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Did Messiah Practice Judaism?

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Thomas Jefferson, a founding father of the United States and a rather un-Christian Deist, once called Jesus “the benevolent and sublime reformer of Judaism.” Reading that quote as a young teen, I thought how misled Jefferson must have been in his Deism to come to such an erroneous conclusion. But now…now I’m not so sure.

It’s easy for most Christians to concede that, yes, Jesus didn’t come to start a new religion. It makes us feel good in our faith to say, “Yeppers! Jesus didn’t start a new religion! It’s the old faith of Abraham still chuggin’!” It gives this Messiah-based faith a kind of ancient tie and legitimacy beyond 2 millennia. When it comes to religion, older is better, or so the thinking goes.

On the other hand, it’s difficult for Christians, and even some independent Messianics, to admit Messiah Yeshua practiced Judaism. If Jesus practiced Judaism, they say, then what the hell are we doing with this Christianity thing? Oh noes! Now my faith and beliefs are delegitimized, and the thing I love so dearly, the church and all its paraphernalia, are now abased.

Or the independent Messianic, having had his full of organized religion and its sick abuses, who now tirelessly avoids it, may think that Yeshua could never have practiced such an organized religion.

Defining Judaism

In Messiah’s day, faith in the God of Israel had become known as Judaism. Judaism was the religion of the nation of Judah (or in Roman terms, Judea). It’s capital was in Jerusalem, and it centered around the Temple therein.

The Judaisms of the first century were different in some ways than the Judaisms of today: with the Temple still intact, the whole Torah was more or less able to be carried out. Sacrifices and covering of sin was provided for through the Temple. Each year, Jews from all over the world would make mass exodus to the Temple for the Feasts. Contrast this with Judaism of today, where replacements must be had for the sacrifices, for the burnt offerings, for the sin covering. Judaism, battle-hardened thanks to Christianity’s persecution and 2000 years of dispersion, went into survivalist mode long ago – creating its own calendar that doesn’t require one to be in the land, creating prayers meant to weed out the missionizers and imposters, accumulating tradition designed to inundate the follower with Judaism, Judaism, and more Judaism! So much that its observant adherents can’t get up in the morning, put on his shoes, eat a meal, or take 5 head-uncovered-steps, without first performing a mandate of Judaism. This is survivalist Judaism, and this is what Judaism is today.

On the other hand, the Judaisms of Messiah’s time weren’t all that different than Judaisms of today: there existed numerous sects and varying beliefs, both lenient and strict.  Today’s Orthodox, Conservative and Reform sects are countered by yesteryear’s Pharisaical, Sadducean, and Essene sects of Messiah’s time. Both modern and 1st century Judaisms look forward to the Messiah who would restore Israel, gathering even those Israelites lost in the Assyrian captivity back to Israel. Both fully expected Messiah to reign as King and institute malchut shamayim – the Kingdom of Heaven.

Yeshua was an adherent of this 1st century Judaism: he taught his talmidim within the Temple grounds, he kept the Torah – and not just the moral laws! Messiah expounded upon the teachings in the Torah; strengthened the laws of Judaism: now, looking at a woman in lust was on par with adultery. Now, being angry with your brother was akin to murder.

As was often a custom for Judaism’s sages, this rabbi and teacher of Judaism spoke through parables to his followers. When a young man asked Yeshua how to gain eternal life, Yeshua replied with an answer that Judaism would be proud of: “Obey the commandments!”

Yeshua’s own teachings seem to be influenced by Judaism’s great sages. Consider, for example, Yeshua’s “golden rule” statement with that of the greatest rabbi of the 2nd Temple period, Hillel, whose own teachings inspired the Pharisee sect, and who died when Yeshua was a young boy:

Yeshua: [When asked what is the greatest commandment in the Torah] Yeshua replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Hillel: [When challenged by a gentile who asked that the Torah be explained to him while he stood on one foot] Hillel said: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."

What Yeshua said was a core principle of faith is strikingly similar to that of Judaism’s.

The coming Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, was an idea among Judaism’s sages that dominated Yeshua’s own teachings and parables; one can hardly read the New Testament without hearing Yeshua’s words, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”

Yeshua was so Judaism-focused, he refused to associate or teach gentiles for virtually all his ministry. Even to the partial-Israelite Samaritans he refused to go, telling his followers to remain teaching within Israel to the lost sheep of Israel.

It must have been quite the surprise to his shlichim to hear Yeshua say, before he ascended into heaven: “Go into all the nations and teach them everything I have commanded you.”

Yet even after this, this faith remained a Judaism: the New Testament records his disciples kept the Feasts in Jerusalem even after Messiah was gone. These same disciples had trouble deciding what to do with the massive influx of gentiles that came into the faith – some had gone as far to suggest getting them circumcised and ritually converting to Judaism.

There can hardly be any greater evidence of Yeshua’s Judaism than this: Yeshua taught that the anyone who practices Torah will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven, and anyone who teaches others to break commandments or disregard even the least commandment will be considered least in the coming Kingdom of Heaven.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law 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 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, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

 

But didn’t Yeshua have disputes with Judaism?

Many people see Yeshua’s disputes with the Pharisees and Sadducees as him rejecting Judaism and building this new religion around a new entity, the Church. Judaism & Israel is now Christianity & Church. This is a reasonable conclusion at first, because many of the disputes were over matters of the Torah, around which Judaism is built.

However, if one looks at the disputes with more than a cursory skim, one realizes that Yeshua never dropped God’s Law; never did Yeshua say, “Hey guys. Never mind that old junk – I’m here now, and you can forget all that law keeping stuff.” Rather, he always corrected wrongful application of the Torah:

  • In the dispute regarding the tax collector, when Pharisees objected to his associating with tax collectors and sinners, Yeshua said he came for the sinners, not for the righteous.
  • In the dispute regarding the paralytic, when the religious leaders objected to his forgiving a man’s sin on the grounds only God can forgive sin, Yeshua said the Messiah has authority to forgive sin.
  • In the dispute regarding picking grain to eat on the Sabbath, Yeshua stated that shabbat was made for man, and that David found no harm to eat the showbread in the Tabernacle when he and his companions were in need – essentially arguing that preservation of life is of more weight than shabbat rest -- and finally, that the Messiah is the Master of shabbat.
  • In another dispute with the Pharisees, Yeshua went on the offensive and said they were doing much to the lesser matters of Torah, such as tithing, but little in the way of the weightier matters of the Torah: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. This caused Yeshua to say, “You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.”

A common theme throughout his disputes were that the religious teachers were misapplying a commandment or were otherwise misdirected or unbalanced in their observance of Torah. Never once did Yeshua break a commandment or teach others to do so.

Conclusions

You might be thinking, “So what? What if Yeshua did practice Judaism? Why does it even matter now?”

And that, fine blog readers, will be a question to ponder until the next post: what if Yeshua practiced Judaism? Does it matter to you, fine blog readers? Would it matter at all to us if Yeshua was indeed a Jewish practitioner and teacher of Judaism?

18 comments:

  1. It matters because it would be consistent with His claims!

    John 5:36-But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.


    Thanks for sharing Judah!

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  2. There are many excellent evangelical scholars today (notably, N.T. Wright) who recognize Yeshua as a practioner of First Century Judaism, and theologically the closest to the Pharisees. Even Jacob Neusner's The Way of Torah concludes that Jesus was a Torah-faithful Jew.

    The debate, as always, is what kind of Jew Yeshua would be were He and His Disciples among us today. Many Messianics feel He would be Orthodox, others feel He would be a Karaite. I am inclined to believe that Yeshua and His Apostles would be closest to a branch of Judaism that would be most compatible with His message best reaching the most people.

    With this, I conclude that the Lord would be a part of one of the more moderate branches of Judaism today, such as the Conservative/Masorti movement. A high value for Jewish tradition, but also a high value for humanitarian issues. I don't think Yeshua would have a problem with mainline traditions like lighting Shabbat candles or eating latkes, but I think He would have a problem with us sitting in dark rooms eating cold bread on Shabbat, and not honoring the sacrifice of those who preceded us.

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  3. The Pharisees and Essenes were once the same. While Yeshua's teachings have lots of Pharisaic content, they also have lots of Essene content. And in fact, it appears as if the Nazarene Jewish movement was perhaps primarily from out of the Essene movement.

    This blog has the details to this:
    http://nazarenespace.ning.com/profiles/blogs/nazarene-judaism-true

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  4. Yeshua most certainly practiced Judaism. However, it is misleading to extrapolate that to saying that he would be a practitioner of Judaism were he here today.

    In the 1900 years since Yeshua walked the earth, Judaism has been re-defined, so that now, to quote Dwight Pyror, "Rabbinic Judaism has concluded that we don’t need someone to atone for our sins, but that our sins will be forgiven by our repentance. This is an irreducible difference between rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, between the rabbinic writings and the New Testament."

    We must recognize this. True, Christianity, properly understood, is a fulfilled Judaism. But what happened historically is that God gave further revelation, the descendants of the Pharisees rejected that revelation, and the descendants of the Apostles (who may have been or had much in common with the Pharisees (likely they were mostly am ha-aretz) accepted it.

    The easiest way to understand this is to compare the Sadducees with the Pharisees. The Sadducees rejected God's continuing revelation of the Prophets and the Writings, while the Pharisees accepted them. Ironically, the Pharisees then subsequently rejected God's continuing revelation through Yeshua and the Apostles.

    We must acknowledge that Judaism (as it exists today) misses the quintessential point. We must have Messiah (and His once for all sacrifice) for the forgiveness of sins, and for relationship with God, and Yeshua is the Messiah.

    Christianity must acknowledge that the Body of Messiah is Israel, and that Gentiles are grafted into Israel. That we haven’t replaced biblical Judaism, but filled full the understanding of historical Judaism, and that therefore, the Torah continues to be prescriptive for living.

    Historically-speaking, Christianity is rightfully understood as a continuation of Judaism. But in common parlance (for the last 1800 years) Judaism refers to a religion that maintained much of the right practices, but rejected the sine qua non of the biblical religion – Messiah, as Savior, as atonement, as Yeshua.

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  5. literaryjoe,

    Interesting post, there are a few things I disagree with, so I'll explain.

    You said:

    "True, Christianity, properly understood, is a fulfilled Judaism...
    Christianity is rightfully understood as a continuation of Judaism
    "

    Christianity was formed out of rejection of Judaism and the Torah ["Light"/"Teaching" in Hebrew). In the very exact year of Paul the Pharisee's (Acts 23:6) death, as Paul the Pharisee correctly predicted, wolves rose up among the flock.

    Out of Antioch came a man named Bishop Ignatius who wrote letters to various communities forming a new religion away from "Jewish fables", etc. In one of his letters, which anyone can surely google search and find - he is quoted as saying:

    "Be not seduced by strange doctrines nor by antiquated fables, which are profitless. For if even unto this day we live after the manner of Judaism, we avow that we have not received grace.... If then those who had walked in ancient practices attained unto newness of hope, no longer observing Sabbaths but fashioning their lives after the Lord's day, on which our life also arose through Him and through His death which some men deny ... how shall we be able to live apart from Him? ... It is monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and to practise Judaism. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity" — Ignatius to the Magnesians 8:1, 9:1-2, 10:3

    This was later solidified by the Council of Nicea and made standarn Christian doctrine. Clearly, Christianity IS NOT Judaism and NEVER was and CANNOT be meshed with Judaism. In essence, Christianity is an anti-Semitic lie. Christianity is not a continuation of Judaism in any way, its a break-off from it and is not connected to it.

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  6. Christianity is not a continuation of Judaism in any way, its a break-off from it

    In the software world, we call this a "fork". A software project can have different streams, or branches, based on a central trunk. But as soon as someone comes along and says, "I'm going to take this branch and make a brand new software work from it", that's a fork.

    Christianity is a fork of Judaism: it was originally grounded within Judaism, but soon made a clean break from Judaism.

    One then wonders what the original branch was. "The Way" as mentioned in Acts? Was it a Judaism sect? If so, was it Pharisaical? Essene?

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  7. Judah bro,

    You said,
    "Christianity is a fork of Judaism: it was originally grounded within Judaism, but soon made a clean break from Judaism."

    I know exactly what you mean, but Christianity is itself the fork of Judaism. Judaism was the original belief of the followers of Yeshua. When Christianity formed, it was a split of Judaism from the start, so technically, it never had roots in Judaism since it never was Judaism.

    "One then wonders what the original branch was. "The Way" as mentioned in Acts? Was it a Judaism sect? If so, was it Pharisaical? Essene?"

    The Pharisees and Essenes come from one source, they were called Hhasidim (Chasidim, Hasidim, Hasideans, etc) simply because they were devout in their observance of the Torah. They are mentioned by this name in the books of the Maccabees as well.

    This would have been the group who carried on the faith of Israel after the tribes of Israel split. Daniel who was a Jewish mystic was probably a prime example of a well-observant Jew, the way the Israelte faith had been in Israel.

    We know of David (Psalm 55:17), Daniel (Daniel 6:10), the Hhasidim, the Pharisees, and the Essenes that they prayed 3 times daily, according to Oral Tradition, including the Shema' in the morning and evening and 3 Standing ('Amidah) prayers in each 3 times of prayer, modeled after the sacrifices. It involved full-body prostration, kneeling, and bowing towards Jerusalem.
    Daniel was especially zealous for this custom, of course.

    While many Psalms have been recited as liturgy, it seems many forms of hithbodeduth (unwritten personal meditationary prayer) made up much praying, and the Essenes have preserved many spiritual teachings and spiritual methods of Torah study, praying, etc, which can be clearly seen as being practiced originally by Daniel and undoubtedly by David as well.

    So Pharisaism has direct roots in all of this, but of course has developed added customs over thousands of years and naturally has deviated off of many true ancient paths - however it is the only surviving sect of Judaism and that is why it is dominant and influential today.

    Such related things as 'tseruf' and "speaking in ecstasy" as the Tanakh describes have been ancient Israelite practices by influence of the Ruahh HaQodhesh (Holy Spirit) which were taught and practiced by the Essenes and many Pharisees who were Essene influenced. Many other things, such as knowledge of the stars and constellations from which the Zoroastrians developed their religion (actually based on Daniel's mystical Jewish teachings), have been somewhat lost to us, or lost to common Israelite knowledge.

    continued...

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  8. ...continued

    There is a whole wealth of things and practices Israelites could be doing today to have full knowledge, but instead there is still much confusion.
    One great thing that has been preserved is t'fillin and tsitsith. When done with proper intent and prayer, t'fillin can open the mind to the Mind of the Creator, namely the upper triad, Hhakhma (Divine Wisdom), Binah (Divine Understanding), and Da'ath (Divine Knowledge).*
    The Essenes used a method of exegesis which involved opening one's mind to the Ruahh HaQodhesh and gaining these three above* in the study of the Torah.

    Today we have Christian mysticism which is kind of a rip-off of these things, and when it is not Torah-founded will eventually result in witchcraft in many cases.
    There should be no separation to wearing t'fillin and gaining Divine Wisdom, Understand, and Knowledge by means of the Ruahh HaQodhesh, and allowing the Sefira of Netsahh to manifest (which manifests in Ruahh HaQodhesh-controlled tseruf ("combination") in what is commonly called "speaking in tongues").
    Unfortunately there is a great divide in the minds of people on these issues.

    There's more I could shpiel about, but I normally don't give a whole lot of information on these issues, especially not in a public forum. Not to mention the Jewish mysticism I have learned and practice is usually rejected and my advice on action is usually regarded as legalistic of cooky. Therefore I don't do these things in public sight either, rather I perform them in private which is the only place is truly matters.

    I do hope, however, to share all of these JEWels that my Father has given me with my future Jewish esheth-hhayil wife and my future children.

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  9. I don't think they were Pharisees or Essenes. In his book The Formation of Christianity in Antioch, Marcus Zetterholm suggests that just as many synagogues were identified (Acts 6:9, for example) ours was called the "Synagogue of the Christianos" or Christians.

    Christianity is not a fork; with the coming of Yeshua and the naming of the Apostles as the halachic authorities the Way became the main code train (to stick with software analogies) that has now in many ways lost its way. To be clear, this is not to say that Christianity replaced Israel; it is to say that Israel and the Church are one and the same thing—the Body of Messiah.

    But what we know as Judaism has lost its way, they have decided that forgiveness of sin is available via repentance, and Messiah is not needed for salvation.

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  10. I don't think they were Pharisees or Essenes. In his book The Formation of Christianity in Antioch, Marcus Zetterholm suggests that just as many synagogues were identified (Acts 6:9, for example) ours was called the "Synagogue of the Christianos" or Christians.

    Christianity is not a fork; with the coming of Yeshua and the naming of the Apostles as the halachic authorities the Way became the main code train (to stick with software analogies) that has now in many ways lost its way. To be clear, this is not to say that Christianity replaced Israel; it is to say that Israel and the Church are one and the same thing—the Body of Messiah.

    But what we know as Judaism has lost its way, they have decided that forgiveness of sin is available via repentance, and Messiah is not needed for salvation.

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  11. "I don't think they were Pharisees or Essenes."

    I'm sure there's a huge multitude if facts about these two groups that you aren't aware of.

    You can believe what you want, outside of a proper Jewish understanding, but one thing we know for sure is that Paul was a Pharisee. Acts 23:6.

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  12. @judahgabriel @literaryjoe

    "Forgiveness for sin"

    What was sacrifices for sin brought for? A sacrifice was only brought for unwitting or unintentional sin (shogeg) Leviticus 4:2, 13, 22, 27; 5:5, 15
    The one exception is if an individual swore falsely to acquit himself of the accusation of having committed theft (Leviticus 5:24-26). Intentional sin can only be atoned for through repentance, unaccompanied by a blood sacrifice- Psalms 32:5, 51:16-19.


    And do you know that there was 70 years between the destruction of the First Temple and to when the second temple was rebuilt. What did they do then?

    Also check Jonah 3:5-10.

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  13. @judahgabriel

    Is it a "Fork"?

    It's not a fork it's more like including some dll assemblies in your distribution (lib folder) and referencing them without ever actually using them in code.

    Well maybe you open the assemblies using a tool like Reflector to say this looks like what I need for proof.

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  14. @judahgabriel says
    "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

    How can you be sure that Yeshu made this one up and Hillel copied this from him maybe this was something that was known long before that? Maybe Hillel never know that Yeshu said this?

    This can only be used to make you feel better I hope you are.

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  15. @judahgabriel

    From where do we know that a Messiah has an has authority to forgive sin?

    From where do we know that a Messiah is the Master of Shabbat?

    What is a Messiah?

    From where do we know that Yeshu is a Messiah?

    Shabbat Shalom

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  16. How can you be sure that Yeshua made this one up and Hillel copied this from him

    I said no such thing...did you even read the post?

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  17. From: Yves LLevi

    YOU WRITE: "...Christianity is not a continuation of Judaism in any way, its a break-off from it...

    ...Christianity is a fork of Judaism: it was originally grounded within Judaism, but soon made a clean break from Judaism..."
    ================================
    Here we are talking about 2 groups of people.

    1) Those called out who are clearly rooted in Judaism, and may have inherited the name “Christians” as a way of making fun of them as little “Meshiah”. This is the true “Bride of Meshiah”, composed of His people.

    2) Those who confuse the truth as a counterfeit into a body that is disguised within a pagan roman cult who plunge it’s roots in Babylon. That is a counterfeit bride of messiah, that relate to the great prostitute – the woman -the bride of the false messiah – that is Babylon religion the root of all idol worship (east & west).

    I am writing from Europe, and I also know a branch that has resisted the roman cult, who had the Syriac NT not corrupted by Rome. Gypsies friends also told me they were Hebrew who disobeyed God and did not follow Moses out of Egypt. Can someone tell us about the Moranos, the Falashas, and so many others that are a part of God’s people NOT FROM THE ROMAN CULT PERSPECTIVE ????????

    I am thirsty about TRUTH, not all the garbage christianity from Rome ! Contact: Yves LLevi at yeshua.connections@yahoo.fr

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  18. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR INTERACTIONS

    Et MERCI pour votre réponse sur le sujet.

    C'est incroyable comme vous êtes sympa,

    Shalom and will not come back
    Yves Levi, France

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