Evangelist Mark van Niekerk reports on his latest trip to the war-torn region

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘God-Fearers’ by Toby Janicki (First Fruits of Zion, 2012)

Paul Luckraft reviews three different translations of the ancient text.

If you wish to purchase a copy of the Didache for yourself then here are three very different options that I have come across and can recommend.

I have used all three in my article on the Didache, and readily acknowledge their help in compiling it. Which you would prefer will depend upon the level of analysis and commentary you require, and how much you want to spend!

Owles’ Translation

The simplest option is a translation by R Joseph Owles (2014, 33 pages). Be warned: all you get is an English translation. There is no Greek text to go alongside it or commentary to explain it, though there is a single page of notes at the end.

However, it is well-formatted in a way that makes it easy to read and understand. If that is all you require, then this will suffice and may be the cheapest version you can find.

Owles’s translation is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle forms.

Milavec’s Translation and Commentary

The next alternative is by seminary and university professor Aaron Milavec (2003, 114 pages), which starts with a very informative introduction. After this comes the Greek text with a side-by-side English translation (the Greek being on the left-hand page and the English on the right).

The remaining pages are mainly taken up with what is described as a brief commentary. Apparently, elsewhere, Milavec spent 15 years compiling a 1,000-page commentary, so he apologises that this one is neither exhaustive nor definitive! However, this briefer version (65 pages) will be more than sufficient for most readers.

The book also contains a bibliography and recommended electronic aids for further study of the Didache. Milavec provides several flowcharts showing the progression of various events, such as the key aspects of the Didache training, which might be of interest to some. The final few pages offer some considerations on the dating of the Didache and its dependence upon Matthew’s Gospel.

All in all, this is the edition that will be most suitable for those who want a bit more than just a basic translation, but don’t want to spend hours in further study.

The Milavec edition is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle forms.

Janicki’s ‘The Way of Life’ Version

If you want a book that will take you much deeper into all that the Didache offers, then The Way of Life by Toby Janicki is worth considering. Published in 2017 by the Vine of David, a publishing arm of Messianic ministry First Fruits of Zion, this is a hardback which will cost you more to obtain, especially as you may need to get it from the US.

This near 600-page volume contains a new translation (again, side-by-side with the Greek) and a very extensive commentary from a Messianic Jewish perspective. Indeed, it is described as the first commentary of this kind. Most Didache studies have been influenced by denominational church interpretations which did not value its Jewish context, so this book is a very worthwhile contribution to the whole Jewish roots movement.

One significant bonus is an appendix containing the Epistle of Barnabas which makes for a fascinating comparison with the Didache. Another appendix features the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus fragments. There is also a very full bibliography for the even-more-serious student!

Janicki’s ‘The Way of Life’ version is available in hardback form from FFOZ or from Amazon.com (both international shipping).

Lightning fails to strike on visit to church

Orthodox Jew David Rose became a follower of Jesus after meeting a believer through Facebook. Family and friends turned on him and he was barred from attending his synagogue, but he nevertheless rejoices in a personal relationship with the living God for the first time in his life.

He has since married his Facebook friend Christine, and also been baptised, both in the same church and in the traditional Jewish way – underneath a chuppah (canopy) for their wedding and in the form of a mikvah (a ritual bath taken before entering the Temple) for his baptism.

Provoked to Jealousy

From the tribe of Levi, who are set apart for holy service to God, David (whose Hebrew name is Dovid Yonah ben Moshe Halevi) was nurtured in a North-West London Jewish community, observing the rituals and feasts and regularly attending synagogue.

It was through a Facebook group he joined in 2015 that he eventually met Christine the following year, when David was struggling with his Jewish faith and its demands. He very much wanted to do something for God, and felt he should move to Bournemouth on the South Coast.

“As well as questioning my beliefs, I was into a lot of bad and ungodly things, which I knew were not pleasing to God,” he explained.

David was struggling with his Jewish faith and its demands- but he wanted to do something for God.

Christine, meanwhile, told him she was a born-again Christian who had invited Jesus into her life some 30 years earlier and David became jealous of her apparent direct communication with God. According to the scriptures (Rom 11:11, 10:19 quoting Deut 32:21), this is something Jews will experience on meeting Gentile believers with a confident faith.

“I thought it should be me, a Jew from the priestly tribe of Levi, who should be having this connection with God. So I told her that I too wanted whatever it was that she had.”

Welcomed In

So her son Richard, a church elder, prayed with him and he was put in touch with Rev Ralph Goldenberg, a fellow Jew and retired Church of England vicar.

He subsequently attended a Christmas Eve service (which, in 2016, happened to coincide with the Jewish festival of Chanukah) at St Mary’s, Ferndown, where Ralph was once churchwarden.

“I was nervous because I had been told all my life that if I went into a church I would be struck down by lightning. And I was also worried about what people might think of me wearing a kippah (skull cap). But I was welcomed wholeheartedly and one lady even wished me a ‘Happy Hanukkah’.

“After taking communion, and being nudged by Christine not to drink all the wine (which is the Jewish custom for feasts), I returned to my seat and began to feel strange. Suddenly I felt a ‘whoosh’ of cool air go right through me – and I knew I had received the Holy Spirit!

David befriended Christine and became jealous of her direct comunication with God.

“My life has since turned around. I have been delivered from demons, and have had dreams, visions and messages from Yeshua [Hebrew for Jesus]. God is taking me on a journey, and I have complete faith and confidence in him.

“But because of my new-found faith, I am no longer welcome at the synagogue I was attending. Worse still, three of my children will have nothing further to do with me and old friends have also disowned me.

“But I know that Yeshua is the Son of God, and he has promised to be my support and strength.”

A Life Transformed

David was baptised at St Mary’s in October last year and returned to the church to marry Christine within a week.

“Last year was unbelievably eventful, and it turned my life around big time,” he enthused.

Familiar as he is with the Jewish Tanakh (what Christians call the Old Testament), David has now discovered how it all points to the role of the coming Messiah, perfectly fulfilled in Yeshua.

For example, the Passover lamb of Exodus, whose blood protected the Israelites and set them free from slavery in Egypt, foreshadowed the death on a cross of Jesus, the ultimate Passover Lamb, as did the bronze serpent Moses raised on a pole for those suffering snake-bite – foreshadowing the ‘healing’ of our sins at the cross by Jesus, for “by his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:5).

Another such sign (see Luke 11:29-32) is the Prophet Jonah, who was in the belly of a whale for three days before being spewed up on the beach. As with Jonah, Jesus died and was buried before being raised to life after three days.

David now shares his new-found love for Yeshua both within church congregations, which helps them better appreciate the roots of their faith, as well as with other Jews searching for the truth.

As of old, Israelis face flak for following Jesus

It is an undisputed fact that the early followers of Jesus – who were mostly Jewish – came under fiery persecution, often from their own people.

Jesus himself was crucified and many of his disciples suffered similar fates, though more generally at the hands of the Romans.

However, the great Apostle Paul was a leading Jewish rabbi who saw it as his duty to persecute the new movement, presiding over the stoning of St Stephen in the process…until his dramatic encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus.

In some respects, things have come full circle since then. Jewish people are once more recognising Jesus as Messiah in significant numbers, and many are experiencing discrimination from their fellow Jews, especially in Israel.¹

Years of Harassment

Among them is Zev Sigulim, from Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, who has witnessed seven years of harassment from Orthodox Jews and been forced to fly to Cyprus to get married because traditional rabbis refuse to recognise Messianic Jews! Some even refused to circumcise his sons.

This is an ongoing issue for many believers, and a campaign is underway to draw the Government’s attention to this gross injustice. Being Messianic is also a potential hindrance to Jews from the diaspora making Aliyah (immigrating to Israel). And yet this does not apply to Jews who follow Buddhism or some New Age religion.

A campaign is underway to draw the Israeli Government’s attention to injustice against Messianic Jews.

But the likeable young Zev is not himself caught up with any campaign for justice. He accepts that being a disciple of Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) has always been costly, and delights in a way of life totally informed by his faith.

Zev Sigulim – no longer ashamed. Photo: Charles GardnerPraying for Boldness

From an Ultra-Orthodox background, Zev has five children and attends a congregation at Netanya on the Mediterranean coast – a one-hour drive away, quite a distance to travel each Sabbath.

A Polish Jew with blond hair and blue eyes, many of his ancestors perished in the Holocaust but his grandmother survived Auschwitz and the family moved to Israel. However, they subsequently emigrated to Toronto in Canada, where his father married a Gentile convert to Judaism and then made Aliyah to Israel, working for a Christian hi-tech company in Tiberias and becoming a secret Messianic Jew.

Tragically, he died soon afterwards in a car accident, but Zev’s mum had in the meantime noticed the change in his life and became sympathetic with this new movement in spite of opposition from the rest of the family – grandfather Jack disowned them.²

Zev’s widowed mother – pregnant with her third child at the time of her husband’s death – was impressed by the compassion and witness of the Messianic Jews of Arad in the Negev desert and also became a believer. It was at Arad that Zev witnessed the constant harassment of Orthodox Jews protesting at their presence in the city.

“There were pickets outside our house for seven years,” he said, adding:

My two brothers and I are all believers in Yeshua. But I grew up ashamed of my faith. Worried about being spat at and barred from certain activities, I kept it to myself. Then, when I was at the Naval Academy, a friend saw me reading the Bible (which is actually very unusual for Jews) and scolded me for not telling him earlier of my faith, saying: ‘Think of all the conversations we could have had.’

It hit me that I had wasted my time and I prayed that God would give me boldness and opportunities to speak of Yeshua. Inevitably, my faith grew.

95% of Messianics come to faith through non-Jews.

Pointing out that 95% of Messianics have come to faith through non-Jews, Zev encourages Gentiles to share the Gospel with Jews, but worries that most Christians don’t know enough about the Old Testament, which is essential for such witness.

Notes

1 It must be said, however, that this does not usually amount to the sort of vicious persecution Christians are currently suffering in the Muslim Middle East.

2 Many Jews see Christianity as their chief persecutor over the centuries, especially in view of the Holocaust carried out in ‘Christian’ Europe.

Acid attack victim challenges UK church over Christian persecution.

A Ugandan pastor severely injured by Islamic opponents of his faith has made a stirring appeal for British Christians to help their persecuted brothers in other parts of the world.

Umar Mulinde, who was badly burned by an acid attack outside his church five years ago, was speaking to a congregation in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, during a brief tour of the UK – organised by Methodist Friends of Israel – following treatment by Israeli doctors.

His challenge coincides with reports of an assassination attempt in Nigeria on Baroness Caroline Cox by Fulani Islamic militants¹ and Wednesday's illumination in red of Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament in memory of faith martyrs, an initiative conceived by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

No Country is Safe

Umar's plea also comes amid ongoing reports of violence against Christians in his country, despite the fact that Muslims are in a minority there. Even in the UK, former Muslims who have converted to Christianity are not safe, as indicated by the case of Nissar Hussain whose family had to be moved from their Bradford home under police protection following years of harassment.

Umar, now 40, suffered the "nightmare" of being "excommunicated" from his large Muslim family after deciding to follow Jesus. And having been taught to hate Jews, his heart melted when he understood from the scriptures how much God loved them.

"I have survived a dozen attempts on my life through guns, bombs and poison. On Christmas Eve 2011, as I was coming out of church, I was followed by extremists who, just as I was about to enter the car, poured acid on my face. Any metal other than gold will immediately dissolve in such a concoction, so you can imagine what happened to my skin."

A skin transplant and specialist hospital treatment only available in Israel has done much to repair his face, but it is clearly a serious handicap, requiring constant dabbing of his injured mouth while speaking. Recounting the attack, he said: "I screamed, 'Jesus!' But they shouted 'Allahu Akbar' [God is great!] They were praising God while hurting me. What kind of God is that? But for you to see me standing here is a miracle. Jesus has spared my life."

He then turned his focus to the suffering of Christians the world over and warned: "No country can say they are safe. It's a matter of time. This is not prophecy; it's a reality. Even in the UK you are sitting on a time-bomb."

Mulinde has said that no Christians are safe from persecution - even in the UK believers are "sitting on a time-bomb".

Parts of the Body Suffering

The persecution of Christians was a matter the Church in the West needed to address with the utmost urgency, he said, pointing out that, though the Ugandan constitution guarantees religious freedom and more than 80 per cent of the population is Christian, converts from Islam there are still persecuted.

"If one part of the body is hurting, the whole body suffers," he said, quoting St Paul's letter to the Corinthians on the subject of unity in the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:26). "I have buried people who have been strangled or poisoned just because of converting from Islam to Christianity."

He suggested that it wasn't 'Islamophobia' we should be concerned about, but 'Christophobia'. Efforts by media and politicians to defend Islam as a "peaceful religion" were deceptive. "Victims of persecution feel their Christian brothers have betrayed them," he said, adding that he was in touch with friends in Aleppo, Syria, who had witnessed the beheading of dozens of believers. He had a video to prove it, but did not recommend watching it in view of its gruesome scenes.

First the Jews...

Having expelled Jews from Arab lands, Islamic fundamentalists are now driving away Christians, he said. Whatever injustice is visited on Jews will sooner or later be visited on others, unless they do something to help. After the world was largely silent as violent attacks were committed on innocent bystanders in Jerusalem, bloodthirsty terrorists struck London, Paris, Brussels and Berlin as part of an ongoing attempt to bring the whole world under Islamic rule.

"Israel's war is our war if you are a Christian. I'm not a preacher of hate. I love Muslims and pray for them every day, even those who attacked me with acid. In fact, the first thing I did at the time was to ask God to forgive them!

Like it or not, the invasion is on. The Muslim extremists are trying their best to use intimidation and violence in order to establish an Islamic world empire under Sharia Law. There are even some places in the UK where the British police can't go."

Quoting a number of Quran verses calling for violence against 'infidels' (non-believers), he said: "Every non-Muslim is a candidate for death," adding: "If a church prays and does nothing, it will be defeated."

Whatever injustice is visited on Jews will sooner or later be visited on others, unless they do something to help.

Notes

1 Matthews, A. British baroness, 79, tells of her terror after she narrowly escaped an ambush by Islamist gunmen who targeted her delegation on a trip to Nigeria. Mail Online, 18 November 2016. Islamic militants have wreaked havoc among Christian communities in the area. Baroness Cox, a committed Christian, is a religious freedom campaigner and cross-bench member of the House of Lords.