In Matthew 9:35 (KJV) we read:
And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness, and every disease among the people."
One interesting point is that, unlike many of the other so-called "fulfilled prophecies", this one does not say "so he may fulfill that which was said by Isaiah" or some such thing. This was a much later attempt at trying to find a text where there is some apparent healing going on, and so Isaiah 35:5-6 was chosen.
Except Isaiah 35:5-6 was "fulfilled" many centuries before Jesus was even born.
It was during the rein of King Hezekiah (Isaiah 36:1) that there was "problems" with Assyria, and Edom was like a hyena, picking off the smaller Judean communities, taking people captive, and just being overly unlikable, to say the least.
Isaiah 34 is a hyperbolic telling of how Edom would fall, invoking images of demons, including Lilith, and the hairy goat-like ones (satyrs?) which could be wordplay on the Patriarch of Edom being Esau, the very hairy brother of Jacob who was Israel.
Chapter 35 is about the people being freed and returning, and people celebrating their return with great happiness. So happy that everything seemed brighter and better. The very land and the flowers were rejoicing. Those who were blind to the problems with the other nations could now see, those whose ears were plugged up (not deaf) could hear, and the roads that were once dangerous with "beasts" were now safe again.
But it was certainly not about a messiah with magical healing powers visiting and healing people.
That's just not in the text.
There are so many of these similar choices that mention the return of exiles and the defeat of Israel's enemies, that one should wonder: "Why would anyone ever consider assigning that verse to the Jesus narrative?!"
After all, Jesus did not of that, which is inherent in Isaiah 35.
Style: "Not messianic, took place centuries earlier, Jesus didn't fulfill it"
Meme used:
No comments:
Post a Comment