Posted on 03/24/2005 5:47:34 PM PST by Crackingham
Passover and Easter are upon us, and so is a book with a fascinating title and audacious subtitle: David Klinghoffer's "Why the Jews Rejected Jesus: The Turning Point in Western History" (Doubleday, 2005).
On the title's crucial theological point: Klinghoffer, an orthodox Jew, rightly takes to task the "well-meaning Christian" seeking to improve Jewish-Christian relations by saying that Jesus' teaching was very close to that of the rabbis of the time. He also jumps past "New Perspective on Paul" theologians who do not find "substantial points of disagreement between Jesus and his contemporaries."
Both groups err, the author notes, by not taking into full account the doctrine of the "oral Torah" that was sweeping through Judaism 2,000 years ago: "What Jesus rejected was the oral Torah that explains the written Torah. Essential to rabbinic Judaism, this concept of an oral Torah recognizes the Pentateuch as a cryptic document, a coded text. It posits that the Bible's first five books were revealed to Moses along with a key to unlock the code." That key was purportedly passed on orally throughout the generations.
Christians today learn that the New Testament explains certain previously mysterious Old Testament passages; proponents of the "oral Torah" (written down as the Talmud) claimed the same for their teaching. Jesus said, in essence, sola scriptura, the Bible alone: He allowed his followers to pluck grain on the Sabbath, which was perfectly fine according to the Bible but wrong according to the code. The code said that Jews should not wash their faces on fast days, but Jesus taught the opposite.
As Klinghoffer notes, "For Jesus, oral Torah was a manmade accretion without transcendent authority. He tells a group of Pharisees, 'So for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God.' ... This explains why he felt it was appropriate to teach solely on his own authority, rather than by citing previous sages." Some Christians today believe they have figured out the Bible's secret code. Some Jews 2,000 years ago felt the same way, but Jesus flatly told them that there was no code: Just read and pray.
The author has many other valuable insights. For example, he writes: "The oral Torah values sociability and thus calls upon the individual to pray in company with a minimum of 10 men (a minyan, or quorum). Jesus advised his followers, 'When you pray,' to pray by yourself, 'in secret.'" Christianity values community worship but emphasizes the role of the individual, and much of Western culture emerges from that emphasis.
Klinghoffer thus explains well "why the Jews rejected Jesus." But what about his subtitle, "the turning point in Western history"? He argues that if more Jews had embraced Jesus, believers would have stayed within Judaism and continued to emphasize circumcision and kosher food rules. They would have required abstaining from sex for a week after menstruation, and so on: "The Jesus movement might have remained a Jewish sect. ... Christianity would not have spread wildly across the Roman Empire and later across Europe, as it did."
Syrian mercenaries of the Roman Empire killed Jesus, no one else.
You are confusing God's Feast Days and Sabbaths which were instituted forever....for all generations, in Leviticus chapter 23 with the civil law of Moses(Deuteronomy 33:4)and Deuteronomy Chapter 27. The Levitical priesthood was also done away with(Hebrews 7:11) and we now have a new High Priest set up by God, not man(Hebrews 8:1).
I cannot find any scripture from Genesis to Revelation that says "God's Holy Days" have been abolished.
Herod was an Idumean/Edomite theoretically converted to Judaism. He was installed by the Romans and killed of most of the Hamoneans and much of the Sanhedrin. He built gentile towns in Caesaria and Sebastia (the latter over the remains of Samaria) The ethnic strife created by this was the direct cause of the Jewish rovolt three generations later.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Israel considers all Karaites Jews.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Its true non-Orthodox Jews don't slavishly follow every dot, jot and tittle of the Orah Torah but they don't reject it as the Karaites do. They may sin in not observing it completely but they are still Jews since they recognize that from Mount Sinai, the prophet Moses was given two sets of instructions by God and not just the Two Tablets that became known as the Ten Commandments. To use a kal va homer analogy, if it is true Moses brought down Two Tablets with him, then it is all the more so true he brought down with him Two Torahs to guide the Jewish people for all generations.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
I know Jewish people who are Christians. They accept that Jesus is the Messiah promised in the scriptures, and that He has risen from the dead. The one who puts his trust in Jesus will know Him, and will have an inner assurance that He is who He says He is. "Taste and see, the Lord is good."
They are called "Messianic Jews". I'm a Gentile that worship at a Messianic Synagogue.
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