What do you propose?
Are you familiar with the Midrash at Mekilta Beshalach, Vayehi 5 on that verse?
(Exodus 14:21) "And Moses stretched his hand over the sea": and the sea resisted — whereupon Moses commanded it to split in the name of the Holy One Blessed be He; but it continued to resist...
It's seems like you're arguing an obscure semantic difference since the "arm" of the Lord is clearlly anthropopmorphic. I'm confident you don't believe God has an "arm."
Surely when Moses lifted his rod to affect divine commands, his arm (the one lifting the rod), was, at that moment, the "arm"...
Bringing in Genesis 49 is very useful in noting the transition taking place in Isaiah 63. Particularly since, as you're pointing out, there are two sources of blood on the garments of the personage in the crosshairs of Isaiah chapter 63.
Isaiah 63 starts out with the person already having a...
Isn't Messiah a man-ifestation of that power and might? Wasn't the rod in Moses' hand a manifestation of the power of God? Isn't the implementation of God's power manifest through various visible and tangible tools (like Mose's rod)?
John
Why does it mean "who is a Jew"?
I don't get that either?
Is the phrase "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plance, and like a root out of dry ground" speaking specifically of Messiah?
John
The trinity makes no sense unless one allows God to have various manifestations and hypostases all of which are united without loss or diminution of separate identities, and yet without loss of a unified identity. It's similar to the phrase "the Lord-God" יהוה אלהים found throughout the Tanakh...
Who, or what, but the rod of Moses, aka Nehushtan, is in Moses' right hand when he turns the water to blood, parts the sea, and then throw it in to purify the bitter waters. That peculiar serpent-rod (carried in Moses' right hand) can kill or save. Which kinda segues into the personage in Isaiah...
It's clearly about God's retribution. The question is the means (the "arm of the Lord") through which the retribution comes. Isaiah 63 parallels Isaiah 34, specifically verses 6-8, with emphasis on verse 8, which claims the slaughter in Bozrah is recompense for a controversy ריב, or forensic...
How would you negotiate the transition between the second statement in Isaiah 53 (To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?), and the third statement (For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant)? In your opinion, does the third statement refer to the second?
John
I would say, with Sartre, we mostly find what we're looking for. Jews aren't looking in the Tanakh to find an idea virgin born in Christianity. I, on the other hand, am. That said, how would you define the "arm of the Lord" as used in Isaiah?
John
Although it may perturb some Jews to hear Christians argue that Messiah will destroy a large number of people just prior to, or as part-and-parcel of the redemption that's the foyer to the messianic-age, nevertheless, the prism used to interpret the messianic-prophesies determines whether or not...
In another thread, @IndigoChild5559 questioned whether there's a prophesy concerning Messiah destroying a lot of people. My initial response dove into the exegesis of Isaiah chapter 63 a bit deeper than I thought IndigoChild5559 would enjoy or entertain such that I nixed that message and decided...
Well she's not a rabbi (that I know of) but @IndigoChild5559 is Jewish. And it was her that noted that Christians have been predicting the return of Christ for 2000 years.
I wonder if the rabbi of your acquaintance would say it's possible Messiah never comes if we're never worthy to receive...
So an omnipotent divine entity can make a rock so big the same divine entity is impotent to lift it? That's a real oxymoron you have there: omnipotent impotence.
John
Omnipotence doesn't mean you can make a rock so big your omnipotence can't lift it. Which is to say divine power must function within reasonable or logical limits. Man's powers, functioning within the limits of the laws of the cosmos, look, in retrospect, almost indistinguishable from...
It's what's coming out of the wounds on the one wounded on the crucifix that, more than purifying the urine, transforms it into the waters of everlasting life (John 6:53).
John