Attention, fine Messiah-loving people of the Messianic blogosphere! This bracha is the answer to life, the universe and everything. 
- Did the church really try to change the sabbath? – Yahnatan asks with skepticism:
Follow along in the comments where several folks cite evidence suggesting that yes, the church did change it.I wonder about the accuracy of that statement I hear: "the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath" or "the Constantinian Church tried to change the Sabbath." I think these statements are inaccurate or misleading. I'd like to know whether I'm right!
- Is Anything Wrong With Sunday Church? – Derek argues no, noting that sabbath is about rest, not fellowship. This post spurred response posts from Yahnatan (above) and Cliff (below).
If you are a Judaically informed Christian or a Messianic Jew and you wish to use language indicating your frustration with churches where replacement theology is routinely expressed, or where the teaching is light on the Bible and uninformed about God’s covenants and the origins of Christian faith, please don’t call them “Sunday churches.” Call them Supersessionist churches, if that is the main thing that bothers you.
- Little Meaning For Gentiles? – Having read the above post, Cliff writes a reactionary blog post arguing in favor of gentile Sabbath keeping.
- Cataloging the New Testament’s Hebraisms, Part 3 – David Bivin continues his scholarly study of bits of the gospels that suggest a possible Hebrew original. In this post, Bivin points out Hebrew grammatical structures, looking at “3rd-person plural active forms of verbs that have no apparent preceding subject” [whew], complete with examples from the Tenakh, rabbinic writings, and the New Testament.
- One Down, One To Go – Ovadia declares, “After a long and interesting weekend spent immersed in a Jewish setting, I can declare with confidence that I have no idea why I believe that Yeshua is the Messiah as a Jew, and that I’m highly skeptical that such a thing is possible”, then asks commenters to explain why they believe Yeshua is the Messiah. I add my thoughts in the comments.
- Hebrew Gospels Update – Messianic organization First Fruits of Zion gives an update on their project of publishing a new English translation of the gospels, based on a translation from Christian talmudist Franz Delitzsch. The Delitzsch translation is unique in that it attempts capture the original language of Yeshua by paraphrasing the Greek text with Hebrew idioms.
- Yeshua’s Attitude Towards the Pharisee’s Law-keeping – Modern Christianity tends to picture Jesus in opposition to the Pharisees due to their rigid law-keeping. However, Yeshua has more to say about Pharisees being lax in law-keeping than rigid.
Cheers.
I've already read Yahnatan's and Derek's original blog posts and just read the "reactionary" reply on your blog. It's always a pleasure to see what Yahnatan has written, and while Derek's original article refreshingly even handed, I found it interesting he should say, Why should non-Jews keep a Jewish day that is not required of them and has little meaning for most of them? Of course, he was quoting from other sources, but the comment still tries to restrict an event which I believe has a more universal application. Besides, if someone loves the Sabbath, why keep it only if it's required? Why not volunteer?
ReplyDeleteNo one, not even Derek, is born with a Jewish appreciation for the Sabbath (I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek since I know Derek was born just as much a Gentile as I was, though he later converted within the Messianic Jewish framework). Perhaps if you are raised in an observant Jewish home, you learn early the sacredness of the Shabbat, but as I mention in my own commentary on the matter, the Sabbath isn't meant just for the Jewish people, although it does have uniquely Jewish applications. I believe that anyone can learn the lessons of God later in life and I believe anyone can learn at least some of the lessons of God, even if he is not Jewish. You don't have to be born to it or have a specific bloodline. No one is born loving God.
My latest blog post is a lament regarding the possibility that many Gentile and Jewish believers will ever attain any form of unity as long as something a simple as a Shabbat's rest is isolated and reserved for only a tiny fraction of those who have faith in God.
I had high hopes. Now if only the Messiah would come.
EDIT: I deleted a previous version of this comment due to an unfortunate spelling error. All fixed (I hope).