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It's been some time since we discussed that missionary favorite: Isaiah 53. Let me explain the disgusting picture -- it is Nazi propaganda against the Jews. Notice how he dehumanizes us? Makes us the object of scorn and derision? Just as Isaiah describes the servant of Isaiah 53 before the messianic age when the world is shocked to realize that we are actually the servants of G-d, and we are exalted and returned to our land in peace. Have you ever seen a similar picture of Jesus? Has he ever been demeaned, dehumanized by the world? If there is any I've never seen one -- it is certainly not a global phenomena as is anti-Semitism. Remember that picture as we begin to explore this missionary favorite which, it is claimed, is about Jesus and not the Jewish nation. It is by far the most used and pointed to by missionaries -- and they will even go so far as to claim that Jews "hide it" (nonsense). Sadly for sincere Christians who seek the truth Isaiah 53 is badly mangled and mistranslated in Christian translations -- not to mention that they ignore all the "bits" that don't fit Jesus! Christian translations of this famous chapter are also infamous for lifting a word or partial sentence completely out of context -- the "types and shadows" nonsense. Let's start by addressing the fact that Jesus could not have been the servant mentioned in this oh so famous chapter... Missionary references in the T'nach (Jewish bible) regarding Jesus tend to fall into one of four categories: Out of context - ignoring the plain meaning of a passage such as Y'shayahu / Isaiah 7 which is a sign for the king who lived 700 years before Jesus and is not a messianic prophecy); Mistranslated - made to seems something other than what the Hebrew really says, there are many of these in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 53 and some are mentioned including the fact that "grief" is a mistranslation in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 53:3); Misunderstood / misapplied - for example thinking the messiah must be born in Bethlehem rather than descended from David who was from there, Micah 5:1). Not applicable - the verse claimed may even be the reverse of what is claimed -- sometimes by changing the past tense to future tense as in Y'shayahu / Isaiah 9, or the verse may not be found in the T'nach at all such. It is complete fiction Completely made up -- not found in the text at all such as such as "an offering for sin" in the NIV and KJV translations of Y'shayahu / Isaiah 53:10. Why do I say it is complete fiction? Well, the word for sin (חֵטְא / cheit) does not appear in the text at all. All of these misuses of scripture are found in Christian translations and interpretations of Isaiah 53. Consider: the servant is described as "He formerly grew like a sapling or a root from dry ground; he had neither form nor beauty. We saw him, but without a desirable appearance." Y'shayahu / Isaiah 53:2. Has Jesus ever been described as struggling to grow in "dry earth" (struggling to grow, like a tree without enough water or fertilizer)? Nope. Was Jesus described as having "neither form nor beauty"? Again -- nope. We are told in this chapter that the servant "was despised and rejected of men, a man of pains and accustomed to sickness. As one from whom we would hide our faces, he was despised, and we had no regard for him" (Y'shayahu / Isaiah 53:3). Is Jesus ever described as having suffered long term illness / וידוע חלי / and accustomed to sickness? Again -- "nope." Hopefully this exercise won't be boring as I look at each line starting with the end of chapter 52 (which is connected -- chapters are a Christian invention and it seems the unnatural break for chapter 53 was so that readers wouldn't see how it doesn't fit Jesus)... The line by line approach applies to chapter 53, but we must begin with the end of chapter 52 as it is part of the text and the "break" for a new chapter shouldn't be at that point, but that is where the Christians chose to start a new chapter...
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