(May 12, 2015 at 10:00 am)Rhondazvous Wrote:Vicki Q Wrote:Indeed it would appear that my core point- the Psalm as interpreting the crucifixion events rather than being evidence of Jesus disobedience remains intact. It still remains a remarkable piece of writing.
Xtians have ransacked the Jewish scriptures to find stuff they can interpret as types of Christ, but it all still depends on interpretation rather than actual foretelling.
This is probably correct. The Easter events came as a massive shock to the disciples. It was afterwards when they tried to make sense of it all that they went back to the OT to work out what had happened and why.
They found themselves looking at the promises to Abraham, the Suffering Servant passages, God's promise to return to His people; and they concluded that it had all happened, but in a very, very different way to what had been assumed would happen.
Jesus words on the cross relate to a Psalm which explains all this...but in retrospect as you say. The Psalm is giving the events the all important context. If this weren't such a conservative atheist forum, I might gently suggest that maybe the Gospel writer put it in to explain Jesus' death to those who didn't get it. But you prefer your Xians to be fundies, so I won't...
Quote:By that line of "reasoning," you have to admit the beautiful princess really did prick her finger and fall asleep for a 100 years just like the good fairy said she would, so Sleeping Beauty must be true. No book can fulfill its own prophecy.
That's a good argument that would certainly be true if the book's genre is fictional. However the NT genre is that of a Greek bios ('biography'), albeit of a sub-type unique to that genre.
I would not use the not uncommon “All the prophecies came true so it proves Jesus is God” type of argument, and you're right to challenge its use.
But consider this: God said that things would be done that were done, but in a very different and far more universal way was than had ever been thought. That gives rise to some very interesting questions indeed.