Editor’s note: This has already been posted as a Q & A, but I hear this question often enough that I though I would post it as an article as well.

John Oakes

QUESTION:

Hello, I have recently been wondering why Judaism seems to reject Jesus as the Messiah.  I have found that they have a list of prophecies that they show as evidence of his failure to fulfill the position of Messiah. Do you think you could help explain each of the following prophecies? If they are prophecies to begin with that is. Thanks.

* The Sanhedrin will be re-established (Isaiah 1:26)
* Once he is King, leaders of other nations will look to him for guidance. (Isaiah 2:4)
* The whole world will worship the One God of Israel (Isaiah 2:17)
* He will be descended from King David (Isaiah 11:1) via King Solomon (1 Chron. 22:8-10)
* The Moshiach will be a man of this world, an observant Jew with “fear of God” (Isaiah 11:2)
*****In other words – this must all be accomplished in a human lifetime*****
* Evil and tyranny will not be able to stand before his leadership (Isaiah 11:4)
* Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11:9)
* He will include and attract people from all cultures and nations (Isaiah 11:10)
* All Israelites will be returned to their homeland (Isaiah 11:12)
* Death will be swallowed up forever (Isaiah 25:8)
* There will be no more hunger or illness, and death will cease (Isaiah 25:8)
* All of the dead will rise again (Isaiah 26:19)
* The Jewish people will experience eternal joy and gladness (Isaiah 51:11)
* He will be a messenger of peace (Isaiah 52:7)
* Nations will end up recognizing the wrongs they did to Israel (Isaiah 52:13-53:5)
* The peoples of the world will turn to the Jews for spiritual guidance (Zechariah 8:23)
* The ruined cities of Israel will be restored (Ezekiel 16:55)
* Weapons of war will be destroyed (Ezekiel 39:9)
* The Temple will be rebuilt (Ezekiel 40) resuming many of the suspended mitzvot
* He will then perfect the entire world to serve God together (Zephaniah 3:9)
* Jews will know the Torah without Study (Jeremiah 31:33)
* He will give you all the desires of your heart (Psalms 37:4)
* He will take the barren land and make it abundant and fruitful (Isaiah 51:3, Amos 9:13-15, Ezekiel 36:29-30, Isaiah 11:6-9).
*”For My House (the Temple in Jerusalem) shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:3–Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11:9)
*”He shall not fail or be crushed until he has set the right in the earth.” Isaiah 42:4

Response:

I assume you realize that you just asked me thirty questions. That is a lot of questions. I will make some general comments, but if you want an answer to a specific question, please choose two or three at the most from the list that you want a detailed response to. Surely you can understand that it would take fifty pages to respond to this entire question and that is a bit more than I can do, given the number of questions I receive.

Having said that, here is my general response.

I. First of all, many of these prophecies which were not fulfilled at the time Jesus came are explained because the Jews making this criticism do not fully understand the nature of the prophecies and most importantly of the Kingdom of God. I do not say this to criticize the writers, but just to point out that, without understanding the New Testament, many prophecies in the Old Testament are very easily misunderstood. But this is only natural to a Jewish person who does not read the Old Testament, which is why it is not a “criticism.”

For example these two:

* All of the dead will rise again (Isaiah 26:19)
* The Jewish people will experience eternal joy and gladness (Isaiah 51:11)
* He will then perfect the entire world to serve God together (Zephaniah 3:9)

are fulfilled at the SECOND coming of Jesus, not at his physical coming as Messiah.

{{. Others of these prophecies certainly were fulfilled in the life of Jesus, although perhaps the Jew does not realize this. For example:

*”For My House (the Temple in Jerusalem) shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:3–Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11:9)

This prophecy is fulfilled in the Church that Jesus established, which is certainly a house of prayer for all nations, athough the Jews never accepted this teaching.

and

* He will be a messenger of peace (Isaiah 52:7)

Obviously Jesus fulfilled this prophecy during his life on the earth. It is actually a bit surprising that the Jewish writer included this example as it is very well known that Jesus preached a radical ethic of peace.

III. Others that Jesus certainly did fulfill in his lifetime are:

* He will be descended from King David (Isaiah 11:1) via King Solomon (1 Chron. 22:8-10)
* The Moshiach will be a man of this world, an observant Jew with “fear of God” (Isaiah 11:2)

Jesus was an observant Jew throughout his life, as is clear from everything we know of him, especially from the New Testament. Also, we know from Matthew 1:6 that Jesus was directly descended from Solomon. Jews tend to reject this because Matthew has the genaeology of Jesus through his father, but Jesus was not physically descended from Joseph. I can understand why a Jew might feel this disqualifies Jesus, but from a Christian perspective, in which like with Joseph and Jesus, we are adopted as sons of God, the fact that Joseph adopted Jesus as his son certainly does NOT disqualify Jesus as being descended from Solomon.

IV. Still others are fulfilled in the Kingdom of God as it is revealed in the Church, but the Jew, who expects it to be fulfilled literally/physically, may not recognize the fact that it is fulfilled in the Church. For example these:

* He will include and attract people from all cultures and nations (Isaiah 11:10)
* All Israelites will be returned to their homeland (Isaiah 11:12)

The second prophecy is fulfilled in that the New Testament makes it clear that under the New Covenant, those saved by Jesus are the spiritual descendants of Israel (Galatians 4:21-31. Again, I can understand that a Jew might not see it that way, but this is because they simply do not understand the Old Testament and its fulfillment in Jesus Christ correctly (John 5:24). Like Jesus said, the entire Old Testament is about him. This is proved in his fulfillment of the prophecies above, as well as the better-known messianic prophecies such as Isaiah 53, Psalms 22, Isaiah 7, Micah 5, Zechariah 11, Daniel 9 and so forth.

V. Another category is prophecies which the Jewish writer you are reading simply misinterprets. For example:

* The Sanhedrin will be re-established (Isaiah 1:26)

If you look at the passage, there is no mention of the Sanhedrin there. I believe that this passage is fulfilled in the Church of Christ, not in the Sanhedrin. The fact is that the Sanhedrin did not even exist at the time of Isaiah, so requiring that the Sanhedrin be re-established is a fairly odd interpretation of Isaiah 1:26.

I do not have the time right now to respond to every single criticism of Jesus as the Messiah, but I believe that one of the five categories I list above. The criticism of this Jewish source is simply incorrect, although if we look at messianic prophecies from the perspective of the Jew who has already rejected Jesus a-priori, it is not surprising that they falsely believe they have detected prophecies he did not fulfill. I hope this helps, and please feel free to choose one or two you want more details on.

John Oakes