06 Does the New Testament Misquote the Jewish Bible?

Witnesses for Jesus

06 Does the New Testament Misquote the Jewish Bible?

Examining Matthew's Midrashic and Dual Fulfillment Prophecies

Christina R Darlington

Does Matthew misquote Isaiah 7:14; 9:1-2; 11:1; Hosea 11:1 and Jeremiah 31:15 to provide false prophetic support for Jesus being the Messiah? What is Midrash? Do the prophecies cited in the New Testament have a Dual Fulfillment in both the Old and the New Testament?

Throughout the New Testament, and particularly in Matthew's gospel, multiple prophecies from the Hebrew Old Testament (Jewish Bible) are cited to provide support for the life and ministry of Yeshua Jesus. While many of these prophecies were already partially fulfilled during the events of the Old Testament, Matthew and other New Testament writers saw aspects within these historical events that had their ultimate fulfillment within the life of the Messiah Yeshua Jesus. Scholars refer to these prophecies as "dual fulfillment" prophecies or "typologies" in which a prophecy or an event within the Old Testament provides a "type" or pattern to picture an event in the New Testament. In this case, New Testament writers and early Christians practiced what scholars today call "Midrashing" the text.

In this video we examine several examples of Matthew's citations and other New Testament midrash of the Old Testament and compare these examples to Jewish Talmudic writings which engaged in the same type of exegetical analysis of the Jewish Bible. In this way, we counter the claims of Jewish rabbis who assert that the New Testament writers misquoted or misapplied these Old Testament passages.

More from Is Christianity the Mormonism of Judaism?

Introduction: Is Christianity the Mormonism of Judaism? What is Noahidism?

Christina R Darlington

Jewish Rabbis claim that Christianity has distorted the teachings of Judaism in the same way that Mormonism distorts the teachings of Christianity. Are these claims that Orthodox Jewish rabbis make against the Christian religion valid? What is the B'nei Noach religion of Noahidism? How do these non-Jewish, Gentile followers of Rabbinic Judaism practice the religion of Judaism? What are the 7 Laws of Noah? How do the teachings of these anti-Christian Jewish missionaries compare to the teachings of ancient Judaism?

01 Is Isaiah 53 Messiah or Israel?

Christina R Darlington

Isaiah 53 is one of the most disputed passages of Scripture among the rabbis of the Jewish community. Early rabbinic Judaism saw shadows of a suffering Messiah while nearly every rabbi since the time of Rashi in the middle ages, has contended that this passage speaks of the suffering of the nation of Israel, rather than of the Messiah Yeshua Jesus. Which interpretation best fits the content and context of Isaiah 53.

02 Did Ancient Rabbis Believe in a Suffering Messiah?

Christina R Darlington

Today, Jewish rabbis dispute Christian interpretations of Isaiah 53 and other passages by claiming that there is no place in the Jewish Scripture that indicates that the Messiah would suffer and die for humanity. While various interpretations on Isaiah 53 and other Messianic passages abound in the Jewish Talmud, common themes seen in these ancient interpretations disagree with the current rabbinic views of these passages. Not only did the ancient rabbis see a suffering Messiah in several passages of the Old Testament, but these rabbis referred to this Messiah as “Messiah ben Yosef” or “Messiah Son of Joseph” because they saw similarities with Joseph suffering in Egypt when he was rejected by his brothers. When it came to Zechariah 12:10, these ancient rabbis even saw a Messiah who was pierced to the point of death, prior to the coming of the kingly Messiah who they called the “Messiah ben David” or “Messiah Son of David.” In this video, we examine the claims of these ancient rabbis and show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the current Christian interpretation of these passages in the Old Testament is consistent with ancient Judaism, and thus Christianity is not the Mormonism of Judaism.