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Jews and Jesus
Townhall ^ | March 24, 2005 | Marvin Olasky

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bookreview; christianity; davidklinghoffer; easter; jews; judaism; olasky; passover
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To: jimmyray
"...the reason the Jewish leaders killed Jesus was..."

Syrian mercenaries of the Roman Empire killed Jesus, no one else.

141 posted on 03/27/2005 5:52:37 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Free Sirhan Sirhan, after all, the bastard who killed Mary Jo Kopeckne is walking around free)
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To: Cecily

142 posted on 03/27/2005 5:53:46 PM PST by cartoonistx
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To: Conservative til I die

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.


143 posted on 03/27/2005 7:38:53 PM PST by Diego1618
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To: Crackingham
The Sadducees/Zadokim rejected the "Oral Torah". For the last 1300 years, so have Karaites.
144 posted on 03/27/2005 10:44:02 PM PST by rmlew (Copperheads and Peaceniks beware! Sedition is a crime.)
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To: CaptainMorgantown

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.


145 posted on 03/27/2005 10:54:54 PM PST by rmlew (Copperheads and Peaceniks beware! Sedition is a crime.)
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To: CaptainMorgantown
You just have a lot of factual errors here.
Pompey invaded Israel/Judea, taking advantage of a dynastic dispute. After settling the dispute (against the Jon Aristobulus, who invited the Romans), Pompey sacked the Temple.
Julius Caesar made Antipater, the converted Idumean prince, Regent and later elevated his son Herod.
http://www.livius.org/ja-jn/jewish_wars/jwar01.htm
Israel was conquered and divided into three provences (Judea, the Galilee, and the Golan and east bank of the Jordan) http://www.livius.org/ja-jn/jewish_wars/jwar02.html
146 posted on 03/27/2005 11:11:40 PM PST by rmlew (Copperheads and Peaceniks beware! Sedition is a crime.)
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To: goldstategop
ACtually, the Karaites took after the SAdducees/Zadokim.
Karaites are Jews.
147 posted on 03/27/2005 11:13:08 PM PST by rmlew (Copperheads and Peaceniks beware! Sedition is a crime.)
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To: rmlew
Interestingly, the Nazis did NOT consider Karaites they encountered in the Russian Caucasus to be Jews. If you're not following the Oral Torah, you're not a Jew, you're a minim. And what separates Jews from every one else is the belief God gave Moses a separate set of teachings to explain what the Written Torah meant.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
148 posted on 03/27/2005 11:17:47 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop
Interestingly, the Nazis did NOT consider Karaites they encountered in the Russian Caucasus to be Jews. If you're not following the Oral Torah, you're not a Jew, you're a minim. And what separates Jews from every one else is the belief God gave Moses a separate set of teachings to explain what the Written Torah meant.

You are a little confused. The Nazis killed Eastern European Rabbinic and Karaite Jews. The confusion in Crimea, where two primarily non-Israelite Jewish communities, Karaylar and Krymchaks lived. These Turkic Jews are descended from Khazar and Kipchak converts as well as other Jews. The Karaylar are Crimean Karaites. They divided t hemselves from Jews under the Czars claiming to be Turks of the Mosaic faith. The Nazis continued this. However, the Nazis did consider the Krimchaks (Turkic Rabbinate Jews) to be Jews. Many Karaylar joined Muslim Crimean Tatars in turning over the Krimchaks. After the war, Stalin deported them all. There are virtually no Krymchaks left.

Israel considers all Karaites Jews.

149 posted on 03/27/2005 11:39:10 PM PST by rmlew (Copperheads and Peaceniks beware! Sedition is a crime.)
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To: rmlew
Rabbinic Jews are Jews. The others aren't. Orthodox Jews would not consider Karaites Jews, since they don't accept the divine nature of the Oral Torah. I'd put Karaites in the same category as Samaritans, who by the way, are not Jews either.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
150 posted on 03/27/2005 11:49:10 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop
If the Sadducees/Tsadokim were Jews, why wouldn't Karaites be?
Conservative/Masorti, Liberal/Reform, and Reconstructionist Jews don't seem to care much for the Oral Law either, but they are Jews.
151 posted on 03/27/2005 11:59:22 PM PST by rmlew (Copperheads and Peaceniks beware! Sedition is a crime.)
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To: rmlew
Because the Written Torah can't be observed without some detailed guidance on how exactly to observe it. This is where the Oral Torah comes in. It does that by spelling out the rules. And Jews agree to be bound by it. Karaites don't accept this so they're not regarded as Jews.

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".)
152 posted on 03/28/2005 12:13:57 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: Rocky

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.


153 posted on 03/28/2005 12:19:07 AM PST by killerw ("Psalms 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. .".)
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To: goldstategop
You didn't answer my question about Zadokim, who held positions similar to the later Karaites.
Do you think that the later Hasmonean High Priests were not Jewish because they rejected the Oral Law as mere traditions?
154 posted on 03/28/2005 9:52:06 AM PST by rmlew (Copperheads and Peaceniks beware! Sedition is a crime.)
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