The Christian bible NEVER calls Jesus "G=d servant." Not even once. And how could Jesus be both G-d's servant and G-d? That is more than slightly illogical. The words "my servant" only appear once in the Christian bible and that is Matthew 12:17 - 18. Jesus is being followed by a crowd -- he warns his followers not to tell anyone about him and Matthew 12 then says "this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet (Isaiah) "Here is my servant whom I have chosen. John 17 has Jesus praying to G-d and in verse 4 he says "I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do." Nary a word about Jesus being a servant of G-d. Perhaps the list maker is connecting the idea of G-d's servant to Zechariah speaking of G-d's servant the "shoot" (or sprout). Many Christian versions mistranslate the word as "branch" -- but that is a mistranslation. Missionaries then leap into thin air and extrapolate that this must be Jesus -- Jesus being a "branch" and then another jump to Jesus being the messiah -- thus some missionaries claim that Zechariah 3:8 is about the messiah, but it is not. Zechariah 3:8 is about זְרֻבָּבֶ֤ל / Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel). Who was זְרֻבָּבֶ֤ל / Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel)? Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) was the son of P'daiah (Pedaiah) and the grandson of Sh'altiyel (Shealtiel). He became the governor of Judah under Persian control. He was the great-grandson of Jeconiah, the last king of Judah, who was exiled to Babylon. Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) was among those who returned from Babylonian exile, and he was selected as the Governor of Judah. He was never a king. But he was a צֶמַח (TSEmah), "a sprout" from the royal line of Kings David and Solomon through Jeconiah, the last king of David's line. זְרֻבָּבֶ֤ל / Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) was in charge of rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem after returning from Babylonian Exile. He served as Governor and יְהֹושֻׁ֥עַ בֶּן־יְהֹוצָדָ֖ק / Y'hoshua ben Y'hotzadak / Joshua son of Jehozadak (a grandson of S'rayah, was the kohein gadol (high priest). He was last kohein gadol / high priest who served in Solomon's Temple - see M'lachim Beit / 2 Kings 25:18 and Yirm'yahu / Jeremiah 52:24). In verse 8 G-d is speaking (through the prophet Zechariah) to the the kohein gadol (high priest) Y'hoshua / Joshua and says "Hearken, now, O Joshua the High Priest-you and your companions who sit before you, for they are men worthy of a miracle-for, behold! I bring My servant, the צֶמַח (TSEmah) "sprout"." G-d is speaking to Joshua the high priest who was alive at the time of Zechariah and זְרֻבָּבֶ֤ל / Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) who lived 400 years before Jesus. G-d says the Shoot, His servant, will sit before THEM. 400+ years before Jesus. O Joshua the High Priest-you and your companions who sit before you. . . These men are worthy of a miracle -- now it this were about Jesus they would have been dead over 400 years and it certainly would not have been their miracle! Start with the first chapter of Zechariah to understand what is happening. G-d spoke to Zechariah in the second year of Darius,. This was before the Jews resumed work on the Second Temple. His visions are hard to understand. G-d tells Zechariah that He punished the people with exile, and wants Zechariah to tell the returning Jews to listen to His prophets and return to Him. Zechariah has a vision that shows that while Israel was in exile, the nations of the world were at peace. Eventually those who punished Israel will pay for their deeds and Jerusalem will once again flourish. Then Zechariah has a vision (all prophets receive their messages in dreams and visions except for Moses) where he saw four horns (horns as in “ox horns” as opposed to, say, trumpets). Zechariah asked what these horns and is told they represent various conquering nations: Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome. Then he sees four carpenters coming to saw down these horns. (These carpenters refer to various messianic figures including the messiah, the Moshiach ben Yosef, Elijah the prophet and the Kohen Gadol / high priest.) The carpenters cut down the horns and threw them away. The Jews should return to Israel in the messianic era, and Jerusalem will grow. This brings us to chapter 3 which begins with Joshua (kohein gadol / high priest) standing before an angel of HaShem and an angel acting as a prosecuting attorney (hasatan / the adversary). Joshua is "on trial" because his two sons have married non-Jews. Ezra (10:18): “And it was found of the sons of the priests who had taken foreign wives, of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak,. . .” In this mock trial the "defense attorney" (either the angel of HaShem, or HaShem acting as defense attorney) take the position that Joshua should not be judged, because Joshua himself is a righteous man -- but he did not prevent his sons from marrying non-Jews. Joshua is seen as wearing filthy clothes because of the behavior of his sons during the exile, but his filthy clothes are removed from him (allegory for sin) and he is clean (righteous) again. He is now fit to be the kohein gadol (high priest) as was his father. Then in Zechariah 3 we are told that G-d will bring forth a צֶמַח (TSEmah), "a sprout." Think of a plant sprouting out of the ground. Christian translations often translate this as "the branch" -- the King James even puts the translated word "branch" in all capitals to emphasize that his must somehow be speaking of Jsus. A cursory search on my part found "branch" in the NIV, NLT, ESV, NASB, American KJV, ASV, ERV and a few others. Young's Literal Translation has "shoot" but even they capitalize the "S" in "shoot." Rashi tells us that this "sprout" was זְרֻבָּבֶל (Zerubbabel), the governor of Judah (never King). Zerubbabel was a member of the Royal family (thus a "sprout" from the roots of the Royal family). This Christian translation of "branch" is in error in Zechariah 3:8: The word צֶֽמַח tzemaḥ can be used to translate "sprout" or even "shoot", but never "branch" (= "bough") which is עָנָף 'anaf or סָעִיף sa'if in Hebrew. The noun צֶֽמַח tzemaḥ occurs 12 times in the T'nach--
As is so typical of "proof texts" the King James translates more or less correctly in passages which are not used to point to Jesus -- but get it "wrong" in the proof text. For example, the KJV has "and that which grew upon the ground" for וְצֶ֖מַח / v'tzemah. The וְ / vav prefix means "and." Isaiah 4:2 in the KJV צֶֽמַח tzemaḥ is "shall the branch." Isaiah 61:11 in the KJV has צִמְחָ֔הּ / t'zemaha "her bud" and תַצְמִ֑יחַ / t'tzemah is "in it to spring forth;" The תַ / tav means "you" or "they." In Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15 the KJV capitalizes the entire word! The KJV has "the BRANCH." FYI there are no capital letters in Hebrew. In Ezekiel 16:7 the KJV has כְּצֶ֤מַח / ch'tzemah "as the bud." The כְּ / kaf prefix means "as" or "like." Ezekiel 17:9 the KJV translates צִמְחָהּ֙ / t'zemaha as "of her spring." Oddly enough the KJV translates the same word in the next verse (17:10) as "where it grew." In Hosea 8:7 the KJV has צֶ֚מַח / tzemah translated as "the bud." The KJV has Psalm 65:10 has צִמְחָ֥הּ / t'zemaha as "the springing." Then in Zechariah 3:8 the KJV does the same as it did in Jeremiah 23:5 and 33:15 and capitalizes the entire word: "the BRANCH." Finally, in Zechariah 6:12 the KJV capitalizes the "T" in "the" as well as the word "BRANCH." See how the translators mislead with mistranslations?
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Photos used under Creative Commons from dionhinchcliffe, paulasenciogonzalez, paulasenciogonzalez, amy32080, petersbar, Aaron Stokes, amboo who?, Damian Gadal, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, SharonaGott, Udo Schröter, paulasenciogonzalez, Joybot, zeevveez, ianmunroe, freeqstyler, quinn.anya, Ivy Nichols, Groman123, UnknownNet Photography, torbakhopper, “Caveman Chuck” Coker, CarbonNYC [in SF!], dgoomany, Lion Multimedia Production U.S.A., oldandsolo, dbeck03