Bible & Text
(Isaiah 9:5-6) Who is the child? Isaiah presents many of his messages through the use of prophetic names (Isaiah 7:3, 14; 8:3). In one such pas...
(Isaiah 11) Isaiah 11 is generally accepted as a passage which speaks of the Messiah and the messianic age. In verse 1 the prophet states: “And ...
(Isaiah 48:16) Trinitarians maintain that the terms ruach hak-kodesh, “holy spirit”; ruach tov, “good spirit”; and rucho, “His spirit,” are not ...
THE TEXT: ISAIAH 52:13-53:12 Behold, My servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
Isaiah 52:13: “Behold My Servant” My servant There are a number of reasons why Jesus cannot be considered the servant. The phrase, “My servant,...
Exalted, lifted up, very high Rewarding the servant: The servant is to be raised to a higher position in the estimation of those who were previous...
52:14: “So marred was his appearance unlike that of a man, and his form unlike that of the sons of men” Let the truth be told Although many pos...
53:1: “Who would have believed our report [literally, “what we have heard”]?” Find out more as we enter chapter 53 of Isaiah
53:2: “[H]e grew up … a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry land … no form nor comeliness … nor appearance that we should delight in him.”
53:3: “He was despised, and rejected of men … and as one from whom men hide their face: he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Was Jesus abandoned by everyone in his last hours? The Synoptic Gospels maintain that at the crucifixion “many women were there looking on from a ...
Christian theological needs The argument that Jesus died without any significant following is an argument necessitated by the theological need to ...
53:5: “But he [Israel] was wounded as a result of our [the nations of the world] transgressions, he was crushed as a result of our iniquities.” ...
53:5: “The chastisement of our [the nations] welfare was upon him [Israel], and with his wounds we were healed.” The scourging mystery “[W]ith ...
The rest of the story John’s claim that Jesus was “scourged” during the trial before Pilate (John 19:1) leaves open the extent of injury incurred ...
Not by blood loss Presuming Jesus was nailed to the cross, did blood oozing from the nail wounds cause his death? The Roman method of execution by...
Where is the Christian’s blood atonement for sin? Hebrews 9:22 states that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. It does ...
53:6: “the Lord has visited upon him the iniquity of us all” The pre-Gospel church and its developing christology The pre-Gospel church develop...
Isaiah 53:7: “as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb; and opened not his mouth” The silence that was a bit too loud Was Jesus humble and sile...
53:8: “As a result of the transgression of my people [the nations] he [Israel] has been afflicted.” The literal rendering of this verse is: “Fro...
53:9: “although he had done no violence” The violent side of Jesus The Gospels record a number of instances where Jesus did commit acts of viol...
Faith & Family
Waterfalls at Yosemite Park by C.L.Five of the Noahide Commandments are explicitly found in different verses in the Book of Genesis, and one is fou...
53:9: “neither was there any deceit in his mouth” A Parable on Deceit Once upon a time, in a far off city a man entered the city’s largest chur...
Salvation was reserved for the select few Jesus claimed that he revealed the meaning of his esoteric declarations (the parables) only to his disci...
53:10: “If he would offer himself as a guilt-offering” The suffering servant as a guilt-offering Following the initial declaration that it was ...
Bloodshed and vicarious suffering: The Torah view The blood shed is all-important in the symbolic ritual of animal sacrifice done in the Temple, b...
Banim The word bein (literally “son”) may figuratively mean “disciples” (2 Kings 2:3, 5, 7, 15). Zer‘a (“seed”) is never used in this sense.
53:12: “I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty” There is a great divide between truth (Isaiah...
53:12: “because he had poured out his soul to death” Many have poured out their soul to death “Because he has poured out (‘arah) his soul to de...
(Jeremiah 23:5-6) In their effort to substantiate the belief in a triune deity, Christians have alleged that a prophecy given by Jeremiah suppor...