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When Jesus was crucified he was painted as a criminal by the Roman Empire.
A true prophet sent by G-d will never preach a message contrary to even one of the Torah's precepts. If someone claiming Divine Inspiration, the Torah demands that this so-called prophet prove himself. In light of this, Jesus and Paul did some rather heinous things in their lifetimes. They completely vilified those who opposed their theologies, a crime from which stems two thousand years of Christian anti-Semitism. They did everything that a false prophet could do to loudly scream that he was false. Chapters 13 and 18 of Deuteronomy clearly define false prophets, and Jesus and Paul are the living incarnations of that definition.
When Jesus was crucified he was painted as a criminal by the Roman Empire.
I used to be a Born-Again Christian (now a New Age spiritualist) and I don't remember anywhere in The Bible where it says that Israel is supposed to be a super power at the End of Days, nor The Beast sitting on a throne over Israel. Are you sure this wasn't suggested to you by someone else?
"You shall have no other gods before me." Exodus 20:3 (NRS)
One approach that some missionaries will use in their efforts to convince Jews to accept Christianity is to tell a prospective Jewish convert, "Haven't you at least read the New Testament? How can you be so sure if you've never read it?" Questions like, "Why have my people been so stubborn over the last nineteen centuries? Is there the slightest chance that Christians were right?"This author once opened himself to that idea. Jews and Christians both agree on the validity of the Jewish Bible (whether you call it the Tanach or the Old Testament). Let us see if the Christian extension called the New Testament was valid.
Before arriving at the end of the second chapter of Matthew, there are eight items that prevent an objective reader from believing the New Testament is true: 1) King Jeconiah is listed in the genealogy of Joseph (Matthew 1:11). Jeconiah was cursed by G-d that none of his descendants would ever rule (Jeremiah 22:30). Joseph is disqualified from inheriting the throne, as would be his progeny. If they couldn’t get something this simple right, what was I to expect from the rest of the document?
2) The misquotation of Isaiah 7:14 found in Matthew 1:23. I found this disagreeable because a) the Messiah wasn’t the subject of the verse, and b) lacking a father descended from David prevents anyone from inheriting the throne. 3) The author of Matthew’s Gospel misused Hosea in Matthew 2:15 -- Matthew 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. (KJV) When you look for the verse being quoted here, you find this passage: Hosea 11:1 When Israel [was] a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. (KJV) In case a Christian reader might object, saying that we are quoting the incorrect verse, it must be stated that Christian Bibles that are annotated for quotes between the Jewish Scriptures and the Christian Bible clearly label that Matthew 2:15 is quoting from this verse in Hosea. This verse has nothing to do with the Messiah. The author of Matthew took the verse out of context and misused it.
4) The fabrication of a verse, creating the façade of a Messianic prophecy that never existed: Matthew 2:23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. Most annotated Christian Bibles, which go to exhaustive lengths to source every single Jewish Scripture quote, list no reference. There is an important reason for this: No such prophecy exists. Matthew fabricated a prophecy in an effort to make his case look more valid. The implications of this should speak for themselves.
Objectively, there is no reason to continue after that. Who could give credit to a theology that makes things up in order to latch on to Judaism? It is said that Matthew's Gospel was the gospel specifically aimed at the Jews. Those same people who proclaim this are the same ones who can't understand why Jews reject Jesus. This author is Jewish, and was left unimpressed by it. But, if we were to continue, we would find even further evidence against its credibility. 5) Read the names in the genealogy in Matthew 1 very carefully and compare them to the genealogy in First Chronicles. Names are conspicuously absent. The reasoning behind this is in Matthew:
Matthew 1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David [are] fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon [are] fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ [are] fourteen generations. (KJV) David's name in Hebrew has a numerical value of fourteen. The author of Matthew's Gospel edited out members of the royal family so Jesus would seem to be part of some cosmic numerical mneumonic, making it seem like it was just the right time for the Messiah to come.
6) A slight misquote indicating just how lacking in Hebrew skills the author was: Matthew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, [2] Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. [3] When Herod the king had heard [these things], he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. [4] And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. [5] And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, [6] And thou Bethlehem, [in] the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. (KJV)
It's important to examine the wording of this quote VERY closely. Let us now look at the quote from the Jewish Scriptures: Micah 5:2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting. (KJV)
Notice that Micah is saying that Bethlehem is the least among the thousands of Judah, but when Matthew quotes it, suddenly Bethlehem is NOT the least. Matthew's author had such a poor understanding of Hebrew he didn't realize the message the prophet was conveying, so he changed the wording. 7) The creation of an event in order to quote a verse out of context: Matthew 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. [17] Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, [18] In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping [for] her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. (KJV)
Verse 18 quotes Jeremiah, and if you read the verse in its proper context, you'll find that Rachel's children aren't dead, but are among the exiles. That is not the point I'm bringing up here. I could write an entire book detailing how the New Testament takes verses out of context. Verse 16 is the major point here. This is about the so-called "slaughter of innocents." It should strike the reader of how closely this mirrors the story of Moses. It should also strike the reader to know that this event never happened. You can find a long list of Herod's rather heinous and brutal crimes, and something as disgusting and abhorrent as the murder of every child under the age of two would have hit the history books. Herod's list of crimes included having members of his own family killed. The "slaughter of innocents" would have been recorded. So, even if we do read the New Testament in-depth, the Jews should in no way be compelled to convert.