Beginning Again

As we start a new Roman calendar year of exploration, it might be useful to give a short summary of what we have learned so far.  A few critical points emerge:

1.  Any approach to understanding the writings of the New Testament must recognize the thorough saturation of the Tanakh and first century Jewish beliefs in the background of the authors.

2.  With the death of the last of the prophets, Judaism encountered and embraced in varying degrees the powerful influence of the Hellenistic world.  By the first century, some schools of rabbinic Judaism and some areas of Jewish life were already exhibiting Hellenistic ideas and patterns in contrast with the ancient ways of Israel. This influence is part of the background for understanding the text of the New Testament.

3.  Yeshua was a product of the conflicting cultures of ancient Hebrew thought and the first century Jewish involvement with and reaction to rabbinic and Hellenistic thinking.

4.  Yeshua was a reformer, calling the people of Israel to return to Torah obedience as understood by a conservative view of the Tanakh.  This aligned Him with some schools of the Pharisees but put Him in direct conflict with other Jewish schools and thinkers.

5.  The Torah and its authority over all life is the fundamental belief of ancient Israel and is the foundation of Yeshua’s teaching.  The idea that Yeshua nullified the Torah or rendered it no longer applicable to followers of YHWH is the unsupportable claim of Replacement Theology.  Torah is God’s expectation for the code of conduct of His followers.

6.  A careful examination of the life of Yeshua and the disciples including Paul demonstrates that Torah observance was a vital part of the early believing Messianic community and remained so until the 4^th Century.  The Roman Church and its replacement theology began a systematic separation of Christianity from its original Hebrew origins in the 2^nd Century, eventually creating the existing chasm between Judaism and Christianity by the end of the 4^th Century.

7.  Understanding the history of Jewish and Christian thinking and interaction between 400BC and 500AD is the most important single factor in determining the political, social and religious influences that led to today’s theological divide between Christians and Jews.

8.  Just as Christianity is dominated by a significant number of doctrinal variations and denominations, so Judaism between 400BC and 400AD is a story of competing theological positions.  There was no single Judaism during the time of Yeshua and the early Messianic community.

9.  Exegesis of the New Testament must account for these various “Judaisms” since the arguments and theological statements in the New Testament are often directly connected with one or more of the schools of Jewish thought prevalent in the first century.  No New Testament text can be understood in its own sitz im laben without this historical perspective.

10.  The Hebrew language spoken in the first century by the authors of the New Testament is the key to understanding the meanings of New Testament passages.  Relying on the Greek text alone cannot produce a satisfying explanation of the thought of the authors since their cultural and linguistic bias is Hebraic.

11.  No English translation of the Bible adequately expresses the thought patterns of the authors of either the Tanakh or the New Testament.  In order to satisfactorily understand what these men meant, we must examine with as much rigor as possible the original languages, both Greek and Hebrew, paying attention to the transition in meaning between these two languages, recognizing that often the fundamental differences in the thought patterns between these two languages will require us to reformulate the Greek text from an Hebraic perspective.  This transitional effort is true of the authors of the New Testament as well since the evidence suggests that they modified their Greek constructions in order to capture as best they could the underlying Hebrew worldview.

Given the above points, our objective in the coming year will be to examine even more verses and words with a careful methodology.  That means things won’t happen quickly.  Most of the time we will discover how little we actually know or thought we knew, but this is real progress since it will help us draw closer to the meaning of the text.  Doctrinal issues will most like fade in relevance as they are overshadowed by linguistic and historical issues.  This is not an enterprise that one man or woman can hope to accomplish.  It will require debate and interaction – in other words, the learning process of the Hebrew worldview.  Determining the questions will most likely be a more important task than arriving at answers.  But as long as the Lord tarries, we will have time.

Let us therefore be diligent in our search, seeking to know Him as He was known by those who shared His world.

After almost 4000 word studies, I find that I know even less now than I thought I knew when I began all those years ago.  In fact, I feel completely inadequate for this task, often wondering how it is possible to continue with so much ignorance.  That’s when I need to be reminded that the purpose of these studies is not information.  The purpose is to draw closer to the God we desire to serve.  Fortunately, He is not asking us to “know it all” before we can worship and serve Him.  Each step forward, even the faltering ones, are a joy to Him.  This is truly a life-time journey.  So, in spite of our need to correct what we thought we knew, to press on into matters we never knew and to search diligently for clues to the Kingdom, we also know that today’s simple obedience concerning the things we hear is sufficient for this hour.

I am glad you decided to accompany me.  I need your help in order to step once more into the unknown.

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