nostalgia the recent rise of nostalgia in this group combined with the incredible level of utter bullshit has prompted me to comb through my archives and pull out some of the best of alt atheism for your reading pleasure i ll post a couple of these a day unless group concensus demands that i stop or i run out of good material i haven t been particularly careful in the past about saving attributions i think the following comes from john a johnson but someone correct me if i m wrong this is probably the longest of my entire collection so that the prophecy be fulfilled in considering the christian religion and judging it according to its claims it is important to look at its claims at fulfilling earlier jewish prophecy the scribe matthew is perhaps the most eager to draw out what he thinks are prophetic answers in the career of jesus of nazareth as you will see matthew s main strategy is to take various old testament passages often not even about the promised messiah and apply them to the circumstances in the new testament we must also bear in mind the question of the authenticity of the accounts since the gospels were written at least years after jesus was executed we do not know how much happened exactly as stated but for purposes of analysis we will take particular claims at face value immanuel we begin of course at the beginning mt mary will bear a son and you joseph will name him jesus which means g d is salvation for he will save his people from their sins all this happened to fulfil what the lord had spoken by a prophet isaiah in the days of ahaz c bce king of judah rezin of syria and pekah of israel made war on jerusalem capitol of judah but could not quite conquer it when the house of david i e ahaz and his court in judah were told of this its heart and the heart of its people shook and the lord g d said to isaiah go to meet with ahaz and the lord spoke to ahaz through prophet isaiah naturally saying ask a sign of g d your lord it can be as deep as sheol or as high as heaven but ahaz said i won t ask i will not put the lord to a test then isaiah said hear then o house of david is it not enough for you to weary men that you must weary my god too therefore the lord himself will give you a sign behold a young woman is with child and will bear a son and name him immanuel which means g d is with us he will eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse evil and choose good for before the child knows how to refuse evil and choose good the land of the two kings you dread will have been deserted matthew homes in on just the sentence that is in italics further he the hebrew word almah young woman as specifically virgin but this is not a prophecy about the messiah it is not a prophecy about an event to happen years later it is not a prophecy about a virgin bethulah mother in short it not about jesus matthew has made use of a verse out of context and tries to make it fit the specific case of mary it should be noted that if we want to read the prophecy in a general manner a very general one it can be made to fit mary mary virgin or not was indeed a young woman with child of course the fit is shady and has problems jesus while thought of by later christians to be g d walking among men was never called by the name immanuel if christianity wished to claim this prophecy for jesus it becomes at best a cut and paste prophecy a second class prophecy not too convincing egypt after jesus s birth in bethlehem matthew tells about a quick and elsewhere unmentioned excursion to egypt as if he wishes to liken jesus to moses this was done to escape an alleged infanticidal rampage of the king herod mt and remained there until the death of herod this was to fulfil what the lord had spoken out of egypt i have cal led my son what the lord really said was this hosea when israel was a child i loved him and out of egypt i called my son the more i called them my people the more they went from me they kept sacrificing to the ba als and kept burning incense to idols matthew conveniently omits the rest of hosea s oracle but it was indeed israel that once called out of egypt wanted to return this is history jesus is certainly not being spoken of here and if we are to draw some kind of parallel here we wind up with a jesus that flees and resists g d again this prophecy is just not as convincing as matthew probably had hoped rachel weeps while jesus is off vacationing in egypt matthew says that king herod sought to kill him and thus ordered the executions of all young male children matthew then writes mt by this that which was spoken by the prophet jeremiah was fulfilled a voice was heard in ramah wailing and loud lamentation rachel weeping for her children she refused to be consoled because they were no more the reference is to a passage in jeremiah referring to the carrying off of israel into exile by sargon of assyria in bce rachel the ancestor of the major tribes of israel ephraim and manasseh is said to weep for her descendants who are no more it is metaphorical of course since rachel lived and dies before the hebrews were even in the egyptian exile it is interesting to note that it was leah not rachel who was the ancestor of the judeans the land where jesus and bethlehem were if anyone should do weeping for her children it is leah the only connexion that rachel has with bethlehem is that the legends have it that she was buried north of the city on the way to ephrath bethlehem as for herod and his infanticide it is rather unlikely that such an event actually occurred one never knows but the event is not mentioned or alluded to anywhere else in the bible nor is it mentioned in any of the secular records of the time herod was particularly unliked in his reign and many far less evil deeds of herod were carefully recorded this might be a prime example of how events were added to jesus s life to enhance the message of the church s gospel because of the whole story s similarity to the tale of the infant moses in egypt it is highly likely that it is a device set up by matthew to add prophetic yet artificial approval of jesus it is not surprising that matthew conveniently neglects to mention the rest of the jeremiah quote the children the prophet speaks of are not dead but exiled in the assyrian empire g d comforts the weeping rachel saying that the children will be returned he will gather them back together of course this would not suit matthew s purpose as the children he speaks of are dead for good again the prophecy matthew sets up is not even that and to anyone who bothers to check it out is not too convincing the nazarene we do not even have to go to the next chapter to find another matthean prophecy after leaving egypt joseph wife take the infant jesus to live in the city of nazareth mt that what was spoken of by the prophets might be fulfilled he shall be called a nazarene first thing we notice is that matthew does not mention the name of the prophet s this time second we have to ask who he is there are no messianic prophecies speaking of a nazarene worse there are no prophecies period mentioning a nazarene still worse there are no nazarenes mentioned in the old testament at all in the book of judges an angel tells samson s mother that she will judges conceive and bear a son no razor shall tough his head for he will be a nazirite to his god from the day of his birth he will deliver israel from the hands of the philistines this is of course not a prophecy of jesus or the messiah of g d but it is the best that can be found obviously matthew has begun to go overboard in cut and paste prophecies in that he is simple making them up now bearing our diseases jesus next goes around healing people of physical illnesses and disabilities mt this was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet isaiah he took our infirmities and bore our diseases as expected the verse quoted in isaiah is quoted out of context and a few words are skewed to fit the christian scheme we have is surely he the suffering servant has borne our sickness and carried our pains from a reading of the surrounding passages in isaiah we know that the prophet is speaking in present tense of the collective nation of israel jehovah s chosen servant and people he speaks to the israelites suffering in exile in the voice of the gentile nations that look upon it this image is deeply ingrained in jewish identity an image of a chastised yet cherished israel as the instrument of the nations salvation by g d the verses speak of israel taking on the sicknesses which are the literal and metaphorical manifestations of guilt and discipline they do not speak of a servant going around and healing people notice that the servant in isaiah takes on the sicknesses and pains of the nations and individual jews jesus as we all know did not take the diseases onto himself the verses here in isaiah are not a prophecy of something to come but rather something that had already happened while it is believed that jesus took on the eternal punishment of hell he did not bear the illnesses he healed so while someone might want to say that figuratively jesus reenacted the deeds of israel in his spiritual atonement he has to admit that matthew s parallel misses where he intended it to have its effect silent messiah upon healing multitudes of commoners it is said that jesus ordered them to keep quiet presumable so that he wouldn t arouse the attention of the local rulers mt this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet isaiah behold my servant whom i have chosen my beloved with whom my soul is pleased i will put my spirit on him and he will announce justice to the gentiles he will not wrangle or cry aloud nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets he will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick until he brings justice to victory and the gentiles will hope in his name the isaiah passage quoted reads is behold my servant whom i uphold my chosen in whom my soul delights i have put my spirit on him and he will bring forth justice to the nations we will not cry or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street he will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick he will faithfully bring forth justice he will not fail burn dimly or be discouraged bruised until he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands await his law you see matthew has conveniently left out part of the passage because it does not suit the dealings of jesus christians could never think of jesus failing never would the light of mankind burn dimly but the servant nation of israel will indeed come to an end when its job is done when the gentiles come to embrace g d there will no longer be a chosen people but rather all will be the children of g d also the ending phrase has been changed from the judaic the coastlands await his law to the christologic the gentiles will hope in his name while the original proclaims the torah law of jehovah the other rewrites it to fit its strange doctrine of believing in the name if one has any doubt the servant referred to is not jesus one has only to read the whole chapter isaiah and hear about the beloved but blind and imperfect servant a people robbed and plundered so we see that when matthew s attempt at prophecy is examined it crumbles three days and three nights now we come upon a prophecy supposedly uttered by the very mouth of the god jesus himself he speaks of his crucifixion and resurrection mt for as jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights so will the son of man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights before any further discussion can occur it is necessary to know how the jews understood days as far as day names went each was hours long lasting from sunset pm to the following sunset pm what was referred to as a day was the period of light from am to the ending sunset at pm thus according to our time scale a sabbath day began at pm friday evening and lasted until pm saturday evening this is why the jews celebrate their sabbath on the daylight portion of saturdays instead of sundays it seems like a real miracle that christians didn t forget that saturday was indeed the seventh and last day of the week thus when days and nights are referred to together hour daylight portions and hour night periods are being spoken of thus jesus says that he will be in the grave or in hell or otherwise unresurrected for three days and three nights as the good book tells us jesus was crucified on the ninth hour which is pm friday afternoon he then was put into the grave sometime after that then jesus left the grave rose before dawn of what we call sunday the dawn after the sabbath was over what this means is that jesus was using our time for clarity in the grave from pm friday night to some time before am sunday morning we could also add a little time before pm friday since the bible is not specific here what this means using jewish time is that he was in the grave for one day two nights and possibly a couple of hours of one day certainly this is a problem for jesus prediction there is absolutely no way we are even able to have his death involve three days and three nights even using modern time measurements we then are led to suspect that this error is another one of matthew s little mistakes and that the gospel writer put false words into his god s mouth and no matter who made the prediction it is more than unconvincing it is counter convincing hearing understanding jesus tool on a habit of speaking to his vast audiences in parables stories in which a deeper meaning could be found if you were already one of the elect those chosen to understand the message of jesus he reasons that those who can understand the parables are the ones he wants if the people cannot understand them there is no need to bother with them since they will not accept the plain message any better matthew says mt with them the audience indeed in fulfilled the prophecy of isaiah which says you will indeed hear but never understand and you will indeed see but never perceive because this people s heart has grown dull their ears are heavy of hearing and they have shut their eyes so the they would not perceive with them her with their ears and understand with their heart and turn for me to heal them the original isaiah passages are part of his earlier works his call to the ministry this is in bce when israel is flourishing right before it falls under the authority of assyria isaiah sees the good times ending and also a vision from g d calling him to bring reform to israel and judah is and g d said go and say to this people hear and hear but do not understand see and see but do not perceive make the heart of this people fat make their ears heavy and shut their eyes so they will not see with their eyes or hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed then isaiah said how long lord and he said until the cities lie waste without inhabitant and houses without men and the land is utterly desolate and the g ds take men far away and forsaken places are many in the land and though a tenth will remain in it it will be burned again like a terebinth or an oak whose stump still stands when the tree is felled the holy seed is its stump here we see that it is really g d who causes the people of israel to stop listening to the prophet s warnings but reaffirms the promise made to solomon s and david s seed lineage if you read the rest of isaiah you find that this is done to fulfil the plan of g d to use israel as a servant a light to the nations look at isaiah we see that matthew has cut and pasted just a little portion of isaiah s verse to suit his own gospel needs more than that he has altered the words to make it fit the people who didn t understand jesus s stories and as we see isaiah s verses are not prophecies but rather commands from g d to him in the present once again matthew s prophecy falls flat on its face matthew tries again to make jesus s parables look like they have the prophetic approval mt he said nothing to them without a parable this was to fulfil what was spoken of by the prophet i will open my mouth to them in parables i will utter that which has been hidden since the foundation of the world matthew really botches up here he attempts to quote not from a prophet but from the psalms ps i will open my mouth in parable i will utter dark sayings of old things that we all have heard and known things that our fathers have told us we will not hide them from their children but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the lord as was pointed out the verses in the psalms do not really come from a prophet you might also want to know that earlier copies of matthew s gospel even inserted isaiah s name as this prophet apparently later scribes caught the error and tried to cover some of it up perhaps the most significant part of this is that once again matthew has altered the old testament scriptures as jesus has said earlier he speaks in parables so that some will not understand them the parables in the psalms are not to be hidden further they speak of things known that our fathers have told us jesus deals with things hidden since the foundation of the world indeed jesus dealt in a lot of secrecy and confusion this is in direct opposition to the parables in the psalms no wonder matthew had to rewrite them and still once again matthew s artificial prophecies fall flat on their face but christians rarely look at this matthew s prophecies aren t the only things about christianity that are beginning to look bad excuses of little faith in mt we see that the disciples are able to go around casting out demons except in one case not knowing what epilepsy was the people thought those with the disease were possesed with demons it is no wonder that the disciples were unable to dispossess the epileptic but jesus perhaps no more enlightened than they is reported to have rebuked them saying they didn t have enough faith this seems strange why was this demon special it seems that either a true believer has faith or he does not apparently enough faith will allow someone to move mountains of course you will find no one these days that can move real mountains no one parts seas the only miracles the charismatics can speak of are those rumoured to happen on trips to mexico or some faraway place major miracles are making some old woman s arthritis feel better on sunday morning t v and the gods including jesus are always shrouded in ancient lore and writings protected from the skeptics in their sacred pasts they are either dead sleeping or hiding in heaven with people rumouring about their imminent return and their great miracles of days long gone yet life goes on tales of mystics stories of miracles all in a distant time or a distant place gods used to reveal themselves to men in the old days jehovah too but now they are silent all the theologians give are various excuses as to why we don t get to see god anymore we re too lazy we re not zealous enough we re sinful it s just his plan we put too many of our own demands on g d s appearance if we had the right faith if we were willing to meet g d on his terms yet even the most pious of men have not seen g d you dear reader have not seen g d not literally you know that to be true i know that s presumptuous and bold but searching your heart you know what i mean all that we ve seen religions do is make people feel good and content about not seeing g d they say our little faith does not merit us to see g d sometimes they say see the love in these people you worship with see the lives of people change that is seeing g d thus people get lulled to sleep satisfied with turning g d into the everyday sights but that is not seeing g d as i am speaking of it is not seeing g d the way people used to see what we see in the world that is good is the compassion of human hearts the love given and taken by men and women the forgiveness practised by christian atheist alike beauty created by the mind of man these are the things that are done these are what we see but it is said this is so only because everybody has little faith jesus rides on an ass shortly after accepting the role of the jewish messiah king jesus requests a donkey be brought in for him to ride into jerusalem mt this took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet saying tell the daughter of zion behold your king is coming to you humble mounted on an ass and on a ass colt of course the passage quoted from zechariah reads a little differently lo your king comes to you he is triumphant and victorious humble and riding on an ass on an ass colt he will command peace to the nations there isn t all that much difference here except that zechariah only involves one animal an ass colt while matthew reads the poetic wording slightly differently thus he has jesus call for both a colt and an adult ass from matthew s version we get a comical picture of the divine christ sweating it to straddle two donkeys this could inevitably lead to a theological proctological dilemma we find that in the account written earlier by st mark only the colt was called for and brought to jesus this indeed fits the verses of zechariah properly and shows us that in matthew attempt to use prophetic verses he has bungled now excluding many respectable christians i have met i have noticed that while christ is thought to have ridden on asses the situation is often reversed nowadays then entering the jerusalem temple the priests were angered at people and youngsters calling jesus the messiah but jesus replied as we might expect matthew to have done mt haven t you read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has brought perfect praise it is more likely that matthew made this response up since jesus was never one to point out such little prophetic things and since as we might expect the quote is in error which seems to fit matthew s track record quite well we might ask jesus or matthew haven t you read for the source reads psalms o yahweh our lord how majestic is your name in the whole world you whose glory is chanted above the heavens by babes and infants you have founded a bulwark against your foes to still the enemy and the avenger the passages hardly need comment there is no perfect praise spoken of in the psalm and what praise is there is given to g d not his messiah king and not jesus as mentioned it seems to be just one more case of matthew s pen making up convenient prophetic scripture yhvh said to my lord jesus is said to have asked from whom the promised jewish messiah king is to be descended the jews agree it is king david but then jesus counters by quoting psalms the lord said to my lord sit at my right hand until i put your enemies under your feet taken at face value jesus is denying the necessity of davidic descent one assumes he is in opposition to their answer of course the christian answer is that he agrees but is trying to make some hidden point to reveal some mystery about the divine nature of the messiah king it s tempting to believe this if one is a christian and not interested in matters of investigation but there are problems in jesus s time the psalm was thought to be about the messiah and it is easy to see why david might refer to the messiah as his superior we need only look at the scriptures about the messiah to see that he is expected to be a great king bringing the jews to times even better than those under david s rule of course the jews listening had no good answer and the passage could indeed refer to a divine messiah such as the christians worship the problem lies in the meaning of this psalm an error that apparently several jews of jesus s time had also made one must remember that there were various factions among the jews often as a result of different expectations of the messiah king jesus was apparently one of these adventists like his audience who thought the messiah s advent was imminent and who interpreted psalms among others as being messianic what is the problem then psalm literally reads yhvh s utterance to my lord sit at my right hand until i make your enemies your footstool yhvh sends forth your mighty scepter from zion rule in the midst of your foes your people will offer themselves freely on the day you lead your host on the holy mountains you are a priest of the order of melchizedek forever the word lord is often mistakenly capitalised by christian bibles to denote divinity in this lord but in the hebrew the word is adoni and no capitalisation exists adoni simply means lord a generic term as we would use it it is used often in the scriptures to refer to kings and to g d it is merely an address of respect there is nothing in the text itself to imply that the word refers either to divinity or to the messiah king that this is supposed to be written by david is not certain the title of the psalm translates to either a psalm of david or a psalm about david it seems fitting to assume it to be written by a court poet about david s covenant and endorsement from g d if the psalm had been written by david it is unlikely that he would be talking about the messiah the idea of a perfect king descended from david was not present in david s age we have extensive tales of david s doings and sayings none of which include any praises of a messiah many of the psalms show evidence of being written long after david was dead in times of the exile when g d had put his show of favour for david s kingdom on hold the description in the psalm fit david very well david was promised by g d a rise to power victory over his enemies successful judgement among the nations he conquered he achieved the priesthood common to melchizedek in being a righteous king enabled to bless the people it all fits we do not have to blame this problem on matthew alone though here there is not artificial prophecy alluded to though his use of the scripture is rather questionable still this event is common to the other gospels too so we let matthew off a little more easily this time it is interesting to note though how matthew dresses up the event the earlier gospel of mark tells the tale with jesus simply speaking to a crowd matthew has the pharisees who became the religious competition of an infant christianity be the target of jesus s question as we might expect matthew writes that the event ends up by embarrassing the pharisees such power is the pen moses jesus had it together all along we leave the gospel story of matthew momentarily to see a pseudo prophecy in john s gospel the gospel story of john deserves special treatment because it seems to be so far removed from the real events of jesus s career as told by even matthew but for the moment we will just look at one verse the early church leaders founded a religion on the jewish hopes of a messiah king and on an artificial extension of the original promises made by g d when constructing the history of abraham moses wrote of a promise of land and nationhood to the jewish people while this was accomplished eventually under the rule of king david the christians who came along later decided that they would claim the fulfillment of the promise but to do so they expanded on the promise preaching about a heavenly kingdom john j c speaking your father abraham rejoiced to see my day he say it and was glad it would be nice to tie in approval for jesus from abraham but abraham knew nothing of jesus or a messiah or anything christian i have tried and failed to find any event in the old testament which corresponds to john s little prophecy it is par for the course to see st john making up old testament backings just like his forerunner matthew many christians know that their faith has many of its foundations in such fraud and it is surprising they still cling to it the potter s field we are told that jesus was betrayed while in jerusalem by one of his followers judas iscariot matthew writes mt and throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple judas departed but the chief priests taking the silver said it isn t lawful for us to put it in the treasury since it is blood money so they bought a potter s field with it to bury strangers in then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet jeremiah and they took the thirty pieces of silver the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of israel and they gave them for the potter s field as the lord directed me this prophecy is an utterly gross bastardisation of old testament scripture first matthew has made a mistake regarding the name of the prophet it is zechariah who utters the verses which matthew makes use of zech and they weighed out my wages thirty shekels of silver then yhvh said to me cast them to the treasury the lordly price at which i was paid off by them so i took the thirty shekels of silver and cast them into the treasury in the house of yhvh first of all the verses of zechariah do not deal with a betrayer of the messiah or of g d the deal with a shepherd most likely a priest chosen to serve a function of presiding over the people shortly before g d would send judah and israel into conflict with one another the word treasury had been replaced by the king james scholars with to the potter precisely because this made matthew s quote fit better but this is a blatant error the correct translation of the hebrew is indeed treasury which also makes perfect sense in zechariah s context whereas potter s field is totally unrelated whether the mistranslation was intentional or not seems to be beyond speculation however given matthew s track record one finds it hard to resist the notion of intentional dishonesty of course matthew would have ample reason for altering the text the thirty pieces of silver match judas s situation and if as most christians seem to be the reader is willing to disregard the contextual incongruity matthew might have another prophecy to toss around however the correct translation of zechariah directly contradicts the situation with judas and the high priests the high priests would not put the money in the treasury the worthless shepherd of zechariah does exactly the opposite of course to the average thursday night bible student the prophecy as presented by matthew would be taken at new testament face value to those matthew s work is convincing enough wine vinegar casting lots then jesus is led away to be crucified mt they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall but when he tasted it he would not drink it and when they had crucified him they divided his garments among them by casting lots that it might be fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet they parted my garments among them and upon my vesture did they cast lots first of all the vinegar offered to jesus is actually common sour wine of the type that roman soldiers drank regularly we find that right before jesus dies the soldiers themselves give him some to drink not polluted with gall jn jesus said i thirst a bowl of vinegar stood there so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop and held it to his mouth when he had received the vinegar he said it is finished but matthew seems to be drawing on not a passage from the prophets but one from the psalms ps i looked for pity but there was none and for comforters but i found none they gave me poison for food lit they put gall in my meat and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink add to them punishment upon punishment may they have no acquittal from thee let them be blotted out of the book of the living of course the sour wine offered to jesus is done at his request of drink this does indeed seem to be a show of pity the psalm quoted is about david and his political and military enemies it is not about the messiah or jesus it is then not surprising that we run into further problem when we see that the jesus in the psalm asks g d for the damnation of the crucifiers whereas the jesus of the gospels says lk jesus said father forgive them the don t know what they do further matthew misses with his attempt to create prophecy by having gall a bitter substance put into jesus s drink not his meat as the psalm stipulates with the prophecy of the vinegar faulty we naturally ask what of the casting of lots this brings up the nd psalm which deserves discussion all by itself suffice it now to say that the fact that jesus s clothes were divided as told is no great thing it turns out that this happened often to any felon in those days as we will soon see it is perhaps the least erroneous passage of the psalm when applied to jesus it does indeed bring up the interesting question as to the quality of jesus s clothes for a man so removed from worldly possessions his ownership of clothes worthy of casting lots raises some suspicions the nd psalm this psalm is attributed to david as a lament of his condition under the attack of his enemies it becomes a song of praise to yhvh and of hope taken out of context parts of it seem to fit the plight of jesus at the crucifixion quite well we will examine the primary passages verse my god my god why have you forsaken me why are you so far from helping me far from the words of my groaning oh my god i cry by day but you don t answer and by night but find no rest jesus is said to have cried the first sentence while on the cross this suggests that the whole psalm is really about jesus rather than king david of course the rest of the first stanza does not fit as nicely to jesus or his execution jesus is not pictured as complaining about the whole ordeal he is supposed to be like the lamb led mute before its shearers indeed jesus doesn t do much groaning even when on the cross he certainly does not cry by both day and night on the cross but i am a worm and no man scorned by men all who see me mock at me they make faces and wag their heads he committed his cause to yhvh so let him deliver him for he delights in him this seems to fit jesus s execution pretty well with the exception of the holy messiah being called a worm many bulls encompass me they open their mouths widely at me like a ravening and roaring lion yea dogs are round about me a company of evildoers encir cle me they have pierced my hands and feet i can see all my bones they divide my garments among them and cast lost for my raiment but you yhvh be not far away deliver my soul from the sword my life from the power of the dog save me from the mouth of the lion and my afflicted soul from the horns of the wild bull it would seem quite convincing and i m sure the early christian fathers who wrote of this prophecy thought so too unfortunately this prophecy has a fatal flaw the words have pierced really do not exist in the psalm the correct hebrew translation is yea dogs are round about me a company of evildoers encircles me like the lion they are at my hands and feet in hebrew the phrase like the lion and a very rare verb form which can mean pierced differ by one phonetic character the word in the hebrew text is literally like the lion ka ari which makes sense in the context and even further fits the animal imagery employed by the psalm writer it is convenience that would urge a christian to change the word to ka aru but to add the needed yet artificial weight to the prophecy this is just what the christian translators have chosen to do while the correct translation does not eliminate the psalm from referring to jesus its absence does not say much for the honesty of the translators apart from the erroneous verse the psalm does not lend itself to jesus so easily verse speaks of the sufferer being saved from a sword rather than a cross this naturally fits the psalm s true subject king david as a side note we now know that crucifixions did not pierce the hands the palms but rather the forearms this doesn t say much in favour of the traditional thought of a resurrected jesus showing his disciples the scars on his palms but then facts aren t bound by our religious beliefs matthew escapes culpability this time as he does not attempt to draw many direct links between this psalm and his lord jesus but the psalm like many others was on the minds of all the gospel writers when they compiled the stories and interpretations of jesus s life and death how much these scriptures may have contributed to what actually got written down is a question that has serious repercussions for christian theology it is easy to see for those who are not faithful fundamentalists how some of the events in the new testament might have been enhanced by scribes such as the eager matthew but it does less to speculate than to simply investigate scriptural matters and prophetic claims so far this has not said good things for st matthew the reference to the piercing looks a lot like jesus s crucifixion john s gospel recount written about years after the fact tells us at jesus s execution jn but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and out came blood and water these things took place that scripture be fulfilled the will look on him whom they ve pierced of course this is built on a passage taken blatantly out of context prophet zechariah tells us how much of the nation of israel will split off from jerusalem and judah and go to war with them zc and yhvh will give victory to judah and on that day i will seek to destroy the nations that come against jerusalem in judah and i will pour a spirit of compassion and supplication on jerusalem so that when they look on him who they have pierced they will mourn and weep bitterly over him like you weep over a firstborn child john s attempt to make up prophecy is perhaps weaker that matthew s attempts matthew at least usually excontexts more than just one passage john s errors are grossly obvious and blatant here it does not speak well for any of the gospel writers as it helps to show how the prophetic aspects of their religion were founded reckoned with transgressors after his arrest jesus is quickly executed for claiming the jewish kingship messiahship according to one version of the gospel tale jesus gets executed along with two thieves mk and with him they crucified two robbers one on his right one on his left and so the scripture was fulfilled which says he was reckoned with the transgressors here mark is trying to link jesus to a passage in isaiah about the servant nation of israel the passage is not about the messiah for if one reads the whole chapter of isaiah and its surrounding chapters one sees that the servant is a nation the verses are also about what this servant has gone through in the past not a prediction of what is to come in any event the servant is thought of as a criminal this also happens to fit the description of jesus had the passage really been about the messiah it still is not at all clear why executing jesus between two thieves would fulfill the prophecy in isaiah jesus would more fittingly fulfill it with his whole ministry he was considered a blasphemer and troublemaker all throughout his career locking onto a single event is a rather poor way to steal prophecy at least in this case as we see that mark could have had made a better analogy with general comparisons mark goes on to tell us how those who were crucified with jesus also reviled him this is to be expected from a couple of robbers of course in his later recount st luke decides to change some things luke tells us lk and one of the criminals who was hanged with him railed aren t you the messiah save yourself and us this certainly fits with mark s recount which tells how the people who crucified jesus said save yourself and that the robbers did the same but then luke goes on but the other criminal rebuked the first saying don t you fear g d since you are under the same sentence of condemnation and we indeed justly so for we are receiving the due reward for our deeds but this man has done nothing wrong and he said jesus remember me when you come in your kingdom and jesus answered verily i say to you today you will be with me in paradise now this little dialogue seems highly contrived it stretches the imagination a bit to see this picture of one ruffian rebuking his fellow criminal with such eloquent speech we have a rather strange picture of a criminal lamenting over the goodness of his punishment and the justness of his suffering such a man apparently noble and of principle doesn t seem likely to have been a robber we wonder at the amount of theatrics created by luke of course luke s recount also disagrees with mark s luke has only one criminal revile jesus not both it is easy enough to discount the discrepancy because the account was made up but those who wish to believe it is all part of the error free words of g d do not have this avenue open this is yet another example of a writer trying to take an old testament passage and expand it and reinterpret it to suit his theology in this case the embroidery creates some embarrassing problems as we have seen the end of the world mt now comes perhaps one of the most extraordinary and embarrassing passages in the new testament it is found in all three of the synoptic gospel stories and casts some of the most unfavourable doubt on the whole theory of christianity jesus mentions the destruction of the jewish temples and buildings and his disciples ask him about this and about the end of the world which he has been warning about the disciples tell us when will this the temple s destruction be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age jesus take care that no one leads you astray for many will come in my name saying i am the christ you will hear of wars and rumours of wars for this must take place but the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation all this is but the beginning of the birthpangs they will deliver you up put you to death and false prophets will arise and lead many astray but he who endures to the end will be saved this gospel will be preached throughout the whole world a testimony to the nations and then the end will come so when you see the desolation spoken of by the prophet daniel let those who are in judea flee to the mountains immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened the stars will fall from heaven then will appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and all the tribes of the earth will mourn and see the son of man coming and he will send out his angels and gather his elect learn the lesson of the fig tree as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth leaves you know that summer is near so also when you see all these things you will know that he is near at the very gate truly i say to you this generation will not pass away until all these things take place but of the day and hour no one knows not the angels not the son but only the father therefore you also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect from this it is clear that jesus thought the world would in within the lifetimes of at least some of his disciples he tells them that although he doesn t know the exact day or hour that it will come and thus they must be ready theologians have wet their pants in panic to find some way out of this holy error but unfortunately jesus made himself to explicit he told his disciples that their generation would still be around at the end and that they in particular should prepare for it prepare to be swept away there have been some who resorted to removing the inerrant nature of the bible and said that the phrase this generation shall not pass away really means this race of people will not pass away of course the word for generation is used many times to refer to exactly that the generation of the disciples it is an interesting notion that when god decided to learn greek he didn t learn it well enough to make himself clear but it is quite obvious from the rest of the dialogue that the disciples at least some of them are supposed to live to the end of the world the charge of mistranslation is completely blown away by looking at the apostles responses it becomes abundantly clear from rev peter john and rev that jesus meant exactly what he said the end was very near for years christians have rationalised this th chapter of matthew or ignored its meaning altogether for years they have waited for their executed leader to come back hearing of wars and rumours of wars sure that he is coming soon surely he must be all we must do is wait can you imagine how tired he must be sitting around up there being holy waiting for just the right moment to spring so shortly after his crucifixion jesus of nazareth joshua ben joseph died it is said that after three days or three days and three nights or three periods of time or three eternal seconds or three of whatever they can decide makes for less trouble he was seen again resurrected glowing with divine radiance then the saviour decided it wasn t in the best interests of his new religion to stick around and therefore disappeared from sight into heaven so the story goes anyway as has been seen there were many things attributed to jesus when people got around to writing the gospel stories down to them jesus was the fulfiller of all prophecy and scripture we have seen though that this matter is quite shaky but throughout church history christians have held fast to faith in simple belief what doctrinal objections could not be solved with argumentation or brute force faith and forgetfulness kept away from question to question and investigate has never been the easiest way to treat matters thus for years the prophecies cited in the new testament have gone on largely accepted things may well continue that way for some time pausing a moment to consider the way the doctrines of christianity have been accepted and used properly or improperly to support wars and persecution i suppose there is one prophecy of which christianity can securely keep hold mt jesus don t think that i have come to bring peace on earth i haven t come to bring peace but rather a sword
