Judaisms and Christianities

“Therefore whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.”  Matthew 7:12  NASB

The Law and the Prophets –  Jacob Neusner, one of today’s experts in Judaism, makes the following observation:

“What marks Judaism apart from the other monotheist religions?  Judaism recognizes no other revelation than the Torah, the Teaching, set forth by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, and encompassing the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets).  The Torah, broadly defined, contains the exhaustive account of God’s plan for creation and humanity.”[1]

Once again we realize that the issue of Torah, not the issue of Yeshua as Messiah, is the distinguishing factor between Christians and Jews.  At the same time, we must notice that the gospel authors take great pains to portray Yeshua as the prophet foretold by Moses, the prophet who would come later, finishing the work that God first revealed to Moses.  This means that the gospel authors would not object to Neusner’s distinction.  They would claim that Yeshua was indeed a proclaimer of the final authority of Torah in that He embodied everything Torah was meant to accomplish in the lives of God’s people.  That Yeshua is the Messiah is not a condition in addition to Torah, but rather a statement of the purpose and fulfillment of Torah.  Yeshua is Torah incarnate.

Neusner goes on to document the fact that during the time of the rise of Christian theology (after 200AD), the various schools of Jewish thought eventually coalesced into what became rabbinic Judaism, the foundation of the Judaism we know today.  But this was not the case in the First Century.  Yeshua was part of an historical period that evidenced many different views of Israel’s legacy and destiny – and He added His commentary and instruction to that stream of thought.  His role as Messiah, recognized by thousands of Jews who clearly understood the crucial role of Torah, provided the authority for His declarations.  His teaching is the official divinely-given interpretation of Torah, not a replacement for Torah.  To read of Yeshua’s teaching without Torah in the background is to strip away His very existence.  What remains is a shell of God’s anointed, not the fully embodied representation of God’s design for humanity.

Neusner adds a crucial fact to our exploration.  Judaism did not exist as a monolithic religious block in the First Century.  Yeshua lived at a time when great transitions and conflicts were a part of Israel, both politically and theologically.  He rose as a prophet in the same vein as the earlier prophets, someone set apart by God to call God’s people back to their assignment at Sinai, to return to the Torah of the ancients.  Yeshua’s affinities with Akiva, Hillel and others is not an accident.  During this period, great ideas were being hammered out in the religious thinking of the community.  Yeshua was a vital part of all of this, a lightning rod and a polarizing factor in a society under worldview pressures.

That’s why a verse like this one in Matthew has such clear parallels to statements of Akiva.  The entire corpus of Jewish thinking was being sifted and men like Akiva and Yeshua were strong voices of stability in a world in flux.

Of course, Yeshua is more than a prophet.  He is the Messiah.  But if we do not first recognize Him as prophet, as reformer, as spokesman of the Most High God, called to exemplify the pathos of God in the midst of Jewish humanity, we will never explain who He is as the Anointed sacrifice, the Messiah ben Joseph.

Perhaps you have embraced Him as Savior, perhaps even as Lord, but you have never considered Him as prophet to God’s people, as the incarnation of Torah in all that Torah implies.  Perhaps your view of Yeshua is just as truncated as the contemporary Jew who rejects Him because he thinks Yeshua abandons Torah.  First prophet, then redeemer, then king.  Perhaps it’s time to rethink who He is as those who knew Him on earth would have thought.

Topical Index:  prophet, Neusner, Judaisms, Law, Torah, Matthew 7:12



[1] Jacob Neusner, Judaism When Christianity Began, p. 3.

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Jan Carver

WHERE IS EVERYONE – GOT HEBREW HANGOVERS?!?!!?

QUESTION? WHAT MAKES OR DETERMINES A PROPHET TO BE MAJOR OR MINOR???

WHAT A BOLD & SEMANTIC TRUTH, “Yeshua is Torah incarnate.”

EXCELLENT… “To read of Yeshua’s teaching without Torah in the background is to strip away His very existence. What remains is a shell of God’s anointed, not the fully embodied representation of God’s design for humanity.”

“Yeshua lived at a time when great transitions and conflicts were a part of Israel, both politically and theologically (MUCH LIKE TODAY). He rose as a prophet in the same vein as the earlier prophets, someone set apart by God to call God’s people back to their assignment at Sinai, to return to the Torah of the ancients. Yeshua’s affinities with Akiva, Hillel and others is not an accident. During this period, great ideas were being hammered out in the religious thinking of the community. Yeshua was a vital part of all of this, a lightning rod and a polarizing factor in a society under worldview pressures.”

“Of course, Yeshua is more than a prophet. He is the Messiah. But if we do not first recognize Him as prophet, as reformer, as spokesman of the Most High God, called to exemplify the pathos of God in the midst of Jewish humanity, we will never explain who He is as the Anointed sacrifice, the Messiah ben Joseph.”

LONG LIVE KING JESUS – BACK TO THE FUTURE… ♥ jan

Michael

– WHERE IS EVERYONE – GOT HEBREW HANGOVERS?!?!!?
– QUESTION? WHAT MAKES OR DETERMINES A PROPHET TO BE MAJOR OR MINOR???
– WHAT A BOLD & SEMANTIC TRUTH, “Yeshua is Torah incarnate.”

Hi Jan,

No Hebrew hangover here, just got back from a wonderful vacation with my kids

But with work, my dog Max, and travelling around the Caribbean with my kids

I feel like I’ve been wandering around in the wilderness for about 40 years

Too much to do 🙂

In college, certain literary critics would refer to Hawthorne and Melville as the “American Prophets”

As they tended to focus on the dark side of the American soul, or so it seemed to me

Now I would tend to argue that they were very much aware of the ancient Hebrew Worldview

But still see them as proto Marxist visionaries who were very critical of American Individualism

Maybe they were Minor Prophets

I’m not sure if “Yeshua is Torah incarnate” is a semantic truth as much as it is a metaphor 🙂

Pam

His teaching is the official divinely-given interpretation of Torah, not a replacement for Torah.

Skip,

I came to this thought many years ago and get a lot of flack for voicing it in Pastoral circles. It somehow demeans Yeshua’s teachings in their minds.

But here’s the next logical question.

Do you think it would have been possible that if “Christianity” had remained a sect of Judaism that the “New Testament” might have become simply part of the Talmudic writings? If so isn’t it wonderful that YHVH didn’t let it get swallowed up in that vast sea of speculation and set it apart from the rest?

Robin Jeep

Good word Skip. I’m reading a really good book, The Bible by Karen Armstrong. Are you familiar with it? If not, I highly recommend it. It covers much of what you write about and more.

carl roberts

Messiah Yeshua is G-d. G-d was in (the) Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.

~ This is love: not that we loved G-d, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins ~

~ For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of G-d ~ (1 Corinthians 1.18)

Alas! and did my Saviour bleed!
And did my Saviour die?

Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Was it for crimes that I had done,
He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in;
When Christ the mighty Maker died
For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While His dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt mine eyes in tears.

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine—
And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine,
His soul in anguish stood.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give myself away,
‘Tis all that I can do.

At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight..

Christina Venter

To all the seekers. I would like to share a few thoughts to ponder on and correct me if need be. Moshiach’s (Y/shua/Jesus) main purpose was to reconcile all humanity to our Father in Heaven by bringing us back to His Torah/Word through LOVE. Torah means INSTRUCTIONS which in turn means COMMANDMENTS. The law of love includes all the commandments. Why is this so? It should be quite obvious. Our Almighty Father said Himself if you love Me, keep my COMMANDMENTS. Keep implies DO them. We know them as the 10 words given to Moshe at Sinai. The people then were a mixed multitude just like today. The Kingdom today consists of a mixed multitude of obedient humble teachable believers in the only ONE living Almighty FATHER(G-D/GOD). Is it not time that all return to the foundation – the Word as it was written in the beginning – not as it has been amended to accommodate the leaders at the time when the changes took place? I would like to suggest that we start with revisiting what constitutes IDOLATRY. How does our Almighty Father want to be worshipped? Are we maybe busy with idolatry without even realizing it? Moshiach said if you do not have my Spirit in you, you are not of Me. This brings me to a very important question. How do you as an individual personally measure the portion of His Spirit in you? I would like to say by the actions/commands that you keep in the way that He kept it. Are you eating what He ate? Are you worshipping the way He did. He is the only way to get back to our Father. Our Father draws to Him to teach us what and how to do the COMMANDS. There really is no other way. Is it not time to ensure we fully comprehend and do each command the way Moshiach did. A last question – where in Scripture did Moshiach teach that we must worship Him and not our Father in Heaven? If one worships anything or anybody but our Father in Heaven is this not idolatry?

Jon De Rusha

Wasn’t it Francis Schaeffer who said, “Christianity is Jewish”?

Jon De Rusha

Ah, it is the title of a book by Edith Schaeffer; I have it in my library.