Well, that's the whole 'Jesus problem',....how hes sandwiched inbetween 2 bibles, which was then made into one big holy bible by 'Christians',...making its contents into a 'compound', which make for various confusions.
So, Jesus was sandwiched between two bibles! He didn't have to be as he was not a Christian but a Jew. Can you see my Logic? Christians are vandalizing Judaism by trying to replace a Jew and what he believed with Hellenism which is the main doctrine of the NT.
Since one can take Jesus in a totally Jewish context and tradition, or further make him into a more liberal version of Messiah, such as an Essene or Gnostic-like figure, where he is assumed a pre-existent divinity of some kind, and up there somewhere in the divine hierarchy along with God Most High. - the messianic spectrum is wide between Jewish and Christian versions of 'Messiah', however 'human' or 'divine' he is made out to be.
Jesus could not have been made into a Messiah as Paul tried in II Tim. 2:8 because, according to Habakkuk 3:13, "The Lord goes forth to save His People; to save His Anointed One." That's what the Messiah is, the Anointed One of the Lord, aka Israel the Son of God. (Exodus 4:22,23) "Israel is My Son..."
Yes Paul with his own gospel puts his own spin on Jesus as some heavenly messiah figure, but when you dive into his deeper gnostic teachings, its all pretty much a spiritual cosmic Christ-figure, which barely uses some earthly historic foundations as a base for his spiritual gospel of the ascension of the human soul.....all "in Christ' of course
- thing is, all this 'in christ' activity is wholly 'spiritual', and you need to have spiritual discernment to understand these 'mysteries',...it comes by the witness of the Spirit
I don't see much of a mystery in the gospel of Paul but his intensive desire to promote his Pauline policy of Replacement Theology.
All in all, if you want to keep Jesus wholly Jewish and faithful to the law and the prophets, at least the gospel of Matthew and other texts will give you your 'supports',...but later 'Christian' innovations have their 'take' and assumed 'correct interpretation' of the Messiah to uphold, PLUS all those messianic prophecies about Jesus in the OT to boot!
- I know all these can be refuted by Orthodox Jewish theologians and rabbis,...but you see....the apologetics here just go round in circles. Jesus exists, and how and who you take Jesus to be, will be based on your own reasons and logics. Anyone's views could change with more info.....so keep an open mind :surf:
There is not a single prophecy about Jesus in the Tanach but only according to Christian preconceived notions. Jesus does not exist anymore. He died and, according to his Faith which was Judaism, and his gospel which was the Tanach, one once dead, he or she will never return from the grave. We have already 2,000 years of evidences for what I am saying. (II Samuel 12:23; Isaiah 26:14; Job 7:9; etc.
