Avoid Israel’s Mistakes

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;  1 Corinthians 10:1-2  NASB

Into – If you read these verses in the electronic version of the NASB, you will find them under the column caption, “Avoid Israel’s Mistakes.”  I suppose it’s possible to summarize Paul’s list of events in the wilderness as Israel’s mistakes, but that seems to overlook Paul’s consistent phrase “as some of them did” (v. 8-10).  In other words, the far more appropriate caption for this section seems to me to be what Paul actually says in verse 14, “Flee idolatry.”  To suggest that Israel (that is, all of Israel) made these mistakes actually ignores what Paul writes.  Furthermore, Paul is writing to Gentiles who have become believers and their issue is not the disobedience of some of Israel in the wilderness.  Their issue is idolatry.  Israel’s experiences with God in the wilderness are only parallels because idolatry is the common thread.  In fact, Paul’s opening remark makes it clear that these examples of disobedience are atypical.  We can see this by paying attention to the preposition “into” (eis).

The Greek preposition eis is about location.  In theological usage in the apostolic writings, eis often describes the transposition of the believer from a world of pagan affiliation to the world of the Way, a commitment to live according to the teachings of the Messiah.  Therefore, eis is connected to salvation and the choice to change direction and follow a new path.  Gentiles would certainly understand this spatial connotation since even Greek pagan religions associated eis with the connection between the divine and earthly realms.  So Paul uses a preposition that has significant religious association in both the Gentile and Jewish worlds.  But notice what Paul connects with this preposition.  Israel was baptized into Moses.  Amplifying the spatial transposition of the preposition, Paul is saying that Israel was transported into the world of Moses.  What world was that?  There can be only one summary answer: Torah.  Moses, the great prophet of Torah, provides Israel with its unique direction for the Way.  Moses’ relationship with God is entirely Torah based.  No other prophet of Israel attains the position of Moses.  Without Moses, Israel has no extraordinary relationship with the Kingdom and the King.  For all intents and purposes, Moses’ revelation brings the nation of Israel into existence.  To be baptized into Moses is the equivalent of saying what Heschel notes:  “A Jew without Torah is obsolete.”

Paul uses this metaphor to call Gentiles into faith.  What faith is that?  Every example Paul cites in the litany of those whom God punished were Israelites who rejected the full implications of Torah.  Paul is not suggesting that Jews were baptized into Torah but Gentiles are baptized into some other kingdom.  To be in the Kingdom is to be baptized into Moses.  The revelation of Moses remains the constitution of the Kingdom.  Just as Israel became a nation when it adopted Torah, so Gentiles become part of the same Kingdom with the same action.  The method changes.  The constitution does not.

Topical Index:  into, eis, Torah, Moses, baptism, 1 Corinthians 10:1-2