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Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27 NASB
Made for man – Because we have so little working knowledge of the rabbinic material, we often think that Yeshua was the original author of many apparent modifications of biblical regulations. That actually isn’t the case, as we shall see. But the reason we don’t recognize the continuity of Yeshua’s teaching with prior rabbinic development is also the result of a deliberate Christian anti-Semitism. In other words, the Christian world intentionally suppressed knowledge of the rabbis and sages because they were Jewish and the Church desperately needed to distance itself from Jewish expressions. The Church maintained that it was the spiritual successor of Judaism; that it had surpassed Jewish thought and experience. With this in mind, it could hardly continue to teach that the rabbis, not Yeshua, really developed the ideas that the Messiah taught. No, the Church needed a way to claim uniqueness, and there was no better avenue than to force a disconnect between the rabbis and the new Christian Christ.
Over the centuries, few Christians ever realized that most of Yeshua’s teachings were either repetitions of prior rabbinic material or extensions of ideas that began with the rabbis. Most Christians were taught that “Jesus” was radically different than the rabbis, that he opposed their legalism and taught a new religious order. In fact, most Christians were taught that Jesus was the first Christian, giving up the outmoded Jewish way in favor of divine grace.
But the truth is quite a bit different. “That the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath was also a familiar Pharisaic principle, which recognized the need to modify Sabbath law to accommodate basic human needs. So, too, was the principle that it is the inner motivation that determines the righteousness of an act, and not just the external form.”[1] Notice Ruether’s adjective “familiar.” Yeshua’s statement about the Sabbath was familiar, that is, common knowledge. He was not giving a new ruling. Everyone knew Shabbat was modified when necessary. It still is today. So why did we grow up thinking that Yeshua’s statement radically altered Jewish thinking? Why do we believe that Yeshua opposed the Pharisees when his teaching is virtually identical? The answer is simple and condemning. We were taught an anti-Semitic gospel and we didn’t even know it. Perhaps we should read the lessons from 400 years of rabbinic development before we continue to claim that God revealed new truth in His son. Perhaps Yeshua was much more a product of his own time and culture than the Church wishes to admit. Perhaps admitting such is so damaging to the elevated Christian Christ that it simply can’t be allowed.
Topical Index: Sabbath, man, rabbis, Mark 2:27
[1] Rosemary Ruether, Faith and Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism, p. 66, citing Mekilta Ki Tissa’, Shabbat I and others
Cliff Notes to the below: individual sanctification is equally as difficult in the individually repressive mass humanism of today as it was in the individually repressive authoritarian power grabs of ancient times.
We live in an age where the concept of the individual is so highly developed it is hard to identify with the ancient world where such ideas would have been incomprehensible. When Michelangelo carved Moses tearing himself out of the rock it was a graphic portrayal of a cosmic shift in approach; man was starting to look to himself instead of to the community – to look in instead of out – for the mirror of his own identity. Humanism, in so many ways, to me, is the ultimate protest against the failure of community to properly reflect the human back to each person and to show each of us who we really are. It reminds me of the rebellion of a child in a childhood where the adults are not parenting and taking responsibility for their authority. leaving the child to figure it all out for himself. For better or for worse, community failed to realize the individual, as per God’s plan, and I think the subject of the Sabbath sanctity may show us some of the ways.
In the Mosaic instruction, we read that we are to sanctify the Sabbath TO OURSELVES. Now, in a community where the individual is being reflected properly, just like in a childhood where the child is nurtured and the sense of identity is developed properly, that individual would have the autonomy and the capacity to understand the personal significance of that rest. It would be PERSONAL rest from a personal life, and, as a developed group of self-realized individuals, that community would have people personally taking the responsibility of insuring that the rest each one took was unique and complete from their own personal perspective of that labor. I am laboring this point because it seems to me to be a significant clue as to the massive disfunction that the world has been laboring under since practically the beginning. If the world misused community to gain power of the few over the many, it would have effectively erased the individual in the process, and, in fact, we see this in all the major cultures of ancient times. In such cultures, where the individual was NOT realized in the community (think Egypt, for example, where all individuals existed only as extensions of the Pharoah), the individual would not have PERSONAL labor to freely rest FROM. It is really hard to appreciate this today, where people are highly personalized in their careers and the arrangement of their days and lives.
Now, it seems, we have the opposite problem. The community is still failing us, as humanism is so painfully reminding us, and so we still do not have a true reflection of our own individuality, but the Sabbath injunction still does not waver: we are commanded to sanctify to OURSELVES the Sabbath. In ancient times, to the extent that power over the individual was misappropriated, the power to ascribe what that rest should look like for the individual would have likewise been misappropriated. The rabbis, then, through proper exegesis, would have had to painfully -like Michelangelo – tear the true meaning of the individuality of the Sabbath sanctity back out of the rock of authoritative mandate that had supplanted true community. (Y’all, true individual identity, has ALWAYS been hard!) But nowadays, when individuals have merely made a power grab over themselves (humanism), but STILL lack true identity that can only come through that community refection, it is just as imperative that we resist the jackbooted authoritarian enslavement of the self to the self, and set the sanctification of the Sabbath above the new taskmasters of today. The Sabbath is still there to show us the way out of bondage, for the bondage of the individual will remain as long as the community continues to fail us. We are still in Egypt, and we are still having to subvert, like the faithful midwives, the killing of the self by the self through that abusive overwork. Time to rest! Halleluah!
Great. thought-provoking material Miss Hayes we could also consider a new beginning of months that’s right a new New year. Coming out of Egypt or bondage was a new way of life and it was to be celebrated as an exodus for everyone the common quote the mixed multitude excellent discovery all those who believed in followed the god of the Jews we’re also expelled from slavery how quickly we overlooked it not only the Jews or Israel but everyone can be accepted
Jewish community, as I understand it and mentioned a few weeks ago, consists of a minimum of two (husband and wife) or three or more (family) so we as individuals are never truly reflected in the being of one person. We are never alone (unless we are orphaned) and then the bible says we need to be considered (protected, fed, sheltered) by others. Consequently we can only find ourselves in how we are reflected minimally by our own personal community, how we treat each other (husband and wife) or family, health, welfare and education thereof. We are born into an instant community that should never fail us and we should never fail them. Then as Hillel might say, the rest is all commentary.
I like that, PennyGeorge. Then, Sabbath rest should, naturally, include all those with whom “I” am comprised. Voila! Communal worship! Our relationships should then be brought before the Lord as a sweet savor, and then He can Shabbat with His Body: all for One and One for all!
WOW!
This could be dangerous territory we don’t want to be exclusive there is a one new man movement moving very rapidly it is very influential very knowledgeable very involved all related to Israel’s destiny it’s growing so fast it’s scary it even has gone to the point of being one new man International I will not name a name for the sake of my own Ministry and my church involvement. I remember not to long ago all the Ruckus over the emergent Church movement be very careful another article and book was written about the Christless Church very eye-opening I don’t pretend to know it all there is a lot of resources out there that are just way out of sync in our wolves in sheep’s clothing. Is it possible to just leave the early church alone and not redefine it? Not the early church fathers. But the early church first church with Yeshua and his 12 apostles which was founded from the Jewish roots. I hope I’m freaking that correctly. I find myself usually showing concerns from seeing deceiving plots in history that has changed the way we see Christianity Today with guidelines from TW ????✡? my rendition of hooray for Israel’s King and all the people applauded.
Was it a specific church movement that had a political agenda that divided the truth, rise of the anti Christ, or was it a general human indoctrination that caused these schisms.
If we question these schisms we should justly also question the Hebraic sects yip not the Jewish as they claim to be from Judah yet out of every 12 tribes multiple sects arose…
Question the scriptures are reasonably accurate on the historical events it is what we read into these records that create misunderstandings and doctrines.
Is that why Yeshua states we shall be saved each by our own faith…
Always challenge to go deeper and further into history with exact guidelines the doctrines are correct the history is correct prophecies are correct the testimonies are correct there is good report it is excellent and Noble and praiseworthy all things to think about Philippians 4 . 8 I’d like to tell you the name and see how fast Yahweh is using him. You may even know already who I’m talking about maybe so I do not like to share names only the names in the books of the Bible chapters in my own pastor in my wife’s pastor of course skip Moen today’s word and Daniel juster the Lord been using him for 45 years plus solid as a rock his posts never change check it tikkun Ministries the restoration of Israel in the world
If you wish you can email me protegeipc@gmail.com but be prepared to hear how such a solid rock denies Christ more often than we know and how rocks are there to use as stepping stones and not as anchors…
Brother Brett I’ve been part of multiple schisms and have just realized that the possibility exits that 1Cor. 12 may imply more than we are willing to acknowledge as it does not fit in with our perceptions or paradigms…
Peace in Christ
History is man influenced. Eternity is not.
“For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Distancing Yeshua from the Rabbis and/or from the teachings of the “Old Testament” both seem like light forms of Marcionism. Another example is how Yeshua is presented as ushering in an ‘era of grace’, when he taught his followers to turn the other cheek, but a quick comparison with Jeremiah shows that Yeshua was well within scriptural precedent here too.
Yeshua: Turn the other cheek / Jeremiah “Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him” (Lam 3:30 NIV)
Yeshua: Pray for your enemies / Jeremiah “Pray for the peace and prosperity of the city [of enemy exile]….”
Yeshua: Those who draw the sword will die by the sword / Jeremiah’s many warnings that those who fight Babylon will die.
Even when Yeshua echoes the themes of Deuteronomy and Jeremiah – of recognizing and accepting God’s use of other nations to chasten Israel, he is still held up as a trailblazer who is ushering in something brand new.
EXODUS 34:29 The Hebrew verb for “shone” is QARAN, a word in other contexts, could also mean “to sprout horns.” Jerome, church father, creating the Latin Vulgate translation of the Scriptures, mistranslated the Hebrew word as Moses was sprouting horns. Medieval artists would depict Moses with horns. Jerome’s misunderstanding is a good illustration of how we can get things backward when we ignore Judaism.
Don’t we all sprout horns when we change views to please man and not God. Remember Moses also did this at times, as did many others after him, these are not sins to death but learning curbs and to save the elephant and rhino what do we do… Cut of the tasks. Yip address the results not the cause…
What is YHVH telling us and what are we hearing…
Excellent word, brother.
I like the shirt.
Yep…
While I won’t deny that the “church fathers” sought a division between Judaism and Christianity and that the process they engaged in was as described here, much of what Yeshua said was in fact common knowledge but it’s more often the application that differed drastically. But, it’s not wisdom to speak to a people in relation to something they can’t relate too, and it would seem that God desires to meet us where we are and maybe, due to the already large influence of Hellenism, that’s why we get the impression that Yeshua supported such things as an eternal hell, etc. while, in fact, he was just meeting up with them to start them in the right direction. Just a coupla related thoughts. 🙂
“. . . few Christians ever realized that most of Yeshua’s teachings were either repetitions of prior rabbinic material or extensions of ideas that began with the rabbis . . . We were taught an anti-Semitic gospel . . .”
Certainly Yeshua did not change the original Law, but if His teaching was not radically different from the common teachings, then why as a twelve year old, did He amaze all those at the Temple? And why do we read . . .
Mat_7:29 He was teaching them as One having authority, and NOT as their scribes.”
Mat_13:54 He taught them in their synagogue, so that they are ASTONISHED
Mat_9:6 the Son of Mankind has authority on earth to PARDON SINS”
Mat_28:18 “Given to Me was ALL authority in heaven and on the earth.”
Mar_3:15 and to have authority to CURE DISEASES
Mar_1:27 Some NEW teaching is this, for with authority the unclean spirits also is He enjoining, and they are obeying Him!”
Why did a throng follow Him for three days to hear His teachings if they were old?
And why did they want to kill Him?
Are these anti-Semitic gospel verses?
Many of us still believe that Yeshua is the author of the Torah. So, in that regard, when the Pharisees quoted it, they were actually showing agreement with Yeshua rather than the other way around.