Bluefinger, on 17 September 2012 - 09:55 PM, said:
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Key phrase: "this trend is disappearing a we learn better."
Right. Development comes with knowledge.
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Is it because the Jews have learned better or because the Jewish expectations were not fulfilled and thus the interpretations had to be dramatically revised to be able to maintain a belief in the Messianic prophecies (and thus Jewish tradition)?
Yes, many of the unlearnt are changing their minds because their wrong expectation of an individual Messiah has not been fulfilled. Has your supposed "right" interpretation that Jesus was the Messiah been fulfilled? It has been two thousand years already and his return hasn't been fulfilled. Are you ready to wait another two thousand years? Be my guest.
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I think the latter. Christians have, from day one, maintained that Jesus the Messiah resurrected and ascended to the right hand of the Father where He will wait until all nations have become Hos footstool.
Really! How come Apollos was not told about that? He used to speak about Jesus with accuracy and, in the synagogue of Ephesus, when he was invited to deliver the Sabbath sermon, about an hour, he didn't mention even once that Jesus was the Messiah or had resurrected. At the end of the services, Aquila and Priscilla, two Christians converted by Paul, invited Apollos for lunch, brainwashed him all through, and Apollos returned preaching that Jesus was the Messiah. Read Acts 18:24-28.
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So the people deliver themselves? If so, why was their a sacrificial system? Also, who delivered the Jews from the kingdom of Babylon? The people-messiah or Cyrus the Persian (through God's planning)? The people-messiah you are thinking about is merely a way of saying God's chosen people.
You are right on this one. That the People-Messiah is God's chosen People is throughout the Scriptures: Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim. Moses delivered the People-Messiah from exile in Egypt as a Messianic leader himself. From Babylon, Cyrus only proclaimed that the People-Messiah could return to the Land of Israel if they wanted. That was from the second exile. From this last 3rd one, we had Herzl who inspired the People-Messiah with love for Zion. The bottom line is that they, the People, did it all all the times with the help of God.
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In fact the people-messiah interpretation was likely the cause of the destruction of the second temple and the great dispersion of the Jews thereafter. The Pharisees and Sadducees believed that those who were obedient to the Torah were God's annointed ones. History shows that the two schools of thought were the reason why the Romans even occupied Jerusalem in the first place.
Right again. The Temple was destroyed because the People-Messiah made it too hard for the Romans to govern them. Do you know why? Because the People-Messiah can be governed by the Gentiles in the Diaspora but not in the Land of Israel. That's why they destroyed the Temple. So that the People-Messiah be gone to the Diaspora to be governed by the Gentiles.
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You do understand that you are denouncing Judaism in this statement, don't you? Who made the covenant first? Abraham or God? And who first intiated the Davidic Covenant? David or God?
No, I am liberating Judaism from superstitions. Abraham made a Covenant with the Lord to worship Him only in a monotheistic way. Samuel, the Prophet initiated the Davidic Covenant when he anointed David as the King chosen by the Lord.
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Then you obviously don't understand the Jewish Scriptures. Even the early zealot followers believed in a messiah that would die. And Daniel 9 shows an anointed one that would be rejected by his own people. Enoch 1 showed a Messiah whose name was hidden from the beginning and who would be divine, Psalms 22 showed the messianic king suffering what would later dramatically match that of Jesus' crucifixion, Isaiah spoke of an anointed one dying for the sins of his people (and thus healing them), which distinguishes the people and the one who suffers for their salvation, and Micah speaks of the second temple being of greater glory than the first temple. BTW, how do the Jews explain the greater glory of the second temple?
Jewish zealots were unlearned Jewish gangs. The Messiah is not supposed to die but to remain as a People before the Lord forever. Read Jer. 31:35-37. Besides, it doesn't even make any sense at all. Are we to expect a new Messiah in every generation, if the Messiah must die? It is only obvious, that the Messiah is the People of Israel. You don't understand Daniel 9 with reference to the Messiah. If you want to learn what he means with his prophecy about the Messiah, let me know; I have the Jewish interpretation of Daniel 9:24-27. Enoch has no book in the Scriptures. Psalm 22 has nothing to do with crucifixion and much less with Jesus. What are you implying, that Jesus was the only Jew crucified by the Romans? According to Josephus, the Romans crucified thousands of Jews only in the First Century. The whole book of Isaiah is about Judah and Jerusalem. (Isa. 1:1; 2:1) Nothing at all to do with the NT.
The greater glory of the Second Temple was due to the establishment of the New Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah as one People. (Jer. 31:31; Eze. 37:22)
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Also, by the influx of first century BCE messianic writings, it is evident that most Jews back then believed that they were living in the era in which the Messiah would come.
As you can see, they failed because of the fallacy to believe in an individual Messiah. You too will fail in your futile faith of a coming individual Messiah.
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Honestly, I'm not buying your argument. Right after the exiled people rebuilt their temple, they were kicked out by the Persians for conspiracy and murder within the High Priesthood. Josephus sheds light on the dark history of those that returned from Babylon.
Honestly, neither am I even close to by yours. Who said that "Right after the exile the people rebuilt their temple?" They started, were stopped because of the Samaritans, and it took the next king Darius to continue with the construction. Let us say about or close to 100 years. It has been only 60 years since our return to rebuild our 3rd Commonwealth. Give us some more time. Besides, this time we have brought the Diaspora with us, so to speak. You know, because of politics, we still have to remove the Islamic abomination of desolation still on the Temple mount, which they didn't have at the time of Ezra.
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I fin it ironic that you are accusing Paul if rewriting history while rewriting history yourself. Christians, the first and foremost followers of Jesus, have always maintained the anointing of Jesus as Messiah and His resurrection. You are trying to Judaize Jesus, and you know full well that is impossible.
Oh! I thought you knew that Jesus was a Jew. I don't need at all to judaize him. I think you have a lot to learn about Jesus. Unless, he was a Greek for you. The anointing of Jesus as Messiah and that he resurrected, I have proved to you that it was according to the gospel of Paul. Read 2 Tim. 2:8. If you don't believe it, you might as well reject the whole NT as wholy contradictory. This is just too embarrassing.
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If the Jews ever thought Jesus was compatible with their nationalistic religion and superstitious doctrines, they wouldn't have rejected Him, or at least continued to do so.
We did not reject Jesus but what Paul declared about him.
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I'm talking about post-Maccabees. The Pharisees and Sadducees came AFTER the Jews won indepenence from the Greeks. I'll take a look at your source when I get a chance though.
Please, do it. BTW, you should always do it. I don't want that my word be taken for it.
Ben
Edited by Ben Masada, 24 September 2012 - 07:53 PM.