Judaism

Articles in the Judaism section.

• Is Chosenness Unconditional in the Hebrew Bible?
• Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28: A Covenant With Terms
• Circumcision of the Heart in the Torah and Prophets
• Jeremiah 31 and a Covenant Not Like the Former One
• What the Prophets Say About the Nations
• The covenant and the Torah given to Israel are declared everlasting in the Tanakh itself, so no later covenant can abrogate them or transfer Israel's election to another people
• Circumcision is the everlasting sign of the Abrahamic covenant, and the uncircumcised male is 'cut off,' so any gospel that sets circumcision aside stands in direct violation of the covenant
• The 'seed of Abraham' promised the covenant is the collective nation of Israel, not one individual; reading zera as a single person (Christ) misconstrues the Hebrew
• Where Does the Written Torah Authorise an Oral Torah?
• Do Not Add to the Word: Deuteronomy 4:2 and the Oral Law
• The Karaite Challenge to Rabbinic Authority
• Deuteronomy 17 and the Authority of the Court
• A miracle-worker who turns Israel away from the Torah is by definition a false prophet, so no amount of signs can authenticate a messiah who abrogates the Law
• What Must the Messiah Accomplish?
• Messianic Claimants and How Jewish Tradition Assessed Them
• Who Is the Servant of Isaiah 53?
• Daniel 9 and the Question of Timing
• The Messiah completes his mission in one lifetime, so the doctrine of a 'second coming' is itself an admission that Jesus did not meet the messianic criteria
• The Tanakh nowhere predicts a Messiah who is crucified, killed, and raised on the third day for the sins of mankind; the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 is the nation of Israel, not the Messiah
• The Tanakh teaches the absolute, non-composite unity of God, and the supposed Trinitarian proof-texts do not indicate plurality of persons
• The Messiah of the Tanakh is a mortal, human descendant of David, not a divine incarnation
• The true Messiah is preceded by tribulation and the rise of false or violent claimants, who are identified negatively rather than as the redeemer
• Isaiah 9:6 describes King Hezekiah and names God, not a divine messiah — the honorific titles are not applied to the child
• A Sacrificial System Commanded but Not Practised
• The Red Heifer and the Problem of Purity
• The messianic age requires a rebuilt physical Temple and the return of the Divine Presence to Mount Moriah, so a 'temple' reduced to a person's body leaves the prophetic criteria unmet
• The Cessation of Prophecy and What Follows From It
• The Tests of a True Prophet in Deuteronomy
• Christian messianic prooftexts confuse rabbinic homiletic application (derash) with the prophet's actual meaning (peshat)
• Isaiah 21's 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon' oracle was fulfilled in the historical fall of Babylon to the Medes and Persians, and is not an open future prophecy
• Deuteronomy 18:20-22 shows a fulfilled prediction alone cannot authenticate a prophet, and one who speaks in the name of other gods is false
• Masoretic, Septuagint and Samaritan: Three Texts, One Bible
• What the Dead Sea Scrolls Show About the Hebrew Text
• The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Question of Gerizim
• Vowel Points and the Reading of an Unpointed Text
• The Command to Destroy: Reading the Herem Texts
• Amalek: A Command to Remember and Its Modern Reading
• Does God Change His Mind? Anthropomorphism in the Torah
• Not in Heaven: When the Sages Overruled a Voice From Heaven
• Prozbul: Legislating Around a Torah Commandment
• The Chained Wife: A Problem Jewish Law Has Not Solved
• The Ordeal of the Suspected Wife
• The Law That Was Never Applied
• What the Talmud Says About Non-Jews, and What It Does Not
• Kol Nidre: What Is Actually Annulled
• Mosaic Authorship and the Documentary Hypothesis
• Where Was God? Jewish Responses to Catastrophe