PROPHECIES ABOUT JESUS' SUFFERING ON THE CROSS REFUTED

Christians say that God wrote the Bible in order to bear witness to Jesus being his son and the saviour of the world. Before Jesus came, God supposedly revealed predictions about Jesus. After Jesus came, God had the story of Jesus recorded. The most important predictions are the ones about Jesus's suffering and death for they paid for our sins. Jesus suffered the punishment due to us to save us.
 
PASSION PSALMS

Do the Psalms tell us about Jesus’ terrible fate before it happened?
 
* Psalm 22. Speaks of a man who is despised and mocked by the people, who suffers from thirst, who has been cut all over, who has pierced hands and feet and who is near death. He feels he can count all his bones. People are casting lots for his clothes.

Alleged Fulfilment.  The crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

New Testament Interpretation.  It never uses the entire psalm as a prophecy of Jesus. It picks out bits at random like it does with the other psalms. It is really the Church that makes a lot out of the psalm.

The Truth.  The psalm is not about Jesus. It would say if it was.
 
The psalmist never indicates that it is a prophecy.
 
Biased "translations" notwithstanding, "The psalmist actually wrote: "Dogs surround me, and the evildoers surround me too. My hands and feet are like a lion." Brent Strawn thinks that lion is a mistake and the original meant bound as the word for lion and bound are quite close. If the original is talking about hands and feet being tied then it is not a prophecy of Jesus and too unconvincing.
 
Suppose he really says he is surrounded by dogs and evildoers who have pierced his hands and his feet. It gives no hint of literalism though. He speaks of the bulls of Bashan opening wide their mouths like hungry lions at him. He says later he is surrounded by dogs and evildoers who have pierced his hands and feet. This is like the evildoers set their dogs on him and dogs do go for hands and feet usually.
 
He never mentions dying.
 
The psalm could be describing a beating and torture.

The Psalms have no connection with the crucifixion of Christ.

* Psalm 34:20. The just man’s bones shall not be broken.

Alleged Fulfilment.  Jesus’ bones were not broken.

New Testament Interpretation. The same according to John 19:36. This is a trick for nobody checked Jesus' body for broken bones.  And if he were nailed and speared breakage was inevitable..

Worse, the claim that a bone of his will not be broken, as John quoted it, which is the exact wording is not the original wording. The Hebrew original states that not a bone of it will be broken while the Septuagint changed the it to a he.

* Psalm 69:21. “They gave me also gall [poisonous and bitter] for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar.”

Alleged Fulfilment. Jesus receiving vinegar on the cross.

New Testament Interpretation.  The same (John 19:28).

The Truth. Nowhere do the gospels relate that Jesus’ food was spoiled. This happened to the author. If Jesus had not got vinegar nobody would be saying that the text is about him. This is the case with all of these so-called prophecies.
 
* Psalm 38:11. His relatives and friends stand far away.

Alleged Fulfilment. Jesus’ friends and relations were not near the cross.

New Testament Interpretation.  None given.

The Truth. John says that John and Mary were near the cross. Christians will argue that the psalm does not mean all but some. The way it is put down proves otherwise. Read the Psalm and you will see that the man who was abandoned was blind unlike Jesus.

* Psalm 109:25. The author is mocked by the people.

Alleged Fulfilment.  The Jews mocking Jesus when he was on the cross (Matthew 27:39).

The Truth. The line before speaks of a man whose legs are weak through a long fast that has made him thin. There is no record of Jesus having done that. There is no evidence that the Psalm is a prophecy.
 
* Zechariah 9:9. The King who is the saviour will ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. The prophecy begins with a call for the daughter of Jerusalem and daughter of Zion to rejoice.

Alleged Fulfilment. Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the people celebrated.

New Testament Interpretation.  Matthew and John teach this interpretation.

The Truth.  The verse before says that God will protect the Temple in Jerusalem forever and that Jerusalem is told to rejoice for the saviour is coming to see to this. Jesus did not go into Jerusalem to do this so he did not fulfil this prophecy. Calling on people to rejoice is not saying that they will do it so let nobody imagine that its call for joy means that the author knew that Jesus would get a wild and eager reception in Jerusalem.

The context of the verse is that the king will enter Jerusalem in triumph after God overthrows Israel’s enemies. When Jesus entered Jerusalem the enemies of Israel were stronger than ever.

* Zechariah 13:7. “Smite the shepherd and the sheep [of the flock] will be scattered, and I will turn back my hand and stretch it out again upon the little ones.”

Alleged Fulfilment. Jesus suffering while his flock was breaking up during his arrest in the Garden.

New Testament Interpretation.  Matthew 26:31 is to blame for this interpretation.

The Truth.  If the apostles had not be dispersed the Christians would be saying that the divisions among Christians later like at the “Reformation” were the fulfilment. The prophecy could be referring to anyone.

God asks the sword to awake against his shepherd and asks it to strike him. Jesus was never attacked with the sword. This shows us that the pierced one we met earlier was not stabbed with a lance.
 
* Zechariah 11:12,13. Thirty pieces of silver were my wages. And I threw them into God’s house.

Alleged Fulfilment. Judas betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.

New Testament Interpretation. It is the same. See Matthew 27:9,10.

The Truth.  The prophet receives the silver but in Matthew it is the traitor. The prophet puts it into the treasury but in Matthew the chief priests refuse to and buy a field with it. And finally, the prophecy is not a prediction but an allegory. The silver represents the insulting value placed on God by the people. The Christians reply that though the wording does not fit it is still a prophecy in the sense that there are similarities. That answer is unacceptable. Deuteronomy 18 would not allow it for that would enable anybody to claim to be a prophet and get away with it. A fortune-teller could do better.
  
* Zechariah 12:10. God says, Israel shall look on me whom they have pierced and mourned for him, the Messiah. “Look on me”, is the right rendering and not “look on him” (page 80, The Case for Jesus the Messiah).

Alleged Fulfilment. The piercing of the side of Jesus who was God. One day the Jews will weep over what they have done to Jesus.

New Testament Interpretation.  John 19:37 says that it is about this but it changed me to him. This may be a denial that Jesus was God or John saying that the text has been corrupted and he is restoring it. The correction theory is right because when the verse says they shall look on me and mourn for him meaning the pierced it is probable that a mistake has happened.

The Truth. Jesus asked Paul why he was persecuting him though it was just his people that he was doing it to (Acts 9:4,5). The verse is just being poetic. It doesn’t mean that God was literally pierced. God is a spirit.

All false messiahs who were killed or abused would have taught that they would be mourned someday. The ones who encountered a lot of abuse could say their hearts were pierced metaphorically, like Mary’s (Luke 2:35).

The Jews will not mourn Jesus unless they start believing in him. And if they believe they will not mourn for he is alive. It is stupid to imagine the Jews crying for their hearts out over what their ancestors allegedly did for who does that? To use half a prophecy when the other half remains unfulfilled is unfair when Deuteronomy 18 requires perfection in the prophet’s predictions and in his credentials.
 
* Amos 8:9. “And in that day, says the Lord God, I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the broad daylight. And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation.”
 
Alleged Fulfilment.  The three hours of darkness during the day when Jesus was crucified.
 
New Testament Interpretation.  None.
 
The Truth. Christians who are being honest don’t accept this as what the prophecy is looking at for the whole earth wasn’t thrown into darkness.

*         Isaiah 53, in the dubious translations used by the Church at least, says that a man without beauty, was pierced for our transgression, the iniquity of all the Jews was laid on him, he never lied or did wrong, he went silently and without protest to his suffering and was buried with the rich and the wicked. God has promised to reward him for this by showing him his offspring and he will be a king and divide the spoil with mighty kings.
 
Alleged Fulfilment.  The violent death of the innocent Jesus Christ for our sins who was buried in a rich man's tomb and who got his reward by rising from the dead.
 
New Testament Interpretation.  Matthew 8:17 says it refers to Jesus. He cites Isaiah saying that the man carried our sorrows and afflictions as a prophecy of Jesus’ cures. John quotes the start of chapter 53, asking the Lord who has believed and to whom has your arm been revealed, as predicting the Jews not believing Jesus (12:38). Philip in Acts 8 and Luke 22:37 says the chapter is about Jesus.
 
The Truth. The iniquity of all Jews being laid on the man would naturally mean that he was a scapegoat for the welfare of Israel. The passage only says that the man didn't deserve his suffering not that he was sinless! Jesus was not buried with the rich and the wicked - he was supposed to have been entombed in a cave where nobody had been laid. It belonged to a rich man but that is not to say he was buried with the rich. And the man in Isaiah is to go to war and plunder and share the grabbings with kings who have helped him in his bloody campaign. Does that sound like the Christian Son of God Jesus?
 
It does not say when the man will rise again from the dead.
 
In fact it only says the man will get rewarded if he gives his life. It does not predict a violent death at all! The man could fit somebody who dies in the service of others but it doesn't indicate anything about him dying by crucifixion.

 

As texts were distorted and ripped out of context for the gospellers knew readers could not go to the effort of looking for scrolls and checking them it is interesting that some potentially useful texts that could be distorted were not used.

 

Jeremiah 22:18,19 is odd in how it says the king Jehoiakim of Judah, son of Josiah, would die a horrible degraded death. Like a dead donkey he would be dumped outside the city walls. But 2 Kings 24 says he died peacefully. Nobody is saying that it was not the real Jehoiakim but in fact was a prophecy of Jesus Christ.  This is because it would mean that Jesus had an unmourned death and was dumped beyond the city.  But Christians want to think he was not dumped but buried in a rich man's tomb outside the city.  Nobody uses the same tactic as with Isaiah 7:14 and his reference to how the woman shall conceive a son for the king.  It's not about Jesus and turned into a prediction of his special birth.

 

We conclude that the prophecies about Jesus' suffering, death and resurrection are fraudulently interpreted.  Christians persist in the lies and ignore all refutations.