I just took another look at the
link DOC gave for 60 fulfilled prophecies concerning Jesus. Here are the first 10:
Concerning His birth:
Prophesied---Fulfilled
1. Born of the seed of woman- Gen 3:15, Gal 4:4
2. Born of a virgin- Isa 7:14, Mt 1:18-25
3. Seed of Abraham- Gen 22:18, Mt 1:1
4. Seed of Isaac- Gen 21:12, Lk 3:23+34
5. Seed of Jacob- Num 24:17, Lk 3:34
6. Seed of David- Jer 23:5, Lk 3:31
7. Tribe of Judah- Gen 49:10, Rev 5:5
8. Family line of Jesse- Isa 11:1, Lk 3:32
9. Born in Bethlehem- Mic 5:2, Mt 2:1-6
10. Herod kills the children- Jer 31:15,
Mt 2:16-18
First, let's deal with the most obvious, numbers 1, 3,4 and 5: Of course Jesus would be born of a woman, whether or not he were the Messiah. He would also have to be Jewish, i.e. of the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So these aren't really divinely inspired prophecies.
As to #2, Isa. 7:14, let's put it in its proper context (Isa. 7:14 - 16):
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman [Heb.
almah] shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel ["God is with us"]. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For, before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, he land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.
So, Isa. 7:14 does not refer to a virgin birth. The Hebrew word for "virgin" is
bethula. The word
almah, which is used in Isa. 7:14 just means a young woman. Furthermore, the child spoken of in the prophecy is referred to as being alive in the time of the prophecy, i.e. during the reign of King Ahaz, who was being attacked by two kings, Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus. Before the child in the prophecy is old enough to know good from evil the land of these two kings would be made desolate. This happened during the reign of the Assyrian emperor Tiglath-peliser, who dies in 727 BCE. Thus, the prophecy cannot apply to Jesus.
Prophecies 6,7 and 8 that the Messiah would be of the tribe of Judah (the only tribe left, hence the name of the nationality as "Jew"), of the house of Jesse and David are really, in essence, one prophecy, a prophecy that only holds up if we accept the word of the authors of Matthew and Luke, whose nativity stories, as I've already noted, contradict each other in every particular. The same holds true for prophecy #9, that the Messiah wold be born in Bethlehem.
Finally, let's take a look at prophecy #10: that Herod would kill the children of Bethlehem. Is that really what Jer. 31:15 predicts? Let's see:
Thus says the LORD:
"A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not.
The problem here is that Ramah, the hometown of Samuel, is in Ephraim, hence the reference to Rachel, mother of Joseph and Benjamin, weeping for her children. Thus, it is
not Bethlehem. In any case, in the context of Jeremiah 13, this cannot refer to Herod's slaughter of the innocents (which was likely fictional), since verses 16 and 17 say specifically that Rachel will be comforted, that her children will return from exile. This could hardly refer to the mothers of the babies and toddlers in Bethlehem, who according to Matthew, were murdered by Herod's soldiers.
Thus, the first 10 prophecies of the 60 are complete duds.
