How are we to understand Paul's teaching on 'the law'? Clifford Denton considers the Torah-based society from which God called the Apostle to the Gentiles.

The series in context

In these studies we are considering the way the Christian Church has become distanced from Israel. The parting of the ways began in the first century, quite soon after the time of the first apostles. The apostles themselves, whilst recognising that the New Covenant distinguished their interpretation of Torah from the existing rabbinical schools, would nevertheless have seen their faith as fulfillment of ancient promises to their people, not in terms of the separation that occurred later in the Christian Church.

Engaging with Paul

The teaching of the Apostle Paul is central to the New Testament – yet his teaching is often interpreted in different ways, depending on the mind-set of the reader. If, in our way of thinking, we do not consider the context of his life and teaching we might read Paul's letters through a wrong filter and draw imbalanced conclusions. We will consider how Paul's approach to Torah is consistent with the view that Christianity has deep Torah roots that are intended to bear good and lasting fruit in our lives. This is consistent with the Sermon on the Mount and all else that is the background to the New Covenant.

As an aside, we will use the Hebrew term Torah in this study, rather than the English word law, which has become less precise in our day when we seek to understand the Scriptures. The root meaning of Torah is teaching and instruction, while nowadays the concept of law is often derived from a Greco-Roman framework. Certainly, Paul would have used the Hebrew word Torah, just as Jesus would have done when he spoke to his disciples in their native tongue. It may take some time, but perhaps words like Torah and halakhah should be as familiar to Christians as other Hebrew words such as Hallelujah and Amen!

If we are to understand Paul's approach to 'the law' in a balanced way, we must consider the context of his life and teaching."

Recap: the series so far

We have already noted the importance of understanding the religious environment of Jesus and the apostles. For many centuries Torah had been the central focus of Jewish life. The oral traditions as applications of God's teaching were considered to be on an equal footing with the written Torah (the first five books of the Bible) and it was the responsibility of every generation to interpret God's teaching into a lifestyle that God could bless. Let us recap a little as we also extend our study.

Elders of the community took counsel together and defined the legal framework of life based on the Bible's teaching. This was known as halakhah, from the verb halakh, to walk. When we read the word law in our New Testament we are looking at a complex term. The biblical meaning is rooted in the intent of Torah- God's teaching to his people.

However, it is not as simple as that, because each person must decide how to apply this teaching to every aspect of his or her own life. Therefore the word law or even the word Torah itself means the relevant application of God's teaching. This depends on current circumstances and is subject to interpretation; Paul the Apostle knew this.

When we read the word 'law' in our New Testament, we are looking at a complex term that refers not only to God's teaching, but also to its interpretation and application."

The Hebraic mindset is one of action rather than philosophy. This is why the Talmud is still so important today in Judaism. The Jewish mindset is to know what to do, practically, in relation to God's teaching, trusting the Rabbis and traditions for the interpretation. The Talmud consists of the Mishnah (Oral Torah) and a commentary on the Mishnah. What became the Mishnah was the background to Paul's own studies as a Jew, along with the Hebrew Scriptures.

The rabbinic responsibility that was familiar to Paul is described in the introduction to Danby's translation of the Mishnah (OUP 1933):

It was the Rabbi's task to bring together the mass of Halakoth, the work of many generations, handed down in the form of miscellaneous collections of oral teachings, stored in many memories, and growing ever more complicated and unwieldy by reason of controversy between rival teachers and contradictory traditions; to reassemble this material and to present it as a single coherent whole, arranging it systematically, abbreviating arguments, summarizing discussions, rejecting what seemed superfluous, sometimes in disputed cases giving his own ruling, or adding arguments if they seemed called for.

The Torah, whether written or orally transmitted, is not static. It was the current accepted interpretation into halakhah that was the law, so to speak, constantly interpreted for new situations. It seemed revolutionary when Jesus said that the entire Torah and the prophets hung on the two principles of loving God and loving one's neighbour, but when that foundation was secure, teaching for all circumstances of life followed. Paul was to bring about a transition from conventional rabbinic Judaism to teaching the walk of God (halakhah) with the Torah written on the heart.

Paul's teaching encouraged a transition from traditional rabbinic Judaism to teaching the walk of God, with the Torah written on the heart."

Striving for perfection

The zeal of the Rabbis, at least in their own eyes, was not so much that they claimed perfect interpretation, but that they saw their mission as striving for that perfection. This fits with the accusation of Jesus that they strained out gnats and swallowed camels (Matt 23:24).

Some from the Jewish world of today also realise a failure to do what God expects, and that this has brought God's judgement upon them. In a recent commentary, Popular Halachah: A Guide to Jewish Living (ed. A. 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. But God has promised the eternity of the Jewish people: "And yet for all that, though they be in the land of their enemies, will I not cast them away, neither will I abhor them to destroy them utterly, nor will I break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God." (Leviticus 26:44)...Go forth and search for the nations of old; where are they today? They have vanished! Not so the people of Israel who live on forever more. What is the secret of their survival? There is but one answer: The Torah! "And you who cleave unto the Lord your God, you are alive, everyone of you, to this day." (Deuteronomy 4:4) Our sages explained it this way: The children of Israel who clung to God, the Source of Life, have come to possess life everlasting.

If Israel would return to God in true repentance, then will He fulfill unto us His promise which He gave us through the prophets, His servants, to gather in the remaining exiles from the four corners of the earth, to restore us to the land of our inheritance, and bring us the Messiah who will rebuild the Temple and restore Divine Worship and the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.

Here we find a contemporary echo that would also have applied in Paul's day. At that time there was a Messianic expectation arising within Israel, having been dominated by Rome for many years. It expresses the heart of the Jewish hope for the future despite all past failures, to cling to God through right interpretation of Torah and remain embedded in the flow of covenant history, preserving traditions and searching out contemporary meaning.

Of course, we discover from the New Testament that even with such zeal there was a striving for self-righteousness that brought some blindness to personal sin even among the Scribes and Teachers of Torah (e.g. Matt 23), and also blindness to the revelation of Jesus as Messiah.

In the midst of zeal for interpreting Torah, there was often a striving for self-righteousness that brought blindness to sin and to the revelation of Jesus as Messiah."

This was the nation, for example, that was so zealous for the Law that they would still seek to put false prophets to death, in accordance with their understanding of Torah (Deut 13:1-5). It was a dangerous nation in which to appear as a teacher or prophet- yet zeal for the interpretation of Torah was unquestionable!

Paul Emerges from this Background

Consider carefully the following statements, which Paul made about himself. The first two are about his background, his misplaced zeal and his conversion (note that it was after he had studied the Bible and the traditions of the Jews under a prominent Rabbi of the day that the Lord chose to use him as an apostle):

I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women, as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the council of the elders, from whom I also received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring in chains even those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished. Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?' So I answered, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.' (Acts 22:3-8)

So he, trembling and astonished, said, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" Then the Lord said to him, "Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. (Acts 9:1-6)

Paul, being deeply grounded in the Old Testament Scriptures, could transfer this knowledge to an understanding of New Covenant fulfilment – types and shadows coming into clear focus. Surely, if he was any less grounded he would not have had the same authority to teach what he now understood.

For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. (Phil 3:3-6)

Paul's early upbringing and training made him a prepared vessel for his later ministry as Apostle to the Gentiles. Just as Jesus did not come to change the teaching of God, but to bring perfect understanding to it, so Paul emerged from his background to a fulfilled understanding based on the established Torah foundations of his life – the teaching of God, to be rightly interpreted. He had been prepared by God to bring the New Covenant gospel to the Gentile world.

For Study and Prayer

• Review Paul's letters in the New Testament. Also review the promise of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-35. Do you think that Paul saw his ministry as the authentic fulfilment of the teaching of the Old Testament or as establishing a completely new religion?

Next time: We will consider further Paul's teaching.

In the first part of a study of Acts 15, Clifford Denton considers the pivotal moment in the First Century when the apostles and elders met to consider conditions for membership of Gentile converts in the covenant family of Israel.

Acts 15

Acts 15 records a decisive moment in the First Century Church. The gospel was going out into the Gentile world for the first time, and many were coming to faith. The New Covenant ministry of the Holy Spirit was a new experience. These rapid developments were raising many questions amongst Jewish believers in Messiah: how did they relate to the accepted teaching of 'the Law' according to rabbinic tradition? What were the obligations on new believers in Israel's Messiah?

In Jerusalem, the apostles and elders gathered to consider these questions. Not only was this a significant moment for the Christian Church, but it also marked a point of separation between Jews and Christians. But do we have a clear understanding of what was going on at the so-called 'Council of Jerusalem'?

Councils have played a prominent role in Church history, but what was happening in Acts 15? Was this the first Church Council, or was it a typically Jewish way of resolving disputes? Indeed, was it even a biblical way of resolving disputes? Let us consider how the meeting of the apostles and elders in Jerusalem was an application of an already-existing principle, through which those in authority met to consider issues of importance, leading to rulings on behalf of the community.

The 'council' held in Acts 15 was a significant moment for the early Church. But was it a point of separation and departure, or unity and continuity?

A Church Council?

In Our Father Abraham (Eerdmans, 1989), Dr Wilson describes the Council of Jerusalem as "the watershed for the entire book of Acts" (p48). He continues:

The council handed down its decision: Non-Jews entering the Church should not have the Jewish rite of circumcision imposed on them. In its decision the council emphasized the principle of God's free grace in Christ. Gentiles were to know that to stand in the liberty of Christ meant no preconditions or potentially entangling qualifications. So stated, the council ruled out any theological necessity of circumcision for righteousness.

Gentiles should be clear on this point: salvation was a gift of God; one could not procure or obtain it by mere conformity to any ceremonial ritual. [emphasis added]

Separation or Continuity?

What was the background to this meeting of the leaders in Jerusalem? Was this a new thing breaking out to launch the principles by which a fledgling Christian Church was to live? Were the implications that Jewish law was now replaced? It is possible to read this chapter of Acts and filter it through a mind-set that the Christian Church was a completely new thing separate from Judaism. It is therefore possible to fuel the view that grace now replaced law and that the Church replaced Israel.

However, with careful consideration, we see that there is continuity and not separation. Indeed, what was happening goes back to the time of Moses. When we look at it this way we might even challenge the traditional terminology that Acts 15 was a Church Council. This is particularly so when the idea of a 'Church Council' has generally been applied to later meetings of Church leaders which led to much greater and unnecessary separation from Jewish roots. One such council was the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, at the time when Christianity was being merged into the Roman Empire!

It is easy to filter Acts 15 through a mind-set that the Church was a completely new thing, separate from Judaism and replacing Israel. However, more careful consideration shows continuity in Acts 15, not separation."

The Tradition of Elders

It can be argued that the tradition that led to the coming together of apostles and elders in Acts 15 had its origin with Moses. This goes back to the time when Jethro, his father-in-law, gave him some sound advice:

Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God, and you shall teach them the statutes and the laws, and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do.

Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. So it will be easier for you, for they will bear the burden with you. (Ex 18:19-22)

This appointment of elders is comparable to the instruction that Paul gave to Titus:

For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you - if a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict. (Titus 1:5-9)

From the time of Moses, authority for giving rulings on how to apply Torah was delegated to reliable leaders of the community – the older and wiser men. Up to the time of Jesus this authority was with the Sanhedrin for the major decisions, and the local synagogue would have its own elders who 'sat in Moses' seat'. Thus when Paul instructed Titus to appoint elders it was from this tradition that he was drawing.

The tradition of appointing elders to judge how God's law should be applied in different circumstances goes back to the time of Moses."

In this regard, one of the functions of the elders in the Synagogue was to hold a 'Bet Din' ('House of Ruling') on new issues that came up for decision. This was a place of authority comparable with law courts today. The Bet Din took Torah as the foundation of all ruling and interpreted the principles into 'halakhah' for the people (rulings on the way they should walk/live their lives).

Acts 15: a 'Bet Din'

Thus, when we come to Acts 15, it may be seen as a Bet Din, where those in a position of authority met to discuss a new issue that had arisen among believers. The new issue was that many were becoming believers from among the Gentiles by the power of the Holy Spirit, but without any particular knowledge of the Torah and the way it was being taught by the Rabbis of the day. So a Bet Din was formed in Jerusalem.

The Council of Jerusalem was a 'Bet Din', a traditional meeting of those in authority to discuss a new issue that had arisen among believers. It was not a new thing- simply the first major one since the beginning of the Gentile harvest."

This must be seen as the natural thing for the apostles to do, going back to the time of Moses, rather than as a new thing in the Christian Church. It would not have been the first time these leaders met to discuss matters of Torah and halakhah, but it was the first major meeting regarding the role of Torah among those converted from a Gentile background. Unlike most Church Councils in later centuries, when Christianity had largely separated from its Jewish roots, this Bet Din was embedded in, and flowed out of, its Jewish heritage.

New Authority Structure

Whilst the Bet Din recorded in Acts 15 was not a unique concept, it was unique in its being led by the new Church leaders- the apostles and elders –rather than by the traditional Rabbinical hierarchy of Judaism. As the only 'Church Council' recorded in Scripture, in it we see a new authority structure coming into being for the New Covenant community, instituted by Jesus.

Jesus entered a world in which, through Moses, God had already delegated authority to community leaders. Jesus did not challenge the delegated authority, though he did challenge the leaders' interpretation of the Torah, especially in their own lifestyles:

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. (Matt 23:1-3)

After recognising the delegated authority of the existing leaders, Jesus later confirmed that as the Son of God, all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him (Matt 28:18). Before his ascension into heaven, he then gave authority to his apostles to minister in his name on earth. He also told them:

Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them. (Matt 18:18-20)

"In my name", in this sense, can be understood as being according to Jesus' authority. Jesus confirmed that he would uphold the decisions of those in authority and also be among them, by the presence of his Spirit, as they sought agreement in his name.

The Bet Din in Acts 15 displays the new authority structure of the New Covenant Church, being led by elders and apostles, not the traditional Rabbinic hierarchy.

The Fig Tree: a Symbol of Authority to Interpret Scripture

Another relevant symbol here is the cursing of the fig tree, when Jesus spoke to a fruitless fig tree and caused it to wither (Matt 23:21-23):

And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?" So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done. "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, "By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?"

Why did Jesus respond in this way towards a fig tree? Under the shade of a fig tree was a common location for Torah students to study and pray. Hence, the fig tree had become symbolic of sitting under the authoritative teaching of the Rabbis, and therefore the authority of the Rabbis to interpret Torah. By cursing the fig tree, Jesus was hinting about the removal of authority to teach from those who were not interpreting God's word correctly. This can be tied in with Matthew 21:43:

Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

Here the word 'nation' is the Greek 'ethnos'. This has a range of meanings but from the context, we can say that it means another group of people, implying that authority would be taken from those presently interpreting Torah to another group whom Jesus would designate.

New Authority Structure

This does not mean that Israel would now be cast out as a whole and the Church in the Gentile world take over with a new plan, but that a new authority structure would be defined among God's people. This authority was given to Jesus' disciples, as already promised in Matthew 16:19:

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Thus, when the apostles and elders met in Jerusalem, as recorded in Acts 15, we see the new authority structure coming into being for the Covenant Community. The Holy Spirit was among them to confirm what Jesus had promised and the phrase, 'it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us' (Acts 15:28), is significant in this respect. It is a confirmation that authority to interpret the teaching of God (Torah) had been passed on to the leaders of the New Covenant community.

At the Jerusalem council, the elders and apostles of the New Covenant community led under the guidance and confirmation of the Holy Spirit."

That new authority structure was operating at the Jewish elders meeting in Jerusalem. It was a continuity of the authority structure first given through Moses by God, now confirmed through Jesus for the new move of his Spirit into the Gentile world.

For Study and Prayer

If the meeting of the apostles and elders in Acts 15 is a continuation of the traditions handed down from the time of Moses, does this have implications for meetings of church elders today, and for the relationship between Jews and Christians in the New Covenant community?

Next time: We will continue to consider the meeting of Acts 15.

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

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.

'A Wondering Jew', by John Fieldsend (Radec Press, 2014, 181 pages, available from CWI Bookroom for £8.99 + postage)

Here is an autobiography to warm the heart, a personal story of a life under threat in its early stages and yet which, under God's grace and guidance, has been long and fulfilled.

John Fieldsend was one of the Kindertransport children rescued from Nazi tyranny by Nicholas Winton. Born in Czechoslovakia and brought up in Germany during Hitler's rise to power, early pressures forced his family back to Vitkov in their native land- but there was to be no respite. Following the failure of the Evian-les-Bains conference in July 1938 to offer increased help for Jewish refugees, Nazi confidence and aggression grew. Before long, John was on his way to England.

Here, a long and eventually fruitful life started to take shape: education, marriage, ordination and ministry, especially in the area of Jewish-Christian relations where John was often a pioneering force. The drama unfolds in a way that demonstrates God's sovereign hand at work. He confesses that he did not experience a dramatic calling to full-time Christian ministry, but "the seed had been lodged in my mind while still in the RAF; it was growing and would not go away." (p63). It took others to reassure him of the reality of his calling, which he then readily followed.

Whilst John's story is enlightening and encouraging, its force lies in his admission of an identity crisis due to his Jewish background"

As well as providing enlightening historical details and encouraging personal memories, so clearly related, the force of his story lies in his admission of an identity crisis. The issue of being Jewish and Christian was one that "had pierced right into the heart of my being and pulled me into a deep identity crisis, which took the form of a long dark tunnel. I was dominated by wondering, 'Who am I?' and could find no answer." (p110). His honesty is refreshing, as he realises that such confusion would reduce his effectiveness to serve God. But eventually he came out of that tunnel as realisation dawned that rather than being a Christian with a Jewish background, he was a Jewish Christian, a Messianic Jew. God had set him on a new path that would help many others, a path that he continues to tread now, well into his eighties.

The rest of his story resonates with gratitude and a desire to live by faith, and is one that will bring hope and encouragement to others. Although the paragraphs are often overlong, the book is set in a clear, well-spaced type which helps readability. Overall, here is an account of a spiritual journey which should make us wonder afresh at the purposes of our loving heavenly Father.

Clifford Denton continues to consider consequences of the separation of branches of Christianity from its original roots.

The Jewish Messiah becomes the Gentile Christ

This week, we are pausing in our historical survey of Christianity's parting of the ways with Israel and the Jews to consider some of the consequences. There is nothing more important to consider than the way Israel's Messiah has been taken out of his historical and cultural setting and re-defined by Christian theology. At the extreme, some Christian theologians have made Jesus Christ unrecognisable as the expected Messiah of Israel.

Of course, a rejection of Yeshua by many Jews contributed to Christians making fresh claims and re-defining him in a Gentile context. This included changing his Jewish name (Yeshua) to a Greek form (Jesus), and changing his title (Mashiach – Messiah – Anointed One) to the Greek (Christos, shortened to Christ). Whatever the cause, the same Christian theology that saw the Church as replacing Israel has often also been in danger of transforming Yeshua into a Greco-Roman god, an Anglican Bishop, a product of Lutheran or Calvinistic theology, or many other things including a European, African or other form of iconic figure.

Jesus has often been removed from his historical and cultural setting and re-defined by Christian theology, so we lose a sense of his Jewishness."

Words that we use and pictures that we paint are loaded with meaning and are interpreted through the way hearers think. The meaning of the words Jewish and Messiah must be understood without modification of their true, intended meaning. When understood correctly, it is a certain fact that Jesus is both Jewish and Messiah. He perfectly describes and fulfills the meaning of those terms. He was born into a Jewish family, and came to earth to be the Messiah.

These are basic issues for both Christians and Jews. Jews may have defined their Jewishness in a certain way and their Messianic expectation in a certain way, so that many Jews missed the moment of revelation that Yeshua (Jesus) is indeed the Jewish Messiah. Whatever may be the reasons, however, many Christians have disconnected themselves with Judaism so much as to miss the point that Jesus was, is and will return as King of the Jews.

In truth, Jesus was, is and will return as the King of the Jews."

Jesus and his followers

We can read the biblical account over and over again, and still have a mindset that has been cultivated through our own background and culture. We might pay lip-service to the Lord's Jewishness, without realising that our image of him is actually far removed from the truth.

Jesus was born and raised out of the stock of Israel and the Tribe of Judah. He is the fulfillment of the covenant promise given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets of Israel. It was essential, in fulfillment of prophecy (see below), that he was and is of the Tribe of Judah, King of the Jews and the promised Jewish Messiah.

Marvin Wilson writes in his book, Our Father Abraham:

The life and teachings of Jesus reveal a deep commitment to the Jewish beliefs and practices of his day. He was born of Jewish parents (Matthew 1:16) and circumcised on the eighth day in accord with Jewish Law (Luke 2:21). As a boy he celebrated Passover (Luke 2:41-43), and as a youth he learned by interacting with various Jewish teachers, all of whom were amazed at his understanding (Luke 2:46-47). Frequenting the synagogue from Sabbath to Sabbath as was his custom at the start of his adult ministry (Luke 4:16), Jesus was exposed to a wide range of Jewish thought.¹

Marvin also points out:

Furthermore, Jesus' early followers were Jews. Less than three scant years after Jesus launched his public ministry, a nucleus among them would found the primitive Christian assembly. Jesus discipled his followers in the fashion of a typical first-century itinerant teacher of Judaism. Not in synagogue classrooms but on hillsides, in fields, and in remote locations, this Galilean carpenter's son clustered many pupils about him.²

Jesus came to the world of the Rabbis (each being from a various sect of Judaism) and ministered according to Rabbinic traditions, in his own perfect exposition of the Hebrew Scriptures. In particular, we note Jesus' own central purpose while he was on this earth, to find "the lost sheep of Israel" (Matt 15:24).

Jesus the Jewish Messiah

Not only did Jesus come into this world as a Jew, he also fulfilled the promises given through the prophets of the coming Messiah to suffer for his people. The Hebrew root of the word 'Messiah' is 'one who is anointed'. The Messiah foretold by the Scriptures is the one who is anointed by God to lead his people, and bring in eternal peace.

Jesus first came to suffer and pay the sacrifice for the redemption of his people. On his return he will fulfill the remaining prophesies and bring in the Messianic Kingdom (Jude 15, Rev 2:27). Many people from the tribes of Israel expected the Messiah to fulfill the promises all at once when he came. There was an expectation of the "lion lying down with the lamb", the symbol of peace that would confirm the Messianic Kingdom (extracted from Isaiah 65:25). There was therefore a disappointment when this did not take place all at once, and this has been a cause for many Jews rejecting Yeshua (Jesus) as Messiah to this day.

Jesus came in fulfillment of the promises of Scripture and will return in fulfillment of the promises of Scripture."

Yet, he came in fulfillment of the promises, will return in fulfillment of the promises and continue to confirm that he is indeed the Messiah. He was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died as a Jew in fulfillment of all prophecies pointing to his sacrificial death and resurrection. He will return as the King of the Jews, returning to Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel and Judah. Here are some of the Scriptures pointing to Jesus (Yeshua), the Jewish Messiah.

• Jacob prophesied His coming from the Tribe of Judah (Gen 49:10).
• Balaam foresaw the Star out of Jacob and the Sceptre from Israel (Num 24:17, 19).
• Moses foresaw the coming Messiah (Deut 18:15).
• David knew that the Messiah would come from his descendants (Psa 132:11).
• Micah was told that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Mic 5:2).
• Daniel was shown the time of the coming of the Messiah to suffer for His people, and Isaiah predicted the suffering too (Dan 9:26, Isa 53:5, 7).
• David related the suffering of Messiah to the Passover Lamb (Psa 22:6).
• Zechariah was shown that Messiah's own brethren would be involved in the sacrifice (Zech 12:11; 13:6).
• The Messiah would rise from the dead (Isa 53:10, Psa 16:10, 11).
• He would be the Son of God (Psa 2:7).
• He would rule with the Father (Psa 110:1).
• He will return to execute vengeance on His enemies and establish the Messianic Kingdom (Jude 15, Rev 2:27).
• He came as the Lamb (John 1:29) and will return as the Lion of Judah (Rev 5:5).

While some people, including many Christian theologians, have created an image of Jesus that is divorced from his Jewish and Hebraic background. Others, including some of his own brethren, have not realised that God raised him up as one of them, of the Tribe of Judah, totally integrated into the biblical world of Israel. He was, is and will return as the Jewish Messiah.

Jesus was, is and will return as the Jewish Messiah. In him is the mending of the rift between Christians and Jews: there is no other way."

The mending of the rift and uniting of Christians with the Israel of God is in and of Yeshua HaMashiach. There is no other way.

For Study and Prayer

Do you agree that some Christians may have unconsciously accepted concepts of Jesus that are not compatible with his Jewish background? Can you think of any examples? How can we move towards correcting any misconceptions?

Follow this link for a study of the significance of the Hebrew letters that form the name Yeshua.

Next time: The Jewish Heritage of the Christian Church

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

References

1 Eerdmans 1989, p40, emphasis added.

2 Ibid.

Helen Belton looks at the history and significance of Pentecost, or Shavuot, the biblical 'Feast of Weeks'.

Shavuot in the Hebrew Bible

Easter and Passover coincided this year and so this Sunday (24 May) begins the Jewish festival of Shavuot, known to Christians as Pentecost, referring to the fiftieth day after Passover.

There were three feasts at which the Lord required the men of Israel to go up to Jerusalem to present themselves before him, known as the pilgrim feasts: Passover (Pesach in Hebrew transliteration), Pentecost (Shavuot meaning 'Weeks' in Hebrew) and Tabernacles (or 'Booths', Succot in Hebrew) (Ex 23:14-16). Jesus, the disciples and the early Church celebrated these feasts.

Shavuot or the 'Feast of Weeks' is so called because of its connection in time to Passover. The Israelites were instructed as follows in Deuteronomy 16:9-10:

You shall count seven weeks for yourself; you shall begin to count seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name.

So, from Passover you count off seven weeks (or 49 days) until the fiftieth day, Pentecost (from the Greek for 'fiftieth'). The counting period between the two feasts is known as the counting of the Omer. 'Omer' is Hebrew for 'sheaf': agriculturally, Pentecost marks the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. So, you are counting the sheaf to see when it is ripe for harvest.

The Anglican Church has kept the relationship between the two festivals: the Easter season continues for 50 days until Pentecost. At Easter we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus and at Pentecost we celebrate the giving of his Spirit. Many Christians are not aware that Pentecost was an ancient festival long before its mention in Acts. Acts 1:5 says that there were "staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven". What were they doing there? Celebrating Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks.

Shavuot in the time of Jesus

Like all the pilgrim feasts, Shavuot was a harvest festival. At the Temple in Jerusalem, the first fruits of the harvest, known as the Seven Species, were offered. These are: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates, listed in Deuteronomy 8:8 as the fruits in which the land of Israel was rich.

Farmers would tie a reed around the first ripening fruits from each of these species in their fields. At the time of harvest, the fruits identified by the reed would be cut and placed in baskets woven of gold and silver.

The baskets would then be loaded on oxen whose horns were gilded and laced with garlands of flowers, to be led in a grand procession to Jerusalem. As they travelled, the people sang praises to God and rejoiced in his goodness. Priests would meet the pilgrims on the edge of the city and lead them up to the Temple Mount with music, psalms of praise and dance.

At the Temple, the priest would take the sheaves, the firstfruits of the harvest, and wave some in every direction. By doing so, the whole crowd would be acknowledging God's faithful provision and sovereignty over all the earth.

The priests also waved two loaves baked with yeast before the Lord, as prescribed in Leviticus 23:17-21. This was unusual because normally yeast was not to be present in a sacrifice to the Lord, since yeast represents sin in scripture.

How Shavuot is celebrated today

Today the celebration of Shavuot has changed drastically. With no Temple, there can be no waving of the Omer, offering of neither the first fruits nor the waving of the two loaves.

People decorate their homes and synagogues with flowers and greenery because this was originally a harvest festival. The Torah or Law is celebrated because Shavuot was the time of the giving of the Law through Moses at Mount Sinai. Because of this key historical significance of Shavuot, it is also traditional for Jewish men to stay up all night studying the Torah and for Jewish children, age five, to begin their first formal studies of the Torah.

The book of Ruth is read because the story occurred around the time of the harvest and also because Ruth is seen as a great example of someone who voluntarily took upon herself the yoke of the Law. Shavuot is also the anniversary of the death of King David, who was the great-grandson of Ruth and Boaz.

Viewed through New Testament eyes, we can see that Ruth's story also shows the determination of a Gentile to seek God and to be attached to his people. Boaz typifies the loving-kindness of our Redeemer, his compassion and admiration for Ruth's faith and commitment to his people causing him to accept his role as kinsman-redeemer and enter into covenant relationship with her in marriage. In the same way the Lord entered into covenant with Israel, like a marriage covenant, with the Ten Commandments (known as 'the 10 Words' in Hebrew) as the wedding certificate (Heb. ketubah).

The book of Ruth is often read at Shavuot. Through New Testament eyes, Ruth shows the determination of a Gentile to seek God and to be attached to his people."

Traditionally, foods made from milk products are eaten at Shavuot such as cheesecake, blintzes (cheese crepes), kreplach (triangle dumplings), and holiday loaves representing the two loaves waved and eaten in the Temple. It is thought dairy products are eaten because the Promised Land was a land of "milk and honey", and as Song of Songs 4:11 says: "Like honey and milk [the Torah, by interpretation] lies under your tongue."

There is also a theory that because the Jews only received the Torah at Mount Sinai (the reason Shavuot is celebrated), they didn't have the laws of how to slaughter and prepare meat prior to this. When they received the Torah and the commandments about ritual slaughter and the separation law of "do not cook a kid in its mother's milk" (Ex 34:26) leading to the complete separation of meat and milk products in traditional Jewish cuisine, they didn't have time to prepare meat dishes, so they ate dairy instead.¹

In the morning service in synagogues on Pentecost, Exodus 19 and 20 are read (the giving of the 10 Commandments). The congregation stands because you are to hear the word of the Lord in awe, as though standing at the base of Mount Sinai and personally receiving these words from God. Ezekiel 1 and 2 are also read, which describe visions of God surrounded by wind and cloud, flashes of lightning and brilliant light, just as in Exodus 19:6 it says there was "thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast."

Shavuot and the land of Israel

Five days after the Six Day War ended in 1967, over 200,000 Jews flocked to Jerusalem. One eyewitness said:

It was biblical, like a pilgrimage. On that Shavuot, people felt that Mashiach [Messiah] was in the air. I've never known such an electric atmosphere before or since. Wherever, we were stopped, we began to dance. Holding aloft Torah scrolls we swayed and danced and sang at the tops of our voices. So many of the Psalms and songs are about Jerusalem and Zion and the words reached into us a new life. As the sky lightened, we reached the Zion gate. Still singing and dancing, we poured into the narrow alleyways beyond.²

With the reunification of the city of Jerusalem in 1967, a custom to 're-enact' the festival pilgrimage began. Every year, hundreds of people stream on foot from throughout Jerusalem to arrive at the Kotel (Western Wall) early Shavuot morning in order to pray at a sunrise service.³

Every year in Jerusalem since the end of the Six Day War in 1967, hundreds of people re-enact the festival pilgrimage."

Since then, more Jewish people have become believers in Jesus as Messiah than at any previous time in history. Before 1967, there were no Messianic congregations in Israel and now there are over 150.⁴

The link between Passover and Shavuot/Pentecost: redemption and revelation

Passover and Shavuot were connected because of the two harvests and the counting of the Omer- the 50 days. But they are also connected in a deeper way.

God brought redemption at the first Passover: in the exodus from Egypt, the Jewish people were freed from being slaves to Pharaoh. Then, 50 days later at Shavuot, they accepted the Torah (God's Law given through Moses) and became a nation bound to the Lord. If they were fully obedient and kept this covenant "then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex 19:5-6).

The Torah kept God's people even if they did not keep the Torah in all its fullness. So a new covenant was needed for them and to bring in the nations of the world. Messiah Jesus came and died at Passover (the Messiah is our Passover Lamb, says Paul, in 1 Cor 5:7). 50 days later, at Shavuot or Pentecost, he sent his Spirit to create a renewed holy nation, "a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light" (1 Pet 2:9).

However, redemption is not the end of the story. God redeems for a purpose: in order to reveal. Shavuot is about revelation: first of the word (the Torah) and then of the Spirit. Exactly 50 days after the first Passover, God gave the Torah to Israel and so Israel was born as a nation, as a called-out, chosen people, priests to the world.

Shavuot is not just about redemption, it's about revelation: revelation of the word and of the Spirit."

About 1500 years later, at that same festival of Shavuot in Jerusalem, 50 days after Jesus gave his life at Passover, God poured out his Spirit to seal the covenant with his renewed bride, the body of believers in Messiah (which was 100% Jewish at that point).

In Acts 1 we read that the disciples were together in one place, an upper room. We assume that the disciples were still in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came (Acts 2:1) but they would have been at the Temple, because that is where Pentecost was celebrated. "All together in one place" suggests somewhere large enough to accommodate all the disciples, not just the 12.

Also, Acts 2:41 says that 3,000 were added to the believers that day, so it would have had to be an enormous upper room! Peter addressed the crowd of pilgrims who had come for the Feast at the place it was celebrated, their national and spiritual centre, the Temple in Jerusalem. Those 3,000 were immediately baptised and the only place where that was possible was at the Temple.

The Lord promised in Haggai 2:9 regarding the Second Temple that:

'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty.

This promise was fulfilled as the Prince of Peace stood in the Temple at the Feast of Tabernacles and declared that those who would turn to him would experience streams of living water flowing through them (John 7).⁵ Jesus was speaking of his Spirit, and on the fiftieth day after his death at Passover- at Pentecost -his Spirit was poured out like water over his disciples in the presence of all Israel gathered for the feast of Shavuot,coming to rest on each as tongues of fire. The onlookers were invited to join with the disciples, and those who did became the Body of believers in Messiah: the early Church.

From death to life: repentance and faith

Just as the Spirit of Messiah revived and cleansed their spirits, so their bodies were washed as a sign by baptism or, as it is known in Jewish tradition, the mikveh or ritual bath. At the Second Temple site, archaeologists have uncovered many ritual baths (pl. mikvot). These mikvot were used for ceremonial cleansing before entering the Temple, but also for immersion as a sign of repentance.

At Sinai, 3,000 died because they turned from the Lord to idolatry with the golden calf (Ex 32:28). In Jerusalem, 3,000 were brought to spiritual life as they returned to the Lord in repentance and faith in the Messiah (Acts 2:41).

At Sinai, 3,000 died because they turned away from the Lord. In Jerusalem, 3,000 were brought to spiritual life as they turned back to God in repentance and faith in Jesus as Messiah"

Mount Sinai was covered in smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire (Ex 19:18) and 70 elders of Israel saw the Lord and prophesied, but at Mount Zion in Jerusalem the Holy Spirit descended like tongues of fire on all the believers and they all prophesied – men, women, young and old as Joel 2:28 foretold: "I will pour out my Spirit on all people". The miracle of Pentecost was not just the ability to speak another language supernaturally, but that all the believers prophesied.

Even more significant is the wider fulfilment of prophecy to Israel. At Pentecost the Lord demonstrated that he had not finished with Israel. He proved his covenant faithfulness by making his new Jeremiah 31 covenant with the people he had restored from exile:

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls (Joel 2:32).

We think that Pentecost is about the birth of the Church, but it is about the rebirth of Israel.

At the time of the first Pentecost, the only believers in Jesus were Jews. In due course, foreigners would join with Israel: not all Israel believed and so "branches were broken off" from the olive tree of faith so that wild, pagan branches from among the nations (or Gentiles) could be grafted in (Rom 11:17-19).

The aim of giving the Torah and giving the Spirit was the same: to enable a holy God to indwell a sinful, but chosen people.

The aim of giving the Torah and giving the Spirit was the same: to enable a holy God to indwell a sinful, but chosen people."

God with us - and in us

"Let the people build me a sanctuary", the Lord said to Moses in Exodus 25:8, but he does not say 'so that I may dwell in it', but 'so that I may dwell in them'.

We may think that we search for God, but God is searching for us in order to indwell us.

At Mount Zion, the new covenant of Jeremiah 31 was fulfilled. Previously, God's law was written on tablets of stone, but now it is written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. At Sinai the covenant of circumcision was given, a mark in the flesh as a sign of covenant. At Mount Zion, the sign of the covenant was "circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code" (Rom 2:29).

After Pentecost, even Gentiles, we who were far off, were brought in to God's kingdom: as Peter said:

God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. (Acts 15:8-9)

So even the Gentiles could become temples of the Spirit of the living God (1 Cor 6:19). We are "living stones", a collective temple of God's Spirit, as Peter puts it, who "are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood" (1 Pet 2:9).

Christians often talk about 'going up' to heaven, but the story of the Bible is about God coming down"

Christians often talk about going up to heaven when we die. But the story of the Bible is about God coming down: in creation, at Sinai, in Jesus, at Pentecost and eventually in the new heaven, the new earth and the new Jerusalem, when God will live with us (Rev 21:3).

Israel reborn

So, at Pentecost Israel was reborn: a renewed called-out people (Heb. kahal, Gk. Ekklesia, Eng. church). It was an all-Jewish body of believers at this stage. Those Jewish believers visiting from the nations, from the Jewish diaspora, became the first emissaries of the gospel, fulfilling prophecy: the word of the Lord did indeed go forth from Mount Zion and from Jerusalem, as Isaiah 2 and Micah 4 prophesied.

'Diaspora' is a Greek word that literally means "through scattered". Those same seeds that had been harvested for the Lord at Pentecost were re-scattered among the nations as they returned to their homes, forming part of a new spiritual diaspora. Exiles from the future kingdom of God, their true home, they were seeds scattered through the nations to bring the gospel to the known world.

Peter wrote to these Jewish believers as follows: "To God's elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces" (1 Pet 1). They were seeds fallen to the ground, with some dying for the gospel, and Peter wrote to encourage them as they were undergoing Roman persecution for their faith.

The harvest extended to the Gentiles so that, as Ephesians 2 says, non-Jews are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God's people, joined to the commonwealth of Israel. The loaves made with yeast that the priest waved on the day of Pentecost symbolise the harvest of sinful man from among both the Jews and the Gentiles.

Jesus became the firstfruits from among the dead (1 Cor 15:20) when he rose from the dead at Passover, fulfilling a part of that festival called the 'Feast of First Fruits'. At Pentecost he is joined by Jewish and Gentile believers, symbolised by the two loaves. So, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, both Jew and Gentile, is united as "one new man" as Ephesians 2:15 says.

A Ruth Church

Like Ruth, whose story is read at Shavuot, the Gentile woman who followed her Jewish mother-in-law Naomi back to the Promised Land and through kindness and obedience followed a greater destiny than she could have imagined, Gentile believers in Jesus also say, "Your God will be my God."

Where are the Ruths in the Gentile church who will make Israel "envious" (Rom 11:11) through kindness and attractive obedience to God's word? They are still few in number. We must reject the stay-at-a-distance criticism and hostility which has been typical of the Church's dealings with the Jewish people historically and is often still the case today, although now it is directed at re-gathered Israel, the nation.

Will we become the Ruth Church that we were destined to be, loving and supporting Naomi, our frailer, older relative, Israel?"

Will we become the Ruth Church that we were destined to be, loving and supporting Naomi, our frailer, older relative, Israel? Will we draw near to the Lord and to his people, as the Lord desired at Sinai and at Jerusalem in the giving of his Law and Spirit, so he can indwell us and unite us as "one new humanity" of Jew and Gentile (Eph 2:15)? Or will we stay at a distance (Ex 15:21) as Israel did at Sinai, so that only Moses heard the voice of the Lord?

Acknowledgement: with thanks to the late Dr Dwight A. Pryor of the Center for Judaic-Christian Studies (teaching available via www.jcstudies.com and www.cfi.org.uk) for his insights on this subject.

References

1 Gordon-Bennett, C. Why do Jews eat dairy on Shavuot?

2 Voices of Jerusalem-Crowd of Tears, Hadassah Magazine 77, No.9, May 1996: 23.

3 Domnitch, L, 2000. The Jewish Holidays: A Journey Through History. Jason Aronson.

4 Directory of Messianic Organizations in Israel.

5 This resonates with the water libation ceremony that took place at the Feast of Tabernacles, which also connects to Shavuot- but that is a subject for a further study.

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.

Clifford Denton's latest study on the Hebraic roots of Christianity turns to the tricky subject of the balance between 'law' and 'grace'.

The rift between Jews and Christians

The broken relationship between Jews and Christians has had immense consequences. Misunderstanding has often fuelled the flames of hate and aggravated the harm that has been done to God's people. There have also been consequences for the way we read the Bible, particularly since Hebraic thinking has been replaced by a Greek mindset. This has detracted from the continuity between the two Testaments and has unbalanced perspectives through the centuries.

Among the Bible themes disjointed by the ascension of Greek thinking is the relationship between law and grace, now often separated in the thinking of many Christians. The common error nowadays (despite the way some Scriptures seem to read otherwise) is to consider 'law' as completely done away with in favour of 'grace', because of the sacrifice of Jesus."

However, if we read the New Testament with a thorough grasp of its continuity with the whole of Scripture, and put it in proper historical context, the subtle relationship between law and grace takes on a clearer perspective. It was through God's grace that all His teaching (the Torah) was given to us. All the law that was revealed through Moses came through the grace of God. There is much to consider on this topic, but that is a good starting point.

Is this Judaising?

This call to flee Greek thinking and return to the Hebraic roots of the Christian faith must not be construed as 'Judaising'. 'Judaising' is the word often used to accuse those who seem to be too caught up with all things Jewish (in contemporary usage, it often carries with it a hint of anti-Semitism). Those accused seem to be overly fascinated with external forms of Jewishness that come more from tradition than from conventional Christian interpretations of the Scriptures. They are also often thought of as having a faulty understanding of law and grace.

There is a difference between Judaising - becoming overly fascinated with external forms of Jewishness - and developing a right respect of God's laws."

Paul gave plentiful warning against Judaising activity to the Galatians (eg chapter 2). However, there is a difference between Judaising and developing a right respect of God's laws. Let us now consider the situation in the First Century when the Gospel message began to move out into the Gentile world.

From Moses to Jesus

The teaching of God (Torah), considered to be founded on the first five books of the Bible, has needed practical interpretation ever since the time of Moses. Torah remains a set of written principles until interpreted into action.

An important principle was established when Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, helped Moses understand how to teach the people the way to obey the principles of Torah:

You shall teach them the statutes and the laws and show them the way in which they must walk and the work they must do. Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God......let them judge the people at all times. Then it will be that every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they themselves shall judge. (Ex 18:20-22)

From that time onwards, the burden of teaching was shared by the elders of Israel, comparably to the way Scripture is taught today through the ministry of teaching in the Church.

The purpose of the teaching was so that every member of the Children of Israel - every family, clan and tribe, and the entire Nation - would know how to walk out the principles of Torah. The Hebrew for 'walking out' is halakha - a practical application of Torah according to the wisdom of God (walking is also the metaphor applied to the life of faith for the Christian - see Romans 8, where Paul explores the walk in the Spirit).

By the time of Jesus, the elders whom Moses had appointed in his day had been transformed into the members of the religious authority called the Sanhedrin. In addition, schools of Rabbis had formed with different shades of interpretation of Torah. However, whilst these different Rabbinic schools were zealous to interpret Torah accurately, their walking out of God's law had become more religious duty than personal relationship with him.

Every human being is prone to legalism, feeling more comfortable with rules than relationship."

This is the main point in understanding what the term 'law' meant in Paul's day and, indeed, what it means in Judaism today. The flesh of all human beings is prone to legalism, feeling more comfortable with rules than relationship. This can be so for Christians as well as Jews, and was the reason for Paul's warnings in the New Testament. At the time when Paul taught about law and grace, law was not so much Torah (the Old Testament teaching of God in its written form) as it was the interpretation of Torah into principles of living (indeed, 'halakha' in our own day is still the term used in Judaism for legal interpretations of Torah).

It is therefore reasonable for us to suppose that when Paul talked about law, he was referring to the teaching of the Rabbis, whose method of interpreting Torah imposed binding rules on their disciples rather than encouraging a personal walk with the God of Israel. This close relationship had been understood by their own Prophet Micah, when he wrote:

He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic 6:8)

Torah and Halakhah correctly interpreted

Torah, the teaching of God brought through Moses, is subject to interpretation and application. It becomes the legalism against which we are warned when wrongly interpreted as obligations of the flesh, and sometimes even into rules made by men (Col 2:22).

God's law becomes legalism when it is wrongly interpreted as obligations of the flesh, rather than a living walk with him."

By contrast, the New Covenant was the means by which Almighty God sent his Spirit to us to write the Torah on our hearts (Jer 31:33) and mobilise our walk with him (halakha) in a new and living way. Understanding the subtlety of this helps us to rebalance our view of Paul's teaching and to reconsider the balance of law and grace in the whole of Scripture.

Law as a Protector

If the Law of God is considered to be replaced by the grace of God, this not only impacts individual understandings but so the stability of entire societies.

God's law works to protect and guide human beings who are not able to live by the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. Nations such as Britain, which have been impacted by the Gospel message over many centuries, have long been stabilized through biblical laws on their statute books. In Britain we can go back at least as far as King Alfred to trace the influence of biblical principles of law.

Consider this quotation from Sir Francis Palgrave's 'History of the Anglo Saxons'¹ (emphases added):

The third and chief principle which actuated Alfred, was his endeavour to impart the spirit of the law of God to the temporal legislation of his kingdom. Alfred's statutes are prefaced by the Decalogue, to which is added a selection from the Mosaic precepts, and the canons of the first Apostolic council. "Do these", he continues, "and if these commands be obeyed, no other doom-book will be required." We commonly say that Christianity is a part of the law of the land. Alfred had a clearer perception of the station which religion should possess in a Christian commonwealth. He would have wished to render Christianity the law itself. The necessity for any human law exists solely in proportion to our neglect of the Divine law; and if we were enabled to write the law on our hearts, nothing whatever would be left for human legislation to perform.

Do you see what the author had detected in a balanced understanding of law to be applied to a nation? It is instructive to note that Palgrave (1788 -1861) was born into a Jewish family and converted to Christianity, which adds special emphasis to this insight into the history of the British Nation, especially in the context of our study of law and grace.

For Study and Prayer

Consider the biblical principles of Torah and halakha in relation to what a Christian should understand by the word law.

Next time: We will continue to consider the balance of law and grace.

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

References

1 p114, The Collected Historical Works of Sir Francis Palgrave, Vol 5: The History of the Anglo-Saxons, 1921 [2013]. R. H. I Palgrave (Ed), Cambridge, CUP.

'Older Younger Brother: The Tragic Treatment by Christians of the Jews', by Canon Andrew White (self-published, 2014, 48 pages)

This short account of Jewish-Christian relations over the centuries contains a concise summary of the main historical events that feature in other books of this kind, but also adds some fascinating extra details not usually found elsewhere.

Andrew White, Vicar of St George's Anglican Church, Baghdad (known affectionately as the 'Vicar of Baghdad') is able to bring a clear personal perspective to this sorry tale of how Christians have mistreated the Jewish people. His background and training included studying at a Rabbinic seminary in Israel, which provided him with a spiritual passion for the Jewish people and a love for their Scriptures and other writings. This, together with his current role in the Middle East (especially in reconciliation projects), means he is well aware of the innate bond between Christians and Jews, how this has been shattered and what can be done about it.

Andrew traces how the Christian Church divided itself from its Jewish roots and examines the theological prejudices behind this. His brief survey of the Church Fathers is followed by an examination of key moments in the Middle Ages and the Reformation, leading to more recent events such as the Holocaust. All this may well be familiar to many, but he then adds an account of two important conferences aiming to combat the prejudices which had produce these catastrophes.

Andrew White is well aware of the innate bond between Christians and Jews, how this has been shattered and what can be done about it."

He quotes in full the 10 point statement produced by the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ) held at Seelisburg in 1947, a statement which the author says "remained the most significant document on the issue of the relationship between Jews and Christians for over 60 years" (p25).

He then reproduces, also in full, the more extensive and updated statement published by the ICCJ following their 2009 conference in Berlin. This deals not just with Christian-Jewish matters but also considers two other important issues – relationships with Islam and the establishment of the state of Israel. His conclusion is that this is "a truly amazing document" which although "accepted by many academics and those concerned with Christian-Jewish relations" has sadly been ignored by many other Christians and whose precepts have not been followed by all churches (p30).

He then examines why this unhappy state of affairs still exists, mainly from a theological rather than political point of view. In this section he outlines the 3 R's of Christian theology towards the Jews. He explains the role of Replacement theology and its dangers and evils. He also compares this to Remnant theology (basically Christian Zionism which has become popular over the past hundred years) and the less well known Recognition theology, whose core belief is found in the Seelisburg Conference pronouncement mentioned earlier and which was largely formulated via the ICCJ.

The author allows us to make up our own minds on the latter two, as recent re-assessments of Christian attitudes towards the Jews, but he is certainly clear that "the evil of Replacement Theology is now once again poisoning Christian minds" (p30).

He doesn't leave it there, but explains how this resurgence of Replacement Theology is now centred upon the nation of Israel and its relationship with the Palestinian people. This is producing a new crisis between Jews and Christians, especially those who wish to show compassion towards the Palestinians.

Andrew's experience in the Middle East gives him valuable insights"

The author's experience of the Middle East (he is President of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East) gives him valuable insights, but he is also aware that "the great fissure within the church over Israel and the Jews is of enormous importance, with ramifications spreading far beyond the troubled region of the Middle East" (p44).

Overall this is a very useful contribution to the information and arguments usually expressed within the whole area of Christian-Jewish relations. How the Younger Brother turned against the Elder is a lesson of which we all need to take note. An awareness of where this has left us today, politically and theologically, is vital for all thoughtful and caring Christians.

Our Scriptures were first given in a world that was very different from today. To understand the Scriptures, we need to place them in their proper context and study the world in those days, particularly in and around the nation of Israel.

The Bible emerged over several thousands of years that witnessed the rise and fall of several ancient Empires. This is heritage of our faith, and the background of Jesus and the first Christians. Understanding it helps us to be properly grafted into the olive tree (Rom 11). It is the legacy of our people: the land, language and culture moulded by the teaching of the One True God. On account of the call of Abraham, we call this culture Hebraic.

Why are language and culture important?

The Scriptures are not just words and ideas that lead to philosophy; they deal with matters of the heart and the way people live out their lives.

No other language is quite like Hebrew, because Almighty God brought his teaching to his people through this language. In this sense, through the language and the teaching transmitted through it, Almighty God cultivated a people for himself. We identify this as Hebraic culture.

"No other language is quite like Hebrew, through which Almight God brought his teaching to his people."

Which God?

It has been said that language is 90% of culture, and this is in accord with all we have said so far. The focus of our attention, when we consider the world of the Bible, is the Middle East, the nations around the Fertile Plain and the Mediterranean basin. These nations were distinguished by their different languages, many of which had the same Semitic root. This led to some cultural overlap in the Middle East.

Beyond the influence ofStatues of Canaanite gods language, however, is the influence of the religions and gods of these different nations. Archaeology confirms the multitude of these gods from the statues and inscriptions that have been found, and we can see how the culture of the nations was framed by their beliefs and religious practices.

Israel was the only nation in the ancient world that knew the One True God. Abraham, the father of the Hebrews, was called out of the worldly system of Ur of the Chaldees. He learned to live by faith in God, becoming a pilgrim and stranger in a world of false gods. This principle framed the culture of the Nation of Israel in a unique way. Only Israel had direct teaching from God who revealed himself first as Yahweh (YHWH) and later fully revealed himself through Yeshua HaMashiach, Jesus the Messiah.

He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. (Psa 147:19-20)

Despite (perhaps because of) their constant failures, the Nation of Israel in the wilderness years and in the Land of Israel thereafter are included in our Bible to teach us important truths. With the Scriptures as our reference and the history of Israel as our witness, and with the other nations of the biblical world as a contrast, we can begin to understand the unique and distinct character of a people under the One True God.

Resources for Study

The walls of Jericho

For students of the Bible, learning about the historical and geographical context of Scripture can be invaluable. Today, this is a relatively easy task: archeological sites have been opened in all the major countries mentioned in the Bible. Many sites can be visited, museums hold examples of what has been discovered and many relevant books and DVDs are available.

Not all of these resources are expensive and, where possible, a student of the Bible should acquire a small library, especially of books that have good illustrations. Illustrations give invaluable insights to enhance written descriptions of the world of the Bible and of the cultural background from which the Christian faith emerged.

They enable us to see at a glance the clothes that were worn in Bible times, features of the outdoor lifestyle of Abraham’s day, the styles of houses and the Bedouin tents, routines of home life, festivals and ceremonies of life such as birth and marriage, education, healthcare, the farming life, the crafts, means of travel and so on.

The prominent nations and Empires should be studied, including Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, and the Bible should be read in parallel so that what is studied can be put into a biblical context.

Finding similar examples today

Despite dramatic technological changes and advances in communication, we can still find examples today of cultures that remind us of the biblical world, particularly where lifestyle is simple, mainly outdoors, reliant on manual labour and devoid of the inventions of the modern era.

There are still areas of the world where water is obtained from wells, where there is no electricity or flush toilets, where pottery is baked in the village and bricks are home made, where cloth is spun and where the land is farmed according to ancient traditions. Such areas of the world give us a present day glimpse into the days of the Bible.

"Unless we develop a mindset that places our Bible readings into the ancient cultures from which they came, we will filter what we read overmuch through our experience of the modern world."

What do we gain?

Library at the Western Wall of Jerusalem

As we begin the study of the world of the Bible, at the heart of our efforts, through all the contrasts, will emerge a picture of God’s own people throughout the generations: a picture of Yahweh developing a Hebraic character in his people.

The purpose of studying these things is to understand more deeply the heritage from which the Christian Church came, that we might be properly rooted into the family of the olive tree (Rom 11) and not left to filter our understanding through some other culture ruled by alien spiritual powers.