 Why Jews do not see Jesus in the Jewish Bible? Many Christians have a very difficult time understanding how it is possible for Jewish people to study their own Bible and fail to see it pointing to Jesus as the Messiah. Is it possible, as the Greek Testament claims in the second Corinthians and Romans, that Satan has blinded the Jews who now have a veil covering their eyes? Or is it possible that Christians have been seeing a mirage? Let's look at the Messianic Template. There are passages where the Bible clearly speaks about the Messiah who will one day come to the world. These passages are so clear that Jews and Christians are in agreement that they describe the Messiah. Example number one. A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips. He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness will be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins. The wolf shall live with a lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 through 9. Example number two, the days are surely coming, says the Lord. When I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he shall reign as king and deal wisely and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called. The Lord is our righteousness. Jeremiah chapter 23 verses 5 and 6. Example three, my servant David shall be king over them and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall follow my ordinances and be careful to observe my statutes. They shall live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob in which your ancestors lived. They and their children and their children's children shall live there forever. And my servant David shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will bless them and multiply them. And I will set my sanctuary among them forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Then shall the nations know that I the Lord sanctify Israel when my sanctuary as among them forevermore. Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 24 through 28. These passages describe a wise and righteous descendant of King David who will rule Israel as king when the world has been transformed into a utopia of universal peace and knowledge of God. It is important to understand that the focus of scripture is not on this special anointed one whom we refer to as the Messiah. But on describing what the world will look like when he is here. While there may be about 10 passages directly referring to this special king, there are over a hundred that simply paint a picture of the utopia that will flower when he reigns. These passages speak about the return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland after being scattered across the globe. There they will even peace, follow God, live according to the teachings of His Torah and be sought by the nations of the world as spiritual teachers. The world will destroy their weapons of war and enter into an age of eternal peace and knowledge of God. The return of Elijah. Aside from Jesus failing to fulfill the central messianic criteria of the scriptures, there is also a prophecy that Elijah the Prophet must return before the Messiah's reign. Bearing this in mind, the Gospel of Matthew asserts that John the Baptizer was Elijah. This claim, however, does not hold up to scrutiny. John the Baptizer was actually very popular and some people even thought that he might be the Messiah. When he was asked if this was so, he denied it. When he was asked if he was Elijah, the Prophet, he said, I am not. In addition, the Prophet Malachi prophesied that when Elijah returns, he would restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. But there is no evidence that John the Baptizer fulfilled this. What is the church's response to unfulfilled prophecy? The Christian doctrine that Jesus will return in the future to fulfill the messianic prophecies in a second coming is an admission that Jesus failed to do so 2000 years ago. It's important to realize that the notion of a second coming can be used to rationalize the failure of any messianic candidate. We then have to question why anyone would believe that person was the Messiah when he first came upon the scene. Christians have resorted to two basic arguments to promote the idea. That Jesus qualified as a Messiah 2000 years ago, despite not having fulfilled the clear biblical messianic criteria outlined above. The appeal to miracles. One of the church's arguments is that the miracles Jesus allegedly performed a test that he must have been the Messiah. At this point, we shall not discuss the historical credibility of the gospel accounts. Suffice it to say that there are extremely strong grounds for doubting the veracity of these stories. Let's assume, however, that it is possible Jesus performed numerous miracles. The question that needs to be asked is how many times does the Bible tell us that we will be able to identify the Messiah as the result of the miracles he will perform? The answer to this question is that the Bible never tells us that miracles are relevant in this regard. It's important to understand why this is so. Why didn't the Bible ever inform us that we would be able to identify the Messiah through his miracles? The reason for this omission stems from the fact that miracles are an unreliable barometer of anything. While Moses performed miracles in Egypt, Pharaoh's magicians were able to replicate them. In Deuteronomy chapter 13, we are told that false prophets will have the ability to perform supernatural miracles in order to test our fidelity to God. Interestingly, the Greek scriptures state that false messiahs will do incredible miracles that mislead the people. Matthew chapter 24 verse 24. Clearly, if a false messiah is able to perform miracles, then miracles cannot prove that someone is the Messiah. Let's look at some Christian proof texts. The second approach used by Christians is to assert that scripture actually both foretells and confirms that Jesus is the Messiah. Many Christians feel that these proof texts are so compelling that they find it impossible to understand how they have had no impact on the Jews for almost 2000 years. The easy way to shoot a bullseye. The basic flaw with this approach stems from the way in which these passages have been mined. Rather than objectively reading the Bible to understand what it actually means, some Christians have approached it with a preconceived conclusion in mind. Like an archer who first shoots his arrow into a tree and then paints a target around the arrow. These Christians assume from the outset that Jesus was the Messiah and then try to find passages in the Bible which sound like Jesus. As a result of the circular approach to reading the Bible, the meaning of the scriptures has been distorted in order to shoehorn Jesus back into the text. If we wear red tinted glasses, everything we see will appear red. Similarly, when Christians approach the Bible with Jesus glasses, this colors everything they read. It's a confirmation bias. A few examples will help to illustrate how this approach leads to a distortion of the text. And one says unto him, what are these wounds in your hands? Then he shall answer those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends, Zechariah chapter 13 verse 6. Numerous Christians have offered this verse as evidence that the Hebrew scriptures make reference to Jesus of Nazareth. However, all that needs to be done to puncture this illusion is to simply read the entire chapter of Zechariah. It soon becomes clear that the passage is speaking about a false prophet. This example is so blatant that most Christian scholars and Bible commentators have acknowledged this. Another verse from the Hebrew Bible, Marshall to support the belief that Jesus was the Messiah, is found in the 41st Psalm. Yay, my one familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Psalm 41 verse 9. This verse is not only cited in countless missionary tracks. The Christian scriptures quote this verse as fulfilled in the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, John chapter 13 verse 18. Of course, even if we were to accept the assertion that this passage is a messianic prophecy, would it really clarify that Jesus was the subject? It is likely that the vast majority of humans in history would say that they were betrayed by someone close during their lifetime. The critical question here is whether in truth, Psalm 41 is a messianic prophecy. Was it written in order to give the Jewish people vital information they will need in order to help identify the Messiah? Or is this simply another example of reading Jesus back into the Bible to buttress a belief in him arrived at independently of the testimony of scripture. Having already shot the Jesus arrow, the Christian then draws his target and declares this verse a messianic prophecy because it seems to resonate with Jesus's life. This exploitation of scripture can be confirmed by carefully reading the entire Psalm and asking, how might someone have understood it before the advent of Christianity? Is there any reason that someone living 10 years before the birth of Jesus would have understood it as a messianic prophecy? Is there any reason that someone reading it prior to Jesus would have even thought that this Psalm was a prophecy at all? There really is no compelling reason to make such assumptions. When attentively reading Psalm 41, it becomes difficult to understand how any Christian would entertain the possibility that this is referring to Jesus. This is because the very person who exclaims that he has been betrayed by a close friend in verse nine, earlier beseeches God, I said, Lord, be merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. Verse four, since Christians believe that Jesus never sinned, having him as the subject of this passage would be like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Context, context, context, two very clear examples of how reading the Jewish Bible with Jesus colored glasses led to taking passages out of context in order to find proof texts can be found in the second chapter of Matthew. We are told that Joseph was warned to leave Bethlehem because Herod would attempt to kill Jesus. Joseph takes Jesus and Mary and flees to Egypt. Matthew then claims that this took place to fulfill a messianic prophecy from the Hebrew Scriptures and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called my son, Matthew chapter two, verse 15. However, if we examine the source of Matthew's quote, we see that he seriously distorted its meaning. When Israel was a child, then I loved him and out of Egypt, I called my son, Hosea chapter 11, verse one. The 11th chapter of Hosea describes the early history of the Jewish people after God redeemed them from the Egyptian exile. In scripture, the people of Israel are indeed spoken of as God's son, Exodus chapter four, verse 22. Matthew here ignores this context and distorts the true meaning of the verse by claiming that it was actually a prophecy about the childhood of Jesus. It is clear that Matthew obscures the actual meaning by quoting only the latter half of the verse. He omits the first half of the verse that clarifies that it is speaking about Israel. Further in the second chapter of Matthew, we are told that Herod was angered when the wise men failed to inform him of Jesus's whereabouts. In order to nip the messianic threat in the bud, Herod sends soldiers to kill all the baby boys, two years old and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding towns. Matthew goes on to claim that this story was anticipated in the Jewish scriptures, then was fulfilled, that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying in Ramah, was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not. Matthew chapter 2 verses 17 and 18. Here Matthew quotes the entire verse, but nonetheless distorts its actual meaning by examining the original context of this verse from the 31st chapter of Jeremiah. We see that Rachel was not weeping for the children who were murdered, but for children who were still alive and taken into captivity. Thus said the Lord, refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in the end, says the Lord, that your children will come again to their own border. Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 16 and 17. When Christians take off their Jesus glasses, submitting all Christian proof texts to this kind of scrutiny leads to similar results. Inevitably they are all built upon circular reasoning that quotes these verses out of context in order to find alleged prophecies about Jesus. Numerous Christian scholars have acknowledged this process. One of these authorities is Walter Riggins, who honestly confesses, let me repeat this point. There is no self-evident blueprint in the Hebrew Bible, which can be said to unambiguously point to Jesus. Only after one has come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and more specifically the kind of Messiah that he is, does it all begin to make sense and hang together. Joshua, Ben David, Olive Press, 1995, page 155. Among evangelicals, it is often claimed that only more liberal Christian scholars would make such an admission. Even if this were true, it misses the point. As Christians of any flavor, they don't approach the scriptures with the Jewish bias. They believe in Jesus, yet their careful reading of these passages from the so-called Old Testament recognizes that they do not clearly point to Jesus. However, Walter Riggins is not a liberal Christian. He's a born-again evangelical, and there are many others. Michael Radelnik, a professor at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, wrote of how disturbed he is about this development in an article entitled Some Bad News About The Good News. There is bad news for the Messianic movement. Some scholarly followers of Yeshua are taking him out of the Hebrew Bible. I am convinced that an interpretive approach that negates Messianic prophecy is becoming prevalent among many scholars who believe in Yeshua. These believers adopt views that find it hard to see Messiah in the Hebrew Bible. The Messianic Times, Summer 1997, page five. It seems these scholars are willing to confront the Bible on its own terms without approaching it with an agenda. Of course, once someone believes something, they can find allusions to almost anything in the Bible if they are creative enough in spinning the text. See The Poo Perplex by Frederick C. Cruz. While it may be possible to read the Bible from Revelation back toward Genesis and find passages that sound like Jesus, reading the Hebrew Bible without a preconceived conclusion, like Alice in Wonderland's verdict before the trial, will not lead to evidence for belief in the Nazarene. Now, Isaiah 53. What about Isaiah 53? It should come as little surprise by now that numerous Christian scholars have come to the conclusion that this famous passage is not really a prophecy about Jesus. Indeed, they are in agreement with the way in which Jews have traditionally understood this chapter as a passage about the historical suffering of Israel. This view can be found in the New English Bible, Oxford Study Edition, the New Interpreters Study Bible, the Harper Collins Study Bible, and many others. Many Christians who insist that Isaiah 53 is an incontrovertible proof that Jesus was the Messiah have never really carefully studied the entire book of Isaiah. Is it possible to truly understand the 53rd chapter in isolation? Could it be that if they were to approach this chapter in context and without a bias for finding support for their belief in Jesus, they might see things differently? This has been the case for numerous Christian scholars and Bible commentators who have sought to understand this chapter from Isaiah on its own terms. Again, it is obvious that if someone approaches this text with a prior belief in Jesus, they will see striking connections. But is this passage a clear messianic prophecy? Would someone reading it prior to Christianity have necessarily understood it as such? And, more importantly, even if one assumes that this passage is a messianic prophecy, what evidence is there that it is speaking about Jesus? This is an important point. Imagine a verse in the Hebrew Scriptures that said, The Messiah will come. Many Christians would insist that this is referring to Jesus. However, this is only so because they already believe in him as the Messiah. The verse, which doesn't exist, would merely be saying that the Messiah would come but doesn't clearly and unambiguously identify Jesus as the subject. It is possible to see that in the first century the followers of Jesus did not understand this passage in Isaiah as a messianic prophecy. In the 16th chapter of Matthew, Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah. At that point, Jesus tells his followers that he will go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and ultimately be killed. Peter should have said, Of course you are the suffering servant from Isaiah 53. Peter doesn't react this way. He protests and says that this could never happen to Jesus. In the 9th chapter of Mark, Jesus teaches his disciples that he will be delivered up to evil men who will kill him. However, Mark tells us in verse 32, but they understood not that saying and were afraid to ask them. Clearly, these followers of Jesus did not assume that he came to the world in order to suffer and die. They were never led to believe that this chapter of Isaiah forecast the death and suffering of the Messiah. Why is it that Jewish people and numerous Christians have understood this chapter of Isaiah as referring to the historical suffering of the Jewish people? Is there any basis for such an understanding? Who is the suffering servant? This chapter is the fourth of four servant poems in the book of Isaiah and speaks about the servant of the Lord. Who is this servant? Someone approaching this chapter with the benefit of having read the prior chapters of Isaiah would know exactly who the servant is. But you, Israel my servant, Jacob in whom I have chosen, descendant of Israel my friend, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its remotest parts and said to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you and not rejected you. Isaiah 41 verses 8 and 9. You are my witnesses declares the Lord and my servant, whom I have chosen that you may know and believe in me and understand that I am he before me there was no God, formed neither shall there be after me. Isaiah 43 verse 10. But now listen, O Jacob my servant and Israel whom I have chosen, thus says the Lord who made you and who formed you from the womb who will help you. Do not fear, O Jacob my servant, you're sure in whom I have chosen. Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant, O Israel. You will not be forgotten by me. Isaiah chapter 44 verses 1, 2 and verse 21. For the sake of Jacob my servant and Israel my chosen one I have called you by your name. Isaiah 45 verse 4. Go forth out of Babylon flee from the cousin with a voice of singing and declare, tell this say it even to the ends of the earth. Say the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. Isaiah 48 verse 20. And said unto me you are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified. Isaiah 49 verse 3. Actually we see that in the Bible as a whole, not just in the book of Isaiah, the Jewish people are referred to as God's servant. The identification of the servant in Isaiah 53 as the nation of Israel seems quite reasonable. In addition, the careful reader should consider the immediate surroundings of chapter 53. If we see that chapters 52 and 54 share a common theme, it would be reasonable to suspect that chapter 53 follows this pattern. Indeed, chapters 52 and 54 paint a picture that contrasts the historical degradation of the Jewish people at the hands of the nation of the world with their future redemption and exaltation by God. This is very helpful information in trying to understand the true meaning of chapter 53. Let's look at Isaiah 53 in context. All scholars agree that the suffering servant section of Isaiah 53 really begins with verse 13 in chapter 52 where God announces that his servant will ultimately prosper, be exalted, lifted up, and very high. In verses 14 and 15, God tells us that when this happens, the kings and nation of the world will be totally shocked and astonished. This is worth thinking about. If the servant here were Jesus, why would his ultimate elevation and exaltation surprise the world? There is no one person in the history of mankind who would shock the world less if he were to be lifted up and exalted in the future. The majority of people in the world actually believe that Jesus will return in the future and that he will be exalted at that time. In reality, the only people who will be shocked if the subject of this chapter were Jesus would be the Jewish people. But we are not told that the Jewish people will be shocked when the servant is exalted. It's the rest of the world that will be shocked. Certainly, the elevation and exaltation of Israel as God's servant would shock most of the world. Indeed, the Bible never tells us that the Jewish people will be in for a big surprise in the future. Isaiah tells us that the nations and kings of the world will be shocked because they never expected to see the redemption and exaltation of God's servant. The Bible repeatedly tells us that the only people who will be shocked at the climax of history will be the nations of the world, not the Jewish people. Who is speaking? The most critical question to ask when studying Isaiah 53 is who is speaking? Often Christians assume that this is a speech that the Jewish people will make one day in the future. Would we recognize that we were wrong for rejecting Jesus? However, if we understand the flow of Isaiah 53 from the end of chapter 52 and in the original text these chapter divisions don't appear. They were inserted by Christian monks in the Middle Ages. We realize that the people exclaiming who would have believed what we are hearing in 53 verse 1 are the very shocked nations and kings spoken of in the previous verses. In chapter 53 Isaiah is telling us the confessional speech that will be made in the future by the nations and kings of the world as they reflect back on their history of scapegoating and persecuting the Jewish people. This theme, which tells of how the historically persecuted Jewish people will ultimately be redeemed and exalted by God and acknowledged by the nations of the world is well developed in Scriptures. We see this theme described very clearly in numerous passages such as Isaiah chapter 60 verse 1 and 3 verse 10 verse 14 and 15 chapter 61 verses 6 and 9 and chapter 62 verses 2 and 3. While these thoughts merely scratch the surface of understanding this chapter of Isaiah they begin to explain why both Jewish and Christian scholars have understood the 53rd chapter as a clear reference to God's servant Israel and not to Jesus. So, in conclusion, the fact that Jewish people have never seen Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures has always been a thorn in the side of the church. After all, the Jewish people were the ones who walked with and knew the prophets whose writings are recorded in the Bible. They were the ones who studied these writings in their original language and lived and died for them for centuries before there was a Christian religion. And the people of Israel were the ones entrusted by God to preserve and transmit these Scriptures for all time. The Bible makes the incredible prediction that one day the entire world will acknowledge the truth that is in the possession of the nation of Israel. Zechariah chapter 8 verse 23 and that they will ultimately follow God's true servant. We are now witnessing the start of this prophecy unfolding. For the first time in history thousands of Christians, serious students of the Bible are beginning to recognize that the true understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures has eluded them all these years and that it can be found with the true people of the book. We Jews, ourselves need to more seriously embrace and study our own Bible because it is more precious than gold and sweeter than honey and because others will be seeking to learn from us. I would like to thank Rabbi Maikul Skobak, director of education and counseling at Jews for Judaism Canada for writing this important lecture.