Helping Jesus Fulfill Prophecy

✍ Scribed by Robert J. Miller

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 427
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

It's obvious that Jesus fulfilled prophecies about the promised Messiah--or so the gospels make it seem. But the real story is more complex, and more compelling. In hindsight we can see that Jesus had help fulfilling prophecy. The gospel writers skillfully manipulated prophecies--carefully lifting them out of context, creatively reinterpreting them, even rewriting them--to match what Jesus would do in fulfilling them. The evangelists also used the prophecies themselves to shape the very stories that show their fulfillment. This book describes in detail how Christian authors "helped" Jesus fulfill prophecy. Studies of Greek oracles, the Dead Sea Scrolls, translations of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek and Aramaic, and the writings of Josephus explore the interpretive techniques that paved the way for the New Testament's manipulation of prophecy. This book analyzes how the belief that Jesus fulfilled prophecy became an argument to justify a new notion: the view that Christians had replaced Jews as God's chosen people. An aggressive anti-Judaism is analyzed in chapters on patristic theologians such as Justin Martyr and Augustine, who embedded it into the argument from prophecy. The book concludes with an ethical argument for why Christians should retire the argument from prophecy.

✦ Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Short Titles
Introduction
Part 1: Prophecy, Prediction, and Fulfillment in Israel
Prophecy and Prediction in Ancient Israel
False Prophecies from True Prophets
Fixing Failed Prophecies
Prophecy as Mysterious Revelation: The Influence of Greece
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Septuagint, the Targums, and Josephus
Part 2: The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the New Testament
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the New Testament: Introduction
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Gospel of Matthew
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Gospel of Mark
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Gospel of John
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Letters of Paul
The Fulfillment of Prophecy in the Epistle to the Hebrews
Part 3: The Argument from Prophecy in Patristic Thought
Justin Martyr and the Argument from Prophecy
Between Justin and Augustine
Augustine and the Argument from Prophecy
Part 4: Modern Reckoning with the Argument from Prophecy
Modern Christian Thought and the Fulfillment of Prophecy
Reckoning with the Argument from Prophecy
Appendix 1: Muhammad in the Bible?
Appendix 2: Adam and Edom
Translations of Ancient Sources
Bibliography
Ancient Texts Quoted