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Question regarding the claim that Isaiah 53 is skipped over in Judaism...?
There is a claim that the Isaiah 53 is skipped over by Jews or that it is a "forbidden chapter".
(This claim is false, BTW.)
My question is posed to those who think this claim is true.
- What exactly is your evidence that it is true? What was your source?
- Why were you not more skeptical of such a claim considering its implausibility?
- Ultimately, what does such a claim prove, even if we were to assume it were true?
8 Answers
- Anonymous2 years agoFavorite Answer
No. Jews actually study the meaning of the text is context, unlike Christians who only read Isaiah 53. If you read back when the story starts in Isaiah 42, the suffering servant is clearly identified as Israel. There is nothing about Jesus in the Old Testament.
- DonaldLv 62 years ago
JUDAH is blind.
its prophecy.
ALMIGHTY GOD will open their eyes (in time).
Jeremiah 24 is the reason why.
good figs and naughty figs were set in Israel...
this serves a purpose. (the false messiah is coming)
he rules the tares.
the goat figs. (not True Judah)
true Judah does not hate JESUS.
they are not prejudiced against HIM.
they merely do not believe in HIM (yet).
the poor teachers (or Rabbi's is why).
where is the real Priesthood? (Eleazar?)
- BMCRLv 72 years ago
To answer my own question:
Every Shabbos (Sabbath) and holiday, there is a Parsha (Torah Portion) reading.
Afterwards, there is a Haftarah reading from Navi (Prophets).
The false claim that "Jews skip over Isaiah 53" is based on the true fact that it isn't read as a Haftarah.
HOWEVER... Neither is over 90% of Navi read as a Haftarah.
So, if someone wants to claim that it was "skipped over", they'd have to prove that it USED to be a Haftarah reading and then was REMOVED.
In addition, they would have to explain why, if a chapter is "forbidden", it was NEVER removed from ANY Jewish publication of Isaiah nor is there any mention of any prohibition against studying it.
Nevertheless, this claim is STILL widespread.
Also, the reason I asked why they are not more skeptical is because, on the face of it, it sounds odd.
Why would the JEWS who venerate Torah and G-d's prophets deliberately remove it?
Such a thing should make someone skeptical of such a claim.
Yet too many believe it without verification.
Finally, even if we were to assume it were true, it still doesn't prove anything.
More importantly, it wouldn't prove the Christian position is correct.
Thus, making such claims serve NO real purpose.
- Ernest SLv 72 years ago
Isaiah 53 clearly identifies Jesus Christ.
Obviously the Jews are hard put about that.
And if not why has their Temple, the centre of their worship, been destroyed, and they exiled and dispersed among the Heathen nations for some 2000 yrs?
Time they humbled themselves and repented, for then they could be accepted.
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- TimLv 72 years ago
It is Isaiah 42 they skip over and leading them to the wrong conclusion in Isaiah 53 for failing to recognize the two servants.
- Anonymous2 years ago
The claim stems from the failure of the Rabbinical tradition to supply any reasonable alternative interpretation for the 'Man of Sorrows' after abandoning these verses as inspired descriptions of 'Mashiach,' the requested Prophet Whom GOD agreed to send to the nation of Israel after they cried out in mortal fear while witnessing GOD exhibiting all of His sacred 'Names' (attributes, wisdom and power), upon the holy mountain in Sinai, (Deuteronomy 18).
The people recognized that GOD Himself was Present exhibiting these overwhelmingly powerful interactive allegorical phenomena and felt as if they would imminently die every moment of the day and night. They pleaded with Moses to make an odd request of GOD. Could He do the same as a Man or Prophet like Moses instead? They revered Moses but he did not make them feel like they would die at any moment. Was it possible for GOD Himself to come to them as a 'Man?' That is what they MUST have been requesting, since they already had Moses as an intermediary. They knew they were asking for an identical exhibition of attributes, wisdom and power through a 'GOD-MAN.'
This was GOD's golden opportunity to explain that this idea was absurd, impossible, beneath His dignity, contrary to His 'Oneness' and a violation of the principles conveyed in the Shema. Except, when Moses presented this to GOD, GOD didn't laugh, become angry, or point out its impossibility. GOD simply said, 'The people have spoken well,' (Deuteronomy 18:17)
That is the scriptural origin of Mashiach, the Anointed One also called 'Emmanuel,' (Hebrew: 'GOD with us').
It was understood within the Rabbinical tradition long before the arrival of Christ that the verses in Isaiah 53 were about the Mashiach. Now they suddenly are not. They are presumably about Isaiah himself or an allegory for the nation of Israel Herself containing various strikingly specific descriptions which apparently require no explanation at all and serve only 'poetic' purposes.
You can naturally understand the skepticism of those who consider Christ the Mashiach given the total transformation of the world through His guidance of the Gentiles, and find the entire 'shift' in Rabbinical interpretation to be dubious. I'm certain that you will simply claim that I have no genuine appreciation of the Rabbinical tradition, that the verses in Isaiah have nothing to do with Mashiach and never did and that your 'experts' have it all figured out. I'm not certain how anything they have to say will even address the otherwise obvious changes in the entire world, but you are certainly free to try, thanks mostly to the end of the age of the aristocrats, the rise of human liberty and the 'modern' world brought about through the power of Christ's gospel, the shaping of history by His inspired followers and the formation of the first 'university' system under His unique prodigy and within the same inspired state of 'Ruach Hakodesh' which provided the genius to Isaiah and all other prophets of GOD when writing the sacred submissions of Holy Scripture.
- MalcolmLv 72 years ago
"To the Jew first and also for the Greek" Romans 1:16 The Jews were not "skipped over" according to Paul in Romans.
- Anonymous2 years ago
They blind themselves and believe the chapter is merely a metaphor about Israel, and choose to remain ignorant. If they humbly asked God for revelation - He would unveil their eyes and they would see.