[FJ290]

Now I'm confused. I thought there was neither male nor female in the Messiah Yeshua, per your quotes.

No need to be confused. Anyone can be a follower of Jesus, but not all can be priests. Did Jesus ordain any female Apostles? Did the Apostles ordain any females?

Do you ordain females in your Messianic congregation? If you do, you're not following the Bible.

[Buggman]

Ah, so you believe that we are all one in salvation and in body, but that there are different roles within the body for each. I agree. Therefore, the Jewish believer in the Jewish Scriptures and the Jewish Messiah still has a particular role in understanding the Scriptures that were written to their own culture (Rom. 3:1-2) and can use that understanding to "bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old" (Mat. 13:52). What then was the point of your quote?

That's not to say that a Gentile (like myself) can't learn to understand the Jewish culture of the Scriptures (indeed, J.P. Holding over at the Tektonics website does an excellent job of doing just that)--but it does mean that an important step is to recognize that the Bible was not written in our language or to our culture, and that it is we who have to make the transition, in thought process if not necessarily in lifestyle. (Though I've found that living a Jewish lifestyle does aid in learning to "think Jewish" when reading the Scriptures.)