Just watched a detailed video about the original Hebrew text and five main claims the Rabbis have about Psalm 22--"they pierced my hands and my feet"
Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies regarding the coming Messiah. Any person on earth being able to fulfill just 8 prophecies faces a billion-to-one odds. Our minds can't even comprehend the chance of fulfilling 300! The chance that Jesus is not the promised Messiah has statistically been compared to every inch of Texas being filled with silver dollars up to a person's kneecaps. If you selected the millions and millions of silver dollars and picked anything other than the 1 coin, Jesus is surely the Messiah.
3 of the prophecies of the Moshiach or Messiah from the Tanakh or OT seem to obviously point to Jesus as the Messiah! What are those?
Psalm 22 "They pierced my hands and feet"
Isaiah 53 "He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their face, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
Isaiah 7:14 "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."
So the coming Jewish Messiah would have to fulfill these 3, plus hundreds of others. I've never heard of any other human being born "of a virgin". The other two passages mention that the Messiah would be "pierced". Psalm 22 says they "pierced my hands and feet" long BEFORE Jesus was born!
1 Peter 3:15 says, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
I've noticed in a lot of youtube videos, rabbis tend to discredit missionaries because they don't speak the original language of Hebrew and sadly, most can't respond to their claims. This video does a great job of explaining one of the most important Messianic verses in scripture, Psalm 22:
Great defense of Psalm 22 supporting the connection to Jesus as Messiah.
Isaiah 53 seems self explanatory--many Jewish testimonies state something to the effect of "Why are you reading to me from the Christian Bible?", not knowing that is from the OT.
Another great defense is the "born of a virgin" claim. The rabbis say that the Hebrew word translated is almah meaning "young girl", not necessarily virgin. HOWEVER, hundreds of years before Jesus was born a group of hundreds of rabbis and Jewish scholars who translated the Tanakh from Hebrew to Greek used the greek word Parthenos which specifically means virgin! It was only changed after Jesus was born.
Here's a quick reference list of another 40 or so prophecies that Jesus fulfilled:
Born of a virgin Isaiah 7:14, the Son of God Psalm 2:7, the seed of Abraham Gen 22:18, a son of Isaac Gen 17:19, a son of Jacob Num 24:17, from the tribe of Judah Gen 49:10, a branch of Jesse Isaiah 11:1, the house of David Isaiah 9:6,7, born in Bethlehem Micah 5:2, birth announced by a star Num 24:17, the Messiah will be called Lord Psalm 110:1, will be called Immanuel Isaiah 7:14, will be a prophet Deut 18:18, a priest Psalm 110:4, a judge Isaiah 33:22, a King Isaiah 9:17, anointed by the Holy Spirit Isaiah 11:2, a great zeal for God Psalm 69:9, preceded by a messenger Isaiah 40:3, will minister in Galilee Isaiah 9:1, will perform miracles Isaiah 35:5,6, will be a teacher of parables Isa 6:9,10, He will enter the temple Malachi 3:1, enter Jerusalem on a donkey Zechariah 9:9, will be a stone of stumbling and rejected Psalm 118:22, a light to the gentiles Isaiah 42:6,7, be betrayed by a friend Psalm 41:9, for 30 pieces of silver Zechariah 30:12, which will buy a potter's field Zechariah 11:13, will be silent before His accusers Isaiah 53:7, will be scourged and wounded Isaiah 53:5, His hands and feet will be pierced Psalm 22:16, will be put to death alongside transgressors Isaiah 53:12, He will be rejected by His own people Isaiah 53:3, will rise from the dead Psalm 16:10, He will ascend to heaven Psalm 68:18,
Steve M