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6.9: A rod out of the stem of
Jesse
"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the
spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the
spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;"
Isaiah 11:1-2
Once again, we have here a verse which has been popularly
interpreted to apply to Jesus, and once again it must be
stated that although all Muslims believe in Jesus and in the
prophesies of him in the OT, still, this specific prophesy
does not apply to him, why?
To understand this prophesy we need to study the verses
carefully. These verses tell us that the rod (branch) which
shall grow out of the stem (trunk) of "Jesse" shall be
filled by God with wisdom, understanding, council, might,
knowledge, and the fear of God. In other words, he shall be
a statesman, a prophet and a judge. The obvious question
that springs to mind is: Who was "Jesse"? In the
Encyclopedia Biblica we read that Jesse is a contraction of
Ishmael, or:
"Jesse, for Ishmael
The changes which proper
names undergo in the mouths of small children account for a
large number of these particular abbreviations - who could
guess, to take modern examples, that Bob and Dick arose out
of Robert and Richard?
such forms as in ai were
particularly common in later times
and many more in
the Talmud, which also exhibits various other kinds of
abbreviation"
Encyclopaedia Biblica, Rev. T. K. Cheyne D.Litt D.D., J.
Sutherland Black M.A. LL.D., Vol. 3, under "Names," p. 3292,
item 52
Now, the reason why these biblical scholars have said
this may not be readily apparent to us simply by reading the
English rendition of these two words, however, when these
Christian scholars went back and looked at the original
Hebrew words, that is when they realized it's true meaning.
Although a complete understanding of why this is true would
require a knowledge of the Hebrew language, still, it is
possible at least phonetically to see this even in the
English language. Let us have a look.
In Hebrew, the word Ishmael is written as Yishma'e'l. It
is pronounced {yish-maw-ale'}.
Similarly, in Hebrew, the word Jesse is written as
Yishay. It is pronounced {yee-shah'-ee}, or in Aramaic it is
'Iyshay and pronounced {ee-shah'-ee}.
Thus, we begin to see, even in our phonetic Hebrew
rendition, how these Christian Biblical scholars came to
recognize that just as "Dick" is a contraction of "Richard,"
and "Bob" is a contraction of "Robert," similarly, by
studying the Hebrew words themselves, they found that
{yee-shah'-ee} is indeed a contraction of
{yish-maw-ale'}.
Isn't it amazing that we have been told this not by
Muslims, but by Christian scholars? Which Muslim
"Moor" stood over these Christian scholars with a drawn
sword and forced them to come to this realization?
Out of the thousands upon thousands of Hebrew names in the
Bible, what drove these Christians to recognize that Jesse
is derived from Ishmael and not, for example, from Judah, or
Isaac, or Shem, or any of these other thousands upon
thousands of Hebrew names? The odds against it are
astronomical if what the Qur'an said was false. Yet here we
have it in black and white. Isn't it amazing how with every
passing day the most learned among Christians scholars are
drawing closer and closer to Islam?
It is further interesting to note the following words of
the authors of this same "Encyclopaedia Biblica": They say:
"In many cases the contraction is such as to render the
discovery of the original form impossible."
hmm.
The only "branch" from the stem of Ishmael who was a
statesman, a prophet and a judge was prophet Muhammad
(pbuh). The reason many people interpret this verse to apply
to Jesus (pbuh) is because he is claimed to be of the
lineage of king David, and Jesse was the name of the father
of king David. However, why would this prophesy tie the
coming prophet to the father of David who was for all
practical purposes a completely unknown figure in the Bible?
It would be much more logical to follow the much more
popular trend found elsewhere in the Bible of associating
Jesus with king David himself who was both a king and
a prophet and a much more popular figure in the Bible and
much better known to anyone who reads it. In other words,
what is so direly special about king David's father that
this prophesy had to completely bypass the legendary prophet
king David himself in order to apply itself to his unknown
father? The answer is that it was not meant to apply to the
father of king David but to a descendant of Ishmael the son
of prophet Abraham.
It is further important to remember that insisting on
tying prophet Jesus (peace be upon him) to a human lineage
descendant from king David shall ultimately result in a
complete nullification of the religion known today as
"Christianity." This is because if Jesus is the descendant
of king David then he has a human father and his
father is not God.
Some attempts have been made to insist that Jesus was the
physical Son of God and at the same time apply spiritual
contradictory human lineages to him such as Matthew 1 and
Luke 3 so that he can be the physical son of both
David and God. This, even though the Bible is quite
explicit that the lineage must be a "physical" and not a
"spiritual" lineage. We find this stipulation spelled out
quite clearly in the Bible in:
- Acts 2:30 "Therefore being a prophet, and knowing
that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up
Christ to sit on his throne;" and
- Romans 1:3 "Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our
Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to
the flesh;"
Therefore, the only way that Jesus (pbuh) could be the
physical Son of God and also be the
physical son of king David "according to the flesh"
is if his lineage from kind David passes through his (human)
mother Mary (pbuh). However, if we were to read the two
contradictory lineages found in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 we
would find that both attempt to make his lineage pass
through a human father. In one it is "Joseph the son
of Jacob" and in the other is "Joseph the son of Heli." Such
practices can only hurt the message of Jesus (pbuh) rather
than helping it.
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