Messianic Prophecies From the Bible: A Jew Will be Born Who Will be the King of the Jews. He Will be Called God, the Father, and The Prince of Peace.

Jews and Christians disagree on whether or  not Isaiah 9:6 is a reference to The Messiah.  Christians see this verse as clearly pointing to Jesus.  Jews insist that we are taking the verse out of context.  They say the verse refers to the birth of Hezekiah (740? – 692? BC/BCE), King of Judah.  Hezekiah cleaned and reopened the Temple.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

Jews number the verse differently (as Isaiah 9:5) and say that the verse should be translated as “For a child has been born to us, a son given to us,  and the authority is upon his shoulder, and the wondrous advisor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name, “the prince of peace.”

A literal word for word translation of the Hebrew words of the verse: “For to us a child is born to us a son is given to and shall be the government on his shoulder and called his name Wonderful Counselor the God mighty the everlasting the Prince of Peace.”  Written ancient Hebrew contains no punctuation marks and all the letters are run together with no spaces between words.

Korban

“For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:  But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."” Mark 7:10-13

The Hebrew noun korban (קרבן) is derived from the root word KAREV which  means “to approach,” “to come near,” “to get into a close relationship with somebody.”  From this, applied to God, the word came to mean “sacrifice,” “gift,” or “offering.”  A man who declared his worldly possessions korban was thus dedicating them to God so that they could not be used for any other purposes.  The property would become God’s (belong to the priests) upon the man’s death.

Some men declared their possessions to be korban so that they could not be required to use their funds to support their elderly parents.  The man was not required to give his money to the temple as long as he was alive.  This was casuistic hypocrisy, which Jesus exposed in Mark 7:10-13.

The effect of the tradition was to nullify the intent of the practice by insisting on a literal, and sometimes cynical, strict implementation.

More on casuistry tomorrow.

Extra-Biblical Evidences of Biblical Persons and/or Events: The Mortuary Temple of Rameses III

The Medinat Habu Mortuary Temple of Pharaoh Rameses III of Egypt is a massive complex 150 meters long.  On its walls are inscriptions praising Rameses and listing his military triumph over the Sea Peoples in a great land and sea battle which occurred about 1191 BC/BCE.  One of the tribes composing the Sea People was the Philistines, who were Israel’s mortal enemies.  They are believed to have originally come from Crete.

The temple site is near Luxor (al-Uxxor) in Egypt.

After the Cleansing of the Temple

In every well-known Bible passage there are other, sometimes many, insights "hidden in plain sight."  In the incident of Jesus' cleansing the moneychangers from the Temple, there are other things being said.

1. Jesus has the authority to define the proper use of the Temple.
2. Children are welcome into the previously all-adult world.
3. Jesus opened the Kingdom of God to everyone, including the blemished people, the lame and the blind.  This infuriated the religious leaders who insisted that it was blasphemous for blemished persons to enter the Temple.

"And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

 " And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.   And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased,   And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?   And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there." Matthew 21:12-17

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,   Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.   For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,   Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,   Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken;   No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God.   He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy.   Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries: for I the LORD do sanctify them.   And Moses told it unto Aaron, and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel.  Leviticus 21:16-24

You Are a Temple of the Holy Spirit

"You are a temple of the Holy Spirit.  You are not just a person living your life by human power.  The Spirit of God is in you; that is why Jesus said it was better for Him to go and the Spirit to come.  Don't walk away from this.  Delve into it and let it impact you deeply, first internally and then outwardly."  Francis Chan in Forgotten God.  Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit (2009)

Tisha B'Av

30 July 2009: Tisha B'Av (Hebrew: Ninth of Av) is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the two destructions of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem (586 BCE and 70 CE).  The holiday is observed as a day of fasting and contemplation.