The Jews had prophets who could vouchsafe...
I agree.
But what after the time of the Jewish Prophets had passed - from a Jewish POV?
Did any interpretation of the scriptures from anyone other than one of the Jewish Prophets carry equal veracity to that of the Jewish Prophets?
How could any Jew today (or even from Malachi until now) have any authority that could match a Jewish Prophet?
After our prophets, the (yes, the infamous, G-d forbid) Rabbis of each generation used a Torah-derived formula of exegesis. This is the Jewish point of view on “authorized” interpretation. The authentic tradition (that embodied by the Pharisees) was supported by the (again, Torah-mandated) majority opinion of the scholars. So “...That’s just from the Rabbis!!!” is actual 100% authentic Judaism.
No one today has the authority of a prophet of old, until Moshiach.
Uriel-— this is the crux of the J for J paradox, isn’t it? A Jew is for the Pharisees, not for Jesus.... They, according to the Judaism ‘messianics’ shun, were right, and so is the prevailing Orthodox rabbinical opinion today. A Jew couldn’t light a fire in his dwelling on the Sabbath then, and one can’t flick a light switch on Shabbos today. So a religion (or a single man) claiming that they are wrong has no basis in Judaism.
Laissez-— you may find it interesting (and perplexing, even maddening to gentile and many, many Jew) that we have arguments in the Oral Law. Rabbi X says so and so, Rabbi Y disagrees....and we follow the majority. There are certain Mishnas where there is no disagreement. These are considered to be word for word, exactly as Moses taught us. We read a portion of this Mishna every day before morning prayer— as the prayer of our lips stands in the place of the sacrifices that took place in the Temple.
“How could any Jew today (or even from Malachi until now) have any authority that could match a Jewish Prophet?”
Speaking for myself, I don’t think they can. I’m not sure what the Jewish opinion on the matter is. It seems to me they resolve disputes now by kind of theological debate between the rabbinical authorities until they come to a consensus. So, that may be their replacement system, not having an absolute authority to appeal to anymore.