that God will dwell with mankind upon the earth: “Hear, all you peoples, every one of you; let the earth and all that is in it listen, for the Lord will bear witness against it. He will come forth from His dwelling place, descend, and tread upon the heights of the earth because of the sin of the children of Jacob.” (1)

We reply: first it must be proven that these words were actually spoken by a prophet, that the phrasing you have is truly his, and that the translation corresponds exactly to it. None of this is established.

After that, our answer to this passage is the same as our answer to its counterparts—both those you have cited and those you have not (2). Nothing in these words (3) shows that the Messiah is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, a true deity who is neither fashioned nor created. The statement “God will dwell with people on the earth” simply means that He is with them; when His light, guidance, religion, and prophet are present on earth, that is His dwelling. It does not mean that His sacred Essence descends from the Throne to live among the inhabitants of the earth. Even if—granting the impossible—that were to occur, it would not follow that the One who dwelled must be the Messiah, for He had already “dwelt” with other messengers and prophets before and after him. What, then, requires that the Messiah alone be declared divine, to the exclusion of his fellow messengers?

Is it, perhaps, because of the power and authority he allegedly exercised while on earth? Yet you yourselves say that he was arrested and subjected to the utmost humiliation, degradation, and subjugation—such, then, is the fruit of his supposed dwelling on earth among His creatures.

And if you say, “His dwelling on earth means His manifestation in the human nature of the Messiah,” we respond: The only possible, intelligible manifestation is the manifestation of His love, knowledge, and religion