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1Peter 1:15
But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, On the second Sabbath after Yeshua's second Passover with his disciples, Jerusalem Pharisees who came to check out this itinerant Rabbi caught his followers not being particular about the ritual hand washing before eating (Luke 6:1 KJV/DHE).Most English texts report the issue with Yeshua declaring all foods clean/edible which leads to readers to assume that Yeshua abrogated the Torah's dietary laws (Mark 7:19). The aforementioned clause in the ESV is in parenthesis. This was done to tell us that this particular clause is not part of the translated text, but rather an addendum to the text, which the editors pointed out. This part of the text does not even exist in the KJV which in general tries to keep a more literal translation of Greek sources. As we read this sort of issue in the apostolic texts, before coming to any conclusion, we also need to remember that the instructions Hashem gave the Children of Israel at Mt. Horeb are meant to be eternal and that according to his own words, Yeshua did not come to change them (Matthew 5:17-18). Some of the mix-up may come from a poor choice of words in English translations. There are two forms of what English biblical texts of Levitical instructions call clean or unclean foods. 1-What meats are edible or non-edible defined today with the Hebrew words, kasher כשר or taref טרף. 2-What is ceremonially fit or contaminated defined by the Hebrew words, tahor טהור and tamei טמא. The latter one concerns foods, walls, fabrics, and even skin afflictions. English texts usually use the expressions clean/ unclean for both which causes confusion. In the days of the Master the still new pharisaic religious majority was in the process of defining religious observance for everybody. In Judaism, one cannot come to the Temple or even in the presence of the Almighty in a ceremonially contaminated state. As a fence commandment, some Pharisees established that everybody should go though the ritual washing of hands before ingesting any food so as not to contaminate it. This was not part of Torah commandments but rather an interpretative application. In the days of the Master the discussion was still raging among rabbis, and as a Jewish Rabbi, Yeshua took part in the conversation giving it his own perspective, which reflected not only a better understanding of the laws of contamination, but also another side of the Talmudic teachings of the day. Rabbis always expected that the Messiah would one day come and settle their controversies and Yeshua did just that. The editorial mention that Yeshua made all foods clean with an understanding of an abrogation of the laws of kasherut really is out of place. The concern of the discussion between Yeshua and the Pharisees was not about the Disciples (not Yeshua) eating grains (not meat) with unwashed hands. To therefore interpret that added clause as being about edible or non-edible foods in the Bible is in itself erroneous. Thus again I advocate that is its crucial for one to know and understand the Levitical Laws, as well as the politics, the culture, and the linguistics present in the days of the Master in Israel in order to properly interpret the narratives left us by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The laws kasherut and ceremonial fitness were not given to us for health nor any other than an identification of being holy/set-apart as the people of God (Leviticus 11:44). Even today, we can tell people's cultural background by their eating habits, thus the old adage is true: "you are what you eat!" May we learn to apply these rulings in the perspective of the Master just because Daddy said so! P. Gabriel Lumbroso For P. Gabriel Lumbroso's devotional UNDER THE FIG TREE in Kindle edition click here.
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Acts 2:3
And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. The English narrative that concludes God’s uttering of His Ten Statements at Mt. Horeb tells us, Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking … (Exodus 20:18). The Hebrew on the other hand literally reads, “And all the people 'saw' the voices and the torches”. One may see a ‘torch’, but how does one see a “voice”? The question may have pushed English translators to stray from a literal rendition of the verse, but not the Hebrew sages. Also, the congregation at Horeb was composed of people from many nations, so for everyone to ‘understand’ them (a Hebrew synonym for ‘seeing’), the Ten Statements would have had to be uttered in several languages. How do you see a voice, and how does a single voice speak in many languages? When Moses recounts these events to the second generation of the Children of Israel in the desert he says, Then Adonai spoke to you out of the midst of the fire (Deuteronomy 4:12). One of the sages saw this verse through the lenses of the following passage, Is not my word like fire, declares Adonai, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces (Jeremiah 23:29)? The sages of Israel have always described these events as the Voice of God splitting into seventy voices speaking seventy different tongues and that these voices were actually like hot sparks flying forth from a hammer’s blow on a stone and becoming tongues of fire. This may sound farfetched, but is it really? Fourteen hundred years after these events Yeshua, the Prophet 'like unto Moses', (Deuteronomy 18:15) came to give His elucidation of the Heavenly Voices. When He was on earth, like Moses He climbed a mountain and His disciples came to Him (Exodus 24:9; Matthew 5:1-2). Later, on the same Jewish calendar date as the Horeb events (Pentecost, or fifty days after the resurrection) as the disciples were celebrating the festival of Pentecost they saw these voices in the form of tongues of fire that gave them ability to speak in the languages of all the foreign pilgrims then present for the festival in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-5). These ‘voices’ were later to be sent to the whole world to reach out to the lost sheep of the House of Israel and to the nations with their message. Today we, followers of the Jewish Messiah Yeshua HaMashiach, are these ‘Voices’ of fire from Sinai. Today, from where ever we are in the world we are Hashem's emissaries and apostles of the great message spoken at Sinai. I usually teach my students that the Words of the Ten Statements uttered at Horeb elucidated by God’s Agent Yeshua, constitute the solution to all of the world’s social problems. But the people must not only hear the message, they must also see it. They must see it in the exemplary walk of our lives. A tall order maybe, but a lot is at stake and His Spirit is ever present to help us. Truly, Yeshua ever lives to make intercession off us (John 14:26; Hebrews 7:25). May we not fail in our mission! Matthew 18:35
“So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." Because of an erroneous stubbornly recurring theology that requires to make differences between the Hebrew and the Apostolic Writings, people automatically assume that the Master overthrew the Mosaic legal code of retribution of, ‘an eye for an eye’ and replaced it with a new law based on love and forgiveness (Exodus 21:24; Matthew 5:38-41). Let’s examine the issues a little closer. The expressions, ‘eye for an eye’ and, ‘turning the other cheek’ are not to be taken literally. These are Hebrew idioms; legal terms invoking damage restitution by a liable parties. For damage restitution not to be demanded by God’s court of law would be unjust, and God cannot be unjust. Actually, for a liable party not to ‘beg’ for an opportunity to demonstrate his true repentance for his foolish actions, would show callousness and a total lack of the fear of God. When reading the Master’s recommended application of the Torah legal code all throughout His teachings, we must realize that Yeshua could not have been changing the Torah. That would automatically make Him a false prophet to be shunned. It is because of that erroneous teaching that until today Jews will not consider Yeshua as the Messiah. What Yeshua did in His teachings was absolutely in line with Rabbinic Judaism. He took the Torah and gave His personal opinion on how to apply It’s wise instructions. Most of the Master’s recommended Torah application can be found within Judaism itself. He promoted much of Rabbi Hillel’s teachings (Rabbi Hillel was Gamaliel’s (Paul’s mentor and teacher) Grand-father)). Of course, since Yeshua is the Mashiach, His chosen applications are the right ones. The mistake people make when they read the Master’s teachings is the failure to distinguish between obligations pertaining to Torah courts of Law, and imperatives given to individuals. Because of this, people often want to take the ‘law’ in their own hands and appl iti in a vigilante style desiring wanting to kill the adulteress, the idolater and the criminals, when actually nothing could be done outside of a legal Sanhedrin ruling. What the Master teaches us here is greater than requiring the due course of justice. There is no commandment to litigate, and what Yeshua offers is the idea to not litigate, but rather to forgive a debt (a sin or an offense) from the heart, to not hold grudges, but to rely upon the God of the Universe for justice. This principle is the one found in the parables of the unjust servant (Matthew 18:21-35).To forgive in the legal code of Torah was not an emotional mental exercise, it was simply not to require retribution. Could anyone of us be required the full mandate of the Torah for our trespasses against God? John 5:24
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. The Torah is a contract. It is a contract that defines our affiliation with our Heavenly Father. It tells us how we belong to Him and His Kingdom (Leviticus 26:10-12). A contract usually tells of benefits for those faithful to its terms, but it is useless unless it is also fitted with ‘teeth’ for those who break them. Within the Torah contract are imbedded two major texts of curses designed to come upon those who dishonor it (Leviticus 26:3-13; Deuteronomy 28). These texts have often been misinterpreted as the ‘curse of the Torah (Galatians 3:13)’ and therefore ‘nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14)’, (God forbid). How could it be that the instructions which Moses proclaimed are our life ((Deuteronomy 32:47), that the statutes in which David found great rewards (Psalms 19:11), what the writer of the Book of Hebrews even called the ‘Gospel’ (Hebrews 4:2), are now cursed death nailed to a tree (God forbid)? The Torah is an everlasting covenant, and even when covenantal addendums are made, they do not replace the former but are built on them (Galatians 3:17). Upon closer examination we realize that this so-called ‘curse of the Torah’ ‘nailed to the tree’ spoken of by Paul is not the Torah contract itself. The salary of sin (breaking the Torah) is death (1 John 3:4; Romans 6:23). The word ‘mavet:death’ in Hebrew actually refers to separation from God. The curse spoken of here is the condemnation to separation from the Father by the eternal courts of judgment; a form of banishment from the kingdom for breaking the rules. Paul also speaks of a ‘written code (NIV)’, of a ‘handwriting of ordinances (KJV)’ ‘nailed to the cross’ which is often erroneously interpreted as being the Torah Itself, but it only refers to a legal document used in courts which is also called ‘a certificate of debt (ESV)’. It is a paper listing to the judge all our offenses against the law. The Master often used analogies of debts and courts when He spoke of sin (Matthew 6:12). This list, this ‘certificate of debt’ is the evidence against us that we broke the Torah. It is that list which is nailed to the cross with Messiah. Basically, Messiah pays our ‘fine’ to the Judge and gets rid of the evidence that stands against us. We are given a clean slate, a chance to start again. In Messiah we are given a new chance to learn to live by God’s standards. The idea is that like the Children of Israel were rescued from the angel of death in Egypt in order to go and learn to live by God’s standards instead of by those of Egypt, we also, are saved from Satan the ‘angel of death’, that we may go and learn to live for God in His way. We don’t obey the Torah in order to get redeemed; we do it because we are redeemed by the Lamb of God: Yeshua HaMashiach! |
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