34-35. The 34th prophecy claim for Jesus is the first in several that refers to Isaiah 53. In this case it is about his silence before his accusers, which is only found in three gospels. John's gospel portrays Jesus carrying out fairly lengthy discussions with his accusers. There are also a multitude of reasons for rejecting Isaiah 53 as containing any prophecies of Jesus. The chapter has been a favored subject of countless apologetic arguments for a great time now, and so it deserves an article all its own, for the sake of thorough refutation too. I have written just an article like that, entitled: Why Isaiah 53 is Not About Jesus. From here on, any further prophecy claims to involve Isaiah 53 will be directed to this separate article.

36. According to Christian interpretation, Isaiah 50:6 prophesied that Jesus would be beaten and spat upon while on the cross.

Isaiah 50:4-9 is one of the four servant songs found in the book of Isaiah. The other songs are Isaiah 42:1-9, 49:1-13, and chapter 53. In these songs, we read about an unidentified servant of God, who suffers for his devotion and is eventually redeemed. Traditional Judaism believes the servant is a metaphor for the Jewish people [1], and many contemporary bible scholars also share this view [2]. Once again, it is worth noting the ambiguity of this 'prophecy'. Christians will tend to associate vague descriptions of suffering with Jesus, the person whose suffering they are perhaps most familiar with, but all we can gain from reading the passage is that it speaks of a servant who allowed himself to suffer for the sake of God. Such generic information can apply to Moses, Abraham, Noah, David, the people of Israel, and a whole host of other possibilities.

37. For this next claim of prophecy, Psalm 22:6-8 is the focus:

Jesus calling himself a worm is the first red flag this throws up. He was known to declare himself the son of God in scripture, but never anything as lowly as a worm. This is taken by some as a prediction that Jesus would be mocked on the cross, but as I've stated so many times now, the book of Psalms already has an original context as the poetry of David. Jewish scholars have never recognized Psalm 22 as messianic prophecy, because it contains no characteristics of it. For a more in-depth look at this claim, see my article Psalm 22: Now With Less Jesus!.

38. The thirty-eighth claim proposes that Jesus falling beneath the cross was predicted by Psalm 109:24-25...

Interpreting this passage in light of Jesus fails to explain the mention of fasting. David, however, the author of Psalms, was known to have fasted in the hopes of saving the life of the bastard child he conceived with Bathsheba (God was not so merciful though). These verses say nothing about Jesus, or a cross, or falling beneath a cross. All it states is that David's knees gave way from fasting, and his accusers scorned him. This fits far more with the exposure of David's sin with Bathsheba than with Jesus tripping under the weight of the cross, and as usual with Psalms, there is no evidence for considering this prophecy.

39. Number thirty-nine on the prophecy claims is another citation of Psalm 22. See my article Psalm 22: Now With Less Jesus!.

40-42. The next three claims involve Isaiah 53, which has its own separate article: Why Isaiah 53 is Not About Jesus.

43. Psalm 69:4 prophesied that Jesus would be 'hated without cause', according to Christian opinion:

As I pointed out elsewhere though, applying Jesus to Psalm 69 may not be a good move for Christians, since the speaker of the passage also states, in verse five, that God knows his folly and guilt. Christian doctrine traditionally holds that Jesus was the only sinless and perfect person to walk the earth. Additionally, for the umpteen-billionth time, Psalms is a book of poetry, not prophecy, and it reflects the life of its author, David, not that of Jesus.

44. This next prophecy claim is yet again from the book of Psalms, allegedly focusing on how Jesus' friends kept their distance from him. Psalm 38:11 simply says, "My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away." I don't think I need to say much on this, as there isn't really anything of substance anyway.

45-48. Claims forty-five through forty-eight are about Psalm 22 once more. See my article on this, Psalm 22: Now With Less Jesus!.

49. Prophecy claim of Jesus #49 takes us back to Psalm 69, that same Psalm which would imply Jesus to have folly and guilt. Nonetheless, Psalm 69:21 says, "They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst." The point of this verse is that someone enjoys making the speaker (David, remember?) uncomfortable. Vinegar and gall are bitter tastes, not something fun to have when you are hungry or thirsty. What you will not see in Psalm 69:21 is any reference to giving this person vinegar and gall while they are hanging on a cross. For a god that supposedly wants everyone to be saved, the Christian god apparently didn't try very hard at making his prophecies convincing.

50. Psalm 22 again. See my article Psalm 22: Now With Less Jesus!.

51. This claim of prophecy fulfillment is related to Jesus' words on the cross, when he commits his spirit into God's hands:

The dumbfounding thing about all these so-called prophecies listed by Christian apologetics sites is that so few of them seem to give consideration to the fact that the New Testament authors could have easily distorted real events in their writings to make them appear to fulfill prophecy. We know that they were very acquainted with Hebrew scripture, and we have evidence of words being inserted that seem to favor theological opinions of the authors, like the addition of "in him" that I previously noted for claim #26. There is also the laughable discrepancy of the colt and donkey in Matthew's triumphal entry, as I pointed out for claim #25. That seemingly insignificant mistake shows that the gospel authors were reading Hebrew scripture when they wrote their accounts of Jesus, and they were attempting to model their accounts to the 'prophecies' in scripture. In Matthew's case, a misreading of Zechariah led to some details being added that are not in the other three gospels.

When you see an Old Testament passage that is echoed in the New Testament, don't think prophecy fulfillment, think manipulation. There is much more evidence for that view than for the other.

52. Claim number 52 is that Psalm 34:20 predicted that none of Jesus' bones would be broken. The verse reads, "he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken." The preceding verse explains that God delivers any generic righteous man, and though he may have troubles, his bones will not be broken. This is a poetic statement to communicate that for a righteous person, God will always come through and not let them suffer beyond what they can bear. There is no demonstrable connection to Jesus here, and once again the traditional understanding of Psalms prevails.

53. In this claim, it is argued that Psalm 69:20 and 22:14 prophesied that Jesus' heart would be punctured, as is supposedly spoken of in John 19:34, by the mention of the spear drawing blood and water out of Jesus. I'm not going to get into the technicalities of a heart bursting, because this argument reads way too much into the verses given. As I already said before, Psalm 69 involves a speaker with folly and guilt, and Psalm 22 is debunked in my article, Psalm 22: Now With Less Jesus!. Even moreso, both verses express a metaphorical heart break, not necessarily a physical one, especially in light of the fact that Psalms is poetry that employs frequent use of vivid imagery. No amount of wishful thinking will make Psalm 69:20 or 22:14 into real predictions of Jesus' heart trouble.

54. Zechariah 12:10 is the subject of claim #54, with an emphasis on the piercing of Jesus:

The surrounding context of this passage mentions that God will seek to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem (Zech. 12:9), and a great mourning will go out for the individual who is pierced, mourning that will involve all God's children, including Jews (12:11-14). Obviously, these are things that did not happen during the time when Jesus was supposedly crucified. There was no such war against the enemies of Jerusalem, and Jesus was not mourned by the Jews who did not believe in him. It is hard to imagine how Christians can argue that Zechariah 12:10 has anything to do with Jesus, unless they completely ignore context and view it only through heavily biased Christ-centered eyes.

55. The fifty-fifth claim of prophecy has to do with the darkness that fell over the land at Christ's crucifixion, as reported in Luke 23:44-45. The purported prophecy is found in Amos 8:9...

Will you be at all surprised to hear that this passage is plucked from its context, just like so many of the ones before? Verses 10 and 13-14 from the same chapter help to show that this darkening in broad daylight was not predicted for the time of Christ:

Jesus' crucifixion is not associated with any of this immense despair, and the references to Samaria, Dan, and Beersheba illustrate that this prophecy was intended for the time of Amos, not for first century Jerusalem. Notice that there is no discussion of what the reason for the darkness is. In Luke's gospel, the reason is that Christ was crucified, but Amos 8 makes no mention of anything analogous to the execution of God incarnate or the son of God. To summarize, there is nothing to connect Amos 8:9 to Jesus, and there is actually plenty of surrounding contextual evidence to argue that it cannot be applied to Jesus.

56. For this claim, we return to Isaiah 53 once more, which has its own separate article: Why Isaiah 53 is Not About Jesus.

V. On the Resurrection/Ascension of Christ

57. Did Psalm 16:8-11 prophesy that Jesus would be raised from the dead? Christian apologists may say yes, but let's take a close look at the text:

This is yet another ambiguous prophecy. The passage speaks of someone who is close to God, and whom God will not abandon to the grave or allow to see decay. As we've seen before, Psalms is a book of poetry that is fond of imagery and metaphor, so the remarks about the grave and decay may not necessarily mean death. The famed 11th century rabbi known as Rashi has the following to say in one of his commentaries:

Psalm 16:8-11 is David expressing his thankfulness that, even though he had committed a serious offense against God, God would not turn his back on him. The original context beats out the Christian interpretation once again. Wishful thinking and active imaginations play quite a large role in most of the Hebrew prophecies allegedly concerning Jesus.

58. Claim number fifty-eight proposes that Psalm 2:7 prophesied that Jesus would be God's only begotten son:

Jesus was not the only person identified as son of God in the bible. Genesis 6:1-4 actually mentions that there were multiple "sons of God" that went down to earth to mate with human women. Job 1:6 considers angels to be the sons of God. God says that the human rulers of his people will be his sons in 2 Samuel 7:13-14, and he also calls the nation of Israel his "firstborn son" in Exodus 4:22. Being that David was king of Israel, and was called a man after God's own heart in the bible, I think it's quite easy to see that Psalm 2:7 is about David and not Jesus. A generic reference to a son of God is still very vague, it turns out, and nothing else in the passage even resembles Jesus.

59. This next claim of prophecy supposedly points to Christ's ascension:

Interestingly, this is another Old Testament passage that is misquoted by a New Testament author, in a manner just suspicious enough to raise eyebrows. In Ephesians 4:8 we read, "this is why it says: 'When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men'." Note the big difference in that last phrase. Instead of receiving gifts from men, this person is giving gifts to men. You may not get the significance, but what gifts did Jesus ever receive from men? Arguably none. The point of the gospel message is not that Jesus came to collect anything, but that he came to save all of us. In other words, he came to give us the gift of salvation (Romans 6:23). This apparently minor change in the reading of the text is very well suited to the theological teachings of Paul.

Incidentally, this gives us another reason to doubt that the original passage in Psalm 68:18 is applicable to Jesus. It is simply David's praise to God, who ascended to the throne of Israel, took captives in his train, and received gifts from men, even the rebellious men. All this serves to glorify the Hebrew god and testify to his power. Jesus does not enter into it here.

60. The final claim of prophecy is that Jesus would be seated beside God, as supposedly predicted by Psalm 110:1. I already dealt with this passage in claim #12, suffice it to say that the figure mentioned has troops ready to go into battle with him (Ps. 110:3), which is not much like Jesus.

VI. Closing Words

The book of Psalms is cited 26 times among the 60 prophecies I have just covered, despite it being a collection of poems and not prophecies, and having an original context relevant to its author, King David, as I have stated excessively by now. In their attempts to make a case for Christ being the savior of the world, Christians pull prophecy from wherever they can get it, completely ignoring or disregarding proper context and neglecting to distinguish prophecy from non-prophetic narratives or poetry. Some lists on how Jesus fulfilled prophecy can number up into the 300+ range, because the missionaries and apologists who compose them are counting on the sheer volume of claims to overwhelm the reader, so that they will drown in enough material that they will not bother thoroughly and critically examining each claim. Hopefully this article has given you a decent idea of just how empty these allegations of bible prophecy on Jesus really are.

There will always be those who refuse to face the music though, perhaps arguing that I am actually the one incapable of accepting the truth. However, this article has not once dismissed any claim on the basis of belief or non-belief. Nowhere have I said that any prophecy claim is wrong simply because I don't believe in Jesus or because I don't believe in bible prophecy. Every claim has been met with scrutiny and argument from scripture, other writings, and history. I welcome any debate over the evidence I have presented here, as long as it is relatively civil. I have found that the more one investigates and probes the bible, on practically any matter, the more it is discovered to be a very human and very fallible work of antiquity.

I think it's time we stopped looking for signs in ancient books and started looking to the world around us for the future. We stand at an exciting time in history, with technology giving us the ability to make a future that far outshines any promises made by phony religious prophecies. Faith has failed to deliver a brighter tomorrow, but science and technology have advanced us so much in just the last 100 years, and they have the potential to take us even farther, if we can learn to embrace reason and shed superstition.

1. Jews for Judaism. Jews for Judaism FAQ. Retrieved Apr. 14, 2010.
2. Cross, F.L., ed. (2005) "Servant Songs." The Oxford dictionary of the Christian church. New York: Oxford University Press.
3. Rashi. Tehilim - Chapter 16. The Complete Jewish Bible. Retrieved Apr. 14, 2010.