Guess what? There is no prophecy that the messiah's ministry will begin in the Galilee. If you read the previous post you may recall that Y'shayahu / Isaiah chapters 8 through 10 deal with the Assyrian invasions of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Y'shayahu / Isaiah 9 begins by speaking of the invasion of the Assyrians -- and this invasion began in the Galilee. The passage given as Y'shayahu / Isaiah 9:1 -2 is actually the end of chapter 8. Christian chapters move the text to chapter 9. It is Y'shayahu / Isaiah 8:23 in the T'nach "For there is no weariness to the one who oppresses her; like the first time, he dealt mildly, [exiling only] the land of Zebulun and the land of Naftali, and the last one he dealt harshly, the way of the sea, and the other side of the Jordan, the attraction (גְּלִ֖יל / Galilee) of the nations." גְּלִיל הַגּוֹיִם translates to attraction of the nations. Rashi, the great Jewish commentator, writes "That is the entire land of Israel, which would roll (גּוֹלֶלֶת) to it all the nations, for all longed for it and came to it for commerce, like the matter that is stated (Jer. 3: 19): “A heritage desired by hosts of nations.” Jonathan, however, rendered this differently." This passage is not speaking of the messiah coming from the Galilee or preaching there, it is speaking of the Assyrian invasions that took place 700 years before Jesus' time. It references the first two tribes who were exiled from the northern kingdom of Israel: the tribes of זְבֻלוּן֙ / Zebulun and נַפְתָּלִ֔י / Naftali. The image is Chagall's "The Tribe of Naftali." How do those two tribes come into play in the time of Jesus, if this were truly about him? They don't. Matthew 4 may speak of Jesus going to the Galilee, but how many tens of thousands (millions?) of people have been in the Galilee? How is someone merely visitng (or even living) in a place a messianic prophecy, let alone a messianic fulfillment? Messianic prophecies must be clear and they must be accomplished in the lifetime of the messiah or the messianic claimant is not the messiah. The true messianic prophecies are "big" and hard to miss: Jesus fulfilled not one of them (world peace, returning the Jews to Israel, worldwide knowledge of G-d, etc.). . . And this passage has nothing to do with Jesus. Yet again the list maker has taken a passage out of context and presents it as being about Jesus when it is clearly not about Jesus at all.
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