An Old Dog Looking for a New Book

To answer the title question effectively requires more than the citing of a few texts; we must first acknowledge that the way to the answer is more difficult than it appears and recognize that the answer may be less straightforward than many would like. The author raises some fascinating yet vexing questions: What is worship? Is the fact that worship is offered to God (or a god) what defines him (or her) as "G/god?" What does the act of worship actually involve? The conviction that God exalted Jesus to his right hand obviously is central to Christian recognition of the divine status of Jesus. But what did that mean for the first Christians as they sought to reconcile God's status and that of the human Jesus? Perhaps the worship of Jesus was not an alternative to worship of God but another way of worshiping God. The questions are challenging but readers are ably guided by James Dunn, one of the world's top New Testament scholars.

From the product description of:
Did the First Christians Worship Jesus?

I'm getting towards the end of A Complete Idiot's Guide to the Talmud (which is really good, by the way) and am in search of my next book to read. I suppose I've got enough books around the house to choose from, but some of the comments from my recent blog post The Deity Problem piqued my interest. A number of books specifically on the topic of the deity of the Jewish Messiah were suggested. The question is, can I "trust" them?

I don't mean "trust" in that Christian scholars would deliberately lie to people in their books about the evidence supporting Jesus being God (what else would they say?), but "trust" in the sense that, already having reached a conclusion long before they ever did a bit of research, can I really know that their conclusions on "the deity issue" will be completely unbiased and based only on the Biblical record? Also, since these writers are considered "New Testament" experts and scholars, will they even take the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings (the Old Testament, which makes up the first two-thirds of the Bible) into consideration?

The authors could have saved themselves a lot of writing by just inserting one small sentence on a single page of their books saying, "Jesus is God", and that would be the end of it. The world of Christianity (at least as far as I know) universally agrees that Jesus is God; end of story. No ifs, ands, or buts. No questions asked (at least out loud where others might hear them).

Since Christianity takes the matter of Jesus being God on faith (and pretty much for granted), what's the point of research, evidence, discussion and so forth? Why not just accept that Jesus is God (somehow) and let sleeping dogs (or old dogs like me) lie?

Frankly, if the deity of Christ is a settled matter in the church, I really don't know why any scholars, researchers, and other men of letters (none of the authors are women, so I can safely say that last bit) even write such texts? It certainly isn't as an evangelizing tool, since most non-Christians won't read these books and even if they did, a non-believer is unlikely to be convinced that Jesus is Lord and Savior from an academic work.

All that said, I still find myself pondering a number of titles and wondering if I should lay down my hard earned cash to purchase one or more of these books. Here's the short list:

• Jesus and the God of Israel by Richard Bauckham
• Did the First Christians Worship Jesus? by James D. G. Dunn
• How on Earth Did Jesus Become God by Larry W. Hurtado

All three books have good reviews at Amazon, but all of the favorable reviewers are Christians. I did find a poor review of one of the books, but the reviewer wasn't a Christian (see a pattern?). All of the authors are considered very well educated men in their field and have excellent reputations as New Testament scholars. All of their books were written for an audience that doesn't need to be convinced of the deity of Jesus since the audience has already arrived at the desired conclusion defined by the authors.

With all of that bias going on, what can I hope to learn except something like, "Yep, Jesus is God"...?

This dilemma has a parallel in another idea I had recently (but one that I'll probably have to give up) been considering. I've been thinking about taking some Bible or Religious classes, either online or through one of the schools in my area. However, the schools, being Christian schools and based on specific denominations, will carry the biases and theologies of those organizations. The only thing I'll "learn" is how a particular sub-set of Christianity understands the Bible.

For instance, Northwest Nazarene University has a very good reputation, at least locally, in a number of academic areas. They offer different religous programs as well, but when looking at the summary of some of the classes involved, they are very much biased towards how Nazarenes look at the Bible. This isn't exactly a shock, but I attended a Nazarene church for a number of years back when I first became a believer and sadly, they didn't leave a very good impression on me.

See where I'm coming from? What makes it worse, is most of the reading I've done (though not all of it) in relation to religion and faith over the past ten years or so, has either been from "Messianic" or Jewish source material. I suppose I'm just as biased as the Christian books and schools I'm considering but since the Messianic world is going to become an unavailable option for me in a few months, I have to consider alternatives.

Reading a book won't kill me and it's a lot less expensive and time consuming than enrolling in a university class. With that in mind, if you had to choose one of the books in the list above, which one would you pick and why?

The comments section is now open. Let me know what you think.

Thanks.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark...

What Would Gandhi Do?

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." -Gandhi

Nietzsche once said, "If you stare into the abyss long enough, the abyss stares into you." I once thought that faith would be a way for me to finally turn away from the abyss and for the abyss to finally turn away from me. Yet Gandhi's experiences with Christians remind me that what's wrong with a life of faith isn't the act of faith, but having to deal with the people of faith. We are the weakest link in the chain.

Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most respected leaders of modern history. A Hindu, Gandhi nevertheless admired Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. Once when the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him, “Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?”

Gandhi replied, “Oh, I don’t reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It’s just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Apparently Gandhi’s rejection of Christianity grew out of an incident that happened when he was a young man practising law in South Africa. He had become attracted to the Christian faith, had studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and was seriously exploring becoming a Christian. And so he decided to attend a church service. As he came up the steps of the large church where he intended to go, a white South African elder of the church barred his way at the door. “Where do you think you’re going, kaffir?” the man asked Gandhi in a belligerent tone of voice.

Gandhi replied, “I’d like to attend worship here.”

The church elder snarled at him, “There’s no room for kaffirs in this church. Get out of here or I’ll have my assistants throw you down the steps.”

From that moment, Gandhi said, he decided to adopt what good he found in Christianity, but would never again consider becoming a Christian if it meant being part of the church.

How we treat those others tells people MORE about what we believe, and what following Jesus means to us, than all the fine sermons we deliver.

Found at John Mark Ministries
(original source unknown)

In visiting a number of blog posts and their accompanying comments over the past several months and particularly in recent weeks, I see an unswerving dedication of the believers making said blogs and comments to following the example and traditions of the Christians who threw Gandhi out of church in South Africa. If someone who doesn't fit the mold or says something that doesn't fit the prevailing theology of the group, they are insulted, belittled, and cast out.

I had a somewhat similar (though not as intense) experience in a church I used to attend once I started studying the Old Testament in a new way and started trying to grasp what the Torah must look like from a more Hebraic point of view. I no longer fit the mold and could not be accepted in the group while I asked questions the group wasn't prepared to answer. I did that just a few days ago and drew a lot of comments and conversation.

Don't get me wrong, the conversation is very worthwhile and I think there is much to be learned from such a dialog, but along with the interaction, some people found it necessary to get hot under the collar about the topic.

Why?

Are you so sure that your opinion is the only opinion and that it is the absolutely right opinion? Can you learn from no one else outside of you?

I ask these questions of myself all the time and this blog is the continually developing result of my attempt to answer those questions. Hopefully, my struggles, which are primarily with me, won't eventually degrade into developing and expressing a disdain for others. One of the things I am sure of is that putting people down because they disagree with me isn't the right thing to do:

There are other ways in which we are forbidden to injure another with words. Thus, we are commanded not to slander, gossip, or talebear, as the Torah states, "Do not go around as a gossiper among your people" (Leviticus 19:16). Concerning a slanderer, the Psalmist entreated, "May God cut off all slandering lips, every tongue that speaks distortions" (Psalms 12:4), thereby warning us that this is among the most serious of sins.

It is likewise forbidden to cause pain, anguish or suffering, or tease another, or embarrass him in any way, as the Torah states, "Do not vex your fellow man, but rather fear your God" (Leviticus 25:17).

It is forbidden to cause dissent and argument, as the Torah states, "Do not be like Korach and his party" (Numbers 17:5) -- who wrought dissent in Israel.

From Respecting God in Speech
Aish.com

The Master gave us a new commandment to "love one another" (John 13:34), which I've mentioned before, and I've also said that we don't seem to do a very good job at obeying this commandment. We also know this:

But the word love in Torah is primarily an activist commandment: Love your neighbor and the stranger; love God. Even to love God (says Talmud Yoma 26a) means we should behave divinely toward others, “making God beloved, through us.” And Maimonides brought an almost ecological consciousness to loving the One in the Mishneh Torah: “When we study God’s many wondrous works and creations, and thus comprehend God’s infinite wisdom, immediately we love, and praise.” The prophets warn us to pair every prayer with acts of love. As 20th-century Jewish philosopher Martin Buber taught: “Love of the Creator and love of that which God has created, are finally one and the same.”

Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb
Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation
Bethesda, MD
Found at Moment Magazine

I question my faith a lot and sometimes I wonder, given all of the problems we seem to have with each other, if a life of faith is worth it. Wouldn't I be happier if I just dropped a life that no one seems interested in actually living, and simply devoted myself to things like art, philosophy, literature, and music? Many people find great rewards in those pursuits and they don't hassle each other about it.

However, there's nothing wrong with God, Christ, and faith. As Gandhi's famous experience points out, there's something wrong with us. We are not being a light to the world (Matthew 5:14) and we are salt that has lost its taste (Matthew 5:13). What good are we if we don't actually live out the teachings of the one we are supposed to revere?

Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep what I command" (John 14:15), but we don't keep his command to love one another, at least as far as what I can see.

Is there no humility and a desire to reconcile among the disciples of the Jewish Messiah? Is our faith and love that small?

The well-known Torah scholar Hillel (ca. 60 B.C.E.-C.E. ca. 10) famously summed up all of Torah by saying, That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the commentary; go and study. (Tractate Shabbat 31a). Yeshua taught, Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18, Matthew 22:39), very much mirroring Hillel, but our actions in the blogosphere prove we don't give much consideration to either Yeshua or Hillel.

I like the text found under the main title at Lev Echad:

Jewish unity is possible - really! It begins with acting decently toward one another, it follows with tolerating others as they pursue lives of goodness; it culminates with many different Jews, but just one heart.

Why can't we do that?

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark...

The Deity Problem

According to Jewish sources, the Messiah will be born of human parents and possess normal physical attributes like other people. He will not be a demi-god, nor will he possess supernatural qualities.

The Messiah must be descended on his father’s side from King David (see Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1). According to the Christian claim that Jesus was the product of a virgin birth, he had no father—and thus could not have possibly fulfilled the messianic requirement of being descended on his father’s side from King David!

from Why Don't Jews Believe in Jesus
SimpleToRemember.com

I believe that Deity of Moshiach is the most doctrine if not right there with the most important doctrine in Scripture! I think that many in the Messianic movement are denying the Deity of Yeshua is because they want to be accepted really bad by the Orthadox community (non believers). Now I would really want to be accepted by the Orthadox community also but are we to do that at the expense of denying the Deity of Yeshua? That's a compromise that can't be made, at least for me!

Anonymous comment from
What Our Leaders Believe: The Kinzer Edition
On the Kineti L'Tziyon blog

The "deity of Yeshua (Jesus)" issue has come up again in the Messianic blogosphere and it remains an interesting discussion. You might be thinking that "this is a no-brainer" and "of course Jesus is God", but it's not that clear cut. Let me explain.

There is a general "collision" between Messianic Judaism (MJ) and the rest of Judaism in relation to the identity and capacities of the Messiah. Of course, there's also this "conflict" between Judaism and Christianity, but Christians (for the most part) aren't trying to say that they are part of the larger Jewish community and have a direct affiliation with normative Judaism and Israel. Messianic Judaism is very much based on those propositions.

Messianic Judaism, at least in it's desire, is a "Judaism" in the same manner as the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox branches of Judaism. In general, they have a cultural and religious view that matches the other Judaisms (and I'm being very simplistic here since their are major differences between the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform movements, but they are still all considered "valid" Judaisms), accept the same identity markers and authorities (such as the authoritative rulings of the sages as recorded in the Talmud and other works), and strive to be internally consistent with larger Israel in all ways.

That is, except for the Messiah, and here is where we encounter dissonance. With that in mind, what do (non-Messianic) Jews believe about Jesus being God?

Who died on the cross? Was it Jesus-the-god, or was it Jesus-the-human? If it was Jesus-the-god, Jews don't believe that God can die. If it was Jesus-the-human, then all Christians have in the death of Jesus was a human death, a human sacrifice. Jews believe that God hates the very idea of human sacrifice.
from Jews believe that God hates human sacrifices

It is the hallmark of pagan, idolatrous faiths, to confuse God with human beings, either that God becomes human, or that humans become God. In Biblical history, one sees this confusion with Pharaoh, and with Haman (boo, hiss!), as well as with Antiochus, the Assyrian King against whom the Maccabbees rebelled. Furthermore, as one example, in Hosea 11:9 God tell (sic) us, "For I am God and not a man."
from Jews believe that God is God, and humans are humans

Within mainstream Judaism, all observant Jews (to the best of my knowledge) do not expect the Messiah to be God and in fact, they expect him to be fully and completely human and born of a human mother and father. They certainly don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah and they absolutely don't believe that Jesus was/is God.

Now what about Messianic Judaism? Again, to the best of my knowledge, the vast, vast majority of individual Messianic Jews and Messianic Jewish organizations do believe that Jesus (Yeshua) was/is God.

Back in September, I wrote a blog post on the Trinity which elicited a number of interesting comments, but not the explosion of outrage I expected. Based on those responses, I believe there is room for discussion and exploration of the issue of Yeshua's deity in the Messianic community and how this diverges from mainstream Jewish thought. This matter is probably one of the few concepts in MJ that cannot rely on the Talmud or the opinions of the Jewish sages for support, since traditional Jewish authorities do not believe that Yeshua was the Messiah and do not believe he could be God.

In other words, this is just about the only point of theology where Messianic Jews must rely entirely on traditional Christian thought to define the Messiah's identity and role.

Messianic Judaism is the only "Judaism" which openly acknowledges that Jesus is the Messiah, born of a virgin, crucified dead and buried, raised on the third day, and who sits at the right hand of God the Father.

Very Christian.

All other Judaisms are still waiting for the Messiah to come (for the first time) and when he does, they believe he won't be God. Of all the issues in the Messianic movement, at least as conceived of and lived out by organizations such as the Messianic Jewish Theological Institute (MJTI), this is the one that puts Messianic Judaism squarely at odds with mainstream, normative Judaism. The barrier this creates is often downplayed in the Messianic blogsphere, but it's the only area where, when MJ says "We're a Judaism just like all other Judaisms", the most likely response from the other Judaisms will be "No, you're not. You're Christians."

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark...

Embracing Your Inner Shiksa

I am a recent convert to Judaism, but I still call myself a Shiksa. Why? Because I’ve spent the majority of my life as a Gentile. I’m exploring Jewish cuisine with an open mind and heart. I am happy that I was born a Shiksa; it made me who I am today. Judaism is my spiritual path, but I will never forget where I came from. Plus, “The Convert In The Kitchen” doesn’t sound quite as cute, does it? ;)

Tori Avey
from The Shiksa in the Kitchen

I came across Tori Avey on twitter and was intrigued. Actually, after my last few rather somber blog posts, I needed an emotional and spiritual pick-me-up and "the shiksa in the kitchen" seemed to fill the bill.

I've read a number of books on conversion to Judaism lately and, from what I understand, most converts want to keep a low profile, despite the fact that the Torah commands Israel not to oppress the convert and not to treat them any differently than "born-Jews". Human nature (Jewish or otherwise) tells me that there's plenty of "treating differently" that still goes on.

That's why it's a little surprising to me that Avey not only is so upfront and public about being a convert, but refers to herself as a "shiksa" (I always picture shiksas as blond for some reason, which certainly isn't Avey).

I authentically have to admire and congratulate Avey for openly blogging the Shiksa is Jewish! She must have a very supportive family and synagogue to feel so comfortable in sharing her world with the rest of us. Either that, or she possesses boundless amounts of courage and self-confidence. Ether way, I kind of envy her.

As many of you know, the word shiksa means a non-Jewish woman. Some of you may be wondering, “Is she still going to be called The Shiksa In The Kitchen?” I answer that question with an enthusiastic yes! Historically, the word Shiksa has been used in a derogatory way — meant to convey that the “Shiksa” is somehow “less than” somebody born into Judaism. Rather than shy away from the word, I choose to let my background empower me. I have no shame that I was born a Shiksa; I am exploring Judaism through the eyes of somebody newly reborn and thrilled to be part of the Tribe. I am happy that I was born a Shiksa; it made me who I am today. Judaism is now my spiritual path, but I will never forget where I came from. Plus, “The Convert In The Kitchen” doesn’t sound quite as cute, does it?

What's also amazing (at least compared to the Messianic blogosphere) is the comments section on her blog post which directly announces the completion of her conversion. Click the link and take a few moments to scroll down through the various congratulations and warm regards related by everyone who has chosen to express them, born-Jew and convert alike. It's quite refreshing.

Does what I'm writing have anything to do with similar blogs I've written about community lately? Absolutely!

Tori Avey found her community and a place where she is welcome to be who she is (Jewish, shiksa, and all). May God grant us all (yes, me too) the same grace...and a home.

Thanks for the blog, Tori (should, by some miracle, you ever find this post and read this).

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark...

Where is the House that God Built?

Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early
and stay up late, toiling for food to eat - for he grants sleep to those he loves. -Psalm 127:1-2

For I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure has arrived. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have guarded the belief. For the rest, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Master, the righteous Judge, shall give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all those loving His appearing." -2 Timothy 4:6-8

I'm quoting from two recent blog posts, Writing in the Dirt and The Maggid's Blog respectively. I've been feeling a little uninspired and unmotivated on this blog over the past few days, but the combination of these messages suggested a topic.

Actually, I also have to include Derek Leman's report on Hashivenu 2011, Day 3 to the mix, since it also discusses the topic of "community", particularly between the church and the Messianic Jewish synagogue.

The solution may be found in a number of forms. New congregations that are solely Jewish can form. Existing mixed groups could find ways to be on a trajectory toward Jewish congregations. My own suggestion, well-received, was that many existing MJ congregations think of themselves as Judeo-Christian congregations with a Jewish minyan within. Over time, we can work toward an independent life for the Jewish minyans within our congregations.

What does this have to do with me?

Right now, it seems like "not much". As I feel myself mentally and emotionally divorcing myself from anything that calls itself "Messianic Judaism", I keep trying to envision myself going back to "the church". Frankly, the idea still feels rather alien to me, in part because of the quote from Psalm 127. In my search for a "church home", how do I know which one has been "built by the Lord"? As I read Derek's report on the Hashivenu conference (and I recommend giving it a look...lots of interesting stuff), I find myself also feeling alien in relation to Messianic Judaism. I suppose the latter comes from not ever having attended a "Messianic Jewish" congregation as opposed to a One Law group that was primarily Gentile-driven. Given Derek's description of the conference over the past three days, I don't think I'd fit in there, either.

So what's left?

I don't know right now. Like any Pending Divorce, there's a part of the process where you feel neither connected nor disconnected, but are cycling somewhere in between the two states of being.

That brings me to the comment Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:6-8 as he was coming to the end of his life. I'm expected to "run the race" until the very end and I certainly want to, but as it stands now, I'll be a marathon runner somewhere out on the road in the middle of the night, away from anyone else, looking for sign posts.

My son complicated matters just a little while ago. I had lunch with him to discuss things that are going on in his life including matters of faith. Although both he and his wife are believers, they haven't ever attended a church together. They're currently living with my son's in-laws who also believe but don't attend a church.

Feeling my own sense of "disconnectedness", I asked him about going to a congregation and he suggested coming to mine.

Oh wow!

David's been to a Messianic (One Law) group before, so he knows more or less what to expect, but his wife will be taken by surprise, no doubt. Plus, I've never actually taught family members before, which I can only imagine is a unique experience. How can I tell him that I'm getting ready to leave soon? How can I tell him that as of this summer, I will be as much without a congregation as he and his family are now?

My son did say a funny thing, though. He said that when a person feels comfortable where they're at in their church or congregation, that's when they need to do something to make themselves uncomfortable. In other words, faith isn't supposed to be an easy going process.

I can relate to that very well. Now, all I need to know is where to find the house that the Lord built. I'm sure it must be around here...

...somewhere.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Rebuilding

Both of one's worlds, inner and outer, were destroyed because of our iniquities. Rachel cries over both. Both will be rebuilt. Rebuilding our inner world depends upon our acquiring a new dimension of understanding of who we are and where we're going. Rebuilding our outer world depends on our joining hands together to re-form society in accordance with the vision of the Torah. -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series

Gene Shlomovich just said something interesting on my previous blog post:

This is NOT about any sort of immediate "implementation" - we are all waiting for the Messianic Age for that. The last 2K teach us that whatever man touches eventually turns to dung, but it doesn't mean that we are to fold our hands and stand idly by. We can still do things, one thing at a time, one congregation at a time and go from there. We have to start somewhere. We implement things starting with ourselves and those who G-d brings our way, and pray that G-d blesses it over the coming years.

The first thought that popped into my head was this:

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Exodus 32:1-4

Yes, human beings have a tendency to mess up a free lunch whenever we can. I like to think that the reason the trials of the Children of Israel are so heavily chronicled in the Tanakh isn't to pick on them but to show how all of humanity continually fails God, yet keeps striving to be close to Him. It's also a continual picture of God's faithfulness, not just to the Jewish people, but to the rest of us (see the book of Jonah for a display of God's love to a non-Jewish people).

My understanding of Judaism is that it pictures man as the junior partner with God in an effort to repair the world, both our inner spiritual world and the world we see around us. In some of my recent blog posts, I've been trying, using marital metaphors, to describe a "partnership" between Jews and Christians joining together under one Messiah and one God, using the Torah as the blueprint for rebuilding our inner and outer worlds.

We aren't doing such a good job, but as Gene pointed out, we don't have the luxury of simply folding our hands and stand idly by, either. We have to do something. In fact, God requires that we do something:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. - James 2:14-18

That's right. Rebuilding the world doesn't necessarily require establishing a megachurch and attracting 10,000 followers or performing some monumental act of righteousness or heroism. Repairing our inner and outer world can be as simple as providing one meal to one hungry person, or visiting a sick friend in the hospital.

But what about rebuilding the relationship between Christians and Jews?

I don't know.

I suppose ongoing conversations like this one are part of that process. Yes, the Messiah will come and he will repair the world, but in the meantime, we still have a responsibility to do all we can to move the process along. Like the Children of Israel and the Golden Calf, we have a tendency to misuse the time we have when we aren't constantly re-enforced by God, but that's the struggle of an imperfect humanity serving a perfect God. The standard quote I use at the end of each of these blogs should be the motto, not just of Jews, but of everyone.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh

Jews, Christians, and Marital Metaphors

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church - for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. -Ephesians 5:22-33

As mentioned, things were somewhat different for Jewish women. Traditionally, women and men were seen as equals, but with different responsibilities and obligations. Thanks to God's revelations to Moses at Mt. Sinai, the Jews even had laws in place that governed the intricacies of marriage and divorce, as well as laws that specify what is to happen to a woman suspected of adultery.
Rabbi Aaron Parry
The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Talmud

Bilateral Ecclesiology and the Gentiles Series

I've been using marital metaphors in previous blog posts Bilateral Living and The One Who is Two to try and illustrate how it might be possible, based on scripture, to support at least some portion of Mark Kinzer's suggestions in relation to "Bilatereal Ecclesiology" as chronicled in his book Postmissionary Messianic Judaism: Redefining Christian Engagement with the Jewish People (2005). Keep in mind, I'm not completely sold on each and every point Kinzer makes in PMJ. I believe that the suggestions contained therein need a lot of work before they could be made a viable model to be pursued by Messianic Judaism and the Christian church as a "partnership plan". Nevertheless, the idea requires further investigation, particularly as it maps (or fails to map) to the Apostolic Scriptures, which is what I'm doing here.

Laugh if you must, but in trying to get a ground-level beginner's handle on even what the Talmud is, I've been reading The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Talmud, which by the way, is a very good starter's primer. I decided to spend a small part of my Sunday afternoon reading the chapter "All About the Women" which addresses Nashim (Women), the third order of the Talmud. I barely got a few pages in when inspiration struck.

I was taken by how some of the descriptions regarding women and marriage not only seem to match up to the teachings of Yeshua and Paul, but how they could be applied to the "bilateral" relationship between Messianic Jews and non-Jewish Christians (and yes, there is and must be a relationship, otherwise, the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Jewish Messiah was in vain). What first struck me was Rabbi Parry's words, ...women and men were seen as equals, but with different responsibilities and obligations. That's more or less how the concept of Bilateral Ecclesiology describes the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the believing realm, both in the time of Paul and today.

I had previously read Rabbi Judith Z Abrams's book The Talmud for Beginners: Volume I Prayer and she describes how, while women are not forbidden the commandments that men obey (except those that are obviously gender specific), some obligations, such as those that are time-bound, are not required. This includes praying the Shema twice per day, since the timing may interfere with a woman's duties and responsibilities in the home and to her children (and the feminists reading this right now must be pretty much outraged).

This sugya deals with a different kind of interference that prevents one from reciting the Shema with the required intention. In the rabbis' view, being a woman interfered with one's ability to relate to God. They assumed that a woman was responsible for the demanding, and time-consuming, tasks of raising children and managing a household and therefore could not be held responsible for performing positive, time-bound commandments...

Rabbi Abrams also states:

There are many exceptions to the rule of this system. Women are, in fact, obligated to perform some positive commandments, such as lighting the candles on Hannukah. Women are not forbidden to perform positive time-bound commandments; they are simply not obligated to do most of them...They may perform these mitzvot voluntarily if they wish to do so.

Because women are not obligated to do these mitzvot, the rabbis ruled that women cannot have the same intention and sense of responsibility regarding the mitzvot as men do...

I previously recorded these quotes and a more detailed account of Rabbi Abrams's book in my blog post The Right Question, but the content fits right in with what I've been writing about more recently, so I'm repeating it in this post.

It makes me wonder about God's plan in first, establishing His covenants with the Children of Israel, and making them His "treasured splendorous people" (Exodus 19:5) and then commanding the Israelites to be a "light to the nations" (Isaiah 49:6). It also makes me wonder about this:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. -1 Peter 2:9-10

Of course, Peter was the "emissary to the circumcised", so you could say he was writing to an exclusively Jewish audience, except in verses 11 and 12, he says, Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

If he were talking to Jews; people who were already members of the covenant, why would he call them foreigners and exiles, since they clearly weren't such a thing. Yes, in verse 12 he tells his audience to live such good lives among the pagans, but as Messianic disciples, the Gentile believers in the audience would no longer be pagans. Also, in the original quote, Peter refers to his audience as Once you were not a people which makes absolutely no sense if his audience were Jewish covenant members.

Don't worry. I'm not saying that believing Gentiles are equal to believe Jews, except to the degree, as Rabbi Parry states, that Jewish men and Jewish women are equal, but with different obligations and responsibilities. To extend the metaphor though, if Gentiles and Jews are equal but different in the manner that the Talmud describes Jewish men and women to be, then can we say, like Jewish women, that Torah obedience is not specifically forbidden to Gentile Messianics (i.e. Christians) but is allowed on a voluntary basis?

I know some of you are thinking that there are sections of the Talmud that specifically forbid Torah observance by Gentiles or sections that praise Gentile obedience to the commandments, with the understanding that those mitzvot are limited to the Noahide laws, but wait.

Remember that the Talmudic sages, probably down to a man, would not have considered the status of Gentile disciples of Yeshua (Jesus) as relevant to their opinions, particularly because Jews and Christians were very much at odds while the Oral Laws were being documented and certainly during the time when the sages were writing their Gemara on the Oral traditions.

This is a limitation, perhaps a necessary one, that restricts some of the application of the Talmud to the current argument, but not completely.

Daniel on his blog "Christian for Moses" has illustrated that there is Talmudic precedent for non-Jews to perform the mitzvot, though with different motivation, and I've blogged on similar topics and presented further quotes of the sages in the opinions of Rabbi Mayer Twersky and my review of FFOZ's tefillin booklet.

If you start putting all of the pieces together, the picture of the jigsaw puzzle begins to become recognizable. Getting back to something I said earlier, perhaps it was God's plan all along, to create a "nation of priests" of the Children of Israel, and then to use them as a "light to the nations" to, in effect, "marry" the groom to the bride, creating "one flesh" or "one new man" out of the two "individuals", each being equal or co-heirs and co-citizens to one another, but with different responsibilities and obligations to God, the Torah, and each other, much as what you would find in almost any marriage. I liked what Rabbi Parry said here:

According to Jewish thought, marriage is considered one of life's greatest treasures. What's more, it's believed that the relationship that most closely parallels the relationship between man and God is the marital union between a man and a woman.

Both the Tanakh and the Apostolic Scriptures use marital metaphors to describe the relationship between the Children of Israel and God as well as the union between the Jewish and Gentile Messianic community and the Jewish Messiah.

“Return, faithless people,” declares the LORD, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the LORD, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance. -Jeremiah 3:14-18

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. -Ephesians 5:24

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. -2 Corinthians 11:2

Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he added, “These are the true words of God.” -Revelation 19:7-9

I don't think Kinzer's book is the final word on how this "mixed marriage" or rather God's plan for a "mixed marriage" between Christians and Jews is ultimately supposed to work out. Also, the One Law movement is very good about describing the "equality" between the "husband" and "wife" but not so good about describing the inherent differences in responsibilities and obligations that must exist, even between two people made into "one flesh" or two people groups made into "one new man". Clearly, no one has a "lock" on understanding how Jewish and Gentile Messianic relationships are supposed to operate.

I don't know how it works either, or rather, how it will work. I do think that we'll keep struggling with our relationship until the Jewish Messiah returns and straightens us all out. Then, we will all take our places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven together (Matthew 8:11).

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark, ignoring the light of the world. Look for the lamp who lights your path or you may become lost in the dark forever.

"A Jew never gives up. We're here to bring Mashiach, we will settle for nothing less." -Harav Yitzchak Ginsburgh