My mother was incredibly distressed when I added Christian theology to my Jewish lifestyle. I wrote this essay in December of 1997 to explain my thinking. It did not help.
When adding the essay to my website I made one change. The phrase Hebrew Christian is now the best phrase for a Jewish person who also has Christian theology. The original version of the essay used the phrase Messianic Jew which is now more properly used only to describe people who belong to an organization named the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America.
Table of Contents
In this essay I have three goals. I hope to establish some precise vocabulary that will be useful for this and future discussions. With this new vocabulary I hope to explain my faith so it becomes understandable: I do not argue whether it is truth, but instead whether it makes enough sense that it might be truth. I also provide some history.
This essay is an "apology" in the Christian sense of the word: I attempt to explain how my faith is possible; specifically, how I can claim to both be Jewish and believe in Jesus. I do not prove God exists. I do not prove Jesus is the messiah. I am writing to my mother (keeping in mind I will later share this essay with others), to try to clear up the many misunderstandings: to explain how my faith can be, not why it must be.
A traditional part of the introduction to an apology is a bit of explanation for why the author chose to use a certain translation or translations of scripture.
In this essay I include many quotations from scripture, especially from the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy). I do not assume that you, reader, believe that scripture is truth. I include the quotations for two reasons.
The first reason is that some of the quotations help explain an idea. The first quotation I use (the story of Peter trying to walk on water) is of this type. It does not matter if you or I believe this actually happened. The story helps me make a point.
The second reason is that the Torah is foundational to Judaism—both Rabbinical Judaism and Hebrew Christianity. Part of my responsibility when explaining my faith is to defend why it deserves to use the word "Judaism": to show it is indeed based on Jewish scripture prompting Jewish people to form Jewish congregations.
I will use the New American Standard translation of scripture because it is very much a word-for-word translation of the Hebrew and Greek with a small and precise vocabulary. That is, different occurrences of a Hebrew or Greek word are not given varied English translations so the English phrases would each read more smoothly. For example, the Hebrew word chatta'ah is translated "sin" consistently, not sometimes as "sin" and sometimes as "wrongdoing" and sometimes as "violation of commandments" and so on.
Why is this advantageous? Too much of Christendom is based on man-made traditions instead of God-made truth. If I can suspend from my mind how society uses religious language, then the New American Standard version lets me see when doctrine is based on traditional interpretations instead of what the text actually says. For example, society uses the word "glorify" to mean "praise", but the gospel of John uses the words "glory" and "glorify" with a completely different meaning. This essay includes a chapter comparing the meanings of "sin" and "iniquity", and so I need to use a translation with correspondence between the English and the Hebrew or Greek.
I will start with a story. Pretend that Bobby has a pet tarantula. This tarantula is harmless. It's one of those types that never bites. Even if it did, it's poison would not threaten anything larger than a mouse. Bobby likes holding the tarantula. It feels neat. Bobby wants his friend, Andy, to hold the tarantula. But Andy is afraid of spiders—even little ones—and really, really, does not want to hold the tarantula. Even though Andy trusts Bobby, and even though Andy has watched Bobby hold the tarantula a gazillion times without ever getting bit, Andy still refuses to hold the tarantula.
Andy may intellectually agree that holding Bobby's pet tarantula is safe, but he is still afraid to hold it. I am going to define some picky vocabulary now, and say that Andy does not believe it is safe. He agrees it is safe, but this agreement does not extend beyond theory to action. Some people would phrase this distinction "it is true for his mind but not for his heart."
The story of Peter's attempt to walk on water is another illustration of what I mean by belief.
And in the fourth watch [3am to 6am] of the night He came to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were frightened, saying "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear.
But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid."
And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."
And He said, "Come!"
And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!".
And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
-Matthew 25:31
Let me ask a rhetorical question: why, in the story, did Jesus say "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Peter's intellectual faith in Jesus was strong—Jesus was in front of him standing on water! What Peter was lacking was not intellectual agreement but belief. Even though he was following a command of Jesus, even though he was able to walk on water, Peter still did not trust that he was safe. There was a storm, and once he let fear displace the faith in his heart then he began to sink.
In this essay I will use the word believers to describe the people who actually have a relationship with Jesus. In contrast, I will use the word Christendom to refer to the collection of all people, past and present, who call themselves "Christian" or "followers of Jesus" or some such, but were or are not believers. For the remainder of this essay I will (except for in one paragraph) avoid using the word Christian, since it is ambiguous.
I have in mind the belief I just discussed when I choose the word believers. Someone may intellectually agree that Jesus is the messiah, but if that person's faith is only intellectual agreement then that person does not yet have a relationship with Jesus. Once you meet Jesus you do believe; maybe not always (as with Peter), but sometimes, and more often and more intensely as the relationship grows.
The distinction between Christendom and believers is important. Most people in Christendom were not (or are not) believers. Institutionalized churches were and are largely responsible for this, but there is also human nature to fault. You don't need the friend who has a pet tarantula to think of times when something you intellectually agreed with should have given you belief, but did not.
Today the distinction between Christendom and believers is often quite visible. A believer is more interested in the spiritual than the political. Believers see themselves more as citizens of the kingdom of heaven than of the country they live in. In contrast, within Christendom the desire for the U.S. to be a "Christian nation" is dominant and donations support lobbyists in Washington more often than the poor and needy.
Jesus prayed that his followers would be "in the world but not of the world" (John 17:13-21), and when he sent them to proselytize he commanded them:
"And whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake off the dust of your feet."
-Matthew 10:14
Believers support missionaries who stay only where they are welcomed. Christendom supports missionaries who stay put when not wanted. (Sadly, belief does not guarantee tact. I know believers in the group "Jews for Jesus"—a group which, despite what media coverage may imply, is only a small subset of Hebrew Christians—who have no tact, but do leave when they are not welcomed. I also know Mormons who are very polite but refuse to stop visiting.)
History, so far as I know, gives no reason to doubt that whenever Jews (or others) have been persecuted "in Jesus's name" that the persecution was done by Christendom, not by believers.
In the Torah, the word for "sin" is chatta'ah (or sometimes chata'). Chatta'ah almost always refers to an action. Only one of the Ten Commandments is about intent instead of action. Chatta'ah is also very legalistic. Wrong actions would "count as sin". There were even actions which could "count as sin" not as the act happened, but at the time someone felt the wrongness.
"Beware, lest there is a base thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of remission is near,' and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the Lord against you, and it will be a sin in you."
-Deuteronomy 15:9
"You shall give him his wages on his day before the sun sets, for he is poor and sets his heart on it; so that he may not cry against you to the Lord and it become sin in you."
-Deuteronomy 24:15
With respect to sin, an ancient Israelite was in one of two states. Either he or she had not broken a commandment since the last time he or she offered the appropriate atoning sacrifice, and was in a state of no sin, or he or she had broken a commandment, was in a state of sin, and needed to go offer another atoning sacrifice.
Because sin was so much about actions, and sin could be atoned for, it was possible for an ancient Israelite to follow the law completely. In other words, the expectation was for the ancient Israelites to normally be in a state of no sin.
"For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it."
-Deuteronomy 30:11-14
This is quite a different issue than holiness. Just because an ancient Israelite was in a state of no sin did not mean that his or her heart (temperament, disposition, habits) was godly. The word "iniquity" ('avon in Hebrew) is used to express how a human heart is not holy—not set apart, not perfect, not godly.
The Torah speaks of a "sin offering" but never an offering to remove iniquity. The Torah speaks of "bearing iniquity" but never "bearing sin". They are clearly quite different concepts, even though our modern English has improperly slurred them together.
Isaiah taught that iniquity puts a wall between a person and God, and sin prevents prayers from being answered.
Behold, the Lord's hand is not so short / That it cannot save;
Neither is His ear so dull / That it cannot hear.
But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.-Isaiah 59:1-2
"Bring your worthless offerings no longer,
Incense is an abomination to Me.
New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies—
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me.
I am weary of bearing them.
So when you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you,
Yes, even though you multiply prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are covered with blood."-Isaiah 1:13-15
This is consistent with the Jewish idea that people are not fit for God's presence. They are not holy enough to survive the holiness of God, because of their iniquity.
But He said, "You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!"
-Exodus 33:20
In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said,
"Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory."And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said,
"Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven."
-Isaiah 6:1-7
The Torah mentions sin about three times as often as it mentions iniquity, for in the Torah the laws are put forth, and the laws deal primarily with sin. The prophets mention iniquity and sin about equally (iniquity is actually mentioned slightly more often than sin), for the prophets call the Israelites back to godliness, and proclaim that with repentance God is willing to forgive both iniquity and sin, even as Moses prayed after replacing the tablets of the Ten Commandments:
"Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin."
-Jeremiah 36:3
And Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. And he said, "If now I have found favor in Thy sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate; and do Thou pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Thine own possession."
-Exodus 34:8-9
Despite this difference in form and function between sin and iniquity, Christendom incorrectly uses the word "sin" for both. To the mind of someone within Christendom, this blurring of sin and iniquity does not matter, for the suffering servant of whom Isaiah foretold suffers for both our sins and our iniquities
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.-Isaiah 53:5-6
and in the new covenant that Jeremiah foretold, both sins and iniquities are no longer remembered.
"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
-Jeremiah 31:33-34
However, to the Jewish mind the distinction between sin and iniquity is important. Traditional Judaism has a strong focus on sin, instead of iniquity. Traditional Christianity has a strong focus on iniquity, instead of sin. Since the word "sin" is normally used for both sin and iniquity, no wonder confusion abounds when Jews and Christians discuss theology.
For example, this resolves the "original sin" issue. Christendom believes in "original sin". Judaism believes people are made in God's image. What's up? Well, let us examine "original sin" with the distinction between sin and iniquity in mind. It would not make sense for someone to be born sinful—to be somehow responsible for violating a commandment while in the womb and thus, as a newborn, be expected do a sin offering. However, people are born with a large dose of iniquity: children need to be taught to share, to speak nicely, and so on. For a believer, "original sin" means that people are born with iniquity—they are not naturally fit for God's presence; it does not mean that people are somehow naturally evil or deserving punishment, or that newborns are responsible for having violated the commandments.
For another example, Judaism accepts that people could, in theory, lead a "sinless" life, and is willing to ponder if Noah or Daniel or Job did so. Christendom, on the other hand, asserts that "all people are sinful". Again these beliefs are not actually opposing. The Jewish view is about sin. People could live without violating any commandments. They might get angry, but they would not murder. The Christian view is about iniquity. No one could live without ever getting angry.
Who or what started this linguistic confusion? I cannot say for sure, but from what I have researched it seems like the blurring of sin and iniquity began with the Greek language. The Greek word hamartia is always translated "sin" in the New Testament, even though its context shows it can mean either sin or iniquity.
I should give one example of each context for hamartia, to be a responsible essayist. I can actually do so within one passage, even if this means the examples are not the very best. The story of "He who is without sin throw the first stone" is well known, but I'll retype it anyway since we are discussing grammar. (This passage does not appear in most of the old manuscripts, but that does not matter since we are discussing grammar instead of doctrine.)
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning He came again into the Temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. And the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?" And they were saying this, testing Him, in order that they might have grounds for accusing Him. [By Roman law the Jewish high court, the Sanhedrin, could no longer carry out capital punishment; this is why, later, Jesus is taken to the Roman official Pilate by the Sanhedrin, and was only crucified after Pilate agreed to it.]
But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
And when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she had been, in the midst. And straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?"
And she said, "No one, Lord."
And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more.
-John 8:1-11
The first use of the word "sin" is about iniquity. The story happened at the Temple, where sin offerings still were happening, and even if the Sadducees were running the Temple it seems unlikely that all the Pharisees present had violated the Mosaic Law since their last sin offerings. The second use of the word "sin" is about sin; keeping the commandments is possible for the woman, but having a heart free of iniquity is not.
Regardless of what historically happened, sin and iniquity have become confused—perhaps because Greek only has one word where Hebrew has two. But now I've pointed this out, and will be careful in my word choice later on.
The messiah has two roles to fulfill. The role best known to Rabbinical Judaism is that the messiah would rule the kingdom of heaven and conquer of all other nations.
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace,
On the throne of David and over his kingdom,
To establish it and uphold it with justice and righteousness
From then on and forevermore,
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.-Isaiah 9:6-7
"I kept looking in the night visions,
And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming,
And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him [God],
And to Him was given dominion,
Glory and a kingdom,
That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away;
And His kingdom is one
Which will not be destroyed."-Daniel 7:13-14
Yet it is the other role of the messiah, the suffering servant, which Isaiah describes with much more detail:
Behold, My servant will prosper,
He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted.
Just as many people were astonished at you, My people,
So His appearance was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men.
Thus He will sprinkle many nations,
Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him;
For what had not been told them they will see,
And what they had not heard they will understand.Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face,
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living,
For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?
His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.-Isaiah 52:13-15 and 53:1-12
Reform Judaism says this passage refers to Israel, or sometimes to "the messianic age". Yet Israel has not suffered silently, offered itself as a guilt offering, or been without violence. And if Israel is "he", who is "my people" that are mentioned twice? And what would "His generation" refer to, if "he" was Israel? The passage must refer to a person.
Notice that Isaiah must have believed that the messiah would return after suffering death to begin his governing role! The last stanza above indicates that the messiah would "see His offspring" and that God would "prolong His days" and "prosper His hand" after ("as a result of the anguish of His soul") the suffering, which would lead to death ("He poured out Himself to death"). Thus, Isaiah indirectly speaks of a messiah that returns after suffering death. Also, since Isaiah (in chapter nine, quoted earlier) calls the messiah "eternal" and says "there will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace", then Isaiah have thought that the governing role would begin only after the suffering role was completed.
In the ninth chapter of the book of Daniel we read a prophecy about when the messiah would come. (Note that because the book of Daniel was included in the Dead Sea Scrolls, we know it must have been written at least 100 years before Jesus's time.)
"So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks [sevens of years] and sixty-two weeks [sevens of years]; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.
-Daniel 9:25-26
The word traditionally translated "weeks" is shehvuim and actually means seven years. For example, it is used to mean seven years in Genesis 29:27-30 when Jacob worked for Laban for seven years then for Leah and seven more years for Rachel. The prophecy is thus saying that 69×7=483 years would pass between the rebuilding of the Temple after the Babylonian captivity and the messiah's arrival. Because the Hebrew calendar which Daniel referred to uses a 360 day year, while the calendar we use has a 365 day year, a correction of 5×483 = 2,515 days = 6.6 years must be made. The year the Temple was rebuilt is told in the second chapter of the book of Nehemiah: the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, which historians agree was 445 B.C.E. Moving forward the 483 years, then subtracting the correction of 6.6 years, and also remembering that (unlike the number line) the calendar has no year zero, we find the prophecy places the messiah's arrival during the year 33 C.E.: the year when Jesus was killed.
Furthermore, when the Temple was destroyed in 70 C.E. the genealogical records were destroyed. The messiah was prophesied to be a descendant of king David. Such a genealogy becomes impossible to prove after 70 C.E.
The Jews of Jesus's day knew Daniel's prophecy. No wonder so many believed: it was the right year. And after the destruction of the Temple, the Jews realized they could no longer prove genealogies. No wonder there was a surge of new believers in the year 70 C.E.: it was a sign that the messiah had already come.
So far we have seen that both the suffering servant role of the messiah and the year of the messiah's (first) arrival are clearly described the books of Isaiah and Daniel. These ideas were old ones centuries before Jesus lived. A third idea which is not often seen as a part of Judaism, but is clearly described in the book of Daniel, is the idea that there will be a day of resurrection and judgment followed by eternal life or eternal rejection.
The Old Testament teaches that souls go to Sheol after death. The last chapter of the book of Daniel has the only Old Testament reference to something happening after Sheol. The previous chapters of Daniel have prophesied about the final battles that happen before the day of judgment. That prophecy ends with a promise that after the judgment on earth, the souls in Sheol will be judged.
"Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt."
-Daniel 12:1-2
Thus the judgment of the dead and a resurrection for some to eternal life is not an invention of Jesus of his followers. It is a Jewish idea.
The seventh chapter of the book Second Maccabees (Jewish writing from between 134 B.C.E. and 63 B.C.E.) also mentions resurrection to a "new life" after death.
We saw in chapter three that it made sense that the early Hebrew Christians were expecting the messiah in the years that Jesus lived, and that the Jewish faith included ideas about resurrection after the day of judgment. The early Hebrew Christians did not invent that stuff.
But the question remains: were they bonkers? To most Rabbinical Jews, the answer is, "They must have been! There are too many contradictions in being Jewish and believing in Jesus!"
It is true that there are many apparent contradictions in "being Jewish and believing in Jesus". However, these are all resolvable misunderstandings. That these misunderstandings exist is not surprising: the Rabbinical Jew is trying to understand from an outsider's perspective a faith unfortunately overshadowed by Christendom in mainstream society. The key to resolving these apparent contradictions is understanding how a Hebrew Christian sees the kingdom of heaven.
The kingdom of heaven was the foundation of Jesus's teachings, and the topic he talked about most.
From that time [the start of his preaching] Jesus began to preach and say, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
-Matthew 4:17
And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
-Mark 1:14-15
But He said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose."
-Luke 4:43
So, what is the kingdom of heaven? Rabbinical Judaism believes it will be an earthly kingdom ruled by the messiah in an age of peace, under the new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah. (Within Christendom, the covenant of Sinai is called "the old covenant" and the covenant prophesied by Jeremiah is called "the new covenant", as if the older promise was disregarded because a more recent promise has been made. I call them "the covenant of Sinai" and "the covenant of Jeremiah", to avoid this implication.)
What creates confusion and misunderstanding is that Jesus did not establish an earthly kingdom. That is, he did not conquer the other nations and establish a government. The prophets proclaim this will happen, but according to believers it will happen with a "second coming" of Jesus, just before the Day of Judgment. Until that time the kingdom of heaven is not an earthly kingdom.
So, what kind of kingdom is it?
The kingdom of heaven is a fulfillment of the kingdom of the ancient Israelites. The institutions of the Torah all foreshadow similar things in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus explained this at the beginning of the sermon on the mount.
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill."
-Matthew 4:17
Jesus was not saying that no changes would happen. Indeed, most of the sermon on the mount was extending the commandments' expectations, redefining holiness as freedom from iniquity instead of as freedom from sin.
Jesus next said that the Law—although fulfilled and extended—is still valid for the Jewish people (the audience of the sermon on the mount was Jewish).
"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
-Matthew 4:18-19
The descendants of Jacob remain a nation set apart. Jesus and the early believers were Jews and kept the commandments.
I will try to explain some ways the Torah's teachings have been fulfilled, and then provide a summary. If I am a successful essayist, the summary will be a concise retelling of what Messianic Jews believe that finally is understandable.
Before I begin, I should mention that all believers agree with these fulfillments. (Well, at least believers with enough knowledge of scripture to be aware of these fulfillments. Sadly, many are ignorant.) This theology is not something Hebrew Christians invented in an effort to make Christianity look more Jewish, but the accepted foundation of belief in Jesus. How surprised I was when I first began to spend time with believers—they talked about Passover more than anyone else I knew!
The kingdom of heaven is where the covenant of Jeremiah is fulfilled. This covenant describes God instituting a new type of relationship with people. In this new relationship, God's Spirit is with each believer to teach and to augment the conscience, and sin and iniquity no longer separate believers from God.
"In those days they will not say again, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' But everyone will die for his own iniquity; each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the Lord. "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
-Jeremiah 31:29-34
Under the covenant of Sinai, the ancient Israelites came to God at the Temple. With Temple sacrifices they were restored to right standing with God.
Under the covenant of Jeremiah, Jesus fulfills the role previously played by the Temple. Believers are put into right standing with God by belief in Jesus, and believers come to God directly through the work of God's Spirit.
The idea of righteousness coming through faith began in Genesis. The early Hebrew Christians did not invent the idea that belief could bring righteousness.
And Abram said, "Since Thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir." Then, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying "This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir." And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them" And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
-Genesis 15:3-6
Jesus did claim that his presence was like that of the Temple. He asserted that the disciples with him could work to eat on the Sabbath, as priests in the Temple are allowed to do, because he was similar to the Temple but greater than it.
At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grainfields, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Behold, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath."
But He said to them, "Have you not read...in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath, and are innocent? But I say to you, that something greater than the temple is here."
-Matthew 12:1-3, 5-6
Within the Temple was a veil (a heavy, thick curtain) that separated the chambers where the priests worked from an inner chamber called the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was where God dwelt. The priests could not enter this chamber; if they did, the presence of God would kill them. Once a year, on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), the High Priest was instructed to enter the Holy of Holies. This required extensive preparation with ritualistic cleansing. (Leviticus 16:1-14) The High Priest entered with a thick cloud of incense smoke so he would not be killed by the sight of God. (Leviticus 16:13) When Jesus died, the veil was torn in two from top to bottom. (Matthew 27:51) This symbolized the ending of the special role played by the veil and the Holy of Holies. In the kingdom of heaven, believers always are in God's presence. The veil symbolized Jesus' body, for it was Jesus's death that signaled the start of the covenant of Jeremiah.
The veil was not the only part of the Temple that foreshadowed events in Jesus's life and his role as messiah. The twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus contains many instructions for building the artifacts of the Temple. Three of these artifacts also point to Jesus's life and role as messiah.
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Light symbolizing God's continuity, God's role as creator, and knowledge... |
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The necessity of Jesus's death to complete his role as the suffering servant is troublesome to many Rabbinical Jews. One reason is that Rabbinical Judaism has emphasized that the story of Issac (Genesis, chapter 22) is a prohibition human sacrifice; this emphasis neglects that the story also foreshadows the sacrifice of Jesus, God's son, on the very same mountain. A second reason is that Rabbinical Judaism has adopted the non-scriptural theology of Tikkut Olam: good works can earn salvation. The Torah, on the other hand, is quite clear that blood is always necessary for the forgiveness of sins.
"And you shall make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar shall be square, and its height shall be three cubits...For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of life that makes atonement."
-Exodus 27:1, Leviticus 17:11
Under the covenant of Sinai, the ancient Israelites had a relationship with God that consisted of following commandments. Because iniquity separated them from God even when they had atoned for their sins, this was the most intimate relationship possible with God. Under the covenant of Jeremiah, however, Jesus bears both the sins and iniquities of those who believe in him. Since they are freed from their iniquity by their faith, believers can have an actual relationship with God. This is how Jesus has replaced the Temple in the kingdom of heaven.
The ancient Israelites tried to be holy by focusing on God in the midst of worldly life. For them, holiness came by keeping the commandments and avoiding sin. In the kingdom of heaven, the focus is still on God in the midst of worldly life, but now God plays a very different role in the life of a believer. It is not sufficient to keep the commandments and avoid sin. Holiness now comes by the direct work of God removing iniquity in the believer's heart. For a Jew, keeping those commandments which we still can after the destruction of the Temple is important, but salvation is in the new relationship with God made possible by how Jesus replaces the Temple.
Believers follow God in ways only possible because they have a real relationship with God. Prayer is not just expressing hopes and pleas. In the kingdom of heaven, prayer begins with the believer offering gifts of praise and confessing sins and iniquities. Then God responds by removing temptations and iniquities from the believer's heart. (Sometimes other things happen: God may grant healing, or a sense of peace or joy, or God may further instruct the believer in how to carry out God's plan for that believer's life. But the exchange of prayer for character cleansing is the most foundational part of a believer's prayer.)
Although believers may still have iniquity and may still commit sins, an important part of their relationship with God is that God does this work of cleansing. The gospels call this becoming "perfect" or "complete": having all iniquity removed and abounding in virtues. The Mosaic Law tells how to be without sin. But by following Jesus you enter into a relationship with God that permits the Spirit of God to make you "perfect".
"...if you wish to enter into [eternal] life, keep the commandments...if you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."
-Matthew 19:17, 21
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh...the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control...
-Galatians 5:16, 22-23
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness...but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.
-1 John 1:9, 2:5
Thus in the kingdom of heaven, not only are sins and iniquities forgiven, but they are also removed. This cleansing is not the source of salvation; it need not be finished before a believer dies. Rather, it is a sign that the believer is in an actual relationship with God.
This new relationship with God is given a name in the gospel of John: eternal life. Notice that eternal life is a state that believers are in.. It includes the promise of resurrection after the day of judgment, but it is actually much more than that. Christendom traditionally ignores all aspects of eternal life except for the promise of resurrection. By interpreting "eternal life" as a future type of life, instead of a changed type of life in the present, the members of Christendom can more easily overlook the fact that they are not in a new relationship with God that shows evidence of their being made "perfect". However, eternal life is "eternal" not in the sense that there will be a never-ending resurrected life. Eternal life is also "eternal" because its source is God's eternal Spirit. It is new "life" in the sense that a wilted plant that was planted in sand receives new "life" when replanted in soil.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."
-John 5:24
"And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent."
-John 17:3
The Passover offering, granting life to those it protected, and the bronze serpent that Moses held up on a standard to save the Israelites from the plague of serpents (Numbers 21:4-9) were two more things that foreshadowed Jesus's death and the eternal life it would bring.
The kingdom of God is also where the institution of family sees fulfillment. The ancient Israelites, although they followed God, could not have an actual relationship with God because of their iniquity. So the Torah's commandments used relationship with parents to substitute for an actual relationship with God. Rabbi Ishmael Bahodesh noted the correspondences.
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To an ancient Israelite, God was more important than family (for it was God who defined the importance of family), but it would make no sense to actually prioritize God above family since the relationships with God and with family were so different in nature.
To a believer, in the kingdom of heaven, the relationships are very similar. The analogy established in the Torah between honoring family and honoring God is still important. But it now makes sense for relationship with God to take priority over relationship with family when the two conflict. Jesus was not opposing "honor your father and mother" when he taught that following him will lead to strife between children and parents. He was saying that God must have the first priority in our lives, and warning that now it is possible for relationship with God to conflict with relationship to family.
Furthermore, the family is the model for the relationship between believers, who are all siblings through God's gift of eternal life, as parents give siblings the gift of the first life.
Another institution of the Torah which is fulfilled in the kingdom of heaven is the day of Shavuot. Fifty days after leaving Egypt, the ancient Israelites arrived at Sinai and entered into a new covenant with God. Judaism celebrates this day with the annual holiday (holy day) of Shavuot. Fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead, the early believers were in Jerusalem when "Pentecost" happened: the arrival of the kingdom of heaven and the covenant of Jeremiah (Acts, chapter 2). God's presence in fire above Sinai foreshadowed God's presence in each believer—indicated by small fires that appeared upon each of the believers at Pentecost.
The kingdom of heaven is also where community prayer reaches fulfillment. The ancient Israelites prayed in community. Jesus warned the Pharisees not to pray insincerely, and advised them to practice praying alone. This was not to devalue community prayer, but to emphasize that in the kingdom of heaven community prayer now involves each participant's individually meeting with God.
The kingdom of heaven is also where the prophecies about Gentiles coming to Jerusalem are fulfilled. Isaiah prophesied of a time when many Gentiles would wish to follow God.
And many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
That He may teach us concerning His ways,
And that we may walk in His paths."
For the law will go forth from Zion,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.-Isaiah 2:3
As an aside, this prophecy is another indication that Isaiah knew the messiah would come twice. As it is, the kingdom of heaven allows anyone who wishes to follow God to believe and to "walk in His paths" before the messiah assumes earthly rule of the kingdom of heaven and conquers all other nations. It would not make sense for the Gentiles to come to God once that conquest began (if the messiah only came once). Real belief is motivated by devotion, not a desire to avoid destruction.
Isaiah also prophesied that the messiah would bring peace. That peace is now within the kingdom of heaven, both within and between believers. Within believers, the peace includes the removal of the fear of death, the fearlessness given to believers by the certainty that God will judge justly on the day of judgment, and the comfort of having a real relationship with God. The peace is also between believers, Jew and Gentile. Much of Christendom is divided among denomination and racial lines. But this decade's revival (among others) has shown how those dividing lines loose their hostility when those in Christendom become believers. Hebrew Christians congregations are most often a nearly even mix of Jew and Gentile.
Later, at the day of judgment, that peace will be broadened to earthly peace after all other kingdoms are conquered.
Moses taught all of the Israelites, for they were the people of the covenant of Sinai. Jesus teaches those in the kingdom of heaven, Jew and Gentile, for they are the people of the covenant of Jeremiah. Moses called people to the Law, for at that time keeping the commandments was relationship with God. But Jesus called people to himself, for following Jesus is what opens the door to eternal life.
The kingdom of heaven is part of how God will bring about complete judgment. No longer is judgment a matter of enjoying a long and happy life or suffering a short and miserable life, as the Old Testament writers understood it to be.
"Now consider this, you who forget God,
Lest I [God] tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.
He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me;
And to whom who orders his way aright
I shall show the salvation of God."-Psalm 50:22-23
Instead, judgment happens to all people on the Day of judgment. The unsaved will perish, existing no more. Believers do not need to pray as king David did, asking when judgment will happen.
Why dost Thou stand afar off, O Lord?
Why dost Thou hide Thyself in times of trouble?
In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted;
Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised-Psalm 10:1-2
For, in the kingdom of heaven, judgment is certain to happen for all people.
"In those days and at time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth."
-Jeremiah 33:15
Rabbinical Judaism teaches its followers to resist evil, and does not understand how Jesus can teach believers to turn the other cheek and to love and pray for their enemies. It is possible to turn the other cheek, and to love and pray for enemies, because of the certainty of the future judgment. The believer's job is bringing others to know Jesus, and desiring revenge hinders this. The Torah teaches that vengeance belongs to God.
"Vengeance is Mine, and retribution"
-Deuteronomy 32:35
In the kingdom of heaven, in relationship with God, it is finally possible to live that way.
"And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear "Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell [Gehenna]."
-Matthew 10:28
I will conclude this chapter with a summary of what I have said so far.
The messiah came in the year Daniel prophesied. The messiah fulfilled the role of suffering servant that Isaiah prophesied. Fifty days later, at Pentecost, the spirit of God demonstrated the founding of the kingdom of heaven and the covenant of Jeremiah.
The early Hebrew Christians heard Jesus teach that in the kingdom of heaven holiness would require not only lack of sin but also lack of iniquity. After their spiritual rebirth into a new relationship with God, the early Hebrew Christians began to experience how God was removing iniquities from their lives. This was eternal life: the new relationship with God, which would lead to freedom from iniquity, holiness fit for God's presence.
They read in Daniel that, after judgment, souls in Sheol who were judged righteous would be resurrected. They saw Jesus's resurrection as God's promise of resurrection for all those with eternal life.
They understood that the institution of the family honored God, and also foreshadowed the spiritual family of believers. They formed congregations to honor God as a spiritual family. They saw the Gentiles coming to know God's ways, as Isaiah prophesied. They knew the messiah as Prince of Peace in this unprecedented peace among believers, and in the peace each felt internally.
The theology of the early Hebrew Christians makes sense. The kingdom of heaven can be experienced today.
At this point I have hopefully fulfilled by main objective: explaining my beliefs as a Hebrew Christians so that they make sense. However, two important questions remain: What is a Hebrew Christians, anyway? Are Hebrew Christians justified in calling themselves Jewish?
To answer these questions so that a reader not familiar with Rabbinical Judaism can understand, I must first review what Rabbinical and Scriptural Judaism are. And before I do that, I want to dispel some false stereotyping done by Christendom.
I will begin by discussing "pharisaic" behavior, which can plague any religion. A certain portion of the Jews of Jesus's day were pharisaic and misunderstandings or propaganda about these certain Jews have caused anti-Semitism in Christendom. That story should be told before I talk about Rabbinical, Scriptural, and Hebrew Christian Judaism.
In Jesus' day there were two main branches of Judaism. The Sadducees ran the Temple, and stressed the importance of Temple rituals. The Pharisees favored Moses over Aaron, and stressed the importance of following the commandments (other than Temple rituals). These two branches competed for power within what remained of the Jewish political scene under Roman control.
Judaism has a saying: "Build a fence around the Torah." What this means is to add man-made commandments to the Torah's commandments in a way that helps prevent the Torah's commandments from being broken. A man-made commandment "do not light any fire on the Sabbath" protects the Torah's commandment "do not light a fire in the home on the Sabbath". A man-made commandment "do not mix milk and meat" protects the Torah's commandment "do not boil a kid in its mother's milk".
Now, there is nothing wrong with building a fence around the Torah. However, the Pharisees whom the New Testament records Jesus arguing with had taken this too far. They had become fonder of the man-made commandments than the Torah's commandments, and had created some commandments that went contrary to some Torah commandments.
The gospel of Matthew records Jesus complaining about them:
"You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying:
'This people honors me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from me.
But in vain do they worship me,
Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'"-Matthew 15:8,9
Actually, Matthew quoted Isaiah incorrectly. The passage actually reads
"Because this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote..."-Isaiah 29:13
The point is still the same, though. The Pharisees that Jesus argued with had abandoned their relationship with God. Their energy and affections went to making new commandments and redefining "socially proper". Jesus wanted people to pay attention to God, not to legalism.
I doubt that all the Pharisees of Jesus's day acted in this manner: what we would today label as pharisaic (lower-case "p"). Most of the Jews mentioned in the gospels either ignored Jesus, listened to him but did not follow him, or ran around the countryside gathering sick friends and family to take to Jesus for healing. Anyway, the number of Pharisees who were actually pharisaic is not important. What is more important is that the gospels, although they have been used for anti-Semitic purposes, are only anti-pharisaic. And Christendom has certainly been as guilty of pharisaic behavior as any religious institution.
I should make a comment here for the sake of completeness. The gospel of John is anti-Semitic. John's story may (or may not) have had divine inspiration, but his editors certainly did not.
This [John, the person the previous verse is about] is the disciple who bears witness of these things, and wrote these things; and we know that his witness is true.
-John 21:24
I'm glad John "bears witness of these things, and wrote these things": his gospel has many details about Jewish customs which the other gospels lack, and he keeps track of chronology better as well. But whoever put together his writings into the text we have today probably was not Jewish (as John, and the other disciples were). The editors used "the Jews" where the other gospels use "the Pharisees" to describe the particular Jews who were antagonistic towards Jesus. If someone read only the gospel of John, that person would think that all the Jews of Jesus's day were antagonistic towards Jesus and plotting to kill him, and all Judaism of that day was pharisaic.
Enough of dispelling stereotypes. The remainder of this chapter will discuss Rabbinical Judaism and Scriptural Judaism, both of which need to be understood to understand Hebrew Christian history.
Most Jews today follow Rabbinical Judaism. Rabbinical Judaism had two founders. Neither of these men normally receive the recognition they deserve: they are not quoted when the great rabbis are discussed. I was never taught about either of them during my childhood Jewish education.
The first founder was Ezra. After the exiles returned from Babylon, in 444 B.C.E., Ezra compiled the Torah (five books of Moses) for the first time.
It was Ezra's firm conviction that what the Israelites needed most to preserve themselves as a religious entity and as a people was a body of Scriptural writings which would best represent the Mosaic and prophetic teachings. In order not to allow later alteration and distortion of the sacred text he wished to make it final, a closed cannon. Accordingly, he surrounded himself with a learned company of priests and scribes or soferim (singular, sofer) like himself. Among them were chroniclers, legal scholars, teachers of ethics, and generally men who were familiar with all manner of Jewish sacred writings, traditions, religious rites and ceremonies. They helped Ezra compile and edit the Torah, the Five Books of Moses. Collectively, these compilers and editors went under the name of the Men of the Great Assembly.
-Pictorial History of the Jewish People, pages 68-69
The book of Deuteronomy had been a written scroll for nearly 200 years, since Josiah discovered it.
In the year 619 B.C.E. a hitherto unknown "Book of Laws" was discovered in the Temple. While the traditional belief has been that it was the Pentateuch, modern scholars seem to be persuaded that it was but the Book of Deuteronomy. Josiah read it, and when he was through, he was filled with zeal for the reform of religious worship.
-Pictorial History of the Jewish People, page 64
But the books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers had been passed down orally until the work of Ezra.
The second founder was Yohanan ben Zakkai, who lived at the time of the destruction of the second Temple in 70 C.E.
The principal figure at hand, Yohanan ben Zakkai, described in rabbinical writings as Hillel's leading disciple, is represented as the master, the sage and rabbi, whose teachings guided Israel beyond the end [the destruction of the Temple]...Yohanan offered not hope of speedy redemption, but rather a conditional promise: just as punishment surely followed sin [the destruction of the Temple was seen as punishment for Israel relying on arms instead of God when resisting the Romans], so will redemption certainly follow repentance.
-Jacob Neusner, Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity, pages 89, 93, 94
Yohanan ben Zakkai developed and popularized the theology of Tikkut Olam: salvation comes by study of Torah and doing acts of kindness that help repair the broken human world.
Yohanan thought that through hesed [lovingkindness] the Jews might make atonement, and that the sacrifices now demanded of them were love and mercy...Yohanan emphasized the primacy of hesed itself in the redemptive process: Just as the Jews needed a redemptive act of compassion from God, so must they now act compassionately in order to make themselves worthy of it...The earlier age had stood on the books of the Torah, the Temple rites, and acts of piety. The new age would endure on the foundation of studying the Torah, doing the commandments, and especially performing acts of compassion.
-Jacob Neusner, Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity, pages 96-97
Ezra canonized the Pentateuch. Yohanan ben Zakkai established Tikkut Olam, which Judaism has kept as its responsibility and its supposed path to salvation. These two founders, and the other famous rabbis that followed them, established what it means to be Jewish without the Temple. Their successfulness is evident in that through nearly two thousand years of Diaspora, Judaism has split into very few divisions (Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox are the main ones, and there two or three others such as the Hassidic Jews). In that same time Christendom has usually held political power yet has split into a gazillion denominations.
The rabbinical writings which Rabbinical Judaism is based on have grown since the Temple was destroyed, and continue to grow today.
Rabbinical Judaism is, in general, not "pharisaic" in the sense of "hypocritical". Most rabbis do their best, based on what they know, to lead their life and their congregation as God would desire. However, Rabbinical Judaism is outside the kingdom of heaven and thus is "pharisaic" in the sense of "paying attention to rules more than to God". Christendom is also pharisaic in this sense, as is any faith of nonbelievers.
Older than and much different from modern Rabbinical Judaism is what I will label Scriptural Judaism: how the Torah told the Israelites to be Jewish. It is not a modern division of Judaism. There are no Scriptural Jewish congregations, as there are Rabbinically Jewish congregations and Hebrew Christian congregations.
The Judaism of Jesus's day was not Rabbinical Judaism. Some of the writings which Rabbinical Judaism is founded upon were used then, but most were written later.
The Judaism of Jesus's day was primarily about doing what the Torah told the Jewish people to do. The focus of the Jewish religion was the Temple and its rituals and sacrifices.
The Torah has certain commandments which are said to be "for all time" or "for all generations" but not specifically for the descendants of Aaron. To my knowledge, these are:
The Jewish people of Jesus's day followed these commandments and many others. But these commandments are special, because they are the commandments that would apply to a descendant of Jacob even if the Temple was destroyed (so the commandments about the Temple could not be followed), even if he or she was not living in Israel (so the commandments about the land of Israel could not be followed), even if he or she was living a non-agricultural lifestyle (so the commandments about farming could not be followed), and even if he or she were not living in a Jewish community (so the commandments about community life could not be followed).
God, as he told Moses the commandments that would establish community life and Temple worship for the people of Israel, foresaw the destruction of that community and its Temple, and labeled the commandments that could still be followed "for all time". The Torah ends with God making it quite clear that the Israelites would not obey the commandments and that God would then scatter them from the promised land.
And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them..."
-Deuteronomy 31:16-17
"Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you did not obey the Lord your God. And it shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all the people, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth..."
-Deuteronomy 28:62-64
So God, knowing this would happen, labeled certain commandments "for all time" or "for all generations" so that even in Babylonian captivity or in the twentieth century it would be clear what the Torah expects.
I will label someone who tries to follow the "for all time" and "for all generations" commandments Scripturally Jewish. Perhaps a person follows these commandments because that is how he or she understands part of his or her Jewish identity. Perhaps the person follows the commandments believing them to be the will of God. Perhaps the person thinks that the Torah is truth. The motivation is not part of how I use the term.
As an aside, the phrase "Biblically Jewish" is most widely used to refer to what I call "Scripturally Jewish", but I have met Jews who prefer not to use the word "Bible" to describe the Old Testament. For their sake I use the less widely used name.
All the Hebrew Christians I know are Scripturally Jewish. I do not want to claim that all Hebrew Christians are Scripturally Jewish, because perhaps some are not. But the ones I know try to follow God, and that includes following the commandments which Moses told the Jewish people to keep for all time.
Some Hebrew Christians also keep all the commandments of one of the branches of Rabbinical Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist). Usually this is done to facilitate friendships with Rabbinical Jews of that type. Other Messianic Jews keep some of these rabbinical commandments but not all. There is nothing wrong with keeping a fence around the Torah, as long as is not done in a pharisaic manner.
When I say I am a Hebrew Christian, part of what I mean is that I am Scripturally Jewish and Jewish by lineage. But I also have in mind three other things.
First, I have in mind an analogy comparing my faith to that of the Jews who lived before the covenant of Sinai. From Abraham's calling until the gathering at Sinai, being Jewish meant faith in God and having a relationship with God. I am Jewish by my faith in God and my relationship with God, aside from how the covenant of Sinai allows me to be Scripturally Jewish.
Second, I am [update: was in 1997] part of a Messianic Jewish congregation. It is a Jewish congregation because it is made of people, like myself, who are Scripturally Jewish and Jewish by lineage (there are also members who also keep the commandments of one of the branches of Rabbinical Judaism, and there are Gentiles who are members). Now, if you paid close attention you would have noticed my circular logic. Part of why I was Jewish was that I attended a Messianic Jewish congregation. Part of why the congregation is Jewish is that Scripturally and ancestrally Jewish people make up the majority of its membership. I apologize for this circularity, but feel a need to include both aspects. Some people consider primarily the identity of an individual as derived from his or her congregation, while other people consider primarily the identity of a congregation as derived from its membership. I want to make sense regardless of which makes more sense to you, the reader.
The third thing I have in mind—the final thing I mean by Hebrew Christian—is that I follow a faith established by Jews nearly two thousand years ago. Just as the Pharisees (all of them, not just the pharisaic ones) redefined Judaism, so did another group of Jews.
This other group of Jews was Jesus and his disciples. The book of Acts tells how a new subset of the Jewish community was established. These were the early Christians, the Hebrew Christians. They originally remained a part of the Jewish community, with strained but peaceful relations with other Jews, who labeled them heretical for believing the wrong person was messiah. Then many things happened...
The remainder of this chapter will be a short history. Part of the reason I am making the history short is that I want to present only undebated history. The debate (whether those early Christians were bonkers, or if their faith made sense, and if it made sense was it truth?) has already been discussed. (Thank you to Rabbi Jim Appel for providing me with much of information in this next, historical, section.)
The book of Acts, in chapters ten and eleven, tells how the early Christians eventually accepted Gentiles into their faith in the year 41 C.E..
In 132 C.E., Simeon bar Koziba led the last revolt against the Romans. The early Christians were part of the revolt until Rabbi Akiba declared that bar Koziba was the messiah. Since the early Christians could not accept this, they left the revolt. The non-Christian Jews felt betrayed and expelled the early Christians from the Jewish community. Those who did not merge with Gentile society became known as the Nazarenes.
In 196 C.E., in the council of Cesearea, Gentile Christians decreed that Resurrection Day would always be on a Sunday. The Jewish Christians of that time thought that Resurrection Day should be on the first day of Passover, not on a fixed day of the Gregorian week. By this time there already was tension between the Jewish and the Gentile Christians because of dietary laws and circumcision, and this decree caused the Jewish Christians to break away from Gentile Christianity.
The number of Hebrew Christians dwindled in the early fourth century. In 325 C.E. the council of Nicea repeated the decree that Resurrection Day must be on Sunday. Later, the council of Antioch decreed that anyone not celebrating Resurrection Day on Sunday would be excommunicated. The split between Hebrew Christians and Gentile Christians was made official.
During the next century Hebrew Christians faded away. Jewish believers still existed, but were taken into Gentile society. The idea that someone cannot be both Jewish and believe in Jesus had taken root; the misunderstandings that support it had been established. For the next 1,600 years, Jewish individuals who believed in Jesus joined Gentile churches. There seemed to be no other option.
In 1915, some Jewish believers in the U.S. founded the Hebrew Christian Alliance. By 1925, this organization had grown large enough to name itself the International Hebrew Christian Alliance. The members of this group, however, still attended Gentile churches.
In 1948 Israel again became a nation. In 1967 Israel captured Jerusalem during the Six Day War. Jesus had taught about the "times of the Gentiles"
"...and Jerusalem will be trampled under food by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."
-Luke 21:24
For the first time in nearly 2,000 years, the Jewish people again controlled Jerusalem. The "times of the Gentiles" had ended. That year Hebrew Christianity revived, and Christendom also began a revival to true belief.
The different Messianic Jewish congregations are part of a movement, not a denomination. They are not governed by a hierarchy or an organization, as denominations are. They are not defined by theology, as denominations are. (Thus my earlier cop-out, "I do not want to claim that all Hebrew Christians are Scripturally Jewish, because perhaps some are not".)
In 1967 the first Hebrew Christian congregation since the fourth century was started in Cincinnati. In the past thirty years, the movement has grown to include more than 400 congregations worldwide (with 200 in the U.S. and 40 in Israel) and more than 100,000 Jewish believers.
So the Messianic Judaism movement is about thirty years old. Hebrew Christians, however, have been around nearly 2,000 years. Although Rabbinical Judaism teaches that Judaism is continually defined by its people, Hebrew Christians teach that their faith was defined once, by Jesus.
When I was young I was taught that Christianity is an invention of Jesus's followers. I was taught that Jesus was a wandering Rabbi, who was killed by the Romans because they thought he was part of a revolt, and after his death his followers made up stories about him which eventually became the gospels and Christianity.
However, at the age of twenty-two, I found out that this childhood belief was not true. I read the writings of Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian born in 37 C.E., and of Tacitus, a Roman historian who lived around 100 C.E.. These men, with no love of Christianity, affirmed that Jesus worked miracles and founded Christianity.
[The high priest Ananus] convened the judges of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, and certain others.
-Josephus, Jewish Antiquities, Book XX. 200 (pp. 495, 497).
Now , there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, --- a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.
-Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII, III, 3
Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital [Rome] itself.
-Tacitus, The Annals, Book XV. 44 (Loeb edition, 1981, Vol. V, pg. 283)
Thus Christianity was not made up by the followers of Jesus. They might have altered his teachings, but Jesus had claimed to be whom the gospels say he claimed to be.
With my childhood belief proven false, I realized that I actually never had a belief about who Jesus was. I had only had a belief about who Jesus was not, and now even that was gone. I felt an obligation as a Jew and as a citizen of a country with a "Christian culture" to research some new idea about who Jesus really was.
Yet research did not provide any new information that I could trust. (Naturally, I did not trust the ancient Christian authors' views about Jesus.) The only conclusion research provided for me was that Jesus did exist, did do miracles, and did die by crucifixion. Study was insufficient—indeed, impotent—for deciding if Jesus was actually the messiah, the anointed one who brings salvation.
So I prayed. I asked Jesus, if he existed, to come into my life.
It seemed to me that if Jesus was who the gospels say he claimed to be, then it was appropriate for Jesus to initiate my faith in him. Christianity is not about whether Christians or atheists are better at rational argument. Christianity is not about whether the Bible is true. Christianity is about whether Jesus is the messiah. If Jesus was the risen messiah, he should be able to tell me so. And if Christianity was not true, my prayer would be meaningless and do no harm.
Naturally, I did not expect the prayer to be answered. That kind of thing doesn't happen, right? Nor did I want it answered: I was Jewish, and believing in Jesus would cause all sorts of trouble with my family and friends. (At that time I had not heard of Hebrew Christians or Messianic Jewish congregations.)
But that prayer was answered in a powerful way. I could no longer doubt that Jesus was who the gospels say he claimed to be.
I could still doubt that most people, historically and today, who call themselves "Christians" actually had or have a relationship with Jesus. I could still doubt that the Bible was true. But I could not doubt Jesus. (But that is another story.)
I write this apology with the hope of explaining what Messianic Judaism is so that a Rabbinical Jew, such as my mother, would realize that he or she only has beliefs about who Jesus was not. It is not my place to attempt to prove who Jesus was: I heard that attempted often enough before my change of faith without ever being convinced, and doubt it is really possible. Perhaps there are historical sources that I do not know about which would be convincing to a person who does not believe that scripture is truth. Perhaps. But prayer seems much more direct and effective.
Thus my story, at the time I write this, ends with my influence on you, the reader. If you have no belief about who Jesus was, instead having only beliefs about who Jesus is not, then I hope this essay has caused you to begin to wonder. The issue is a serious one.
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."
-John 14:6
"...he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me."
-Luke 10:16
In conclusion, I have one bit of advice to offer anyone who is considering becoming a believer. Please know that I was fortunate in having my prayer for Jesus to come into my life so immediately and powerfully answered. I know of others who made the same prayer and have not yet received any answer.
I believe that God has shown me one reason my prayer was answered as it was. My bit of advice is sharing this reason, so that when you decide to make your prayer you may receive your answer sooner.
Scriptures tell us that we cannot perceive and cannot understand God completely (for example, Exodus 33:18-23). Since this is true, there are two alternatives. We can try to perceive all of God indistinctly, as seeing a person seen through fog allows a blurry image of the person's entire form. Or we can try to perceive parts of God clearly, as the spyhole in a home's front door allows you to see clearly a small portion of whoever is at the door.
My advice is to shun the fog and use the doorway spyhole when thinking about and praying to God. Throughout the Torah it quite clear that while some of God's nature is hidden from our view, we should be devoted to the part we can know clearly, without mixing in devotion to foggy conjectures.
If you pray that Jesus would come into your life, be sure you are inviting the divine Jesus and not merely the man, Jesus. And be sure to invite the aspects of who Jesus is and what He did which you understand clearly. Any theology you are foggy about should be thrown away for the moment; after you have entered into the new relationship of eternal life there will be time enough, and guidance enough by the Holy Spirit, to discern and bring back those parts that are truth.