The role of faith in the Labour Government

Paul Luckraft reviews ‘Anti-Judaism’ by David Nirenberg (Head of Zeus, 2013)

Sharon and Frances Rabbitts review ‘Sister Religions’ (Hatikvah Films, 2014).

In ‘Sister Religions’, we are offered a sensitive yet no-nonsense consideration of what has become a defining issue of our day: the relationship between Judeo-Christianity and Islam.

This series of five interviews, each half an hour or less, gives viewers a frank and biblical response to the common misconception that Jews, Christians and Muslims all worship the same god (bracketed as they often are under the term ‘the Abrahamic religions’) and equips Christians to respond well to the challenge of Islam.

There are four interviews with Dr Mark Durie (Australian theologian, pastor and researcher), book-ended with an introduction from former bishop Michael Nazir-Ali and a final interview with religious liberty advocate Elizabeth Kendal. Each session approaches this minefield of a topic from a slightly different angle – and the interviews necessarily jump around a bit, as interviews tend to do – which can make for confusing viewing. However, the general structure is clearly chronological.

A Stormy Relationship

After the introduction, in which Nazir-Ali tackles the disputed belief that Jews, Christians and Muslims share ancestry in Abraham and gives a brief overview of the “stormy” relationship between the three religions, Mark Durie begins with the historic foundation of Islam, including the different stages of Mohammed’s life and their connection into the writings that have become the Qur’an.

In the third session, he turns to the colonial expansion of Islam and how this was prophesied in the Bible, as well as the development of classic Muslim attitudes to non-Muslims (dhimmi), as exemplified in the ‘jizya’ tax. Durie’s discussion here is fascinating, as he not only clarifies the Islamic mindset towards non-Muslims, but also alludes to the profound spiritual impacts the jizya can have, as a curse.

There is fascinating discussion of how the jizya tax operates as a curse.

There is also a very useful overview in this session of the Islamic co-option of history and the Christian scriptures to suit its own theology – and the continuation of such practice today.

Durie’s final session engages with the tricky area of inter-faith dialogue - its potentials and dangers. The last interview (Kendal) departs from discussions about theology and history to focus on contemporary Islamic persecution of Jews and Christians around the world – and how Western Christians might respond.

As the DVD progresses, viewers not only get a decent potted history of the relationship between Islam and Judeo-Christianity, they also get expositions of key terms like ‘jihad’, ‘Islam’ and ‘jizya’. The sessions also develop a clear sense of the classic Islamic attitude towards Jews and Christians, which is being revived in modern-day jihad with deeply concerning fidelity.

Sobering Viewing

This is not intended to be light-hearted viewing; it is a sobering production designed to be a serious study aid. It is visually unexciting, being simply a series of face-to-face interviews rather than a documentary – and Durie and Kendal perhaps speak more engagingly than Nazir-Ali. However, all three are clearly experts in their field and answer the questions in a grounded, sensitive way.

In all, it is to be commended for its concise and eloquent yet uncompromising coverage. It blows out the water the common misunderstanding that Islam is somehow on the same footing as Christianity and Judaism and is able to be compared and contrasted as an equal. Instead, it shows that Islam has a fundamentally different set of starting points and a different mindset.

This is a serious study aid with concise, eloquent and uncompromising coverage.

For those new to the topic, this DVD is a good and thought-provoking introduction. For those already well-versed in the matter, there might be little new material (excepting, perhaps, Kendal’s interview) – but the whole thing would make a good discussion prompt for study groups or interested friends.

Explosive questions about how Christians should treat and engage with Muslims are tackled with sensitivity and respect. It would be suitable for open-minded non-Christians to watch, even though it is made with Christian viewers in mind. It should generally be targeted at teenagers and older, given the seriousness of the subject matter.

If anything, the DVD would benefit from an accompanying study guide – particularly for use in a group context. If you are planning to use it in this way, we would recommend the group leader watching it ahead of time and noting stand-out points and questions, to aid discussion. Alternatively, books by Mark Durie (e.g. Which God? Or The Third Choice, both available from Hatikvah) stand as recommended accompaniments.

‘Sister Religions’ is available from Hatikvah Films (where you can also watch a trailer) for £9.99 plus P&P, or rent online for less.

Clifford Denton discusses the principle that all Scripture is founded on the first five books of the Bible - the Torah.

In the last study we looked at the covenant purposes of God to show that there is an overarching principle of covenant throughout all history. This week we will look at another unifying principle of our faith, handed down by the nation of Israel. This is the principle that all Scripture is founded on the Torah, the first five books of the Bible.

All Scripture is for all of God's people. It is not to be seen as the Old Testament for the Jews and the New Testament for Christians. The basis of Scripture, from the Hebraic point of view, is the Torah. Now this is not to say that the basis of our faith is Torah - the basis of our faith is faith in Jesus the Messiah. So how are we to read all Scripture with the right balance?

All Scripture is for all of God's people. It is not to be seen as the Old Testament for the Jews and the New Testament for Christians.

We do not replace Jesus by the Torah, or Torah by Jesus. We see him as a fulfilment, a manifestation - a full realisation of Torah. So in saying that we are to take a Torah perspective on the scriptures, we are neither going into legalism nor a replacement of Jesus. In fact, by reading the scriptures as they should be read, Jesus will be central, and we will come to know him better.

Torah Foundations

So let us consider how Torah is the basis of all Scripture. A well-known and respected Jewish Rabbi, Samson Rafael Hirsh, wrote a book called Horeb (Soncino, 2002). Horeb was the mountain of God where God met with Moses to give him detailed aspects of Torah. Hirsch comments in his introduction:

As far as the term torot is concerned, it can without difficulty be applied to the general religious truths of Judaism because the word Torah, although sometimes used for the whole corpus of our laws, originally signifies teaching or doctrine.

To Hirsch, Horeb means to plant the seed in someone else - hence to implant the seeds of truth and morality in others to transform their lives.

So that torot are the teachings which God has revealed to us of truth and goodness, which we are to accept in our minds and feelings so as to beget in us the knowledge of truth and the decision to do good. The value of torot can therefore never lie in their merely doctrinal or theoretical character, but in their motive power leading to action as a transforming agency in the lives of men.

Hirsch seems to be a Jew speaking about these things from a Christian perspective, but really he is showing us that for both Jews and Gentiles called by faith, there is a purpose in Torah that goes beyond legalism. Legalism is certainly a valid criticism of much of the Jewish world. They took the teachings of Moses and legalised them so much as to take the life from them. But there is also a deep truth in what we read from Rabbi Hirsch, that the Torah is the heart of God's teaching for all mankind. Torah is to be manifest in our lives, and that is the pursuit of the Jew and the believing Gentile - all who come into this one family of faith. Remember that it was Jesus himself who said:

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10)

All of God's teaching is to bring life. He also said in Matthew 5:17-18:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law [Torah], or the prophets, I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For I truly tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the law [Torah], until everything is accomplished.

There is a purpose in the Torah that goes beyond legalism – it is the heart of God's teaching for all mankind.

We must reject the idea that a Torah foundation to Scripture leads to legalism. It can lead to legalism but need not do so. God does require standards, and he tells us what these are. Therefore, we must be disciplined in our walk of faith, but we must also find God's heart through his teaching. All the laws of God are full of his heart's concern for us. That is why the Holy Spirit came to write the teaching on our hearts.

Where is the Balance?

So where is the balance? How can we re-assess the scriptures and discover their Torah foundation? This is central to our Hebraic and Jewish heritage. Also handed on to us was the realisation that the Jewish world did not quite get it right. Indeed, Jesus criticised many of the teachers of the law about their interpretation and their lifestyle. But even so, it does not mean we should not look again and rediscover what Israel itself is seeking today - as we read from the introduction of the book by Hirsh, concerning the teaching of God at Horeb – "And I sought through all generations..."

We must reject the idea that a Torah foundation to Scripture leads to legalism. It can lead to legalism – but need not do so.

What is it that we are seeking together in that life of faith, using the Bible as our reference point? First, to understand that the Torah is the basic teaching of God. Although the whole Bible is Torah or teaching, the first five books are given a special place - these are the special revelations of God.

These books contain far more than the 'dos and don'ts' that God brought through Moses. We need to reassess what they really bring to us, and with confidence put them at the foundation of our Bible reading. If you go through these books carefully you will find in them the origins of all the truths contained in the Bible.

All Foundational Truths Begin in Torah

The first teaching of the Bible is the account of creation - nowhere else do we find this truth in the entirety of the libraries of the world. As we go on with our reading we begin to learn about God, mankind and their relationship. We learn how sin came into the world and about God's standards for mankind. We learn of the Fall and the situation that we are all in now after the Fall. We learn of the great Flood, and of the covenant purposes of God - all these things are laid out in the Torah.

These five books contain far more than the 'dos and don'ts' that God brought through Moses. If you go through them carefully you can find the origins of all the truths in the Bible.

Abraham's life is fully described in those first five books - as are the lives of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and later, the twelve tribes of Israel. Finally, the growth of the nation of Israel is described in the books of Torah.

Here too we learn how to apply the metaphors that God wants to teach us, through real life situations. From the toil in the land of Egypt and the release from captivity, we set the foundations for our own experiences with God, both physical and spiritual. We learn about the miracle workings of God. We learn about his active interventions in the world. He has not just separated himself so that it goes like some machine.

We learn about the Feasts of the Lord, which appear first in the Torah. We learn about the Sabbath and its importance. The priesthood is introduced, as are the principles of faith and of prayer.

If you go into the first five books of the Bible and try to assess the number of themes there, you will find them to be countless. We must, therefore, come away from a mindset that these are irrelevant books for Christians. They are the foundation of the faith for Israel and those saved from the Gentile world.

We must come away from a mindset that these books are irrelevant for Christians. They are the foundation of our faith.

Torah Dependency of all Scripture

So then, if Torah is the basis, how does the rest of Scripture fit into its pattern? The Jewish way of dividing Scripture is very valid. The division into three sections according to tradition is first the Torah itself, then the Nevi'im (or Prophets) and finally the Ketuvim (the Writings). That is the traditional way that was handed on to us.

The Bible books are set out in a different order in the Hebrew bible. If we look at them in those three sections, we can see better how they fit together as we try to re-establish the Torah as the basis of all Bible study.

The Prophets

What about the Prophets then? What message in addition to Torah do the prophets bring? The prophets have one purpose and it is Torah-based. When the people of God begin to stray, they also begin to not listen to him. They do not read the signs around them and they gradually ignore what God is saying. So God sends along a prophet, or a prophetic word, or prophetic movement in order to remind people and call them back to the one true God. How do the people get called back to the one true God? They must be called back to his teaching - to what he requires of us.

So the simple task of the prophet is to call the people of God back to himself through his teaching. In that sense, the prophets are Torah-based. There is second purpose in the prophets - a message that looks to the future for God's people. They all say, as it were, "Israel - people of God, cleave to God through his teaching. It may be hard but one day he will make it easier, because in the future there is a promised Messiah, and there is a promised new heaven and a new earth - that day will come but hang on - keep with him, walk it through with him in the meanwhile."

Even that is a Torah-based message, however, because it is all about Jesus, and Jesus is the fulfilment of Torah. In a subtle way the futuristic aspect of the prophetic message is aligned with the past prophetic message - to remember Torah and walk with your God. If you approach the prophets in that way you'll find that Torah is the basis of their whole message, and without Torah they have no real foundation. They do not bring a new message, but they remind you of an old message.

The prophets do not bring a new message, but remind you of an old one.

They may well give some clues as to what Torah really means, such as we find in Micah 6:8:

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Sometimes, like this, the prophets give glimpses of the heart message of Torah, but it is not a new message, it is a message in context. Here is a simple example of how this applies. In the book of Amos, chapter 4, we read:

"I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. "Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.

"I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.

Amos repeats one sign after another from God that has fallen upon the nation of Israel with increasing intensity as God's judgments became more severe. The people of Israel had lost sight of the signs of God, lost their walk with him, turning away - and so a prophet came to warn them.

But what about these signs? Well, Israel's history - Israel's prophetic history - can always go back to the Torah portions. If you look at Deuteronomy 28 and 29 you see it is exactly what God said that he would do. Part of this teaching was how Israel would receive blessings or curses from the Lord.

If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks...

...However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country...

So what does Israel perceive when things start to go wrong - blight on the crops, plague on the cattle, things going wrong in their community life, rain here and not rain there - these are signs from God, signs that were part of his teaching programme, and here it is in Deuteronomy - a central book of Torah. Amos did not bring a new message. It should not have been a surprise to Israel, but they were not heeding the signs, so a prophet came to explain what was happening. The prophet's message was Torah central.

The Writings

In 2 Chronicles 7 there is a similar parallel, and this is part of the 'Writings'. Solomon had built the great temple to the Lord and wanted to dedicate it. In 2 Chronicles 6, he asks God if he will bring blessing upon this place. The Lord responds and says:

"I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chron 7:12-14)

Here again, God speaks in a way that is founded upon all that went before in Torah. His ways have not changed. This is just one example, but in one way or another, this is verified wherever we read in Scripture. All the teaching of the whole Bible is bound together by principles and parallels from the Torah. Christians, like Jews, have this same heritage.

All the teaching of the whole Bible is bound together by principles and parallels from the Torah.

Another clear example of the way the Torah, rightly interpreted, is in the heart of all God's people, is in Psalm 119: "O I love your law [Torah], I meditate upon it night and day." Again, in Job, he accepted all that he had suffered, when he realised that God is his Creator. That was the central part of the message of Job - a Torah-based message for a suffering world.

New Testament

Moving into the New Testament scriptures, we remember that Jesus said that he came to fulfil Torah - not one small letter or stroke of the pen would be taken away until all is fulfilled. On the road to Emmaus he reminded the two disciples of how he was to be found there in the Torah and the prophets and the writings. He showed that he was at the heart of God's teaching, rather than replacing it. All the gospels are about fulfilment.

Paul, whose writings form a substantial part of the rest of the New Testament, was first taught as a Jewish rabbi, at the best schools of the day. He was taught about the Torah basis of all scripture and Torah basis of Jewish lifestyle, before ever he went out with the Gospel message. Just as it was for Paul, we should read Torah not with a legalistic approach but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul does not deny this teaching; he brings a right interpretation of this teaching.

We, too, need to read the whole of the New Testament in the light of Torah. Our flawed understanding is in a wrong perception of Torah, rather than setting it on correct foundations. If we have a wrong perception of Torah we are afraid to touch it, but Torah reveals the heart of God. This is fulfilled in the New Covenant, written onto our hearts. In this way, the entire Bible is one united whole which brings us to that purpose.

Our foundational Scriptural inheritance is the same for Jews and for Gentiles.

For Reflection and Comment

Can you devise a reading plan which keeps the Torah in balance with all Scripture?

(Consider Under the Fig Tree in the Online Courses of www.tishrei.org)

Next time: Root and Fruit

Clifford Denton continues his series on 'Christianity, Israel and the Jews', taking a closer look at the beloved Jewish affirmation, the Shema: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One..."

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to lie upon your hearts. Impress them on your children: talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

Among the literary sources of Judaism the Shema deserves its own study, because of its central place. In Our Father Abraham (Eerdmans 1991), Dr Marvin Wilson lists this as the 'Core Affirmation of Israel's Faith'. This week we explore the background and importance of the Shema.

Listen and Hear

Dr Wilson lists six issues for Christians to address in reconnecting with their Hebraic heritage. Out of the sixth (understanding the sources of Judaism) he gives special attention to the Shema, or Deuteronomy 6:4: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord is one." According to Wilson, the Shema (p122):

...is one of the most crucial Old Testament texts for the foundational teachings of both Jesus and Judaism. A careful investigation of early sources suggests that Deuteronomy 6:4 must have been the first portion from the Hebrew Bible that Jesus committed to memory. According to the Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 42a), Jewish boys were taught this biblical passage as soon as they could speak. Since the Talmud specifies that "the father must teach him" (i.e. the son), we may confidently assume that Joseph, Jesus' earthly father, was responsible for fulfilling this task.

When Moses was instructed to assemble Israel in the wilderness they were instructed to listen to God, or to hear him. The root meaning of Shema is 'hear'. The six words of instruction from Deuteronomy 6:4 are "Shema yisra'el adonai eloheynu adonai ehad", translated as "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one."

This has remained the central core of Israel's faith. God requires that his people listen to him and expect to hear him. He brings them together for the family Sabbaths and for the feasts. He speaks to them through the prophets and as they study together, through signs and as his people approach him in prayer. To Israel was given the privilege of hearing God directly and the foundational truth that they heard was that God is one (Ehad).

The central core of Israel's faith is God's requirement that his people listen to him and expect to hear him.

All confusion about the many gods of the nations is taken away in the foundational thing that Israel must know. The God who revealed himself through creation, through the call of Abraham, through the covenants, through the prophets and through all the recorded teaching of the Bible is not many but one. The many aspects of his character, word and works are summed up in the multifaceted nature of one-ness expressed in the Hebrew word Ehad.

This central core to Israel's life and faith is contained in the profundity of the brief statement of the Shema, and so it is the core of Judaism throughout all generations.

Part of the Prayer Book

Among the Jewish sources that a Christian should understand is the Prayer Book. In Back to the Sources (p403), we read:

Judaism is a civilization of remarkable persistences; perhaps the most remarkable is the case of prayer. Bestir yourself on a Friday evening or a Saturday morning anywhere in the world where there are Jews and you will likely find a congregation reciting Hebrew prayers several thousand years old. Nor is this a quaint vestige. Gathering for prayer is the preeminently central activity of most branches of Jewish life today, and it is within the roomy framework of the synagogue service that much else takes place: Torah study, rites of passage, political commentary, and even fund raising.

This combination of antiquity and centrality enjoyed by Jewish prayer is the result of its distinctively composite nature: Jewish prayer is both a text and experience. As a text, Jewish prayer is a prayerbook, a classical written liturgy, a structure of words and ideas, which, like any text, is open to literary and theological analysis within the terms of the historical periods that produced it. As experience, Jewish prayer also incorporates the several means by which the text is brought to life: what takes place in the inner, subjective world of the worshipper during prayer; the communal arrangements and non-verbal techniques of the practice of prayer; and the contemporary interpretations of the meaning of the text of the liturgy.

The Prayer Book is a book of blessings (berakhot), or praising. For example, the morning service contains the praise or blessing to God: "Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe who creates lights."

All confusion about the many gods of the nations is taken away in the Shema's profound statement that God is one.

Jewish prayer is concerned with knowing God, the one to whom all praise is given. Closer examination of the Prayer Book shows the cycles of prayer. For example, in the daily morning service (shaharit lehol) there are two cycles, of which the first cycle is the Shema, and the second cycle the The Amidah ('Standing Prayer'), containing the Shemoneh Esreh (the 'Eighteen Berakhot'), also known simply as Hatefilah ('the Prayer').

The Shema itself is put among three Berakhot:

Berakhah One: Creation
Berakhah Two: Revelation
Shema
Berakhah Three: Redemption

"The sequence creation-revelation-redemption forms the essential theological drama of Judaism" (Back to the Sources, p410). This illustrates how the Shema is foundational to the life of prayer and praise of the Jewish world.

The principle of constant repetition and remembering is also key to Jewish life. Human beings need to focus constantly on the character and revelation of the One True God. Human beings are so prone to forget and to drift into error. The Shema is the central part of that remembrance.

The principle of constant repetition and remembering is key to Jewish life – human beings are so prone to forget and drift into error.

The Shema and Jewish Prayer

Kopciowski's Praying With the Jewish Tradition (Eeerdmans 1988) contains further insights on the Shema itself. In the introduction, Rabbi Lionel Blue writes:

...the Old Testament (or Tenach, to use the Jewish term) is not the best book for understanding the religion of modern Jews because it has a limitation which it shares with all Scriptures. Its text is closed...The text of the Talmud, too, is closed. It came to an abrupt halt in Babylon in the sixth century of the common era...

But the Jewish prayer book is different. Unlike other holy books, it is still open-ended and unfinished. It can absorb the faith, the longings, the triumphs and the failures of this generation and the generations that will succeed it, as it found room for all those that went before it.

It includes blocks of biblical faith that cluster round the affirmation of God's unity in Exodus. These are followed by rabbinic petitions, philosophical statements, medieval hymns, psalms, and modern prayers trying to assimilate and interpret the holocaust and the rise of Israel. The collection is too alive to be consistent. Each layer of faith lives alongside the others – they do not cancel each other out. Consistency is found in cemeteries; the untidiness of growth is the quality of life.

Jews have a long history – four thousand years of it – double the Christian length. During that time they have worshipped at mounds of stones, desert altars and moveable arks, in two solid temples, in synagogues, and in shtiebels. Patriarchs, priests, scribes, rabbis, rebbes, seers, mystics, and ordinary folk have been leading their little worship communities in prayer. Each phase has left its mark and its message in the liturgy. If a Christian therefore wishes to understand his fellow Jews, he should attend their prayers, and give attention to the holy book which is best known among them – their prayer book.

Why should he or she do so? There are many reasons. First, there has been a subtle but definite change in Christian-Jewish relations since the end of the last war, for reasons which we do not completely comprehend – the horror of the holocaust perhaps, or the Holy Spirit. But the medieval cold war seems to have died down, and a real desire to understand each other has replaced it.

For a Christian there is also another reason. Both Jesus and his early disciples lived in the world of rabbinic Judaism, when the modern prayer book took its present form. They prayed its prayers, in the synagogues of their time. They could not know the liturgy of the Church which would proceed from them but were familiar with the forms of worship still used by Jews today. Christianity therefore, for its own self-understanding, needs to know those forms. Otherwise Jesus is torn away from his historical and human background, and is limited to an icon...

The Shema is strictly only the verse from Deuteronomy 6:4. However, this has been expanded by the addition of two further verses which complement it, for the purposes of the liturgies of the Prayer Book. This combination is now generally known as the Shema. Kopciowski writes:

The Shema is the main part of the daily liturgy, recited morning and evening. The Shema is above all the solemn proclamation of the unity and uniqueness of God, entailing the duty to love him and obey his commandments and to instruct children in the holy doctrine, so that it may be handed down for ever. The Shema consists of three prayers from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21 and Numbers 15:37-41). (p26)

A prayer that follows the Shema at evening prayers, compiled from biblical verses is:

In the palm of your hand
You hold our souls
Which we entrust to you:
The souls of the living
And the souls of the dead.
In the palm of your hand
You lovingly hold
The divine spirit
Of all things living.
To you, O Lord,
O God of truth,
I commit now the spirit that is within me.
Heavenly Father,
Your name alone is holy,
You are unchanging
And your kingdom is eternal;
You will reign over us for ever.

Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God,
the Lord is One.
Love the Lord your God
With all your heart and with all your soul
And with all your strength.
These commandments that I give you today
Are to lie upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children:
Talk about them when you sit at home
And when you walk along the road,
When you lie down and when you get up.

Summary: Israel's Statement of Faith

The world of the first Christians was embedded in Judaism. Paul and the apostles would all have attended the prayers at the Temple and in the synagogues. Christians today would benefit from a fresh look at these ancient traditions and how they centred on knowledge of the One True God, who called Israel to hear him in the wilderness and know that he is Ehad.

Since the world of the first Christians was embedded in Judaism, Christians today would benefit from a fresh look at its ancient traditions and their focus on knowledge of the One True God.

The Shema is placed among the benedictions but is not a prayer itself. It is more to be seen as the core of Israel's statement of faith. Dr Wilson writes:

Of the 5,845 verses in the Pentateuch, "Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one" sounds the historic keynote of all Judaism. This fundamental truth and leitmotif of God's uniqueness prompts one to respond by fulfilling the fundamental obligation to love God (Deut. 6:5). Accordingly, when Jesus was asked about the "most important commandment," his reply did not contradict this central theme of Judaism (Mark 12:28-34; cf. Matt. 22:34-40). With 613 individual statutes of the Torah from which to choose, Jesus cited the Shema, including the command to love God; but he also extended the definition of the "first" and "great" commandment to include love for ones neighbour (Lev. 19:18). (p124)

For Reflection and Comment

Should the Shema be as important to Christians as to Jews?

Next time: Covenant

Series note: 'CIJ' (Christianity, Israel and the Jews) is a study series about the relationship between the Church and its Hebraic heritage.

Clifford Denton asks what we can learn about the Church's Hebraic foundations from looking at Jewish literature, from the Torah to the Talmud and the Halakhah and beyond.

When we consider the separation of the Christian Church from its Hebraic foundations we see not just a reaction against Judaism but an over-reaction against both Judaism and its literary sources. It is true that there can be no compromise in the fundamental issues of the Gospel message, but a Christian fear of Judaising has also contributed to the Church's complete severance from all interest in Judaism.

There are positive benefits to be regained from studying Jewish sources. They can help Christians to understand the background from which Christianity emerged and also help us to understand the Jewish world and so build bridges between the two communities, in a non-compromising but respectful way.

Introduction

In Our Father Abraham (p111), Dr Marvin Wilson poses the following questions:

What can be done to overcome the apathy and neglect of this great treasure of our Hebrew foundation? How can the Church become re-nourished from that Hebraic "root that supports it"? In short, what guidelines should the Church follow if the Old Testament is to be restored to its proper place of emphasis and authority?

There follow six guidelines, the sixth of which is as follows:

A sixth guideline concerns the need to be familiar with other early Jewish sources which provide linguistic, theological, and historical insight into both Testaments. We have already seen that the Old Testament is the main source upon which New Testament thought and life are based. But we have also observed that it is not the only Jewish literature essential for understanding the Judaism of Jesus' day. (p118)

Dr Wilson points out that various stages of Jewish history have been typified in different pieces of literature. Among the vast scope are the Oral traditions, later codified into the Mishnah, the Qumran Scrolls, the apocryphal writings and the apocalyptic literature. All of these contain information that can give understanding to some passages of the Bible. Beyond these are other pieces of literature that help us to understand the Jewish world itself, out of which Christianity emerged.

Through history Christians have over-reacted against Jewish literature for fear of Judaising, but there are positive benefits to understanding these writings.

It is appropriate for a Bible student to have a basic familiarity with this literature and to have a grasp of how to use it. We will survey some of the main sources in this study. The book we are quoting in our reference material, Back to the Sources, is one of the basic books that can be used for reference (Ed Barry W Holtz, Simon & Schuster, 1984). Following this, further and deeper study comes from reviewing the sources themselves.

Survey: The Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible is itself the main source for Judaism. It is the same as the Old Testament but it is considered in somewhat different ways by Jews than by Christians. Jews call it the TaNaKh denoting the three sections, Torah (Teaching), Nevi'im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). The books of the Christian Old Testament follow the order of the Septuagint (the Greek translation) but this is different from the Hebrew Bible, which comes from the faithful copying of the Masorites.

The Torah is the whole of the teaching of the TaNaKh, but more specifically the first five books which are also called the Books of Moses. These five books, called the Pentateuch in Christian tradition, are considered to be the foundation of all Bible study for the Jew. They are divided into 54 weekly synagogue readings (parashot) each about 5 chapters long. The Torah is also known as the Chumash (the five-fold entity). The Hebrew Bible is divided into 35 books. The Christian version divides some of the books into two and contains the same material in 39 books.

The main literary source for Judaism is the Tanakh, or the Old Testament, which sub-divides into the Torah (the first five books), the Nevi'im (the Prophets) and the Ketuvim (the Writings).

The division of the Hebrew Bible, its ordering and its Torah priority followed by the message of the Prophets and the writings (which include history, as well as other forms of literature) speak of the Jewish approach to the teaching of God.

Talmud set.The Talmud

The Talmud has two main divisions, the Mishnah and the Gemara. Both of the words Talmud and Gemara mean study, the first being a Hebrew word and the second Aramaic. The core of the Talmud is the Mishnah, a codification of the Oral teachings thought to come from Moses and considered by Jews to be as inspired as the written Torah. The Gemara is a commentary on the Mishnah. There are two versions of the Talmud, both compiled in the dispersion after 70 AD in order to preserve the Oral Traditions, one being the Babylonian Talmud and the other the Jerusalem Talmud.

In Back to the Sources (p129) we read:

'When the persecutions of Hadrian were over, our Sages gathered at Usha: R. Judah, and R. Nehemiah, and R. Meir, and R. Yose, and R. Simeon ben Yohai, and R. Eliezer the son of R. Yose the Galilean, and R. Eliezer ben Jacob. They sent a message to the elders of the Galilee, saying, "Let whoever has learned come and teach, and whoever has not learned come and learn." They gathered together, learned and taught, and did as the times required' (Song of Songs Rabbah 2:16)

Although this story appears only in a relatively late source, it reflects the central motive of the rabbinic movement from the time of its first appearance in Jewish life. Convinced that Jewish life could recover from its defeats at the hands of Rome only to renewed dedication to "Torah", rabbis organized themselves to spread their teaching, gain disciples, and achieve the largest possible role in Jewish life. Of all the books that ancient rabbis have left behind, the most revealing, the most challenging, and the most rewarding is the Talmud.

The word "Torah" was just placed in quotation marks to call attention to its special meaning. For the ancient rabbis, "Torah" meant far more than the five books attributed to Moses that Jews customarily call by that name. For them, Torah was the Divine Wisdom which had existed before the world came into being (see Prov. 8:22-31), indeed, the blueprint according to which Creation had followed its proper course. Torah included all possible knowledge of God's will, of the life the Creator intended for the Chosen People to live. All things, from the most trivial to the most sublime, were within its realm.

Basing this notion on certain hints in the text of Scripture, ancient rabbis taught that the revelation granted to Moses had been delivered in two forms, a smaller revelation in writing and the larger one kept oral. This "Oral Torah" had been transmitted faithfully by the leaders of each generation to their successors, by Moses to Joshua, and then to the elders, then to the prophets, to the men of the Great Assembly, to the leaders of the Pharisees, and finally to the earliest rabbis. Thus only the rabbis knew the whole Torah – written and oral – and such knowledge could qualify anyone for legitimate leadership over the people of Israel.

The Mishnah (the word comes from the root to recite) is divided into six orders, each dealing with a broad area of Jewish life, and then into subdivisions. Its language is very legal and so the Talmud is considered as the source of Jewish law.

The Talmud contains the Mishnah, the Oral teachings thought to come from Moses and be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the Gemara, which is a commentary on the Mishnah.

Halakhah

The word Halakhah comes from the verb Halakh, meaning to walk or to go. Jewish tradition is that a person needs to know the exact way to carry out the laws of God – to walk them out. Thus the set of rules often considered as Jewish Law, governing Jewish life, is known as Halakhah. We read from Back to the Sources (p138):

It must be kept in mind, however, that halakhah embraces far more than the term "law" usually suggested in English; its subject matter is much broader, and much Jewish "law" is in principle unenforceable. Who, for example, really knows which kitchens in a given community are kosher, or which members of that community secretly violate the Sabbath?

Although the Mishnah only looks like a law code, nevertheless, most of its content pertains to the halakhah; although the Talmud only looks like a commentary on the Mishnah, the same can be said of it. The earliest public role in the Jewish community that the rabbis were able to achieve was as judges and community officials. Halakhah naturally became their chief concern, a concern that fit their theological conviction that Judaism essentially amounts to learning precisely what the Torah commands and then doing it.

Summary So Far

Through Torah to Talmud and then to Halakhah, we are able to perceive the role of Jewish literature and traditions throughout the centuries. Other literature is supplementary to that great striving to live in the wisdom and practice of God's teaching.

The Christian will perceive in this what seems a more legalistic approach to the same end as his own approach to God's teaching. Nevertheless, a common aim between Christians and Jews can be understood: to walk out the teaching of God. Carefully appraising these things can lead to an understanding of, as well as a freedom to interpret, such historical documents within the framework of both Judaism and Christianity. This does not give authority to all interpretations of biblical truth, but it can bring understanding of different points of view.

Though often perceived by Christians to be legalistic, the Jewish literature nevertheless represents an aim shared by both faiths: to walk out the teaching of God.

We now mention some of the other major sources, to complete this brief introductory survey.

Tosefta

Tosefta is the Aramaic word meaning Supplement. These are a collection of older traditions similar to the Mishnah, but that the compilers of the Mishnah chose not to include. The Tosefta is arranged like the Mishnah into Orders and Tractates. There is some overlap of themes with those of the Mishnah, and some themes that have no clear connection.

Baraita

Baraita is the Aramaic word meaning Outside. These are traditions that can be attributed to a given rabbi and, though authoritative in some way, are not parts of the Mishnah. They are used as means for discussion and contrast between rabbinic schools of thought.

The authorities who were used in the Mishnah are termed the Tannaim (from the Aramaic meaning repeater). Similarly, the authorities who produced the Gemara are called the Amoraim (from the Aramaic meaning discusser).

Aggadah

Aggadah comes from the Hebrew word meaning Discourse. This is the term for non-halakhic Talmudic discussion. This covers rabbinic narrative in the form of stories about Bible heroes or great rabbis of earlier generations. They contain moral exhortation, theological speculation and also a great deal of folklore.

Midrash

We quote from Back to the Sources (p177-179):

The Talmud...is the best-known of the texts produced by rabbinic Judaism. It has formed the core of the curriculum of Jewish learning for many hundreds of years, and it stands as the foundation upon which later Jewish literature, particularly legal writing, rests. And yet the Talmud does not represent the entirety of rabbinic literature. Another body of work – less familiar but probably more accessible to the contemporary reader – remains to be explored...the texts known as the Midrash, a type of literature so significant that in many ways it can be seen as the central enterprise of almost all Jewish religious writing until the modern period.

...there is no single book called the Midrash. Despite the popular use of the term, one cannot with accuracy use the phrase "the Midrash says"...Midrash is a type of literature; it is...a kind of process or activity, but there is no one Midrash. Rather there are collections of Midrashim (plural of Midrash) which were put together at various times and by various editors and authors over the course of many hundreds of years. The great flowering of Midrash was roughly between the years 400 and 1200 C.E. But it is important to note that originally, midrashic literature was oral – sermons preached in the synagogues and teachings of various sages. During the years mentioned, Midrashim were edited, organized, and written down, but midrashic texts often represent traditions a good deal older than the period of the written books.

The term Midrash is rooted in the Hebrew meaning of searching out and interpreting, and applies to studies of both halakhah and aggadah.

Targummim

These are the Aramaic translations of the Tanakh.

Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha

We mention briefly here other literature that is a basis for research into the background of the Bible and the Jewish community of the biblical period. There is a wide range of apocryphal (linked to the root meaning hidden) literature that was preserved in the Septuagint but not the Masoretic text. These books often have the names of Bible characters but are not to be validly ascribed to them.

The apocryphal literature is sometimes included with other writings under the term Pseudepigrapha, which also includes the works of Philo (20 BC - 50 AD), the writings of Josephus Flavius (37 - 100 AD) and the Qumran texts, among other material. The Qumran texts contain copies of most biblical books, apocryphal writings and other writings of the community living in the region of the Dead Sea where the scrolls were discovered.

For Reflection and Comment

In what way can we take useful interest in sources of Judaism without compromising the Gospel?

Next time: The Shemah

Having begun our survey of the separation of the Christian Church from its historical roots, we now consider aspects of our inheritance: what legacies have the Jews given us?

The history of Israel reveals many things. Above all, the Jewish people are a living witness to the covenant faithfulness of the One True God. In addition, however, despite much failure to attain the highest goals of Torah, the Jewish people passed on to the Christian Church a testimony of Biblical interpretation and lifestyle, giving enough light on God's relationship with (and requirements of) mankind for the Christian Church to enter into its inheritance.

Unfortunately, because of the failure of Israel to live up to the perfect standards of Torah, the Christian Church has largely failed to give credit where it is due. We will make a brief survey of just a little of what the Christian Church owes to the Jewish people. First an important comment.

Good but not Perfect

No-one claims that Israel was perfect. Indeed, God did not choose Israel because of its size:

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy... (Deut 7:7-9)

Nor did they displace other nations on merit:

Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land'; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. (Deut 9:4-6)

The prophets constantly echoed the theme of imperfection which, at its lowest point, even resulted in exile from the Land:

If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, then...it shall be, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.

Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known - wood and stone. And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. (Deut 28:58-65)

The Book of Lamentations shows the anguish of a fallen nation:

How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave! She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers She has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into captivity, under affliction and hard servitude; She dwells among the nations, she finds no rest; all her persecutors overtake her in dire straits. The roads to Zion mourn because no one comes to the set feasts. All her gates are desolate; her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries have become the master, her enemies prosper; for the Lord has afflicted her because of the multitude of her transgressions. Her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. (Lam 1:1-5)

Contemporary View

Even a contemporary comment recognizes the failure of Israel to achieve perfection. In Popular Halachah: A Guide to Jewish Living (edited by Avnere Tomaschoff, 1985), we read in the chapter entitled 'Serving the Creator':

Because of the sins of our forefathers, we were driven from our land, the land of Israel. Exile, dispersion and suffering caused many of our people to neglect the study of the holy language (Hebrew), to forget the Torah and to assimilate among the gentiles.

Our Expectations

We do not need to labour the point further. We acknowledge that Israel has not been a perfect light to the Gentiles. However, there are two errors we can commit as we respond to this. The first error is to expect perfection from Israel. The second is that, on account of the imperfection, we neglect all the good that has been done for the Christian Church because of the testimony of Israel.

It is only by God's grace that the Christian Church exists at all. With the biblical testimony of Israel to help us understand God's ways and draw near to him, we must remember that all good is from God. However, we can still validly consider these things from the human level. We would not even have our Bibles if it had not been for the Jewish people who had to walk the hard road before us, write down what they heard and experienced, and bring the Scriptures to us through many generations.

If we had received the truth in our Bibles another way, we would not have had the living testimony that Israel brings, showing their full humanity. Imperfect though this human testimony is, it is nevertheless a good and useful testimony, the one from which we learn. If they had not walked the hard path of seeking to respond to God, and failing, would we not have failed in the same way?

Imperfect though their testimony is, Israel provides a vital living testimony of true humanity seeking God. If they had not walked this hard path before us, would we not have failed in the same ways they did?"

When we look at the Jewish inheritance we must consider it, from our human standpoint, as good but not perfect. We should not seek to emulate their failures, but we can learn from their experiences and, starting from that point, we can use the Scriptures to seek out the good roots of that testimony.

If we keep this testimony alongside us as we also seek to walk with God, we can ignore what is imperfect and learn from what is good. We can also give credit where it is due for all that the Jewish people have given to the whole world. Their testimony came at great cost.

Jewish Communities

To investigate what we owe the Jews we simply need to look into their community life, in which there is much variety. In our day, among the people in the Land of Israel as well as in Jewish communities around the world, we can observe everything from atheism to devotion to the God of their Fathers. In the midst of this variety, we discover every aspect of God's dealing with the Jews and of their response to him.

In the Home

Jewish communal life shows us that community is built on family. Our first picture is therefore not of the Synagogue, but of the home. The focal point of the home is the family mealtime. This is most strongly emphasized at the Shabbat table, where we hear prayers to God, blessings on the children and between husband and wife, the sharing of bread and wine, and the candle-lighting ceremony to remember the light of the Sabbath, pointing to rest in God.

Jewish traditions are not necessarily straight from the Bible but they are generally a response to this heritage. In this case, the response is to the biblical emphasis on the Sabbath; to thank God for His provision, to bless one another and centre one's spiritual growth in the family.

Education and Worship

On other occasions, the home becomes a centre for education. We can picture the father studying from the teaching of God, leading evening prayers or talking to his children about the Scriptures and about God. We see an emphasis on education in the home and remember how God said to Israel:

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut 6:6-9)

If we were to look around a Jewish home in more detail, we might see the mezuzah on the door (parchment including these verses from Deuteronomy). Similarly, at a Synagogue we would see the tefillin (small boxes also containing verses) on the arms and forehead of the men in prayer. These are among the constant reminders of Torah's centrality to the lives of the Jews.

From Synagogues to Churches

In the Synagogue we would hear Torah read on a yearly cycle, again emphasising that Torah is central to the life of the Jew. But the Synagogue is not only a place of congregational meeting- it is also a House of Prayer and a House of Study. Here there are echoes back to the days of the Temple (there are also echoes in the function of Christian church buildings).

The Jewish people passed on to the Christian Church models of prayer, worship, and honouring the Bible as the teaching of God, in both the home and the community.

From the Jews we have not only inherited the Scriptures and their testimony, but also models of communal life, prayer, worship, teaching, celebration and devotion."

Our knowledge of the One True God comes from our Jewish inheritance. If the Jews had not been zealous to remember the Shema (the Hebrew word for hear) then how would Gentiles have responded to the coming of Jesus? Without this heritage, the Church would have all too readily drifted into even more idolatry than has occurred over the years of Christianity. The Shema is from the Book of Deuteronomy:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (Deut 6:4-5)

The Feasts

What would the Christian Church have made of the Feasts of the Lord had not Israel faithfully celebrated the Feasts on a yearly cycle? How would they have understood Passover (and in relation to this, Communion) without the rooting in the Passover Seder of the Jews? From the time of Moses until today, the Passover Seder has developed and been celebrated in ways interpreted by the Rabbis. We are free to look through the traditions into what the Bible says, but we have the Jewish interpretation as a place from which to begin.

Witness to the World

Then there is the wider fruit of Israel's Torah-consciousness. It was always God's intention that this Nation should be the light to the world. Instead of a book of philosophy, God prepared a people to live out his purposes, observable by all nations. In the midst of a pagan world, Israel has been a witness to the living God who dwelt among his people, and also to the ethical and legal requirements of a nation under God.

Instead of a book of philosophy, God prepared a people to live out his purposes as a witness to all nations."

It is true that the Christian influence on the world's legal and moral stance has been great. Nations such as Britain and America have attempted to frame their constitutions on biblical principles. However, the first nation to show the way was Israel. They demonstrated that the Living God enters into the affairs of men not just through dry commandments but through living relationships and we have seen the outworking of this giving vision and hope for our own nations.

Suffering

In all of this, Israel has suffered the consequences of being the chosen nation in covenant relationship, demonstrating every aspect of man's need, his relationship with God, his failings and successes. God came to earth in Yeshua HaMashiach (Jesus the Messiah) through the relationship he had been building with the people of Israel. The suffering of Israel, on account of their inability to live out this relationship to the full, brought us necessary teaching, so that we all might inherit what was first offered to them.

Faith and Works

Israel is built from families, and yet it is a nation, a corporate entity. There is a balance here that the Jews teach us between family and nation.

There is also a balance between faith and works. Every nation is bound to its own inheritance of land. The nation of Israel teaches us the very meaning of inheritance: an inheritance (in biblical terms) is something that God gives and yet which you also work for. Israel is a society that sees faith and works in balance- and as a consequence, Jews have achieved success in every area of human endeavour, even in the Diaspora.

We can therefore learn about the biblical balance of work and faith by observing the Jews (this has long been the starting point for the work ethic of Christian believers, and we must not forget it).

Christian Inheritance

The Christian Church has entered into the inheritance of the Jews, not to replace the Israel of God, but live as part of the Israel of God's family of faith rooted in Messiah:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh...that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Eph 2:10-22)

From Inheritance to Biblical Root and Fruit

We can go on and on taking examples from every area of life to emphasise the indebtedness of the Christian Church to the Jewish people, and each of us should be careful to study this and give credit where it is due. Though Israel was not perfect, and even though individual Jews cannot fulfill their Covenant response to God unless they have faith in Yeshua the Messiah, we have good examples from Jewish life of the inheritance into which we were adopted. Every study of Jewish response to God is an example to us. This was touched on by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10.

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ...Now these things became our examples...

When we read the Psalms, we ought to read them in the context of Israel's experience, out of which they were written. When we read the prophets we should study first the context of the history of Israel, as we seek to know God and the prophetic understanding of our own day. When we read the Torah we should consider how Israel responded to God through his teaching. We will find lessons for every part of life. If we look at the practices of the Christian Church and the fruit of Christianity among the nations, we must realise that all practical application of biblical principles began with the Jewish people.

We must realize that through history and across the world, all practical application of biblical principles began with the Jewish people."

Then we must go back to the Bible itself and study what is biblical, what is a good tradition and what is not useful from Jewish tradition, thereby maturing in our own response to Scripture. We have years of Christian history to consider too, in our appraisal of what the life of faith is meant to be. In all our searching, we must remember that our biblical inheritance was passed on to us through Israel and the Jews.

The most important truth of all is that Jesus the Messiah comes one hundred per cent from a Jewish background. The testimony of Jesus is perfect, but he would not want it to be detached from the background of Judaism from which he emerged - as King of the Jews. The perfect message of Jesus is not in isolation from this context.

Apart from Jesus, Israel did not fulfil the prophecy of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. But they have suffered for us in passing on an inheritance, and we must recognise this as part of our own heritage.

For Study and Prayer

Consider Romans 11 in light of what we have studied.

Next time: Theological Conflict

Clifford Denton argues that the Christian Church is intended to be the authentic expression of Biblical Judaism.

Biblical Roots

So far in this series, we have looked at how the Christian Church emerged from a Jewish background. It seems strange to us today, but first century Christians would have considered themselves the authentic manifestation of Judaism. Whilst the Church's departure from many aspects of Rabbinic Judaism is understandable, it need not have completely severed itself from its roots. Indeed, every authentic aspect of the Christian Church has its roots in what we might call biblical Judaism.

Our use of this term 'biblical Judaism' is expressly different from the biases associated with Rabbinic Judaism (the most important of these being the denial of Jesus as Messiah, and of the New Covenant manifestation of the Torah written on the heart by the indwelling Holy Spirit). The Apostle Paul taught clearly about this in his letters to the Romans and the Galatians. Nevertheless, the metaphor of the Olive Tree in Romans 11 is an inclusion of the Gentile branches into a pre-existing body, not the growth of an entirely new body. It was the task of all the teachers of Israel to interpret the entire Bible for the people. This principle became the background to the teaching of the Christian Church as much as it was the foundation of Rabbinic Judaism.

The metaphor of the Olive Tree in Romans 11 shows the inclusion of Gentile branches into a pre-existing body, not a growth of an entirely new body!"

Now, however, many branches of the Christian Church have re-defined what was inherited through the first Apostles, so as to divorce itself from its roots. It was as if 'the Church' was a totally new entity, instead of being the result of a continuous covenant plan which began in Genesis and continues to the truths of the Book of Revelation, with all held in perfect balance.

We must, therefore, assess afresh the relationship of the Church to its biblically Jewish heritage. With this perspective, we will be in a position to understand the present situation in the Church and be conscious of our corporate responsibility to reconnect ourselves into our heritage.

Looking back to go forward

It is part of our biblical heritage to look back in order to go forward. Concerning the Passover meal and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for example, the Bible records that the Children of Israel were to remember what God did in bringing them out of Egypt (Ex 13:5-15).

And when in time to come your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' you shall say to him, 'By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage.' (Ex 13:14)

This gave rise to the question that the youngest child asks at each Passover Meal as part of the Seder in a Jewish home: "Why is this night different from every other night?" This question gives the head of the home the opportunity to relate what God did for Israel at the Exodus.

All of the biblical feasts are reminders of what God has done for his people. These things have generated the Hebraic mindset: always conscious of the past, as one walks into the future. The present and the future emerge from the past. Mankind is prone to forget the past so God himself demanded that his people remember their origins. A Hebrew has been likened to a person rowing a boat into the future, looking backwards as he rows forwards.

All the biblical feasts are reminders of what God has done for his people. But they are also prophetic pointers to the future. For God's people, the present and future emerge from the shadows of the past"

The future for God's people comes out of the shadows of the past. The Feasts are both reminders of history and prophetic pointers to the future. The Passover was the coming out of Egypt, but also points forward to the Messiah's sacrifice and our release from the bondage of sin into the Kingdom of Heaven. The Christian Church, therefore, recalls the exodus from Egypt and celebrates this historical deliverance of the Children of Israel, as well as celebrating the greater fulfillment, through Jesus, bringing freedom from the bondage of sin.

Shavuot, the Feast of Pentecost, is a remembrance of the giving of the Torah on tablets of stone, but it also points forward to the giving of the Holy Spirit and the writing of the Torah on the hearts of God's people. Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, reminds us of Israel's wilderness years and our dependence on God. It also continues to remind us that we are pilgrims and strangers on this earth (Heb 11:13), pointing to the Messianic Kingdom when Jesus the Messiah returns.

The Christian Church has tended to accept its biblical inheritance in Christ without paying enough heed to the continuity of biblical history. The Sabbath was moved to Sunday and lost some of its original purpose. The Passover became Easter. The bread and the wine became Eucharist and the central part of Mass, disengaging itself from the fulfillment of the Passover meal. These are examples, and there are others, reminding us that the Christian Church divorced itself from its own history whilst keeping some of the symbols and practices, but in a different framework.

Parting of the Ways

There followed a fragmentation into different sects and denominations of Christianity with their own authority structures, creeds and points of divergence. When many Christians look back to their origins they look back to the Church Councils and so-called 'Church Fathers' rather than to the deeper origins of the believing community. This has contributed to the separation of the Christian Church from the emerging Judaism of the First Century.

An example of the ongoing fruit of this can be found in a statement, in recent years, from Vatican 2, a major council of the Roman Catholic Church. In the 'Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions', of 28 October 1965, there were moves towards reconciliation of the Roman Catholic Church to the Jews. The following statement is contained in the document:

Indeed, the Church reproves every form of persecution against whomsoever it may be directed. Remembering, then, her common heritage with the Jews, and moved not by any political consideration, but solely by the religious motivation of Christian charity, she deplores all hatreds, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism leveled at any time or from any source against the Jews. [emphasis added]

Yet, in the paragraph preceding this statement, there is also this statement:

It is true that the Church is the new people of God...

Even in recognizing the roots of the Roman Catholic Church as coming from biblical Judaism, so strong is the pull to the later Catholic foundations that there is an ongoing proclamation of separation rather than the continuity of covenant history. The same is true of other branches of the Christian Church and this can be discovered if one reads popular accounts of church history.

Today there is an ongoing proclamation of separation, rather than a recognition of the continuity of covenant history. But every intended characteristic of the authentic Christian Church has its origins in biblical Judaism!"

In discussing the separation between Christians and Jews, Marvin Wilson draws attention to some of the issues he sought to address in his book, in a useful summary for our study here:

The revelation or teaching of the living God, who gave guidance and instruction for the benefit of his people, will be our main emphasis on Jewish heritage. (Since he revealed the truth of his Word primarily through Hebraic concepts, significant Hebrew terms will be emphasized throughout this work.) Many chapters will focus on the Jewish background and understanding of various institutions and theological or ethical themes of Scripture, the Lord's Supper, and the Church as community. We will study the nature of salvation, faith, and spirituality.

We will also give attention to the Jewish concept of history, work and worship, and the importance of wisdom, knowledge and learning. In addition, we will emphasize the importance of understanding the Jewishness of Jesus. Furthermore, the reader will find extensive teaching on marriage and the family, because these topics are so foundational to the Church's Jewish heritage and of contemporary relevance to most Christians.¹

If we stop and take stock of every intended characteristic of the authentic Christian Church, we can look back and find the origins in the history of biblical Judaism. We must not look at those origins and perceive the Church as a new institution taking those traditions and redefining them in a new framework for the Gentile world. We should look back and reconnect with the history of our people.

Pausing to Consider

In an essay entitled Neither Fish nor Fowl,² Kai Kjer-Hansen writes:

It is a historical fact that what was later to be named Christianity and the Christian church first emerged as a Jewish phenomenon. Jesus was a Jew, the first to receive him were Jews, the kingdom of God which he proclaimed came out of a Jewish context, and the church was, by its very nature, a Jewish phenomenon intended for all, Jews as well as gentiles. The new belief was Jewish belief, not a new religion: "It was Judaism of a different kind," as Jakob Jocz has put it. This "Judaism of a different kind" had its focal point in the person of Jesus, his words and deeds – to such an extent that it was said that there is salvation in no other name than Jesus (Acts 4:12). [emphasis added]

In his book Jewish Sources in Early Christianity, David Flusser looks at the foundations of Christianity through the eyes of a Jewish scholar. He confirms the view that Jesus entered the world of Judaism, and that the Christian Church emerged as a totally Jewish response to Messianic expectation. In the beginning to Chapter 1, The Early Christian Writings and their relationship to Judaism, he writes:

The early Christian writings reflect ideas, beliefs, views and trends in Second Temple Judaism. They reflect the world of the sages' Biblical exegesis, their parables, and even their own uncertainties. One also finds expressions of the hope for redemption and of the Messianic beliefs current in Judaism during that period. One can also discern echoes of most streams in Judaism of the time, including those of groups which the Sages regarded as heretical, such as Hellenistic Judaism and the Essenes, or the Dead Sea Sect.³

Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians:

...at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Eph 2:12-22)

This was a letter to believers from among the Gentiles declaring their inclusion in the covenant family. Those who were far off were brought into the fellowship that began with those who were from a Jewish background and followed the teaching of Jesus. That teaching was the total fulfillment of what was promised through the covenant history of Israel.

The Christian Church has established a Gentile religion, exchanging its Jewish heritage for influences from the Greek and Roman world"

In this way we perceive that out of the context of Israel's Messianic hope and all the preparations that went before, came the emergence of a movement that encompassed both Jews and Gentiles. Some branches of Christianity have separated from this flow of history and become established as a Gentile religion. In so doing, the Church has taken into itself emphasis from the Greek and Roman world. When we look back we see a parting of the ways between the Christian Church and its true roots while retaining practices re-defined in Christian terms (such as baptism, communion, prayer, worship of the God of Abraham, biblically based ethics, and much more) that it first inherited from its Jewish and Hebraic background.

Looking Forward

With this looking back, we can with confidence also look forward. We can position ourselves conceptually in biblical history where the background to the Church was formed and look forward, as it were, to what the Church was always intended to be.

From one continuous flow of history, God has worked to redeem one covenant family from all mankind. Here are some of the principles that we can see developing as we look forward into the future, when we reconnect with our past:

• Through Adam all mankind was separated from God through sin (Gen 3:24).
• God prepared a Covenant plan before any single nation was chosen (Gen 8:21-9:17, Gen 17).
• Abraham was singled out to be the father-figure of this Covenant nation (Rom 4).
• The condition for membership of the Covenant community is faith, faith that is fulfilled in Jesus and is evidenced by fruitful lives of good works (Rom 4, Heb 11).
• The Covenant principles were further revealed through Moses, David and the Prophets (Ex 20, Deut 29, Jer 31).
• God showed his people how to live as individuals, families and a community. He gave them righteous and ethical rules for ordering society. He gave them their Feast days. He even gave them their language – the language of Scripture, namely Hebrew. He gave them models to follow in interpreting his Torah.
• Through the centuries the Torah principles were interpreted into an ordered lifestyle, with every aspect of life from birth, through marriage to death, from farming and finance to mealtimes and raising families, all included.
• The principal of ordered, Godly life was first through family and second through the community in which elders interpreted the ways of God as given through Moses (Ex 18:13-27).
• Though there was falling away by Israel from the teaching of God, and even exile from their Land, we learn from their struggles and their history about the background into which Jesus and the Apostles came to teach us all (1 Cor 10). We can picture the Temple, the Synagogues, the family framework of society, the Torah basis of life, ceremonial washing, the worshipping community, the Feasts, and so on, as we explore our biblical heritage anew.
• From this background emerged Jesus the Messiah. An expectation of the coming Messiah built up over the years of Israel's history. As we take a step back conceptually into this biblical history and culture, and look forward from Adam's fall to our day, we gain relevant concepts of who Jesus is. We also understand better who we are as the Covenant community today, and have a better understanding of the ongoing place of Israel in God's purposes. Through this, we understand more clearly Jesus' coming into the world, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the Gospel going to all nations. It was into this historical context that Gentiles could finally come in and fulfill their part of God's Covenant promise to Abraham.

If we consider every aspect of the development of the Covenant Community prior to the call to the Gentile nations, we can properly identify what was intended in the extension of the existing community to include both Jews and Gentiles by faith in Jesus the Jewish Messiah.

The Church existed before the Gentiles entered it: Jesus brought reformation to the existing community of faith."

Jesus brought reformation to the existing community: the Church existed before the Gentiles entered it. In terms of a gathered community it went back at least to those who stood before Mount Sinai to receive God's commandments and it extends through all history to encompass some from every nation in the one community of faith. I would say it went back even further than that, certainly to the family of Abraham, and in some way to the heavenly community that existed before creation.

Summary

The roots of the Christian Church in the history of Israel are vital to understand: not only to properly understand the Church's true identity, but also to understand its relationship with Israel- past, present and future.

Every practice and function of the Christian Church (including the origin of the term 'Church', the practices of communion and baptism, the Feast days, the ethical structure of the community, the family basis, worship, prayer, knowledge of God through faith, the authority structure, the meaning of Torah and on and on into every principle and practice) can be best reviewed in terms of the Hebraic and Jewish heritage.

For Study and Prayer

Consider if there are any ways in which your own Church has moved away from the biblical heritage of the First Century. How might we reconnect with that heritage?

Next time: The Council of Jerusalem

References

1 Our Father Abraham, Eerdmans, 1989, p33.

2 In Jewish Identity and Faith in Jesus, Caspari Centre, 1996.

3 Adama Books, 1987.

These studies are developed from the course Christianity's Relationship with Israel and the Jews, first prepared for Tishrei Bible School.

Clifford Denton completes his study of the relationship between law and grace.

Recap: Law and Grace Part 1

In this series we are tracing what some have called "the parting of the ways between the Church and the Synagogue". Our concern is with the identity and origin of the Christian Church, because there are serious consequences of its separation from the roots of our faith- for both Christians and Jews.

One consequence is the way in which we read our Bibles. Separation from our roots brings a conceptual break in the continuity of the Scriptures. We have paused in our historical survey in order to illustrate this important point. In the first part of this study we explored what the word law might mean, as found in the New Testament. We differentiated between the Torah (teaching of God), and its interpretation into Halakhah. We reasoned that there is a difference between interpretations that bring legal bondage to those which encourage a walk with God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

We must not allow ourselves to be robbed of the freedom that is given for living out a biblical lifestyle under the grace and leading of the Holy Spirit. However, it is not the Torah that is at fault – it is the way Torah is interpreted."

Rebuilding relationship between Jews and Christians

Reconciliation with the Jewish community is something of great importance in our day and should be a consequence of the Christian Church being properly rooted in all aspects of life and faith. Those who value the Torah are not necessarily walking a wrong path and need not necessarily be bound up in legalism. To be free to explore afresh our common heritage should build bridges of reconciliation, since to not care for the Torah has been a symptom of not caring about our relationship with the Jews.

Dr Marvin Wilson has spent many years in the pursuit of reconciling Christians and Jews. In his book Our Father Abraham, Dr Wilson poses some strong questions about accusations of Judaising levelled at Christians, who are exploring the roots of their faith with freedom whilst remaining sure of their salvation:

To those in the modern Church concerned about the dangers of Judaising after nineteen hundred years of de-Judaising, we would pose these questions: Is it Judaising to seek to reconstruct certain aspects of the first-century Jewish context of the New Testament and early Church? Is it Judaising to investigate the life and teaching of Jesus through Jewish eyes? Is it Judaising to find personal fulfillment by adopting personal perspectives on God and one's neighbour that emerges from the teaching of the Hebrew prophets?

Is it Judaising to resonate positively to a Jewish pattern of worship, music, and celebration of special events in life? Is it Judaising to find in modern Israel – within its people and the historic land itself – that for which you deeply care, a veritable laboratory filled with spiritual and historical meaning? To each of the above questions we would answer an emphatic no!¹

On the one hand, we must beware of the warnings gleaned through the Scriptures, concerning denial of salvation through faith, in favour of ritual observance of 'the law'. We must avoid an artificial self-righteousness resulting from a wrong view of the teaching (Torah) of God.

We must avoid the legalism of ritual observance of 'the law'. However, we must also avoid going too far the other way: rejecting the beneficial teachings of Scripture and our opportunity to freely discover the Jewish heritage of Christianity"

On the other hand, we must also recognize when a bondage of a different kind is being imposed: namely, when the accusation of Judaising is incorrectly levied, restricting us from freely practising the beneficial teachings of Scripture, as discovered from the Jewish roots of Christianity. We cannot avoid facing this challenge when we seek to restore the Christian faith to its relationship with Israel and the Jews.

The Torah is good

The whole of Israel's life, before the writing of the New Testament, and the context from which the Gospel was sent, was founded upon the teaching of God. The task over all history was to accurately interpret the teaching of God into everyday life. The Hebrew word for this teaching is Torah - teaching for a right direction in life.

The Torah is God's teaching for a right direction in life. In the New Covenant, it becomes a living walk in the Spirit, received in the heart.

The word Torah does not appear in translations of the New Testament. This was not because God's teaching was done away with: it is because of the poor translation into the word law. Indeed, Jesus made that important point very clearly during His great teaching of the Sermon on the Mount:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law [Torah] or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law [Torah] until everything is accomplished.

Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law [Torah], you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:17-20)

Read carefully and with the mindset of the continuity of Scripture, we understand that the Sermon on the Mount was spoken to the disciples of Jesus in the early stages of the New Covenant. The New Covenant brought the interpretation of Torah as the walk in the Spirit, where Torah was received in the heart rather than on tablets of stone. Jesus' teaching kindled new light in the understanding and purpose of Scripture. In his great sermon Jesus was referring to the Torah, the teaching of God, which He had come to interpret correctly and not replace.

This explains why Paul can warn his readers about misapplication of the Torah of in the letter to the Galatians, and also say that the Torah is good in Romans (Romans 7:12). Our salvation does not depend on ritual obedience to the Torah of God. Those who teach the opposite have denied the sins of the flesh that need a remedy beyond what the will of fallen man can itself accomplish. Jesus came to be our sacrifice for sin in fulfillment of the sacrificial requirements of God in his Torah so that we would be free from the impossible burden of trying to earn our own salvation.

Far from Jesus changing the teaching of God, Torah includes what Jesus has done for us through his sacrifice, to atone for those of God's requirements that we cannot reach for ourselves. He has atoned for our sins - those things we do that cause us to fall short of the perfection of Torah.

Our salvation does not depend on ritual obedience to the Torah of God. But the life to which God's teaching points is still our goal- by the help of the Holy Spirit, and by faith."

Being aware of our shortcomings, however, does not mean that we should neglect the teaching of God and the right application in our lives. The life to which God's teaching points us is still our goal by the help of the Holy Spirit, and by faith in Jesus' covering of our sins. Torah, rightly interpreted, still shows us what is good, and the Sermon on the Mount shows us that God's teaching has depth of meaning that can be missed by superficial study.

We must weigh carefully our English understanding of the word law, what is meant by the New Testament word nomos (the Greek word for law), and the Hebrew understanding of Torah and halakhah. In right balance, we see that the New and Old Testaments are compatible in conveying the full range of God's teaching. All of God's teaching, rightly interpreted, is good.

So now let us turn to the meaning of grace, attempting to further achieve a balanced understanding.

Grace

By the word 'grace', we understand God's unmerited favour. God put Adam and Eve (and, as a consequence, all their descendants) outside of the Garden of Eden. He left us with the weakness of our flesh and the temptation to sin. Yet, he did not abandon us. Over the few thousand years since then he has shown us that he is outworking a plan for redeeming a community from this earth for all eternity. His plan is worked out through the principle of covenant, revealed progressively through the Patriarchs and fulfilled through Jesus the Messiah.

It is a useful exercise to go back, conceptually, to the time of Adam and look forward, as if through a telescope. From such a viewpoint, in the distance is the coming of Jesus and his sacrificial death on the Cross, his resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower his disciples to preach the good news to all nations. The view encompasses the covenant principles given through Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jeremiah. All of this was through God's unmerited favour, his grace. This grace includes the aspects of Torah given to Moses in the wilderness years.

It is a mistake to think that grace began with the writing of the New Testament. The entire plan of God is through grace, and it is one coherent plan from start to finish."

Confusion has often arisen because of a misreading of John 1:17:

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Even if we insert the word Torah for law, taking this verse in isolation, we are still left with the same possibility of thinking that what Moses was given was replaced when Jesus came to earth. Yet, John 1:17 is preceded, in the same passage, by John 1:1-3:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Jesus, the Son of God, was with the Father before Creation. All things came through him, including all of God's spoken and written word, and what Moses was shown. Moses was not the originator of God's grace: this was the higher call of God in Jesus, both pre-incarnate and incarnate. Moses, born of the flesh, was an agent of central aspects of God's Torah but he was less than Jesus. Yet it was grace that brought forth the Torah- as with all of God's goodness.

In his Gospel, John was comparing the ministry of Moses and Jesus more than comparing grace and law.² The main point that we are making here is that we must not bring a false contrast between grace and law when both are from God and linked together.

Ultimately, through all the strands of history and all the experiences of mankind in seeking to restore fellowship with the One True God, through grace God has been outworking a plan that all who can be saved will be saved. He has revealed to us what is good and made provision in Jesus for the shortcomings that the flesh cannot achieve by its own will.

Restoring balance

There have been nearly 2000 years of gradual separation of the Christian Church from its relationship with Israel and the Jews. Now we have a somewhat different task before us than was faced in the Council of Jerusalem of Acts 15. We need to look back at the root meaning of some of the terms used in the New Testament, such as grace and law, in the context of the continuous covenant plan of God from the Fall in Genesis to the Restoration envisioned in the Book of Revelation. We need to reconnect the Church into the seamless flow of covenant history through this restored balance.

The New Covenant brought a new and permanent sacrifice for sin. Trust in God through faith in Jesus' sacrifice brings forgiveness of sins that are by grace alone. Forgiveness of sins leads to desire for sanctification – a clean heart and a pleasing walk with God. The Holy Spirit interprets Torah at heart level. Study of all Scripture is to be understood in this context.

The challenge in all things is to give no place to the flesh and encourage one another on this walk, in the balance of all of God's teaching, into the life of faith through the grace of God.

We must not even seek to "work up faith" as some do in the areas of healing and deliverance, turning faith into works. Our goal is to encourage one another on a personal walk with God through prayer and study of the Bible, trusting the Holy Spirit to be our tutor on this walk together.

For Study and Prayer

This study is not a complete overview of this sensitive subject; rather, it should be a prompt for further study. Despite all we have written, the subject is yet deeper and wider, with many implications to consider. You may have realised that this topic requires something of a mindset reorientation, and this can take some time.

• Consider how recognition of the continuity of all Scripture influences the way we study key topics from the Bible.
• Can you discover other topics that begin in the early chapters of the Bible and develop right through from Genesis to Revelation?
• Do you agree that a separation of the Christian Church from its historical foundations has affected the way we study the Bible?

Next time: Jesus the Jewish Messiah

These studies are developed from the course Christianity's Relationship with Israel and the Jews, first prepared for Tishrei Bible School.

References

1 p26, Eerdmans, 1989.

2 There was also a possibility that John's use of the term 'Moses' stood symbolically for the interpretation of the teachers of Torah, of his day. This is how the teaching of Moses was passed on. It was interpreted by the teachers of the day as much as studied from the written word. Thus, 'Moses' can mean the current teaching and interpretation of the Books of Moses. Thereby there is an element of contrast between what had become the practices of Torah in Jesus' day and the grace through which he brought true emphasis to God's teaching.