- Actually, except for most Fundamentalist Christians and some groups like the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, the rest of Christianity and all Jews acknowledge that there are no foretelling of events by the prophets in the Scripture, such as predictions.
So, what about predictions such as Isaiah 11:6-9 and Isaiah 65:17-25? And Daniel 2:31-45, which I mentioned before?
- But the word "prophet" in Hebrew means "spokesman" and not a foreseer of events. In fact it if forbidden by the Mosaic Law for a Jew to attempt to forecast the future by any means.--Lev 19:32, Deut 18:9-12.
- There are no "prophecies" in this sense, whatsoever, about anything, anywhere in the Bible, let alone about the Messiah.
See the verses that I mentioned above.
- The Jewish concept of the Messiah came about after the last of the books of the Prophets was written, after the Maccabean Revolt which ended in 160 BCE, the events which gave Judaism the first Chanukah celebration.
Whaaaaat? (in astonishment)
- Due to the oppression, the Jews began to study the Jewish texts and realized that the prophets and the Psalms mentioned that God had promised that a son of David was supposed to be anointed as their king, not someone in the line of Levi. So they began to pray for God to redeem them from the hands of the Herods and the Romans, to bring the promised Son of David, the promised anointed (in Hebrew, Masiach or Messiah).
Whaaaaat? (in astonishment)
- A theology began to be built around many of these texts, though none of them are "prophecies." There are NO texts in the Bible that say: "There shall come a Messiah..." or "The Messiah shall come that will do this and that..." The first time the Jews used such expressions as a concept were in the Gamara, then in the Mishnah, which came to be transfered into writings of the Talmud.
So, what about the Isaiah verses that I mentioned above? And the son of man verses in Daniel 7:13-14?
- The fullest concepts of the Messiah were developed by the early Christians themselves, not the Jews, which is why the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah.
Well, that makes sense. Because when you ask Jews to elaborate more about the messiah and olam ha-bah, they're like, um, um, we don't know.
- The use of Genesis 3:15 in reference to Jesus does not come from the Jews but the Church Fathers
So, what do Jews believe that verse means?