James Trimm’s Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah Chapter 8
8:14
And He shall be for a sanctuary,
but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense
to both the houses of Yisra’el:
for a gin and for a snare
to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.
(Isaiah 8:14 HRV)
The pashat of this verse clearly teals with the House of Israel, i.e. the Northern Kingdom and the lost ten tribes of Israel, and the House of Judah, the Southern Kingdom and the Jewish people.
the Talmud applies Is. 8:14 to Messiah and identifies the two houses with the Rabbinic Schools of Babylon and Palestine, which produced the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds respectively.
Judah and Hezekiah, the sons of R. Hiyya, once sat at table with Rabbi and uttered not a word. Whereupon he said: Give the young men plenty of strong wine, so that they may say something. When the wine took effect, they began by saying: The son of David cannot appear ere the two ruling houses in Israel shall have come to an end, viz., the Exilarchate, in Babylon and the Patriarchate in Palestine, for it is written, And he shall be for a Sanctuary, for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both houses of Israel (Is. 8:14). Thereupon he [Rabbi] exclaimed: You throw thorns in my eyes, my children! At this, R. Hiyya [his disciple] remarked: Master, be not angered, for the numerical value of the letters of yayin is seventy, and likewise the letters of sod: When yayin [wine] goes in, sod [secrets] comes out.
(b.San. 38a)
This is especially significant, since the pashat of the text of Isaiah makes it clear that this figure is YHWH.
The Ancient Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah (c. 250 CE) says:
פשרו שני הבתים הם בית שמאי ובית הלל מהם ירדו הסופרים והפרושים. עקיבא קיבל את ביתהם. הוא נקרא רבה של עֲקִילַס הגר. ואחריו בא מאיר. אחרי הלל ירשו יוחנן בן זכאי ואחריו אליעזר וטרפון ויוסף הגליל וישוע עד לכיבושה של ירושלים. אז שמאי והלל נולדו ביהודה ובזמן קצר לפני האדון. שמו של הראשון מתפרש שמם. והשני מתפרש חלל. הוא השם וחלל את מצוות התורה ביד גזרתו ומשנה. ואלה שני הבתים שלא קיבלו את המושיע שהפך להם נגף ומכשול
Its interpretation (pesher): The two houses are Beit Shamai and Beit Hillel from which the scribes and Pharisees descended. Akiva took over their school, he is called the master of Aquila the proselyte. And after him came Meir. (Hillel having been succeeded by Yochanan Ben Zakkai and after him Eliezer and Tarphon, and Yosef HaGalil and Yeshua up to the capture of Jerusalem.) Shammai then and Hillel were born not long before the Lord; and they originated in Judah. The name of the first means “scatterer” and of the second “profane”, because he scattered and defiled the precepts of the Torah by his decrees and Mishnah. And these are the two houses who did not accept the Savior who has become to them stumbling and offense.
8:19-22
19 And because they shall say unto you: ‘Seek unto the mediums and to the wizards, of whisperings and mutterings; should not a people seek unto their Elohim? [not] about the living to the dead.
20 For Torah and for testimony? If they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them.
21 And they shall pass this way that are sore bestead and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their Elohim, and, when they turn their faces upward,
22 or look unto the earth, behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and outspread thick darkness.
(Isaiah 8:19-22 HRV)
The Ancient Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah (c. 250 CE) says:
פשרו וכי הסופרים והפרושים יאמרו אליכם לשמוע אותם, אנשים שעושים הכל למען אהבת הבטן, ואשר המצפצפים והמהגים כדרך הידענים לרמות אותך. תאמרכם להם לא מפתיע אם אתה ממלא אחר גזרתכם כי כל עם שאל עצביהם. לכן אסור לנו שאל המתיכם על החיים. אלוהים נתן לנו את התורה ואת עדות הכתובים. אם לא תמלא אותם ולא יהיה לך אור. והחושך תעוק אותך עד עולם. יעבור דרך אדמתך ולמידתך. כאשר הם רואים שטעתם אותם בטעות וכאשר הם רעבים לאמת הם יהיו עצובים או התקצפים. והם יקללו אתכם החושבים שאתם אלים ומלכים. ולשווא הם מסתכלים אל השמים והארץ כי הם תמיד בחושך והם לא יכולים לברוח למוקשיכם
Its interpretation (pesher): And when the Scribes and Pharisees tell you to listen to them, men who do everything for the love of the belly and who chirp and mutter in the way of wizards in order to deceive you, you must answer them like this: “It is not strange if you follow your decrees since every nation consults its own idols. We must not, therefore, consult your dead about the living ones. God has given us the Torah and the testimonies of the scriptures. If you are not willing to follow them you shall not have light, and the darkness will always oppress you. It will pass over your land and your teaching so that, when they see that you have deceived them with error and they are hungry for the truth, they will then be sad or enraged. And they shall curse you who think you are gods and kings. And in vain they look to the heavens and the earth, And let them look at the heaven and the earth in vain since they are always in darkness and they cannot flee away from your snares.