So what is it? Is Jesus the "lamb of God" (a pagan concept) or is he a good shepherd watching over the lambs (sheep)?
In fact, the whole “lamb of G-d” concept of pagan – just do a review of Mithraism or other pagan religions to see that they called their gods the “lamb of god.” The image is one of an Egyptian god with the head of a sheep (adult lamb).
The Jewish Bible (T’nach) makes it clear time and again that lambs were considered holy by the pagans – including the Egyptians – and this is where John 10 takes the concept of “lamb of God” – most certainly NOT from Judaism. Read the story of Joseph in B'reshit / Genesis 46:34 – he says that being a shepherd is “taboo” in Egypt – because they were HOLY to the Egyptians (gods). "you must say, 'We and our fathers have dealt in livestock all our lives'. You will then be able to settle in the Goshen district since all shepherds are taboo in Egypt.'"
Go forward a few chapters to Sh'mot / Exodus and read the discussion between Moses and Pharaoh. Moses asked Pharaoh to allow the Jews to go into the desert and sacrifice the שֶׂה seh -- the reason was that we did not want to kill the שֶׂה seh in front of the Egyptians: "We can’t possibly do that,” said Moses, “because we’re going to sacrifice the Egyptians’ G-d to HaShem our G-d! If we were to sacrifice their G-d right in front of them, wouldn’t they pelt us with rocks?” (Sh'mot / Exodus 8:22).
The Egyptians would pelt us with rocks because we were INSULTING them by bringing a celebratory sacrifice of the שֶׂה seh (paschal goat or lamb) -- because the Egyptians worshiped the שֶׂה seh as a god! The Egyptian god Khnum had the head of a ram. Jews did not worship lambs as gods, the thought of a "lamb of G-d" in Judaism is non-existent. The idea is totally pagan, as Moses discussed with Pharaoh. . .
Pagan on every single count.
On the one hand, Christian missionaries call Jesus the lamb of god (pagan as discussed above) -- but here they claim Jesus is the "good shepherd." John goes even farther saying that Jesus is "the good shepherd (who) lays down his life for the sheep."
The claimed "prophecy" is line one of T'hillim / Psalm 23 -- but yet again the first line is actually skipped. The actual first line of T'hillim / Psalm 23 says "A song of David. The L-rd is my shepherd; I shall not want."
A SONG OF (about) DAVID.
Does it saying anything about human shepherds?
Does it say anything about a human shepherd giving up his life for his "sheep"?
Nope.
Nary a hint of such a concept.
What about line 2? Christian translations tend to omit the first line completely (as in the KJV) or don't number it. So what is line 2 -- the line they tend to call line 1? It is "He causes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters." T'hillim / Psalm 23:2 (1 in Christian versions).
Does that speak about a good shepherd (who) lays down his life for the sheep?
No again.
This is not about Jesus, it is about King David. David is saying, in this poem (not a literal statement -- but a poem, and not prophecy either) that G-d is always watching over him, as a shepherd watches its flock.
David, as king, was the human shepherd of the Jewish people -- but he was telling his people to direct their devotion to G-d, not to him -- a mere human.
The missionaries sometimes take any statement about G-d in the T'nach and claim it fits Jesus. Yet it is upon the missionary to prove that Jesus is G-d -- which they cannot do because he was not G-d. . . It may sound pretty to call Jesus a shepherd -- but there is no connection at all between the words of King David in this psalm and the claimed prophetic fulfillment made by the list maker.
One can debate whether or not Jesus was a shepherd of his followers -- but the fact is that T'hillim / Psalm 23:2 (1 in Christian versions) is a poem written by King David about his relationship with G-d and does not fit Jesus.
Comment:
Only John declared (Jn 1:29; 36) that Jesus is the "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Strange that such a vital theological point/teaching was omitted by Mark, Matthew, or Luke. Stranger yet is that Jesus never made such an unequivocal claim. John or the Johannine community was writing about 95 CE and reflects high Christology. By that time every who had experienced the purported events during and following Jesus's ministry were dead. Jerusalem was destroyed. Therefore, nobody could refute this or other FALSE teachings and stories about Jesus.
Author: Hans Fransen
