One Messiah, Two Comings — Jacob Prasch

In the Talmudic literature we read the following. We read this in a tractate called the Avodah Zerah. This is not the New Testament, this is written by early rabbinic sources. Very early, before the 4th century.

That Yeshua HaNosri, Jesus, Yeshua, the rabbis of Torah would be called that, did miracles with no other rabbi. Including healing the sick and raising the dead. Chazidah, his disciples, did miracles in his name.

And that when he was crucified on Pesach, he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. That's not from the New Testament, that's from the Avodah Zerah. Now later on in mystical Judaism, the Zohar, it explains he did it because he knew the Tetragrammaton, he knew tabalistic secrets and so on, they tried to explain it.

But a rabbi, Tinkoff Lapid, an orthodox rabbi and professor of Judaism and Jewish history, Hebrew University, one of my wife's lecturers, wrote in his book, the resurrection of Jesus is irrefutable from the Jewish rabbinic perspective.

These views are shared, of course, by Rabbi David Fuchs of Hebrew University, similarly a professor, who is the most renowned Jewish scholar in the world. You'll find the following characteristics, you'll always find the following characteristics.

It is essentially the less educated Christian clergy who will try to turn Jesus into a non-Jewish figure. They Hellenize a Hebraic faith, they Westernize an Eastern faith. But you will similarly look in the rabbinic literature, when you read scholarly rabbis, Rabbi Jacob Neuzner, University of Rhode Island, probably the greatest living expert on the subject of Midrash, again a professor, David Fuchs of Tinkoff Lapid, Kirza Vernes at Oxford University, the Dead Sea Scrolls Commission.

For more scholarly rabbis, none of these people deny the Jewishness of the New Testament. These are all orthodox rabbis, and they argue that the New Testament is valid Second Temple period Jewish literature.

In fact, Neuzner goes so far as to argue that it's the linchpin between the Intertestamental Apocrypha and the early Midrashim. These are rabbis arguing this. It's the uneducated Christian clergy who will try to Gentileize Jesus, and it's basically the less knowledgeable rabbis who will try to Gentileize Jesus, it's a Goya fabrication.

Rabbinic Testimony and the Jewishness of the New Testament

When we read the earliest rabbinic commentaries on what the rabbis said about Jesus in his time, we discover certain things. They did not try to reject him on the basis of most of the popular arguments you hear used against him now.

The early rabbinic writers did not dismiss Christianity as a Gentile or a Goyish twisting or perversion of a Jewish text. That was not their argument. They didn't reject him on the basis of his genealogy.

In fact, the Talmud tells us, medium bacheli, the Talmud tells us that Matthew's genealogy was from his father and Luke's was from his mother. There was no such person as Jesus Christ who never lived.

His name was Rabbi Yeshua Bar Yosef. He never said it. That was his name. That was his name. That was his name, and that is his name. And this is the last thing he said to his disciples. The Talmud tells us.

The Kingdom Restored to Israel

Let's read it. Acts chapter 1, commencing in verse 6. And so when they come together, they were asking him, saying, Lord, is it at this time you will be storming the kingdom to Israel? Notice, first of all, restoring the kingdom to Israel.

No place does the New Testament ever use this phrase except one time. And it's restoring it to Israel. Not to the church. Not to the papacy. Not to the Pope. Not to anything. Forget kingdom now theology and dominionism.

Forget the restoration movement. It is replacementist. It is fundamentally wrong. It is a radical form of reconstructionism and post-millennialism. It has no biblical basis. The whole idea of restoring the kingdom.

The only time the New Testament says the kingdom will be restored is where it is restored to Israel and the Jews. The Jews of this day were looking for a Davidic Messiah who would restore the kingdom.

What they lost was the Babylonian captivity. They were looking for someone who would restore it. So let's proceed further. And he said to them, It's not for you to know the times or the ethics which the Father has fixed by his own authority.

But you shall receive power through the mosque in Greece when the Holy Spirit of Haralda Kodesh has come upon you. You shall be my witnesses. Both in Jerusalem and also in Judea, Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth.

You shall be my witnesses. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the remotest parts of the earth. The only reason non-Jews believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah is because Jews believed it first. Gentiles wouldn't believe it if Jews didn't believe it first.

The most popular living secular Jewish historian is probably Max DeMont who wrote God, the Jews, and History. Max DeMont says that by the time of Bartholomew's rebellion in the 2nd century probably 25 of the Jews in Jerusalem believed he was the Messiah.

The only reason the New Testament of Ritah HaBashar is because Jews wrote it. That's the only reason it exists, because Jews wrote it. If the Messiahship of Jesus was not plausible the Jewish people and a significant number of them, including a number of rabbis at the time, they never would have staked their lives on it.

Suffering not only rejection at the hands of the Sanhedrin but also persecution at the hands of the Roman government. So let's proceed further. At this time you're restoring the kingdom. It's not for you to know the kinds of seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority.

Notice he did not deny it would happen. The author of the book of Acts is Luke, a proselyte of Judaism. The only ethnic non-Jew who wrote in the New Testament was a proselytist physician. He also wrote, of course, Abisso Rabbe Tei Lukas, the Gospel of Luke, where in giving his version of the Olivet Discourse on Har Zayatin, the Mount of Olives, he quotes Jesus, Jerusalem shall be trampled down by the feet of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles is completed.

Jesus said directly, when you see the Jews going back to Jerusalem and to Israel, the time of the Gentiles is coming to an end. God will turn his grace back to his ancient people. So what are the apostles asking in here?

When are you restoring the kingdom? They were looking for a political messiah. What they expected in his day, the popular messianic expectation, was a messiah who would come in the character of the Maccabees and liberate Israel from the Romans the way the Maccabees had from the Seleucid Greeks.

That's what they wanted. There had been no prophet per se in the time of Malachi. They were looking for a liberation from imperial Rome. They wanted a political messiah. In the rabbinic literature, there are a number of debates between the most eminent of rabbis and sages on how you reconcile two differing pictures of a messiah.

One is called HaMashiach ben Yosef, the messiah who was the son of Joseph. The other, the Talmud of literature tells us, is HaMashiach ben Gavid, the messiah who was the son of David. Son, in Hebraic thought, does not simply connotate a genetic descendant.

It's also in the character of David and in the character of Joseph, the rabbi of the Suddas. But how can he be both a suffering servant and a conquering king? Now, today we have the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran literature.

The Melchizedek Scroll, just as you said, that's Q13, now makes it impossible to dismiss the concept of a suffering servant messiah as alien to the Jewish thought of the Second Temple period. It doesn't prove it, but it certainly makes it a very open question.

What is clear is that Jesus believed it. There was one messiah, yet there were two messiahs. It's also clear that the rabbis believed it and developed these two motifs, the son of Joseph and the son of David.

The Suffering Servant in Isaiah and Daniel

The son of Joseph came to be associated with the suffering servant of Isaiah, of the fourth servant song, Isaiah 52 and 53. Isaiah 53, in the medieval synagogue liturgy, formulated by Eliezer HaKalia, was read on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

And it was said to be messianic. In more recent centuries, the rabbis have said it's about Israel and the Jewish people suffering. There's a number of problems they have with this. And the problems, of course, do not come from Christianity.

They come from Judaism. The Targum Yonatan says directly, Isaiah 53 is about the messiah. And so too, Sanhedrin 98b and the Midrash on Shavuot, the Targum of the Kingdom of Messiah and the Targum Yonatan, the rabbinic literature, all confirm this.

So does a later rabbi called Ebenezer. He says it can't be about the captivity because of the uncleanness of the people. This suffering servant was without sin. But as Ebenezer and other rabbis grasped, Israel had a lot of sin in the days of Isaiah.

He was the first one predicting the captivity of Babylon. By extension, it may apply to Israel in some metaphoric sense. It does. But that's all. As the Targum Yonatan tells us, it's about the messiah.

A suffering servant messiah. But then you have the Davidic messiah. The Davidic messiah. Now let's speak momentarily, once more, about this suffering servant messiah. The book of Daniel, chapter 9, Daniel Hanavi, tells us the following.

That the messiah would come and die before the second temple would be destroyed in verse 26. I've debated some rabbis who tried to deny this. However, when they tried to deny it, I simply went to Yalkut in the rabbinic literature, volume 2, page 79b of the Nazir edition.

Also 32b. And the Midrash Reshit that said the messiah was to exit in 33 A .D. For the Sanhedrin wept, oy baboy lanu, the temple is destroyed and the messiah has not come. As we read, a scarlet cord would be hung before the Kodesh Kodeshim, the holy of holies.

And if the people's sin was forgiven on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement, the scarlet cord would turn white. They connected this with Isaiah 118. But as the rabbis tell us, it did not turn white for 40 years before the temple was destroyed.

In other words, 40 years before 70 A .D. From the time of the public ministry of Jesus to the destruction of the second temple, the sins of the Jewish people were not forgiven according to the rabbis.

You can see why so many Jews believe in him. Now the Talmud also says something else about Daniel 9. There's a curse on anyone who reads it. Why? Because the time of the messiah's coming is foretold. There was a famous rabbi, Rabbi Leopold Cohen.

Rabbi Cohen was vehemently anti-Christian. He lived through a generation that saw tremendous persecution of the Jewish people at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church. A false form of Christianity, nothing to do with what Jesus taught.

I'm sorry if I'm offending you with idolatry. What Jesus taught was Messianic Judaism, full stop. Not bowing down to graven immorality. And Rabbi Cohen couldn't believe that the Talmud said there's a curse on anyone who reads it.

So he went and investigated. And he counted the 70 weeks. And he went and he examined the other rabbinic commentaries. Going back, particularly to Yalkut, Sanhedrin, and the B 'rath Treshit, etc. And you can still read these things today in English.

You can get an English translation of the Warsaw edition. Nonetheless, he had a problem. The Messiah had to come and die Liknei Tachorban Shelebet Zinigash HaSheinit before the destruction of the Second Temple, 70 A .D.

So the Messiah had to come already. Rabbi Cohen didn't know what to do. Well, he finally decided what to do. He accepted Yeshua as his Messiah and became the Baptist minister. So did Rabbi Isaac Wittgenstein.

Now, later on, Rabbis try to explain this. The Messiah comes in every generation. If the people are worthy of him, they accept him. If they're not, he goes on. He can always explain everything. The problem is, not only does that not agree with the prophets, it doesn't even agree with their own fages.

For the Sanhedrin wept. The Messiah has not come, the Temple is gone. Now, let's continue. We have these two pictures of a suffering servant and a conquering king. What the apostles, HaShelechin, were asking Yeshua is this.

Rabbi, tell us. When are you restoring your kingdom? We understand you're the suffering servant. You're the korban. You came to be the korban. You came to be the kaporah for our sins. We understand you're the son of Joseph.

But when are you going to be the son of David? When are you going to set up the kingdom? Today, most Jewish people rejecting Yeshua, Jesus, as the Messiah, will do so for two reasons. The first reason is the disgusting and reprehensible history of anti-Semitism perpetrated against the Jewish people in the name of Christianity.

That's the first reason. My wife's parents are holocaust survivors. My little son here, Elionif, is an Israelite from Galilee. Castle's grandparents. What's the gospel of Yeshua? No problem. The gospel of Yeshua is the Christian gestapo kicking in the door, taking a little boy like you and putting him in an oven in the name of Jesus Christ.

That's the gospel of Yeshua. That's what they'll tell you. Well, I'll tell you. Was that Orthodox Jew with a yarmulke on his head who put a bullet in the back of his own prime minister, a true disciple of Moses?

Can I blame Moses for what was done in his name? Jeremiah the prophet, Yirmiyahu Hanavi, was thrown in prison and nearly killed at the incitement of the Sanhedrin, of the Levites, rather, who claimed they were practicing Torah.

Zechariah Hanavi was murdered in the temple. The prophet named Zechariah. Can I blame Moses and the Torah for what was done in the name of Moshe Rabbeinu? Moses? No, I cannot. I have to accept or reject Moses on the basis of what Moses said and did.

And I must accept and reject Yeshua, Jesus, on the basis of what He said and did, not what people did in their name. The two kinds of people the Bible calls God's chosen are Jews and born-again believers.

Who are the two kinds of people most persecuted for centuries by the Roman Catholic Church? Jews and born-again Christians. Who are the two kinds of people militant Islam hates the most? Jews and born-again Christians.

I was supposed to debate Ahmed Didot this week in Johannesburg. He had a stroke. Under the Communists, before the Iron Curtain came down, who were the two kinds of people most persecuted? By the Communists.

Jews and born-again Christians. Why? I'll put enmity between you and the woman between your seat and her seat. They're both God's people. So let's continue. Going back to Imperial Rome, if they turn against the true Christians today, they'll turn against the Jews tomorrow.

And if they turn against the Jews today, they'll turn against the true Christians tomorrow. That includes people claiming to be Christians. Then again, all you have to do is read Kings and Chronicles and you'll find the Jewish religious leaders leading the people into idolatry.

Read Ezekiel Hanavi, Ezekiel the Prophet, naming the very high priests themselves who brought the people under God's judgment. Hamishvot Hashem. Jew and Gentile are both guilty before a holy perfect God.

And murderous, not just religious apocrisy, but murderous religious apocrisy has been perpetrated in the name of both faiths. I do not reject Moses and his father because of what was done in his name.

Neither do I reject Jesus for what was done in his name. I only care what Moses said and did and what Jesus said and did. That's the issue. Not what people did in their name. But let's look at the real issue now.

The Two Reasons for Rejecting Jesus as Messiah

The other reason Jewish people reject Jesus is this. He's supposed to be in the character of David. Why is there still a world in which there's famine, war, natural disasters, social injustice, anti-Semitism, why the Holocaust, the Ptolems and the Stonish Inquisition?

Why? If he's the Messiah, how come the world is no better and in many ways probably worse? Well, Daniel tells us. The Prophet Daniel says, after the Messiah comes and dies before the destruction of the second temple in Daniel 9, wars and desolations are determined till the end.

It doesn't say the Messiah is going to bring peace. In his first coming, the son of Joseph does not bring peace. It's the son of David. Let's understand how come the Talmud goes to these long, long, long debates trying to reconcile these two diverse fictions of HaMashiach ben Yosef, the Messiah, the son of Joseph, and HaMashiach ben David, the Messiah, who's the son of David.

And they get all these things, the two different ones, and one gets killed in the battle of Gog and Magog and gets raised up and they go to all these realms to reconcile it. Talk about the son of Joseph.

They understood he was the son of Joseph. This idea of a suffering servant was not a Christian invention. It's in Judaism. The suffering servant. In the character of Yosef, from Genesis, Brashith, Yosef, Joseph means he shall add or possibly God shall add.

Hashem shall add. Something more to come. Let's begin. Turn with me please to Brashith, Genesis chapter 37, verse 3. Now Israel loved Yosef more than all his sons because he was the son of his old age.

Yosef was the beloved son of his father. Yosef was the beloved son of his father. Turn with me please to Bithurah, Bethlehem, Matthew chapter 3. And behold, a covenant of mine, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Yosef was the beloved son of his father. Yeshua, Jesus, was the beloved son of his father. Genesis 37, 14. Yosef lived in Hebron, the place of fellowship with his father. He lived in Hebron, the place of fellowship with his father.

The Hebrew word Hebron means fellowship. Chith ha-bruth. Chith ha-bruth is derived from the Hebrew term chith ha-bruth, literally meaning bricks cemented together. That's the etymological definition of chith ha-bruth.

There's another Hebrew word, shuth ha-futh, but chith ha-bruth is bricks cemented together. Society, Hebra, Ha-bruth, these terms all come from the same root, Hebron. Yosef lived in the place of fellowship with his father.

Ha-besorah b 'ertei yohanan. The Gospel according to St. John, chapter 17, verse 5. And now glorify me together with thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. We have something called Mamre.

Mamre. In Aramaic, the Hebrew equivalent is dvar. The Greek equivalent is logo. The creator's messianic agent of God. With God from the beginning. With God from creation. Taught in the rabbinic literature as well as the New Testament.

From before the foundation of the world. And we have many aspects of this. Another is the metathron, the angel who dwells at the center of the throne. He has divine and messianic property. Even though he's an angel, he somehow has divine and messianic property.

He was at a place of fellowship with the Father before he sent. But in Genesis, chapter 37, verse 13, this is what we read. And Israel said to Yosef, Are not your brothers passing the flock in Shem? Come, I will send you to them.

The Father sent his beloved son to seek the welfare of his brothers. The father sent his beloved son to seek the welfare of his brothers. Not only that, he was sent by his father to seek the welfare of his brothers into a difficult situation.

And the beloved son went willingly. The father sent his beloved son into a difficult situation to seek the welfare of his brothers. I would be pleased to get it from Saul to Tarsus, the epistle of Paul, Rabbi Saul, to the Philippians, Tarek Getz, chapter 2, verse 5 -7.

Have this attitude in yourself, with which also was in the Messiah Yeshua, who although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with the sin to be grasped. As even Kabbalah admits, God is plural.

We say in Hebrew, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Yes, but the Hebrew word for the number one is Yechid. Echad is oneness. Plural oneness.

As in, Hineh matovu manayim shevetahim gam yachad. Same root. How good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. Or, Adam and Eve shall become one flesh of plural unity. We have no per se Hebrew word for God.

It's like water. There's no Hebrew word for water. It's Mayim. Water. There's no Hebrew word for sky or heaven. Only heaven or sky. Shemayim. There's no per se Hebrew word for God. It's plural. Eloheinu.

A rabbi, who Aristotelianized the Jewish faith and who was rejected by the other rabbis of his day, named Moses Maimonides, called the Rambam, essentially reversed the meanings of echad and yachid in popular Hebrew language.

But in Biblical Hebrew, as anyone who can read the Torah will tell you, the digit one, aresh, is yachid. Number one. So if you were to transliterate the Shema, it's, Here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

And the Kabbalah, physical Judaism, tells us of the plurality of God in its discourse on Hashem and the Tree of Life. The concept of plurality in the Godhead originates in Judaism, not Christianity. Let's forget there's one God.

The Incarnation and the Sinless Messiah

But emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. A feeler mothered with love, even death upon a cross.

God becomes a man in the person of the Messiah, as Adam heard God walking in the garden. Unthinkable? Yes. Why should God identify with us? Because to God, one man without sin is worth more than all the men with sin.

The problem is, as Isaiah said, All we like sheep have gone astray. Can you be saved through the mitzvot? Isaiah said, Our righteousness is as silty rags before God. The mitzvot were given to teach us about our need for a Messiah, to come and do for ourselves what we couldn't.

One man without sin is worth more than all the men with sin. That is why the faith has taught the Passover lamb has to be without blemish. When they took the Passover lamb, the Sanhedrin would examine him for up to 74 different defects.

And if they found no defects, they would pronounce the lamb fit to be slaughtered. That very day, when the Sanhedrin were inspecting the lamb, Yeshua was put on trial. And finding no spot of defects, they gave him to the Romans, and the Romans murdered him.

That's what happened. I recall, Rabbi Haim Revi, Hanasi Shalveta Mishpat HaGadol, the president or the chief justice of the Israeli Supreme Court in the 1970s, said that the trial of Jesus, Yeshua, was completely illegal by Jewish and Roman law.

That was the president of the Israeli Supreme Court writing about 15, 18 years ago. So, he was sent by his father to seek the welfare of his brothers into a difficult situation, and he goes willingly.

And so Yeshua, Jesus, is sent by his father into a difficult situation to seek the welfare of his brothers, and he goes willingly. John chapter 3, verse 16,. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For the Jew first, but also for the Gentile. Let's continue. Genesis chapter 37, verse 2,. Joseph was 17 years of age. He was pastoring the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Delah, the sons of Zinpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.

Joseph testified about the sins of his brothers, and they hated him. Joseph testified about the sins of his brothers, and they hated him. Let's continue. John 15, verse 18,. The world hates you. You know that it hated me before it hated you.

Jesus testified about the sins of his brothers, and Jesus, the son of Joseph, his brothers hated him. It's fortuitous that his foster father's name was Joseph. Emphasize his foster father. It's interesting in the liturgy, the Megillah Esther, the rabbis tell us that the scroll of Esther is unique.

And at one point in Jewish history it was associated, not only with Porter, but Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Why? Because they tell us that Esther had no father or mother, the Messiah, would have no earthly father or mother.

But let's continue. Genesis chapter 37, verse 5,. Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. Because in this dream, he told them the exalted position he would receive.

And when he told his brothers the exalted position he would receive, they hated him even more. Turn with me, please, to the Olivet Discourse, Matthew 24, verses 30 and 31. And the son of a son of man will appear in the sky, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn.

And they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. He will send forth his angel with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Jesus revealed to his brothers the exalted position he would receive in the future. And right after this, what happens? They hated him even more, to the point that they enticed the Romans into arresting him and having him killed.

But let's continue. Genesis 37, 26 to 28. And Judas said to his brothers, Yehuda, what profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let us sell him for the issue of life and not lay our hands on him.

He is our brother, our own flesh. And his brothers listened to him. And then what happens? Let's continue reading. They sell him for what price? Twenty pieces of silver. Joseph was betrayed by his Jewish brothers into the hands of Gentiles.

Specifically, his brother, Yehuda, shooting for twenty pieces of silver. Turn with me, please. Matthew 26, verse 15. What are you willing to give me to deliver him up to you? And they weighed out for him thirty pieces of silver.

As the prophet Zechariah, chapter 11, predicted, the Messiah would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver. Joseph, his brothers, conspire against him and betray him into the hands of the Gentiles for twenty pieces of silver, sold by his brother, Yehuda, Judas.

Yeshua, Jesus, his brothers, conspire against him and sell him into the hands of the Gentiles. Specifically, by his brother, Yehuda, Judas. After inflation, for thirty pieces of silver. In Genesis, chapter 39, we read something unique.

Joseph was betrayed to the utmost, and he couldn't save his life if he sins. Joseph was betrayed to the utmost, but he persevered and refused to sin, accepting what amounted to a death sentence, instead.

The Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter 4, verses 1 -11. The Messiah, Yeshua, Jesus, was tempted to the utmost. And he, too, did not sin. Genesis, chapter 39, verses 13 -18, please. And when she saw he had left his garments in her hands and had fled outside, she called to the men of the household and said to them, See, this man has bought in a Hebrew to us to make sport of us.

He came to me to lie with me, and I screamed. This Jew tried to rape me, in other words. It came about when he heard that I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment next to me and fled. Joseph was falsely accused and consequently falsely sentenced.

Turn with me, please, to Matthew 26, verses 59 -65. Now the chief priests and the whole council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Yeshua in order that they might be, might put him to death.

And they did not find any, even though many false witnesses came forward. But later on, two came forward and said, This man stated I'm able to destroy the temple of God and build it up in three days. Totally out of context of what he ever said or taught, but that's what they said.

They brought false witnesses against Joseph and he was sentenced on the basis of a false accusation and so was the Messiah. Again, the Messiah is a lamb led to slaughter. So was Jeremiah. The same council, what later evolved into the Sanhedrin, but before the captivity had been the council of the Levites, falsely accused Jeremiah and tried to turn the people against Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was rejected by the people at the behest of their leaders. He was thrown into prison and the Babylonians destroyed the first temple on a day of the Hebrew year, Peshava Av, roughly the 9th of August, there about.

So Yeshua was rejected the same way at the behest of the religious council and as a result, he was thrown into prison. The Hamishvat Hashem B 'alotam, the judgment of God came once again. And what happened?

The second temple was destroyed by the Roman Empire who preserved the same mystery of religions that began in Babylon that same day of the Jewish year, Peshava Av. Today they read Echad, Megillah Echad, the book of Lamentations is read in the synagogues, commemorating it.

But let's continue. Genesis 39, 20. So Joseph's master took him, put him into jail, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. And he was there in jail. But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave him favor in spite of the chief jailer and the chief jailer committed Joseph's charge to all the prisoners who were in jail.

Now as we read on, we begin to see what happened in the next chapter. It was the cup bearer and the baker. Joseph was criminally sentenced and imprisonment here meant the death sentence. Virtually you die in that prison, life expectancy wouldn't be too long.

Sort of like an Africanus guy being locked up in a cell with 20 soul brothers in South Africa. Don't worry if you got 10 years, you'd be lucky if you make it in six months. Something like that. Joseph was sentenced with two criminals.

And as Joseph prophesied, predicted, one lived and one died. Joseph was sentenced with two criminals and as he prophesied, one lived and one died. Turn with me please to the Gospel of St. Mark chapter 15, verse 27 and 28.

And they crucified two robbers with him, one on his right, one on his left. As the scripture was fulfilled, which says he was numbered with the transgressors, again Isaiah 53, Yeshayahu Nun Gemmo. And what happens?

And those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, ha, you who are going to destroy the temple and be golden in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross. Fulfilling the prophecies of King David in Psalm 22.

And the same way the chief priest also, along with the scribes were mocking him among themselves, saying, he saved others, he cannot save himself, et cetera, et cetera. Now what happens? Those who were crucified with him cast the same insults.

But Jesus told one he would live and one he would die. You'll be with me in my father's kingdom. Read this synoptically. Joseph was condemned with two criminals and as he prophesied one lives and one dies.

Jesus was condemned with two criminals and as he prophesied one lives and one dies. Joseph and the son of Joseph. But let's continue. Turn with me please to Genesis 41 -45. Then Pharaoh named Joseph Zephaniah and he gave him Asherah, the daughter of Hosea, priest of Om as his wife.

And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt. Joseph went from a place of condemnation to a place of exaltation in a single day. So Yeshua, Jesus, went from a place of condemnation to a place of exaltation in a single day.

We call it first truth during hajmasot, the first day of the week after Pesach, after Seder night. The Sunday morning Kohenagado, the high priest, would have to go out into the Kidron Valley lying between Har Zayatim the Hoseon, the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives.

Precisely at sunrise, precisely he would find the first bit of grain coming out of the earth which would be called the first truth. Precisely at sunrise and he would ceremonially harvest it at sunrise.

All four gospels tell us Yeshua rose at sunrise confirmed by the rabbinic literature. Remember, the two biggest enemies of Christianity were the mainstream rabbinic establishment. Not all Jews but the mainstream establishment who also rejected their own prophets.

They rejected their own prophets. It's perfectly logical they reject the Messiah. And the other is the Roman government. You read the Roman historians Plutonius, Tacitus they confirmed it was common knowledge throughout the Roman Empire that he rose from the dead.

You can get hundreds of maniacs in the jungle in Vienna to drink poison Kool-Aid and die in one place at one time. You can get a couple of dozen maniacs in wacko Texas following some crazy man claiming to be a messianic figure and shoot it out with the FBI in the states and get themselves killed or whatever.

But to get over 500 people over 500 Jews over 500 without Jews some in North Africa some in the Middle East some in Turkey some in Greece some in Italy in different places at different times willing to die the cruelest of deaths even seeing their own families murdered testifying with their dying breath we saw this man alive after he was dead that's something else.

That was not written by Christians that was written by pagan Romans who persecuted Christians that he rose from the dead after he did miracles as no other rabbi rose from the dead.

Ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives. That's not the New Testament that is from the rabbinic literature the Abu Dhabi Torah. It's one thing when your followers say things about you. It's another thing when your opponents have to admit it's true.