For Wolf - Prophecy, Coincidence, or Made Up?

Part of the problem with the 'prophecies' that are found in the Tanakah, or old testament is that they were refering to something else entirely, and not supposed to be refering to the messiah. For example, the Isaiah passages, if you read it in context, were discussing the nation of Israel.The Psalms were talking about David.. and were not a messanic prophecy.Part of the problem also is translation, a change in expectations, and also the push to 'shoehorn' a random phrase into a prophecy. Those random phrases are sometimes mistranslated, taken out of context, and just plain misapplied to try to prove Jesus is the Messiah. It is easy to take random phrases in the bible, and then say it proves someone is the messiah. It has been done with elvis.The translation also effects what is in the passages.. because many of the translators are inserting their bias of looking for the messiah into passages that it isn't appropriate. For example, Zechariah 9:9's
Jewish translation is

quote:

---

Rejoice Greatinly, Fair Zion; raise a shout, fair jerusalum! Lo, for you king is coming to you,. He is victorius, triumphant, yet humber, ridding on an ass. On a donkey fouled by a she-ass.

---

Notice, you pointed to a quote that has the world 'salvation' it in.It is far more likely that this was shoehorned into place.(I also don't see Jesus fullfilling the hope of banishing the chariots from Ephraim either). It is taking one phrase out of context, then writing to that phrase to make it into a prophecy.YOu also have to wonder why SO many of these alledged prophecies that are allegedly a predictoin for the future were written in the past tense.So many of the Isaiah passages, if you read just before or just after the passages that are insisted as being messanic, you will notice references to the people of israel, not a specfic person.There also is the cultural differnce about what 'salvation' means to the Jews, and what a prophecy is to the Jews. For the Jewish religion, salvation is for THIS life, not the next one. Also, the prophecy is not so much a prediction for the future, but rather a message from god to warn, or to instruct. A sign for the future in prophecy was rather rare. There was a sense of immediancy, not for something 600 years or more into the future.

Not only were they not 21st century Baptists, they weren't werent even first century Jews.

You say that the Jews considered them messanci prophecies. Can you ,from a non-messanic Jewish source, show where those passages were prophecies?
The Jewish sources use a different set of passages to define what the Messanic expectations are. Jesus did not meet them.Here is a list some

quote:

---

Qualifications

​

The successful candidate will have attributes that must include, but not necessarily be limited to, the following:

​

1. Be the seed (a direct descendant through the unbroken male line) of King David, through King Solomon (e.g., 2 Sam 7:12-16; Is 11:1; Jer 23:5, 30:9, 33:15; Ezek 34:23-24, 37:24)
2. Be a spiritual and military/political leader (e.g., Is 2:3, 11:2; Dan 7:14)
3. Be married and have children during his term (e.g., Ezek 46:16-17)

​

All of the Jewish people will return from their exile among the nations to their home in Israel (Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 23:8; 30:3; Hosea 3:4-5). The law of the Jubilee will be reinstated

---

There is much evidence that antiquites 18, which discuss's jesus is a 4th century interpolition, and not part of the original antiquities. Even the most conservative christian scholars that use that as 'historical' evidence will admit that it at least was tampered with.Since it was at least tampered with, what evidence do you have that it was not inserted in total in the 4th century.I will point out that Orgien quoted from Antiquities 18 when showing that John the Baptist was historical.. but he failed to use such a dramatic passage from the same book. He wrote just a century earlier than the quote from that from Erubius in the 4th century.