How would a Jew view a Scripture- let’s talk!

Most of us view the Bible from our native language viewpoint. We have found some scriptural references that give a clearer understanding when our Jewish Rabbis and Jewish friends explain it to us.

Some of the friends have Jewish friends and would like to share some of the things they have learned from a Jewish perspective.

Perhaps you have something to share also on what a Jew might have thought when He heard, for instance, the Lake of Fire in Revelation.

Use the comment section to start the conversation, please.

 

33 Responses to How would a Jew view a Scripture- let’s talk!

  1. the travelers says:

    “The tower of Babel episode is among the most widely known Bible stories: the people of Shinar resolve to build a city with a tower that reaches to the heights of heaven and God foils their plan by confusing their speech.

    Speech: tongue, sound of
    Language: conceptual images behind speech

    There were many tongues present at Babel (historic fact) but just one conceptual image of whom and what God was. When their minds were confused, they no longer had a common framework of reference, their language in common. Then it says the work gradually was left off.

    (Genesis 11:5-9) . . .And Jehovah proceeded to go down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men had built. 6 After that Jehovah said: “Look! They are one people and there is one language for them all, and this is what they start to do. Why, now there is nothing that they may have in mind to do that will be unattainable for them. 7 Come now! Let us go down and there confuse their language that they may not listen to one another’s language.” 8 Accordingly, Jehovah scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth, and they gradually left off building the city. 9 That is why its name was called Ba′bel, because there Jehovah had confused the language of all the earth, and Jehovah had scattered them from there over all the surface of the earth.

    In every interpretation, even the apostles, it has to be viewed through the language behind the words. If the language adds “UP” hold onto it. If on the other hand, the words don’t lead your mind, compare them to other words written in the Bible by other men who had inspired events and shared their experience of the events. The language will start to become clearer, “knock and the door will be opened”. Of course look into the language behind “knock”. Jesus told the nation of Israel you have lost your “Way”. Jesus then went on to show that he could explain the point at which they had lost the “way”. Since Jesus had information that only he was given he could say, “I am the Way… I am the door keeper…knock and it will be opened to you”. Steps of reason lead us “UP” to a conclusion, up the path, using the language behind the door of words. This is why and how the truth is hidden.

    Like the sorcerer’s stone in Harry Potter, you can only take/arrive at the understanding if you don’t want to claim it as personal power. See how fun this is. Even the apostles didn’t give you the truth, they gave you words you can use to arrive at the revealed truth using the adoptive spirit/increased mental capacity that Jesus delivered the price for. Jesus made it possible to be reconciled to our Father but you must cover the distance as a footstep follower, one door at a time, arriving at one frame of mind with Jesus and our Father. This process of acquiring the approved frame of mind that is possible only because our Father at adoption gives spirit/force, adoptive spirit, that allows us to have increased mental capacity. Using this force and the force that Jesus went to ask our Father to pour out, the last gift, the “spirit of understanding”, is what allows us to put on the incorruptible clothing and in holding these concepts to make our “ways” straight. It allows us to become a “New creation”, we become the first to be alive since Adam and Eve.
    Yes sorry but it all connects don’t you “see”.

    Sincerely, with love, the travelers.

  2. jacqueline says:

    The tower of Babel episode is among the most widely known Bible stories: the people of Shinar resolve to build a city with a tower that reaches to the heights of heaven and God foils their plan by confusing their speech. But what was their motivation for building the tower of Babel in the first place? The biblical text doesn’t tell us explicitly; instead, Scripture assumes familiarity with the historical practice of building such structures and the theological rationale behind their construction. Whereas some have imagined that the builders of Babel erected a tower that would bring them up to God’s level—perhaps to attack the Almighty—the edifice would have served the opposite purpose. The point of the tower was not to elevate humans to heaven but to bring God down to earth.

    That the impetus for Babel’s tower was an attempted war with God is an idea that goes back to ancient times. The rabbis of the 5th century CE preserved this interpretation in their commentary on Genesis. According to the midrash, the people at Shinar said to themselves, “God has no right to choose the upper world [i.e., heaven] for himself and to leave the lower world [i.e., earth] to us. Therefore, we will build a tower, with an idol on the top holding a sword, so that it appears to wage war with [God]” (Genesis Rabbah 38:6). Of course, the Bible doesn’t mention any idol at the top of the tower—that’s a rabbinic addition to the story—and the original goal of Babel would not have been to gain access to God’s realm. On the contrary, the people wanted the Lord to leave the heavenly abode and meet them on earth.

    The tower of Babel is what’s known as a ziggurat—an ancient building with a staircase that priests ascended to commune with the gods of heaven. Once people reached the top of the staircase, the belief was that heavenly beings would descend to meet them at the apex of the ziggurat. A reference to a ziggurat appears in the pre-biblical Ninsun Temple Inscription (c. 1700s BCE), which says that Warad-Sin, king of Larsa, “made it as a mountain and made its head touch the heavens.” This description mirrors what the people of Shinar declare: “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its head in the heavens (ראשׁו בשׁמים; rosho bashamayim)” (Genesis 11:4). The reason for the top of the tower to touch the sky was to give God a place to rest in the earthly realm after coming down from heaven. And the tower of Babel does the trick! Once the building went up, “the Lord came down (ירד; yarad) to see the city and the tower, which the children of humanity had built” (11:5). The people build their ziggurat to coax God earthward, not to storm the gates of Heaven.

    But if the reason for the tower was to bring God down to it, and God obliges, then why did the Lord feel the need to confuse the people’s speech and scatter them from Shinar? To be sure, there’s nothing inherently wrong with ziggurats. In fact, God appears to a dreaming Jacob at the top of a ziggurat staircase (not a “ladder”). Jacob “dreamed, and behold, there was a staircase (סלם; sulam) set up on the earth, and its head touched to the heavens (ראשׁו מגיע השׁמימה; rosho magia hashamaymah)” (Gen 28:12). The problem with Babel wasn’t the ziggurat itself, but rather the motivation for the people’s machinations. They say, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its head in the heavens, and let us make a name (שׁם; shem) for ourselves (11:4). The people want to exalt their own name, but the purpose of their building project should have been to promote the name of God. That’s what Solomon does when he builds the first Temple, saying, “I have succeeded my father David and have ascended the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised. I have built the house for the name (לשׁם; le’shem) of the Lord, the God of Israel” (1 Kings 8:20). God confuses the builders’ language so that they can’t continue to broadcast their own names through their city’s construction. The tower of Babel brings God down from heaven, but the episode ends with a stark reminder of the God whose name reigns over the earth.

  3. jacqueline says:

    Today I learned something interesting on the doctrine that teaches Jehovah and Jesus are the same persons because of the plural word Elohim.
    They say it indicates 2 or more Gods but in the Hebrew language, Elohim is like Earthlings.

    Invisible realm or creatures are Elohim, Jehovah, Jesus, Holy Spirit, the Seraphim, angels, satan, demons, all that are invisible to our eyes.

    Earthlings refer to tangible visible beings in the same way.

    So Hebrew speaking Jew would not accept the trinity on the basis of Elohim being plural.

  4. jacqueline says:

    10 Interesting facts about heaven from AOC point of view. Enjoy.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M_ymUsfy0g&t=185s

  5. jacqueline says:

    Every language has its own world views built into its language.
    Coincidence is a word used by many languages but not in Hebrew.
    There is no word for Coincidence. God intends and Providence everything that happens in the words of the Jewish language.

    If an Ancient Jew found themselves in an unusual Circumstance they look for God’s allowance or providence.

    It never just happens in the Jewish Hebrew, they don’t say, oh that was just a coincidence because they have no word for that. Thought for today!

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