Jews4: Landmann’s great OT Bible lesson

      This continues from Part 3 (Table of Contents in Part 1) in a series presenting an exchange between Old Missouri Synod's missionary Daniel Landsmann and a learned Jewish Rabbi. — Landsmann's wonderful knowledge of the Old Testament was a great encouragement for my Christian faith. From Der Lutheraner, vol. 42 (May 1, 1886), pages 65-67:

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From our mission to the Jews.

[by Daniel Landsmann] (cont'd from Part 3)

Then the Rabbi said: “Mr. L., you said before that Jesus had done the miracles by his own power. That is not true! Our prophets, such as Moses, Elijah and Elisha, also performed miracles, but did they perform them by their own power? No, God helped them, as he did Jesus.” 

[Landmann’s great OT Bible lesson follows:]

I [Landmann]: “Very good, then Christ is a prophet. But why then do ye not believe His words? Why do you hate Him, and spit out when you hear His name? — By the way, Jesus was not only the great prophet of whom it is said in Deuteronomy 18:15—19, “unto him ye shall hearken,” etc., but He was Jehovah Himself. I took my Bible and read Isa. 45:17, where it says, ‘But Israel shall be saved in Jehovah [the Lord] with an everlasting salvation.’ etc. 

Now I ask you: ‘If you must advertise yourselves saved by Jehovah as Jehovah, why do you pray three times a day: O that the Tzemach [or tsemach: branch] of David would come and redeem us? But if a son of David must redeem you, and in this you are right, then He, the Messiah, must necessarily be Jehovah, as it is written in this text: ‘through Jehovah’. Truly, the Messiah of the Bible, for whom our patriarchs and prophets hoped, must, if He is to redeem us lost sinners, Himself be without sin; He must be, as it is said in Isa. 9:6, El Gibbor, the Mighty God, or as it is said in Jer. 23:6, Jehovah Tsidkenu [the Lord Our Righteousness]. But if He was, He could do all miracles by His own power [i.e. not by Schem Hamphoras]. He was greater than all the prophets, He was God-man! The Apostle was right in saying that Christ was the brightness of God's glory, and the image of His being; yea, He was the Maleach panaw the Angel of His countenance, or, as your Machsor saith, “Yeshua sar hapanim,” that is, “Jesus, who is the Prince of God’s countenance.”

I quoted to them passages from Micah 5:1, Jer. 23:5-6, Zech. 13:7, etc. — 

“What more do you want?” I asked. “Who is in the wrong: the Christians or the Jews? Who is twisting the Word of God: the Jews or the Christians? We Christians simply stick to the Word of God and believe it simply, whether we can understand it by reason or not. We do not practice sophistry; we trust God with everything and know that He will not deceive us. But you stand above the Bible, just like the Pope, and want to master God. You have made a hundred commentaries on the Bible, one disagreeing with the other. You have completely distorted God's Word” [col. 2], and so on. I read Isa. 5:20—21, and showed them how God complained about Israel even then, when they did not yet have the Talmud, and how much more now. They were silent, and made no answer. — 

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Silence, once again among these New York Jews. Here was the true God standing before their eyes, in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament.  Shall I not call Daniel Landsmann the "Jewish Luther"? May Landsmann's great Bible lesson be an encouragement for the reader's faith as it was for mine. — The conclusion follows in Part 5…