Rethink Possible
and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: Galatians 1:2 NASB
Churches – We know that translators of the English Bible take considerable liberties with the word ekklesia. We know that ekklesia never means “religious assembly” in non-biblical Greek literature. We know that ekklesia is translated “church” when the context fits the doctrine of replacement theology but it’s translated “congregation” when it doesn’t fit. We know that the Greek word synagoge doesn’t communicate the specific meaning of Torah-observant, Messianic followers. We know all these linguistic clues point toward a very different view of the Body of believers in the first century. Now Daniel Boyarin’s examination of the historical situation in the first century provides further evidence that the Church as we understand it (a “Christian” organization and assembly distinct from Judaism) did not arise until at least the third century and perhaps much later.[1]
Boyarin demonstrates that “Judaism . . . is not the parent religion of Christianity; indeed, in some respects the opposite may be as true.” Boyarin’s research shows that conversion in the first century was more akin to absorption into a way of life than it was like any religious experience we associate with the term. In his view, Christian (if the word is applied anachronistically) and Jew are equally compatible identities. In other words, those believers who claimed to be followers of the Christ (the Messiah) in the first, second and third centuries also considered themselves Jewish in their way of life! Boyarin shows that the opposition of Jew and Christian does not reflect the life experience of believers during the first three hundred years. The opposition is the fabrication of certain intellectuals within the community of “believers” who had particular reasons for forcing a split between ethnic Jews and Gentiles who took on the Jewish way of living. In fact, Judaism as we know it today is a reaction to this artificial, forced dichotomy.
“Our modern concept of religion is a historical product of Christianity,” says Boyarin. He means that prior to the forced dichotomy followers of YHWH and Yeshua lived comfortably with each other despite debates over the status of the Messiah because they all, in one sense of another, embraced the Torah as life’s guidebook. Boyarin demonstrates that Christianity separated religious belief and practice from cult and culture. The Church created a new entity in the world – an entity called “religion” which was no longer simply the way people lived. Now it was a formalized theology that dictated universal truth about heaven and earth. Our modern concepts of religion, truth, cult and culture are the products of systematic disaggregation of social lived experience.
What is the bottom line? The great red flag is our blindness in reading the Scriptures anachronistically, as if our concepts of “church,” “conversion,” “grace,” “faith,” and other key ideas are the same as those ideas in the thoughts of the authors. We must rethink what we are reading or we will simply perpetrate the mythology. We must constantly ask ourselves, “What would this mean to an audience that did not see any difference between faith and practice, that lived every day with a variety of ethnic and cultic affiliations and that did not recognize theological boundaries in the way that we do?” When we proclaim that our faith is a living faith, do we really consider just what that means for the integrated congregations of early followers of the Way? Is that how we live?
Topical Index: Boyarin, Galatians 1:2, church, ekklesia
[1] Daniel Boyarin, “Semantic Differences; or, ‘Judaism’/’Christianity’”, in The Ways that Never Parted, pp. 65-86.
Yeshua said, where two or three are ‘gathered together’ in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
For where two or three ‘come together’ in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18.20)
Here is the marked difference. In the O.T.,G-d had a temple for His people. In the N.T. (after the gift of Pentecost) G-d has a people for His temple. My cultural background, my skin color, my education, my upbringing, my social status, my vocation, -I bring nothing to the table. All is empty, all is vain, except for the answer to whether or not I am found “in Christ.” It is not my church attendance, (any church or religious gathering), it is not whether or not I do not eat pork or bacon fat. My diet has nothing to do with my deliverance (other than the fact pork fat might get me to heaven quicker and a lot less leaner..). Salvation/deliverance/new life is found (whether Jew or non, whether male or female) in one place and in one name. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4.12)
Friends, “It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'” (Romans 14:11) What is it we will “confess?” It is this: Yeshua HaMashiach is ADONAI. Jesus (who is the) Christ, (the ANNOINTED) is LORD. Not only is He LORD (of heaven AND of earth) but also He is Savior,Redeemer,Deliverer,Law Giver,Kinsman-Redeemer..-shall we go on?
Let us review (once again). “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” (Luke 24.27) Are we proclaiming Jesus Christ to the nations? Would you love to have the very Author of the Torah living within you? “Ask and you will receive.” Jesus (who is the) Christ is the Living (incarnated) Word of YHWH. Do they teach this in the synagogues? If not, why not? Are “they” teaching this in the churches across America and around the world..? If not,- why not?
Let us review and remember this also..- “But the Counselor, the Ruach HaKodesh, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything; that is, He will remind you of everything I have said to you. “What I am leaving with you is shalom — I am giving you my shalom. I don’t give the way the world gives. Don’t let yourselves be upset or frightened. You heard me tell you, `I am leaving, and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would have been glad that I am going to the Father; because the Father is greater than I. “Also, I have said it to you now, before it happens; so that when it does happen, you will trust. “I won’t be talking with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me; rather, this is happening so that the world may know that I love the Father, and that I do as the Father has commanded me. “Get up! Let’s get going! (from John 14)
Aren’t you glad these things are written? Let us together, open the book and look. -“It’s in there..” We are not saved by the plan of salvation, we are delivered by the Man of salvation. What is His name? How did you hear about Him?
Just a quick note. While it is true that Paul compares the Body of believers with the temple of the Spirit, this doesn’t seem to mean that the temple no longer has value. After all, there will be a new temple in the Messianic reign, and there is a temple in the heavens.
Really like the “parallel” universe idea…that the tabernacle was in our world “as it is in heaven”. So when we pray “thy will be done, AS it is in Heaven” should we not be doing that? What in our world looks like G_d ordained it? How about our communities?
Carl, you wrote, “My diet has nothing to do with my deliverance (other than the fact pork fat might get me to heaven quicker and a lot less leaner..). ”
I used to think the same, until one day I discovered just how seriously God takes those instructions about what is food and what isn’t. I “stumbled” across the following…
You know what? I’ve never heard a single sermon preached on Isaiah 66…I suspect many churchmen don’t know what to do with a passage like that, since in its prophetic (eschatological) context it so clearly contradicts all that we’ve been historically taught about the applicability of God’s instructions for living to non-Jews living “after the cross”.
brother Rodney- no statement or response to this from me, -I am speechless, other than to say Yes, -“after the cross.” Let us first bring them (any and all) to the cross. In order to be keepers and doers of the Law (which is just, and pure and holy) we (all) must first “enter in” to this new, unseen, yet eternal covenant by the blood of the cross. It was Yeshua who said- “without me, you can do nothing..” and this all-inclusive statement includes our physical diet. I will gladly enter into the Hebraic way of thinking of my life as a whole. I am a complete carbon unit,- body, soul and spirit and every part of me is connected to every other part. My diet does affect the way I function, and we (all) have been instructed from the word of G-d to “eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness..”. As to a Kosher diet, I neither condemn nor condone anyone wishing to worship YHWH in this way. We all may also worship by fasting or not partaking of any type of physical nourishment of any kind. Again it was Yeshua who said “the kingdom of G-d is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Ruach HaKodesh.” (Romans 14.17) For he that in these things serveth (avad) Christ is acceptable to G-d and approved by men. In what things? Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Ruach HaKodesh. This is the “gold standard.” Is my heart rightly-related? (vertically- toward YHWH and horizontally- toward my neighbor). Is my heart right with G-d? Is there anything between my soul and the Savior?
About 3 years ago, I went to a “revival” meeting and heard one of the “bishops” make ask this question and make this statement: “where will you be 5 years from now?” “you will be like the people you associate with and the people you listen to and the books you read.” Even during this point in my walk with Messiah, I knew it was a time of departing from where I had been to where I had been going all along.
Then, I knew it was time to grow up, stop looking for excuses to justify my view that did not agree with my Father’s Words and follow Him where ever that may be. I used to tell my daughter, I don’t care what is on my tombstone or obituary, other than to have them say, I walked with God. Now the question I ask is, how can righteousness and lawlessness have fellowship, or “walk together”.
It does appear that religion attempts to provide all the pat answers and to keep you locked in to a theology that intentionally promotes a perpetual system for one trained person to think and tell you what the rules of the game are (usually the game played according to their own rules). The papacy of the system, whether male or female pope, condones the cycle of never ending sin, or so it seems to me. The subject of the Law is approached from the pulpit through the “inclusiveness” of grace and the Law stands in the shadow of this grace. It is this grey, shadowy place of the Law, replaced by the brightness of grace, bringing with it a level of denying the rightful place of law keeping that has ridden the stairway to heaven, a place of cherubs, and ethereal floating around on the clouds in the sky for
those who will just say the Name and continue living as untrained children.
This inclusiveness of grace continues to allow us to keep our lawlessness justified with those of likeminded “faith” and iron turns to clay, shattered and perpetually on the Potter’s wheel. Although I am thankful for the Potter’s wheel, I do not think we should be satisfied to stay there. We are called to maturity through obedience. This was and is the Way of The Master.
I was once offended by teaching such as this. Now I see the grace of my loving Abba in them. It is His kindness that leads us to repentance…his kindness etched in stone for eternity.
“When we proclaim that our faith is a living faith, do we really consider just what that means for the integrated congregations of early followers of the Way? Is that how we live?”
It seems to me that even though we are as Torah obedient as possible, we still don’t really have a clear picture of the first century and we don’t have complete congregations of both Jew and gentile in which to live it out.
“The great red flag is our blindness to reading the Scriptures anachronistically, as if our concepts of “church,” “conversion,” “grace,” “faith,” and other key ideas are the same as those ideas in the thoughts of the authors.”
Hi Skip,
Being about half blind myself, and in no position to correct your grammar, it does seem to me that our blindness is “in” reading the Scriptures anachronistically (rather than “to”).
But I agree that it is a big problem to read the Bible:
“as if our concepts of “church,” “conversion,” “grace,” “faith,” and other key ideas are the same as those ideas in the thoughts of the authors.””
In my view, the reason most folks read the text anachronistically is that they have never read it chronologically, from “end to end.”
As I recall, Jesus once said that to enter the kingdom you need to make the two things one; well IMO the same thing holds true for the Bible.
To understand the different “levels of meaning” (in space), we first need to understand the chronological meaning from end to end (in time).
Think of the Cross.
My view; I think religion puts blinders on us as we always ignorantly follow after the ‘so called’ learned theologians in their reasoning that is very soulish. Their teachings, writings and commentaries only accomplish one thing—making seekers more dependent on them than seeking out their Maker for liberty of the spirit which the Torah brings by the Spirit of the WORD.No wonder most folks read the text anachronistically.
–No wonder most folks read the text anachronistically.–
Just a reminder to all- the Bible is not the book of the month- it is the Book of the Ages whose very Author is Who?
“But you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, recalling the people from whom you learned it; and recalling too how from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which can give you the wisdom that leads to deliverance through trusting in Yeshua the Messiah. All Scripture is G-d-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living; thus anyone who belongs to G-d may be fully equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3.14-17)