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02 Did Ancient Rabbis Believe in a Suffering Messiah?

How Ancient Rabbis Interpret Isaiah 53, Psalm 2:7 and Zechariah 12:10

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.