What The Bible Tells Us About The Bible – Lesson 1: OT Prophesies About Jesus' Birth

Old Testament Scriptures Were Not

 Predictions Of Jesus’ Birth

Asserted Prophesy #1:

Jesus Was The Expected Messiah

Born Of A Virgin

New Testament:  (Matthew 1, 22-23) All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

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Note:  New Testament references are shown in bold print in the context of the Old Testament passages in which they were originally written.

Old Testament: (Isaiah 7:1-17)   

 ¹ When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.

 ² Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

 ³ Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. ⁴ Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, ⁶ “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” ⁷ Yet this is what the Sovereign LORD says:

   “‘It will not take place,
   it will not happen,
⁸ for the head of Aram is Damascus,
   and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.
Within sixty-five years
   Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
⁹ The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
   and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
   you will not stand at all.’”

 ¹⁰ Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, ¹¹ “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

 ¹² But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.”

 ¹³ Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. ¹⁵ He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, ¹⁶ for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. ¹⁷ The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.” 

DISCUSSION:

1.     Old Testament texts were originally written in Hebrew. By the 1st century these Hebrew texts had been translated into Greek. The Gospel writers used the Greek translations of the Old Testament as their reference. The Greek word "parthenos", translates into either "virgin" or "young woman", and is used in the Greek translation of Isaiah 1:14.  However, the original Hebrew word, "almah",  found in Isaiah1:14, only meant “young woman” and not "a virgin."  The Hebrew word for “virgin” is "betulah." Therefore, this scripture is correctly read as "the young woman...", (not a virgin), "...will conceive and give birth to a son..."

2.     In addition, when you read the entire scriptural context around Isaiah 1:14 you get a complete picture of what it was actually about. This is a story of how God, through Isaiah, gives a sign to Ahaz, King of Judah (the southern Jewish kingdom), just as two adjacent kingdoms, Israel (the northern Jewish kingdom) and Syria, were attacking Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.

3.     The sign is that a young woman will give birth to a son and name him “Immanuel” which means “God is with us.” Before this son is grown (“…knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right…”) the two kingdoms attacking him will be defeated (“…the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.”)

4.     Ahaz was the King of Judah more than 800 years before Jesus was born.  So a child born as a sign to King Ahaz could not have had anything to do with Jesus.

5.     What was it about Jesus’ life and teachings that motivated Matthew to write his virgin birth narrative? By reading the OT context we understand that Matthew’s claim was not true in any literal sense, but what was his meaning in a metaphysical or spiritual sense? What does it mean to make a claim that Jesus is fathered by God? Metaphors are not meaningless and the virgin birth tradition is trying to express something about how unique Jesus was. These kinds of issues are what readers of the Bible need to discuss, consider, and understand better.

Asserted Prophesy #2:

 Jesus Was The Messiah Born In Bethlehem

Who Was To Save Judah

NT: Matthew 2:3-6

³ When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴ When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. ⁵ “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 
 ⁶ “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
   are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
   who will shepherd my people Israel.’” 

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OT:  Micah 5:1-6

A Promised Ruler From Bethlehem

 ¹ Marshal your troops now, city of troops,
   for a siege is laid against us.
They will strike Israel’s ruler
   on the cheek with a rod.

 ² “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
   though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
   one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
   from ancient times.”

 ³ Therefore Israel will be abandoned
   until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
   to join the Israelites.

 ⁴ He will stand and shepherd his flock
   in the strength of the LORD,
   in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
   will reach to the ends of the earth.

 ⁵ And he will be our peace
   when the Assyrians invade our land
   and march through our fortresses.
We will raise against them seven shepherds,
   even eight commanders,
⁶ who will rule the land of Assyria with the sword,
   the land of Nimrod with drawn sword.
He will deliver us from the Assyrians
   when they invade our land
   and march across our borders. 

DISCUSSION:

1.     Around 721 BCE the Assyrians attacked and defeated the northern Jewish kingdom of Israel. They also threatened the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah, but Judah accepted vassal status and paid tribute to Assyria. Micah was written about 750 BCE and is about these events involving Assyria, Israel, and Judah.

2.     What Micah is saying is that a leader will arise from Bethlehem in Judah who will be mighty enough to provide the military leadership necessary to defeat Assyria. It asserts he will “…rule the land of Assyria with the sword…” Clearly, this scripture is not about Jesus, born more than 700 years after these words were written and whose message was love, not military power or vengeance.

3.     Matthew may have been trying to suggest that the spiritual power of Jesus’ message and example is as meaningful to human life as was the military power of ancient messiahs (kings of Jewish states) who fought and defeated the enemies of the Jews. However, Jesus demonstrated a totally different way of approaching those who appear to be your enemies. Jesus' alternative message of love is what deserves our serious consideration and discussion.

Asserted Prophecy #3:

Jesus Was God’s Son Called Out Of Egypt

NT: Matthew 2:13-15

The Escape to Egypt

 ¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

 ¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

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OT:  Hosea 11:1-7

God’s Love for Israel

 ¹ “When Israel was a child, I loved him,
   and out of Egypt I called my son.
² But the more they were called,
   the more they went away from me.

They sacrificed to the Baals
   and they burned incense to images.
³ It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
   taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
   it was I who healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
   with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
   a little child to the cheek,
   and I bent down to feed them.

 ⁵ “Will they not return to Egypt
   and will not Assyria rule over them
   because they refuse to repent?
⁶ A sword will flash in their cities;
   it will devour their false prophets
   and put an end to their plans.
⁷ My people are determined to turn from me.
   Even though they call me God Most High,
   I will by no means exalt them.

DISCUSSION:

1.     Hosea was written around 745 BCE and these particular verses are explaining why the Assyrians were victorious over the northern kingdom of Israel. In the phrase, “…and out of Egypt I called my son” the word “son” represents all the Hebrew slaves brought out of Egypt by Moses. Consider the preceding phrase. “When Israel was a child..." (in other words a slave population in Egypt) "...I loved him.” Both singular terms, “him” in the first phrase and “son” in the second phrase, refer to an entire nation of people.

2.     Hosea describes how, once freed from the Egyptians, the Hebrews reverted to sinning and because they did not repent were ultimately conquered by the Assyrians. There is nothing in these passages about Jesus, who was born more than seven centuries later.

3.     Matthew took what was a literary device describing a nation of people and used it as a description of a single person, Jesus, and his relationship to God.  Accurate Biblical scholarship was not Matthew's strength nor, apparently, his concern.  He had something to say that seemed more important and larger than the words he had available. What could possibly have moved Matthew to write the story as he did? That is the spiritual perspective worthy of serious thought and discussion.

How The Meaning of "Christ" Evolved

        The word “Christ” comes from the Greek word, “Christos” which means “anointed one” and it is derived from the Greek word, “chrio,” which means to “smear or anoint.”  All of the original New Testament texts were written in Greek so "Christos" was used when translating the Hebrew word, “mashia”  also meaning “anointed one” into Greek. “Messiah” is the English equivalent of the Hebrew “mashia.”

     Ancient civilizations made no differentiations between civic or religious duties, and every city-state or empire had its pantheon of gods protecting it. The kings or emperors in power were considered chosen or “anointed” by their respective gods and it was assumed that if everyone worshipped their gods properly, the kingdom would be protected from its enemies and it would prosper.

       Ancient Israel was no different, except it started more as a monolatry, the worship of one god (Yahweh) that was believed to be superior to all other gods who were also thought to exist. When you hear phrases such as “lord of lords”, or “king of kings”, that’s a vestige of that early Jewish monolatry. Still, the early Hebrew kings, (e.g. Saul, then David, then David’s son, Solomon) were considered anointed by Yahweh, and therefore were messiahs or divine saviors and protectors of Israel.

          However, Judaism following the Babylonian exile became strictly monotheistic, and Yahweh was then considered the one and only God with power over all people and all things. Many of the Jewish leaders were weak and ineffective which led to the Jews being a conquered people time and again. This created a longing for a return of a messiah, or anointed leader, that was as powerful and majestic as David, thus, the interest in the “line of David.”

      This longing and expectation by Jews for a conquering messiah while living under the harsh rule of the Roman Empire was the reality of the Middle East into which Jesus was born and raised. As a Jew, he, too, probably expected a messiah, a ruler, anointed by the God of the Jews to establish this new kingdom on earth. This was the message of John the Baptist which Jesus supported and which he continued teaching after John the Baptist was executed. 

      The belief was that God’s kingdom would overthrow all the evil kingdoms of human domination and suffering, particularly, the Roman Empire. Jesus’ teachings on the coming Kingdom of God had to do with this kind of expected, all powerful kingdom, here on earth, under the direct rule of God. 

       It is possible that Jesus saw himself as God's anointed earthly ruler (messiah). He taught that human expectations would be reversed upon the arrival of the Kingdom of God, so that the last would be first and the first, last. The strongest evidence that this could have been true was the fact that Jesus was crucified. The Romans used crucifixion almost exclusively as punishment for sedition or rebellion against the empire.

        The apostle Paul never met Jesus and only directly interacted with Peter and Jesus’ brother, James, for brief periods of time. In fact, Paul had serious disagreements with both Peter and James because his teachings were significantly different from what Peter, James, and the Jerusalem Fellowship believed and taught. The Jerusalem Fellowship was the central leadership of the group of devout Jews known as Followers of The Way whose teachings were most directly tied to the actual teachings of Jesus, so the disconnect between the teachings of Paul and the Jerusalem Fellowship is an interesting contradiction. Needless to say, historically, Paul's teachings had greater impact on evolving Christian theology than did the teachings of the Jerusalem Fellowship following Jesus' crucifixion.

            They believed Jesus was the Messiah (or Christ) and expected him to return very soon to establish God’s kingdom on earth. They expected new members, whether Jews or gentiles, to conform to Jewish teachings and practices, such as circumcision, as well as the expectation of Jesus’ return as part of their faith commitment.

      Paul had a related, but significantly different vision. He taught that the Kingdom of God was in heaven, not on earth, where rewards were granted after one’s life on earth ended. Paul focused his evangelism on gentiles and did not require them to follow any Jewish practices. After all, if the end was near for everyone, why would anything of earthly origin be important? Paul referred to only a few of Jesus' earthly teachings. Paul always stated that his knowledge came not from the teachings of the earthly Jesus, but were visions from the risen Christ.  Jesus' resurrection indicated to Paul that Jesus was chosen by God to be the first of a new kind of spiritually perfect physical being into which all his faith filled followers could expect, themselves, to become.

      Paul interpreted Jesus’ crucifixion as a sacrifice that freed all sinners from their sin, provided they believed in Christ’s redemptive power. He got this idea from the Jewish celebration of Passover which required the sacrifice of a Paschal Lamb in remembrance of the flight of the ancient Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. This idea was supported by the Gospel writers who wrote that Jesus' crucifixion occurred in Jerusalem during the time of Passover.

      Members of the Jerusalem Fellowship were those who historically lived with Jesus, but when the Roman’s conquered and destroyed Jerusalem around 70 CE, the Jerusalem Fellowship ceased to exist. The Followers of The Way outside Jerusalem, however, continued their worship of Jesus as The Christ in synagogues spread throughout areas around the eastern Mediterranian. 

       Many of these assemblies had been established and shepherded by Paul so the vast majority of members were pagan converts who were used to accepting and worshipping new gods who performed miraculous deeds for their chosen people. Even the Roman emperors of that time were considered anointed by gods, sons of gods, saviors of their people, and capable of being resurrected from the dead. There is no reason to expect that these ideas would not then resonate with pagans as they made their conversion to Paul’s form of Judaism, the precursor to what was to become known as Christianity.

     The Christology relating to miraculous events marking stages of Jesus’ earthly life and the view of him as God on earth, are theological evolutions which occurred within the oral traditions after Jesus’ death and preceding the writing of the Gospels. The Synoptic Gospel writers then used these oral traditions as their foundations for producing their stories for their particular community of Jewish believers in Christ. These texts were used in synagogues as weekly lessons. The gospel stories of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection among the Synoptic Gospels, contain contradictions between the different books which clearly reflect the different ways these separate Jewish communities had come to view Jesus, long after he was gone.

      In the mid to late 80's CE, at a meeting of Rabbi’s and Jewish sages, a new blessing was added to the Shemoneh Esreh, the Eighteen Benedictions (blessings) that observant Jews recited three times a day. This new blessing referred to Jews who still practiced Judaism but believed that Jesus was the Messiah as heretics. In whatever synagogues this blessing was accepted, that effectively ejected Jewish followers of The Way from synagogue membership.  This was one of the events that gradually forced the division of Jews and Christ believers into separate and competing religions.

      By the time the Gospel of John was written, about 90 CE, the Christ of Jesus had been elevated from simply the Jewish expectation of a world leader messiah to the creative, eternal wisdom (Sophia) at the right hand of God, in existence from the beginning of time. In John, eternal wisdom was made humanly manifest in the life and acts of Jesus, the anointed, the Christ. Some scholars also believe that the bitter attitude toward “the Jews” expressed in the Gospel of John was a response to the exclusion of Jewish believers of Jesus as the Messiah from synagogue membership.

      Viewing the Gospels as literally true and as reports of historically accurate facts, reduces them to meaninglessness because of their factual inaccuracies and contradictions. However, viewed as metaphysical teachings, they reveal a history of developing spiritual awakening toward universal inclusion, wholeness, and justice for all. Anyone who unselfishly seeks eternal Truth and expresses unconditional love in all that he or she thinks and does participates in God’s anointing (Christhood), just as Jesus taught and demonstrated. (Matt 5:48)


       

Life Itself Is Supernatural

                    Life, as we know it, cannot be explained. We don't really know how cells can be made to live, grow, and multiply. We have identified many little pieces, but we don't know a lot about how everything works together to create the synergy, which is life itself.  Scientists are not even sure about the electron. Is it a particle or a wave type event?  We sort of know that gravity is real, but what causes it? Haven't figured that out yet.

         The entire body of human knowledge that we do understand and use to run our civilization is like the sand in a sandbox. By comparison, what we don't know can be represented by all the remaining sand on all the beaches and in all the deserts, worldwide. There is precious little of total reality that we have actually figured out.

          Therefore, if we define "supernatural" as those things that cannot be explained or verified by science, then most of human life is supernatural, because science cannot yet explain it. Despite our scientific ignorance, however, we are capable of having complete faith in all that reality slowly reveals to us. What we know and don't know are inseparably linked in truth and we are the ones who must change our perspectives as science reveals how newly discovered understandings link with what is already known.

          It is my belief that even scientific knowledge does not progress without humans experiencing a spiritual sense of the unknown. Faith is a result when spiritual inspiration leads to expected outcomes. This is true for both scientific inquiry, as well as spiritual and religious growth. A calm sense of the unknown somehow leads to verifiably new experiences and understandings.

          In short, life is a wonderful, supernatural series of startling experiences, until new knowledge and perspectives are revealed, understood, and accepted. Enjoy and celebrate what comes your way and that which is confirmed as truth through your life experiences, but also, keep searching and reaching for what you haven't yet grasped, because that is where the greatest expanse of reality resides.

       

       

       

       

The Meaning of Easter

        For many Christians, Easter represents a historical event in which the anointed Son of God arose from the dead after being crucified as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of all mankind. It is taught, if you believe this, you will be saved and go to heaven when your life on earth concludes.

        For many other Christians, Easter represents a historical event in which a Jewish teacher/prophet from Nazareth was crucified because of his non-violent resistance movement against the Roman domination system of his time and the Jewish Temple authorities who collaborated with the Romans.

        Synagogue teachings written decades after Jesus' death, for followers of The Way,  included resurrection stories (i.e. the New Testament gospels) because the impact of Jesus’ teachings and example was not extinguished by his torture and death. It was also believed, at the time, that only a supernatural intervention by God to establish God’s Kingdom of unconditional love and social justice on earth, could and would completely defeat human imperial domination systems.  Some early Christians also came to believe that this heavenly intervention would be initiated by a second coming of Jesus to earth.

        They were wrong about any imminent supernatural intervention because one did not occur during the two generations after Jesus' crucifixion nor in any generation since the gospels were written. However, the spiritual understandings inspired by the teachings of Jesus as well as other religious leaders over the millennium, have slowly nudged human thinking and institutions closer to the demonstration of unconditional love and equality in human justice.

        However you choose to interpret Easter is up to what makes sense and personally satisfies you. Still, despite any differences in historical perspectives among Christians, we might all agree that living our lives consciously, with love, forgiveness, and a passion for justice, is the spiritual foundation and the highest metaphysical intent of the Easter message.

        The English word “repent” as found in the Bible comes from a Greek word "metanoeo" which means something like to rethink or to think in a new way. So, each Easter, we are reminded that whenever we find ourselves thinking in ways that prevent us from loving or being just towards one another, we can and are perpetually invited to repent. 

         If we humans can increase our spiritual capacity to love, forgive, and to seek out justice for all, doesn't that mean that God's Kingdom is spreading on earth, as it is in heaven?

     Amen and so it is.