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?