Doing What’s Life Instead of Believing What’s Right!

In my previous email, Adam Destroyed the Law But Jesus Didn’t (click here to read), I discussed what the words found in Matthew 5:17 meant to Yeshua, the Jesus of history. English translations have something like this:

“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”

Here is what he actually said:

Do not think that I have come to misinterpret the Torah or the Prophets.

I have come to correctly interpret them!

In my email, Making the Jesus of History Part of Lives and Discussions Today! (click here to read), I pointed out that in the first century environment in which Yeshua lived “correct interpretations of the Torah and the Prophets” were a very big deal. Yeshua wasn’t the only one claiming to “correctly interpret” them. He was competing with the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Hellenists and Herodians. So, the Jewish people living in Galilee and Judea faced the challenge of “choosing from six interpretations” of their Scriptures.

We know a lot about what the Pharisees taught from Rabbinic Judaism (Babylonian Talmud). With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls we learned much more about what the Essenes taught.

One thing the Pharisees and Essenes shared in common was that

they both insisted that members only follow their interpretations.

Yeshua, the Jesus of history, used their “mutual exclusivity claims” to a very important point – it was the one absolute requirement for membership in the Kingdom of Heaven!

Whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments,

and teaches men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Whoever does and teaches them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Make sure you understand this:

Unless your acts of tzedaqah exceeds those of the scribes and Pharisees,

you will not be in the Kingdom of Heaven.

The key point Yeshua made is this:

Doing acts of tzedaqah is required for entering in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Accepting, following or teaching anyone’s interpretations

-- without acts of tzedaqah –

isn’t enough for admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven.

What are “acts of tzedaqah”? I answered that question in my email, The Jewish Jesus and the Salvation of Gentiles (click here to read). In the first story in Genesis, the Story of the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth, the Creator used “The TOV Standard” to measure each act of creation:

Acts that are TOV protect and preserve lives,

make lives more functional and increase the quality of life.

Now pay close attention to the “acts of tzedaqah” Yeshua pointed out in the parable in Matthew 25:35-36:

Giving food to the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty,

bringing a stranger into a home, giving clothes to the naked,

visiting the sick, and going to see people in prison.

Acts of tzedaqah are acts are TOV -- they are acts that affect lives in TOV (good) ways. The acts Yeshua described in Matthew 25 are not the only acts of tzedaqah. For a human to survive and thrive as the Creator intended, their basic needs must be met:

● Basic physical needs -- water, food, clothing, shelter, protection, etc.

● Basic emotional needs -- affection, love, support, meaning, happiness, etc.

● Acts of tzedaqah provide basic physical and emotional needs for another person.

The key point Yeshua taught his followers was always be aware what’s going on in the lives of people you encounter in the normal course of your day. He stressed the importance of love in people’s lives. Something that lots of Bible readers do not know is that in Yeshua’s culture the opposite of love was not hate –

The opposite of love for the Jesus of history was indifference!

In my last email I challenged readers “to consider how the teachings of the Jesus of history can be applied to current circumstances.”

What would happen in America if Christians did

acts of tzedaqah like Jesus taught above in their lives?

I hope you found this informative and thank you for reading it. Please discuss it with others, too.

Shalom,

Jim Myers

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Making the Jesus of History Part of Lives and Discussions Today!

In my last email, “Let’s not call him ‘The Jewish Jesus’”, I discussed how much I appreciated Dr. David Flusser’s work on Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity. I pointed out that Flusser called Jesus “the Jesus of history” and “the historical Jesus” – but he did not call him “the Jewish Jesus.” Today I want to share two more things that set Flusser apart from other Jewish and Christian scholars.

While Flusser understood Jesus belonged fully to

the diverse and competing streams of Jewish thinking of the first century,

he felt no need to deny Jesus his high self-awareness.*

Flusser’s point about “diverse and competing streams of Jewish thinking of the first century” is critical for understand the people Jesus interacted with in the Gospels:

● Pharisees

● Sadducees

● Essenes

● Hellenists

● Herodians

All of the groups above had their own interpretations of Jewish Scriptures and other writings. The historical Jesus added his interpretations to the mix. He made sure the people that knew him best clearly understood what he believed God had called him to do. He announced it at his hometown synagogue on a Shabbat (Luke 4:16-21):

“The Spirit of Yahweh is upon me,

because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed . . .

Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus told the people that he was the person God called to fulfill those words – he was “the anointed one.” When the Hebrew word translated “the anointed one” was translated into Greek it became “christos” – and when that was transliterated into English it became “Christ.”

By the way, in the Jewish Scriptures and Jewish culture

there have been many christs (anointed ones).

That is something that most people don’t know -- there were other people claiming to be “the anointed one” in the first century, too. For Flusser, Jesus seeing himself that way -- and others viewing him that way – wasn’t a problem. That is probably why Flusser said, “even Jesus’ most radical conclusions would have been unthinkable without the innovations of those in the generations of Jewish teachers before him and the nurturing environment of Jewish thought at the time he lived.”

However, because most people are not familiar with the Late Second Temple Period and the environment in which Jewish people lived, they cannot see the Jesus of history the ways his contemporaries saw him – or the way he saw himself.

Because of how the human brain biologically works,

the only thing any human can do is “use the beliefs he or she has acquired

about Jesus and his world to give meanings to the words of the New Testament.”

Flusser did something else that I encourage others to do – apply the teachings of Jesus to current circumstances to see their relevancy. A graduate student of his provided this example:

                   

On the eve of the Gulf War, January 15,1991, the streets of Jerusalem were virtually empty in anticipation of the outbreak of war and the consequent launching of scud missiles on the civilian Israeli population. The student went over to Flusser’s house to discuss a research project. Flusser opened the door and said, “Interesting days we are living in. What would Jesus say? Let’s go and find out.”

In closing let me challenge you to do the following:

1. Learn more about the diverse and competing streams of Jewish thinking of the first century.

2. Apply the teachings of the Jesus of history to current circumstances.

I hope you found this informative and thank you for reading it.

Shalom,

Jim Myers

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Sources:

● Jesus by David Flusser © 1997 The Maness Press , the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel; pp. 10-12.

Let’s not call him “The Jewish Jesus”

“Like research in other fields of human achievements and activities through the ages, the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity must be done objectively, employing accepted and unbiased methods of scholarly endeavor. The starting point is a truism:

Christianity arose among the Jews —

it was once a part of Judaism.

Therefore if you want to analyze Christian origins,

you have to study ancient Judaism.”

Those are the words of the scholar I place at the top of my list for knowledge about the Second Temple Period and Early Christianity -- Dr. David Flusser (b. 1917 - d. 2000). He was an Israeli professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period (538 BCE to 70 CE) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His pioneering research on Jesus and Christianity’s relationship to Judaism won him international recognition. In 1980, Flusser, who spoke nine languages fluently and could read 26, received the Israel Prize, the country’s most prestigious honor.

As Israel’s foremost scholar on Jesus and Early Christianity, he was often asked to comment on “the Jewishness of Jesus” or to provide the “Jewish perspective.” Few requests irritated him more.

Flusser reminded his students that his is

not the study of “the Jewish Jesus” but the Jesus of history.

That Jesus was Jewish is a matter of historical record.

Flusser popularized the idea that Jesus never intended to start a new religion but was born and died a faithful Jew. It must be noted that whether reading the Greek philosophers, medieval theologians or the words of Jesus, Flusser did not work as a detached historian. He worked as “a man of faith” who saw his scholarship as having relevance to the complex challenges of the present age. Flusser was a devout Orthodox Jew who applied his study of the Torah and Talmud to the study of ancient Greek, Roman and Arabic texts, as well as the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Something that set Flusser apart from other scholars, however, was that while he understood Jesus to belong fully to the diverse and competing streams of Jewish thinking of the first century -- he felt no need to deny his role as the cornerstone of the faith of the early Christianity. Thus, Flusser did not hesitate to question assumptions which are foundational for many contemporary New Testament scholars.

He was an original thinker willing to give fresh consideration to the evidence

— even if it meant challenging long-held opinions, sometimes even his own.

For Flusser, a better understanding of the ancient sources of two world religions — Judaism and Christianity – is needed to eliminate innate prejudices.

A study of the New Testament and early Christianity without

an intimate knowledge of Jewish sources

leads to inaccurate and fragmentary results.

Hence it is essential for a New Testament scholar – and readers -- to have access to all the available Jewish sources, as well as sound knowledge of the trends and groups of Judaism in antiquity.” Often people are surprised to learn the whole New Testament reflects Jewish thought and life from a time period earlier than most of the rabbinic texts -- not just the synoptic gospels. And likewise, evidence from New Testament research is also very fruitful for Jewish studies of that period too.

While reviewing notes from my earlier research recently, I realized I needed to change something I have been doing a lot in recent years. In the future, instead of referring to “the Jewish Jesus” I will refer to “Yeshua, the historical Jesus” or “Yeshua, the Jesus of history.”

Just as Christianity has changed over the past 2,000 years, so has Judaism. Two very different religions have emerged. Therefore, “the historical Jesus” or “the Jesus of history” better defines “the Jewishness of his world.” I hope you found this informative and thank you for reading it.

Shalom,

Jim Myers

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Sources:

● Jesus by David Flusser © 1997 The Maness Press , the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel; pp. 10-11.

● Judaism and the Origins of Christianity by David Flusser © 1988 Magnes Press, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, p. xii.