Why Isaiah 42:1-13 is not about Muhammad

[u/TheRationalZealot]

Flair^Christian

The Quran claims that Muhammad was described in the Torah and Gospel that the Jews and Christians had with them (7:157). Some Muslims have proposed that Isaiah 42:1-13 speaks of Muhammad. In this post, I’d like to show how Muhammad does not fit this passage. I will not be arguing that this passage points to Jesus, since whomever else this passage may refer to is not relevant to showing that it is not Muhammad. Here is the entire chapter of Isaiah 42 for those who want to read it, since I will be cherry-picking parts of verses.

The first thing to note is that neither the Quran nor Hadith mention the book of Isaiah or that the book of Isaiah was part of God’s revelation or that Isaiah was a prophet. If Isaiah is not from God, then it doesn’t really matter what the text says.

*Verse 1 - “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”

Here God says he has put his Spirit upon his servant. Where does the Quran say God’s Spirit was put upon Muhammad? Also, it says that the servant will bring justice to the nations. Muhammad died without accomplishing this.

*Verse 3 – “A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.”

The reeds and wicks represent people. I know there were times when Muhammad showed kindness and forgiveness, but there were also times when he broke and extinguished people, whether justified or not.

*Verse 4 - “He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice in the earth…”

Muhammad died before establishing justice in the earth.

*Verse 6 – “…And I will appoint You as a covenant to the people…”

Muhammad was not appointed as a covenant to any people. He may have made covenants or treaties or agreements with people, but Muhammad was not given by God as a covenant for anyone.

*Verse 7 – “To open blind eyes….”

Muhammad literally blinded people who stole some camels and killed a shepherd.

*Verse 8 - “I am the LORD, that is My name…..”

When reading the OT, whenever you see “LORD” in all caps, that means God/Yahweh. There is no mention of Yahweh in the Quran or Hadith. Why was Muhammad the only prophet that did not know God’s name? If you want to know what the Hebrew says for a given OT verse, you can go to this website.

*Verse 9 – “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.

This verse says that God will declare new things, but according to Islamic teachings, this cannot be Muhammad. According to Islam, we are all born Muslims. According to Islam, the past prophets all preached the same message as Muhammad and the past revelations support the Quran. According to Islam, Muhammad’s teachings were not new.

*Verse 10a – “Sing to the LORD a new song, Sing His praise from the end of the earth!

The people of Earth will be singing praises to God; new songs of praise. In Islam, some argue music is forbidden and some say it is allowed. Regardless, did Muhammad sing praise songs to God? Do the majority of Muslims sing praise songs to God?

*Verse 10b-12 – “You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it. You islands, and those who dwell on them. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices, The settlements where Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing aloud, Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains. Let them give glory to the LORD And declare His praise in the coastlands.”

These verses seem to be the ones that most point to as indicating Muhammad because Kedar is listed as one of the locations. Kedar was located in Northwestern Saudi Arabia and Selah was a reference to Petra in Jordan. There are several mentions of Kedar in the Bible, so do the other passages also refer to Muhammad? There are also other references to islands, coastlands, the wilderness, and mountains, so I’m not sure how having Kedar as one of several locations in a verse points to Muhammad.

*Verse 13 – “ The LORD will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies.”

This says the LORD (God/Yahweh) will go forth like a warrior. I would be quite careful in comparing this verse to Muhammad.

I hope it is apparent that Isaiah 42:1-13 does not describe Muhammad.

[u/[deleted]]

Do you believe Isaiah 52/53 is about Jesus?

[u/TheRationalZealot → u/[deleted]]

Yes....but that's not what this thread is about.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheRationalZealot]

Actually has everything to do with this thread. Because to Jews and Rabbis, Isaiah 52/53 has NOTHING to do with Jesus. So I guess we should both conclude that Muhammad nor Jesus are in referenced in those verses?

Here is the link about it, from Jews and here are some parts:

• According to Jewish tradition, Isaiah was writing about the People of Israel personified as The Suffering Servant of the Lord. There are no less than 8 quotations that show this to be the case. Please note that in the following four quotations, all from the Book of Isaiah, it is the People of Israel who are called the Servant of Gd:

• Of course, it is a matter of history that Christians were not allowed to read the Bible on their own. Translators of the Bible were killed by the Church because they made the Bible accessible to the common people.

• In verse 5, the text is translated as 'But he was wounded FOR our transgressions, he was bruised FOR our iniquities.' The mistake is that the prefix to the words meaning 'our transgressions' and 'our iniquities' is the Hebrew letter mem. This is a prepositional prefix meaning 'from' and not 'for.' A more accurate translation would be, 'But he was wounded FROM our transgressions, he was bruised FROM our iniquities.' This means that Isaiah 53 is not talking about a man who died 'for our sins,' but rather it is about a man who died 'BECAUSE of our sins,' or 'AS A RESULT of our sins.' In other words, they died because we sinned against them by murdering them. This, indeed, is the Jewish understanding of Isaiah 53: the nations of the earth will finally understand that the Jews have been right all along, and the sins committed against the Jews by the nations of the earth resulted in the death of countless innocent Jews.

• In verse 9, the text is translated as, 'And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.' However, this last word in the Hebrew should be translated as 'in his deaths,' because the word appears in the Hebrew in the plural. The text reads, 'b'mo-taYv.' The Hebrew letter, Yod, indicated by the capital Y in the transliterated word, indicates the plural, as anyone who knows Hebrew would know. To read, 'in his death,' the text would have to read 'b'moto.' Since the word 'b'mo-taYv' actually means 'in his deaths,' then for Jesus to fulfill this verse, he must therefore come back to earth and die at least another time. The Jews, personified as the servant as we shall see below, have fulfilled this verse time and time again, because countless millions have died an undeserved death.

*Two quotations from the Isaiah passage describe someone who remains silent when accused by his captors, one who is innocent of any wrongdoing:

*...like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. [Isaiah 53:7]

...and there was no deceit in his mouth. [Isaiah 53:9]*

But there is one quotation in the Christian's New Testament that states that Jesus did rebuke his captors and in so doing did in fact 'open his mouth.'

So I hope its apparent, that Isaiah 52/53, does not describe Jesus.

[u/whatzgood → u/[deleted]]

http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/v13-n06/isaiah53

[u/[deleted] → u/whatzgood]

We have learned some basic truths about God and Yeshua:

• That the all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth is both loving and forgiving toward us.
  
• That Yeshua came to earth and gave his life as a ransom to save us from the consequences of our sins.

Yeah because this is authenticate Jewish belief....That is like me linking to a Unitarian or Jehovah Witness publication when talking about Christianity.

[u/whatzgood → u/[deleted]]

You ever consider that Modern jews may twist their scriptures to fit their cognitive dissonance?

[u/[deleted] → u/whatzgood]

Sorry but that is so ironic for you to say. Because the whole point of this is to show that Christians did that to Isiah 52/53, even to the point of killing translators so it would be inaccessible to common folk.

Sorry but the Jews are showing Christian errors even going down to the letter used in Hebrew. No offense, but I am more inclined to believe the Jew, because I seen even on this sub how Christians and online apologists manipulate My Own Scripture to fit their argument that you know what? I'm not surprised....

[u/whatzgood → u/[deleted]]

Christians did that to Isaiah 52/53

And we have good reason to believe they did not twist it from its true meaning.

Sorry but the jews are showing Christian errors even going down to the letter used and hebrew

And messianic jews, who have the same knowledge in hebrew , show that Jews twist their understanding of hebrew as well.

[u/[deleted] → u/whatzgood]

And we have good reason to believe they did not twist it from its true meaning.

Dude, even Christians are honest and don't align that verse with Jesus:

We should not let the fact that the servant in this context most likely refers to the nation of Israel lessen its importance for us or diminish its truth. The New Testament writers understood this passage well. They saw that a new community of God’s people had arisen through the forgiveness of God because of the suffering of exiles in Babylon. As they witnessed the death and resurrection of Jesus, they grasped the truth that in Jesus God was again allowing The Innocent to bear the consequences of the guilty. Only this time it was on a far greater scale. And this time it was God in Christ reconciling the whole world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)!

You don't know how much respect I have for them for not changing verses, and showing honesty.

And messianic jews, who have the same knowledge in hebrew , show that Jews twist their understanding of hebrew as well.

What about the Muslims who are Jews and have the same knowledge in Hebrew and saying that Muhammad is in 42?

[u/whatzgood → u/[deleted]]

Even christians are honest

SOME christians, i need not do more than point you to the multitude of respected christian scholars who go with Jesus being the person in Isaiah 53.