Blog
These are opinionated essays. They argue positions on biblical-studies topics and draw conclusions from critical scholarship. For neutral, both-sides treatments that adjudicate nothing, see Scripture Analysis.
Tagged “Isaiah”
8 posts · Show all posts
-
Failed Prophecies: The Misses the Fulfillment Lists Count as Hits
Tyre still stands, Damascus is still a city, and Egypt never lay desolate for forty years. A look at the prophecies the fulfillment lists explain away or count as hits, judged by the standard they apply to the hits.
-
The Suffering Servant Debate: Israel, the Prophet, or the Messiah?
Isaiah 53 read through the Septuagint, Qumran, the Targum, the Talmud and Rashi: why an ancient messianic reading was never a Christian one.
-
Who Wrote Isaiah? And Why It Matters for Prophecy
Isaiah 53 is the most-cited messianic prophecy, but most critics have long held Isaiah to be several centuries' work. The case for multiple authors, the defense of single authorship, and what the dating means for the prophecy.
-
Overlapping Prophecies: The 24 Passages Critical Scholarship Shares with the Apologetic List
All twenty-four passages critical scholars read as messianic sit on the apologetic list too, but read whole, they describe Davidic kings and exilic hopes.
-
Reading Backwards: How Crucifixion Created Christology
A crucified messiah was a contradiction in terms. How the cross sent Jesus's followers back into Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22, and why the christology they found there was read backward from the event rather than predicted before it.
-
The Septuagint Problem: When Your Prophecy Depends on the Greek
Three famous 'fulfilled prophecies' lean on Greek wording the Hebrew does not bear out, from Isaiah's 'virgin' to Psalm 22's 'pierced' and Hebrews' 'body'.
-
The Proof-Text Game: How 356 Becomes 24
A popular list counts 356 prophecies fulfilled in Jesus. Check each verse in its context and the count falls to roughly two dozen that some ancient Jewish tradition read messianically, and only a handful of those predate Christianity.
-
Did Jesus Fulfill the Real Messianic Prophecies? A Critical Assessment
Set aside the 356-item lists and test Jesus against the passages ancient Judaism actually read as messianic: the Davidic king, the servant, the royal psalms. Read as first understood, he fulfilled none; his followers reread them after the cross.