign that everyone can see, this is not absence of proof like an empty tomb, but a visible manifestation of Gods promise to the Jewish people. It is not the absence of Israel, but its physical presence which is the sign. An absence of proof is no proof at all.

The reason that we know dinosaurs once existed is because their fossilized bones are evidence of their once great existence. We have physical proof that ancient civilizations once existed because of the remains of the cities and artifacts they left behind. The ancient land of Israel and the remnants of our past culture bear witness that we have now returned to the land. In 1867, Mark Twain visited Israel and published his impressions in his book “The Innocents Abroad”.  He described Israel as a desolate country devoid of both vegetation and human population: He said, “….. A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent mournful expanse…. a desolation…. we never saw a human being on the whole route…. hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.” However upon the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, God promised in Isaiah 35:1 “The desert and the dry land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus flower. They will burst into bloom, and rejoice with joy and singing”. He continues to repeat this theme in Chapter 51:3 “The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden [lush gardens], her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.” In fact, the borders of Israel are commonly referred to as the Green Line which separates the dry desert lands of the Arab nations with the blossoming land of the Jewish people in Israel. For 2,000 years the land lay barren awaiting the return of the Jewish nation just as Mark Twain had witnessed in 1867, however less than 100 years later the same desolate land bloomed into a productive nation as God promised thousands of years earlier. This is tangible proof.

In Deuteronomy 28:7 it says “The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways.” In 1948 when the United Nations recognized Israel’s independence, the nations of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen attacked Israel. Did you count how many nations that was? Seven. This is not speculation but historical, verifiable fact. The end result of the war was exactly as God promised; the attacking nations all fell before Israel. They attacked her as a unified coalition but retreated to their respective nations utterly defeated and humiliated. Time and again, the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible have been fulfilled and continue to be fulfilled just as the Bible states. How can some in the Christian community ignore these prophecies when the fulfillment is right before their eyes? Most Christians today have recognized that their ancestors were wrong about Israel and the Jewish people and that we are not “rejected” as they once believed. Most Christians today have recognized the importance of Israel in the world and know that God is not yet finished with the Jewish people. Had Martin Luther learned the proper way to translate and read the Jewish scriptures from the Jewish people instead of his own foolish interpretations he would have never come to such contradictory conclusions about us. It is only because he chose a different path, a non-biblical interpretation that caused him to openly ignore the incontrovertible evidence that Israel will once again exist as a nation.

Just as Martin Luther, the founder of Protestant Christianity misinterpreted the Bible to suit his own hate-filled and anti-Semitic ideology; Christianity today misinterprets the Hebrew Scriptures and prophecies in order to prove the existence of a dying and resurrected Jewish Messiah which has no basis in Jewish scripture. Nowhere in Jewish teaching does it say that the Messiah will be a son of God or a God. Nowhere in Jewish scripture does it say that the Messiah will be born of a virgin. Nowhere in Jewish scripture does it say that the Messiah is to die for the sins of the world, and nowhere in Jewish scripture are Moses’ laws nullified or “completed”.

Although we only reviewed a small number of the many hundreds of prophecies, there is no need to go through each of the supposed 300 because if even one prophecy is found out of context or mistranslated from the original Hebrew, we must question the authenticity of them all. It is only by mistranslating and twisting the Jewish scriptures that others, outside the Jewish faith come to the conclusion that Jesus fulfilled prophecies that were already fulfilled by others, without exception. There are 13 basic principles of the Jewish faith that were given by Moses to the Jewish people and passed through all generations as part of the oral tradition. It is these guiding principles that we as Jews use as a measuring stick to determine the authenticity of what is considered canonical or not. Anything that contradicts these 13 principles of the Jewish faith is automatically dismissed and not integrated into the belief system of the Jewish people. This was God’s way of ensuring that we remain true to the faith that he gave us. At the height of Christianity’s intense effort to convert Jews, the great master of Jewish teaching Maimonides, codified the 13 principles of Jewish faith so that the Jewish nation, no matter where they found themselves would have the basic knowledge to accept or reject new beliefs that were presented to them.

The 13 principles of Jewish faith

1. I believe with perfect faith that God is the Creator and Ruler of all things. He alone has made, does make, and will make all things.

2. I believe with perfect faith that God is one. There is no unity that is in any way like His. He alone is our God He was, He is, and He will be.

3. I believe with perfect faith that God does not have a body. Physical concepts do not apply to Him. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles Him at all.

4. I believe with perfect faith that God is first and last.

5. I believe with perfect faith that it is only proper to pray to God. One may not pray to anyone or anything else.

6. I believe with perfect faith that all the words of the Jewish prophets are true.

7. I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses is absolutely true. He was the chief of all prophets, both before and after Him.

8. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that we now have is that which was given to Moses.

9. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be changed, and that there will never be another given by God.

10. I believe with perfect faith that God knows all of man's deeds and thoughts.

11. I believe with perfect faith that God rewards those who keep His commandments, and punishes those who transgress Him.

12. I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah. How long it takes, I will await His coming every day.

13. I believe with perfect faith that the dead will be brought back to life when God wills it to happen.

These principles are the foundation of the Jewish faith and if one does not believe in even one of these principles, he forfeits his place among the nation of Israel. It is now plain to see why belief in Jesus as a God or as a son of God does not fit within the belief system of the Jewish nation and therefore impossible that the early Jewish followers of Jesus ever saw him as such. It is this for this reason and all the others as stated in this document that Jesus was not, and could never be the Messiah that God promised to the Jewish people. The Torah states that the Jewish people will know who the Messiah is when he accomplishes 3 things:

1.        The Jewish Messiah will ingather the exiles of Israel and return them to the land. When Jesus lived, the entire Jewish nation was already living in the land of Israel. Why would God need a Messiah to gather those who are already gathered?

2.       The Jewish Messiah will rebuild the Holy Temple and reinstitute the sacrificial service as in the first temple. Why would God send a Messiah when the Temple was standing and the sacrificial services were fully operational?

3.       The Jewish Messiah will convince the world to lay down their weapons of war and usher in an era of peace for all humanity. Has this happened yet?

The answer that Christians give is that he will do all these things when he comes again, but to a knowledgeable Jew there is not a sliver of doubt that Jesus did not fit the description of the Jewish Messiah. Only a Christian without the knowledge and understanding of the Hebrew Bible could come to a conclusion that the Jewish God was a man born of a virgin who died for the sins of the world. It is my hope that Christians will study this document and read the “original” Jewish scriptures for themselves before coming to any conclusions. We must fire the arrow into the circle and not draw the circle around the arrow.

I want to reiterate the prophecy that has not yet, but will be fulfilled in Zechariah 8:23 which says This is what the Lord Almighty says: In those days [The Messianic Era] ten men from all languages and nations [Gentiles] will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, 'Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.'  It is always with this prophecy in mind that I present this work.

So what’s next?

Some may read this document and feel a tremendous loss of hope; that they had believed something for so long which was merely the creation of man and not the word of God. Others may lose faith completely and use this as an excuse not to believe in a Creator altogether. However, the Jewish nation is here to tell you otherwise. The entire purpose of our selection as God’s servant was, and still remains, to bring the world a message of hope and salvation by embracing the word of God that was originally given to the nation of Israel and following the path that God placed before all mankind. While the Jewish people had been given 613 commandments in order to lead the way, the rest of the world was given 7 laws which we as the ‘nation of priests’ are obligated to teach. These laws are called the ‘Sheva Mitzvot B’nei Noach’ or The 7 Laws of Noah. These Noahide Laws were actually first given to Adam and Eve and all mankind was obligated to follow these basic commandments since the very beginning of creation. In every generation, God wanted righteous people to light the way for mankind and to live as shining examples of how to follow his word which is why Noah and his family were ultimately selected for the task of rebuilding the earth. Unlike Christianity, Judaism is not a religion that actively seeks out converts. In fact, the Jewish nation is taught to discourage others from conversion to Judaism because there is no spiritual requirement or benefit for others to adhere to our laws.

Redemption is a gift to the entire world which is received through the fulfillment of each person’s individual obligation to their creator. Through the adherence of the Seven Noahide Laws, all people can become ‘righteous’ and build a connection to God while fulfilling their purpose here on earth. According to Kabbalah and Chassidut [Jewish spiritual teaching] this is ultimately what Adam and Eve tried to accomplish by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God wanted to bestow upon the first man and woman unlimited blessings without their need to do anything in return. This act of taking without deserving is known in Judaism as the ‘bread of shame’ and both Adam and Eve did not want to be unworthy recipients. By eating from the Tree of Knowledge, they [wrongfully] believed that they could internalize free will and fight their evil inclination thereby earning God’s love and kindness.  God created mankind with an instinctive desire to work for our rewards and not live selfishly off the benevolence of others. Every parent knows from personal experience that when their child is given a gift for free without having earned it, the child is incapable of appreciating the value of the item and the gift is usually squandered away.

By making children earn the things they want [such as by performing chores or getting good grades in school], parents instill a sense of accomplishment, self-worth, and an appreciation for the things that their children receive. This was exactly God’s reason for giving us the laws, not for us to earn his love or reward, but allowing us to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in following his word. This is the sign of true love that was never able to be fully realized in the Garden of Eden as long as Adam and Eve received something for nothing. This is why they ate from the Tree of Knowledge and why their descendants have the task of exercising our free will. Without the choice between good and evil, ‘free will’ does not exist. It was out of God’s infinite love for his creations that he gave us this incredibly difficult, but truly sacred gift. Once the Messiah arrives, the gift of free-will, will no longer be available to us as evil will cease to exist.

Until that time, theSeven NoahideLaws are a set of moral guidelines which guarantee that humanity will share a place in the world to come for those that follow its teachings. By following these most basic moral principles, all nations can be confident that when final judgment arrives, they are counted among the righteous. The Seven laws are:

1.        Prohibition of Idolatry [Worship of false Gods]

2.       Prohibition of Murder

3.       Prohibition of Theft

4.       Prohibition of Sexual immorality

5.       Prohibition of Blasphemy [Cursing God]

6.       Prohibition of eating [parts of] a live animal

7.       Establishing [and following] courts of law

There are many books explaining these basic Noahide Laws and so I will not delve into these principles except to say that these values are universal in nature and do not require a person to become Jewish. Noahides and Jews worship the same God of Israel and in many congregations pray together and celebrate the Jewish festivals together. For additional information on the Noahide Laws you can read books such as; The Rainbow Covenant, by Michael Dallen; the Noahide Code, by Alan Cecil; and the Path of the Righteous Gentile by Chaim Clorfene. These books will further explain the Noahide Laws and show how they are incumbent upon all mankind.

The whole point of God choosing a nation was to ensure that his message would be maintained throughout the ages and that all who wanted to learn would be able to, directly from the mouths of the messengers. Unfortunately today, the Gentile nations choose to ignore the messengers and cloud the word of God with man-made nonsense. If one truly digs through all the misinformation that has been created for centuries, you will see that only the Jewish people have maintained the exact same message since the beginning of the establishment of our faith. Only the Jewish people have a message of hope and salvation that is universal and does not require a person to ignore logic and common sense and replace it with one of blind faith. The real good news is that God promises redemption to those who actively seek him. Amos 5:4 - This is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: Seek me and live, Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart, Psalm 119:2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart, and finally Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. Some of us may seek God our entire lives and never truly find him, but it is the act of striving to better ones self that brings us closer to our creator. It's the journey, not the destination that we believe brings us into a relationship with God.

A relationship by its very nature means that both parties share in the responsibility and welfare of the other. When a man and woman marry, they each take on a responsibility that complements the other. Only by the fulfillment of each person’s obligations can the marriage succeed. The man takes an oath to support his wife, to protect her, to ensure for her needs. The woman takes an oath that she will be the backbone of the relationship and create an environment to raise a family. Without each contribution, the whole unit falls apart. The same holds true with regards to our relationship to God. It is foolish for someone to believe that they can do whatever they want but because they have ‘faith’ then everything between them and God is perfect. Faith cannot heal broken relationships. Faith cannot put food on an empty table. Faith cannot feed a starving family. Only our physical actions which are the representation of our faith can. This is why the Torah tells us all throughout the scriptures that God wants our actions; true expressions of our faith.

Deuteronomy 26:16 The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 30:10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Joshua 22:5 But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul."

Psalms 119:2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.

Psalms 25:10 All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.

Psalms 119:22 Remove from me scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes.

Psalms 119:168 I obey your precepts and your statutes, for all my ways are known to you.

Proverbs 8:32 Now then, my sons, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways.

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.

Isaiah 56:2 Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.

In other words, the Prophets are saying that “talk is cheap”. If you want a real relationship with God, then keep his commandments because “actions speak louder than words”.

Conclusion

As I stated earlier in my book, my intention is not to discredit Christianity as a separate distinct faith from Judaism but to show how Christianity cannot possibly be a continuation of the Jewish scriptures. Christianity has given the Gentile world many things that Judaism has failed to do. Christianity has spread the principles and belief of a divine being throughout the globe and has brought ‘Jewish lite’ values and morals to those whom would otherwise be missing them. Christianity has helped spread original Jewish concepts such as equality and justice under the law which enabled the foundation of the United States of America, a nation that is the very beacon of light and hope to a dark world much better than Judaism could have ever done alone. Christianity should not be discredited but commended. If my criticism seems harsh, it is only because I believe that Christianity has wrongfully taken certain concepts from Judaism and has given credit to itself in presenting these ideas as 'Christian' while forgetting the very root that it was taken from.

The concept of a Messiah and universal salvation have always first been Jewish ideals and as such must be understood from a Jewish concept and not a purely Christian one. When Christians refer to the Messiah it is done so from a very limited Christian theology and not looked upon within the larger framework of what the very purpose of the Jewish Messiah is; to physically and spiritually transform our lives and to connect the body with the soul so that they become one and the same. Through this transfusion of holiness into physicality, all nations on earth will immediately know who the Messiah is. Until that day comes, he hasn’t either. Let us wait in anticipation for the day that the world is freed from its corporeal bondage and we usher in a new age without war, famine and hatred, a time of ultimate peace for all mankind. I know that we all anxiously await that day.

Shalom & blessings,

Yaakov ben Chaim Tzvi

info@300times0.com

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge and thank the following Jewish organizations and their scholars for providing endless hours of research and material in order to complete my work. These organizations have faithfully transmitted the words of Moses to our people and continue to light the way for all mankind.

a.       Chabad.org

b.       Aish.com

c.       AskMoses.com

d.       OutreachJudaism.org

e.       SimpleToRemember.com

f.       JewsForJudaism.com

Table of Contents

An examination of the 300 Prophecies of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures

Introduction

Less than 10%

Judaism; a different approach

What’s in a name?

Unity or Trinity?

Atonement & Salvation

Why 300 times 0?

What is prophecy?

The Prophecies

Micah 5:2

Genesis 3:15

Genesis 12:3

Genesis 22:8

Isaiah 9:6

Isaiah 7:14

Psalms 2

Malachi 3:1

Malachi 4:5-6

Isaiah 40:3

Deuteronomy 18:15

The parable of the “master” archer

Jeremiah 31:15

Psalms 72:10

Isaiah 53

Isaiah 8:14

Zechariah 9:9

Psalms 41:9

Zechariah 11:12

Psalms 35:11

Psalms 22:16

Psalms 110:1

Jeremiah 23:5

Daniel 9

Is the New Testament the reliable, inspired word of God?

Can we add anything to the word of God?

Absence of Proof is not proof

The 13 principles of Jewish faith

So what’s next?

Conclusion

Acknowledgements