rosends
Well-Known Member
Here is a (lengthy) section from a book called "Their Hollow Inheritance"The passages in Isaiah referring to the Suffering Servant apply perfectly to Jesus. And clearly imply an individual's suffering.
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Isaiah 53:3
He was despised and forsaken by men; a man of pains, and accustomed to disease, and like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not.
In contrast, Jesus was supposedly very popular:
Luke 4:15
And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
Isaiah 53:7
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, he opened not his mouth.
Jesus did "open his mouth" on the cross:
Matthew 27:46
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice: "E--li, E--li, lama sabachthani?" that is: "My G-d, my G-d, why have You forsaken me?"
Although the New Testament translates "sabachthani" as "forsaken me" (echoing Psalms 22:2), it means "slaughtering me." Compare:
Deuteronomy 12:21
...then you shall slaughter [sabachta] of your herd and of your flock....
In other words, Jesus screamed out, "My G-d, my G-d, why are You slaughtering me?" A self--styled messiah, Jesus was shocked that G-d was actually letting him die!
Isaiah 53:9
And they made his grave with the wicked and his deaths among the rich, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Jesus made his grave with the rich, not the wicked:
Matthew 27:57, 59--60
When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph....And Joseph took [Jesus'] body, and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and laid it in his own new tomb....
Conversely, Jesus died among the wicked, not the rich:
Matthew 27:38
Then the two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right hand, and one on the left.
The phrase "in his deaths" is also inappropriate for Jesus, for he died only one death.
Even more problematic, Jesus is known to have committed violent acts:
1.
Matthew 21:18--19
In the morning, as [Jesus] was returning to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only. And he said to it: "May no fruit ever come from you again!" And the fig tree dried up at once.
If this really happened, what wrong did the tree do, especially since we learn:
Mark 11:13
...it was not the season for figs.
2.
Jesus is said to have permitted "demons" to possess two thousand herd of swine, which promptly stampeded off a cliff and drowned in the sea (Mark 5:11--13). Surely he could have exorcised these "demons":
Matthew 12:27
And if I [Jesus] cast out demons by Be--el'zebul (Prince of demons), by whom do your [Pharisees'] sons cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges.
G-d also enabled [Solomon] to learn that skill which expels demons, which is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never return, and this method of cure is of great force to this day: for I have seen a certain man of my own country[,] whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demonical in the presence of Vespasian [king of Rome], and his sons, and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers.Josephus Antiquities book 8, chapter 2, section 5