SIGHTINGS



Non-Existent Prophecies:
A Problem For Bible Inerrancy?
5-30-00
By Farrel Till
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/prophecy.html
 
 
Any challenge to the integrity of the Bible will very likely draw the familiar prophecy-fulfillment response. "If the Bible is not inspired of God," Christian fundamentalists will ask, "How do you explain all of the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled ?" The answer to this question is quite simple. The so-called prophecy fulfillments that the New Testament writers claimed in the person and deeds of Jesus of Nazareth were prophecy fulfillments only in the fertile imagination of the writers. The famous virgin-birth prophecy (Isiah 7:14 and Matt. 1:23), the prophecy of the messiah's birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2 and Matt. 2:6), the prophecy of King Herod's slaughter of the children of Bethlehem (Jere. 31:15 and Matt. 2:18) - these and many like them became prophecy fulfillments only through the distortions and misapplications of the original Old Testament statements. [or were created out of whole cloth with NO reference to other scripture whatsoever].
 
To discuss these in depth would require an entire book, so instead I will concentrate on another aspect of the prophecy-fulfillment argument: New Testament claims of prophecy fulfillment for which no Old Testament sources can be found. An example would be John 7:37-38, where Jesus allegedly said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." At that time, the only scriptures were the Old Testament, yet try as they have, Bible inerrantists have never found this statement that Jesus said was in the the scriptures of his day. The prophecy was nonexistent.
 
Similar to this is a "prophecy fulfillment" that was referred to in Matthew 2:23. Here it was claimed that when Joseph took his family to Nazareth, he fulfilled that "which was spoken by the prophets, 'He [Jesus] shall be called a Nazarene.'" In all of the Old Testament, however, neither the word Nazareth nor Nazarene is even mentioned, so how could it be true that the prophets (plural) had predicted that the messiah would be called a Nazarene? To avoid admitting that a mistake was made, inerrantists point out that Matthew did not say that this prophecy had been written; he said only that it had been "spoken" by the prophets.
 
A weakness in this "explaination" is the fact that Matthew routinely introduced alleged prophecy fulfillments by saying that thus-and-so had been "spoken" by the prophets. He claimed, for example, that the preaching of John the Baptist fulfilled what had been "spoken" by Isaiah the prophet: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight" (2:3). However, this statement that Matthew said Isaiah had spoken is a quotation of what had been WRITTEN in Isaiah 40:3.
 
Other written "prophecies" that Matthew introduced by saying that they had been "spoken" can be found in 4:14-16 (Isaiah 9:1-2), 12:17-21 (Isaiah 42:1-4), 13:35 (Psalm 78:2), and 21:4-5 (Zechariah 9:9). Since all of these alleged prophecy statements can be found in the Old Testament, we can only assume that Matthew's style was to use the word spoken to introduce statements that had in fact been written. Undoubtedly, he intended the expression to mean the same thing in 2:23 as it did elsewhere when he referred to things that had been "spoken" by the prophets. Hence, he made a mistake in 2:23, because no prophet (much less prophets) had ever written ANYTHING about Nazareth or Nazarenes.
 
In telling the story of Judas's suicide, Matthew erred again in claiming that Jeremiah had prophesied about the purchase of the field where Judas was buried. After casting down in the sanctuary the thirty pieces of silver that he had been paid for betraying Jesus Judas went away and hanged himself.
 
The priests then took the money and bought the potter's field to bury Judas in. Matthew claimed that this was a prophecy fulfillment" "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was priced, whom certain of the children of Israel did price; and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me" (27:9-10). In reality, however, no statement like this can be found in the book of Jeremiah. Inerrantists will sometimes defend Matthew by referring to the book Zechariah 11:12-13, which makes mention of thirty pieces of of silver but in a context entirely different from the statement that Matthew "quoted". Besides, even if Zechariah had obviously written the statement that Matthew quoted, this would hardly acquit Matthew of error, because he said Jeremeiah, not Zechariah, had made the prophecy.
 
A more serious nonexistent prophecy concerns the ver foundation of Christianity. On the night of his alleged resurrection, Jesus said to his disciples, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day" (Luke 24:46). The Apostle Paul agreed with this claim that the scriptures had referred to a third-day resurrection of the messiah: "For I delievered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures" (I Cor. 15:4-5).
 
Two New Testament writers, then, claimed that the scriptures had spoken of a resureection of the messiah on the third day. The problem that this claim poses for the prophecy-fulfillment argument is that no one can cite a SINGLE Old Testament scripture that mentions a third-day resurrection. As a matter of fact, no one can even cite a resurrection of the messiah, PERIOD, but that is another article for another time.
 
[please see: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/prophecy.html]
 
 
There are other major weaknesses in the prophecy-fulfillment argument, but the fact that New Testament writers so often referred to prophetic utterances that can't even be found in the Old Testament is enough to cast serious doubt on their many claims of prophecy fulfillment. If they are wrong when they referred to prophetic statements that cannot be found ANYWHERE in the Old Testament, how can we know they were right when they claimed fulfillment of statements that can be found but are not necessarily connected to the fulfillments they cite ? The truth is that we can't.
 
FARRELL TILL is editor of THE SKEPTICAL REVIEW, a journal of Bible criticism, and is engaged in formal, organized debates, both written and verbal, with Bible inerrantists.

 
Rebuttal
James Neff
webmaster@sightings.com
5-30-00

I won't raise an argument for Biblical "inerrancy" as that means different things to different people, and by faith many regard "inerrant" to mean precisely that, while others, equally faithful, regard the canon of scripture, with whatever translational errors there may be, (and understanding its purpose AND history) as sufficient and good for all teaching and reproof, and nonetheless the "word of God."
 
But the key issue is, the person what wrote the piece on non-existent prophecies is clearly extremely ignorant of the facts. Now let's make one thing very clear from the start: there are quotations in the New Testament which speak to books or prophets or writers which are not in the present canon. For example, in the epistle of Jude, Enoch is quoted. Not from the Old Testament scriptures, that is to say, the Torah; nor from the prophets... but from another book altogether, many today believe that book to be The First Book of Enoch (available in almost any Bible book store). Why isn't the first book of Enoch part of the Bible? Those who have taken the time to study the counsels which determined Canon of scripture know full well that if everything that 'could' have gone in was placed in, the Holy Bible would have been 100 lbs or more. The purpose of Canon was to assemble the best possible apportion of scriptures which had for them the most soundly replicated and extant manuscripts available whereby the words could be fully documented and verified with great certainty as to authenticity and veracity. Some books were partial, due to damage or loss; some were curious and great arguments raged over them for many, many years, and some, like the Epistle of Barnabas, was considered inspired but superfluous... and not many Christian scholars limit themselves to reading only the Canon. The fact of the matter is, there is a great deal missing from the Holy Bible, but the Holy Bible remains a sufficient, if not the most excellent collection of ancient writings on earth. There are more extant manuscripts to verify the writings of the old and new testament books than there is for Shakespeare or Caesar's Wars.
 
As to prophecies...
 
Lets look at one which the writer above contends is rather bald faced and ridiculous. That being that Jesus said it was prophecied that he would be crucified, buried and raised on the third day. The writer claims there is no such prophecy. Ah, but there is! Not one, but many. What the writer doesn't have (apart from the Holy Spirit to guide him into all truth and understanding regarding the scriptures!) is an understanding of prophecy ITSELF. Jesus references the precise prophecy!
 
"For as Jonas (Jonah) was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matthew 12:40
 
Sometimes an event in the life of a prophet is a living prophetic picture. The entire temple structure given to Moses is an archetypal symbol of the Messiah himself and his life. Practically everuthing in the Old Testament is a prophetic image of Messiah.
 
Another example, one which every Christian understands, is the remarkable prophecy delieverd by King David in Psalm 22. Here, more than 600 years before the Romans would invent the torturous method of execution called 'crucifixion,' David, who was never crucified himself, prophecies in extreme detail a first person perspective of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ! The opening lines of which almost anyone knows from the Gospels...
 
"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my crying out?... But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they stick out their lip, they shake their heads, saying, "He trusted in the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing that he delighted in him!" ... Many bulls have surrounded me... They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart melts within my chest like wax. My strength is dried up like a shattered pot; and my tongue clings to my jaws; ... the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: THEY HAVE PIERCED MY HANDS AND MY FEET. I can count all of my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture."
 
This never happened to King David, but by the spirit of prophecy it was so written. And when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, he cried out " Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!" Which is "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" so that everyone would know to read the prophecy given by David in the 22nd Psalm, and understand what was being fulfilled. They did indeed surround him. They did indeed mock him and reduce him to shame. They did indeed insult him and say "God delighted in you, let him save you now!" They did indeed pierce his hands and his feet. The did indeed torment him with a form of death which pulled all of his bones out of their joints and sockets, dehydrated him an bled him just as it is written. And they did indeed cast lots (gamble) for his robe, as it was a seamless garment and of some value to the Roman guards who crucified him, whose wages were often very pitiable.
 
Was there a prophecy which stated that the Messiah would be called Nazarene? Apart from the possibility that the Apostles are, like Jude, quoting from a source which is not part of canon, there remains ample evidence that the Messiah was to be an outcast of considerable ill repute. What the writer of this piece does not understand is that there were certain groups which were looked down upon by the prideful Jewish establishment. Israel was a nation divded in two, by tribes. The ten tribes of Israel were often regarded as lowly, while the tribes of Benjamin and Judah were considered lofty (a jewish 'caste' system, of sorts). The Messiah was prophecied to be born from the LEAST of the NATIONS... that is to say, the lowest of the low:
 
(God speaking): "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you are considered to be so little compared to the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth for Me one that is to be ruler of all Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from the very days of eternity." (Micah 5:2)
 
And again, his lowly status is prophecied, centuries in advance, and again, so many of the truths of the life of Messiah also woven in the prophecy:
 
"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no beauty or special looks; and when we shall see him, there is nothing special about him that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid - as it were - our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him as being stricken, smitten even of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (in self defense). He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked (Christ was crucified between two thieves, and had no burial place), and yet he was with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth (Joseph of Armiathea gave to Jesus his own, expensive tomb for his body). Yet it pleased the LORD to crush him; he hath put him to grief: when he would make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (though dead, he would live again and see his posterity)."
 
Despised and rejected of men, and counted as among the unclean, the unwashed and the lowest of the low. This was a Nazarene. This was a Galilean! To be called such in those days was to be given the strongest of insults, for these were people who mingled with the gentile nations, which were wrongly viewed by the jews to be "goy" or "cattle." A Samaritan might have a higher place than someone from Galilee! In plain language, it was prophecied in advance that the Messiah would be one who came from the "wrong side of the tracks," so to speak. And he did! But there was controversy even in his time, much less this stirred up by the writer in question, regarding this:
 
"Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him." (John 7:40)
 
But Jesus was, by Joseph, of the house of David. So both attributes were true.
 
"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem;(because he was of the house and lineage of David:)" (Luke 2:4)
 
It is sufficient that the number of prophecies which ARE evident were fulfilled by the one man, Y'shua (Jesus) of Nazareth, regarding the Messiah, even fitting perfectly into the time table given by the prophet Daniel, who openly stated WHEN the Messiah would come and what would happen to him (Daniel 9:25) "Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks (of years), and threescore and two weeks (of years): the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times." And so it came to pass. From the time of the signing of a decree by Persian king Artaxerses Longanimus in 444 B.C., the precise time passed and Jesus of Nazarth rode into the city of David on the fole of an ass, hailed by the people ( as was prophecied even down to the foal of an ass he would ride! -- Zechariah 9:9 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt, the foal of an ass"), and as recorded in the New Testament Gospels,
 
".. [they] brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him (Jesus) thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves (for sacrifice), And said unto them, 'It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves!' And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them." (Matthew 21:7)
 
Indeed, there may be some seriously obscure prophetic quotations in the New Testament; prophecy is a very spiritual and sometimes strange thing... and, for which there is a very difficult study involved to discover its roots (one need only look at the liberality with which the Apostle Paul quotes and mixed prophecies... it is by a spiritual mind that such is accomplished, "for the natural mind of man cannot recieve the things of God"). But in the end, there is far more evidence to demonstrate that the prophecies are intact and were fulfilled, even to the letter, than there is the scattered, desperate debunkings of those fearful of a trustworthy Word of God. One thing is quite clear; the debunkers generally don't know the Bible, have never read and curiously seem to be blinded to many of it's more interesting elements rendering them 'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'
 
 
More Debate...
Thanks for Mark Palmer
for operating as go-between here

Farrel Till was alerted to the rebuttal by Mark and this email resulted...
 
TILL
I'm confused. Did you write this or is it something you are forwarding to me from James Neff? You weren't clear about it, so if Neff wrote it, would you forward my reply to him ( he did )
 
TILL I have a policy of not engaging in private correspondence on biblical issues, because the time investment is too much for something that only one other person will read. I have a standing challenge to debate anyone who thinks that he can prove a single biblical prophecy fulfillment. You didn't do it here, and I would be glad to demonstrate your failure in an internet debate where we would have an audience of hundreds.
 
Please contact me and let me know if you are willing to defend your claim that prophecies were "clearly" fulfilled. We will see just who is "extremely ignorant of the facts."
 
I would be particularly interested in seeing you defend the first prophecy you referred to ( quoting my rebuttal )
Lets look at one which the writer above contends is rather bald faced and ridiculous. That being that Jesus said it was prophecied that he would be crucified, buried and raised on the third day. The writer claims there is no such prophecy. Ah, but there is! Not one, but many. What the writer doesn't have (apart from the Holy Spirit to guide him into all truth and understanding regarding the scriptures!) is an understanding of prophecy ITSELF. Jesus references the precise prophecy!
 
"For as Jonas (Jonah) was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Matthew 12:40

 

 
 
I'll eagerly await your reply. Meanwhile, I am going to forward to you an article that I wrote on the third-day prophecy and published in *The Skeptical Review.* I wrote it for someone who promised that he would reply to it. (In my paper, I give the opposition space to submit their articles in defense of the Bible.) The party backed out, and although I have announced that I will publish responses to this article, no one has accepted the offer. Perhaps you would like to accept it. Your reply will be published in TSR and then later posted on its web site. You have the opportunity to show thousands of people that the third-day prophecy was fulfilled. I would think you would jump at the chance to do this.
 
May I suggest that if you are going to try to write on the subject of prophecy, you should take the time to learn the difference in "prophecy" and "prophesy." The former is the noun, and the latter is the verb. You don't do much to instill confidence that you are informed in the subject when you confuse the two.
 
Farrell Till Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net

Response

Indeed, I quite often slip on my keyboard between Prophecy and Prophesy... now that this is to one side. ..
 
I don't have the time either for an email debate... just too busy. We recieved your interesting (though lacking) attack on the prophets and thought it interesting enough to run, and to which I wrote a short rebuttal. I've dealt with skeptics before and the proof they want for any fulfilled prophecy is the impossible... that is, to be hand-walked through several years worth of Bible study then several years worth of archeological evidences, and it just never ends. Nothing is ever regarded as adequate proof or evidence. So, I don't presume to be able to "prove" any prophecy of scripture to you. I've been that route with skeptics before, it's a grand waste of time. What I felt needed to be addressed was your inability to locate where the "missing" prophecies were. Jesus identified where the prophecy of being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth came from, so your original assertion...
 
'''' more serious nonexistent prophecy concerns the ver foundation of Christianity. On the night of his alleged resurrection, Jesus said to his disciples, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day" (Luke 24:46). The Apostle Paul agreed with this claim that the scriptures had referred to a third-day resurrection of the messiah: "For I delievered unto you first of all that which also I received: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures" (I Cor. 15:4-5).
 
Two New Testament writers, then, claimed that the scriptures had spoken of a resurrection of the messiah on the third day. The problem that this claim poses for the prophecy-fulfillment argument is that no one can cite a SINGLE Old Testament scripture that mentions a third-day resurrection. As a matter of fact, no one can even cite a resurrection of the messiah, PERIOD, but that is another article for another time. '''
 
.... was incorrect.
 
Jesus' own commentary about Jonah demonstrates that you simply don't know what you're looking for when you're looking for a PROPHECY. Jonah's experience WAS that prophecy. Living symbols are continual throughout scripture, and almost all scripture is prophetic.
 
As to your second statement, that there's no mention of messiah being resurrected in the Old Testament, nothing could be further from the truth. I demonstrated this clearly in my rebuttal (http://www.sightings.com/general/inerr.htm) -- one the greatest prophecies is Psalm 16:10 "For you will not leave my soul in Sheol (the grave), Neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption." It is your claim these prophecies are "non-existent." They sure seem to exist to everyone well studied in the scriptures. My guess is you either don't know of them, or dismiss the ones that don't fit some specific criteria for what a prophecy is.
 
The resurrection of the dead is not special to the new testament. Job said "Though the skin worms shall devour my flesh in the grave, yet I shall stand on the earth in the last day, and my eyes shall behold my redeemer." Resurrection was a MYSTERY under the first covenant, but not absent. Daniel clearly sees the Messiah come (Daniel 9:25) and be "cut off" (in the hebrew, 'killed' or 'cut off from the land of the living') in (in verse 26), then Daniel sees the Prince of the Most High coming from heaven and receiving the everlasting kingdom. He did not comprehend what he saw in the vision; his vision did not even grasp the entire 'church age'; but after Christ fulfilled the prophecies, it was clear what Daniel saw. Is that 'interpretation'? Yes, of course. In my rebuttal I also demonstrated that Isaiah prophecied of the resurrection, when he says he will be cut off from the land of the living, and be with a rich man in his death, yet, he would live to see his posterity. So, what you call non-existent is far from non-existent. Maybe you can't SEE it. But it's there.
 
Additionally, Christ's resurrection is shown in the OT prophet Zechariah 13:6 "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends."

- James Neff
 
 
Comment
 
From: "Greggor Gregory"
gregggor@hotmail.com
 
It's not that I agree with the proponent of "Non-Existent Prophecies: A Problem for Bible Inerrancy?" so much as I couldn't stop laughing at Mr. Neff's rebuttal. In fact, I love Jesus dearly, but not ignorantly, blindly, or how King James or Francis Bacon or John Paul II tells me to. Below I have quoted one sentence of Mr. Neff's defensive statement about why the Bible has been so redacted by whoever wears holds the power in Rome. REINCARNATION was also redacted from the Bible despite the New Testament clearly addressing it in many places, such as when Jesus asks His followers who he is and they chant various "dead" prophets. But, what I chuckled so much over was the Freudian slip or should I say slap contained in the following quote:
"The purpose of Canon was to assemble the best possible apportion of scriptures which had for them the most DUPLICITOUS and extant manuscripts available whereby the words could be fully documented and verified with great certainty as to authenticity and veracity."
 

 

 
DUPLICITOUS, for your information, Mr. Neff, means fraudulent, deceptive, contrived or invented from whole cloth.
 
Loving Jesus does not mean to be bound to the "Scriptures" that have been redacted and otherwise modified on numerous occasions. Where did Jesus say to find the Kingdom of Heaven? Within your own heart. Not in the Psalms, not in Job, Not in Mark or Luke (which weren't written then), but within your heart. Why did Jesus say "Seek and Ye shall find?" Why would you look for God in a book? If you don't know God in your heart, of what use are writings? "My people shall perish for lack of knowledge."
 
Gregor
 
 
Ouch...! you snagged me good on that one Greg. I have corrected my phrase. Ok, while I heal from this wound, I would not entirely disagree with you -- there is alot of lost knowledge (though we might not agree on particulars).
 
PS: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God' says alot to both our views, I think ... and, Jesus said the Kingdom of heaven was "in your midsts".... speaking of himself being among men; HE is the kingdom of heaven. Re-read his Kingdom parables with Christ himself in mind and they take on a whole new meaning. It has been oft mistranslated to read "inside you" or "within you."
 
Your input is appreciated.
 
- Neff

 
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