About a year ago, I had done an analysis on the Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 53 since this passage that Christians use to "prove" that Jesus was the Messiah. It should go without saying that their claim is without merit. It's nothing more than an example of Christians using eisegesis, i.e., they read their preconceived notions into the verse to misinterpret the verse and read what they want to read.
Although my analysis was more than adequate, I had found another one recently published by Aish HaTorah, written by Marshall Roth, that was even more thorough than mine. Let me say that this analysis is spot on! Roth first goes through the context of the verse, including how the Jewish people have been referred to as a single entity on more than one occasion. He then takes each verse and shows how the Suffering Servant refers to the Jewish people and not Jesus. Roth then concludes with how early Christian figures read the verse with the same interpretation that Judaism uses.
Understanding this verse properly is of importance. This passage was not meant to guilt trip people into believing in Jesus. It is meant to outline that upon the coming of the Messiah, the other nations will realize how they have erred in persecuting the Jewish people. May we see the coming of the Messiah sooner rather than later!
The main point that sealed the deal on my rejection of Christianity was the complete attack on Isaiah 7:14, the Virgin Birth. That Christendom would make Jesus' divinity on that shoddy a foundation.
ReplyDeleteOT, but you're a convert, right? Or did you have a Jewish mother?