Testimony offered against the interests of the testifier is
as highly regarded as deathbed confessions. In contrast, Bill Clinton’s
autobiography had been panned by the critics because his testimony was deemed
to be self-serving. He only confessed what everyone already knew – his affair
with Monica Lewinsky.
Likewise, it is expected that Orthodox Jews will justify
their rejection of Jesus. However, when they admit the existence of evidence
contrary to their position, this evidence carries more weight than if this
disclosure had supported their position. Let’s look at several interesting
instances of this.
In “Why the Jews Rejected Jesus,” Orthodox Jewish scholar, David Klinghoffer, admitted:
- "The Talmud states that from forty years before the Temple's
destruction and onward, there were supernatural omens of the disaster to
come--that is, starting from the inception of the Christian religion
following the death of Jesus. The eternal fire of the Temple altar would
not stay lit. The monumental bronze Temple gates opened by themselves.
Josephus confirms the Talmud's account of the inner Sanctuary's east gate
and its mysterious openings. He adds other portents from these years: a
bright light shinning around the altar and the Sanctuary at three in the
morning, a cow brought for sacrifice giving birth to a lamb, apparitions
of chariots and armies flying through the sky above the whole land of
Israel." (pg. 117)
The openings of the “inner Sanctuary’s east gate” would have
been interpreted by the Jews of Jesus’ day to mean that God was vacating His
Sanctuary, leaving it defenseless (Ezekiel 8:6, 18-19). “The eternal fire of
the Temple” that wouldn’t stay lit conveyed a similar message. It was supposed
to always be burning (Exodus 27:20) and represented the presence of God (1
Samuel 1:3). The fact that it wouldn’t stay lit seemingly represented God’s
sign that He was leaving the Temple to its destruction. Of course, the apparitions
in the sky represented the returning Roman army.
The Jerusalem Talmud
substantiates the above account taken from the Babylonian Talmud:
·
''Said Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai to the Temple,
'O Temple, why do you frighten us? We know that you will end up destroyed. For
it has been said, 'Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your
cedars.''' (Sota 6:3)
·
"Forty years before the destruction of the
Temple, the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and
the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand. They would close the
gates of the Temple by night and get up in the morning and find them wide
open" (Jacob Neusner, The Yerushalmi,
p.156-157).
Amazingly, after the Crucifixion (cir. 30 AD) and for the
next 40 years until the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, Israel had been
drenched by a series of miraculous omens pointing ominously to their future
destruction.
Earnest Martin has commented about the Temple lamps:
·
''In fact, we are told in the Talmud that at
dusk the lamps that were unlit in the daytime (the middle four lamps remained
unlit, while the two eastern lamps normally stayed lit during the day) were to
be re-lit from the flames of the western lamp (which was a lamp that was
supposed to stay lit all the time — it was like the 'eternal' flame that we see
today in some national monuments) . . .
·
''This 'western lamp' was to be kept lit at all
times. For that reason, the priests kept extra reservoirs of olive oil and
other implements in ready supply to make sure that the 'western lamp' (under
all circumstances) would stay lit. But what happened in the forty years from
the very year Messiah said the physical Temple would be destroyed? Every night
for forty years the western lamp went out, and this in spite of the priests
each evening preparing in a special way the western lamp so that it would
remain constantly burning all night!'' (The
Significance of the Year CE 30, Ernest Martin, Research Update, April 1994,
p.4).
Why would Jewish sources trying to debunk Christianity make
such an incredible admission? Klinghoffer tried to interpret the miraculous
events as omens directed against the Jewish believers in Christ: "Was
God not warning the people of the disastrous course some [the Jewish
Christians] had set out upon?"
However, the Christians had fled to safety across the Jordan to Pella! According to Klinghoffer, it was the Christians who should have been penalized for their heresy. However, it was the Jews who didn’t believe in Christ, who were left to pay the price.
What is even more unbelievable about Klinghoffer’s explanation is the timing of the omens. They began, according to Klinghoffer, at approximately the time of the Crucifixion (30 AD) and lasted for forty years until the destruction of the Temple. They therefore served as a warning to those who had crucified Jesus to repent, not to those who had followed Jesus.
However, the Christians had fled to safety across the Jordan to Pella! According to Klinghoffer, it was the Christians who should have been penalized for their heresy. However, it was the Jews who didn’t believe in Christ, who were left to pay the price.
What is even more unbelievable about Klinghoffer’s explanation is the timing of the omens. They began, according to Klinghoffer, at approximately the time of the Crucifixion (30 AD) and lasted for forty years until the destruction of the Temple. They therefore served as a warning to those who had crucified Jesus to repent, not to those who had followed Jesus.
And when did the omens end? After the great slaughter of the
Jews and destruction of their Temple! This had nothing to do with any divine
displeasure with the Jewish believers in Christ. Had the omens been sent
because of God’s displeasure with Jesus, they would have ended at the Cross.
However, it was at this time that the
omens of doom began, presumably because Israel had rejected their Messiah and
then refused to repent.
Klinghoffer asserts that the warnings were directed towards
the Jewish Christians who had gone astray. However, if this had been the case,
calamity should have fallen on them. Instead, it fell upon the nation of
Israel. Why? Israel had refused to repent of their sins and seek God’s mercy,
as Jesus had warned:
- "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.” (Matthew 23:37-38)
Another interesting
example comes from the Talmud. For many years prior to the Cross, during
the celebration of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the sins of Israel were
confessed upon the head of the Scapegoat who was then lead away into the
wilderness, symbolizing the fact that God had taken away Israel’s sins.
However, this ritual was attended by a great miracle. A red died
woolen skin was attached to the head of the Scapegoat, which miraculously would
turn white in front of the great masses of Israel. They understood that this
symbolized the fact that God had removed their sins. (Isaiah 1:18).
In his response to the question, “Why didn’t the red ribbon
on the head of the Scapegoat [on Yom Kippur] turn white in 30 AD?” Jewish
anti-Christian apologist, Rabbi Tovia Singer, reluctantly admits:
·
“In Tractate Yoma 39b, the Talmud… discusses
numerous remarkable phenomena that occurred in the Temple during the Yom Kippur
service… There was a strip of scarlet-dyed wool tied to the head of the scapegoat
which would turn white in the presence of the large crowd gathered at the
Temple on the Day of Atonement. The Jewish people perceived this miraculous
transformation as a heavenly sign that their sins were forgiven. The Talmud
relates, however, that 40 years before the destruction of the second Temple
[approximately 30 AD at the time of the Crucifixion] the scarlet colored strip
of wool did not turn white.”
This is a damning admission. Following the Crucifixion, the
scarlet wool would no longer miraculously become white! It seems that God had
put Israel on notice that He would no longer accept animal sacrifices now that
the ultimate offering of Jesus had been accomplished.
How does Singer explain this cessation at the very time of
the Cross? He claims that various miracles were gradually disappearing because
Israel’s “dedication to the golden rule slacked off.” However, the timing of
this cessation couldn’t have been worse for the Jews who had rejected their one
Hope, even in the light of so many miraculous signs that had validated the
Person of Jesus.
Singer also insists that God had been angry with Jesus for
deceiving Israel. However, if so, we’d have expected Him to grant signs of His
approval of the Crucifixion, instead of a sign of disapproval — that He no
longer honored the scapegoat to take away Israel’s sins. God’s timing couldn’t
have been worse for Singer!
One Final Example: Did
Jesus perform many miracles? If so, the miracles would validate His claims, and
His detractors would have to offer alternative explanations or deny them
altogether. However, they did not deny His miracles but instead ascribed them
to black magic and Satan (Matthew 12). This is exactly what we find in many of
the Talmudic writings:
- Shabbath 104b, p.504 "Jesus was a MAGICIAN and a fool. Mary was an adulteress".
- Sanhedrin 107B of the Babylonian Talmud: "Jesus... stood up a brick to symbolize an idol and bowed down to it. Jesus performed MAGIC and incited the people of Israel and led them astray."
- Sanhedrin 43A: "On Passover Eve they hanged Jesus of Nazareth. He practiced SORCERY, incited and led Israel astray...Was Jesus of Nazareth deserving of a search for an argument in his favor? He was an enticer and the Torah says, 'You shall not spare, nor shall you conceal him!"
Josephus, (Antiquities
(90 AD), XVIII 3.2):
- About this time arose Jesus, a wise man, who did good deeds and whose virtues were recognized. And many Jews and people of other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. However, those who became his disciples preached his doctrine. They related that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Perhaps he was the Messiah in connection with whom the prophets foretold WONDERS.
According to The
Jewish Encyclopedia, Jesus was often accused by the Talmudists of
performing magic:
- “It is the tendency of all these sources to belittle the person of Jesus by ascribing to him illegitimate birth, MAGIC, and a shameful death …
- “Magic may have been ascribed him over against the miracles recorded in the Gospels.”
- “Toledot Jesu”: “When Jesus was expelled from the circle of scholars, he is said to have returned secretly from Galilee to Jerusalem, where he inserted a parchment containing the “declared name of God” (“Shem ha-Meforash”), which was guarded in the Temple, into his skin, carried it away, and then, taking it out of his skin, he performed his MIRACLES by its means. This magic formula then had to be recovered from him, and Judah the Gardener (a personage of the “Toledot” corresponding to Judas Iscariot) offered to do it; he and Jesus then engaged in an aerial battle (borrowed from the legend of SIMON MAGUS), in which Judah remained victor and Jesus fled.”
While these sources (except for Josephus) demean Jesus, they
still acknowledge that He had performed miracles. This is remarkable, because
it would have been easier to deny that the miracles had ever taken place.
Evidently, they were not able to do this without being derided by the many who
knew that He was a miracle worker.
But could He have been evil and used black magic, as the
Jewish sources allege? Evidently, if they could have proved this allegation,
their trial of Jewish would have been easy. However, they were unable to find
witnesses to validate their claims.
His miracles not only stand as facts, but they also testify
in favor of His teachings and the New Testament claims.
No comments:
Post a Comment