Tumah
Veteran Member
Imagine you unknowingly read a fan-fiction about a world in the Star Wars universe.
In this world, father is a colloquial term not just for a parent, but also a grandparent. One day, you go back and watch the original Star Wars. In the movie, Darth Vader says to Luke Skywalker "Luke it is true. I am your father."
Now, since you didn't know that what you read was a fan-fiction and not authentic Star Wars franchise, you may at that point stop and wonder to yourself, "Hmm... Does he mean his actual father, or grandfather?" (I don't know if at some other point in the story this is made clear, but let's just assume not for the purpose of the example.)
Is there anyone in who would argue that the creators of Star Wars had in mind the colloquial use of the word father fabricated by the fan-fiction when they wrote that script? Of course not.
This is another reason why Judaism cannot accept the Christian Testament.
Reading the Tanach in it's own light, leaves absolutely no reason to assume that the Christian Testament would ever be written. In fact, in many cases, it causes a person to expect that it wouldn't be written.
That would be like the fan-fiction world describing Luke Skywalker as Darth Vader's father! After reading Moses' plea to see G-d's face being rejected on the grounds that no man can see G-d's face, would you expect to see G-d take human form and allow any person to see His face? After reading about G-d's dissimilarity to humans and Moses' warning the Israelites that they did not see any sort of image of G-d, would you expect G-d to become human? After reading about how the Commandments of G-d would be everlasting, would you expect G-d to simply do away with them? Etc., etc.
But that aside, simply reading through the Tanach would give you absolutely no reason to ever come to the conclusion of a Jesus.
And this tells you that the "hundreds" of prophecies about Jesus are nothing more than eisegetic re-interpretations - often divested of their original context. And that makes the Christian Testament's relationship to Tanach about the equivalent of Chuck Tingle's fan-fiction of the Harry Potter universe.
In this world, father is a colloquial term not just for a parent, but also a grandparent. One day, you go back and watch the original Star Wars. In the movie, Darth Vader says to Luke Skywalker "Luke it is true. I am your father."
Now, since you didn't know that what you read was a fan-fiction and not authentic Star Wars franchise, you may at that point stop and wonder to yourself, "Hmm... Does he mean his actual father, or grandfather?" (I don't know if at some other point in the story this is made clear, but let's just assume not for the purpose of the example.)
Is there anyone in who would argue that the creators of Star Wars had in mind the colloquial use of the word father fabricated by the fan-fiction when they wrote that script? Of course not.
This is another reason why Judaism cannot accept the Christian Testament.
Reading the Tanach in it's own light, leaves absolutely no reason to assume that the Christian Testament would ever be written. In fact, in many cases, it causes a person to expect that it wouldn't be written.
That would be like the fan-fiction world describing Luke Skywalker as Darth Vader's father! After reading Moses' plea to see G-d's face being rejected on the grounds that no man can see G-d's face, would you expect to see G-d take human form and allow any person to see His face? After reading about G-d's dissimilarity to humans and Moses' warning the Israelites that they did not see any sort of image of G-d, would you expect G-d to become human? After reading about how the Commandments of G-d would be everlasting, would you expect G-d to simply do away with them? Etc., etc.
But that aside, simply reading through the Tanach would give you absolutely no reason to ever come to the conclusion of a Jesus.
And this tells you that the "hundreds" of prophecies about Jesus are nothing more than eisegetic re-interpretations - often divested of their original context. And that makes the Christian Testament's relationship to Tanach about the equivalent of Chuck Tingle's fan-fiction of the Harry Potter universe.