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. jacqueline says:

    I wonder how a true Christian Jew would view this scripture.
    Hosea 6
    1
    “Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
    2
    After two days he will revive us; on the third day, he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.
    If Jesus died AD 30 forward 1 thousand year day= 1020AD forward 1 more thousand-year day Day = 2030 AD.
    Anything after that is the third day. They are not living in Jesus’ presence now but could this scripture have the pattern of the third day like so many more? Just thinking out loud.

    The Third Day Pattern in the Hebrew Bible
    Perhaps the clearest examples of third-day resurrection in the Hebrew Scriptures are found in Jonah 1:17
    Jonah 1:17
    17And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

    Jesus referenced Jonah’s three days in the belly of the great fish as a metaphor for his resurrection. Hosea spoke of God’s resurrecting work for Israel as occurring on the third day. While these are worthy texts to consider, this pattern of the resurrection on the third day begins even earlier in the story.

    There are three passages found earlier in the narrative of the Hebrew Bible that begin to develop a pattern of new life emerging on the third day: the creation narrative of Genesis 1
    is just one of them in a long line of the pattern of 3.

  2. jacqueline says:

    Acts 15:5- onward and Acts 8 helps us see we don’t have to become a Jew to become a Christian.

    If you wanted to be with the Jews before Christ you had to convert to Judaism first. Keep the laws and get circumcised.

    But after Christ, it is not incumbent on us to become a Jew by keeping the law in order to please God.

    This yoke of having the Jews coming to Christ keep the feast days etc was cleared up here.

    We do not have to keep the Law Code since the Ransom death of Christ.
    The ten commandments are summed up in two. Love of Jehovah and Love of neighbor. And the world keeps those.

    Jesus nailed the Law code to the Cross and fulfilled it. We run now for a crown and we can lose that.

    We are not under the law code. Also, there isn’t a Temple to go back under the laws given to Israel.

    Anyone can keep the feast days of the Jews if they like it will not offend God. It also does not affect our salvation.

    Our Salvation is won by Christ, we can’t do anything to save ourselves, otherwise Christ should not have come and saved us by dying. We can get ETERNAL LIFE if we recognize we can work for that.

    It is a free gift and once mankind was saved they are always saved. God has not taken that from us.

    Repentance and turning around is one way we can accept this free gift.

    We can say nope I don’t want it let me enter the second death which is the lake of fire.
    This is a great discussion of this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpvAgAdEEEA

  3. jacqueline says:

    I have not checked these Scriptures out yet but I was just told to review ;
    Deuteronomy 27: and 28 chapters, Leviticus 27:

    He said it explains why Jehovah removed his protection so that the Jews experienced the terrible holocaust. I will check this out later but thought I would just post the thought here so others can view it and give their thoughts.

    We know even Jesus struggled with death by impalement and sweated blood asking if God could find another way but if not let it be God’s will and not his. Even as he gave up his breath he cried out to God feeling abandonment.
    This is the essence of how this conversation has gone.

    Anybody got any thoughts? Feel free to comment.
    1100 do’s and don’ts are in the new testament is also part of the conversation.
    The law codes says don’t commit adultery, the new says don’t even think about it. The old says don’t murder, the new says don’t even wish a person dead.
    So this is the essence of the conversation.

  4. Lee Anthony says:

    Jacqueline\”
    I have found similar things in my studies, my focus has been more on figuring out the scripture meaning and what it says will happen in its fulfillment instead of using history and chronology as a basis. Things that are said to occur have not all occured and much of the scriptural understanding is off. Read verse 24 and look at all the differing translations, In considering what I think 6 things that will occur it seems easy to conclude it has yet been fully fulfilled. I focus on this for most of the podcast as it is quite an interesting study.

  5. jacqueline says:

    Daniel 9:24“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish d transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. e

    25“Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. 26After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. g The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ h In the middle of the ‘seven’ i he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple j he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. k ” l

    Isa 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, [1]
    2
    to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
    lace.
    In Luke 4: Jesus only read part of the sentence. He didn’t read vs 2 because over 2,000 years would pass. There is a pause button pushed. There are many pause buttons in scripture with thousands of years or hundreds between.

    Daniel:9:24 has a pause button I contend also with over a 2,000 interval.
    7weeks+62weeks +69 weeks that was fulfilled 483 years from 455BC. Then I see a pause for the seventh week that has now been over 2,000 years. Week 70th is about the Jews still and THE PRINCE of the people or some say anti-Christ will come and make a covenant for the Jews of today to put up the third temple quickly, sacrifice. THEN he will renege on that and fulfill verse 27, in the middle of the week.
    Daniel 9:27 “He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
    I do not agree with any of the teachings of Charles Russell or his affiliate religions that the seven weeks ended in 36CE.
    I think it is about Israel and the last verses haven’t happened yet.
    This is what I see in scripture I might have it wrong. I know what Russell followers have been arguing about for years and years. I am not a part of that everlasting ongoing in-fighting.
    I am trying with all my heart to get rid of their teachings. Sometimes it brings your knees.

    • Lee Anthony says:

      Jacqueline,
      I am posting the Thursday study on the podcast in just a minute, I am also posting a podcast I have put together on the 70 weeks using 2 views but for sake of time I go into more detail on the one which agrees a lot with what you just happened to write in your comment. Interesting timing.
      Lee

      • jacqueline says:

        Lee I am just following the scripture that it is about Israel. The 27th vs has a finally to israel suffering to me and since that isn’t happening even now it must be future.
        I do agree the little season sees a March against them but they have just ended the thousand years and no weapons so God wipes out their last foe satan and his hordes.
        Make me wonder how long is the little season for a horde to build up. It seems Jesus might have gone also since it encircles the holy city and not the Holy One.
        So much to think about with hope and no preconceived doctrine.
        I will wait to check out your podcast.

      • jacqueline says:

        Lee, I haven’t listened to your podcast yet but I noticed something in Vs 27. This “he” that shall put an end to sacrifice and offering, Jesus would put an end to sin and atone for wickedness, in 29? This same “he” will set up an abomination that causes desolation at the temple. ANd “he” has an end set for him.

        How could anyone think that vs 29 of Daniel 9 is Jesus. It may look like 33Ce is 3 1/2 years later and 36 ce would be 7 years later but the other stuff does not fit Jesus. He would never do any of that and didn’t even go into the Most Holy while on earth to set up a disgusting thing.
        I think there is a famous “pause” of thousands of years like prophecy does all the time.

        Imagine if the apostles knew thousands of years would pass before Jesus returned, yet they thought in Thessalonica that he had come again and they missed it and some of the brothers had died.
        Just thinking it thru with prayer to see if I can understand before hearing what you have “podcasted”.

        I am getting the confidence to go deep in prophecy, never really did it on my own without someone telling what things meant.

        Sometimes it is easy to forget this is a site for Spiritual abuse victims, ones who’s abuse was propaganda and the subjugation of their minds to odd old teaching made up by men. Men who didn’t take times to think through the scriptures, they just repeated what was in Studies in the Scriptures books.

  6. Lee Anthony says:

    Jacqueline,
    What about an angel study tonight?

    It seems that this new king would have been jealous of Israel ( Exo 1:9-10) and certainly knew nothing of Joseph. He was 30 when made overseer Gen 41:46 and died at 110 so 80 years passed and maybe a few more since Exo 1:6-7 says that Joseph and all of his brothers of that generation died but Israel continued to multiply. Likely at least 1-2 pharaohs lived and died before this new king took over perhaps more. Like Ted mentioned the Assyrian rulers knew little of history and this is attested to in secular and bible history. Seems very likely to me

  7. Ted R (Bible Student) says:

    I haven\’t had time to view the videos but I did find this interesting commentary on the subject:
    https://mostancientdays.blogspot.com/2010/10/chapter-12-pharaoh-who-knew-not.html
    Researching further according to secular history it is possible that the Pharaoh of Moses was Assyrian. I read one assertion that it may have been Kufu. There does seem to be some disagreement among scholars of exactly who was the Pharaoh of Exodus. I read the Scriptures in Isaiah and to me it is unclear.
    Here is another article making reference to Isaiah 52
    https://www.knowingthebible.net/topics/the-pharaohs-of-the-exodus
    Pharaohs of the Exodus
    Scholars who take the numbers and dates in the Bible at face value place the time of Jacob’s going down to Egypt in about 1876 BC. Joseph’s experience would thus fall in the time prior to the Hyksos control of Egypt (1720-1570 BC). Accordingly, everything in the narrative about Joseph points to a native Egyptian setting, not a Hyksos one. Joseph’s death, then, would have been around 1806 BC, just a few years prior to the end of the 12th dynasty of Egypt, which marks the decline of the Middle Kingdom.5

    It is difficult to identify the “new king” in Ex. 1:8 since the text is vague in how much time is passing in Exodus chapter one. However, the rise of a “new king” must be understood as a new dynasty. In Acts 7:18 when Stephen quotes this passage, he uses the Greek word for “different king,” which means “something that is not like the previous.” The statement “who did not know Joseph” means that this pharaoh has no knowledge of Egyptian history, for it is unlikely that Joseph’s act of saving Egypt and the surrounding world from starvation would have gone unrecorded and untaught. This suggests that something of great significance in history has caused Joseph’s acts to be erased and forgotten or that the current Pharaoh did not come from a traditional Egyptian background.

    Assuming the traditional date of the exodus this “new king” most likely was a Hyksos ruler. The Hyksos were a blend of Semitic people from the northern part of the Mesopotamia and took over the Egyptian throne from 1720 to 1570 BC. As foreigners they would have had no knowledge of Joseph. This possibility is supported by Isa. 52:4, which refers to the pharaoh that oppressed the Israelites as being an Assyrian, a people group from the northern part of the Mesopotamia. In 1570 BC Ahmose I (1570-1546 BC), a full-blooded Egyptian, led a rebellion against the Hyksos and drove them out of Egypt and took the throne of Egypt. After 150 years of Hyksos rule, it is not likely that Ahmose I would have about known about Joseph either and thus he would have just keep the Hebrews enslaved.

    • jacqueline says:

      Ted and Lee Anthony, Thanks I sort of agree it makes sense that He was not an Egyptian Pharoh possibly.
      Even today Egypt is not a friend but works with Israel.
      The areas that form the Assyrian homeland are parts of present-day northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran and, more recently, northeastern Syria.

      Just look at this pattern, they are still at it.

  8. jacqueline says:

    Lee or TedR, was one of you on the Angel discussion tonight? Missler said Isaiah 50 says the Pharoh of Egypt was an Assyrian and not an Egyptian, that is why he didn’t know Joseph.
    He was in Isaiah 14 so I need to look at this again to see how he came to this conclusion. I said this once because I thought I saw it referring to Assyria when speaking of Egypt but can’t remember where. Have you ever heard this before? https://youtu.be/_FtLQapZRp8
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FtLQapZRp8&feature=push-prem-sub&attr_tag=SpyLT7a3FQwekmud%3A6

  9. Lee Anthony says:

    Jacqueline,
    It is always good to look for patterns, there are so many. A good reason not to throw the OT to the side like many do. I find it of interest that the men are mentioned specifically, usually in Hebrew the term virgin meant a woman who was not married, set apart still in her fathers house, implicating she was a virgin but our meaning today is still a bit different as unmarried to us don’t mean virgin. The fact these are said to be men then is of interest, also that they are first fruits. In Jer 2:2-4) Israel was called the first fruits and when Christ came he came 1st to them. First fruits,Israel, virgin, Men,…. The first fruits, Christ and those who have the spirit, Rom 8:23, there is a bigger group of first fruits it seems but this passage highlights the specifics of those who are chosen out of that group since there are specifics involved as stated above. It seems these are first fruits of the first fruits maybe why they are given such a specific small number 144,000, out of a specific small people, Israel.
    That being said what you have here makes more sense than a lot of other views on the matter and listed side by side with others may get a bit of attention as it is certainly not a well known view.

    • jacqueline says:

      Lee Anthony now is a good time to say how small I would feel when the Circuit Overseer would attribute something distasteful about women because of this scripture. I would say but Jesus loved his mother, you could tell. Also, God used a woman to carry His son.
      He used a woman in all the issues with Jericho. The pattern continues as Jesus first appeared to women after his resurrection.But Circuit Overseers were very distasteful in what they said about women.

      So the pattern never fit. Also now I see why those that think they are of the 144,000 have chosen not to marry (a brother shared with me) and Sis Russell said her husband enforced a celibate marriage instead of just staying single. So it seems some took this literal that these are non married Jewish Men.

      Allegory allows the elite few to put themselves in this number by allegorizing it. Most religious ministers know these are Jewish men. I haven’t found any Christian religion that believes the witnesses or the Bible students are the 144,000. They don’t have a problem with Jehovah staying true to His promise to Abraham to use Israel to bless mankind.

      The watchtower governing body blaspheme by saying Jehovah went back on his word to bless Israel and lied to Abraham about their possessing their land and being a blessing to the entire world. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment, but Jehovah means exactly what He says. The house of Israel will bless mankind. How the organization can say He really meant something else is disrespectful. If I said something it would be wrong for someone to interpret what they think I mean.
      So That is why Christians respect that Jehovah is intelligent and can say what he means.
      To claim God changed His mind and chose them in 1874 and 1918 doesn’t make sense.

      They would not have made this error if they understood that Jehovah knows the END to the Beginning. He has allowed blindness to be on Israel to show who He is to mankind.
      To think I once thought these men were smart but the theology of Br. Russel, Rutherford, and the now present-day so-called “Jehovah-witness” corporation doesn’t have tiny things right. Children can read the Bible and get some of this right because they won’t allegorize.

  10. jacqueline says:

    I learned an interesting point today.
    What we (gentiles) view as a prophecy, a Jew will view it as a pattern. Each prophetic word tells them how it is playing out toward their Messiah coming.
    They will look back at what God has consistently done in a situation. For instance at Sodom and at Ninevah or the flood. If they see these same things, the pattern helps them discern how Jehovah feels and if it angers him to act.
    They know Jehovah never changes the way He does things. They look for the lesson He is conveying rather than what’s coming and they work with that.
    Not secular Judaism, but Christian Jews as regards Christ.
    From these Jews will come 144,000 young Jewish men that haven’t married yet,(virgins).
    Jewish men aren’t fully adult until age 30 so now I understand that prophecy as actual without allegory.

  11. jacqueline says:

    What actually is Paradise according to scripture mention?
    Luk 23:43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

    2Co 12:4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.

    Rev 2:7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

  12. jacqueline says:

    I was just thinking, the Bible was God breathed because the Jewish writers wrote of things they didn’t even understand. The old Testament writers never imagined Messiah would come twice. And the New Testament writers were told by Jesus he would come again but they didn’t realize it would be 2 thousand years later. Yet they wrote and we can look back and understand but they didn’t The Bible is truly a message outside of time from God. The earth appears to be on fire and lots of stuff happening all together. It won’t be long it seems.

  13. Rene says:

    December 25th conundrum

    Jacqueline,

    This was a really great article on December 25th. I agree that speculating that December 25th is Jesus birthday is most probably inaccurate, but I can see why the author stopped short of not concluding it is pagan without further consideration. But I would also agree that the date is highly important to pagans and connected to the death and rebirth myth found as a central theme in many pagan religions. We do know that many pagan cults draw from the central origin myth of Nimrod worship and what later became Tamus worship.

    As we know from scripture in Genesis, Nimrod was a great hunter in opposition to God, he constructed many impressive cities, diverted the great river in the near east and built the ziggurat a structure meant to serve as a monument to human rebellion against God. Nimrod with the assistance of his wife/mother created a cult of worship around Nimrod and Satan was highly involved. Nimrods crimes were eventually addressed by a tribunal or righteous men (some believe that one of Noah’s sons Shem organized the trial), and according to Hyslops two Babylon’s Nimrod was executed and dismembered, the pieces of his body sent to all of his principal cities.

    God according to scripture (Genesis 10) also confused the languages and the division disrupted Satan/Nimrod’s grand works. Nimrods mother quickly created a rebirth myth citing that her son had survived his unfair execution and was reborn through the impregnating holy rays of the sun as a conqueror and was born of his mother/wife as a divine birth occurring on December 25. This perpetuated myth was then carried with the groups of followers of (which God confused their languages) all across the globe. This is why the myth of the God who died and yet lived, reborn of the sun without male female intercourse is found in many cultural myths (Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis and Attis, Dionysus spring instantly to mind).

    In reality, Nimrod’s mother gave birth to another son she named Tammuz not of supernatural means. She declared herself a goddess and provided proof of her divinity by creating a rabbit (common Pagan symbol of fertility) that could lay eggs. Pagan priests would reenact the Tammuz creation myth by ritually impregnating temple priestesses and would ritually murder the infant born during the winter equinox (December) and would take eggs and roll them in the infant’s blood. This incidentally is why I excuse myself from invitations to paint Easter eggs on Easter which is also the other name given to Nimrods mother/goddess.
    Tammuz would later on be killed while hunting a wild pig. Nimrods mother added another feature to her cultic practices which involved ritually killing pigs and weeping and fasting for 40 days in order to commemorate his death. Truly devoted Tammus worshipers would forego one earthly pleasure during this time so that Tammuz could enjoy it in the afterlife Incidentally, pork according to some Hebrew scholars was considered unclean mainly because this was an important ritual food consumed by pagan nations under Satanic control and Weeping for Tammuz was an abominable practice that even occurred in Israel during its apostacy (Ezekiel 8:14).

    Trees and sacred worship of tress was also considered an expression of Nimrod worship as well as placing ornamental balls on the tree (Hyslop’s Two Babylon’s). These were understood to represent Nimrods genitals and the tree was an erect penis from a heaven looking downward vantage point. This is important because Nimrod was dismembered (in contrast Jesus was not to have broken bones) but his genitals were not recovered by his devotees. Each aspect of the worship was designed to offend God and show solidarity for his enemy Nimrod the rebel and (according to a fair number of scholars) an Antichrist prototype.

    Another problem with the December 25th date is that it does not correspond to any known festival or High Holy Day on the Hebraic calendar which would be very odd considering the fact that the exact timing of the arrival of the messiah was given in advance to the prophets and common knowledge to the people of Israel. This spawned a number of false Messiah’s during Jesus time which took advantage of the preordained timing of the Messiah’s appearance according to Josephus and other contemporary scholars.

    It is also interesting that the practice of making children pass through fire was alluding to the cult of Molech/Baal/Nimrod in which children were placed in the outstretched arms or “Lap” of the bronze fire heated idol of the deity. Adults would then ask for favors from Molech as incense and music covered the screams of the infants and distressing odor of their flesh burning. Molech is also known as Saturn and Nimrod Kronos, and Baal according to scholars and was likely the God that the Israelites offered through fire Amos 5:21-26 (symbolically and literally). Christmas which is often connected with December 25th is also translated “Cristes Maesse” in early English meaning mass of Christ or literally death or killing of Christ on December 25th a term rejected by Protestants and Lutherans and other denominations. There are some references concerning the term below.

    01. World Book Encyclopedia, vol.3, p. 408, 1986 ed., World Book Inc., Chicago, IL
    02. The Catholic Encyclopedia, R.C. Broderick, 1975 ed., Nihil Obstat, Richard J. Sklba, Censor Librorum. Imprimatur, Archbishop William E. Cousins, Milwaukee, WI.
    03. The Mass In Slow Motion, Ronald Knox, 1948, Sheed & Ward, Inc., New York, NY. Nihil Obstat, E.C. Messenger, Censor Deputatus. Imprimatur, E. Morrogh Bernard, Vic. Gen

    So, I am in agreement with many occultic religions that claim prior ownership to the significance of December 25th as an important day relating to their deities as there is a great deal of evidence that this date predated Christianity in importance. The relevance it “allegedly” has to Christianity I think is something that each Christian should research and reflect on.
    https://listverse.com/2009/04/13/10-christ-like-figures-who-pre-date-jesus/

  14. Ted R (Bible Student) says:

    Matthew 9:20 Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. 21 She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
    22 Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
    What was the significance of touching the fringe of his cloak?
    https://weekly.israelbiblecenter.com/the-fringe-of-his-garment/?via=dab9dc4

  15. TedR says:

    Is Christmas a Pagan Holiday
    Interesting insight from the Israel Bible Center
    https://weekly.israelbiblecenter.com/christmas-pagan-holiday/?via=e1ad811

  16. Ted R (Bible Student) says:

    In my studies of the early Church I came across this on YouTube!
    History of Christianity: Early Christian Worship
    https://youtu.be/fw56BWL2cn4
    Very interesting and enlightening thoughts!

    • jacqueline says:

      TedR, I should just say thank you so much for this link and leave it but I won’t, I can’t! This is information that you don’t see.
      I for one can’t understand Revelation without going back to the Jewish old testament.

      Meeting together to study in small groups is so nice, we learn a lot from being able to go back and forth and read entire chapters, not just the one verse wonder I call it.
      Some don’t understand small group study, they have the mind think that you have to be in a congregation of 115 or more and pay for a building or build one.
      That is okay if it is what they need in their spiritual walk, but it is fine with God and Jesus if we meet in small groups to study and not have to rush through a book or stay in a book until everybody gets it. Get what the writer of the book sees.

      I am still listening to this and enjoying it and recognizing that Jesus was a Jew. And his groups weren’t really big until the huge Church systems came about with it’s paid clergy.

  17. jacqueline says:

    In an early interaction, God told Moses that He will send his angel to guide Israel along the way. The people of Israel were warned not to disobey God’s messenger, because he would not forgive their transgressions. (Ex. 23:21)

    Moses approached God with a very bold request indeed; He asked for God to personally accompany Israel instead, refusing to move anywhere without His own personal presence. Why did Moses take the risk of challenging God? Why did he think that the original arrangement would not work?

    In the end of incredible experience of seeing the back of God, hearing the words that described his fundamentally gracious and forgiving nature (Ex.34:6), Moses disclosed his real reason: “If I have gained Your favor… let the Adonai go in our midst, because this is a stiff-necked people. Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your own!” (Ex.34:9)

    In other words, God should go with Israel and forgive them, precisely because they are stiff-necked people! Since God already said that angel would not forgive Israel if they rebel against him (Ex.23:21), Moses knew that his only hope was to persuade God Himself to come instead. While being hidden in the cleft of the Rock, Moses understood that YHWH (unlike His angel) was able to forgive “iniquity, transgression, and sin” (Ex.34:7). It was a match made in heaven: Israel had sins, YHWH had forgiveness.

  18. jacqueline says:

    By Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg

    Two Gospels record a meeting between Judean Jesus and a Greek woman (Mk.7:24-29; Matt.15:21-28). Jesus goes to Tyre and Sidon (allotment territory of the tribe of Asher that was never fully taken over by Israelite). There he meets a desperate mother willing to do anything for her suffering child: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely tormented by a demon.” (Mat. 15:21-22)

    As we continue reading we see that Jesus first gave her the silent treatment. Then, when his Jewish disciples demanded he answer her, he responded: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” However, the woman was relentless. “She came, knelt before him, and said, “Lord, help me!” He answered her: “It isn’t right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” (Mat. 15:23-26)

    The most offensive statement, of course, has to do with Jesus’ comparison of Greek Gentiles to dogs. The key to understanding this text is found in realization that only in the modern Western world dogs are thought to be part of the family. Dogs (often) live inside and not outside of the family home, but it was not so in the ancient times in the East. In other words, the comparison to dogs was not meant to dehumanize the Greek woman but to emphasize that Jesus’ primary mission was to Israel – to those inside of God’s family, not outside of it.

    Understood this way, we see that there was nothing dehumanizing in Jesus’ response. It is no different from what Apostle Paul would later write: “…the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.” In spite of some misunderstood statements about his seeming disregard for the physical family, Jesus here says – family first!

    But what made Jesus act differently towards her now? Clearly it was her response: “Yes, Lord,” she said, “yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus replied to her, “Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want.” (Matthew 15:27-28)

    This Sidonian woman displayed the true faith of Israel exemplified in the Torah by both Abraham and Moses. Just like them, she was willing to argue with God, believing with unwavering faith that He is just, good, and merciful.

  19. Rene says:

    We need to understand that everything that is written in scripture is there for a reason. The conversation that Jesus had with his mother is very controversial and it has been altered from the original account in John to accommodate Christian aversion to believing that Jesus was disrespectful in the way in which he spoke to his mother.

    I think that Jesus was not only respectful of his mother but was also assertive as an adult who viewed God as his head in perfect balance. In the account in John speaking of the wedding feast at John 2:1 there is an indication that this was an Orthodox Jewish festival as evident from the water purification jars that Jesus instructed the attendants to fill with water and draw water from. This is an important point to mention because there was likely a pharisee presiding over the ceremony and it would have fallen to him first to see to the needs of the guests. Jesus made mention of the fact that the Pharisees in his day liked the prominence of their position but did not like to do the real work involved in shepherding the flock.

    A historian well versed in Jewish customs brought to my and others’ attention that Jesus was likely pointing out to his mother that he was simply a guest and was not immediately responsible for providing additional wine to the attendees of the feast. Since Jesus’ mother was in a supervisory capacity it was more appropriate that she go first to the head of the feast whose job it was to see to (or buy himself) the things needed for the guest and it was not disrespectful for Jesus to point this out.

    Jesus also mentioned that his time had not yet come and I interpreted this to mean that he was recognizing the limits of his authority and even in this small situation did not assume control that had not been expressly given him.

    When Jesus did make the decision to assist, it was likely because he had been given leave to by the spirit that resided in him to direct the spirit to miraculously provide what was needed at the feast but only with God’s permission to do so. Jesus was obedient to God and respectful of his parents in all things and understanding why he responded the way that he did is important because it illustrated his willingness to wait on God in all things.

    Another interesting point about the feast. The water jars that were used to make the wine, were purification jars. The Pharisees believed in ritual handwashing to an obsessive degree and the jars themselves would be considered impure. God did not require this of his people, but the Pharisees created laws designed to honor the Pharisees and magnify not God’s power but their own when people were forced to obey them. If the Pharisees knew that they were drinking wine from those purification jars they would have spit out the wine believing it to be unclean even though God had created this miracle and nothing unclean could come from him. God was demonstrating through this miracle a clarification of what he required and what could be ignored of the doctrines of men.

  20. jacqueline says:

    Rene, you shared with us how your Jewish friend explained Jesus’ encounter with his mother at the marriage feast.
    Would you like to share it with us, please?

    Lee Anthony has a Jewish perspective also on some scriptures.

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