Michael L. Brown - Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volume 3: Messianic Prophecy Objections

2003 by Michael L. Brown

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

Ebook edition created 2011

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ISBN 978-1-5855-8336-2

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org
Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked RSV is taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NLT is taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NJPSV is taken from the New Jewish Publication Society Version. 1985 by The Jewish Publication Society.

Scripture marked JPSV is taken from the Jewish Publication Society Version. 1917 by The Jewish Publication Society.

Scripture marked Stone is taken from The Tanach: The Stone Edition. 2001 by Mesoxrah Publications.

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To my Jewish people, in Israel, America, and around the
world. The time of our salvation is at hand!

Contents

Preface

In November of 1971, as a proud, rebellious, heroin-shooting, rock-drumming, Jewish sixteen-year-old, I discovered something I was not looking for, and the course of my life was completely altered. I found out that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah! I learned that he was Gods way of salvation for Jew and Gentile alike, and that through faith in him, my life could be transformedeven though I didnt want to be transformed. I loved my sinful ways! But Gods goodness overcame my badness, and in a matter of weeks I was a brand-new man.

Of course, it was important to show my caring Jewish parents that Jesus was actually our promised Messiah, the one spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures, so I handed them a gospel tract with passages from our Jewish Bible that seemed to point to Jesus. The verses really seemed quite clear to me, until a local rabbi began to point out to my father that the verses were actually taken out of context or were misinterpreted or mistranslated. But were they? The rabbi gave me a book written by a Jewish scholar who argued that the prophecies did not point to Jesus at all, and some of the arguments sounded pretty convincing. So I showed my pastor the book, hoping that he could provide answers. Unfortunately, he didnt have much to contribute, despite his sincerity.

This left me in a quandary. If Jesus truly was the prophesied Messiah, then it was right for me as a Jew to put my trust in him. In fact, it was right for me to share this wonderful news with every Jew and Gentile who was open to hearing it. But if Jesus was not the Messiah of the Scriptures, then I had no right believing in him, let alone sharing my beliefs with others.

Certainly, I knew my life had been powerfully changed by Jesus, and some of the prophecies did seem to point to him. But there were other prophecies that didnt seem as clear anymore. What was I to do? There was only one viable option: I needed to continue my prayerful study of the Word of God, and I needed to acquire the necessary scholarly tools to do in-depth analysis of the Messianic prophecies for myself, not relying on other commentaries, dictionaries, opinions, or traditions. By Gods grace, that is what I have done for the last thirty years, and this volume represents a distillation of three decades of study of the Messianic prophecies, in particular, as it relates to answering Jewish objections to the application of the Messianic prophecies to Jesus.

Did I study with a closed mind? Absolutely not. To the contrary, I did my best to present myself with question after question, to challenge my beliefs from every angle, to expose myself to the very best arguments I could find, and to try to understand just why so many of my people claimed that Yeshua did not fulfill the Scriptures. I can now say with confidence that I do understand the objections, but the objections are certainly wrong. I invite every reader, especially every Jewish reader who does not yet believe in Yeshua as Messiah, to read this volume carefully, with an open heart and mind. I believe each of you will see that the evidence is clear and decisive: Jesus is our Messiah! In fact, countless thousands of Jews have become followers of Yeshua because of these very prophecies. Now the faith of these Jewish believers can be strengthened all the more, as objection after objection is dealt with honestly and fairly, while obstacles to faith can be removed from those who have had their share of doubts.

Readers of the first two volumes of the Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus series have been expecting the publication of this third volume for some time now. Unfortunately, I fell behind schedule and soon realized that the original plan for volume 3 (which included not only the Messianic prophecies but also two other substantial sections of objections) was becoming unwieldy and that it would be best to focus on the Messianic prophecies alone. You will see that it is still quite a substantial study! The remaining two sections of objectionsnamely, objections to the New Testament (thirty-four total) and objections arising from Jewish tradition (eighteen total)will be presented in a fourth volume. I apologize for the delays and appreciate the patience of the many readers who have been asking, When is the Messianic prophecy volume coming out? At last, it is done. Included in this volume is a short appendix that presents seven principles of interpreting Messianic prophecy. As simple as these principles are, they too are the reflection of many years of study and, I trust, will be of genuine help to serious students of the Scriptures.

To recap what has been published in this series to date: Volume 1 deals with general and historical objections to Jesus (thirty-five objections in all, numbered 1.11.19 and 2.12.16 respectively). Volume 2 deals with theological objections (twenty-eight in all, numbered 3.13.28). The present volume deals with major objections to the Messianic prophecies (thirty-nine in all, numbered 4.14.39). Volume 4, yet to be published, will deal with objections to the New Testament and objections arising from Jewish tradition. The table of contents in each volume lists the specific objections covered, enabling the reader to get an overview of the material at a glance and making it easy to locate each individual objection. If there is sufficient reader interest, these four volumes will eventually be combined into a one-volume reference edition, with some special studies and further notes added.