Biblical Heritage Center Blog

  (Purim began at sundown yesterday and ends at sundown today. This article by Rabbi Leynor was published on March 4, 2015.)   Tonight is the beginning of Purim. There is the old joke about Jewish holidays, "They tried to kill us, they couldn't, let's eat!" Funny as this may sound, there is much truth. Purim has taught me some very important things. First, the central characters are both male and female. If you don't know the story, get a good translation of the Book of Esther and enjoy. The story has TOV and RAH, good against evil, palace intrigue, wonderful plot twists and turns and a surprise ending. The female lead, Queen Esther, is beautiful, intelligent, creative and courageous. She has to hide her Jewish identity for her own safety. (Sound familiar?) Actually, there were many "Purims" in Jewish history. There were many Jewish communities that were in danger of annihilation, but somehow those who held some power in the greater community stepped fo

  Before I knew anything about the connection of tzedaqah to eternal life, I simply believed the salvation doctrine I heard at my church – “ we are saved by grace through faith and once saved always saved .” Two Bible verses were used to prove that doctrine was the word of God:   ● “ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” ( Ephesians 2:8-9 )   ● “ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”   ( Romans 3:28 )   Something you have probably heard me say before is worth repeating here – words taken out of context can be used to prove anything . When we read a couple of chapters later in Ephesians, we find this:   ● Ephesians 5:4-5 – “. . . no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God .”   In that context, people committing those sins will not be part of the kingdom of

  Deuteronomy 30:15-16 are well-known verses in Jewish and Christian circles:   See, I have set before you today life and TOV , death and RAH , in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess .   Most Christian, and probably many Jewish readers, are not aware that the word TOV is in the quote above. Below are the two paths:   ● Path #1 -- Life and TOV   ● Path #2 – Death and RAH   By the early first century CE when Jesus taught, interpretations of Jewish teachers divided Path #1 into two separate paths ( Pirke d’Rabbi Eliezer , chap. 15).”   ● Life and TOV Path #1 -- L ove the Lord your God.   ● Life and TOV Path #2 – Walk in His ways and keep His commandments.   In my email, Did You Know There Are Two Golden Rules? , I introduced a key point for understanding the teachings of Jesus:  

  In my last email I discussed the importance of the word “ mitzvah ” in the Jewish culture. Mitzvah (singular) ( mitzvot [plural]) is an act performed in agreement with God’s will. Next to the word “ Torah ,” “ mitzvah ” is the most basic term in the language of Judaism. The Jew looks upon a “ mitzvah ” almost as if were an object rather than a concept. This can be seen in the teachings of Jesus. Below are two examples.   ● Jesus spoke of “ acquiring mitzvot ” in his teachings about “ Laying Up Treasures in Heaven .”   ● Jesus spoke of “ pursuing mitzvot ” in this blessing – “ Blessed are those who pursue tzedaqah , for they are the Kingdom of Heaven .” (Matthew 5:10)   In my last email I also pointed out that f or Christians today, a major challenge for understanding the Jewish Jesus will be to view him as someone that was not only actively engaged in legal discussions of his period – he would never have said “ do away with the law! ” Or to put it another way, “ do away with the m

  One thing Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor and I learned from decades of studying our Scriptures and the histories of Gentile Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism is that they share one thing in common:   Jesus models that are disconnected from the first century Jewish culture.   In Christianity “ the Jews ” became the “ bad guys ,” while in Rabbinic Judaism “ Jesus ” became “ the bad guy .” There was no place in Christianity for people that held Jewish beliefs that didn’t agree with Gentile belief models of “ the Christ ,” or in Rabbinic Judaism for people that “ believed in Jesus .” Even in the 1980s when I began writing about the Jewish Jesus, I received letters from both groups that opposed the “Jewish Jesus” idea.   For the last 1,500 years the choices have been “ accept only Gentile versions of Jesus ” or “ completely reject Jesus .” That polarization has not only created a highly effective barrier that separated both groups – it made it impossible to see the inclusive message tha

  Unlike Judaism that learned “ to argue for Heaven’s sake ,” Christianity took a different path when conflicts over beliefs arose. The information below is from Blasphemy: Verbal Offense against the Sacred from Moses to Salman Rushdie by © Leonard W. Levy; University of North Carolina Press; Chapel Hill, NC; p. 44. ________________________   “By popularizing the heinous character of blasphemy and heresy, the bishops made those transgressions against the faith acceptable as crimes against church and state. Athanasius’s litany of hate and his references to the “crime of heresy and the “crime” of blasphemy also helped fix a course for the future. Theodosius followed that course with legislation. Christian truth did not yet come from an executioner’s torch or ax, for the ordinary penalty consisted of the imposition of civil disabilities. First the church anathematized the offender, then turned him over to the state. Heretics lost their property and their civil rights, contrary to the Scr

Learning about the culture of the Jewish Jesus, the Jesus of history, is the key to understanding his teachings. One of the first things we must understand is this -- “ Other people have conversations. Jews have arguments .” Judaism is unusual in that virtually all its canonical texts are woven through with arguments.   ● In the Bible, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, and Job all argue extensively with God.   ● In Midrash, rabbis argue with one another on the basis of the principle that there are seventy “faces,” or interpretations, of every text.   ● In the Mishnah the rabbis argue about Jewish law.   ● In the Gemara they argue about the arguments of the Mishnah.   ● Every later text comes with its own commentaries and counter-commentaries.   In the twelfth century, Moses Maimonides did the most daring thing of all: he wrote a code of law with, all the arguments removed . This generated more arguments than any other text for the next eight hundred years until today.