[net.religion] Christological Prophecies

xchar (02/08/83)

Re: net.followup tektronix.946, from tektronix!bobb (Bob Bales)
     
     
>From "The Pentateuch and Haftorahs,"
(Hebrew text, English translation, and commentary)
edited by Dr. J. H. Hertz, C.H. (late Chief Rabbi of the British Empire),
second edition, London: Soncino Press, 5727-1966.

p. 201-202:
         "Alleged Christological References in Scripture
"...The most famous passage of this class is the Fifty-third chapter of
Isaiah.  For eighteen hundred years Christian theologians have
passionately maintained that it is a Prophetic anticipation of the life
of the Founder of their Faith.  An impartial examination of the chapter,
however, shows that the Prophet is speaking of *a past historical fact*
and is describing one who had already been smitten to death...."

[In the King James translation, Isaiah 53:2 is in the future tense
("For he shall grow up..."); 53:3 starts in the present ("He is despised
and rejected of men...") and ends in the past ("he was despised...);
53:4-9 are all in the past tense.  In the Revised Standard Version,
all of 53:2-9 is in the past tense ("For he grew up...", "He was despised
and rejected by men..."). ]

p. 305:
   "Isaiah, Chapter IX.  6. For a child is born unto us, a son is given
unto us; and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name is called
Pele-joez-el-gibbor-abi-ad-sar-shalom..."
   Commentary: "...two verses from a later prophecy, concerning Hezekiah,
the son of Ahaz, then but a lad.  His righteous reign will lift Judah
from the degenerate condition into which it had sunk.
   "6. a child is born to us.  The correct rendering of the Hebrew is:
unto us a child *has been* born--unto us a son *has been* given.
The reference is not to any future Messiah, nor to any one yet unborn
(see p. 202).  Hezekiah had already given promise of the qualities of
heart and mind that pointed to him as the future regenerator of his
people....
   "pele-joez-el-gibbor-abi-ad-shalom.  i.e. Wonderful in counsel is God
the mighty, the Everlasting Father, the Ruler of Peace.... This is the
significant name by which the child will be known; it is, therefore,
left untranslated; in the same way as...Immanuel (VII, 14)....
   "The RV [Revised Version of the Bible, 1884] gives `Wonderful,
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace'.  This is
quite impossible.  No true Prophet--indeed, no true Israelite--would
apply a term like `Mighty God' or `Everlasting Father' to any mortal
prince.  What is equally decisive against the RV rendering...is the fact
that the significant names of the children of the Prophets never describe
the child, but in each case embody some some religious message to the
Prophet's contemporaries."

p. 202:
   "...in connection with Isaiah VII, 14, `A virgin shall conceive,'
Christian scholars today admit that `virgin' is a mistranslation for the
Heb. word almah, in that verse.  A `maid' or unmarried woman is expressed
in Hebrew by bethulah.  The word almah in Isaiah VII, 14 means no more
than a young woman of age to be a mother, whether she be married or not....
   "These...instances may be taken as typical.  Modern scholarship has
shattered the arguments from the Scriptures which missionaries have
tried, and are still trying, to impose upon ignorant Jews."