Jesus in the Tanakh

May 1, 2009 Professor Name
World Religions
Introduction
The Christ of Christianity made radical claims in regards to his relationship to Judaism. Jesus was no timid Jewish rabbi. He claimed that he was the fulfillment of the entire Jewish Tanakh! Luke quotes the Christ as saying, “all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” (Luke 24:44) Jesus reinterpreted Jewish symbols and re-applied them to himself. (Wilson, 55) The many followers of Jesus today are still offending Jews by claiming that the Jewish religion is incomplete and no longer salvific without the incorporation of the Christ. Modern Jews reject the application of the prophecies regarding the Messiah in the Tanakh that the Christians typically apply. However, there is strong evidence that Jews in ancient Pre-Rabbinic Judaism interpreted significant amounts of historical portions of the Tanakh to be subtle prophecies (Edersheim, 163). The Christians claim that God left subtle footprints of the Messiah in many non-explicitly Messianic portions of the Tanakh and even in ancient Jewish tradition and society. The more convincing of these claimed prophetic footprints will be presented and evaluated.
The Hebrew Deliverer Archetype According to Milton Steinberg in Basic Judaism, modern Jews who anticipate an individual human Messiah believe that when he comes, he will do all of the things expected of him in one event. No ‘second coming’ will be necessary. (168) In universally recognized Messianic passages such as Isaiah 11 where there appears to be no break in thought that would divide the acts of the Messiah into two episodes. The works that the Christians claim have already found fulfillment do not seem to be distinguished from the works that Jesus is said to complete when he returns. Jesus himself even confesses, “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true.” (John 5:31) What else could testify about him? Isaiah 53 does state that the Suffering Servant would be “despised and forsaken of men.”(3) One must wonder if that necessarily suggests that the Messiah was to be initially rejected by Israel. The ending portion of this verse tells us, “He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” Could this ‘we’ that is speaking possibly be the Jews? If the Tanakh suggests that Israel would initially reject the Messiah, then perhaps a second visitation would be necessary. Take a look at the life of Joseph. He was beaten and rejected by his brothers. He became separated from them for a long period of time. When he finally saw his family again they did not recognize him and mistook him to merely be a Gentile ruler. Eventually, he became Israel’s salvation from famine and was embraced by his family. (Genesis 37-47), (Is Yeshua the Messiah?) We know also that Moses was the son of Pharaoh, so he too was considered to merely be a ruler of Gentiles. The Hebrews initially rejected his message from God, so Moses went into exile for a long period of time. He eventually returned to deliver the Hebrews from their oppressor, freeing them from the bondage of slavery. It’s imperative to note that in the book of Acts, immediately preceding his martyrdom, Stephen includes the biographies of both Joseph and Moses during his attempt to explain to his accusers how Jesus could have been the fulfillment of Israel’s history. (Exodus 1-15), (Is Yeshua the Messiah?), (Acts 7) We see here that these smaller-scale deliverers were initially rejected by the ones being delivered. Both characters left the ones that rejected them for a long time only that each would come back to redeem his people. The Hebrews that rejected Joseph, Moses, and Christ all recognized their deliverer’s authority, but mistook it to be given from the Enemy. The Hebrews originally doubted that each of these men were messengers of Jehovah. Stephen pointed out to the Pharisees how common it was for the true prophets of God to be disbelieved and destroyed initially. His point was that one could expect the Jews to treat the Messiah the same way they did their prophets. (Acts 7)
The Tabernacle and the Temple Christians argue that even the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon testify about Christ. The author of the book of Hebrews tells us why God’s patterns for the Tabernacle were so precise and specific: “Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:23-24). The Tabernacle is a partial reflection of heaven. Evangelist and author, Theodore Epp, illustrates in his book, Portraits of Christ in the Tabernacle, that every single item and area in the Tabernacle foreshadowed Christian truths. He bases several connections on the structure of the temple. The open Outer Court, the semi-restricted Holy Place, and the exclusive Holy of Holies are compared to man’s body, soul, and spirit; Jesus’ claim to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and the system by which one comes to approach God. (10-21) One should consider God’s intent for the Tabernacle in the first place: “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8) The purpose of the Tabernacle was so that God may have a place to dwell among His people. God could not dwell with His people unless their sins were atoned for. The Tabernacle provided a place of sacrifice. We see this concept reflected in basic Christology. Christ’s first name Immanuel means, “God is with us.” The Church believes Jesus to be God in the flesh, who atoned for the sins of His people forever. The Temple is a permanent form of the temporary Tabernacle. There were many synagogues (places of teaching) but only one Temple. The Temple was the only place sacrifices were permitted to be made with few exceptions. The first Temple was built by Solomon. This original Temple was destroyed in 586 BC but a second Temple was constructed 515 BC. Herod the Great expanded the Temple throughout his entire rule. Unfortunately, the Romans sacked the second Temple in 70 AD in response to a Jewish revolt. To this day the Temple has never been rebuilt. Christians point out the irony that the only place the Jews could lawfully carry out sacrifice for atonement is laid to waste within a few decades after Christ was crucified and resurrected (who is said to be the final and ultimate sacrifice for transgression). (Solomon’s Temple)
Death and the Tree No one anticipated that the Messiah would have to be crucified. His dominion was to be everlasting. His followers nearly abandoned the cause of Christ after he was pierced, because they had forgotten that Christ anticipated his own death and even his resurrection (Luke 24:7-8). To present either man or god as a sacrifice seems very non-Jewish. After all, there is only one God and He is eternal and can not die; and God has always rejected human sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:4-5). Why would God’s Anointed One need to die? Look at the connection Jesus made: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The connection seems a bit awkward. One must ask what the serpent was and why it was lifted up in the first place. Was Christ alluding to his crucifixion or glorification? In Numbers 21, God sends poisonous serpents into the wilderness, and many of the Israelites were being bitten and losing their lives. The people requested that Moses would intercede on their behalf. The Lord commanded Moses to “’Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live.’ And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.” (8, 9) God’s intent was for the Israelites to have faith in God. Verse five tells us that the Israelites ‘spoke against God’ and were walking by sight and not by faith. Their lack of trust brought deadly serpents upon them. How peculiar it is that a serpent would save them. One must ask what comparison Jesus made between the bronze serpent and himself. The narrative tells us that the serpent was attached (likely nailed) to a standard (pole). When the Israelites would gaze upon the fixed serpent, God would somehow be given glory and the faithful victim would be spared from the wrath of God and be allowed to live. Note also that it was a serpent that took from us our immortality in the first place (Genesis 3:3-4). The author of Romans 8:3 believed that God sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” When one looks to Christ and accepts his sacrifice, he passes on from death to life and is spared from the wrath of God. (Is Yeshua the Messiah?) In Genesis 22, God calls Abraham to travel to Moriah to sacrifice his “only son” as a burnt offering unto the Lord. We see that Isaac himself carries the wood for the fire. Also, Jerusalem, the city where Jesus was crucified, is in the land of Moriah. (1-6) In verse seven, Isaac asks his father where the lamb for the offering is. Abraham assures him that the Lord will provide them with a lamb. However, when the angel of the Lord appears, he spares Isaac and provides Abraham with a ram to sacrifice, not a lamb. (13) The lamb that Abraham told Isaac would be provided is said to be given at the first Passover and at Christ’s crucifixion. (Binder) In verses sixteen and seventeen the angel of the Lord speaks as if he is God Himself: “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord…indeed I will greatly bless you…because you have obeyed My voice.” (16-18) Earlier in the passage, the narrator only tells us that God spoke to Moses (1-2), and gave him the commandment. No angel of the Lord is mentioned initially. In Christianity, it is commonly held that the angel of the Lord is a pre-incarnate manifestation of God the Son –Jesus. How convenient for the claims of Christianity that the angel of the Lord be the one to tell Abraham that his son, his only son would be spared. (Binder) If this is true, then perhaps the angel of the Lord foresaw his own death and role as Abraham’s lamb millennia later. One can only speculate.
Theophanies and the Angel of the Lord Princeton University defines a theophany as “a visible (but not necessarily material) manifestation of a deity to a human person.” In Basic Judaism, Steinberg tells his readers that Jews rejected the notion of a “God-man: Deity embodied in the flesh and blood of some particular individual…The suggestion that any single human being might be God Himself they (the Jews) spurned as blasphemy.” (45) The appearances of the angel of the Lord in 28 chapters of the Tanakh are generally regarded as theophanies. (Angel of the Lord) In the book of Genesis the angel of the Lord only seems to speak; no early narrative explicitly suggests he was seen. It is not until Moses’ vision in Exodus 3 that the angel of the Lord is said to appear to him in a blazing fire in the bush. A handful of other narratives describe the ‘appearing’ of the angel of the Lord. (Angel of the Lord) One indirect reference to the angel of the Lord appears in Genesis 32 where verse 24 tells us that “a man wrestled with him (Jacob) until daybreak.” Hosea 12:3-4 looks back and comments that Jacob “in his maturity he contended with God. Yes, he wrestled the angel and prevailed.” Back in Geneses 32:29 Jacob asks the one he wrestled with for his name, but the man ignores his request. In the next verse (30) Jacob comments: “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.” Hosea believed that the man Jacob wrestled with was an angel, and Jacob himself comments that he had “seen God face to face” and yet did not die. It’s very likely that this man-God-angel was indeed the same angel of the Lord in Genesis 22. We see, despite Steinberg’s claim, that God took the form of a physical man and walked around as flesh and blood. We see similar events occurring in Genesis 18:1-25 where Jehovah disguises Himself as an ordinary man accompanied by two angels also disguised as men. In Exodus 24 Moses and the seventy elders “saw the God of Israel” on the mountain. The first chapter of Ezekiel describes a vision in the sky. A voice comes out from above the expanse of many winged ‘living beings.’ In this expanse a figure with the appearance of a man manifests .The appearance is described as “the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” (25-28) Even in the Tanakh God appears and even interacts with humans in the likeness of an actual man.
The Seven Feasts Perhaps the most convincing of the claimed footprints of Jesus originates in Leviticus 23, where God established seven feasts that the Jews were commanded to observe. The first of which, the Passover feast, was to be celebrated at twilight during the fourteenth day of the first month. Exodus establishes the traditions and significance of this particular feast. It was a celebration of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt where God passed over the Hebrews and withheld judgment from them at the cost of the blood of a lamb. The Lord declared the next day following to be the day of the feast of Unleavened Bread. This particular feast lasted seven days. The Jews were commanded not to eat any leavened bread during the celebration. The yeastless bread was a symbol of Israel’s purity and call to be unleavened from the rest of the world. During the next, the feast of Firstfruits, the first stalks of grain from the harvest were dedicated to the Lord as an act of thanksgiving. Fifty days after this feast of firstfruits, Israel was to offer up a new grain offering which was composed of leavened bread. This feast is commonly called the Feast of Pentecost or the Feast of Weeks. Seven young lambs, two bulls, one ram were sacrificed as burnt offerings to the Lord. A portion of the grain was to remain un-harvested and given to the poor. ((Leviticus 23- The Feast of the Lord) On the first day of the seventh month there was a Sabbath called the Feast of Trumpets. This feast is a holy convocation where trumpets are blown to gather together all of Israel to celebrate. Nine days after this convocation was the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. On this day of reflection a burnt-offering is made and no work is to be done. The Israelites were to be ‘afflicted in their souls’ and frequently meditating on the brevity of transgression and their need for atonement. The Feast of Tabernacles occurred on the fifteenth day of the same seventh month. This feast lasted for seven days beginning and ending on the Sabbath. Fruits, branches, boughs, and willows were to be taken and many sacrifices and offerings were to be made. It was a celebration of God’s providence over Israel during the wilderness wandering. Like Yom Kippur, this feast was rooted deeply on reflection; however this was a joyful cause for reflection which focused more on the faithfulness of Yahweh rather than on atonement and transgression. (Leviticus 23- The Feast of the Lord) One should have taken notice that the first four feasts occurred at an earlier collection of dates the latter three. The feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, and Pentecost take place in the first month of the Jewish calendar. The feasts of Trumpets and Tabernacles and the Day of Atonement all take place during the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. Christians understand that the collection of the first four feasts as having prophetic significance paralleling events that took place in Christ’s first coming. The latter three feasts allude to events that are to see fulfillment when Christ returns to rule. (Leviticus 23- The Feast of the Lord) The crucifixion of Jesus is compared to the sacrifice of the Passover lamb which would deliver God’s people from His own wrath. Jesus was crucified on Passover. The feast of Unleavened Bread is sometimes celebrated alongside and combined with the Passover celebration. Likewise, Jesus’ burial (which is often coupled with his crucifixion) was holy because he was crucified without sin (leaven). Christ was resurrected on the day of the feast of the Firstfruits. Ironically, Paul calls him the firstborn of those resurrected and the firstfruits of the ones to be awakened at the second coming. The feast of Pentecost is related to the Christian day of Pentecost where the Church begins and the “leavened” Gentiles begin to gain inheritance in God’s kingdom. The end of the feast of Pentecost marked the beginning of the summer harvest, which lasted until the latter feasts take place. The Christian day of Pentecost marked the beginning of the “harvest” of the Church where the Gentiles are gathered until they “come in fullness.” This harvest will be completed with the Messiah returns. (Leviticus 23- The Feast of the Lord) As for the latter, the feast of the Trumpets can be compared to passages in John’s apocalyptic vision where the Church assembles at the trumpet call to be raptured. The Day of Atonement foresaw Israel’s realization of affliction and moment of redemption in the end times. The feast of Tabernacles announces the great Millennial rest. In fact Zechariah 14:16-18 tells us that the feast will be celebrated during the Millennium. Because of the precise chronological accuracy of the parallels between first century and ancient feasts, many believe that the rapture will happen on an anniversary of the Levitical feast of Trumpets. (Leviticus 23- The Feast of the Lord)
Conclusion
The Christians build a strong case for the Jewish relevance and presence of Jesus the Christ in the Hebrew Scriptures. The more significant and elaborate connections are impossible to ignore. Many critics of these claims adopt the belief that Jesus never actually existed. It is proposed that the first followers of Christianity attempted to incorporate pagan theology and history into Judaism. They intentionally forced the fictional narratives of the New Testament to correspond with ancient Jewish holidays and rituals. (Any sources for foreshadows of Yeshua (Jesus) in ancient Jewish culture?) The more subtle comparisons are dismissed as merely coincidental. However, these connections are causing so much strife that many modern Jewish organizations such as Jews for Judaism train counter-missionaries to refute Christian claims biblically. (Jews for Judaism) Some of their more common arguments have been already been presented. The Christians, in response, attempt to build a strong case that Jesus did exist and was physically resurrected. If the New Testament narrative is historically reliable, then the Hebrew parallels to Christian truths would be undeniable.

Works Cited

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