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To: Starwind
Why does OT scripture preclude one messiah coming twice?

Let me take this point first. You mention many, many passages as being prophetic of the messiah. Tell me, where exactly in the Hebrew scriptures does it say that the messiah will come, die, be resurrected, and then come back at some point in the indefinite future to finish the job?

So, educate me for a moment if you would please about what Jewish scholars deem 'messianic prophecy'.

Would you agree that the passages I cite pertain to the messiah?

You state 'the rest are not' [messianc prophecy] and cite some you consider that do qualify. What criteria disqualify those passages you said were not messianic prophecy?

It varies from passage to passage. Some of the common disqualifiers are: the passage has been mistranslated; the prophecy pertains to contemporary events, not to the messiah; or the passage is not prophetic at all.

It is probably best to take these case by case. I will raise one example to start. Isaiah 7:14, rendered in many Christian bibles as "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Imman'u-el." The Hebrew word used in this passage is almah, which means "young woman". Some modern Christian bibles recognize this, and have corrected the text to read accordingly. Had Isaiah wanted to say "virgin", he would have used the word betulah. This type of mistranslation is not uncommon. The purpose clearly is to force the text to "fit" the Christian template.

The prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 was made to King Azaz, and was fulfilled within several years of its utterance. It would have been of little comfort to Azaz in his circumstances to hear of a sign that would not appear for 700 years.

51 posted on 05/14/2002 9:28:31 PM PDT by malakhi
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To: angelo
Thanks.

I really want to understand why you/Jewish scholars think OT scripture precludes one messiah coming twice. I would appreciate your thoughts as to which OT scriptures bear on this.

53 posted on 05/14/2002 9:33:58 PM PDT by Starwind
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