Julius Ciss argues why Jesus is not the Jewish Messiah
Transcript at:
https://jewsforjudaism.ca/why-jesus-is- … h-messiah/
The concept of the Messiah has its foundation in our Jewish Bible, the Tanach, which teaches that all of the following criteria must be fulfilled before any person can be acknowledged as the Messiah
As Rabbi Skobac points out, the Tanakh does not mention “the Messiah”.
“The word the Messiah or the expression the Messiah in Hebrew never appears in the Bible. Strange you would think from a Christian point of view where they believe that the idea of the Messiah is the most important concept in their entire religion you’d think that at least the word would appear in the Bible once or twice so it I point out to them that they should realize that the Bible never speaks about someone that’s called the Messiah.”
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So, how can “the Messiah” be the foundation of the Jewish Bible if “the Messiah” never appears?
The Messiah must be from the Tribe of Judah and a Descendant of King David AND King Solomon.
The Messiah must be a member of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10) and a direct descendant of King David & King Solomon (2 Samuel 7:12-14; 1 Chronicles 22:9-10).
Genealogy in the Bible is only passed down from father to son (Numbers 1:1-18).
Don’t see how Num 1:1-18 is relevant to a requirement of a patristic genealogy. The passage is about men selected for a census.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/num/1/1/s_118001
There is no evidence that Jesus really had this pedigree, and the Christian Bible actually claims that he did not have a “birth-father” from the tribe of Judah descending from King David and King Solomon (Matt. 1:18-20).
True, Jesus’s birth father did not have a lineage from David. Rather, it is claimed God is the biological father. This fulfilled Jesus being the son of God.
[Luk 1:35 KJV] 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.However, his legal father did have a lineage from David and Solomon.
[Mat 1:17 KJV] 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David [are] fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon [are] fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ [are] fourteen generations.https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/1/18/s_930018
The genealogy in Luke is interpreted as his mother’s genealogy. And even his mother had a lineage from David.
A common explanation among theologians is that Luke’s genealogy is of Mary, with Eli being her father, while Matthew’s describes the genealogy of Joseph.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy … divergence
[Luk 3:23, 31 KJV] 23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was [the son] of Heli, … 31 Which was [the son] of Melea, which was [the son] of Menan, which was [the son] of Mattatha, which was [the son] of Nathan, which was [the son] of David,Ingathering of the Jewish Exiles
When the Messiah is reigning as King of Israel, the Jews will be ingathered from their exile and will return to Israel, their homeland (Deut. 30:3; Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 30:3, 32:37; Ezekiel 11:17, 36:24).
This has clearly not yet happened and we still await its fulfillment.
There are several problems with this argument. One is there is no direct connection between the future utopian world and the Messiah. There is no scriptural support from the Tanakh that shows a direct linkage between the two.
As pointed out by Rabbi Skobac:
“Bible says the world will become a place of universal peace. All weapons will be destroyed and we have now this beautiful portrait in the Bible that’s portrayed in many many many passages over and over and over again. This theme of a restored utopian perfected fixed world. But when you read these passages it’s very interesting the vast majority of them the vast majority don’t speak about any particular person. Meaning that the focus of these passages in the Bible is not on a person it’s on what the world will look like in the future. It focuses on the world.”
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Another point is the land of Israel has been reestablished since 1948. So Jews around the world are free to be a citizen of Israel if they wish.
Rebuilding of the Holy Temple
The Temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt (Isaiah 2:2-3, 56:6-7, 60:7, 66:20; Ezekiel 37:26–27; Malachi 3:4; Zech. 14:20-21).
The Temple was still standing in Jesus’ day. It was destroyed 38 years after Jesus’ crucifixion and it has not yet been rebuilt.
Again, there is no scriptural support for a direct linkage between the Messiah’s coming and the rebuilding of the temple from the Tanakh.
And why is it so important to rebuild the temple if Jews now claim they don’t need the temple and the sacrificial system to atone for their sins?
Worldwide Reign of Peace
There will be universal disarmament and worldwide peace with a complete end to war (Micah 4:1-4; Hoseah 2:20; Isaiah 2:1-4, 60:18).
Wars have increased dramatically in the world since the start of Christianity.
Same thing. Also the implied accusation that Christianity has caused the increase in wars is a misplaced accusation. There were plenty of wars prior to the start of Christianity. And there have been many wars that have been fought that was not in the name of Christ.
Observance of the Torah Embraced by All Jews
The Messiah will reign as King at a time when all the Jewish people will observe G-d’s commandments (Ezekiel 37:24; Deut. 30:8,10; Jeremiah 31:32; Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:26-27).
Jesus never ruled as King, nor have all Jews embraced the commandments of G-d’s Torah.
The basic tenet of Christianity is Christians must declare Jesus as Lord. So, for Christians, Jesus is their king and ruler.
It is true all Jews have not embraced the commandments of the Torah.
Universal Knowledge of G-d
The Messiah will rule at a time when all the people of the world will come to acknowledge and serve the one true G-d (Zechariah 3:9, 8:23,14:9,16; Isaiah 45:23, 66:23; Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 38:23; Psalm 86:9; Zeph. 3:9).
This, as well, has not yet taken place and we await its fulfillment.
Christians believe this as well.
A Biblical Portrait of the Messiah
All of these criteria for the Messiah are found in numerous places in the Jewish Bible. One foundational example is in the book of Ezekiel, Chapter 37:24-28:
“24 And My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd, and they will walk in My ordinances, and keep My statutes, and observe them
25 and they shall live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers have lived; and they shall live there, they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever; and My servant David will be their prince for ever.
26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant, which I will give them; and I will multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever
27 and My tabernacle shall be with them, and I will be their God and they will be My people.
28 And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”
Jesus is our shepherd and guiding us to keep the commandments. Jesus has instituted the new covenant. The Holy Spirit now resides in all believers. In the final consummation, God and his people will dwell together.
[Rev 21:3 KJV] 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God.Anyone can claim to be the Messiah or a group of people can claim that someone is the Messiah. However, if that person fails to fulfill all the criteria found in the Jewish Bible, he cannot be the Messiah.
The only thing that Jesus claimed to prove his authority was the prophecy of his resurrection. Since he is the only person in the entire history of the world who prophesied this and it also was fulfilled, it validated him as the Messiah.
According to the Christian scriptures, Jesus seems to have understood this. As he was being crucified by the Romans, he cried out “My G-d, The Christian Rebuttal
In order to deal with Jesus’ failure to fulfill the Biblical messianic prophecies, missionaries argue that he will accomplish them when he returns in the future.
It’s important to understand that this second coming doctrine my G-d, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) is an admission that Jesus didn’t fulfill the Messianic criteria. This rationalization for his failure certainly provides no reason to accept him as the Messiah today.
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This was spoken by Jesus to show he was fulfilling the prophecies of Psalm 22.
[Psa 22:1 KJV] My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my roaring?https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/psa/22
Furthermore, the Jewish Bible does not have a Messianic “installment plan” where Messiah comes, fails in his mission, and then returns thousands of years later to finally succeed.
The Jews do have the concept of a marriage betrothal.
“There is now no legal duration of time between betrothal and marriage, the length of the engagement being left entirely to the option of the parties concerned, except that the marriage may not take place in less than seven days after the agreement to marry has been reached.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/arti … -betrothal
Jesus came to earth the first time as a betrothal to his bride, the church.
During the second coming, it will be the marriage of Jesus and the church.
[Rev 19:7 KJV] 7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.Missionaries will claim that because Jesus performed miracles, he must be the Messiah. However, we have no real evidence that Jesus actually performed any miracles.
We have the evidence of the Shroud of Turin.
More significantly, even if Jesus did perform miracles, they would not prove that he was the Messiah.
Our Bible never says that we will be able to recognize the Messiah through the miracles that he will do. The Torah actually teaches that even false prophets can have the ability to perform supernatural miracles (Deut. 13:2-6).
False prophets replicate miracles, not create novel miracles.
The Real Messiah
We Jews prefer to wait for the “real thing” according to G-d’s promises and guidelines. The Jewish Bible provides a clear and consistent description of what the world will look like when the Messiah comes and this has clearly not yet transpired. So, we still await the coming of the true Messiah. May he and a utopian world come soon!
The Jews have been waiting for thousands of years for their Messiah. Why continue to wait for who knows how much longer when it’s clear Jesus has fulfilled prophecies of the Tanakh and confirmed his authenticity by his resurrection from the dead.
https://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1132778#p1132778