Hebrew and Aramaic Origin of the New Testament
By James Scott Timm
The Language of First Century Israel
The Middle East, through all of its political turmoil, has in fact been dominated by a single master from the earliest ages until the present day. The Semitic tongue has been that single master. Aramaic dominated the three great Empires, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian. It endured until the seventh century, when under the Islamic nation it was displaced by a cognate Semitic language, Arabic. Even today some few Syrians, Assyrians and Chaldeans speak Aramaic as their native tongue, including three villages north of Damascus. The Jewish people, through all of their persecutions, sufferings and wanderings have never lost sight of their Semitic heritage, nor their Semitic tongue. Hebrew, a Semitic tongue closely related to Aramaic, served as their language until the great dispersion when a cognate language, Aramaic, began to replace it. Hebrew, however continued to be used for religious literature, and is today the spoken language in Israel.
The Babylonian Exile
Some scholars have proposed that the Jews lost their Hebrew language, replacing it with Aramaic during the Babylonian captivity. The error of this position becomes obvious. The Jewish people had spent 400 years in captivity in Egypt yet they did not stop speaking Hebrew and begin speaking Egyptian, why should they exchange Hebrew for Aramaic after only seventy years in Babylonian captivity? Upon return from the Babylonian captivity it was realized that a small minority could not speak "the language of Judah" so drastic measures were taken to abolish these marriages and maintain the purity of the Jewish people and language. One final evidence rests in the fact that the post-captivity books (Zech., Hag., Mal., Neh., Ezra, and Ester) are written in Hebrew rather than Aramaic.
Hellenization
Some scholars have also suggested that under the Hellene Empire Jews lost their Semitic language and in their rush to hellenize, began speaking Greek. The books of the Maccabees do record an attempt by Antiochus Epiphanes to forcibly Hellenize the Jewish people. In response, the Jews formed an army led by Judas Maccabee This army defeated the Greeks and eradicated Hellenism. This military victory is still celebrated today as Chanukkah, the feast of the dedication of the Temple a holiday that even Yeshua seems to have observed at the Temple at Jerusalem in the first century . Those who claim that the Jews were Hellenized and began speaking Greek at this time seem to deny the historical fact of the Maccabean success. During the first century, Hebrew remained the language of the Jews living in Judah and to a lesser extent in Galilee. Aramaic remained a secondary language and the language of commerce. Jews at this time did not speak Greek, in fact one tradition had it that it was better to feed ones children swine than to teach them the Greek language. It was only with the permission of authorities that a young official could learn Greek, and then, solely for the purpose of political discourse on the National level. The Greek language was completely inaccessible and undesirable to the vast majority of Jews in Israel in the 1st century. Any gauge of Greek language outside of Israel cannot, nor can any evidence hundreds of years removed from the 1st century, alter the fact that the Jews of Israel in the 1st century did not know Greek.
The Testimony of Josephus
The first century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37-c.100 C.E.) testifies to the fact that Hebrew was the language of first century Jews. Moreover, he testifies that Hebrew, and not Greek, was the language of his place and time. Josephus gives us the only first hand account of the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. According to Josephus, the Romans had to have him translate the call to the Jews to surrender into "their own language" . Josephus gives us a point-blank statement regarding the language of his people during his time:
I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understanding the elements of the Greek language although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own language, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness: for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations.
Thus, Josephus makes it clear that first century Jews could not even speak or understand Greek, but spoke "their own language."
Archaeology
Confirmation of Josephus's claims has been found by Archaeologists. The Bar Kokhba coins are one example. These coins were struck by Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt (c. 132 C.E.). All of these coins bear only Hebrew inscriptions. Countless other inscriptions found at excavations of the Temple Mount, Masada and various Jewish tombs, have revealed first century Hebrew inscriptions. Even more profound evidence that Hebrew was a living language during the first century may be found in ancient Documents from about that time, which have been discovered in Israel. These include the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Bar Kokhba letters. The Dead Sea Scolls consist of over 40,000 fragments of more than 500 scrolls dating from 250 B.C.E . to 70 C.E.. These Scrolls are primarily in Hebrew and Aramaic. A large number of the "secular scrolls" (those which are not Bible manuscripts) are in Hebrew. The Bar Kokhba letters are letters beteween Simon Bar Kokhba and his army, written during the Jewish revolt of 132 C.E.. These letters were discovered by Yigdale Yadin in 1961 and are almost all written in Hebrew and Aramaic. Two of the letters are written in Greek, both were written by men with Greek names to Bar Kokhba. One of the two Greek letters actually apologizes for writing to Bar Kokhba in Greek, saying "the letter is written in Greek, as we have no one who knows Hebrew here." The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kokhba letters not only include first and second century Hebrew documents, but give an even more significant evidence in the dialect of that Hebrew. The dialect of these documents was not the Biblical Hebrew of the Tenach (Old Testament), nor was it the Mishnaic Hebrew of the Mishna (c. 220 C.E.). The Hebrew of these documents is colloquial, it is a fluid living language in a state of flux somewhere in the evolutionary process from Biblical to Mishnaic Hebrew. Moreover, the Hebrew of the Bar Kokhba letters represents Galilean Hebrew (Bar Kokhba was a Galilean) , while the Dead Sea Scrolls give us an example of Judean Hebrew. Comparing the documents shows a living distinction of geographic dialect as well, a sure sign that Hebrew was not a dead language. Final evidence that first century Jews conversed in Hebrew and Aramaic can be found in other documents of the period, and even later. These include: the Roll Concerning Fasts in Aramaic (66-70 C.E.), The Letter of Gamaliel in Aramaic (c. 30 - 110 C.E.), Wars of the Jews by Josephus in Hebrew (c. 75 C.E.), the Mishna in Hebrew (c. 220 C.E.) and the Gemara in Aramaic (c. 500 C.E.)
Scholars on the Language of the New Testament
Having thus demonstrated that Hebrew and Aramaic were languages of Jews living in Israel in the first century, we shall now go on to demonstrate that the New Testament was first written in these languages. A number of noted scholars have argued that at least portions of the New Testament were originally penned in a Semitic tongue. This argument has been asserted of the four Gospels, Acts, and Revelation.
The following is just some of what these scholars have written on the topic:
When we turn to the New Testament we find that there are reasons for suspecting a Hebrew or Aramaic original for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and for the apocalypse.
- Hugh J. Schonfield; An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew's Gospel; 1927; p. vii
The material of our Four Gospels is all Palestinian, and the language in which it was originally written is Aramaic, then the principle language of the land...
- C. C. Torrey; Our Translated Gospels; 1936 p. ix
The pioneer in this study of Aramaic and Greek relationships was Charles Cutler Torrey (1863-1956),...
His work however fell short of completeness; as a pioneering effort, in the nature of the case, some of his work has to be revised and supplemented. His main contention of translation, however, is undeniably correct. ...
The translation into Greek from Aramaic must have been made from a written record, including the Fourth Gospel. The language was Eastern Aramaic, as the material itself revealed, most strikingly through a comparison of parallel passages. ...
One group [of scholars], which originated in the nineteenth century and persists to the present day [1979], contends that the Gospels were written in Greek...
Another group of scholars, among them C. C. Torrey ... comes out flatly with the proposition that the Four Gospels... including Acts up to 15:35 are translated directly from Aramaic and from a written Aramaic text....
My own researches have led me to consider Torrey's position valid and convincing that the Gospels as a whole were translated from Aramaic into Greek.
- Frank Zimmerman; The Aramaic Origin of the Four Gospels; KTAV; 1979
Thus it was that the writer turned seriously to tackle the question of the original language of the Fourth Gospel; and quickly convincing himself that the theory of an original Aramaic document was no chimera, but a fact mwhich was capale of the fullest verification...
- Charles Fox Burney; The Aramaic Origin of the Fourth Gospel; 1922; p. 3
...this [Old Syriac] Gospel of St. Matthew appears at least to be built upon the orginal Aramaic text which was the work of the Apostle himself.
- William Cureton; Remains of a Very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac; 1858; p. vi)
...the Book of Revelation was written in a Semitic language, and that the Greek translation... is a remarkably close rendering of the original."
- C. C. Torrey; Documents of the Primitive Church 1941; p. 160
We come to the conclusion, therefore that the Apocalypse as a whole is a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic...
- RBY Scott; The Original Language of the Apocalypse 1928; p. 6
The question of the Luke/Acts tradition holds particular interest to us. This is because the common wisdom has been to portray Luke as a Greek speaking, Greek writing Gentile who wrote his account to the Gentiles. The reality of the matter is (whether Luke himself knew Greek or not) that Luke was most certainly written in a Semitic language. As Charles Cutler Torrey states:
In regard to Lk. it remains to be said, that of all the Four Gospels it is the one which gives by far the plainest and most constant evidence of being a translation.
- C.C. Torrey; Our Translated Gospels p. lix
The Testimony of the "Church Fathers"
All of the "Church Fathers", both East and West, testified to the Semitic origin of at least the Book of Matthew, as the following quotes demonstrate:
Matthew composed the words in the Hebrew dialect, and each translated as he was able.
Papias (150-170 C.E.)
Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect.
Ireneus (170 C.E.)
The first [Gospel] is written according to Matthew, the same that was once a tax collector, but afterwards an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah, who having published it for the Jewish believers, wrote it in Hebrew.
Origen (c. 210 C.E.)
Matthew also, having first proclaimed the Gospel in Hebrew, when on the point of going also to the other nations, committed it to writing in his native tongue, and thus supplied the want of his presence to them by his writings. Pantaenus... penetrated as far as India, where it is reported that he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had been delivered before his arrival to some who had the knowledge of Messiah, to whom Bartholomew, one of the emissaries, as it is said, had proclaimed, and left them the writing of Matthew in Hebrew letters.
Eusebius (c. 315 C.E.)
They [the Nazarenes] have the Gospel according to Matthew quite complete in Hebrew, for this Gospel is certainly still preserved among them as it was first written, in Hebrew letters.
Epiphanius (370 C.E.)
"Matthew, who is also Levi, and from a tax collector came to be an emissary first of all evangelists composed a Gospel of Messiah in Judea in the Hebrew language and letters, for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed, who translated it into Greek is not sufficiently ascertained. Furthermore, the Hebrew itself is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea, which the martyr Pamphilus so diligently collected. I also was allowed by the Nazarenes who use this volume in the Syrian city of Borea to copy it. In which is to be remarked that, wherever the evangelist... makes use of the testimonies of the Old Scripture, he does not follow the authority of the seventy translators [the Greek Septuagint], but that of the Hebrew."
"Pantaenus found that Bartholomew, one of the twelve emissaries, had there [India] preachedthe advent of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah according to the Gospel of Matthew, which was written in Hebrew letters, and which, on returning to Alexandria, he brought with him."
Jerome (382 C.E.)
His [Matthew's] book was in existence in Caesarea of Palestine, and everyone acknowledges that he wrote it with his hands in Hebrew...
Isho'dad (850 C.E.)
Other "church fathers" have testified to the Semitic origin of at least one of Paul's epistles. These "church fathers" claim that Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews was translated into Greek from a Hebrew original, as the following quotes demonstrate:
In the work called Hypotyposes, to sum up the matter briefly he [Clement of Alexandria] has given us abridged accounts of all the canonical Scriptures,... the Epistle to the Hebrews he asserts was written by Paul, to the Hebrews, in the Hebrew tongue; but that it was carefully translated by Luke, and published among the Greeks.
Clement of Alexandria (150 - 212 C.E.)
For as Paul had addressed the Hebrews in the language of his country; some say that the evangelist Luke, others that Clement, translated the epistle.
Eusebius (315 C.E.)
"He (Paul) being a Hebrew wrote in Hebrew, that is, his own tongue and most fluently while things which were eloquently written in Hebrew were more eloquently turned into Greek.
Jerome (382 C.E.)
It should be noted that these church fathers did not always agree that the other books of the New Testament were written in Hebrew. Epiphanius for example, believed "that only Matthew put the setting forth of the preaching of the Gospel into the New Testament in the Hebrew language and letters." Epiphanius does, however, tell us that the Jewish believers would disagree with him, and point out the existence of Hebrew copies of John and Acts in a "Gaza" or "treasury" [Genizah?] in Tiberias, Israel. Epiphanius believed these versions to be mere "translations" but admitted that the Jewish believers would disagree with him. The truth in this matter is clear, if Greek had replaced Hebrew as the language of Jews as early as the first century, then why would fourth century Jews have any need for Hebrew translations. The very existence of Hebrew manuscripts of these books in fourth century Israel testifies to their originality, not to mention the fact that the Jewish believers regarded them as authentic.
The Testimony of the Talmudic Rabbis
In addition to the statements made by the early Christian church fathers, the ancient Jewish Rabbis also hint of a Hebrew original for the Gospels. Both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds and the Tosefta relate a debate among Rabbinic Jews over the method of destruction of manuscripts of New Testament books . Specifically mentioned is a book called by them as (HEBREW FONT OMITTED) (or "Gospels"). The question which arose was how to handle the destruction of these manuscripts since they contained the actual name of God. It is of course, well known that the Greek New Testament manuscripts do not contain the Name but use the Greek titles "God" and "Lord" as substitutes. This is because the Name is not traditionally translated into other languages, but instead is (unfortunately) translated "Lord", just as we have it in most English Bibles today, and just as we find in our late manuscripts of the Septuagint. The manuscripts these Rabbi's were discussing must have represented the original Hebrew text from which the Greek was translated.
History of the Movement
That the New Testament, like the Old Testament, was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic is further verified by the history of the early believers in Yeshua as the Messiah. The first believers in Yeshua were a Jewish sect known as "Nazarenes" . Sometime later the first Gentile believers in Yeshua called "Christians" appeared . This first congregation of Gentile Christians formed in Antioch, the capital of Syria, where some of the people spoke Greek and almost all spoke Aramaic, which is also called "Syriac". Then in 70 C.E., there was a mass exodus of the Nazarenes from their center at Jerusalem to Pella. Eventually, they established communities in Beroea, Decapolis and Bashanitis. These Nazarenes used Hebrew Scriptures and in the fourth century Jerome traveled to Borea to copy their Hebrew Matthew. As a result, while at least the book of Matthew was first written in Hebrew, very early on Aramaic and Greek New Testament books were needed.
The Eastward Spread
In addition to these factors we must also consider the Eastern spread of Christianity. We have heard much about the so called "Westward spread of Christianity" but little is written of the equally profound Eastward movement. While Paul made missionary journeys from his headquarters in Antioch Syria, into the Western world, most of the emissaries (apostles) traveled eastward. Bartholomew traveled eastward through Assyria into Armenia, then back down through Assyria, Babylon, Parthia (Persia) and down into India where he was flayed alive with knives. Thaddeus taught in Edessa (a city of northern Syria) Assyria and Persia, dying a martyr by arrows either in Persia or at Ararat. Thomas taught in Parthia, Persia and India. He was martyred with a spear at Mt. St. Thomas near Madras in India. To this very day a group of Christians in India are called "St. Thomas Christians. Finally Kefa (Peter) traveled to Babylon and even wrote one of his letters from there . That the emissaries brought Semitic New Testament Scriptures eastward with them is affirmed to us by the Church fathers. Eusebius writes:
Pantaenus... penetrated as far as India, where it is reported that he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had been delivered before his arrival to some who had the knowledge of Messiah, to whom Bartholomew one of the emissaries, as it is said, had preached, and left them the writing of Matthew in Hebrew letters.
And as Jerome writes:
Pantaenus found that Bartholomew, one of the twelve emissaries, had there [in India] preached the advent of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah according to the Gospel of Matthew, which was written in Hebrew letters...
This entire region of the Near East stretching from Israel through Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Persia (Parthia) and down into India, became known as the "Church of the East." At its high point the Church of the East stretched as far east as China! Today, the Syrian and Assyrian Christians have been split into various groups: Nestorians, Jacobites, Chaldean Roman Catholics, and Maronites. All of whom continue to use an Aramaic New Testament text.
When the Roman Catholic Portuguese invaded India in 1498 they encountered over a hundred churches belonging to the St. Thomas Christians along the coast of Malabar. These St. Thomas Christians, according to tradition, had been there since the first century. They had married clergymen, did not adore images or pray to or through saints, nor did they believe in purgatory. Most importantly they maintained use of the Aramaic New Testament which they claimed had been in use at Antioch.
The Westward Spread
Now while many of the emissaries were spreading the Messianic movement eastward, Paul was taking the movement into the Western world. > From his headquarters at Antioch, the capitol of Syria, Paul conducted several missionary journeys into Europe. At this time there came a need for Greek versions of New Testament books. As time progressed several events occurred which resulted in a great rise of anti-Semitism in the West. This began when the Jews revolted against the Roman Empire in 70 C.E.. A second revolt by Jews in Egypt occured in 116 C.E.. Things were further complicated by the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132 C.E.. In the Roman Empire anti-Semitism became very popular, and even patriotic. In the West, Gentile Christianity sought to distance itself from Judaism and Jewish customs. The Greek text began to be favored over the Semitic text and many Semitic writings were subsequently destroyed.
By 325 C.E. anti-Semitism and the priority given in the West to the Greek Scriptures had solidified. Constantine invaded Rome, making himself emporer. Constantine proclaimed Christianity to be the Catholic (universal) religion, thus making Christianity the enforced state religion of the Roman Empire. Before this occurred one could be killed for being a Christian, afterwards one could be killed for not being a "Christian." Constantine, who was an anti-Semite, called the council of Nicea in 325 C.E. to standardize Christianity. Jews were excluded from the meeting. Jewish practices were officially banned and the Greek translations officially replaced the original Semitic Scriptures. Having alienated the Jewish Nazarenes in 325 at the Council of Nicea, subsequent councils alienated the Assyrians and Syrians over Christological debates. The Nestorian Assyrians were alienated in 431 C.E. at the Council of Ephesus while the Jacobite Syrians were alienated in 451 C.E. at the Council of Chalcedon. The division between the Semitic peoples of the Near East, and the Roman Catholic Church grew ever steeper. With the rise of Islam in the Near East the Near Eastern Christians were even further separated from their European counterparts in the West. Relations between the Christian West and the Islamic Near East were non-existent.
As time progressed, in the West the Roman Catholic Church began to suppress the Scriptures in Europe. Those who would try to make the Scriptures available to the common man were often burned alive. Such suppression was impossible in the Near East, where the Scriptures were already in Aramaic, the common language of the people. When the Protestant reformation emerged, claiming the Greek New Testament as the original, it was a time when most Europeans were not even aware that an Aramaic version existed.
In was in this atmosphere, in 1516 that the first printed edition of the Greek New Testament was published in Europe. This edition, published by Erasmus, would become known as the Textus Receptus, and serve as the standard Greek text until the 19th Century. The first edition of this work was based solely on six manuscripts, while later editions used only ten. None of these manuscripts were complete, and only one was even particularly old, dating to the tenth century. Since none of his manuscripts were complete, Erasmus was forced to invent many of his Greek portions of Revelation by translating from the Latin Vulgate into Greek. It was this poor edition which served as the evidence by which the West would embrace the Greek as the original. This edition would later serve as the basis for the King James Version.
By James Scott Timm
The Language of First Century Israel
The Middle East, through all of its political turmoil, has in fact been dominated by a single master from the earliest ages until the present day. The Semitic tongue has been that single master. Aramaic dominated the three great Empires, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian. It endured until the seventh century, when under the Islamic nation it was displaced by a cognate Semitic language, Arabic. Even today some few Syrians, Assyrians and Chaldeans speak Aramaic as their native tongue, including three villages north of Damascus. The Jewish people, through all of their persecutions, sufferings and wanderings have never lost sight of their Semitic heritage, nor their Semitic tongue. Hebrew, a Semitic tongue closely related to Aramaic, served as their language until the great dispersion when a cognate language, Aramaic, began to replace it. Hebrew, however continued to be used for religious literature, and is today the spoken language in Israel.
The Babylonian Exile
Some scholars have proposed that the Jews lost their Hebrew language, replacing it with Aramaic during the Babylonian captivity. The error of this position becomes obvious. The Jewish people had spent 400 years in captivity in Egypt yet they did not stop speaking Hebrew and begin speaking Egyptian, why should they exchange Hebrew for Aramaic after only seventy years in Babylonian captivity? Upon return from the Babylonian captivity it was realized that a small minority could not speak "the language of Judah" so drastic measures were taken to abolish these marriages and maintain the purity of the Jewish people and language. One final evidence rests in the fact that the post-captivity books (Zech., Hag., Mal., Neh., Ezra, and Ester) are written in Hebrew rather than Aramaic.
Hellenization
Some scholars have also suggested that under the Hellene Empire Jews lost their Semitic language and in their rush to hellenize, began speaking Greek. The books of the Maccabees do record an attempt by Antiochus Epiphanes to forcibly Hellenize the Jewish people. In response, the Jews formed an army led by Judas Maccabee This army defeated the Greeks and eradicated Hellenism. This military victory is still celebrated today as Chanukkah, the feast of the dedication of the Temple a holiday that even Yeshua seems to have observed at the Temple at Jerusalem in the first century . Those who claim that the Jews were Hellenized and began speaking Greek at this time seem to deny the historical fact of the Maccabean success. During the first century, Hebrew remained the language of the Jews living in Judah and to a lesser extent in Galilee. Aramaic remained a secondary language and the language of commerce. Jews at this time did not speak Greek, in fact one tradition had it that it was better to feed ones children swine than to teach them the Greek language. It was only with the permission of authorities that a young official could learn Greek, and then, solely for the purpose of political discourse on the National level. The Greek language was completely inaccessible and undesirable to the vast majority of Jews in Israel in the 1st century. Any gauge of Greek language outside of Israel cannot, nor can any evidence hundreds of years removed from the 1st century, alter the fact that the Jews of Israel in the 1st century did not know Greek.
The Testimony of Josephus
The first century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37-c.100 C.E.) testifies to the fact that Hebrew was the language of first century Jews. Moreover, he testifies that Hebrew, and not Greek, was the language of his place and time. Josephus gives us the only first hand account of the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. According to Josephus, the Romans had to have him translate the call to the Jews to surrender into "their own language" . Josephus gives us a point-blank statement regarding the language of his people during his time:
I have also taken a great deal of pains to obtain the learning of the Greeks, and understanding the elements of the Greek language although I have so long accustomed myself to speak our own language, that I cannot pronounce Greek with sufficient exactness: for our nation does not encourage those that learn the languages of many nations.
Thus, Josephus makes it clear that first century Jews could not even speak or understand Greek, but spoke "their own language."
Archaeology
Confirmation of Josephus's claims has been found by Archaeologists. The Bar Kokhba coins are one example. These coins were struck by Jews during the Bar Kokhba revolt (c. 132 C.E.). All of these coins bear only Hebrew inscriptions. Countless other inscriptions found at excavations of the Temple Mount, Masada and various Jewish tombs, have revealed first century Hebrew inscriptions. Even more profound evidence that Hebrew was a living language during the first century may be found in ancient Documents from about that time, which have been discovered in Israel. These include the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Bar Kokhba letters. The Dead Sea Scolls consist of over 40,000 fragments of more than 500 scrolls dating from 250 B.C.E . to 70 C.E.. These Scrolls are primarily in Hebrew and Aramaic. A large number of the "secular scrolls" (those which are not Bible manuscripts) are in Hebrew. The Bar Kokhba letters are letters beteween Simon Bar Kokhba and his army, written during the Jewish revolt of 132 C.E.. These letters were discovered by Yigdale Yadin in 1961 and are almost all written in Hebrew and Aramaic. Two of the letters are written in Greek, both were written by men with Greek names to Bar Kokhba. One of the two Greek letters actually apologizes for writing to Bar Kokhba in Greek, saying "the letter is written in Greek, as we have no one who knows Hebrew here." The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bar Kokhba letters not only include first and second century Hebrew documents, but give an even more significant evidence in the dialect of that Hebrew. The dialect of these documents was not the Biblical Hebrew of the Tenach (Old Testament), nor was it the Mishnaic Hebrew of the Mishna (c. 220 C.E.). The Hebrew of these documents is colloquial, it is a fluid living language in a state of flux somewhere in the evolutionary process from Biblical to Mishnaic Hebrew. Moreover, the Hebrew of the Bar Kokhba letters represents Galilean Hebrew (Bar Kokhba was a Galilean) , while the Dead Sea Scrolls give us an example of Judean Hebrew. Comparing the documents shows a living distinction of geographic dialect as well, a sure sign that Hebrew was not a dead language. Final evidence that first century Jews conversed in Hebrew and Aramaic can be found in other documents of the period, and even later. These include: the Roll Concerning Fasts in Aramaic (66-70 C.E.), The Letter of Gamaliel in Aramaic (c. 30 - 110 C.E.), Wars of the Jews by Josephus in Hebrew (c. 75 C.E.), the Mishna in Hebrew (c. 220 C.E.) and the Gemara in Aramaic (c. 500 C.E.)
Scholars on the Language of the New Testament
Having thus demonstrated that Hebrew and Aramaic were languages of Jews living in Israel in the first century, we shall now go on to demonstrate that the New Testament was first written in these languages. A number of noted scholars have argued that at least portions of the New Testament were originally penned in a Semitic tongue. This argument has been asserted of the four Gospels, Acts, and Revelation.
The following is just some of what these scholars have written on the topic:
When we turn to the New Testament we find that there are reasons for suspecting a Hebrew or Aramaic original for the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, John and for the apocalypse.
- Hugh J. Schonfield; An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew's Gospel; 1927; p. vii
The material of our Four Gospels is all Palestinian, and the language in which it was originally written is Aramaic, then the principle language of the land...
- C. C. Torrey; Our Translated Gospels; 1936 p. ix
The pioneer in this study of Aramaic and Greek relationships was Charles Cutler Torrey (1863-1956),...
His work however fell short of completeness; as a pioneering effort, in the nature of the case, some of his work has to be revised and supplemented. His main contention of translation, however, is undeniably correct. ...
The translation into Greek from Aramaic must have been made from a written record, including the Fourth Gospel. The language was Eastern Aramaic, as the material itself revealed, most strikingly through a comparison of parallel passages. ...
One group [of scholars], which originated in the nineteenth century and persists to the present day [1979], contends that the Gospels were written in Greek...
Another group of scholars, among them C. C. Torrey ... comes out flatly with the proposition that the Four Gospels... including Acts up to 15:35 are translated directly from Aramaic and from a written Aramaic text....
My own researches have led me to consider Torrey's position valid and convincing that the Gospels as a whole were translated from Aramaic into Greek.
- Frank Zimmerman; The Aramaic Origin of the Four Gospels; KTAV; 1979
Thus it was that the writer turned seriously to tackle the question of the original language of the Fourth Gospel; and quickly convincing himself that the theory of an original Aramaic document was no chimera, but a fact mwhich was capale of the fullest verification...
- Charles Fox Burney; The Aramaic Origin of the Fourth Gospel; 1922; p. 3
...this [Old Syriac] Gospel of St. Matthew appears at least to be built upon the orginal Aramaic text which was the work of the Apostle himself.
- William Cureton; Remains of a Very Ancient Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac; 1858; p. vi)
...the Book of Revelation was written in a Semitic language, and that the Greek translation... is a remarkably close rendering of the original."
- C. C. Torrey; Documents of the Primitive Church 1941; p. 160
We come to the conclusion, therefore that the Apocalypse as a whole is a translation from Hebrew or Aramaic...
- RBY Scott; The Original Language of the Apocalypse 1928; p. 6
The question of the Luke/Acts tradition holds particular interest to us. This is because the common wisdom has been to portray Luke as a Greek speaking, Greek writing Gentile who wrote his account to the Gentiles. The reality of the matter is (whether Luke himself knew Greek or not) that Luke was most certainly written in a Semitic language. As Charles Cutler Torrey states:
In regard to Lk. it remains to be said, that of all the Four Gospels it is the one which gives by far the plainest and most constant evidence of being a translation.
- C.C. Torrey; Our Translated Gospels p. lix
The Testimony of the "Church Fathers"
All of the "Church Fathers", both East and West, testified to the Semitic origin of at least the Book of Matthew, as the following quotes demonstrate:
Matthew composed the words in the Hebrew dialect, and each translated as he was able.
Papias (150-170 C.E.)
Matthew also issued a written Gospel among the Hebrews in their own dialect.
Ireneus (170 C.E.)
The first [Gospel] is written according to Matthew, the same that was once a tax collector, but afterwards an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah, who having published it for the Jewish believers, wrote it in Hebrew.
Origen (c. 210 C.E.)
Matthew also, having first proclaimed the Gospel in Hebrew, when on the point of going also to the other nations, committed it to writing in his native tongue, and thus supplied the want of his presence to them by his writings. Pantaenus... penetrated as far as India, where it is reported that he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had been delivered before his arrival to some who had the knowledge of Messiah, to whom Bartholomew, one of the emissaries, as it is said, had proclaimed, and left them the writing of Matthew in Hebrew letters.
Eusebius (c. 315 C.E.)
They [the Nazarenes] have the Gospel according to Matthew quite complete in Hebrew, for this Gospel is certainly still preserved among them as it was first written, in Hebrew letters.
Epiphanius (370 C.E.)
"Matthew, who is also Levi, and from a tax collector came to be an emissary first of all evangelists composed a Gospel of Messiah in Judea in the Hebrew language and letters, for the benefit of those of the circumcision who had believed, who translated it into Greek is not sufficiently ascertained. Furthermore, the Hebrew itself is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea, which the martyr Pamphilus so diligently collected. I also was allowed by the Nazarenes who use this volume in the Syrian city of Borea to copy it. In which is to be remarked that, wherever the evangelist... makes use of the testimonies of the Old Scripture, he does not follow the authority of the seventy translators [the Greek Septuagint], but that of the Hebrew."
"Pantaenus found that Bartholomew, one of the twelve emissaries, had there [India] preachedthe advent of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah according to the Gospel of Matthew, which was written in Hebrew letters, and which, on returning to Alexandria, he brought with him."
Jerome (382 C.E.)
His [Matthew's] book was in existence in Caesarea of Palestine, and everyone acknowledges that he wrote it with his hands in Hebrew...
Isho'dad (850 C.E.)
Other "church fathers" have testified to the Semitic origin of at least one of Paul's epistles. These "church fathers" claim that Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews was translated into Greek from a Hebrew original, as the following quotes demonstrate:
In the work called Hypotyposes, to sum up the matter briefly he [Clement of Alexandria] has given us abridged accounts of all the canonical Scriptures,... the Epistle to the Hebrews he asserts was written by Paul, to the Hebrews, in the Hebrew tongue; but that it was carefully translated by Luke, and published among the Greeks.
Clement of Alexandria (150 - 212 C.E.)
For as Paul had addressed the Hebrews in the language of his country; some say that the evangelist Luke, others that Clement, translated the epistle.
Eusebius (315 C.E.)
"He (Paul) being a Hebrew wrote in Hebrew, that is, his own tongue and most fluently while things which were eloquently written in Hebrew were more eloquently turned into Greek.
Jerome (382 C.E.)
It should be noted that these church fathers did not always agree that the other books of the New Testament were written in Hebrew. Epiphanius for example, believed "that only Matthew put the setting forth of the preaching of the Gospel into the New Testament in the Hebrew language and letters." Epiphanius does, however, tell us that the Jewish believers would disagree with him, and point out the existence of Hebrew copies of John and Acts in a "Gaza" or "treasury" [Genizah?] in Tiberias, Israel. Epiphanius believed these versions to be mere "translations" but admitted that the Jewish believers would disagree with him. The truth in this matter is clear, if Greek had replaced Hebrew as the language of Jews as early as the first century, then why would fourth century Jews have any need for Hebrew translations. The very existence of Hebrew manuscripts of these books in fourth century Israel testifies to their originality, not to mention the fact that the Jewish believers regarded them as authentic.
The Testimony of the Talmudic Rabbis
In addition to the statements made by the early Christian church fathers, the ancient Jewish Rabbis also hint of a Hebrew original for the Gospels. Both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds and the Tosefta relate a debate among Rabbinic Jews over the method of destruction of manuscripts of New Testament books . Specifically mentioned is a book called by them as (HEBREW FONT OMITTED) (or "Gospels"). The question which arose was how to handle the destruction of these manuscripts since they contained the actual name of God. It is of course, well known that the Greek New Testament manuscripts do not contain the Name but use the Greek titles "God" and "Lord" as substitutes. This is because the Name is not traditionally translated into other languages, but instead is (unfortunately) translated "Lord", just as we have it in most English Bibles today, and just as we find in our late manuscripts of the Septuagint. The manuscripts these Rabbi's were discussing must have represented the original Hebrew text from which the Greek was translated.
History of the Movement
That the New Testament, like the Old Testament, was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic is further verified by the history of the early believers in Yeshua as the Messiah. The first believers in Yeshua were a Jewish sect known as "Nazarenes" . Sometime later the first Gentile believers in Yeshua called "Christians" appeared . This first congregation of Gentile Christians formed in Antioch, the capital of Syria, where some of the people spoke Greek and almost all spoke Aramaic, which is also called "Syriac". Then in 70 C.E., there was a mass exodus of the Nazarenes from their center at Jerusalem to Pella. Eventually, they established communities in Beroea, Decapolis and Bashanitis. These Nazarenes used Hebrew Scriptures and in the fourth century Jerome traveled to Borea to copy their Hebrew Matthew. As a result, while at least the book of Matthew was first written in Hebrew, very early on Aramaic and Greek New Testament books were needed.
The Eastward Spread
In addition to these factors we must also consider the Eastern spread of Christianity. We have heard much about the so called "Westward spread of Christianity" but little is written of the equally profound Eastward movement. While Paul made missionary journeys from his headquarters in Antioch Syria, into the Western world, most of the emissaries (apostles) traveled eastward. Bartholomew traveled eastward through Assyria into Armenia, then back down through Assyria, Babylon, Parthia (Persia) and down into India where he was flayed alive with knives. Thaddeus taught in Edessa (a city of northern Syria) Assyria and Persia, dying a martyr by arrows either in Persia or at Ararat. Thomas taught in Parthia, Persia and India. He was martyred with a spear at Mt. St. Thomas near Madras in India. To this very day a group of Christians in India are called "St. Thomas Christians. Finally Kefa (Peter) traveled to Babylon and even wrote one of his letters from there . That the emissaries brought Semitic New Testament Scriptures eastward with them is affirmed to us by the Church fathers. Eusebius writes:
Pantaenus... penetrated as far as India, where it is reported that he found the Gospel according to Matthew, which had been delivered before his arrival to some who had the knowledge of Messiah, to whom Bartholomew one of the emissaries, as it is said, had preached, and left them the writing of Matthew in Hebrew letters.
And as Jerome writes:
Pantaenus found that Bartholomew, one of the twelve emissaries, had there [in India] preached the advent of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah according to the Gospel of Matthew, which was written in Hebrew letters...
This entire region of the Near East stretching from Israel through Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Persia (Parthia) and down into India, became known as the "Church of the East." At its high point the Church of the East stretched as far east as China! Today, the Syrian and Assyrian Christians have been split into various groups: Nestorians, Jacobites, Chaldean Roman Catholics, and Maronites. All of whom continue to use an Aramaic New Testament text.
When the Roman Catholic Portuguese invaded India in 1498 they encountered over a hundred churches belonging to the St. Thomas Christians along the coast of Malabar. These St. Thomas Christians, according to tradition, had been there since the first century. They had married clergymen, did not adore images or pray to or through saints, nor did they believe in purgatory. Most importantly they maintained use of the Aramaic New Testament which they claimed had been in use at Antioch.
The Westward Spread
Now while many of the emissaries were spreading the Messianic movement eastward, Paul was taking the movement into the Western world. > From his headquarters at Antioch, the capitol of Syria, Paul conducted several missionary journeys into Europe. At this time there came a need for Greek versions of New Testament books. As time progressed several events occurred which resulted in a great rise of anti-Semitism in the West. This began when the Jews revolted against the Roman Empire in 70 C.E.. A second revolt by Jews in Egypt occured in 116 C.E.. Things were further complicated by the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132 C.E.. In the Roman Empire anti-Semitism became very popular, and even patriotic. In the West, Gentile Christianity sought to distance itself from Judaism and Jewish customs. The Greek text began to be favored over the Semitic text and many Semitic writings were subsequently destroyed.
By 325 C.E. anti-Semitism and the priority given in the West to the Greek Scriptures had solidified. Constantine invaded Rome, making himself emporer. Constantine proclaimed Christianity to be the Catholic (universal) religion, thus making Christianity the enforced state religion of the Roman Empire. Before this occurred one could be killed for being a Christian, afterwards one could be killed for not being a "Christian." Constantine, who was an anti-Semite, called the council of Nicea in 325 C.E. to standardize Christianity. Jews were excluded from the meeting. Jewish practices were officially banned and the Greek translations officially replaced the original Semitic Scriptures. Having alienated the Jewish Nazarenes in 325 at the Council of Nicea, subsequent councils alienated the Assyrians and Syrians over Christological debates. The Nestorian Assyrians were alienated in 431 C.E. at the Council of Ephesus while the Jacobite Syrians were alienated in 451 C.E. at the Council of Chalcedon. The division between the Semitic peoples of the Near East, and the Roman Catholic Church grew ever steeper. With the rise of Islam in the Near East the Near Eastern Christians were even further separated from their European counterparts in the West. Relations between the Christian West and the Islamic Near East were non-existent.
As time progressed, in the West the Roman Catholic Church began to suppress the Scriptures in Europe. Those who would try to make the Scriptures available to the common man were often burned alive. Such suppression was impossible in the Near East, where the Scriptures were already in Aramaic, the common language of the people. When the Protestant reformation emerged, claiming the Greek New Testament as the original, it was a time when most Europeans were not even aware that an Aramaic version existed.
In was in this atmosphere, in 1516 that the first printed edition of the Greek New Testament was published in Europe. This edition, published by Erasmus, would become known as the Textus Receptus, and serve as the standard Greek text until the 19th Century. The first edition of this work was based solely on six manuscripts, while later editions used only ten. None of these manuscripts were complete, and only one was even particularly old, dating to the tenth century. Since none of his manuscripts were complete, Erasmus was forced to invent many of his Greek portions of Revelation by translating from the Latin Vulgate into Greek. It was this poor edition which served as the evidence by which the West would embrace the Greek as the original. This edition would later serve as the basis for the King James Version.
The Clear Truth About the Apocrypha
By James Scott Trimm
The term “Apocrypha” can be confusing at times, because it can be used in many different ways. For the purpose of this article, the term “Apocrypha” refers to the following collection of tthirteen books:
1 Esdras
2 Esdras
Tobit
Judith
Wisdom of Solomon
Wisdom of Ben Sira
Baruch
Letter of Jeremiah
The Prayer of Manasseh
1 Maccabees
2 Maccabees
3 Maccabees
4 Maccabees
These are books which are regarded as canon by some, but not all groups of Christians. I have not included in this list:
Additions to Esther
The Prayer of the Three Young Men
Susana
Bel and the Dragon
Psalm 151
These are not actually books, but rather extracts from “long versions” of the books of Esther, Daniel and Psalms. Whether or not the “long” versions of these books should be used is another, very important question, but not the question we are dealing with in this article.
We will also not discuss other books which are not part of these thirteeen books, which have some claim to authority (such as 1 Enoch and the Book of Jasher).
The thirteen books mentioned above were originally part of the Tanak (the so-called “Old Testament”) and were taken out of your Bible! In the following article I intend to prove beyond any doubt, that these thirteen books were originally part of the Bible and have since been removed.
The word “Apocrypha” means literally “hidden” indicating that these books were being removed from their place in Scripture, and placed or “hidden” in an appendix in the back of the book.
THE ANCIENT CANONS
None of these thiteen books are to be found in the canon of the Masoretic Text. However, the Masoretic Text is a rather late compilation, being a product of the Masorites between the 7th and 11th centuries C.E..
However the much older canon of the Greek Septuagint text, the translation of which was begun by the third century B.C.E. and completed before 132 B.C.E., included all of these books with the exception of 2 Esdras.
Also the canon of Aramaic Peshitta Tanak which was translated from the Hebrew, probably in the second century C.E.. contains all of these books except for 1 Esdras.
The books are also to be found in the fifth century canon of the so-called Christian Palestinian Aramaic Version.
These books are also to be found in the canons of the Old Slavonic, Old Armenian, Old Georgian and Old Coptic and Old Ethiopic versions of the Tanak.
These books are also to be found in the canon of the Old Latin version of the Tanak, and all but 2nd and 3rd Maccabees (though in modern editions 1st and 2nd Esdras are moved to an appendix).
In short, the earliest canon to omit these thirteeen books, is that of the Masoretic Text, which does not arise until the 7th to 11th centuries CE!
THE CHURCH FATHERS
One critic of the Apocrypha claimed: “The majority of the early church writers rejected these books as being inspired.”
This is absolutely false. Originally when writing this article, I intended to include quotations in which the pre-Nicean “Church Fathers” quote from the books of the Apocrypha as “Scripture”. I began gathering these quotes and soon realized that this task was well beyond the scope of this article. These “Church Fathers” do not just occasionally quote the books of the Apocrypha, they quote these books with as much consistency as the quote the other books of the Tanak And in quoting these books they refer to them as “Scripture” and even “Divine Scripture.” Among these “Church Fathers” are Ignatius, Polycarp, Pseudo-Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Irenaeus, Eusebius, Cyprian and Tertullian. This clearly demonstrates that the earliest “Christians” used these books and regarded them as canon.
ANCIENT JEWISH USAGE
Some or all of these books were used by the Essene community at Qumran. Among the manuscripts of Biblical books found among the Dead Sea Scrolls are also included many manuscripts of books of the Apocrypha including Ben Sira, Tobit and the Letter of Jeremiah. These texts are all Hebrew and Aramaic except for one fragment of the Letter of Jeremiah in Greek. There is every reason to believe that the Qumran Community accepted these books as part of their canon.
Josephus in his historical works makes use of historical portions of the Apocrypha. He makes use of both 1st and 2nd Maccabees and follows 1 Esdras as his primary source over the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, including the account of the competition in 1 Esdras 3:1-5:6 which is not to be found in Ezra or Nehemiah.
The Talmud quotes Ben Sira as “Scripture” three times (b.Hag. 13a; b.Yev. 63b; b.Ket.110b) six times in Midrash Rabbah (X:6; LXXIII:12; XCI:3; XXXIII:1; VII, 19; XII,11) and once in the Zohar (Raya Mehemna 42b).
The stories of the books of Tobit, Judith and the Maccabees also find themselves transcribed, usually in an abridged form, into the Midrashim.
USED IN THE NT
One critic of the Apocrypha wrote “These books existed before New Testament times, yet there is not one single quotation from the Apocrypha is in the New Testament.”
This is at the very least misleading, and at the very most, false.
These books were clearly used by the earliest believers in Messiah. While they are never quoted outright in the “New Testament”, they are often strongly alluded to.
The following comparisons are all taken from the KJV version for consistency.
"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,"
(Romans 1:20-29)
Clearly alluding to:
"For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen. ... Howbeit neither are they to be pardoned. ...They kept neither lives nor marriages any longer undefiled: but either one slew another traiterously, or grieved him by adultery.... For the worshipping of idols not to be named is the beginning, the cause, and the end, of all evil."
(Wisdom 13:5, 8; 14:24,27)
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,"
(Romans 1:20-29)
Clearly alluding to:
"For by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is seen. ... Howbeit neither are they to be pardoned. ...They kept neither lives nor marriages any longer undefiled: but either one slew another traiterously, or grieved him by adultery.... For the worshipping of idols not to be named is the beginning, the cause, and the end, of all evil."
(Wisdom 13:5, 8; 14:24,27)
"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour. What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,"
(Romans 9:20-23)
Certainly alluding to:
"For who shall say, What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy judgment? or who shall accuse thee for the nations that perish, whom thou made? or who shall come to stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men?... For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy children, and the condemned to death, with such deliberation, giving them time and place, whereby they might be delivered from their malice:... For the potter, tempering soft earth, fashioneth every vessel with much labour for our service: yea, of the same clay he maketh both the vessels that serve for clean uses, and likewise also all such as serve to the contrary: but what is the use of either sort, the potter himself is the judge."
(Wisdom 12:12, 20; 15:7)
(Romans 9:20-23)
Certainly alluding to:
"For who shall say, What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy judgment? or who shall accuse thee for the nations that perish, whom thou made? or who shall come to stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men?... For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy children, and the condemned to death, with such deliberation, giving them time and place, whereby they might be delivered from their malice:... For the potter, tempering soft earth, fashioneth every vessel with much labour for our service: yea, of the same clay he maketh both the vessels that serve for clean uses, and likewise also all such as serve to the contrary: but what is the use of either sort, the potter himself is the judge."
(Wisdom 12:12, 20; 15:7)
"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.... For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life."
(2 Corinthians 5:1, 4)
No doubt Paul is alluding to:
"For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthy tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things."
(Wisdom 9:15)
(2 Corinthians 5:1, 4)
No doubt Paul is alluding to:
"For the corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the earthy tabernacle weigheth down the mind that museth upon many things."
(Wisdom 9:15)
"Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:"
(Ephesians 6:11-17)
Well it does not take much to figure out that Paul did not invent the "full/complete armour" of Elohim , but drew the idea from:
"He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise."
(Wisdom 5:17-20)
"...he [Eleazar] conqured the besiegers with the shield of his devout reason. ... Therefore let us put on the full armour of self-control. .."
(4 Maccabees 7:4; 13:16 RSV)
(Ephesians 6:11-17)
Well it does not take much to figure out that Paul did not invent the "full/complete armour" of Elohim , but drew the idea from:
"He shall take to him his jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature his weapon for the revenge of his enemies. He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. He shall take holiness for an invincible shield. His severe wrath shall he sharpen for a sword, and the world shall fight with him against the unwise."
(Wisdom 5:17-20)
"...he [Eleazar] conqured the besiegers with the shield of his devout reason. ... Therefore let us put on the full armour of self-control. .."
(4 Maccabees 7:4; 13:16 RSV)
"Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.: The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ"
(1 Peter 3:20-21)
Kefa is alluding to the allegory in 4Maccabees:
"For like a most skilful pilot, the reason of our father Eleazar steered the ship of religion over the sea of the emotions, and though buffeted by the stormings of the tyrant and overwhelmed by the mighty waves of tortures, in no way did he turn the rudder of religion until he sailed into the haven of immortal victory....
Just as Noah's ark, carrying the world in the universal flood, stoutly endured the waves, so you, O guardian of the law, overwhelmed from every side by the flood of your emotions and the violent winds, the torture of your sons, endured nobly and withstood the wintry storms that assail religion."
(4 Maccabees 7:1-3 15:31-32 RSV)
(1 Peter 3:20-21)
Kefa is alluding to the allegory in 4Maccabees:
"For like a most skilful pilot, the reason of our father Eleazar steered the ship of religion over the sea of the emotions, and though buffeted by the stormings of the tyrant and overwhelmed by the mighty waves of tortures, in no way did he turn the rudder of religion until he sailed into the haven of immortal victory....
Just as Noah's ark, carrying the world in the universal flood, stoutly endured the waves, so you, O guardian of the law, overwhelmed from every side by the flood of your emotions and the violent winds, the torture of your sons, endured nobly and withstood the wintry storms that assail religion."
(4 Maccabees 7:1-3 15:31-32 RSV)
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:"
(James 1:19)
A near quote from Sirach:
"Be swift to hear; and let thy life be sincere; and with patience give answer."
(Sirach 5:11)
(James 1:19)
A near quote from Sirach:
"Be swift to hear; and let thy life be sincere; and with patience give answer."
(Sirach 5:11)
"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:"
(James 1:13)
Again Ya'akov (James) draws from Sirach:
"Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away: for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth. Say not thou, He hath caused me to err: for he hath no need of the sinful man."
(Sirach 15:11-12)
(James 1:13)
Again Ya'akov (James) draws from Sirach:
"Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away: for thou oughtest not to do the things that he hateth. Say not thou, He hath caused me to err: for he hath no need of the sinful man."
(Sirach 15:11-12)
"Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth."
(James 5:4)
Seems to allude to Tobit:
"Let not the wages of any man, which hath wrought for thee, tarry with thee, but give him it out of hand: for if thou serve God, he will also repay thee: be circumspect my son, in all things thou doest, and be wise in all thy conversation."
(Tobit 4:14)
(James 5:4)
Seems to allude to Tobit:
"Let not the wages of any man, which hath wrought for thee, tarry with thee, but give him it out of hand: for if thou serve God, he will also repay thee: be circumspect my son, in all things thou doest, and be wise in all thy conversation."
(Tobit 4:14)
"And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets."
(Revelation 8:2)
This concept draws from Tobit:
"I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One."
(Tobit 12:15)
(Revelation 8:2)
This concept draws from Tobit:
"I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One."
(Tobit 12:15)
"And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:... And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;: The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.: And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass."
(Revelation 19:1; 21:19-21)
Again the idea draws from Tobit:
"And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir. And all her streets shall say, Alleluia; and they shall praise him, saying, Blessed be God, which hath extolled it for ever."
(Tobit 13:17-18)
(Revelation 19:1; 21:19-21)
Again the idea draws from Tobit:
"And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir. And all her streets shall say, Alleluia; and they shall praise him, saying, Blessed be God, which hath extolled it for ever."
(Tobit 13:17-18)
Another case if found in comparing Jude 1:6-7 and 2 Peter 2:4-6 with 3 Maccabees 2:4-5:
"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
(Jude 1:6-7 KJV)
"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;"
(2 Peter 2:4-6 KJV)
This reference to the fallen angels event of Gen. 6 which brought the birth of “giants” wiped out by the flood immediately followed by a reference to the judgment of Sodom certainly alludes to:
"It was thou who didst destroy the former workers of unrighteousness, among whom were the giants, who trusted in their strength and hardihood, by covering them with a measureless flood. It was thou who didst make the Sodomites, those workers of exceeding iniquity, men notorious for their vices, an example to after generations, when thou didst cover them with fire and brimstone."
(3 Maccabees 2:4-5)
(Notice also the common phrase “an example to after generations/those after”)
SETTING SOME THINGS STRAIGHT
There are many claims made by those who oppose the Apocrypha, which need to be addressed:
1. "the lack of any Hebrew originals"
This argument fails on three levels.
First of all it fails because we do have Hebrew originals for at least parts of several of the books of the Apocrypha including Tobit, Judith, Ben Sira and 1Maccabees. We also have Aramaic Peshitta versions of all but 1Esdras, and we have good reason to believe (based on comparing the Hebrew of the Tanak and Ben Sira with the Aramaic of the Peshitta) that most or all of these were translated directly from the Hebrew and very literally. (For those that do not know, Aramaic is very similar to Hebrew, so a literal Aramaic translation of a Hebrew original is almost as good as having the Hebrew itself).
Second of all, at the time Rabbinic Judaism rejected these books most of all of them still existed in Hebrew, and at the time Protestantism rejected them, more of them existed in Hebrew than exist now. This is circular thinking. The Hebrew originals have largely been lost (or in some cases fallen into obscurity) because Protestantism and Rabbinic Judaism rejected them, and now they should be rejected because the Hebrew originals have been lost or fallen into obscurity.
A similar situation exists with certain books of the "New Testament". For example we can now establish beyond any real doubt that Revelation was originally written in Hebrew, but the original Hebrew is now lost and only Aramaic and Greek remain. Even for those of us who maintain Hebrew and Aramaic origins for the books of the NT, no good contenders for the original Hebrew or Aramaic of 2Kefa, 2 & 3 Yochanan and Jude are currently known. Would one also have us reject these books?
2. "and many of them contain theologically or factually problematic statements"
Again, those who reject all or part of the Bible make the same argument against the books that are in the canon. Antimissionaries make the same arguments against the NT. Certainly the canonical books contain statements which have been used by various groups as proof texts to "prove" various false doctrines. Moreover we are still trying to resolve just exactly what the original Hebrew and Aramaic of these books actually says.
OBJECTION:
1 and 2 Macabees disagree on how Antiochus IV died. 1 Mac 6:8-16 says he became grief stricken and died of sorrow in his bed. 2 Mac 9 says God struck him with a disease in his bowels on the battlefield and he was hurled from his chariot, dieing painfully on the ground with worms coming out of his eyes and his flesh rotting as the army looked on. Obviously, both accounts cannot be true, but both accounts appear in the Catholic edition of "Scripture".
RESPONSE:
This reminds me of anti-missionary arguments that Matthew and Acts disagree on how Judas died. When the various manuscript versions are compared in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek we find that the two accounts can be resolved. In fact the original Hebrew of 1Maccabees has many agreements with 2Maccabees on the death of Antiochus Epiphanies against the Greek version of 1 Maccabees.
CLAIM:
2 Macabees encourages us to pray for the dead, a common Catholic practice. This practice is justified by this passage...
"Judas urged the people to keep themselves free from all sin,....he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmae, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for the sin offered, an altogether fine and noble action, in which he took full account of the resurrection. For if he had not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superflurious to pray for the dead, whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, the thought was holy and devout. This was why he had this atonement sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin."
(2 Maccabees 12:42-45, The Jerusalem Bible)
This passage was used to support the Catholic idea of indulgences – that money can buy atonement for one's sins by someone other than the sinner even after he died!!!!
Just because a certain passage has been misused by some group does not mean the book should be rejected. If that were the case we would reject the canon based on its misuse by the Jehovah's Witnesses.
OBJECTION:
2 Maccabees 5:12-16 claims that Jeremiah prayed for Israel after he died, which provided the Catholic Church it's basis for praying to Mary and other cannonized "saints". In fact that essentially means that there were corruptions in the Catholic Church that did not come from paganism but from ancient writings written by Jewish men .... but rejected by the overwhelming majority of Jewish leaders.
RESPONSE:
Although Catholics have justified this doctrine from this passage this is only rationalizing of a doctrine they transferred from paganism. They pray to various "saints" as to pagan gods. This event was much more akin to that of the mount of transfiguration event in Matthew 17.
OBJECTION:
Sirach, found only in the Apocrypha, also promotes this concept by saying "almsgiving atones for sins." (Sirach 3:33) and Tobit also says "alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness." (Tobit 4:11).
RESPONSE:
I assume they refer to Sira 3:29 which is 3:30 in some versions. The Hebrew may be understood as "Therefore the almsgiver shall be atoned for his sins" (no cause and effect indicated) and the Aramaic literally reads "Therefore the almsgiver forsakes his sins". The KJV of Tobit 4:10-11 reads:
"Because that alms do deliver from death, and suffereth not to come into darkness. For alms is a good gift unto all that give it in the sight of the most High."
The Hebrew of Tobit 4:11 reads:
"… and alms do deliver from death; and everyone who occupies himself in almsgiving shall behold the face of Elohim, as it is written, "I will behold your face by almsgiving" (Ps. 17:15)
Likewise we read in Proverbs “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of YHWH men depart from evil.” (Prov. 16:6)… should we remove Proverbs from the canon?
OBJECTION:
Sirach 10:26 even says "Do not try to be smart when you do your work.". Why not? My career would be in ruins if I followed that advice.
RESPONSE:
The Aramaic says "Be not lazy when you do your work"
OBJECTION:
Judith 1:1 incorrectly claims that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Assyria when he was king of Babylon and claims that he reigned from Ninevah, contrary to the Scriptures which tell us he reigned from Babylon.. Keep in mind that it was the Assyrians that captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim and the Babylonians that captured the southern kingdom of Judah.
Another critic says:
They [The Apocrypha] abound in historical and geographical inaccuracies and anachronisms. [referring to the book of Judith]
RESPONSE:
This "problem" is just plain silliness. The proper names in the Book of Judith were encoded. The Book was written during the Maccabean rebellion and names were changed to protect Judith herself as well as anyone possessing a copy pf the book. "Nebuchadnezzar" stood in place of "Antiochus Epiphanies" because both names have the same numerical value (gematria) in Hebrew. "Assyria" is used as code for the Seleucid Empire, and "Nineveh" is the codeword used for "Antioch". These facts are well recognized in the Midrashim which refer to this story with that decoding scheme.
HOW DID WE GET OUR CANON?
Now it is very unlikely that early Christians, after their split from Nazarene Judaism would have adopted any books from Rabbinic Jews. Thus any “Old Testament” books used as canon by the earliest Christians would have to have been inherited to them from their Nazarene forefathers.
The evidence is overwhelming, these books were originally part of the Bible and have since been removed.
All English-language Protestant Bibles in the 16th Century included the books of the Apocrypha—generally in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments; However, Puritan theologians were inclined to reject books which owed their inclusion in the Biblical canon to ecclesiastical authority. Starting in 1630, volumes of the Geneva Bible were occasionally bound with the pages of the Apocrypha section excluded. After the Restoration in 1660, Dissenters tended to discourage the reading of the Apocrypha in both public services and in private devotion.
The 1611 KJV included the Apocrypha but many publishers sought to satisfy a demand for cheaper and less bulky Bibles. In 1615 public notice was made that no Bibles were to be bound and sold without the Apocrypha with a penalty of one year in prison. None the less publishers continued seeking to increase their profit margin and soon it became difficult to find an ordinary edition of the KJV which contained the Apocrypha. (Today publishers are doing the same thing with the rest of the Tanak, simply printing the New Testament alone).
"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
(Jude 1:6-7 KJV)
"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;"
(2 Peter 2:4-6 KJV)
This reference to the fallen angels event of Gen. 6 which brought the birth of “giants” wiped out by the flood immediately followed by a reference to the judgment of Sodom certainly alludes to:
"It was thou who didst destroy the former workers of unrighteousness, among whom were the giants, who trusted in their strength and hardihood, by covering them with a measureless flood. It was thou who didst make the Sodomites, those workers of exceeding iniquity, men notorious for their vices, an example to after generations, when thou didst cover them with fire and brimstone."
(3 Maccabees 2:4-5)
(Notice also the common phrase “an example to after generations/those after”)
SETTING SOME THINGS STRAIGHT
There are many claims made by those who oppose the Apocrypha, which need to be addressed:
1. "the lack of any Hebrew originals"
This argument fails on three levels.
First of all it fails because we do have Hebrew originals for at least parts of several of the books of the Apocrypha including Tobit, Judith, Ben Sira and 1Maccabees. We also have Aramaic Peshitta versions of all but 1Esdras, and we have good reason to believe (based on comparing the Hebrew of the Tanak and Ben Sira with the Aramaic of the Peshitta) that most or all of these were translated directly from the Hebrew and very literally. (For those that do not know, Aramaic is very similar to Hebrew, so a literal Aramaic translation of a Hebrew original is almost as good as having the Hebrew itself).
Second of all, at the time Rabbinic Judaism rejected these books most of all of them still existed in Hebrew, and at the time Protestantism rejected them, more of them existed in Hebrew than exist now. This is circular thinking. The Hebrew originals have largely been lost (or in some cases fallen into obscurity) because Protestantism and Rabbinic Judaism rejected them, and now they should be rejected because the Hebrew originals have been lost or fallen into obscurity.
A similar situation exists with certain books of the "New Testament". For example we can now establish beyond any real doubt that Revelation was originally written in Hebrew, but the original Hebrew is now lost and only Aramaic and Greek remain. Even for those of us who maintain Hebrew and Aramaic origins for the books of the NT, no good contenders for the original Hebrew or Aramaic of 2Kefa, 2 & 3 Yochanan and Jude are currently known. Would one also have us reject these books?
2. "and many of them contain theologically or factually problematic statements"
Again, those who reject all or part of the Bible make the same argument against the books that are in the canon. Antimissionaries make the same arguments against the NT. Certainly the canonical books contain statements which have been used by various groups as proof texts to "prove" various false doctrines. Moreover we are still trying to resolve just exactly what the original Hebrew and Aramaic of these books actually says.
OBJECTION:
1 and 2 Macabees disagree on how Antiochus IV died. 1 Mac 6:8-16 says he became grief stricken and died of sorrow in his bed. 2 Mac 9 says God struck him with a disease in his bowels on the battlefield and he was hurled from his chariot, dieing painfully on the ground with worms coming out of his eyes and his flesh rotting as the army looked on. Obviously, both accounts cannot be true, but both accounts appear in the Catholic edition of "Scripture".
RESPONSE:
This reminds me of anti-missionary arguments that Matthew and Acts disagree on how Judas died. When the various manuscript versions are compared in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek we find that the two accounts can be resolved. In fact the original Hebrew of 1Maccabees has many agreements with 2Maccabees on the death of Antiochus Epiphanies against the Greek version of 1 Maccabees.
CLAIM:
2 Macabees encourages us to pray for the dead, a common Catholic practice. This practice is justified by this passage...
"Judas urged the people to keep themselves free from all sin,....he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmae, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for the sin offered, an altogether fine and noble action, in which he took full account of the resurrection. For if he had not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superflurious to pray for the dead, whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, the thought was holy and devout. This was why he had this atonement sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin."
(2 Maccabees 12:42-45, The Jerusalem Bible)
This passage was used to support the Catholic idea of indulgences – that money can buy atonement for one's sins by someone other than the sinner even after he died!!!!
Just because a certain passage has been misused by some group does not mean the book should be rejected. If that were the case we would reject the canon based on its misuse by the Jehovah's Witnesses.
OBJECTION:
2 Maccabees 5:12-16 claims that Jeremiah prayed for Israel after he died, which provided the Catholic Church it's basis for praying to Mary and other cannonized "saints". In fact that essentially means that there were corruptions in the Catholic Church that did not come from paganism but from ancient writings written by Jewish men .... but rejected by the overwhelming majority of Jewish leaders.
RESPONSE:
Although Catholics have justified this doctrine from this passage this is only rationalizing of a doctrine they transferred from paganism. They pray to various "saints" as to pagan gods. This event was much more akin to that of the mount of transfiguration event in Matthew 17.
OBJECTION:
Sirach, found only in the Apocrypha, also promotes this concept by saying "almsgiving atones for sins." (Sirach 3:33) and Tobit also says "alms deliver from all sin, and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness." (Tobit 4:11).
RESPONSE:
I assume they refer to Sira 3:29 which is 3:30 in some versions. The Hebrew may be understood as "Therefore the almsgiver shall be atoned for his sins" (no cause and effect indicated) and the Aramaic literally reads "Therefore the almsgiver forsakes his sins". The KJV of Tobit 4:10-11 reads:
"Because that alms do deliver from death, and suffereth not to come into darkness. For alms is a good gift unto all that give it in the sight of the most High."
The Hebrew of Tobit 4:11 reads:
"… and alms do deliver from death; and everyone who occupies himself in almsgiving shall behold the face of Elohim, as it is written, "I will behold your face by almsgiving" (Ps. 17:15)
Likewise we read in Proverbs “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of YHWH men depart from evil.” (Prov. 16:6)… should we remove Proverbs from the canon?
OBJECTION:
Sirach 10:26 even says "Do not try to be smart when you do your work.". Why not? My career would be in ruins if I followed that advice.
RESPONSE:
The Aramaic says "Be not lazy when you do your work"
OBJECTION:
Judith 1:1 incorrectly claims that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Assyria when he was king of Babylon and claims that he reigned from Ninevah, contrary to the Scriptures which tell us he reigned from Babylon.. Keep in mind that it was the Assyrians that captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel/Ephraim and the Babylonians that captured the southern kingdom of Judah.
Another critic says:
They [The Apocrypha] abound in historical and geographical inaccuracies and anachronisms. [referring to the book of Judith]
RESPONSE:
This "problem" is just plain silliness. The proper names in the Book of Judith were encoded. The Book was written during the Maccabean rebellion and names were changed to protect Judith herself as well as anyone possessing a copy pf the book. "Nebuchadnezzar" stood in place of "Antiochus Epiphanies" because both names have the same numerical value (gematria) in Hebrew. "Assyria" is used as code for the Seleucid Empire, and "Nineveh" is the codeword used for "Antioch". These facts are well recognized in the Midrashim which refer to this story with that decoding scheme.
HOW DID WE GET OUR CANON?
Now it is very unlikely that early Christians, after their split from Nazarene Judaism would have adopted any books from Rabbinic Jews. Thus any “Old Testament” books used as canon by the earliest Christians would have to have been inherited to them from their Nazarene forefathers.
The evidence is overwhelming, these books were originally part of the Bible and have since been removed.
All English-language Protestant Bibles in the 16th Century included the books of the Apocrypha—generally in a separate section between the Old and New Testaments; However, Puritan theologians were inclined to reject books which owed their inclusion in the Biblical canon to ecclesiastical authority. Starting in 1630, volumes of the Geneva Bible were occasionally bound with the pages of the Apocrypha section excluded. After the Restoration in 1660, Dissenters tended to discourage the reading of the Apocrypha in both public services and in private devotion.
The 1611 KJV included the Apocrypha but many publishers sought to satisfy a demand for cheaper and less bulky Bibles. In 1615 public notice was made that no Bibles were to be bound and sold without the Apocrypha with a penalty of one year in prison. None the less publishers continued seeking to increase their profit margin and soon it became difficult to find an ordinary edition of the KJV which contained the Apocrypha. (Today publishers are doing the same thing with the rest of the Tanak, simply printing the New Testament alone).
The Book of Jasher Revealed
By James Scott Trimm
JASHER AND THE BIBLE
The Book of Jasher is one of the so-called "Lost Books" of the Bible.
The Book of Jasher is twice cited in the Tanak:
"Is not this written in the Book of Jasher?" (Joshua 10:13)
"Behold it is written in the Book of Jasher." (2 Samuel 1:18)
This fresh Messianic Sacred Name translation from the original Hebrew is at http://www.lulu.com/nazarene
The term "Book of Jasher" is a bit misleading. This was not a book written by someone named "Jasher". In fact the word "Jasher" (Hebrew: Yashar) means "Upright" so that the Hebrew Sefer HaYashar is "The Upright Book". The definite article "Ha" tips us off that this is not a person's name but a modifier for the word "book".
There are two references to Jasher in the Tanak:
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still.
(Joshua 10:13)
Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.
(2 Samuel 1:18)
From these two references in the Tanak there are several things we can learn about this mysterious book.
From the usage in Joshua 10:13 we can determine:
That Jasher contained the account of the prolonged day mentioned in Joshua 10.
That Jasher was in circulation by the time the book of Joshua was written. Since Joshua was written prior to the death of Rahab, Jasher must have been written by that time as well.
The Book of Jasher had enough credibility that Joshua would cite it as support for his assertion of the prolonged day.
The usage in 2 Samuel 1:18 tells us:
The Book of Jasher supported an admonition to teach the son's of Judah "the bow".
The identity of this lost book has been a matter of much speculation over the centuries.
The ancient translations and paraphrases offer little help to us in identifying the Book of Jasher.
The Greek LXX omits the entire phrase from Joshua 10:13 and translates the the phrase to mean "The Book of the Upright" in 2Sam. 1:18. The Latin Vulgate has in both places "Liber Justorum" "The Book of the Upright Ones". In the Targums the phrase is Paraphrased as "The Book of the Law".
The Aramaic Peshitta Tanak has "The Book of Praises" in Joshua 10:13 and "The Book of the Song" in 2Sam. 1:18. This may have resulted fromma misreading of YUD-SHIN-RESH (Upright) as SHIN-YUD-RESH (Song). And some have speculated that the book in question was actually a book of songs which included reference to Joshua 10:13 in the lyrics of a song. This theory also takes "the bow" in 2Sam. 1:18 to be the name of a song.
JASHER AND THE TALMUD
The Talmud discusses the identity of Jasher but also fails to offer us much real direction. In b.Avodah Zarah 25a Several theories for the identity of the Book of Jasher are proposed.
Rabbi Chiyya ben Abba taught in the name of Rabbi Yochanan that it is "the book of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" who are called "righteous". He seems to refer to Genesis since he sites Gen. 49:8 as the reference to Judah being taught "the bow".
Rabbi Eleazar identified Jasher as Deuteronomy based on Deut. 4:18. He cites Deut. 33:7 as the reference to Judah and archery.
Rabbi Samuel ben Nachmani identified Jasher as the book of Judges based on Judges 17:6. He found the reference to Judah and archery in Judges 3:2 & 1:1-2.
None of these explanations offered by the Talmudic rabbis seek to explain how any of these biblical books could have been referenced by Joshua 10:13 (especially Judges which was written AFTER Joshua). Could these Rabbis have used a text of Joshua which agreed with the LXX in omitting reference to the Book of Jasher? At any rate if we accept the reference to Jasher in Joshua 10:13 then we must reject these identifications of Jasher made in the Talmud.
While the Rabbis of the Talmud seem to have lost knowledge of them identity of the Book of Jasher, its identity was known to earlier generations.
LAID UP IN THE TEMPLE
In his own recounting of the event of the prolonged day of Joshua 10 the first century Jewish Roman historian Josephus identifies the Book of Jasher mentioned by Joshua as one of "the books laid up in the Temple" (Ant. 5:1:17). Thus the Book of Jasher was known to Josephus and was known to be among the books laid up in the Temple in the first century.
THREE BOOKS OF JASHER
There are at least three books today with the title "Book of Jasher"/"Sefer HaYashar".
One of these is a Hebrew book which was never intended to be identified with the Sefer HaYashar or the Bible. (Remember Sefer HaYashar means "The Upright Book".)
Another "Book of Jasher" is a very bad English forgery published first in 1751 and again in 1829. This version claims the be written by a man named "Jasher". This forgery opens with the phrase "Whilst it was the beginning, darkness overspread the face of nature." Reprints of this forgery still circulate today. If you have a copy of the Book of Jasher you will want to make sure it is not this one.
The last Book of Jasher is the only one with any real potential to be the real "Book of Jasher". This "Book of Jasher" was published in Hebrew in Venice in 1625, translated into English by Moses Samuel and published by Mordechai Noah in New York in 1840 *3*. It was Moses Samuel who first divided the work into chapter and verse (being 81 chapters. A second edition of this translation was published in Salt Lake City by J. H. Parry & Company in 1887. Both editions have been reprinted and republished several times. In 1954 Bible Corporation of America in Philadelphia reprinted the 1840 edition. They also translated it from English into Italian, Spanish, French and German for publication in those languages as well. This Book of Jasher is the one we will be discussing. There has been some debate as to whether this Book of Jasher is the book mentioned in the Bible or just a Midrash which some have speculated originated in the 13th century. Certainly the book claims to be the same Book of Jasher mentioned in the Bible.
THE REAL BOOK OF JASHER?
The 1625 edition of Jasher has a Preface, which says in part (translated from the Hebrew):
...when the holy city Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, all the military heads went in to rob and plunder, and among the officers of Titus was one whose name was Sidrus, who went in to search, and found in Jerusalem a house of great extent...
According to the preface this Sidrus found a false wall in this house with a hidden room. In this room he found an old man hiding with provisions and many books including the Book of Jasher. The old man found favor with Sidrus who took the old man and his books with him.
The preface says "they went from city to city and from country to country until they reached Sevilia [a city in Spain]." At that time "Seville" was called "Hispalis" and was the capital of the Roman province of Hispalensis. The manuscript was donated to the Jewish college at Cordova, Spain.
According to the 1625 edition of Jasher the first printed edition of the Book of Jasher was published in Naples Italy in 1552. However no copies of the 1552 edition are known to have survived. The earliest surviving Hebrew edition known is the 1625 edition.
The Book of Jasher is a narrative beginning with the creation of man and ends with the entry of Israel into Canaan.
The Book of Jasher passage related to Joshua 10:13 reads as follows:
And when they were smiting, the day was declining toward evening, and Joshua said in the sight of all the people, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon, until the nation shall have revenged itself upon its enemies.
(Joshua 10:13)
And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Joshua, and the sun stood still in the midst of the heavens, and it stood still six and thirty moments, and the moon also stood still and hastened not to go down a whole day.
(Jasher 88:63-64)
The Book of Jasher passage which relates to 2 Samuel 1:18 involves Jacob's last words to his son Judah:
"Only teach thy sons the bow and all weapons of war, in order that they may fight the battles of their brother who will rule over his enemies."
(Jasher 56:9)
This reads very similar to the midrash which gives these last words as:
"Thou, my son, art stronger than all thy brethren, and from thy loins will kings arise. Teach thy children how they may protect themselves from enemies and evil-doers."
It would seem that the author of Jasher did not create this account to fit with 2Sam. 1:18 since the same account occurs in the midrash (which itself may have been drawn from Jasher).
Certainly many serious scholars have concluded that this Book of Jasher is authentic. The well known Hebraist and Rabbinic Scholar (and translator of the 1840 Book of Jasher) Moses Samuel wrote of Jasher:
"...the book is, with the exception of some doubtful parts, a venerable monument of antiquity; and that, notwithstanding some few additions have been made to it in comparatively modern times, it still retains sufficient to prove it a copy of the book referred to in Joshua, ch. x, and 2 Samuel, ch. 1."
- Moses Samuel, Hebraist and Rabbinic Scholar
And my old friend and mentor, the late Dr. Cyrus Gordon (who was the world's leading Semitist until his death) said:
"There can be little doubt that the book of Jasher was a national epic... The time is ripe for a fresh investigation of such genuine sources of Scripture, particularly against the background of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
- Dr. Cyrus Gordon
Proof of the Ancient Origin of the Book of Jasher
One major stumbling block in Book of Jasher research has been the lack of real evidence that the Book of Jasher (the one that we have) is truly ancient. There has been no hard evidence to prove that this Book of Jasher existed prior to 1625.
But now the proof has been found!
In the Masoretic Text and Septuagint of Gen. 5:18 has "And Jared lived one hundred and sixty two years". But the Book of Jasher 2:37 has "And Jared lived sixty two years". Amazingly this agrees with the Samaritan Pentateuch of Gen. 5:18.
How could the Book of Jasher and the Samaritan Pentateuch share the same scribal error? How could this reading have made its way into the Book of Jasher? If the Book of Jasher were a late compilation made in the Middle Ages, it would certainly have simply copied from the Masoretic Text. Surely a Jewish writer in Europe in the Middle Ages would not have copied data from the Samaritan Pentateuch. This is clear evidence for the ancient origin of the Book of Jasher.
There is also a similar scribal error in Jasher 5:13 where Methuselah begets Lamech at eighty seven. In the Masoretic Text this number is given as one hundred and eighty seven. In the Septuagint it is given as one hundred and sixty seven, and in the Samaritan Pentateuch as sixty seven.
Here the reading agrees with the Samaritan Pentateuch in omitting “one hundred” but agrees with the Masoretic Text in reading “eighty seven”. The Book of Jasher is clearly part of the ancient textual tradition here, and not simply borrowing from the Masoretic Text.
NEW EDITION OF JASHER
I have in recent months completed work on the new translation of the "lost" "Book of Jasher" (cited in Joshua 10:13 & 2 Samuel 1:18) from the original Hebrew. This has been a major project, taking several weeks to complete. This is the first "Messianic", "Sacred Name" version actually translated from the original Hebrew. (http://www.lulu.com/nazarene). This edition includes a number of passages which were (for whatever reason) omitted from the 1840 Moses Samuel translation which has circulated as the only available English translation until now. (The version published by Moshe K. is merely a revision of the 1840 English edition without any consultation of the original Hebrew.)
In my work on Jasher I have found that many Hebrew sections (some of them lengthy and important) have been omitted from all current English editions (Including Moshe's K's RSTNE).
I have also found that the english titles of Elohim used in Moses Samuel's edition do not accurately reflect the Sacred Names used in the actual Hebrew, and therefore the "True Name" edition produced by Moshe K. does not contain the true Sacred Names at all.
The English translation of the Book of Jasher that is in current use was made my Moses Samuel in 1839 and published in 1840 and again in 1887 and has been published several times since in reprints of those editions.
There is also a "True Name" edition which was produced by Moshe Koniuchowsky using the Moses Samuel translation as a base text.
Moses Samual's translation was a monumental work in its time, but it does include many errors, and it cannot be used to produce an accurate Sacred Name version of Jasher.
There are several passages in which Moses Samuel failed to include passages, some of them lengthy and inportant, in his translation.
For example Jasher 1:36. Moses Samuel Translates:
And Irad was born to Enoch, and Irad begat Mechuyael and Mechuyael begat Methusael.
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And Irad was born to Chanok, and Irad begat Mechuyael and Mechuyael begat Methusael.
However upon examining the Hebrew text I found that Moses Samuel had neglected a line of text and failed to include "and M'tushael begat Lamech".
The Hebraic-Roots Version of the Book of Jasher reads here as follows:
And Irad was born to Chanoch, and Irad begat M'chuyael and M'chuyael begat M'tushael and M'tushael begat Lamech.
Now lets look at Jasher 3:3. Moses Samuel translates:
And it was at the expiration of many years, whilst he was serving the Lord, and praying before him in his house, that an angel of the Lord called to him from Heaven, and he said, Here am I.
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And it was at the expiration of many years, while he was serving YHWH, and praying before him in his house, that a malach of the Lord called to him from ha shamayim, and he said, Hinayni.
However, once again, in examining the original Hebrew I found that Moses Samuel had failed to include a section of text.
Thus the Hebraic Roots Version of Jasher reads:
And it was at the end of many days and years, while he was serving before YHWH, and praying before YHWH in [his] house, that an angel of YHWH called to him from Heaven saying: Chanoch, Chanoch, and he said, Here am I.
In Jasher 3:22 There is an even longer segment omitted by Moses Samuel. Here the Moses Samuel Translation reads:
And the day came when Enoch went forth and they all assembled and came to him, and Enoch spoke to them the words of the Lord and he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and they bowed down before him and they said, May the king live! May the king live!
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And the day came when Chanok went forth and they all assembled and came to him, and Enoch spoke to them the words of YHWH and he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and they bowed down before him and they said, May the melech live! May the melech live!
Once again an examination of the Hebrew demonstrated that Moses Samuel left out a section of text, this time a fairly lengthy one.
The Hebraic-Roots Version of Jasher reads here as follows:
And the day came when Chanoch went forth and they all assembled and came to him, and Chanoch spoke to them all the words [of YHWH] and he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and he taught them the fear of YHWH. And all the sons of men feared him greatly and they were astonished by him concerning his wisdom. And all the land bowed to his face and they said, May the king live! May the king live!
Another example is in Jasher 10:19. Moses Samuel has:
And the children of Ham were Cush, Mitzraim, Phut and Canaan according to their generation and cities.
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And the children of Ham were Cush, Mitzrayim, Phut and Kanaan according to their generation and cities.
However the HRV Version of Jasher will restore a LARGE missing section in this verse as follows:
And the children of Ham the son of Noach went also and built to themselves cities in places where they were scattered and called also the names of the cities by their names and by their occurrences and these are the names of all their cities according to their families which built to them in those days after the tower and the children of Ham were Kush, Mitzraim, Put and Kanaan according to their generation and cities.
Moses Samuel in his 1840 translation seems to have omitted everything between the first and second appearances of "the children of Ham". He must have taken his eyes off of the text and then found the key phrase "the children of Ham" in the wrong place.
Another example is in Jasher 19:36. Moses Samuel has:
And in the city of Admah there was a woman to whom they did the like.
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And in the city of Admah there was a woman to whom they did the same.
The Hebraic Roots Version of Jasher reads as follows:
And also in the city of Admah there was a certain girl, a daughter of a noble of the men of Admah and they did the same thing to her.
OTHER MISTRANSLATIONS
In Jasher 4:12, Moses Samuel mistakenly translates the phrase "rebelled against God". Moshe K's version has "rebelled against Elohim". But the actual Hebrew has "rebelled against the ground" as the HRV version of Jasher reads.
In Jasher 6:36, Moses Samuel has the phrase "the earth and the heavens". Moshe Koniuchowsky also has "the earth and the heavens". The Hebrew actually reads: HaEretz V'HaYamim "the land and the seas" as the HRV version of Jasher will read.
The Hebrew word ERETZ can mean either "land" or "earth" however Moses Samuel misread YAMIM ("seas") as SHAMAYIM ("heavens").
A TRUE SACRED NAME EDITION
There are also many passages in which Moses Samuel failed to accurately translate "Sacred Names". Since Moshe Koniuchowsky's version simply revises Samuel's translation without consulting the Hebrew, the result, though called a "True Name Edition" often does not contain the True Sacred Names which actually appear in the original Hebrew text of Jasher.
For example, Jasher 1:10:
"...and she transgressed the word of God..."
- Moses Samuel Translation of 1840
"...and she transgressed the word of Elohim..."
- Moshe K. "True Name" version
But the Hebrew actually has:
"...and she transgressed the word of YHWH..."
- Hebraic Roots Version
And again just five verses later, Jasher 1:15:
"...and God turned and inclined to Able..."
- Moses Samuel Translation of 1840
"...and Elohim turned and inclined to Avel..."
- Moshe K. "True Name" version
But the Hebrew actually has:
"...and YHWH turned and inclined to Havel..."
- Hebraic Roots Version
And in Jasher 2:24:
"...I obtained him from the Almighty God."
- Moses Samuel
"...I obtained him from the Almighty Elohim."
- Moshe K. "True Name" version
But the text actually reads:
"...I obtained him from El Shaddai."
- Hebraic Roots Version
(These are just a few examples from the first two chapters)
MORE
In Jasher 19:2 we are told that Avraham's servant gave sound-alike names to the wicked judges of Sodom and Amorah (Gamorrah). In the editions of Moses Samuel and Moshe K. there is no explaination as to these sound-alike names. However the HRV version of Jasher has footnotes to each of these four alternate names explaining their actual meaining as "word plays" making fun of these wicked judges.
The Book of Jasher in a fresh Sacred Name translation from the Hebrew, including passages which were inadvertently omitted from prior translations is available at (click on the book below):
By James Scott Trimm
JASHER AND THE BIBLE
The Book of Jasher is one of the so-called "Lost Books" of the Bible.
The Book of Jasher is twice cited in the Tanak:
"Is not this written in the Book of Jasher?" (Joshua 10:13)
"Behold it is written in the Book of Jasher." (2 Samuel 1:18)
This fresh Messianic Sacred Name translation from the original Hebrew is at http://www.lulu.com/nazarene
The term "Book of Jasher" is a bit misleading. This was not a book written by someone named "Jasher". In fact the word "Jasher" (Hebrew: Yashar) means "Upright" so that the Hebrew Sefer HaYashar is "The Upright Book". The definite article "Ha" tips us off that this is not a person's name but a modifier for the word "book".
There are two references to Jasher in the Tanak:
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still.
(Joshua 10:13)
Also he bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.
(2 Samuel 1:18)
From these two references in the Tanak there are several things we can learn about this mysterious book.
From the usage in Joshua 10:13 we can determine:
That Jasher contained the account of the prolonged day mentioned in Joshua 10.
That Jasher was in circulation by the time the book of Joshua was written. Since Joshua was written prior to the death of Rahab, Jasher must have been written by that time as well.
The Book of Jasher had enough credibility that Joshua would cite it as support for his assertion of the prolonged day.
The usage in 2 Samuel 1:18 tells us:
The Book of Jasher supported an admonition to teach the son's of Judah "the bow".
The identity of this lost book has been a matter of much speculation over the centuries.
The ancient translations and paraphrases offer little help to us in identifying the Book of Jasher.
The Greek LXX omits the entire phrase from Joshua 10:13 and translates the the phrase to mean "The Book of the Upright" in 2Sam. 1:18. The Latin Vulgate has in both places "Liber Justorum" "The Book of the Upright Ones". In the Targums the phrase is Paraphrased as "The Book of the Law".
The Aramaic Peshitta Tanak has "The Book of Praises" in Joshua 10:13 and "The Book of the Song" in 2Sam. 1:18. This may have resulted fromma misreading of YUD-SHIN-RESH (Upright) as SHIN-YUD-RESH (Song). And some have speculated that the book in question was actually a book of songs which included reference to Joshua 10:13 in the lyrics of a song. This theory also takes "the bow" in 2Sam. 1:18 to be the name of a song.
JASHER AND THE TALMUD
The Talmud discusses the identity of Jasher but also fails to offer us much real direction. In b.Avodah Zarah 25a Several theories for the identity of the Book of Jasher are proposed.
Rabbi Chiyya ben Abba taught in the name of Rabbi Yochanan that it is "the book of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" who are called "righteous". He seems to refer to Genesis since he sites Gen. 49:8 as the reference to Judah being taught "the bow".
Rabbi Eleazar identified Jasher as Deuteronomy based on Deut. 4:18. He cites Deut. 33:7 as the reference to Judah and archery.
Rabbi Samuel ben Nachmani identified Jasher as the book of Judges based on Judges 17:6. He found the reference to Judah and archery in Judges 3:2 & 1:1-2.
None of these explanations offered by the Talmudic rabbis seek to explain how any of these biblical books could have been referenced by Joshua 10:13 (especially Judges which was written AFTER Joshua). Could these Rabbis have used a text of Joshua which agreed with the LXX in omitting reference to the Book of Jasher? At any rate if we accept the reference to Jasher in Joshua 10:13 then we must reject these identifications of Jasher made in the Talmud.
While the Rabbis of the Talmud seem to have lost knowledge of them identity of the Book of Jasher, its identity was known to earlier generations.
LAID UP IN THE TEMPLE
In his own recounting of the event of the prolonged day of Joshua 10 the first century Jewish Roman historian Josephus identifies the Book of Jasher mentioned by Joshua as one of "the books laid up in the Temple" (Ant. 5:1:17). Thus the Book of Jasher was known to Josephus and was known to be among the books laid up in the Temple in the first century.
THREE BOOKS OF JASHER
There are at least three books today with the title "Book of Jasher"/"Sefer HaYashar".
One of these is a Hebrew book which was never intended to be identified with the Sefer HaYashar or the Bible. (Remember Sefer HaYashar means "The Upright Book".)
Another "Book of Jasher" is a very bad English forgery published first in 1751 and again in 1829. This version claims the be written by a man named "Jasher". This forgery opens with the phrase "Whilst it was the beginning, darkness overspread the face of nature." Reprints of this forgery still circulate today. If you have a copy of the Book of Jasher you will want to make sure it is not this one.
The last Book of Jasher is the only one with any real potential to be the real "Book of Jasher". This "Book of Jasher" was published in Hebrew in Venice in 1625, translated into English by Moses Samuel and published by Mordechai Noah in New York in 1840 *3*. It was Moses Samuel who first divided the work into chapter and verse (being 81 chapters. A second edition of this translation was published in Salt Lake City by J. H. Parry & Company in 1887. Both editions have been reprinted and republished several times. In 1954 Bible Corporation of America in Philadelphia reprinted the 1840 edition. They also translated it from English into Italian, Spanish, French and German for publication in those languages as well. This Book of Jasher is the one we will be discussing. There has been some debate as to whether this Book of Jasher is the book mentioned in the Bible or just a Midrash which some have speculated originated in the 13th century. Certainly the book claims to be the same Book of Jasher mentioned in the Bible.
THE REAL BOOK OF JASHER?
The 1625 edition of Jasher has a Preface, which says in part (translated from the Hebrew):
...when the holy city Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus, all the military heads went in to rob and plunder, and among the officers of Titus was one whose name was Sidrus, who went in to search, and found in Jerusalem a house of great extent...
According to the preface this Sidrus found a false wall in this house with a hidden room. In this room he found an old man hiding with provisions and many books including the Book of Jasher. The old man found favor with Sidrus who took the old man and his books with him.
The preface says "they went from city to city and from country to country until they reached Sevilia [a city in Spain]." At that time "Seville" was called "Hispalis" and was the capital of the Roman province of Hispalensis. The manuscript was donated to the Jewish college at Cordova, Spain.
According to the 1625 edition of Jasher the first printed edition of the Book of Jasher was published in Naples Italy in 1552. However no copies of the 1552 edition are known to have survived. The earliest surviving Hebrew edition known is the 1625 edition.
The Book of Jasher is a narrative beginning with the creation of man and ends with the entry of Israel into Canaan.
The Book of Jasher passage related to Joshua 10:13 reads as follows:
And when they were smiting, the day was declining toward evening, and Joshua said in the sight of all the people, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon, until the nation shall have revenged itself upon its enemies.
(Joshua 10:13)
And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Joshua, and the sun stood still in the midst of the heavens, and it stood still six and thirty moments, and the moon also stood still and hastened not to go down a whole day.
(Jasher 88:63-64)
The Book of Jasher passage which relates to 2 Samuel 1:18 involves Jacob's last words to his son Judah:
"Only teach thy sons the bow and all weapons of war, in order that they may fight the battles of their brother who will rule over his enemies."
(Jasher 56:9)
This reads very similar to the midrash which gives these last words as:
"Thou, my son, art stronger than all thy brethren, and from thy loins will kings arise. Teach thy children how they may protect themselves from enemies and evil-doers."
It would seem that the author of Jasher did not create this account to fit with 2Sam. 1:18 since the same account occurs in the midrash (which itself may have been drawn from Jasher).
Certainly many serious scholars have concluded that this Book of Jasher is authentic. The well known Hebraist and Rabbinic Scholar (and translator of the 1840 Book of Jasher) Moses Samuel wrote of Jasher:
"...the book is, with the exception of some doubtful parts, a venerable monument of antiquity; and that, notwithstanding some few additions have been made to it in comparatively modern times, it still retains sufficient to prove it a copy of the book referred to in Joshua, ch. x, and 2 Samuel, ch. 1."
- Moses Samuel, Hebraist and Rabbinic Scholar
And my old friend and mentor, the late Dr. Cyrus Gordon (who was the world's leading Semitist until his death) said:
"There can be little doubt that the book of Jasher was a national epic... The time is ripe for a fresh investigation of such genuine sources of Scripture, particularly against the background of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
- Dr. Cyrus Gordon
Proof of the Ancient Origin of the Book of Jasher
One major stumbling block in Book of Jasher research has been the lack of real evidence that the Book of Jasher (the one that we have) is truly ancient. There has been no hard evidence to prove that this Book of Jasher existed prior to 1625.
But now the proof has been found!
In the Masoretic Text and Septuagint of Gen. 5:18 has "And Jared lived one hundred and sixty two years". But the Book of Jasher 2:37 has "And Jared lived sixty two years". Amazingly this agrees with the Samaritan Pentateuch of Gen. 5:18.
How could the Book of Jasher and the Samaritan Pentateuch share the same scribal error? How could this reading have made its way into the Book of Jasher? If the Book of Jasher were a late compilation made in the Middle Ages, it would certainly have simply copied from the Masoretic Text. Surely a Jewish writer in Europe in the Middle Ages would not have copied data from the Samaritan Pentateuch. This is clear evidence for the ancient origin of the Book of Jasher.
There is also a similar scribal error in Jasher 5:13 where Methuselah begets Lamech at eighty seven. In the Masoretic Text this number is given as one hundred and eighty seven. In the Septuagint it is given as one hundred and sixty seven, and in the Samaritan Pentateuch as sixty seven.
Here the reading agrees with the Samaritan Pentateuch in omitting “one hundred” but agrees with the Masoretic Text in reading “eighty seven”. The Book of Jasher is clearly part of the ancient textual tradition here, and not simply borrowing from the Masoretic Text.
NEW EDITION OF JASHER
I have in recent months completed work on the new translation of the "lost" "Book of Jasher" (cited in Joshua 10:13 & 2 Samuel 1:18) from the original Hebrew. This has been a major project, taking several weeks to complete. This is the first "Messianic", "Sacred Name" version actually translated from the original Hebrew. (http://www.lulu.com/nazarene). This edition includes a number of passages which were (for whatever reason) omitted from the 1840 Moses Samuel translation which has circulated as the only available English translation until now. (The version published by Moshe K. is merely a revision of the 1840 English edition without any consultation of the original Hebrew.)
In my work on Jasher I have found that many Hebrew sections (some of them lengthy and important) have been omitted from all current English editions (Including Moshe's K's RSTNE).
I have also found that the english titles of Elohim used in Moses Samuel's edition do not accurately reflect the Sacred Names used in the actual Hebrew, and therefore the "True Name" edition produced by Moshe K. does not contain the true Sacred Names at all.
The English translation of the Book of Jasher that is in current use was made my Moses Samuel in 1839 and published in 1840 and again in 1887 and has been published several times since in reprints of those editions.
There is also a "True Name" edition which was produced by Moshe Koniuchowsky using the Moses Samuel translation as a base text.
Moses Samual's translation was a monumental work in its time, but it does include many errors, and it cannot be used to produce an accurate Sacred Name version of Jasher.
There are several passages in which Moses Samuel failed to include passages, some of them lengthy and inportant, in his translation.
For example Jasher 1:36. Moses Samuel Translates:
And Irad was born to Enoch, and Irad begat Mechuyael and Mechuyael begat Methusael.
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And Irad was born to Chanok, and Irad begat Mechuyael and Mechuyael begat Methusael.
However upon examining the Hebrew text I found that Moses Samuel had neglected a line of text and failed to include "and M'tushael begat Lamech".
The Hebraic-Roots Version of the Book of Jasher reads here as follows:
And Irad was born to Chanoch, and Irad begat M'chuyael and M'chuyael begat M'tushael and M'tushael begat Lamech.
Now lets look at Jasher 3:3. Moses Samuel translates:
And it was at the expiration of many years, whilst he was serving the Lord, and praying before him in his house, that an angel of the Lord called to him from Heaven, and he said, Here am I.
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And it was at the expiration of many years, while he was serving YHWH, and praying before him in his house, that a malach of the Lord called to him from ha shamayim, and he said, Hinayni.
However, once again, in examining the original Hebrew I found that Moses Samuel had failed to include a section of text.
Thus the Hebraic Roots Version of Jasher reads:
And it was at the end of many days and years, while he was serving before YHWH, and praying before YHWH in [his] house, that an angel of YHWH called to him from Heaven saying: Chanoch, Chanoch, and he said, Here am I.
In Jasher 3:22 There is an even longer segment omitted by Moses Samuel. Here the Moses Samuel Translation reads:
And the day came when Enoch went forth and they all assembled and came to him, and Enoch spoke to them the words of the Lord and he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and they bowed down before him and they said, May the king live! May the king live!
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And the day came when Chanok went forth and they all assembled and came to him, and Enoch spoke to them the words of YHWH and he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and they bowed down before him and they said, May the melech live! May the melech live!
Once again an examination of the Hebrew demonstrated that Moses Samuel left out a section of text, this time a fairly lengthy one.
The Hebraic-Roots Version of Jasher reads here as follows:
And the day came when Chanoch went forth and they all assembled and came to him, and Chanoch spoke to them all the words [of YHWH] and he taught them wisdom and knowledge, and he taught them the fear of YHWH. And all the sons of men feared him greatly and they were astonished by him concerning his wisdom. And all the land bowed to his face and they said, May the king live! May the king live!
Another example is in Jasher 10:19. Moses Samuel has:
And the children of Ham were Cush, Mitzraim, Phut and Canaan according to their generation and cities.
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And the children of Ham were Cush, Mitzrayim, Phut and Kanaan according to their generation and cities.
However the HRV Version of Jasher will restore a LARGE missing section in this verse as follows:
And the children of Ham the son of Noach went also and built to themselves cities in places where they were scattered and called also the names of the cities by their names and by their occurrences and these are the names of all their cities according to their families which built to them in those days after the tower and the children of Ham were Kush, Mitzraim, Put and Kanaan according to their generation and cities.
Moses Samuel in his 1840 translation seems to have omitted everything between the first and second appearances of "the children of Ham". He must have taken his eyes off of the text and then found the key phrase "the children of Ham" in the wrong place.
Another example is in Jasher 19:36. Moses Samuel has:
And in the city of Admah there was a woman to whom they did the like.
Moshe Koniuchowsky's "Restoration True Name Edition" has:
And in the city of Admah there was a woman to whom they did the same.
The Hebraic Roots Version of Jasher reads as follows:
And also in the city of Admah there was a certain girl, a daughter of a noble of the men of Admah and they did the same thing to her.
OTHER MISTRANSLATIONS
In Jasher 4:12, Moses Samuel mistakenly translates the phrase "rebelled against God". Moshe K's version has "rebelled against Elohim". But the actual Hebrew has "rebelled against the ground" as the HRV version of Jasher reads.
In Jasher 6:36, Moses Samuel has the phrase "the earth and the heavens". Moshe Koniuchowsky also has "the earth and the heavens". The Hebrew actually reads: HaEretz V'HaYamim "the land and the seas" as the HRV version of Jasher will read.
The Hebrew word ERETZ can mean either "land" or "earth" however Moses Samuel misread YAMIM ("seas") as SHAMAYIM ("heavens").
A TRUE SACRED NAME EDITION
There are also many passages in which Moses Samuel failed to accurately translate "Sacred Names". Since Moshe Koniuchowsky's version simply revises Samuel's translation without consulting the Hebrew, the result, though called a "True Name Edition" often does not contain the True Sacred Names which actually appear in the original Hebrew text of Jasher.
For example, Jasher 1:10:
"...and she transgressed the word of God..."
- Moses Samuel Translation of 1840
"...and she transgressed the word of Elohim..."
- Moshe K. "True Name" version
But the Hebrew actually has:
"...and she transgressed the word of YHWH..."
- Hebraic Roots Version
And again just five verses later, Jasher 1:15:
"...and God turned and inclined to Able..."
- Moses Samuel Translation of 1840
"...and Elohim turned and inclined to Avel..."
- Moshe K. "True Name" version
But the Hebrew actually has:
"...and YHWH turned and inclined to Havel..."
- Hebraic Roots Version
And in Jasher 2:24:
"...I obtained him from the Almighty God."
- Moses Samuel
"...I obtained him from the Almighty Elohim."
- Moshe K. "True Name" version
But the text actually reads:
"...I obtained him from El Shaddai."
- Hebraic Roots Version
(These are just a few examples from the first two chapters)
MORE
In Jasher 19:2 we are told that Avraham's servant gave sound-alike names to the wicked judges of Sodom and Amorah (Gamorrah). In the editions of Moses Samuel and Moshe K. there is no explaination as to these sound-alike names. However the HRV version of Jasher has footnotes to each of these four alternate names explaining their actual meaining as "word plays" making fun of these wicked judges.
The Book of Jasher in a fresh Sacred Name translation from the Hebrew, including passages which were inadvertently omitted from prior translations is available at (click on the book below):
The Gospel according to the Hebrews:
The Synoptic Solution
By James Scott Trimm
The Synoptic Problem
Mattityahu, Mark and Luke are the synoptic gospels. In many cases these three gospels even use identical phrasing. As a result they are known as the "synoptic gospels." The Synoptic Problem is the problem of explaining these similarities and their interrelationships. This problem was first addressed in the fifth century by the Christian "Church Father" Augustine.
The Semitic Source Document
Many synoptic variances point to an underlying Semitic text as the common synoptic source document. For example:
Mt. 4:19 = Lk. 5:10 "fisher's of men"/"catch men" = TZAYADA (Aram.)
Mt. 11:8 = Lk. 7:7:25 "In King's Houses"/"Among Kings" = B'BAYET M'LAKIM (Heb.) or B'BEIT MAL'KE (Aram.)
Mt. 11:27 = Lk. 10:22 "and no one knows the Son"/"and no one knows who the son is" = V'LO 'NASHA YIDA L'B'RA (Aram.)
Mt. 12:50 = Mk. 3:35 & Lk. 8:21 "my brother"/"brother of me" = AKHI (Hebrew or Aramaic)
Mt. 16:26 & Mk. 8:36 = Lk. 9:25 "his soul"/"himself" = NAF'SHO (Heb.) or NAFSHEH (Aram.)
Mt. 27:15 = Lk. 23:17 "accustomed"/"necessary" = M'AD (Aram.)
The Gospel according to the Hebrews
The Gospel according to the Hebrews was a Gospel which was once used by the Nazarenes and Ebionites. Eusebius said that GH was “the especial delight of those of the Hebrews who have accepted Messiah” (Eccl. Hist. 3:25:5). When speaking of the Ebionites, Epiphanius calls GH “their Gospel” (Pan. 30:16:4-5) and Jerome refers to GH as “the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use” (On Mat. 12:13). The actual document has been lost to history, but about 50 quotations and citations of this document are preserved in quotations and citations from the so-called “Church Fathers” and other commentators even into the middle ages.
It is unlikely that the Hebrews themselves called their own Gospel “according to the Hebrews”. This is likely a title given the book by Gentile Christians. GH was also called “the Gospel according to the Apostles”; “the Gospel according to the Twelve”; and “the Gospel according to Matthew” and one of these may have been its name among the Hebrews who used it.
The Synoptic Solution
By James Scott Trimm
The Synoptic Problem
Mattityahu, Mark and Luke are the synoptic gospels. In many cases these three gospels even use identical phrasing. As a result they are known as the "synoptic gospels." The Synoptic Problem is the problem of explaining these similarities and their interrelationships. This problem was first addressed in the fifth century by the Christian "Church Father" Augustine.
The Semitic Source Document
Many synoptic variances point to an underlying Semitic text as the common synoptic source document. For example:
Mt. 4:19 = Lk. 5:10 "fisher's of men"/"catch men" = TZAYADA (Aram.)
Mt. 11:8 = Lk. 7:7:25 "In King's Houses"/"Among Kings" = B'BAYET M'LAKIM (Heb.) or B'BEIT MAL'KE (Aram.)
Mt. 11:27 = Lk. 10:22 "and no one knows the Son"/"and no one knows who the son is" = V'LO 'NASHA YIDA L'B'RA (Aram.)
Mt. 12:50 = Mk. 3:35 & Lk. 8:21 "my brother"/"brother of me" = AKHI (Hebrew or Aramaic)
Mt. 16:26 & Mk. 8:36 = Lk. 9:25 "his soul"/"himself" = NAF'SHO (Heb.) or NAFSHEH (Aram.)
Mt. 27:15 = Lk. 23:17 "accustomed"/"necessary" = M'AD (Aram.)
The Gospel according to the Hebrews
The Gospel according to the Hebrews was a Gospel which was once used by the Nazarenes and Ebionites. Eusebius said that GH was “the especial delight of those of the Hebrews who have accepted Messiah” (Eccl. Hist. 3:25:5). When speaking of the Ebionites, Epiphanius calls GH “their Gospel” (Pan. 30:16:4-5) and Jerome refers to GH as “the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use” (On Mat. 12:13). The actual document has been lost to history, but about 50 quotations and citations of this document are preserved in quotations and citations from the so-called “Church Fathers” and other commentators even into the middle ages.
It is unlikely that the Hebrews themselves called their own Gospel “according to the Hebrews”. This is likely a title given the book by Gentile Christians. GH was also called “the Gospel according to the Apostles”; “the Gospel according to the Twelve”; and “the Gospel according to Matthew” and one of these may have been its name among the Hebrews who used it.
Even the most conservative of scholars have given a very early date to the composition of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. In his book Evidence that Demands a Verdict Josh McDowell (p. 38) assigns GH a date of A.D. 65-100. The book certainly had to have existed before the time of Hegesippus (c. 180 C.E.) who Eusebius tells us made use of GH in his writings (Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 4:22:8). Ignatious (98 C.E.) quotes from GH in his letter to the Smyraneans (3:1-2 (1:9-12 some editions)). Although Ignatious does not identify his quote as coming from GH, Jerome (4th Century) does later cite GH as the source (Of Illustrious Men 16). GH (in differing versions) was used by both Nazarenes and Ebionites. Since neither group would have been likely to adopt the other’s book after they split from each other around 70 C.E., it appears that GH in its original form must have originated prior to that time.
There has been much debate about the original language of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Eusebius refers to GH as “the Gospel that is spread abroad among the Jews in the Hebrew tongue” (Theophina 4:12 on Mt. 10:34-36) and “the Gospel [written] in Hebrew letters” (ibid on Mt. 25:14f). Jerome refers to GH as “written in the Chaldee and Syrian language but in Hebrew letters” (Against Pelagius III.2) but seems to refer to the same document in another passage as “in the Hebrew language and letters” (Of Illustrious Men 3). In context however Jerome seems to say that GH was originally written in “the Hebrew language and letters” but that the copy in the library at Caesarea is “written in the Chaldee and Syrian language but in Hebrew letters” (i.e. Aramaic). Thus Schonfield is correct in writing:
The original language of the Gospel was Hebrew. It has generally been assumed on insufficient grounds that this Hebrew was in fact Aramaic (commonly called Hebrew).
(According to the Hebrews p. 241)
Many misconceptions have circulated concerning the Gospel according to the Hebrews. For example many scholars have attempted to make GH into several documents. These refer to the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the Gospel of the Nazarenes and the Gospel of the Ebionites as three different documents. However nowhere do the “Church Fathers” refer to a “Gospel of the Ebionites”. Epiphanius says that the Ebionites used the Gospel according to the Hebrews” and never refers to a document titled “Gospel of the Ebionites”. The term “Gospel of the Nazarenes” is never used by the “Church Fathers” either and only appears in the middle ages where it is clearly a euphemism for the Gospel according to the Hebrews. The presumption that there were three documents called GH has taken root in scholarship. Part of the basis for this assumption is that Clement of Alexander (who did not know Hebrew or Aramaic) quotes GH in Greek before Jerome translated GH into Greek. However it is quite possible that Clement obtained his quotation from a secondary source who did know Hebrew and that had quoted GH in ad hoc Greek, a secondary source which is now unknown. The fact that Clement of Alexander quotes the book in Greek prior to Jerome’s translation is far to little evidence from which to conclude multiple documents.
Another misconception is the presumption that thirteen readings in marginal notes found in certain manuscripts of Greek Matthew and which refer to alternate readings taken form “the Judaikon” (i.e. the “Jewish version) refer to the Gospel according to the Hebrews. While one of these readings (a note to 18:22) agrees with the reading of GH as given by Jerome (Against Pelag. III 2) that in itself is not enough evidence to jump to the far reaching conclusion that the “Judaikon” is the same as GH. The “Judaikon” readings may also be readings from a Jewish (Hebrew or Aramaic?) version of canonical Matthew and not to GH at all.
While there is no reason to presume that there were three different Gospels called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, it is certainly clear that Nazarenes and Ebionites used different versions of GH. Epiphanius describes the version of GH used by the Ebionites as “called ‘according to Matthew’, which however is not wholly complete but falsified and mutilated” (Pan. 30:13:2) however in speaking of the Nazarenes he refer to the “Gospel of Matthew quite complete in Hebrew… preserved… as it was first written, in Hebrew letters” (Pan. 29:9:4). So it would appear that the Ebionite version of GH was “now wholly complete but falsified and mutilated” while the Nazarene version was “quite complete… preserved… as it was first written.”. This explains why the Ebionite version omitted the birth narrative and opened with the ministry of Yochanan (Pan. 30:13:6) while the Nazarene version is known to have included material parallel to the first two chapters of Matthew.
There are also some important parallels between the Gospel according to the Hebrews and our Hebrew and Aramaic versions of the Synoptic Gospels. To begin with Jerome indicates that GH tended to agree with the Hebrew Tanak against the Greek LXX in its quotations from the Tanak (Of Illustrious Men 3).
In the account of the immersion of Yeshua GH as quoted by Epiphanius says that the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) descended “in the form of a dove”. This reading not only agrees with Luke (3:22) against Matthew (3:16) it also agrees with DuTillet Hebrew Matthew and the Siniatic Old Syriac text of Matthew 3:16. GH as quoted by Jerome also says that the Ruch HaKodesh “rested” upon Yeshua at this event. This agrees with the Old Syriac reading of Matthew 3:16 against Greek Matthew. The Shem Tob Hebrew Matthew similarly has that the Rucah HaKodesh “dwelt” upon Yeshua in Mt. 3:16.
There may also be a tendency of GH to agree with the Greek Western type text of the canonical Gospels. For example the immersion event GH (as recorded by Epiphanius) has the voice say (in part) “I have this day begotten you” which is also found in the Greek Western type text of Codex D in Luke 3:22 (compare Ps. 2:7; Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; 5:5). Moreover GH as cited by Jerome has the voice at the immersion of Yeshua speak “to him” as does the Greek Western type text of Codex D in Mt. 3:17. This is important because as I have shown elsewhere the Greek Western type text is the oldest most Semitic type of Greek text.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews: a Synoptic Source Document?
Many scholars have seen within GH possible answers to questions about synoptic origins.
A. S. Barnes proposed an identification between GH and the Logia document which many scholars closely associate with "Q". Barnes writes:
Is it possible seriously to maintain that there were two separate documents, each of them written at Jerusalem during the Apostolic age and in the Hebrew tounge, each of them assigned to the Apostle Matthew, and each of them dealing in some way with the Gospel story? Or are we not rather forced to the conclusion that these two documents, whose descriptions are so strangely similar, must really be identical,...
(A. S. Barnes; The Gospel according to the Hebrews; Journal of Theological Studies 6 (1905) p. 361)
Pierson Parker concluded:
...the presence in this gospel of Lukan qualities and parallels, the absence from it of difinitive... Markan elements... all point to one conclusion, viz., that the source of the Gospel according to the Hebrews... was most closely related to sources underlying the non-Markan parts of Luke, that is, Proto-Luke.
(Pierson Parker; A Proto-Lukan Basis for the Gospel according to the Hebrews; Journal of Biblical Literature 59 (1940) p. 478)
And Hugh Schonfield concluded of GH:
...it may be argued that there has been dependence not of 'Hebrews' on the Synoptics but vice versa-- that 'Hebrews' was one of the sources on which one or more of them drew.
(Hugh Schonfield; According to the Hebrews; 13-18)
As this article will demonstrate, the Gospel according to the Hebrews does indeed lie at the root of all four of our canonical Gospels.
Mark: A Secondary Gospel
The original documentary theory claimed that Mattitiyahu and Luke were dependent on a collection of sayings known as the Logia or as "Q". "Q" is from the German word "Quelle" meaning "source" and a narrative document usually identified as Mark. This may be illustrated as follows.
Streeter developed this theory further. He realized that Luke and Mattitiyahu contained narratives in common which could not be found in Mark. He attributed these to a third document, which he called "Proto-Luke". Proto-Luke was said to have had incorporated into it "Q", the non-Markan portions of Luke and the narrative material which Luke and Matthew held in common.
The late Dr. Robert Lindsey made further observations. Lindsey points out that the phrase "and immediately" occurs in Mark over 40 times. Luke contains this phrase only once and then in a portion with no parallel in Mark. Lindsey pointed out that it is unimaginable that Luke systematically purged the phrase "and immediately" from every portion of Mark which he used, especially since he uses the phrase himself elsewhere. This means that Luke could not have copied from Mark and that Mark therefore copied from Luke. If we eliminate all of the Lukan passages from Mark then almost everything else can be found in Mattitiyahu. In fact only 31 verses of Mark cannot be found in either Luke or Mattitiyahu. It is clear as a result that Mark was compiled using Luke and Mattitiyahu. The following three facts also support this conclusion:
When Mark and Matthew differ in chronology Luke agrees with Mark.
When Mark and Luke differ in Chronology, Matthew agrees with Mark.
Matthew and Luke never agree in chronology against Mark.
Mark therefore is secondary, compiled from Matthew and Luke with only 31 lines of original material. It plays no part in synoptic origins.
Matthew: An Abridgement of the Gospel according to the Hebrews
The so-called “Church Fathers” do not hesitate in hinting to us that Matthew’s source document was the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Jerome writes of GH:
In the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use which I have lately translated into Greek from the Hebrew and which is called by many people the original of Matthew…
(Jerome; On Matt. 12:13)
Jerome is not the only “Church Father” to identify GH with Matthew. Irenaeus says that the Ebionites used only the Gospel of Matthew (Heresies 1:26:2), Eusebius says they “used only the Gospel called according to the Hebrews” (Eccl. Hist. 3:27:4) while Epiphanius says that the Ebionite “Gospel” “…is called "Gospel according to Matthew, or Gospel according to the Hebrews” (Panarion 30:16:4-5). Moreover Jerome seems to refer to the original Hebrew of Matthew and GH interchangeably.
This led Hugh Schonfield to conclude:
My own opinion is that the canonical Gospel [of Matthew] is an abridged edition of a larger work, of which fragments still survive,… I believe that this Protevangel was written in Hebrew, not in Aramaic,… Whatever may have been its original title, we have early allusions to it under the name of “the Gospel” “the Gospel of the Lord,” “the Gospel of the Twelve, or of the Apostles,” “the Gospel of the Hebrews” and “the Hebrew Matthew.”
(Hugh J. Schonfield; An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew’s Gospel; 1927 p. viii)
However ten years later Schonfield writes:
The only difficulty in fact that stands in the way of accepting the Greek [of Matthew] as really translated from the Hebrew [of Matthew], instead of vice versa, is undoubtedly the irrefutable evidence that Greek Matthew has largely used Mark.
(Hugh J. Schonfield; According to the Hebrews; 1937; p.248)
Schonfield finally comes to the conclusion of…
…the strong probability that Hebrews was one of the sources of canonical Matthew.
(ibid p. 254)
The pseudo-fact that Matthew used Mark as one of his sources (a theory Lindsey has since disproven) is the only thing which held Schonfield back from concluding that Greek Matthew is a translation of Hebrew Matthew and that Hebrew Matthew was an abridgement of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. With the barrier of presumed Markan priority being removed we may now adopt the logical conclusion that Schonfield hesitated from.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews as Luke’s Source
Now having explained the origin of Mark as secondary we need not look to Mark as a primary Gospel source for Luke either. Instead we need concern ourselves only with Proto-Luke (and perhaps “Q”). Proto-Luke or the Proto-Narrative would be the common source behind Matthew and Luke, explaining their common material.
Now we may easily conclude that the Gospel according to the Hebrews is the Proto-Luke or Proto-Narrative which served as the common source for both Luke and Matthew.
To begin with Luke admits to having had source documents when writing his gospel (Luke 1:1-4).
Secondly we have already established that the Gospel according to the Hebrews served as the source for canonical Matthew. If Matthew and Luke had a common source (which is clearly the case) then that source was almost certainly the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Finally several of the surviving readings from the Gospel according to the Hebrews parallel Luke only and not Matthew. For example only Luke gives Yeshua’s age as being 30 (Lk. 3:23); only Luke includes the account of Yeshua being comforted by an angel (Lk. 22:43); only Luke includes the discussion about eating the Passover as described in Luke 22:45 and only Luke includes Yeshua’s words at the crucifixion “father forgive them…” (Lk. 23:34). There are also Lukan elements even in the material that also parallels Matthew. As shown earlier the immersion account as cited by Epiphanius also included the words “in the form of [a dove]” (as in Luke’s account) and the phrase “I have this day begotten you” (as in Luke’s account in the Greek Western type text of Codex D). In fact we should expect that the Proto-Narrative would have readings which parallel Matthew only, readings which parallel only Luke and readings which are common to Matthew and Luke (and sometimes Mark) but should not expect readings which parallel only Mark. This is exactly the case with the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews and John
The Gospel of Yochanan (John) also seems to have made some use of the Gospel according to the Hebrews but on a much smaller scale. The GH account that Yeshua “kissed the feet of each one of them” recalls the foot washing of Jn. 13:5. The account that one of the talmidim were known to the High Priest also found in GH is found in John only (Jn. 18:15) and the crucifixion as described in John 19 was said to parallel somewhat that of GH. Thus it appears that even the non-synoptic Gospel of John made some use of the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
The Five Fold Gospel
While the Gospel according to the Hebrews is at the root of the four canonical gospels, this in no way reduces the value of the four Gospels. While the Gospel according to the Hebrews was the original Gospel used by the Nazarenes (and in a variant form by Ebionites) other gospels were fashioned to meet various needs. I believe the four canonical Gospels were composed to present the Gospel story to four specific non-Nazarene groups.
I believe that Matthew was an abridgement of the GH designed to present Yeshua as the Messiah to the Pharisee audience. This is evidenced by:
The many parallels with the wisdom sayings in the Mishna, Talmud, Midrashim etc.
The frequent citations of the Tanak (128 quotations) aimed at establishing the Messiahship of Yeshua.
The defense of Nazarene Halachic authority (16:18-19; 18:18; 21:20-21, 23-27 & 23:1-34)
More discussion of halachic issues than any other Gospel (5:21-7:12; 9:14-17; 12:1-14; 15:1-6; 17:24-27; 19:3-9; 22:15-22; 23:1-34).
I believe that Luke used GH as a source document in writing a Gospel account aimed at Sadducees. The book of Luke was written originally to Theophilus, who served as High Priest from 37 to 42 C.E.. Theophilus was both a priest and a Sadducee. It would appear that the Gospel was intended to be used by others as well and was likely targeted at Sadducee readers. Theophilus was the son of Annas and the brother-in-law of Caiaphas, as a result he grew up in the Temple. This explains many features of Luke. Luke begins the story with an account of Zechariah the righteous priest who had a vision of an angel at the Temple (1:5-25) he quickly moves on to an account of Miriam's purification and Yeshua's redemption rituals at the Temple (2:21-39) and then to the event of Yeshua teaching at the Temple at the age of twelve (2:46). Luke makes no mention of Caiaphas' role in Yeshua's crucifixion and emphasizes Yeshua's literal resurrection (24:39) (Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead).
I believe that Mark used elements of Matthew and Luke to compile a shortened simplified Gospel account for the Gentiles. He probably wrote the book for use by Aramaic speaking Syrians and Assyrians he encountered while in Babylon with Kefa (1Kefa 5:13). Since Mark was addressing Gentiles he did not include Yeshua's genealogy, the Sermon on the Mount, makes fewer quotations from the Tanak and makes less mention of Jewish customs that the other Gospels.
I believe that John made some use of GH in composing a Gospel account aimed at the Essenes. This is evidenced by the fact that only Yochanan reveals the fact that Yochanan the immerser had an (Essene) community of talmidim living with him in the wilderness (Yochanan 1). This is further evidenced by the mystical nature of Yochanan's account. (The Essenes were mystics and in fact many scholars see the roots of what we now call "Kabbalah" as stemming from the Essenes.).
The result was four Gospels which covered all four levels of understanding of the original Gospel according to the Hebrews. The Hebrew/Aramaic word PARDES is spelled in Hebrew and Aramaic without vowels as PRDS. PaRDeS refers to a park or garden, esp. the Garden of Eden. The word PRDS is also an acronym (called in Judaism "notarikon") for:
[P]ashat (Heb. "simple") The plain, simple, literal level of understanding.
[R]emez (Heb. "hint") The implied level of understanding.
[D]rash (Heb. "search") The allegorical, typological or homiletically level of understanding.
[S]od (Heb. "hidden") The hidden, secret or mystical level of understanding.
These are the four levels of understanding. The Four Gospels each express one of these four levels of understanding of The Gospel according to the Hebrews. Each also expresses a different aspect of the Messiah and corresponds to each of the four faces of the living beings in Ezekiel 1.
The Pashat Gospel is Mark. Mark presents the Messiah as the servant (the servant who purifies the Goyim in Is. 52:13, 15) the "my servant the Branch" of Zech.3:8 who is symbolized by the face of the Ox in Ezekiel 1 (the Ox being a servant, a beast of burden). Mark does not begin with an account of the birth of Messiah as do Matthew and Luke because, unlike the birth of a King, the birth of a servant is unimportant, all that is important is his work as a servant which begins with his immersion by Yochanan. Thus Mark's simplified account omits any account of Yeshua's birth or preexistence and centers on his work as a servant who purifies the Goyim.
The Remez Gospel is Luke. Luke wrote a more detailed account for the High Priest Theophilus (a Sadducee). The Sadducees were rationalists and sticklers for details. Luke presents Yeshua as the "Son of Man" and as "the man whose name is the Branch" (Zech 6:12) who is presented as a High Priest and is symbolized by the face of the man in Ezekiel 1. Luke wants to remind by remez (by implication) the High Priest Theophilus about the redemption of the filthy High Priest Joshua (Zech. 6) and its prophetic foreshadowing of a "man" who is a Messianic "Priest" and who can purify even a High Priest.
The Drash Gospel is Matthew. Matthew presents his account of Yeshua's life as a Midrash to the Pharisees, as a continuing story tied to various passages from the Tanak (for example Mt. 2:13-15 presents an allegorical understanding of Hosea 11:1).. As a drash level account Matthew also includes a number of parables in his account. Matthew presents Messiah as the King Messiah, the Branch of David (Jer. 23:5-6 & Is. 11:1f) symbolized by the face of the lion in Ezekiel 1.
The Sod Gospel is Yochanan (John). Yochanan addresses the Mystical Essene sect and concerns himself with mystical topics like light, life, truth, the way and the Word. Yochanan includes many Sod interpretations in his account. For example Yochanan 1:1 presents a Sod understanding of Gen. 1:1. Yochanan 3:14; 8:28 & 12:32 present a Sod understanding of Num. 21:9 etc.).
Conclusion
The Gospel according to the Hebrews which was the “especial delight of those of the Hebrews who have accepted Messiah” was a primary source document either directly or indirectly for all four of our canonical Gospels. The Gospel of Matthew was an abridgement of that Gospel made originally to bring the message of Yeshua to the Pharisees. The Gospel of Luke was drawn largely from GH and was composed to present the message of Yeshua to the Sadducees. The Gospel of Mark was compiled from Matthew and Luke in order to present a shorter, simpler account to the Gentiles. And the Gospel of John made some use of GH in composing a Gospel account aimed at the Essene community. The resulting four Gospels covered all of the levels of understanding (PaRDeS) of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Mark gives us the pashat, Luke the remez, Matthew the drash and John the Sod. Thus the four canonical Gospels provide us with a complete understanding of the Gospel according to the Hebrews which lies at the root of all of them.
There has been much debate about the original language of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Eusebius refers to GH as “the Gospel that is spread abroad among the Jews in the Hebrew tongue” (Theophina 4:12 on Mt. 10:34-36) and “the Gospel [written] in Hebrew letters” (ibid on Mt. 25:14f). Jerome refers to GH as “written in the Chaldee and Syrian language but in Hebrew letters” (Against Pelagius III.2) but seems to refer to the same document in another passage as “in the Hebrew language and letters” (Of Illustrious Men 3). In context however Jerome seems to say that GH was originally written in “the Hebrew language and letters” but that the copy in the library at Caesarea is “written in the Chaldee and Syrian language but in Hebrew letters” (i.e. Aramaic). Thus Schonfield is correct in writing:
The original language of the Gospel was Hebrew. It has generally been assumed on insufficient grounds that this Hebrew was in fact Aramaic (commonly called Hebrew).
(According to the Hebrews p. 241)
Many misconceptions have circulated concerning the Gospel according to the Hebrews. For example many scholars have attempted to make GH into several documents. These refer to the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the Gospel of the Nazarenes and the Gospel of the Ebionites as three different documents. However nowhere do the “Church Fathers” refer to a “Gospel of the Ebionites”. Epiphanius says that the Ebionites used the Gospel according to the Hebrews” and never refers to a document titled “Gospel of the Ebionites”. The term “Gospel of the Nazarenes” is never used by the “Church Fathers” either and only appears in the middle ages where it is clearly a euphemism for the Gospel according to the Hebrews. The presumption that there were three documents called GH has taken root in scholarship. Part of the basis for this assumption is that Clement of Alexander (who did not know Hebrew or Aramaic) quotes GH in Greek before Jerome translated GH into Greek. However it is quite possible that Clement obtained his quotation from a secondary source who did know Hebrew and that had quoted GH in ad hoc Greek, a secondary source which is now unknown. The fact that Clement of Alexander quotes the book in Greek prior to Jerome’s translation is far to little evidence from which to conclude multiple documents.
Another misconception is the presumption that thirteen readings in marginal notes found in certain manuscripts of Greek Matthew and which refer to alternate readings taken form “the Judaikon” (i.e. the “Jewish version) refer to the Gospel according to the Hebrews. While one of these readings (a note to 18:22) agrees with the reading of GH as given by Jerome (Against Pelag. III 2) that in itself is not enough evidence to jump to the far reaching conclusion that the “Judaikon” is the same as GH. The “Judaikon” readings may also be readings from a Jewish (Hebrew or Aramaic?) version of canonical Matthew and not to GH at all.
While there is no reason to presume that there were three different Gospels called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, it is certainly clear that Nazarenes and Ebionites used different versions of GH. Epiphanius describes the version of GH used by the Ebionites as “called ‘according to Matthew’, which however is not wholly complete but falsified and mutilated” (Pan. 30:13:2) however in speaking of the Nazarenes he refer to the “Gospel of Matthew quite complete in Hebrew… preserved… as it was first written, in Hebrew letters” (Pan. 29:9:4). So it would appear that the Ebionite version of GH was “now wholly complete but falsified and mutilated” while the Nazarene version was “quite complete… preserved… as it was first written.”. This explains why the Ebionite version omitted the birth narrative and opened with the ministry of Yochanan (Pan. 30:13:6) while the Nazarene version is known to have included material parallel to the first two chapters of Matthew.
There are also some important parallels between the Gospel according to the Hebrews and our Hebrew and Aramaic versions of the Synoptic Gospels. To begin with Jerome indicates that GH tended to agree with the Hebrew Tanak against the Greek LXX in its quotations from the Tanak (Of Illustrious Men 3).
In the account of the immersion of Yeshua GH as quoted by Epiphanius says that the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) descended “in the form of a dove”. This reading not only agrees with Luke (3:22) against Matthew (3:16) it also agrees with DuTillet Hebrew Matthew and the Siniatic Old Syriac text of Matthew 3:16. GH as quoted by Jerome also says that the Ruch HaKodesh “rested” upon Yeshua at this event. This agrees with the Old Syriac reading of Matthew 3:16 against Greek Matthew. The Shem Tob Hebrew Matthew similarly has that the Rucah HaKodesh “dwelt” upon Yeshua in Mt. 3:16.
There may also be a tendency of GH to agree with the Greek Western type text of the canonical Gospels. For example the immersion event GH (as recorded by Epiphanius) has the voice say (in part) “I have this day begotten you” which is also found in the Greek Western type text of Codex D in Luke 3:22 (compare Ps. 2:7; Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; 5:5). Moreover GH as cited by Jerome has the voice at the immersion of Yeshua speak “to him” as does the Greek Western type text of Codex D in Mt. 3:17. This is important because as I have shown elsewhere the Greek Western type text is the oldest most Semitic type of Greek text.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews: a Synoptic Source Document?
Many scholars have seen within GH possible answers to questions about synoptic origins.
A. S. Barnes proposed an identification between GH and the Logia document which many scholars closely associate with "Q". Barnes writes:
Is it possible seriously to maintain that there were two separate documents, each of them written at Jerusalem during the Apostolic age and in the Hebrew tounge, each of them assigned to the Apostle Matthew, and each of them dealing in some way with the Gospel story? Or are we not rather forced to the conclusion that these two documents, whose descriptions are so strangely similar, must really be identical,...
(A. S. Barnes; The Gospel according to the Hebrews; Journal of Theological Studies 6 (1905) p. 361)
Pierson Parker concluded:
...the presence in this gospel of Lukan qualities and parallels, the absence from it of difinitive... Markan elements... all point to one conclusion, viz., that the source of the Gospel according to the Hebrews... was most closely related to sources underlying the non-Markan parts of Luke, that is, Proto-Luke.
(Pierson Parker; A Proto-Lukan Basis for the Gospel according to the Hebrews; Journal of Biblical Literature 59 (1940) p. 478)
And Hugh Schonfield concluded of GH:
...it may be argued that there has been dependence not of 'Hebrews' on the Synoptics but vice versa-- that 'Hebrews' was one of the sources on which one or more of them drew.
(Hugh Schonfield; According to the Hebrews; 13-18)
As this article will demonstrate, the Gospel according to the Hebrews does indeed lie at the root of all four of our canonical Gospels.
Mark: A Secondary Gospel
The original documentary theory claimed that Mattitiyahu and Luke were dependent on a collection of sayings known as the Logia or as "Q". "Q" is from the German word "Quelle" meaning "source" and a narrative document usually identified as Mark. This may be illustrated as follows.
Streeter developed this theory further. He realized that Luke and Mattitiyahu contained narratives in common which could not be found in Mark. He attributed these to a third document, which he called "Proto-Luke". Proto-Luke was said to have had incorporated into it "Q", the non-Markan portions of Luke and the narrative material which Luke and Matthew held in common.
The late Dr. Robert Lindsey made further observations. Lindsey points out that the phrase "and immediately" occurs in Mark over 40 times. Luke contains this phrase only once and then in a portion with no parallel in Mark. Lindsey pointed out that it is unimaginable that Luke systematically purged the phrase "and immediately" from every portion of Mark which he used, especially since he uses the phrase himself elsewhere. This means that Luke could not have copied from Mark and that Mark therefore copied from Luke. If we eliminate all of the Lukan passages from Mark then almost everything else can be found in Mattitiyahu. In fact only 31 verses of Mark cannot be found in either Luke or Mattitiyahu. It is clear as a result that Mark was compiled using Luke and Mattitiyahu. The following three facts also support this conclusion:
When Mark and Matthew differ in chronology Luke agrees with Mark.
When Mark and Luke differ in Chronology, Matthew agrees with Mark.
Matthew and Luke never agree in chronology against Mark.
Mark therefore is secondary, compiled from Matthew and Luke with only 31 lines of original material. It plays no part in synoptic origins.
Matthew: An Abridgement of the Gospel according to the Hebrews
The so-called “Church Fathers” do not hesitate in hinting to us that Matthew’s source document was the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Jerome writes of GH:
In the Gospel which the Nazarenes and Ebionites use which I have lately translated into Greek from the Hebrew and which is called by many people the original of Matthew…
(Jerome; On Matt. 12:13)
Jerome is not the only “Church Father” to identify GH with Matthew. Irenaeus says that the Ebionites used only the Gospel of Matthew (Heresies 1:26:2), Eusebius says they “used only the Gospel called according to the Hebrews” (Eccl. Hist. 3:27:4) while Epiphanius says that the Ebionite “Gospel” “…is called "Gospel according to Matthew, or Gospel according to the Hebrews” (Panarion 30:16:4-5). Moreover Jerome seems to refer to the original Hebrew of Matthew and GH interchangeably.
This led Hugh Schonfield to conclude:
My own opinion is that the canonical Gospel [of Matthew] is an abridged edition of a larger work, of which fragments still survive,… I believe that this Protevangel was written in Hebrew, not in Aramaic,… Whatever may have been its original title, we have early allusions to it under the name of “the Gospel” “the Gospel of the Lord,” “the Gospel of the Twelve, or of the Apostles,” “the Gospel of the Hebrews” and “the Hebrew Matthew.”
(Hugh J. Schonfield; An Old Hebrew Text of St. Matthew’s Gospel; 1927 p. viii)
However ten years later Schonfield writes:
The only difficulty in fact that stands in the way of accepting the Greek [of Matthew] as really translated from the Hebrew [of Matthew], instead of vice versa, is undoubtedly the irrefutable evidence that Greek Matthew has largely used Mark.
(Hugh J. Schonfield; According to the Hebrews; 1937; p.248)
Schonfield finally comes to the conclusion of…
…the strong probability that Hebrews was one of the sources of canonical Matthew.
(ibid p. 254)
The pseudo-fact that Matthew used Mark as one of his sources (a theory Lindsey has since disproven) is the only thing which held Schonfield back from concluding that Greek Matthew is a translation of Hebrew Matthew and that Hebrew Matthew was an abridgement of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. With the barrier of presumed Markan priority being removed we may now adopt the logical conclusion that Schonfield hesitated from.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews as Luke’s Source
Now having explained the origin of Mark as secondary we need not look to Mark as a primary Gospel source for Luke either. Instead we need concern ourselves only with Proto-Luke (and perhaps “Q”). Proto-Luke or the Proto-Narrative would be the common source behind Matthew and Luke, explaining their common material.
Now we may easily conclude that the Gospel according to the Hebrews is the Proto-Luke or Proto-Narrative which served as the common source for both Luke and Matthew.
To begin with Luke admits to having had source documents when writing his gospel (Luke 1:1-4).
Secondly we have already established that the Gospel according to the Hebrews served as the source for canonical Matthew. If Matthew and Luke had a common source (which is clearly the case) then that source was almost certainly the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
Finally several of the surviving readings from the Gospel according to the Hebrews parallel Luke only and not Matthew. For example only Luke gives Yeshua’s age as being 30 (Lk. 3:23); only Luke includes the account of Yeshua being comforted by an angel (Lk. 22:43); only Luke includes the discussion about eating the Passover as described in Luke 22:45 and only Luke includes Yeshua’s words at the crucifixion “father forgive them…” (Lk. 23:34). There are also Lukan elements even in the material that also parallels Matthew. As shown earlier the immersion account as cited by Epiphanius also included the words “in the form of [a dove]” (as in Luke’s account) and the phrase “I have this day begotten you” (as in Luke’s account in the Greek Western type text of Codex D). In fact we should expect that the Proto-Narrative would have readings which parallel Matthew only, readings which parallel only Luke and readings which are common to Matthew and Luke (and sometimes Mark) but should not expect readings which parallel only Mark. This is exactly the case with the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
The Gospel according to the Hebrews and John
The Gospel of Yochanan (John) also seems to have made some use of the Gospel according to the Hebrews but on a much smaller scale. The GH account that Yeshua “kissed the feet of each one of them” recalls the foot washing of Jn. 13:5. The account that one of the talmidim were known to the High Priest also found in GH is found in John only (Jn. 18:15) and the crucifixion as described in John 19 was said to parallel somewhat that of GH. Thus it appears that even the non-synoptic Gospel of John made some use of the Gospel according to the Hebrews.
The Five Fold Gospel
While the Gospel according to the Hebrews is at the root of the four canonical gospels, this in no way reduces the value of the four Gospels. While the Gospel according to the Hebrews was the original Gospel used by the Nazarenes (and in a variant form by Ebionites) other gospels were fashioned to meet various needs. I believe the four canonical Gospels were composed to present the Gospel story to four specific non-Nazarene groups.
I believe that Matthew was an abridgement of the GH designed to present Yeshua as the Messiah to the Pharisee audience. This is evidenced by:
The many parallels with the wisdom sayings in the Mishna, Talmud, Midrashim etc.
The frequent citations of the Tanak (128 quotations) aimed at establishing the Messiahship of Yeshua.
The defense of Nazarene Halachic authority (16:18-19; 18:18; 21:20-21, 23-27 & 23:1-34)
More discussion of halachic issues than any other Gospel (5:21-7:12; 9:14-17; 12:1-14; 15:1-6; 17:24-27; 19:3-9; 22:15-22; 23:1-34).
I believe that Luke used GH as a source document in writing a Gospel account aimed at Sadducees. The book of Luke was written originally to Theophilus, who served as High Priest from 37 to 42 C.E.. Theophilus was both a priest and a Sadducee. It would appear that the Gospel was intended to be used by others as well and was likely targeted at Sadducee readers. Theophilus was the son of Annas and the brother-in-law of Caiaphas, as a result he grew up in the Temple. This explains many features of Luke. Luke begins the story with an account of Zechariah the righteous priest who had a vision of an angel at the Temple (1:5-25) he quickly moves on to an account of Miriam's purification and Yeshua's redemption rituals at the Temple (2:21-39) and then to the event of Yeshua teaching at the Temple at the age of twelve (2:46). Luke makes no mention of Caiaphas' role in Yeshua's crucifixion and emphasizes Yeshua's literal resurrection (24:39) (Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead).
I believe that Mark used elements of Matthew and Luke to compile a shortened simplified Gospel account for the Gentiles. He probably wrote the book for use by Aramaic speaking Syrians and Assyrians he encountered while in Babylon with Kefa (1Kefa 5:13). Since Mark was addressing Gentiles he did not include Yeshua's genealogy, the Sermon on the Mount, makes fewer quotations from the Tanak and makes less mention of Jewish customs that the other Gospels.
I believe that John made some use of GH in composing a Gospel account aimed at the Essenes. This is evidenced by the fact that only Yochanan reveals the fact that Yochanan the immerser had an (Essene) community of talmidim living with him in the wilderness (Yochanan 1). This is further evidenced by the mystical nature of Yochanan's account. (The Essenes were mystics and in fact many scholars see the roots of what we now call "Kabbalah" as stemming from the Essenes.).
The result was four Gospels which covered all four levels of understanding of the original Gospel according to the Hebrews. The Hebrew/Aramaic word PARDES is spelled in Hebrew and Aramaic without vowels as PRDS. PaRDeS refers to a park or garden, esp. the Garden of Eden. The word PRDS is also an acronym (called in Judaism "notarikon") for:
[P]ashat (Heb. "simple") The plain, simple, literal level of understanding.
[R]emez (Heb. "hint") The implied level of understanding.
[D]rash (Heb. "search") The allegorical, typological or homiletically level of understanding.
[S]od (Heb. "hidden") The hidden, secret or mystical level of understanding.
These are the four levels of understanding. The Four Gospels each express one of these four levels of understanding of The Gospel according to the Hebrews. Each also expresses a different aspect of the Messiah and corresponds to each of the four faces of the living beings in Ezekiel 1.
The Pashat Gospel is Mark. Mark presents the Messiah as the servant (the servant who purifies the Goyim in Is. 52:13, 15) the "my servant the Branch" of Zech.3:8 who is symbolized by the face of the Ox in Ezekiel 1 (the Ox being a servant, a beast of burden). Mark does not begin with an account of the birth of Messiah as do Matthew and Luke because, unlike the birth of a King, the birth of a servant is unimportant, all that is important is his work as a servant which begins with his immersion by Yochanan. Thus Mark's simplified account omits any account of Yeshua's birth or preexistence and centers on his work as a servant who purifies the Goyim.
The Remez Gospel is Luke. Luke wrote a more detailed account for the High Priest Theophilus (a Sadducee). The Sadducees were rationalists and sticklers for details. Luke presents Yeshua as the "Son of Man" and as "the man whose name is the Branch" (Zech 6:12) who is presented as a High Priest and is symbolized by the face of the man in Ezekiel 1. Luke wants to remind by remez (by implication) the High Priest Theophilus about the redemption of the filthy High Priest Joshua (Zech. 6) and its prophetic foreshadowing of a "man" who is a Messianic "Priest" and who can purify even a High Priest.
The Drash Gospel is Matthew. Matthew presents his account of Yeshua's life as a Midrash to the Pharisees, as a continuing story tied to various passages from the Tanak (for example Mt. 2:13-15 presents an allegorical understanding of Hosea 11:1).. As a drash level account Matthew also includes a number of parables in his account. Matthew presents Messiah as the King Messiah, the Branch of David (Jer. 23:5-6 & Is. 11:1f) symbolized by the face of the lion in Ezekiel 1.
The Sod Gospel is Yochanan (John). Yochanan addresses the Mystical Essene sect and concerns himself with mystical topics like light, life, truth, the way and the Word. Yochanan includes many Sod interpretations in his account. For example Yochanan 1:1 presents a Sod understanding of Gen. 1:1. Yochanan 3:14; 8:28 & 12:32 present a Sod understanding of Num. 21:9 etc.).
Conclusion
The Gospel according to the Hebrews which was the “especial delight of those of the Hebrews who have accepted Messiah” was a primary source document either directly or indirectly for all four of our canonical Gospels. The Gospel of Matthew was an abridgement of that Gospel made originally to bring the message of Yeshua to the Pharisees. The Gospel of Luke was drawn largely from GH and was composed to present the message of Yeshua to the Sadducees. The Gospel of Mark was compiled from Matthew and Luke in order to present a shorter, simpler account to the Gentiles. And the Gospel of John made some use of GH in composing a Gospel account aimed at the Essene community. The resulting four Gospels covered all of the levels of understanding (PaRDeS) of the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Mark gives us the pashat, Luke the remez, Matthew the drash and John the Sod. Thus the four canonical Gospels provide us with a complete understanding of the Gospel according to the Hebrews which lies at the root of all of them.
PaRDeS
The Hebrew/Aramaic word PARDES is spelled in Hebrew and Aramaic without vowels as PRDS. PaRDeS refers to a park or garden, esp. the Garden of Eden. The word appears three times in the Aramaic New Testament (Lk. 23:43; 2Cor. 12:4 & Rev. 2:7).
The word PRDS is also an acronym (called in Judaism "notarikon") for:
[P]ashat (Heb. "simple")
[R]emez (Heb. "hint")
[D]rash (Heb. "search")
[S]od (Heb. "hidden")
These are the four levels of understanding the scriptures. Each layer is deeper and more intense than the last, like the layers of an onion.
PASHAT
The first level of understanding is PASHAT (simple). The Pashat is the literal meaning. It is similar to what Protestant hermeneutics calls "Grammatical Historical Exogesis" and also similar to what Protestant Hermeneutics calls "The Literal Principle."
The PASHAT is the plain, simple meaning of the text; understanding scripture in its natural, normal sense using the customary meanings of the words being used, in accordance with the primary exegetical rule in the Talmud that no passage loses its PASHAT (b.Shab. 63a; b.Yeb. 24a). While there is figurative language (like Ps. 36:7) symbolism (like Rom. 5:14); allegory (like Gal. 4:19-31) and hidden meanings (like Rev. 13:18; see also 1Cor. 2:7) in the Scriptures, the first thing to look for is the literal meaning or PASHAT.
The following rules of thumb can be used to determine if a passage is figurative and therefore figurative even in its PASHAT:
When an inanimate object is used to describe a living being, the statement is figurative. (Example: Prov. 18:10)
When life and action are attributed to an inanimate object the statement is figurative. (Example: same example Prov. 18:10)
When an expression is out of character with the thing described, the statement is figurative. (Example: Ps. 17:8)
The PASHAT is the keystone of Scripture understanding. If we discard the PASHAT we lose any real chance of an accurate understanding. We are left with a no-holds-barred game of pure imagination in which we are no longer objectively deriving meaning from the Scriptures (exogesis), but subjectively reading meaning into the scriptures (eisogesis) (see 2Pt. 1:20-21; 1Tim. 4:3-4). Thus the Talmud twice warns us: "No passage loses its PASHAT" (b.Shab. 63a; b.Yeb. 24a).
REMEZ
The next level of understanding is called in Hebrew REMEZ (hint). This is the implied meaning of the text. Peculiarities in the text are regarded as hinting at a deeper truth than that conveyed by its PASHAT.
An example of implied "REMEZ" meaning may be found in Ex. 21:26-26-27 where we are told of our liability regarding eyes and teeth. By the "REMEZ" understanding we know that this liability also applies to other body parts.
DRASH
Another level of understanding the Scriptures is called in Hebrew "drash" meaning "search", this is the allegorical, typological or homiletical application of the text. Creativity is used to search the text in relation to the rest of the Scriptures, other literature, or life itself in order to develop an allegorical, typological or homiletical application of the text. This process involves eisogesis (reading of the text) of the text.
Three important rules of thumb in utilizing the drash level of understanding a scripture are:
A drash understanding can not be used to strip a passage of its PASHAT meaning, nor may any such understanding contradict any PASHAT meaning of any other scripture passage. As the Talmud states "No passage loses its PASHAT." (b. Shab. 63a; b.Yeb. 24a)
Let scripture interpret scripture. Look for the scriptures themselves to define the components of an allegory. For example use Mt. 12:18-23 to understand Mt. 13:3-9; Rev. 1:20 to understand Rev. 1:12-16; Rev. 17:7-18 to understand Rev. 17:2-8 ect..
The primary components of an allegory represent specific realities. We should limit ourselves to these primary components when understanding the text.
Examples of drash understandings:
Mt. 2:15 on Hosea 11:1
Mt. 3:11 on Is. 40:3
Rom. 5:14 (14-21) on Gen. 3:1-24
I Cor. 4:6
Gal. 4:24(21-31) on Gen. 17-22
Col 2:17
Heb. 8:5 on priesthood
Heb. 9:9, 24 on the Tabernacle
Heb. 10:1 on the Torah
Heb. 11:19 on Gen. 22:1f
1Pt. 3:21 on Gen. 6-9
SOD
The final level of understanding the Scriptures is called in Hebrew "SOD" meaning "hidden". This understanding is the hidden, secret or mystic meaning of a text. (See I Cor. 2:7-16 esp. 2:7). This process often involves returning the letters of a word to their prime-material state and giving them new form in order to reveal a hidden meaning. An example may be found in Rev. 13:18 where the identity of the Beast is expressed by its numeric value 666.
The Hebrew/Aramaic word PARDES is spelled in Hebrew and Aramaic without vowels as PRDS. PaRDeS refers to a park or garden, esp. the Garden of Eden. The word appears three times in the Aramaic New Testament (Lk. 23:43; 2Cor. 12:4 & Rev. 2:7).
The word PRDS is also an acronym (called in Judaism "notarikon") for:
[P]ashat (Heb. "simple")
[R]emez (Heb. "hint")
[D]rash (Heb. "search")
[S]od (Heb. "hidden")
These are the four levels of understanding the scriptures. Each layer is deeper and more intense than the last, like the layers of an onion.
PASHAT
The first level of understanding is PASHAT (simple). The Pashat is the literal meaning. It is similar to what Protestant hermeneutics calls "Grammatical Historical Exogesis" and also similar to what Protestant Hermeneutics calls "The Literal Principle."
The PASHAT is the plain, simple meaning of the text; understanding scripture in its natural, normal sense using the customary meanings of the words being used, in accordance with the primary exegetical rule in the Talmud that no passage loses its PASHAT (b.Shab. 63a; b.Yeb. 24a). While there is figurative language (like Ps. 36:7) symbolism (like Rom. 5:14); allegory (like Gal. 4:19-31) and hidden meanings (like Rev. 13:18; see also 1Cor. 2:7) in the Scriptures, the first thing to look for is the literal meaning or PASHAT.
The following rules of thumb can be used to determine if a passage is figurative and therefore figurative even in its PASHAT:
When an inanimate object is used to describe a living being, the statement is figurative. (Example: Prov. 18:10)
When life and action are attributed to an inanimate object the statement is figurative. (Example: same example Prov. 18:10)
When an expression is out of character with the thing described, the statement is figurative. (Example: Ps. 17:8)
The PASHAT is the keystone of Scripture understanding. If we discard the PASHAT we lose any real chance of an accurate understanding. We are left with a no-holds-barred game of pure imagination in which we are no longer objectively deriving meaning from the Scriptures (exogesis), but subjectively reading meaning into the scriptures (eisogesis) (see 2Pt. 1:20-21; 1Tim. 4:3-4). Thus the Talmud twice warns us: "No passage loses its PASHAT" (b.Shab. 63a; b.Yeb. 24a).
REMEZ
The next level of understanding is called in Hebrew REMEZ (hint). This is the implied meaning of the text. Peculiarities in the text are regarded as hinting at a deeper truth than that conveyed by its PASHAT.
An example of implied "REMEZ" meaning may be found in Ex. 21:26-26-27 where we are told of our liability regarding eyes and teeth. By the "REMEZ" understanding we know that this liability also applies to other body parts.
DRASH
Another level of understanding the Scriptures is called in Hebrew "drash" meaning "search", this is the allegorical, typological or homiletical application of the text. Creativity is used to search the text in relation to the rest of the Scriptures, other literature, or life itself in order to develop an allegorical, typological or homiletical application of the text. This process involves eisogesis (reading of the text) of the text.
Three important rules of thumb in utilizing the drash level of understanding a scripture are:
A drash understanding can not be used to strip a passage of its PASHAT meaning, nor may any such understanding contradict any PASHAT meaning of any other scripture passage. As the Talmud states "No passage loses its PASHAT." (b. Shab. 63a; b.Yeb. 24a)
Let scripture interpret scripture. Look for the scriptures themselves to define the components of an allegory. For example use Mt. 12:18-23 to understand Mt. 13:3-9; Rev. 1:20 to understand Rev. 1:12-16; Rev. 17:7-18 to understand Rev. 17:2-8 ect..
The primary components of an allegory represent specific realities. We should limit ourselves to these primary components when understanding the text.
Examples of drash understandings:
Mt. 2:15 on Hosea 11:1
Mt. 3:11 on Is. 40:3
Rom. 5:14 (14-21) on Gen. 3:1-24
I Cor. 4:6
Gal. 4:24(21-31) on Gen. 17-22
Col 2:17
Heb. 8:5 on priesthood
Heb. 9:9, 24 on the Tabernacle
Heb. 10:1 on the Torah
Heb. 11:19 on Gen. 22:1f
1Pt. 3:21 on Gen. 6-9
SOD
The final level of understanding the Scriptures is called in Hebrew "SOD" meaning "hidden". This understanding is the hidden, secret or mystic meaning of a text. (See I Cor. 2:7-16 esp. 2:7). This process often involves returning the letters of a word to their prime-material state and giving them new form in order to reveal a hidden meaning. An example may be found in Rev. 13:18 where the identity of the Beast is expressed by its numeric value 666.
The Seven Rules of Hillel
The Seven Rules of Hillel existed long before Hillel, but Hillel was the first to write them down. Hillel and Shamai were competitive leading figures in Judaism during the days of Y'shua's youth. Hillel was known for teaching the Spirit of the Law and Shamai was known for teaching the letter of the Law. Whole books have been written about the similarities between the teachings of Y'shua nd those of Hillel. Y'shua's teaching largely followed that of the School of Hillel rather than that of the School of Shamai.
For example, Y'shua's famous "golden rule":
Whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even to them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
(Matthew 7:12)
This reads very closely with Hillel's famous statement:
What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour that is the whole Torah...
(b.Shabbat 31a)
Upon Hillel's death the mantle of the School of Hillel was passed to his son Simeon. Upon Simon's death the mantle of the school of Hillel passed to Gamliel. This Gamilel spoke in defense of the early Nazarenes (Acts 5:34-39) he was the teacher of Shaul/Paul (Acts 22:3). In 2Tim. 2:15 Paul speaks of "rightly dividing the word of truth." What did Paul mean by this? Was he saying that there were right and wrong ways to interpret the scriptures? Did Paul believe there were actual rules to be followed when interpreting (understanding) the Scriptures? Was Paul speaking of the Seven Rules of Hillel? Paul was certainly taught these rules in the School of Hillel by Hillel's own grandson Gamliel. When we examine Paul's writings we will see that they are filled with usages of Hillel's Seven Rules (several examples appear below). It would appear then that the Seven Rules of Hillel are at least part of what Paul was speaking of when he spoke of "rightly dividing the Word of Truth." (2 Timothy 2:15).
The Seven Rules of Hillel are:
1. Kal V'Khomer (light and heavy)
Kal v'khomer is the first of the seven rules for understanding the scriptures written by Hillel. Hillel did not invent the rules, in fact they are so old we see them used in the Tenach.
The kol v'komer thoughtform is used to make an argument from lesser weight based on one of greater weight. It may be expressed as:
If X is true of Y then how much more X must be true of Z (Where Z is of greater weight than Y)
A kol v'khomer argument is often, but not always, signalled by a phrase like "how much more..."
The Rabbinical writers recognize two forms ok kol v'khomer:
kal v'khomer meforash - In this form the kal v'chomer argument appears explicily.
kal v'khomer satum - In which the kal v'khomer argument is only implied.
There are several examples of kal v'khomer in the Tenach. For example:
Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth:
much more the wicked and the sinner.
(Proverbs 11:31)
And:
If you have run with footmen and they have wearied you,
then how can you contend with horses?
(Jeremiah 12:5a)
Other Tenach examples to look at:
Dt. 31:27; 1Sam. 23:3; Jer. 12:5b; Ezkl. 15:5; and Esther 9:12.
For those who wish to look as rabbinical usage of implied occurances:
Numbers 12:14 & b. BK 25a; Deuteronomy 21:23 & m. San. 6:5
Leviticus 21:16-21 & Numbers 8:24-25 & b.Hul. 24a
There is also an important limitation to the kal v'khomer thoughtform. This is the dayo (enough) principle. This is that the conclusion of an argument is satisfied when it is like the major premise. In other words the conclusion is equalized to the premise and neither a stricter nor a more lenient view is to be taken. (m.BK 2:5) Rabbi Tarfon rejected the dayo principle in certain cases (b.BK 25a)
There are several examples of kal v'khomer in the New Testament. Y'shua often uses this form of argument. For example:
If a man recieves circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the sabbath?
(John 7:23)
And:
What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
(Matthew 12:11-12)
Other examples of Y'shua's usage of kal v'khomer are:
Matthew 6:26, 30 = Luke 12:24, 28
Matthew 7:11 = Luke 11:13
Matthew 10:25 & John 15:18-20
Matthew 12:12 & John 7:23
Paul uses kal v'khomer in:
Romans 5:8-9, 10, 15, 17; 11:12, 24
1 Corinthians 9:11-12; 12:22
2 Corinthians 3:7-9, 11
Philippians 2:12
Philemon 1:16
Hebrews 2:2-3; 9:13-14; 10:28-29; 12:9, 25
2. G'zerah Shavah (Equivalence of expresions)
An analogy is made between two seperate texts on the basis of a similar phrase, word or root.
Tenakh example:
By comparing 1st Samuel 1:10 to Judges 13:5 using the phrase "no razor shall touch his head" we may conlude that Samuel, like Samson, was a nazarite.
"New Testament" example:
In Hebrews 3:6-4:13 Paul compares Psalm 95:7-11 = Hebrews 3:7-11 to Gen. 2:2 = Hebrews 4:4 based on the words "works" and "day"/"today" ("today" in Hebrew is literally "the day"). Paul uses this exogesis to conclude that there will be 6,000 years of this world follwoed by a 1,000 year shabbat.
3. Binyan ab mikathub echad (Building of the father from one text)
One explicit passage serves as a foundation or starting point so as to constitute a rule (father) for all similar passages or cases.
Hebrews 9:11-22 aplies "blood" from Exodus 24:8 = Hebrews 9:20 to Jeremiah 31:31-34
4. Binyab ab mishene kethubim (Building of the father from two or more texts)
Two texts or provisions in a text serve as a foundation for a general conclusion.
Tenach example:
Exodus 21:26-27 speaks of only eyes and teeth, however by use of the fourth rule of Hillel we can recognize that the provision aplies to other body parts as well.
"New Testament" example:
In Heb. 1:5-14 Paul sites:
Psalm 2:7 = Hebrews 1:5
2 Samuel 7:14 = Heb. 1:5
Deuteronomy 32:43/Psalm 97:7/(Nehemiah 9:6) = Hebrews 1:6
Psalm 104:4 = Hebrews 1:7
Psalm 45:6-7 = Hebrews 1:8-9
Psalm 102:25-27 = Hebrews 1:10-12
Psalm 110:1 = Hebrews 1:13
to build a rule that the Messiah is of a higher order than angels.
5. Kelal uferat (the general and the partcular)
A general statement is first made and is followed by a single remark which particularizes the general principle.
A Tenach example:
Gen. 1:27 makes a general statement which Gen. 2:7, 21 particularizes.
6. Kayotze bo mimekom akhar (analogy made from another passage)
Two passages may seem to conflict until a third resolves the conflict.
Tenach examples:
Leviticus 1:1 "out of the tent of meeting" and Exodus 25:22 "from above the ark of the covenant between the chrubim" seem to disagree until we examine Numbers 7:89 where we learn that Moses entered the tent of meeting to hear YHWH speaking from between the cherubim.
1 Chronicles 27:1 explaind the numerical disagreement between 2 Samuel 24:9 and 1 Chronicles 21:5.
Exodus 19:20 "YHWH came down upon Mount Sinai" seems to disagree with Deuteronomy 4:36 "Out of Heaven He let you hear His voice" > Exodus 20:19 (20:22 in some editions) reconciles the two by telling us that G-d brought the heavens down to the mount and spoke. (m.Sifra 1:7)
"New Testament" example:
Paul shows that the following Tenach passages SEEM to conflict:
The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17 = Habbakkuk 2:4)
with
There is none righteous, no, not one... (Romans 3:10 = Psalm 14:1-3 = Psalm 53:1-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20)
and:
[G-d] will render to each one according to his deeds. (Romans 2:6 = Psalm 62:12; Proverbs 24:12)
with
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man whom YHWH shall not impute sin. (Romans 4:7-8 = Psalm 32:1-2)
Paul resolves the apparant conflict by citing Genesis 15:6 (in Romans 4:3, 22):
Abraham believed G-d, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Thus Paul resloves the apparant conflict by showing that under certain circumstances, belief/faith/trust (same word in Hebrew) can act as a substitute for righteousness/being just (same word in Hebrew).
7. Davar hilmad me'anino (Explanation obtained from context)
The total context, not just the isolated statement must be considered for an accurate exegesis.
Conclusion:
Paul certainly would have been taught the Seven Rules of Hillel under Gamilel the grandson of Hillel. Paul clearly used these Seven Rules in his own exogesis. It is evident then that when Paul speaks of "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" (2tim. 2:15) he is speaking at least in part, of the Seven Rules of Hillel. These Seven Rules therefore are invaluable to Nazarene Judaism in interpreting (understanding) the Scriptures.
Dr. James Trimm
The Seven Rules of Hillel existed long before Hillel, but Hillel was the first to write them down. Hillel and Shamai were competitive leading figures in Judaism during the days of Y'shua's youth. Hillel was known for teaching the Spirit of the Law and Shamai was known for teaching the letter of the Law. Whole books have been written about the similarities between the teachings of Y'shua nd those of Hillel. Y'shua's teaching largely followed that of the School of Hillel rather than that of the School of Shamai.
For example, Y'shua's famous "golden rule":
Whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even to them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
(Matthew 7:12)
This reads very closely with Hillel's famous statement:
What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour that is the whole Torah...
(b.Shabbat 31a)
Upon Hillel's death the mantle of the School of Hillel was passed to his son Simeon. Upon Simon's death the mantle of the school of Hillel passed to Gamliel. This Gamilel spoke in defense of the early Nazarenes (Acts 5:34-39) he was the teacher of Shaul/Paul (Acts 22:3). In 2Tim. 2:15 Paul speaks of "rightly dividing the word of truth." What did Paul mean by this? Was he saying that there were right and wrong ways to interpret the scriptures? Did Paul believe there were actual rules to be followed when interpreting (understanding) the Scriptures? Was Paul speaking of the Seven Rules of Hillel? Paul was certainly taught these rules in the School of Hillel by Hillel's own grandson Gamliel. When we examine Paul's writings we will see that they are filled with usages of Hillel's Seven Rules (several examples appear below). It would appear then that the Seven Rules of Hillel are at least part of what Paul was speaking of when he spoke of "rightly dividing the Word of Truth." (2 Timothy 2:15).
The Seven Rules of Hillel are:
1. Kal V'Khomer (light and heavy)
Kal v'khomer is the first of the seven rules for understanding the scriptures written by Hillel. Hillel did not invent the rules, in fact they are so old we see them used in the Tenach.
The kol v'komer thoughtform is used to make an argument from lesser weight based on one of greater weight. It may be expressed as:
If X is true of Y then how much more X must be true of Z (Where Z is of greater weight than Y)
A kol v'khomer argument is often, but not always, signalled by a phrase like "how much more..."
The Rabbinical writers recognize two forms ok kol v'khomer:
kal v'khomer meforash - In this form the kal v'chomer argument appears explicily.
kal v'khomer satum - In which the kal v'khomer argument is only implied.
There are several examples of kal v'khomer in the Tenach. For example:
Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth:
much more the wicked and the sinner.
(Proverbs 11:31)
And:
If you have run with footmen and they have wearied you,
then how can you contend with horses?
(Jeremiah 12:5a)
Other Tenach examples to look at:
Dt. 31:27; 1Sam. 23:3; Jer. 12:5b; Ezkl. 15:5; and Esther 9:12.
For those who wish to look as rabbinical usage of implied occurances:
Numbers 12:14 & b. BK 25a; Deuteronomy 21:23 & m. San. 6:5
Leviticus 21:16-21 & Numbers 8:24-25 & b.Hul. 24a
There is also an important limitation to the kal v'khomer thoughtform. This is the dayo (enough) principle. This is that the conclusion of an argument is satisfied when it is like the major premise. In other words the conclusion is equalized to the premise and neither a stricter nor a more lenient view is to be taken. (m.BK 2:5) Rabbi Tarfon rejected the dayo principle in certain cases (b.BK 25a)
There are several examples of kal v'khomer in the New Testament. Y'shua often uses this form of argument. For example:
If a man recieves circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the sabbath?
(John 7:23)
And:
What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
(Matthew 12:11-12)
Other examples of Y'shua's usage of kal v'khomer are:
Matthew 6:26, 30 = Luke 12:24, 28
Matthew 7:11 = Luke 11:13
Matthew 10:25 & John 15:18-20
Matthew 12:12 & John 7:23
Paul uses kal v'khomer in:
Romans 5:8-9, 10, 15, 17; 11:12, 24
1 Corinthians 9:11-12; 12:22
2 Corinthians 3:7-9, 11
Philippians 2:12
Philemon 1:16
Hebrews 2:2-3; 9:13-14; 10:28-29; 12:9, 25
2. G'zerah Shavah (Equivalence of expresions)
An analogy is made between two seperate texts on the basis of a similar phrase, word or root.
Tenakh example:
By comparing 1st Samuel 1:10 to Judges 13:5 using the phrase "no razor shall touch his head" we may conlude that Samuel, like Samson, was a nazarite.
"New Testament" example:
In Hebrews 3:6-4:13 Paul compares Psalm 95:7-11 = Hebrews 3:7-11 to Gen. 2:2 = Hebrews 4:4 based on the words "works" and "day"/"today" ("today" in Hebrew is literally "the day"). Paul uses this exogesis to conclude that there will be 6,000 years of this world follwoed by a 1,000 year shabbat.
3. Binyan ab mikathub echad (Building of the father from one text)
One explicit passage serves as a foundation or starting point so as to constitute a rule (father) for all similar passages or cases.
Hebrews 9:11-22 aplies "blood" from Exodus 24:8 = Hebrews 9:20 to Jeremiah 31:31-34
4. Binyab ab mishene kethubim (Building of the father from two or more texts)
Two texts or provisions in a text serve as a foundation for a general conclusion.
Tenach example:
Exodus 21:26-27 speaks of only eyes and teeth, however by use of the fourth rule of Hillel we can recognize that the provision aplies to other body parts as well.
"New Testament" example:
In Heb. 1:5-14 Paul sites:
Psalm 2:7 = Hebrews 1:5
2 Samuel 7:14 = Heb. 1:5
Deuteronomy 32:43/Psalm 97:7/(Nehemiah 9:6) = Hebrews 1:6
Psalm 104:4 = Hebrews 1:7
Psalm 45:6-7 = Hebrews 1:8-9
Psalm 102:25-27 = Hebrews 1:10-12
Psalm 110:1 = Hebrews 1:13
to build a rule that the Messiah is of a higher order than angels.
5. Kelal uferat (the general and the partcular)
A general statement is first made and is followed by a single remark which particularizes the general principle.
A Tenach example:
Gen. 1:27 makes a general statement which Gen. 2:7, 21 particularizes.
6. Kayotze bo mimekom akhar (analogy made from another passage)
Two passages may seem to conflict until a third resolves the conflict.
Tenach examples:
Leviticus 1:1 "out of the tent of meeting" and Exodus 25:22 "from above the ark of the covenant between the chrubim" seem to disagree until we examine Numbers 7:89 where we learn that Moses entered the tent of meeting to hear YHWH speaking from between the cherubim.
1 Chronicles 27:1 explaind the numerical disagreement between 2 Samuel 24:9 and 1 Chronicles 21:5.
Exodus 19:20 "YHWH came down upon Mount Sinai" seems to disagree with Deuteronomy 4:36 "Out of Heaven He let you hear His voice" > Exodus 20:19 (20:22 in some editions) reconciles the two by telling us that G-d brought the heavens down to the mount and spoke. (m.Sifra 1:7)
"New Testament" example:
Paul shows that the following Tenach passages SEEM to conflict:
The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:17 = Habbakkuk 2:4)
with
There is none righteous, no, not one... (Romans 3:10 = Psalm 14:1-3 = Psalm 53:1-3; Ecclesiastes 7:20)
and:
[G-d] will render to each one according to his deeds. (Romans 2:6 = Psalm 62:12; Proverbs 24:12)
with
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; Blessed is the man whom YHWH shall not impute sin. (Romans 4:7-8 = Psalm 32:1-2)
Paul resolves the apparant conflict by citing Genesis 15:6 (in Romans 4:3, 22):
Abraham believed G-d, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Thus Paul resloves the apparant conflict by showing that under certain circumstances, belief/faith/trust (same word in Hebrew) can act as a substitute for righteousness/being just (same word in Hebrew).
7. Davar hilmad me'anino (Explanation obtained from context)
The total context, not just the isolated statement must be considered for an accurate exegesis.
Conclusion:
Paul certainly would have been taught the Seven Rules of Hillel under Gamilel the grandson of Hillel. Paul clearly used these Seven Rules in his own exogesis. It is evident then that when Paul speaks of "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" (2tim. 2:15) he is speaking at least in part, of the Seven Rules of Hillel. These Seven Rules therefore are invaluable to Nazarene Judaism in interpreting (understanding) the Scriptures.
Dr. James Trimm
Torah: For All your Generations Forever
By James Scott Trimm
In studying the New Testament we must ask ourselves "can you get here from there?" ("there" being the Tanak (Old Testament)). If we understand something in the New Testament in such a way that it contradicts the Tanak, then we must be misunderstanding it. Now there are many who understand many New Testament passages in such a way as to believe and teach that the Torah has been abolished. Let us be like noble Bereans and let us look in the Tanak to see if this is so (Acts 17:11). After all Paul tells us that the Tanak is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, [and] for instruction" (2Tim. 3:16). So what does the Tanak say? Was the Torah to be for all generations, forever? or would it one day be abolished? If the Torah would one day be abolished, then we should be able to find this taught in the Tanak. As Noble Bereans we should be checking to see if the things we have been taught can be found in the Tanak. By contrast, if the Torah would not be abolished, but would be for all generations forever, then we should be able to find that information in the Torah as well. Since the Tanak is profitable for doctrine and correction, perhaps we can seek the truth on this issue from the Tanak:
"...it shall be a statute forever to their generations..." (Exodus 27:21)
"...it shall be a statute forever to him and his seed after him." (Exodus 28:43)
"...a statute forever..." (Exodus 29:28)
"...it shall be a statute forever to them, to him and to his seed throughout their generations." (Exodus 30:21)
"It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever." (Exodus 31:17)
There is no shortage of passages in the Torah which specify that the Torah will not be abolished but will be for all generations forever. (For more see: Leviticus 6:18, 22; 7:34, 36; 10:9, 15; 17:7; 23:14, 21, 41; 24:3; Numbers 10:8; 15:15; 18:8, 11, 19, 23; 19:10 and Deuteronomy 5:29)
Moreover the Psalmist writes:
"Your word is truth from the beginning: and every one of your righteous judgements endures forever."
(Psalm 119:160)
Furthermore the Tanak tells us that the Torah is not to be changed or taken away from:
"You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish a thing from it, that you may keep the commandments of YHWH your God which I command you."
(Deuteronomy 4:2)
"Whatever thing I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it."
(Deuteronomy 12:32)
So if we are "Noble Bereans" we will find that the Tanak teaches that the Torah will not be abolished but will endure for all generations forever. This teaching from the Tanak is profitable to us for doctrine, for reproval and for correction.
The Messiah echoes this teaching:
"Do not think that I have come to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one yud or one mark will by no means pass from the Torah till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, he will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever does and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
(Matthew 5:17-19 see also Luke 16:17)
As does Paul:
"Do we then abolish the Torah through trust? Absolutely not! We uphold the Torah!"
(Romans 3:31)
Despite the fact that David was saved by faith alone (Romans 4:5-8) he loved the Torah and delighted in it (Psalm 119: 97, 113, 163). Paul also delighted in the Torah (Romans 7:22) and called it "holy, just and good." (Romans 7:12). There is nothing wrong with the Torah that Elohim should want to abolish or destroy it, in fact both the Tenach and the New Scriptures call the Torah "perfect" (Psalm 19:7; James 1:25).
The Torah is even called in the New Testament "the Torah of Messiah" (Galatians 6:2). To say that the Torah was not forever and is not for all generations, is to call Elohim a liar.
Another popular teaching in the church is a teaching that Elohim only gave the Torah to Israel to prove that they could not keep it. For example one book states:
"...Israel, in blindness and pride and self-righteousness, presumed to ask for the law; and God granted their request, to show them that they could not keep his law...
(God's Plan of the Ages; Louis T. Tallbot; 1970; p. 66)
Now lets think this through for a moment. Elohim gives Israel the Torah. He says he will place curses upon Israel if they fail to keep the Torah (Lev. 26 & Deut 28-29). He sends prophets to warn Israel of pending destruction because of their continual failure to keep Torah. Eventually Elohim allows Babylon to invade Jerusalem and the Jews to be taken into captivity, because of their failure to keep Torah. Then he comes along and says "Nah, I was only fooling. I just gave you the Torah to prove you could not do it." What kind of Elohim would that be? Of course as noble Bereans we can simply look in the Tanak to see if this popular teaching is true. Let us see what the Tanak says on this issue:
"For this commandment which I command you this day it is not to hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say: 'Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say: 'Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us hear it, that we may do it?' But the Word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it."
(Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
The fact that the Torah can be kept is confirmed as well in the New Testament which tells us that Yeshua was tempted in all things just as we are and he did keep the Torah (Hebrews 4:15).
By James Scott Trimm
In studying the New Testament we must ask ourselves "can you get here from there?" ("there" being the Tanak (Old Testament)). If we understand something in the New Testament in such a way that it contradicts the Tanak, then we must be misunderstanding it. Now there are many who understand many New Testament passages in such a way as to believe and teach that the Torah has been abolished. Let us be like noble Bereans and let us look in the Tanak to see if this is so (Acts 17:11). After all Paul tells us that the Tanak is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, [and] for instruction" (2Tim. 3:16). So what does the Tanak say? Was the Torah to be for all generations, forever? or would it one day be abolished? If the Torah would one day be abolished, then we should be able to find this taught in the Tanak. As Noble Bereans we should be checking to see if the things we have been taught can be found in the Tanak. By contrast, if the Torah would not be abolished, but would be for all generations forever, then we should be able to find that information in the Torah as well. Since the Tanak is profitable for doctrine and correction, perhaps we can seek the truth on this issue from the Tanak:
"...it shall be a statute forever to their generations..." (Exodus 27:21)
"...it shall be a statute forever to him and his seed after him." (Exodus 28:43)
"...a statute forever..." (Exodus 29:28)
"...it shall be a statute forever to them, to him and to his seed throughout their generations." (Exodus 30:21)
"It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever." (Exodus 31:17)
There is no shortage of passages in the Torah which specify that the Torah will not be abolished but will be for all generations forever. (For more see: Leviticus 6:18, 22; 7:34, 36; 10:9, 15; 17:7; 23:14, 21, 41; 24:3; Numbers 10:8; 15:15; 18:8, 11, 19, 23; 19:10 and Deuteronomy 5:29)
Moreover the Psalmist writes:
"Your word is truth from the beginning: and every one of your righteous judgements endures forever."
(Psalm 119:160)
Furthermore the Tanak tells us that the Torah is not to be changed or taken away from:
"You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish a thing from it, that you may keep the commandments of YHWH your God which I command you."
(Deuteronomy 4:2)
"Whatever thing I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it."
(Deuteronomy 12:32)
So if we are "Noble Bereans" we will find that the Tanak teaches that the Torah will not be abolished but will endure for all generations forever. This teaching from the Tanak is profitable to us for doctrine, for reproval and for correction.
The Messiah echoes this teaching:
"Do not think that I have come to destroy the Torah or the Prophets. I have not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one yud or one mark will by no means pass from the Torah till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, he will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever does and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
(Matthew 5:17-19 see also Luke 16:17)
As does Paul:
"Do we then abolish the Torah through trust? Absolutely not! We uphold the Torah!"
(Romans 3:31)
Despite the fact that David was saved by faith alone (Romans 4:5-8) he loved the Torah and delighted in it (Psalm 119: 97, 113, 163). Paul also delighted in the Torah (Romans 7:22) and called it "holy, just and good." (Romans 7:12). There is nothing wrong with the Torah that Elohim should want to abolish or destroy it, in fact both the Tenach and the New Scriptures call the Torah "perfect" (Psalm 19:7; James 1:25).
The Torah is even called in the New Testament "the Torah of Messiah" (Galatians 6:2). To say that the Torah was not forever and is not for all generations, is to call Elohim a liar.
Another popular teaching in the church is a teaching that Elohim only gave the Torah to Israel to prove that they could not keep it. For example one book states:
"...Israel, in blindness and pride and self-righteousness, presumed to ask for the law; and God granted their request, to show them that they could not keep his law...
(God's Plan of the Ages; Louis T. Tallbot; 1970; p. 66)
Now lets think this through for a moment. Elohim gives Israel the Torah. He says he will place curses upon Israel if they fail to keep the Torah (Lev. 26 & Deut 28-29). He sends prophets to warn Israel of pending destruction because of their continual failure to keep Torah. Eventually Elohim allows Babylon to invade Jerusalem and the Jews to be taken into captivity, because of their failure to keep Torah. Then he comes along and says "Nah, I was only fooling. I just gave you the Torah to prove you could not do it." What kind of Elohim would that be? Of course as noble Bereans we can simply look in the Tanak to see if this popular teaching is true. Let us see what the Tanak says on this issue:
"For this commandment which I command you this day it is not to hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say: 'Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?' Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say: 'Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us hear it, that we may do it?' But the Word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it."
(Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
The fact that the Torah can be kept is confirmed as well in the New Testament which tells us that Yeshua was tempted in all things just as we are and he did keep the Torah (Hebrews 4:15).
Paul Misunderstood
By James Scott Trimm
Paul is greatly misunderstood as having taught that the Torah is not for today. I have met a great many who feel uncomfortable with his writings. Some of these have even, like the Ebionites of ancient times, removed Paul's from their canon (Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 3:27:4). This belief that Yeshua may not have abolished the Torah, but that Paul did, has been propagated since ancient times. The "Toldot Yeshu" for example, an ancient hostile Rabbinic parody on the Gospels and Acts, accuses Paul of contradicting Yeshua on this very issue (Toldot Yeshu 6:16-41; 7:3-5). At least one modern Dispensationalist, Maurice Johnson, taught that the Messiah did not abolish the Torah, but that Paul did several years after the fact. He writes:
"Apparently God allowed this system of Jewish ordinances to be practiced about thirty years after Christ fulfilled it because in His patience, God only gradually showed the Jews how it was that His program was changing.... Thus it was that after God had slowly led the Christians out of Jewish religion He had Paul finally write these glorious, liberating truths."
(Saved by "Dry" Baptism! ; a pamphlet by Maurice Johnson; pp. 9-10)
Kefa warns us in the Scriptures that Paul's writings are difficult to understand. He warns us saying:
"...in which are some things hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures."
(2 Peter 3:15-16)
Paul knew that his teachings were being twisted, he mentions this in Romans, saying:
"And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come"? -- as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say."
(Romans 3:8)
Paul elaborates on this slanderous twist of his teachings, saying:
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!..."
(Romans 6:1-2)
and
"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the Torah but under grace? Certainly not!"
(Romans 6:15)
So then, Paul was misunderstood as teaching that because we are under grace, we need not observe the Torah.
Upon his visit to Jerusalem in Acts 21 Paul was confronted with this slanerous twist of his teachings. He was told:
"You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe, and they are all zealous for the Torah; but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs."
(Acts 21:20-21)
In order to prove that this was nothing more than slander, Paul takes the nazarite vow and goes to make offerings (sacrifices) at the Temple (Acts 21:22-26 & Num. 6:13-21) demonstrating that he himself kept the Torah (Acts 21:24). Paul did and said many things to prove that he both kept and taught the Torah. He:
circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:1-3)
took the nazarite vow (Acts 18:18; 21:17-26)
taught and observed Passover (Acts 20:6; 1Cor. 5:6-8; 11:17-34)
taught and observed Shavuot (Pentecost) (Acts 20:16; 1Cor. 16:8)
taught and observed fasting on Yom Kippur (Acts 27:9)
and even performed animal sacrifices in the Temple (Acts 21:17-26/Num. 6:13-21; Acts 24:17-18)
Among his more notable statements on the subject are:
"Neither against the Jewish Torah, nor against the Temple, nor against Caesar have I offended in anything at all." (Acts 25:8)
"I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers." (Acts 28:17)
"...the Torah is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good." (Romans 7:12)
"Do we then nullify the Torah through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we maintain the Torah." (Romans 3:31).
Was Paul a Hypocrite?
Being confronted with the various acts and statements of Paul which support the Torah, many of the "Torah is not for today" teachers accuse Paul of being hypocritical. Charles Ryrie, for example, footnotes Acts 21:24 in his Ryrie Study Bible calling Paul a "middle of the road Christian" for performing such acts. Another writer, M.A. DeHaan wrote an entire book entitled "Five Blunders of Paul" which characterizes these acts as "blunders." "These teachers of lawlessness" credit Paul as the champion of their doctrine, and then condemn him for not teaching their doctrine. If Paul was really a hypocrite, could he honestly have condemned hypocrisy so fervently (see Galatians 2:11-15). Consider some of his own words:
"For now do I persuade the sons of men or Eloah? Or do I seek to please the sons of men? For if until now I had pleased the sons of men, I would not have been a servant of the Messiah."
(Gal. 1:10 HRV)
"And you know, my brothers, that our entrance unto you was not in vain, but first we suffered and were dishonored, as you know, in Philippi, and then with great struggle we spoke to you with the boldness of our Eloah the good news of the Messiah. For our exhortation was not from deception nor from impurity nor with treachery. But as we were approved of Eloah to be entrusted with his Good News, thus we speak, not so as to please the sons of men, but Eloah, who searches our hearts. For we never used flattering speech, as you know, nor a pretext of greediness; Eloah [is] witness."
(1 Thessalonians 2:1-5 HRV)
If Paul was a hypocrite, he must have been one of the slickest con-men in history!
By James Scott Trimm
Paul is greatly misunderstood as having taught that the Torah is not for today. I have met a great many who feel uncomfortable with his writings. Some of these have even, like the Ebionites of ancient times, removed Paul's from their canon (Eusebius; Eccl. Hist. 3:27:4). This belief that Yeshua may not have abolished the Torah, but that Paul did, has been propagated since ancient times. The "Toldot Yeshu" for example, an ancient hostile Rabbinic parody on the Gospels and Acts, accuses Paul of contradicting Yeshua on this very issue (Toldot Yeshu 6:16-41; 7:3-5). At least one modern Dispensationalist, Maurice Johnson, taught that the Messiah did not abolish the Torah, but that Paul did several years after the fact. He writes:
"Apparently God allowed this system of Jewish ordinances to be practiced about thirty years after Christ fulfilled it because in His patience, God only gradually showed the Jews how it was that His program was changing.... Thus it was that after God had slowly led the Christians out of Jewish religion He had Paul finally write these glorious, liberating truths."
(Saved by "Dry" Baptism! ; a pamphlet by Maurice Johnson; pp. 9-10)
Kefa warns us in the Scriptures that Paul's writings are difficult to understand. He warns us saying:
"...in which are some things hard to understand, which those who are untaught and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures."
(2 Peter 3:15-16)
Paul knew that his teachings were being twisted, he mentions this in Romans, saying:
"And why not say, "Let us do evil that good may come"? -- as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say."
(Romans 3:8)
Paul elaborates on this slanderous twist of his teachings, saying:
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!..."
(Romans 6:1-2)
and
"What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the Torah but under grace? Certainly not!"
(Romans 6:15)
So then, Paul was misunderstood as teaching that because we are under grace, we need not observe the Torah.
Upon his visit to Jerusalem in Acts 21 Paul was confronted with this slanerous twist of his teachings. He was told:
"You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe, and they are all zealous for the Torah; but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs."
(Acts 21:20-21)
In order to prove that this was nothing more than slander, Paul takes the nazarite vow and goes to make offerings (sacrifices) at the Temple (Acts 21:22-26 & Num. 6:13-21) demonstrating that he himself kept the Torah (Acts 21:24). Paul did and said many things to prove that he both kept and taught the Torah. He:
circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:1-3)
took the nazarite vow (Acts 18:18; 21:17-26)
taught and observed Passover (Acts 20:6; 1Cor. 5:6-8; 11:17-34)
taught and observed Shavuot (Pentecost) (Acts 20:16; 1Cor. 16:8)
taught and observed fasting on Yom Kippur (Acts 27:9)
and even performed animal sacrifices in the Temple (Acts 21:17-26/Num. 6:13-21; Acts 24:17-18)
Among his more notable statements on the subject are:
"Neither against the Jewish Torah, nor against the Temple, nor against Caesar have I offended in anything at all." (Acts 25:8)
"I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers." (Acts 28:17)
"...the Torah is holy and the commandment is holy and just and good." (Romans 7:12)
"Do we then nullify the Torah through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we maintain the Torah." (Romans 3:31).
Was Paul a Hypocrite?
Being confronted with the various acts and statements of Paul which support the Torah, many of the "Torah is not for today" teachers accuse Paul of being hypocritical. Charles Ryrie, for example, footnotes Acts 21:24 in his Ryrie Study Bible calling Paul a "middle of the road Christian" for performing such acts. Another writer, M.A. DeHaan wrote an entire book entitled "Five Blunders of Paul" which characterizes these acts as "blunders." "These teachers of lawlessness" credit Paul as the champion of their doctrine, and then condemn him for not teaching their doctrine. If Paul was really a hypocrite, could he honestly have condemned hypocrisy so fervently (see Galatians 2:11-15). Consider some of his own words:
"For now do I persuade the sons of men or Eloah? Or do I seek to please the sons of men? For if until now I had pleased the sons of men, I would not have been a servant of the Messiah."
(Gal. 1:10 HRV)
"And you know, my brothers, that our entrance unto you was not in vain, but first we suffered and were dishonored, as you know, in Philippi, and then with great struggle we spoke to you with the boldness of our Eloah the good news of the Messiah. For our exhortation was not from deception nor from impurity nor with treachery. But as we were approved of Eloah to be entrusted with his Good News, thus we speak, not so as to please the sons of men, but Eloah, who searches our hearts. For we never used flattering speech, as you know, nor a pretext of greediness; Eloah [is] witness."
(1 Thessalonians 2:1-5 HRV)
If Paul was a hypocrite, he must have been one of the slickest con-men in history!
The Torah is Truth
"By James Scott Trimm"
There is a spiritual battle taking place. A battle between light and darkness. A battle between truth and deception. Paul writes:
"and put on all the armour of Eloah, so that you may be able to stand against the strategies of 'Akel Kartza, because your struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and with authorities and with the possessors of this dark world and with the evil spirits that are under heaven. Because of this, put on all the armour of Eloah that you may be able to meet the evil one, and being prepared in everything, you may stand firm."
(Ephesians 6:11-13 HRV)
Paul goes on to describe the parts of this armour as:
The Belt of Truth
The Breastplate of Righteousness
The Shoes of the Goodnews of Peace (Shalom)
The Shield of Faith
The Helmet of Salvation
The Sword of the Word
Now Paul is making a play on words here. The Aramaic word for "Armour" is ZAYNA while the Aramaic word for for "whiles" is TZEN'TA. Paul is contrasting the ZAYNA with the TZEN'TA. The four fixed (non mobile) pieces of armour correspond to the four whiles of HaSatan which are depicted in the Tanak:
Deception/Lies (Gen. 3) / Belt of Truth
Temptation/Pride (1Chron. 21:1) / Breastplate of Righteousness
Oppression (Job) / Shoes of Peace
Accusation (Zech. 3:1-5) / Helmet of Salvation
Now we will not cover each of the items here, instead we will concentrate only on the belt of truth.
Now it should be understood that the armour Paul is speaking of is not Roman armour, it was not inspired by Roman Soldiers. The armour was originally inspired by the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 11:5; 52:7 and 59:17) as well as the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon (5:17-20). Therefore the subject of this passage is ancient Hebew armour and not Roman armour at all. Now ancient Hebrews wore a skirt like garment. Before going into battle a Hebrew warrior would gird himself with the a belt, he would gather his skirt-like garment up and tuck it up under his belt to allow free movement. This prevented him from getting tripped up in his own garment while trying to fight.
Now when he was on trial before Pilate Yeshua said:
"For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness of the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."
(John 18:37-38)
To this Pilate asked the all important question:
"What is truth?"
(John 18:38)
Let us look back to the Tanak to find the answer to Pilate's question:
"Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your Torah is truth."
(Psalm 119:142)
"You are near, O YHWH, and all your commandments are truth."
(Psalm 119:151)
This definition explains many phrases in the New Testament:
"Obey the truth"
(Galatians 3:1)
"But he that does truth..."
(John 3:20)
"And I rejoice that I found your children walking in the truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father."
(2 John 1:4)
The Tanak definition of truth gives whole new meaning to Yeshua's words:
"For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness of the truth.Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."
(John 18:37-38)
Yeshua came to bear witness of the Torah, those who hear the Torah hear his voice. This leads us to another important saying from Yeshua:
"Then Yeshua said to those Jews who believed on him, 'If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' "
(John 8:31-32)
Paul, however, speaks of those "who changed the truth of God into a lie" (Rom. 1:25) Now if Messiah came to bear witness of the truth then what has HaSatan to bear witness to? The scriptures tell us:
"He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not the truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and ther father of it."
(John 8:44)
"...HaSatan, who deceives the whole world..."
(Revelation 12:9)
When HaSatan speaks a lie, he is merely speaking his native language.
Now if the Torah is truth, then what is HaSatan's lie? His lie is that there is not a Torah, that the Torah has been done away with. There is a Greek term for this teaching. This term is ANOMOS (Strong's Greek #459). ANOMOS is made up of the Greek prefix A- (there is not/without) with the Greek word NOMOS (Torah). ANOMOS means "without Torah" or "Torah-lessness." While Messiah came to bear witness to the Torah, HaSatan comes to bear witness of ANOMOS (Torah-lessness). Two entire books of the New Testament (2Kefa and Jude) are dedicated to combating this false ANOMOS teaching. Yeshua tells us that these teachers will be called "least" in the Kingdom (Matthew 5:19).
Now lets take a look at how the Bible uses this term ANOMOS:
"...I [Yeshua] will profess to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you that work ANOMOS."
(Matthew 7:23)
"...and they [angels] shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do ANOMOS."
(Matthew 13:41)
"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because ANOMOS shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold."
(Matthew 24:11-12)
"For the mystery of ANOMOS does already work... And then shall the ANOMOS one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,... whose coming is after the working of HaSatan with all power and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness... because they received not the love of truth... That they might be damned who believed not the truth..."
(2 Thessalonians 2:7-12)
Many people have been taken in by the ANOMOS teaching. In fact two of Christendom's largest theological sub-sets, Dispensationalism and Replacement Theology, submit detailed theories to explain why they teach that the Torah is not for today.
Dispensationalism is a form of Premillennialism which replaces the eternal "covenants" with finite "ages". Two of these finite ages are "The Age of Torah" which basically encompasses "Old Testament times", and "The Age of Grace" which basically encompasses "New Testament times". According to these Dispensationalists, during "Old Testament times" men were under Torah, but during "New Testament times" men are under grace. Some Dispensationalists, called "Ultra-Dispensationalists", even teach that men were saved by Torah in "Old Testament times," but are saved by grace in "New Testament times." As a result, Dispensationalists teach that "the Torah is not for today" or "we have no Torah."
Replacement Theologians teach that G-d has replaced Israel with the Church; Judaism with Christendom; The Old Testament with The New Testament; and Torah with grace. As a result, they too teach that "the Torah is not for today" or "we have no Torah."
Now you may be saying to yourself: "Ok, so they teach Torah-lessness, but don't the Torah-less teachers of 2Peter & Jude go so far as to teach sexual immorality? Surely the Torah-less teachers of within the church would never use their "the Torah is not for today" teaching to promote sexual immorality." Wrong! Some of Christendom's teachers have already carried the "the Torah is not for today" reasoning to its fullest and logical conclusion. A sect of Christendom known as "The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches" has published a tract which does just that. The nameless author of the tract writes:
"Another Scripture verse that is used to show that the Bible condemns the gay lifestyle is found in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, 18:22, "Thou shalt not lie with a man as thou would with a woman." Anyone who is concerned about this prohibition should read the whole chapter or the whole Book of Leviticus: No pork, no lobster, no shrimp, no oysters, no intercourse during the menstrual period, no rare meats, no eating blood, no inter-breeding of cattle, and a whole host of other laws, including the Law to kill all divorced people who remarry.
"As Christians, our Law is from Christ. St. Paul clearly taught that Christians are no longer under the Old Law (for example in Galatians 3:23-24); that the Old Law is brought to an end in Christ (Romans 10:4); and its fulfillment is in love (Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14). The New Law of Christ is the Law of Love. Neither Jesus, nor Paul, nor any of the New Testament Scriptures implies that Christians are held to the cultic or ethical laws of the Mosaic Law."
(Homosexuality; What the Bible Does and Does not Say; Universal Fellowship press, 1984, p. 3)
Thus Christendom's teaching that "the Torah is not for today" is already being used to "turn the grace of our Elohim into perversion." (Jude 1:4; see also 2 Peter 2:18-21)
There is indeed a spiritual battle taking place. It is a battle between the truth and a lie. It is a battle between light and darkness. It is a battle led by the one who came to bear witness to the Torah, and the one who comes to bear witness to Torah-lessness. The Torah is truth. The belt of truth is the belt of Torah. Gird yourselves with the belt of Torah that you may withstand the Torah-less one.
"By James Scott Trimm"
There is a spiritual battle taking place. A battle between light and darkness. A battle between truth and deception. Paul writes:
"and put on all the armour of Eloah, so that you may be able to stand against the strategies of 'Akel Kartza, because your struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and with authorities and with the possessors of this dark world and with the evil spirits that are under heaven. Because of this, put on all the armour of Eloah that you may be able to meet the evil one, and being prepared in everything, you may stand firm."
(Ephesians 6:11-13 HRV)
Paul goes on to describe the parts of this armour as:
The Belt of Truth
The Breastplate of Righteousness
The Shoes of the Goodnews of Peace (Shalom)
The Shield of Faith
The Helmet of Salvation
The Sword of the Word
Now Paul is making a play on words here. The Aramaic word for "Armour" is ZAYNA while the Aramaic word for for "whiles" is TZEN'TA. Paul is contrasting the ZAYNA with the TZEN'TA. The four fixed (non mobile) pieces of armour correspond to the four whiles of HaSatan which are depicted in the Tanak:
Deception/Lies (Gen. 3) / Belt of Truth
Temptation/Pride (1Chron. 21:1) / Breastplate of Righteousness
Oppression (Job) / Shoes of Peace
Accusation (Zech. 3:1-5) / Helmet of Salvation
Now we will not cover each of the items here, instead we will concentrate only on the belt of truth.
Now it should be understood that the armour Paul is speaking of is not Roman armour, it was not inspired by Roman Soldiers. The armour was originally inspired by the book of Isaiah (Isaiah 11:5; 52:7 and 59:17) as well as the apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon (5:17-20). Therefore the subject of this passage is ancient Hebew armour and not Roman armour at all. Now ancient Hebrews wore a skirt like garment. Before going into battle a Hebrew warrior would gird himself with the a belt, he would gather his skirt-like garment up and tuck it up under his belt to allow free movement. This prevented him from getting tripped up in his own garment while trying to fight.
Now when he was on trial before Pilate Yeshua said:
"For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness of the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."
(John 18:37-38)
To this Pilate asked the all important question:
"What is truth?"
(John 18:38)
Let us look back to the Tanak to find the answer to Pilate's question:
"Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your Torah is truth."
(Psalm 119:142)
"You are near, O YHWH, and all your commandments are truth."
(Psalm 119:151)
This definition explains many phrases in the New Testament:
"Obey the truth"
(Galatians 3:1)
"But he that does truth..."
(John 3:20)
"And I rejoice that I found your children walking in the truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father."
(2 John 1:4)
The Tanak definition of truth gives whole new meaning to Yeshua's words:
"For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness of the truth.Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."
(John 18:37-38)
Yeshua came to bear witness of the Torah, those who hear the Torah hear his voice. This leads us to another important saying from Yeshua:
"Then Yeshua said to those Jews who believed on him, 'If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.' "
(John 8:31-32)
Paul, however, speaks of those "who changed the truth of God into a lie" (Rom. 1:25) Now if Messiah came to bear witness of the truth then what has HaSatan to bear witness to? The scriptures tell us:
"He [the devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not the truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and ther father of it."
(John 8:44)
"...HaSatan, who deceives the whole world..."
(Revelation 12:9)
When HaSatan speaks a lie, he is merely speaking his native language.
Now if the Torah is truth, then what is HaSatan's lie? His lie is that there is not a Torah, that the Torah has been done away with. There is a Greek term for this teaching. This term is ANOMOS (Strong's Greek #459). ANOMOS is made up of the Greek prefix A- (there is not/without) with the Greek word NOMOS (Torah). ANOMOS means "without Torah" or "Torah-lessness." While Messiah came to bear witness to the Torah, HaSatan comes to bear witness of ANOMOS (Torah-lessness). Two entire books of the New Testament (2Kefa and Jude) are dedicated to combating this false ANOMOS teaching. Yeshua tells us that these teachers will be called "least" in the Kingdom (Matthew 5:19).
Now lets take a look at how the Bible uses this term ANOMOS:
"...I [Yeshua] will profess to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you that work ANOMOS."
(Matthew 7:23)
"...and they [angels] shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do ANOMOS."
(Matthew 13:41)
"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because ANOMOS shall abound, the love of many shall grow cold."
(Matthew 24:11-12)
"For the mystery of ANOMOS does already work... And then shall the ANOMOS one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth,... whose coming is after the working of HaSatan with all power and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness... because they received not the love of truth... That they might be damned who believed not the truth..."
(2 Thessalonians 2:7-12)
Many people have been taken in by the ANOMOS teaching. In fact two of Christendom's largest theological sub-sets, Dispensationalism and Replacement Theology, submit detailed theories to explain why they teach that the Torah is not for today.
Dispensationalism is a form of Premillennialism which replaces the eternal "covenants" with finite "ages". Two of these finite ages are "The Age of Torah" which basically encompasses "Old Testament times", and "The Age of Grace" which basically encompasses "New Testament times". According to these Dispensationalists, during "Old Testament times" men were under Torah, but during "New Testament times" men are under grace. Some Dispensationalists, called "Ultra-Dispensationalists", even teach that men were saved by Torah in "Old Testament times," but are saved by grace in "New Testament times." As a result, Dispensationalists teach that "the Torah is not for today" or "we have no Torah."
Replacement Theologians teach that G-d has replaced Israel with the Church; Judaism with Christendom; The Old Testament with The New Testament; and Torah with grace. As a result, they too teach that "the Torah is not for today" or "we have no Torah."
Now you may be saying to yourself: "Ok, so they teach Torah-lessness, but don't the Torah-less teachers of 2Peter & Jude go so far as to teach sexual immorality? Surely the Torah-less teachers of within the church would never use their "the Torah is not for today" teaching to promote sexual immorality." Wrong! Some of Christendom's teachers have already carried the "the Torah is not for today" reasoning to its fullest and logical conclusion. A sect of Christendom known as "The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches" has published a tract which does just that. The nameless author of the tract writes:
"Another Scripture verse that is used to show that the Bible condemns the gay lifestyle is found in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, 18:22, "Thou shalt not lie with a man as thou would with a woman." Anyone who is concerned about this prohibition should read the whole chapter or the whole Book of Leviticus: No pork, no lobster, no shrimp, no oysters, no intercourse during the menstrual period, no rare meats, no eating blood, no inter-breeding of cattle, and a whole host of other laws, including the Law to kill all divorced people who remarry.
"As Christians, our Law is from Christ. St. Paul clearly taught that Christians are no longer under the Old Law (for example in Galatians 3:23-24); that the Old Law is brought to an end in Christ (Romans 10:4); and its fulfillment is in love (Romans 13:8-10, Galatians 5:14). The New Law of Christ is the Law of Love. Neither Jesus, nor Paul, nor any of the New Testament Scriptures implies that Christians are held to the cultic or ethical laws of the Mosaic Law."
(Homosexuality; What the Bible Does and Does not Say; Universal Fellowship press, 1984, p. 3)
Thus Christendom's teaching that "the Torah is not for today" is already being used to "turn the grace of our Elohim into perversion." (Jude 1:4; see also 2 Peter 2:18-21)
There is indeed a spiritual battle taking place. It is a battle between the truth and a lie. It is a battle between light and darkness. It is a battle led by the one who came to bear witness to the Torah, and the one who comes to bear witness to Torah-lessness. The Torah is truth. The belt of truth is the belt of Torah. Gird yourselves with the belt of Torah that you may withstand the Torah-less one.
The Torah: Freedom from Bondage
By James Scott Trimm
In the last chapter we learned that the Torah is Truth (Ps. 119:142) and that Yeshua said:
"... if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
(John 8:31-32)
Therefore the Torah brings freedom. This is completely contrary to what most people have been taught. The common wisdom is that the Torah is bondage and that "freedom in Christ" means freedom from Torah. For example one author writes:
"Many Christians today would return to Sinai. They would put upon the church the yoke of bondage, the Law of Moses."
(God's Plan of the Ages; Louis T. Tallbot; 1970; p. 66)
However as we shall see the scriptures teach that exactly the opposite is true.
The central story of Judaism is that of the Exodus from Egypt. The children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt. God promised to gring them out of bondage and give them freedom. Upon leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, YHWH led them to Mt. Sinai where he delvered the Torah to them. Note that the theme of this central story is that God promised freedom from bondage and gave the children of Israel Torah. Now why would YHWH lead the people out of bondage in Egypt, lead them to Mt. Sinai, and deliver them right back into bondage again? And why would he at the same time promise them freedom. God is no liar. He promised the people freedom and he gave them Torah because the Torah is freedom from bondage. The Torah is truth (Ps. 119:142) and the truth will make you free (John 8:31-32).
This truth is proclaimed by the Psalmist:
"So shall I keep your Torah continually forever and ever, And I will walk in freedom: for I seek your precepts."
(Psalm 119:44-45)
As well as by Ya'akov HaTzadik (James the Just) who called the Torah "the Torah of freedom" (James 1:25; 2:12).
However the ANOMOS teachers today teach that the Torah is bondage and that Torah-lessness is freedom. They have exchanged the truth (Torah) of God for a lie (Torah-lessness) (Rom. 1:25). Of these 2Peter 2:19 states:
"While they promise them freedom, they themselves are servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage."
(2 Peter 2:19)
according to Kefa these men "turn from the holy commandment delivered to them" (2Peter 2:21) they promise freedom but deliver bondage.
By contrast Yeshua said:
"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30)
Now many of the teachers of Torah-lessness use this this passage as a proof text. To them this passage refers to freedom from the bondage of Torah. However notice the boldfaced portion. This bolfaced portion of Yeshua's statement is a quotation from the Tanak. A quotation which gives a great deal of context to Yeshua's statement. Lets look at this Tanak passage:
"Thus said YHWH, stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein."
(Jeremiah 6:16)
Notice that this "way" which gives "rest" is "the old path". Now lets read a little further down in Jer. 6 to obtain more context:
"But they said, we will not walk therein."
(Jer. 6:16)
"...they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my Torah, but rejected it."
(Jer. 6:19)
Notice that the "old path" that brings "rest for your souls" to which they said "we will not walk therein" (Jer. 6:16) is identified by YHWH as "my Torah". This takes us up a bit further in the text of Jeremiah:
"...they are foolish, for they do not know the way of YHWH, the requirements of their God. So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of YHWH, the requirements of their God. But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds."
(Jeremiah 5:4-5; see also Jeremiah 2:20)
Here we find that the "yoke" which brings rest is the yoke which was being rejected. The yoke of Torah. Now lets look again at Yeshua's saying:
"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30)
The yoke that Messiah asks us to take on ourselves, the yoke that will give us rest for our souls is the Torah. The Torah is freedom from the bondage of Torah-lessness. The freedom of Torah is freedom from the bondage to sin that results without Torah. Without Torah there is no true freedom, only bondage. True liberty does not include a license to sin (Romans 3:8; 6:1-2, 15)
By James Scott Trimm
In the last chapter we learned that the Torah is Truth (Ps. 119:142) and that Yeshua said:
"... if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
(John 8:31-32)
Therefore the Torah brings freedom. This is completely contrary to what most people have been taught. The common wisdom is that the Torah is bondage and that "freedom in Christ" means freedom from Torah. For example one author writes:
"Many Christians today would return to Sinai. They would put upon the church the yoke of bondage, the Law of Moses."
(God's Plan of the Ages; Louis T. Tallbot; 1970; p. 66)
However as we shall see the scriptures teach that exactly the opposite is true.
The central story of Judaism is that of the Exodus from Egypt. The children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt. God promised to gring them out of bondage and give them freedom. Upon leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, YHWH led them to Mt. Sinai where he delvered the Torah to them. Note that the theme of this central story is that God promised freedom from bondage and gave the children of Israel Torah. Now why would YHWH lead the people out of bondage in Egypt, lead them to Mt. Sinai, and deliver them right back into bondage again? And why would he at the same time promise them freedom. God is no liar. He promised the people freedom and he gave them Torah because the Torah is freedom from bondage. The Torah is truth (Ps. 119:142) and the truth will make you free (John 8:31-32).
This truth is proclaimed by the Psalmist:
"So shall I keep your Torah continually forever and ever, And I will walk in freedom: for I seek your precepts."
(Psalm 119:44-45)
As well as by Ya'akov HaTzadik (James the Just) who called the Torah "the Torah of freedom" (James 1:25; 2:12).
However the ANOMOS teachers today teach that the Torah is bondage and that Torah-lessness is freedom. They have exchanged the truth (Torah) of God for a lie (Torah-lessness) (Rom. 1:25). Of these 2Peter 2:19 states:
"While they promise them freedom, they themselves are servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought into bondage."
(2 Peter 2:19)
according to Kefa these men "turn from the holy commandment delivered to them" (2Peter 2:21) they promise freedom but deliver bondage.
By contrast Yeshua said:
"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30)
Now many of the teachers of Torah-lessness use this this passage as a proof text. To them this passage refers to freedom from the bondage of Torah. However notice the boldfaced portion. This bolfaced portion of Yeshua's statement is a quotation from the Tanak. A quotation which gives a great deal of context to Yeshua's statement. Lets look at this Tanak passage:
"Thus said YHWH, stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein."
(Jeremiah 6:16)
Notice that this "way" which gives "rest" is "the old path". Now lets read a little further down in Jer. 6 to obtain more context:
"But they said, we will not walk therein."
(Jer. 6:16)
"...they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my Torah, but rejected it."
(Jer. 6:19)
Notice that the "old path" that brings "rest for your souls" to which they said "we will not walk therein" (Jer. 6:16) is identified by YHWH as "my Torah". This takes us up a bit further in the text of Jeremiah:
"...they are foolish, for they do not know the way of YHWH, the requirements of their God. So I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of YHWH, the requirements of their God. But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds."
(Jeremiah 5:4-5; see also Jeremiah 2:20)
Here we find that the "yoke" which brings rest is the yoke which was being rejected. The yoke of Torah. Now lets look again at Yeshua's saying:
"Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30)
The yoke that Messiah asks us to take on ourselves, the yoke that will give us rest for our souls is the Torah. The Torah is freedom from the bondage of Torah-lessness. The freedom of Torah is freedom from the bondage to sin that results without Torah. Without Torah there is no true freedom, only bondage. True liberty does not include a license to sin (Romans 3:8; 6:1-2, 15)
The Torah: A Light in a Dark Place
By James Scott Trimm
As we said earlier there is a spiritual battle taking place between light and darkness. Paul writes:
"...what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Messiah with Belial..."
(2 Corinthians 6:14b-15a)
Throughout the New Testament there are extended metaphores revolving around light and darkness. Believers are called "sons of light" (Lk. 16:8; Jn. 12:36; Eph. 5:8; 1Thes. 5:5). The full armour of God is also called the "armour of light" (Rom. 13:12). The New Testament speaks of those "who walk in darkness" (John 8:12; 12:35).
But what does this idiomatic use of the terms light and darkness mean? For the answer let us turn to the Tanak:
"For the commandment is a lamp; and the Torah is light..."
(Proverbs 6:23)
"Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path."
(Psalm 119:105)
"To the Torah and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
(Isaiah 8:20)
"...for a Torah shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgement to rest for a light of the people."
(Isaiah 51:4)
So according to the Tanak the Torah is a light for our paths. Those that walk in the Torah walk in the light. This is why the New Testament speaks of those who walk in darkness (Jn. 8:12; 12:35; 1Jn. 1:6; 2:11). These are those who do not walk by the light of Torah. Of these John writes:
"And if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we are liars and we do not walk in truth."
(1 John 1:6)
Notice that John equates "walking in truth" with walking in the light.
As we noted previously "the Torah is truth" (Ps. 119:142) thus if "walking in the light" means "walking in truth" then both phrases refer to walking in the Torah. This takes us back to our passages from the Tanak given above. John also confirms this by writing the parallel statements:
"...walking in truth."
"...walk according to his commandments."
(2 John 1:4, 6)
Now lets look back at a moment to the full armour of God. As we have noted Paul also calls this armour the "armour of light" (Rom. 13:12). According to Paul we are involved in a spiritual battle with "the rulers of the darkness of this world." (Eph. 6:12) and thus he instructs us to put on this "armour of light" (Ephesians 6:13 & Romans 13:12)
Now several of the items of the "armour of light" also tie in with the Torah:
The Belt of Truth
"Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your Torah is truth."
(Psalm 119:142)
"You are near, O YHWH, and all your commandments are truth."
(Psalm 119:151)
The Breatplate of Righteousness
"What great nation is there that has statutes and judgements as righteous as this whole Torah which I am setting before you today?..."
(Deuteronomy 4:6)
The Shield of Faith
"Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me your Torah. I have chosen the way of faith; I have placed your ordinances before me."
(Psalm 119:29-30)
The Sword of the Word
"...For the Torah will go out from Zion; and the word of YHWH from Jerusalem."
(Isaiah 2:3)
Thus the Armour of Light is the armour of the Torah which lights our path. There are two paths before us, one of darkness and one of light. On the one hand one may "walk in darkness" on the other hand one may "walk in the light" of Torah. The "son's of light" put on the "armour of light" and walk in the light of Torah, while the "sons of darkness" walk in the Torah-lessness which is the darkness of this dark world.
By James Scott Trimm
As we said earlier there is a spiritual battle taking place between light and darkness. Paul writes:
"...what communion has light with darkness? And what concord has Messiah with Belial..."
(2 Corinthians 6:14b-15a)
Throughout the New Testament there are extended metaphores revolving around light and darkness. Believers are called "sons of light" (Lk. 16:8; Jn. 12:36; Eph. 5:8; 1Thes. 5:5). The full armour of God is also called the "armour of light" (Rom. 13:12). The New Testament speaks of those "who walk in darkness" (John 8:12; 12:35).
But what does this idiomatic use of the terms light and darkness mean? For the answer let us turn to the Tanak:
"For the commandment is a lamp; and the Torah is light..."
(Proverbs 6:23)
"Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path."
(Psalm 119:105)
"To the Torah and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
(Isaiah 8:20)
"...for a Torah shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgement to rest for a light of the people."
(Isaiah 51:4)
So according to the Tanak the Torah is a light for our paths. Those that walk in the Torah walk in the light. This is why the New Testament speaks of those who walk in darkness (Jn. 8:12; 12:35; 1Jn. 1:6; 2:11). These are those who do not walk by the light of Torah. Of these John writes:
"And if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we are liars and we do not walk in truth."
(1 John 1:6)
Notice that John equates "walking in truth" with walking in the light.
As we noted previously "the Torah is truth" (Ps. 119:142) thus if "walking in the light" means "walking in truth" then both phrases refer to walking in the Torah. This takes us back to our passages from the Tanak given above. John also confirms this by writing the parallel statements:
"...walking in truth."
"...walk according to his commandments."
(2 John 1:4, 6)
Now lets look back at a moment to the full armour of God. As we have noted Paul also calls this armour the "armour of light" (Rom. 13:12). According to Paul we are involved in a spiritual battle with "the rulers of the darkness of this world." (Eph. 6:12) and thus he instructs us to put on this "armour of light" (Ephesians 6:13 & Romans 13:12)
Now several of the items of the "armour of light" also tie in with the Torah:
The Belt of Truth
"Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your Torah is truth."
(Psalm 119:142)
"You are near, O YHWH, and all your commandments are truth."
(Psalm 119:151)
The Breatplate of Righteousness
"What great nation is there that has statutes and judgements as righteous as this whole Torah which I am setting before you today?..."
(Deuteronomy 4:6)
The Shield of Faith
"Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me your Torah. I have chosen the way of faith; I have placed your ordinances before me."
(Psalm 119:29-30)
The Sword of the Word
"...For the Torah will go out from Zion; and the word of YHWH from Jerusalem."
(Isaiah 2:3)
Thus the Armour of Light is the armour of the Torah which lights our path. There are two paths before us, one of darkness and one of light. On the one hand one may "walk in darkness" on the other hand one may "walk in the light" of Torah. The "son's of light" put on the "armour of light" and walk in the light of Torah, while the "sons of darkness" walk in the Torah-lessness which is the darkness of this dark world.
A Marvelous Work and a Wonder
A Marvelous Work and a Wonder
A Marvelous Work and a Wonder
The Prophet Isaiah foretells of a marvelous work and a wonder that YHWH will do in among His people:
Therefore behold, I will again do
a marvelous work among this people,
even a marvelous work and a wonder.
And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the prudence of their prudent men shall be hid.
(Is. 29:14 HRV)
a marvelous work among this people,
even a marvelous work and a wonder.
And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish,
and the prudence of their prudent men shall be hid.
(Is. 29:14 HRV)
But what is this “marvelous work and a wonder”?
Notice that Isaiah says that because of this “marvelous work and a wonder” “the wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the prudence of their prudent men shall be hid.” (Is. 22:14)
18 For the word of the gallows is foolishness to the perishing,
but to us who are living, it is the power of Eloah.
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will take away the understanding of the intelligent.(Is. 29:14)
20 Where is the wise? Or where is the scribe? Or where is the commentator of this world? Behold, has not Eloah made foolish, the wisdom of this world?
21 For in the wisdom of Eloah, because the world by wisdom knew not Eloah, Eloah decided that by the foolishness of proclaiming, He would give Life to those who believe:
(1Cor. 1:18-21 HRV)
but to us who are living, it is the power of Eloah.
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will take away the understanding of the intelligent.(Is. 29:14)
20 Where is the wise? Or where is the scribe? Or where is the commentator of this world? Behold, has not Eloah made foolish, the wisdom of this world?
21 For in the wisdom of Eloah, because the world by wisdom knew not Eloah, Eloah decided that by the foolishness of proclaiming, He would give Life to those who believe:
(1Cor. 1:18-21 HRV)
Note that in 1Cor. 2:7-9 we are told of this same “wisdom of Eloah: “…in the mystery that was hidden … before separates from before the ages… which Eloah had prepared for those who love him.” (1Cor. 2:7-9)
As his first letter to the Corinthians continues Paul also quotes, or perhaps we should better say paraphrases Is. 64:3(4) as follows:
But as it is written:
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:9 HRV)
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:9 HRV)
The Prophet Isaiah writes:
And whereof from of old men have not heard,
nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen
an Elohim beside You, who works for him that
waits for Him.
(Is. 64:3(4))
nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen
an Elohim beside You, who works for him that
waits for Him.
(Is. 64:3(4))
There is a Baraita on this verse that appears twice in the Talmud once in the Midrash Rabbah and four times in the Zohar.
The following is the Baraita as it appears in the Talmud:
What is the meaning of “Eye has not seen” (Is. 64:3)
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said:
This is the wine that has been kept
in its grapes from the six days in the beginning.
(b.Berakot 34b; b.Sanhedrin 99a)
Rabbi Joshua ben Levi said:
This is the wine that has been kept
in its grapes from the six days in the beginning.
(b.Berakot 34b; b.Sanhedrin 99a)
The phrase “wine that has been kept” in the Hebrew is Yayin HaMeshumar “wine of keeping”. The tradition of the Yayin HaMeshumar runs deep in traditional Judaism. It is the wine that will be served at the Messianic Feast when the Messiah re-establishes the Kingdom of Israel on earth.
Note that Paul’s citation is influenced by the Baraita as the actual text of Isaiah says that “eye has not seen… an Elohim beside you” but Paul says “Eye has not seen… that which Eloah has prepared for those who love Him.” And the Baraita has “Eye has not seen… the wine which has been kept…”.
Now lets look at Paul’s quote in context:
But we speak the wisdom of Eloah
in a mystery that was hidden
And [that] Eloah had before separated
from before the ages for our glory.
That not one of the authorities of this world knew,
for if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Adon of glory.
But as it is written:
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:7-9 HRV)
in a mystery that was hidden
And [that] Eloah had before separated
from before the ages for our glory.
That not one of the authorities of this world knew,
for if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Adon of glory.
But as it is written:
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:7-9 HRV)
When we look at Paul’s context we see an even greater influence from the Baraita of the Yayin HaMeshumar “…a mystery that was hidden and that Eloah had before separated from before the ages… eye has not seen… that which Eloah has prepared for those who love Him.”
It is clear that Paul here must be referring to the Yayin HaMeshumar as his audience is, no doubt, familiar with this Baraita to Is. 64:3.
It is the Yayin HaMeshumar that Yeshua refers to when we read:
And afterwards he took the cup, and blessed,
and gave to them, saying,
“Drink you all of it,
for this is my blood of the New Covenant,
which is shed for many to atone for sinners,
And I tell you, hereafter I will not drink of the fruit of the vine,
until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom
of my Father which is in heaven.”
(Mt. 26:27-29)
and gave to them, saying,
“Drink you all of it,
for this is my blood of the New Covenant,
which is shed for many to atone for sinners,
And I tell you, hereafter I will not drink of the fruit of the vine,
until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom
of my Father which is in heaven.”
(Mt. 26:27-29)
The Yayin HaMeshumar is the blood of the New Covenant. At the Passover Sader the wine represents the blood of the lamb. Note that we read in Revelation that Messiah is the lamb slain “before the foundation of the world.” (Rev. 13:8) his blood is the wine kept in its grapes from the six days in the beginning.
In the Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas Yeshua is quoted as saying:
Yeshua said, "I shall give you what no eye has seen
and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched
and what has never occurred to the mind of man.
(Gospel of Thomas 17)
and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched
and what has never occurred to the mind of man.
(Gospel of Thomas 17)
This Yayin HaMeshumar is the wine that will be served at the “marriage supper of the lamb” (Rev. 19:7) the great Messianic Banquet and Passover Sader.
In 1Corinthians, Paul has brought up the Yayin HaMeshumar at the beginning of his letter because he will be addressing this wine throughout his letter. In 1Cor. 5 he will discuss the recent Passover Sader at Corinth. In 1Cor. 11:23-34 he addresses the significance of the Passover and especially being worthy to drink the wine which is the Yayin Hameshumar.
In 1Cor. 15:54 he cites Isaiah 25:8 a passage of Isaiah which immediately follows the description of the Messianic Banquet in Isaiah 25:6-7:
6 And in this mountain shall YHWH of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8: He will swallow up death in victory; and the Adonai YHWH will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for YHWH has spoken it.
7 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
8: He will swallow up death in victory; and the Adonai YHWH will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for YHWH has spoken it.
Notice that the Yayin HaMeshumar is something which “from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen” (Is. 64:3) elsewhere Isaiah writes:
So shall he sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths
because of him, for that which had not been told them shall they see and that which they have not heard shall they perceive.
(Is. 52:15)
because of him, for that which had not been told them shall they see and that which they have not heard shall they perceive.
(Is. 52:15)
Thus the “suffering servant” song of Isaiah 53 is the message that “eye has not seen”, it is the Yayin HaMeshumar.
The Midrash Rabbah to Num. 13:2 (500) says:
Because hr bared his soul unto death (Is. 53:12)
and bruised themselves with the Torah which is sweeter than honey, the Holy One, blessed be He, will hereafter give them to drink of the wine kept in its grapes since the six days in the beginning....
(Midrash Rabbah to Numbers 13:2 (500))
and bruised themselves with the Torah which is sweeter than honey, the Holy One, blessed be He, will hereafter give them to drink of the wine kept in its grapes since the six days in the beginning....
(Midrash Rabbah to Numbers 13:2 (500))
Thus Paul writes:
But we speak the wisdom of Eloah
in a mystery that was hidden
And [that] Eloah had before separated
from before the ages for our glory.
That not one of the authorities of this world knew,
for if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Adon of glory.
But as it is written:
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:7-9 HRV)
in a mystery that was hidden
And [that] Eloah had before separated
from before the ages for our glory.
That not one of the authorities of this world knew,
for if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Adon of glory.
But as it is written:
The eye has not seen, and the ear has not heard,
and into the heart of a son of man has not entered
that which Eloah had prepared for those who love Him.
(1Cor. 2:7-9 HRV)
Not only is the Yayin HaMeshumar the blood of the Messiah, but it is more. It is the “mystery” of which the blood of Messiah is only part:
The Zohar says:
The Tzadik (The Righteous) is the Yesod (foundation) in Yah,
the mystery (SOD) which is the wine which has been kept
in its grapes from the six days in the beginning.
(Zohar; Roeh M’haimna on Pinchas)
the mystery (SOD) which is the wine which has been kept
in its grapes from the six days in the beginning.
(Zohar; Roeh M’haimna on Pinchas)
There is a clear connection here because SOD (“mystery”) has a gematria (numerical value) of 70 which is also the gematria of YAYIN (“wine”). Just as the Zohar identifies the “mystery” with the Yayin HaMeshumar, so does Paul in 1Corinthians.
For Paul goes on to further identify the Yayin HaMeshumar as follows:
10 But Eloah has revealed [it] to us by his spirit, for the spirit searches into everything, even the deep things of Eloah.
11 For who is the son of man who knows what is in a son of man except the spirit of the son of man that [is] in him? So also, that which is in Eloah, no man knows except the Spirit of Eloah.
12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from Eloah, so that we might know the gifts that were given to us from Eloah;
13 Which also we speak, not in the teaching of words of the wisdom of sons of men, but in the teaching of the spirit, and to spiritual men we compare spiritual things.
14 For the son of man who is in the nefesh does not receive spiritual things, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to know that which is judged spiritually.
15 Now the spiritual man judges all things, and is not judged from man.
16 For who knows the mind of YHWH that he might instruct him? (Is. 40:13) But we have the mind of the Messiah.
(1Cor. 2:10-16)
11 For who is the son of man who knows what is in a son of man except the spirit of the son of man that [is] in him? So also, that which is in Eloah, no man knows except the Spirit of Eloah.
12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from Eloah, so that we might know the gifts that were given to us from Eloah;
13 Which also we speak, not in the teaching of words of the wisdom of sons of men, but in the teaching of the spirit, and to spiritual men we compare spiritual things.
14 For the son of man who is in the nefesh does not receive spiritual things, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to know that which is judged spiritually.
15 Now the spiritual man judges all things, and is not judged from man.
16 For who knows the mind of YHWH that he might instruct him? (Is. 40:13) But we have the mind of the Messiah.
(1Cor. 2:10-16)
Paul identifies the Yayin HaMeshumar with the “words of wisdom” (2:13) as well as the “mind of YHWH” or the “mind of Messiah” (1Cor. 2:16) and with the spiritual “gifts” (1Cor. 2:10-16) which he will elaborate upon later in the letter (1Cor. 12-14).
THE OLIVE TREE
This Marvelous Work and a Wonder, which YHWH mentions in Isaiah 29:13 is part of a restoration from a great apostasy spoken of in the previous verses:
10 For YHWH has poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your heads, the seers, has He covered.
(Is. 29:10 HRV)
(Is. 29:10 HRV)
This very verse is site by Paul in his Olive Tree Parable in Romans 11:
7 What therefore? Yisra'el did not find that which it was seeking, but the chosen found it: and the rest of them were blinded in their heart.
8 Thus it is written: Eloah gave them a blinding spirit, and eyes that they might not examine, and ears that they might not hear, until this very day. (Deut. 29:4; Isaiah 29:10)
9 And David again said, Let their table be a snare before them, and their reward a stumbling stone.
10 Let their eyes be darkened that they not see, and their back always be bowed. (Psalm 69:23-24 (22-23))
11 Now I say, Have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! But in their stumbling, life has come to the Goyim; for their jealousy. (Deut. 32:21)
12 And if their stumbling became riches for the world, and their loss, riches to the Goyim: how much more therefore, their fullness?
13 But I speak to you Goyim--I, who am the emissary of the Goyim. I am glorifying my service,
14 That perhaps I might provoke my kinsmen to jealousy, (Deut. 32:21) and give life [to] some of them.
15 For if their reprobation was reconciliation to the world, how much more therefore, their return, but life that is from among the dead?
8 Thus it is written: Eloah gave them a blinding spirit, and eyes that they might not examine, and ears that they might not hear, until this very day. (Deut. 29:4; Isaiah 29:10)
9 And David again said, Let their table be a snare before them, and their reward a stumbling stone.
10 Let their eyes be darkened that they not see, and their back always be bowed. (Psalm 69:23-24 (22-23))
11 Now I say, Have they stumbled so as to fall? Absolutely not! But in their stumbling, life has come to the Goyim; for their jealousy. (Deut. 32:21)
12 And if their stumbling became riches for the world, and their loss, riches to the Goyim: how much more therefore, their fullness?
13 But I speak to you Goyim--I, who am the emissary of the Goyim. I am glorifying my service,
14 That perhaps I might provoke my kinsmen to jealousy, (Deut. 32:21) and give life [to] some of them.
15 For if their reprobation was reconciliation to the world, how much more therefore, their return, but life that is from among the dead?
This apostasy causes the message to go out to Ephraim, but the restoration of the apostasy will bring something even better!
16 And if the first is Set-Apart, the lump of dough is also: and if the root is Set-Apart, the branches [are] also.
17 And if some branches were broken off, and you who are a wild olive [tree], were grafted into their place and became partakers of the root and of the oil of the olive [tree],
18 Do not boast against the [natural] branches. But if you boast, you are not bearing the root, but the root bears you!
19 And perhaps you should say of the branches that were broken off, I will be grafted in their place.
20 These [matters] are beautiful. They were broken off because they did not have trust, but you stand, by trust. Do not be exalted in your mind, but fear:
21 For if Eloah did not spare the natural branches, perhaps He will also not spare you.
22 See then the gentleness and the harshness of Eloah: upon those who fell, harshness, but upon you, gentleness, if, you remain in the gentleness. And if not, you will also be broken off.
23 And those, if they do not remain in their lack of trust, also will be grafted in: for Eloah is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you, who are from the olive [tree] that was wild by your nature, were cut off and were grafted--contrary to your nature--into the good olive [tree], how much more then, those, if they be grafted in their natural olive [tree]?
25 For I want you to know this mystery, my brothers, so that you will not be wise in the thought of your nefesh: that blindness of the heart, in part, has happened to Yisra'el until the fullness of the Goyim (or "a multitude of nations" Gen. 48:19) should come,
26 And then all Yisra'el will have Life. Thus it is written, From Tziyon a Deliverer will come, and turn iniquity from Ya'akov.
27 And then they will have the covenant that is from Me, when I forgive them their sins. (Isaiah 59:20-21; 27:9)
(Rom. 11:7-27 HRV)
17 And if some branches were broken off, and you who are a wild olive [tree], were grafted into their place and became partakers of the root and of the oil of the olive [tree],
18 Do not boast against the [natural] branches. But if you boast, you are not bearing the root, but the root bears you!
19 And perhaps you should say of the branches that were broken off, I will be grafted in their place.
20 These [matters] are beautiful. They were broken off because they did not have trust, but you stand, by trust. Do not be exalted in your mind, but fear:
21 For if Eloah did not spare the natural branches, perhaps He will also not spare you.
22 See then the gentleness and the harshness of Eloah: upon those who fell, harshness, but upon you, gentleness, if, you remain in the gentleness. And if not, you will also be broken off.
23 And those, if they do not remain in their lack of trust, also will be grafted in: for Eloah is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you, who are from the olive [tree] that was wild by your nature, were cut off and were grafted--contrary to your nature--into the good olive [tree], how much more then, those, if they be grafted in their natural olive [tree]?
25 For I want you to know this mystery, my brothers, so that you will not be wise in the thought of your nefesh: that blindness of the heart, in part, has happened to Yisra'el until the fullness of the Goyim (or "a multitude of nations" Gen. 48:19) should come,
26 And then all Yisra'el will have Life. Thus it is written, From Tziyon a Deliverer will come, and turn iniquity from Ya'akov.
27 And then they will have the covenant that is from Me, when I forgive them their sins. (Isaiah 59:20-21; 27:9)
(Rom. 11:7-27 HRV)
This restoration will be characterized by “wild branches” being grafted into the cultivated olive tree (Judah) while being fed by the oil and the root of that tree and by “natural branches” (Jews) being grafted back into their natural olive tree. And this will happen at the time of the “fullness of the goyim” (compare Gen. 48:19).
THE SEALED BOOK REVEALED
Isaiah also tells us this restoration will occur with the revealing of a sealed book:
11 And the vision of all this is become unto you as the words of a writing that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you. And he says, I cannot, for it is sealed.
12 And the writing is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you. And he says, I am not learned.
(Is. 29:11-12 HRV)
12 And the writing is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you. And he says, I am not learned.
(Is. 29:11-12 HRV)
And then in verse 18 we read:
18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of a book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
(Is. 29:18 HRV)
(Is. 29:18 HRV)
A sealed book is a book, the contents of which, Elohim will not reveal until the time Elohim appoints for it to be unsealed (see Dan. 12:4, 9 & Rev. 22:10). This sealed book is also mentioned elsewhere in the Scriptures, in the Book of Revelation (Rev. 5:1-5; 6; 10:1-11). Due to various correlations we may also identify the sealed book as the book in Ezekiel 2:8-3:6 which is, like the sealed book, written on front and back (See Ezkl. 2:10 & Rev. 5:1) and eaten by the prophet writing (Ezkl. 3:1-3 & Rev. 10:9-10). Likewise the "flying scroll" in Zechariah 5:1-4, which is also written on both sides, may also be identified as the sealed book.
Paul quotes Isaiah 29:14 in 1st Corinthians 1:19 referring to the restoration resulting from the sealed book and describes the book's contents as "the words of the gallows" (i.e. an account of the Crucifixion) (1Cor. 1:18-19). Another important fact is that the sealed book is written in Hebrew. In Ezekiel 3:4-6 Ezekiel is told to go teach the words of the book, and that the language of the book is the language of Israel.
The sealed book opens the eyes of the blind and helps facilitate the restoration. It is (in part) an account of the crucifixion in Hebrew and Aramaic. It is the original Hebrew and Aramaic of the so-called “New Testament”. It is the revelation of the original Hebrew and Aramaic “New Testament” which leads to the Marvelous Work and a Wonder.
ERRANT HALACHA PASSES AWAY
Isaiah goes on to describe this apostasy further, saying:
13 And YHWH said: Forasmuch as this people draw near, and with their mouth and with their lips do honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me, is a commandment of men learned by rote, (Mt. 15:8-9)
(Isaiah 29:13 HRV)
(Isaiah 29:13 HRV)
Yeshua quoted this verse as speaking of “Decrees of the Elders” in Rabbinic (Pharisaic) Judaism which violate the precepts of Torah. Matthew records the exchange as follows:
1 Then came near to Him scribes and P'rushim from Yerushalayim, saying,
2 Why do your talmidim transgress the decrees of the elders? For they clean not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But He answered them and said: And why do you transgress the commandments of Elohim--by means of your decrees?
4 Is it not written in your Torah from the mouth of Elohim, Honor your father and
your mother? (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16) And moreover written, And he that curses his father and his mother will surely die? (Ex. 21:17; Lev. 20:9)
5 But you say, Whoever says to father and mother, It is all an offering-- whatever of mine might profit you,
6 And he honors not his father and his mother. Thus have you made void the
commandments of Elohim, on account of your judgments.
7 You hypocrites! Yesha'yahu did well indeed to prophesy concerning you, saying,
8 This people honors Me with their mouth and with their lips, but have removed
their heart far from Me.
9 And their fear of Me, is a commandment learned of men. (Isa. 29:13)
(Matt. 15:1-9 HRV)
2 Why do your talmidim transgress the decrees of the elders? For they clean not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But He answered them and said: And why do you transgress the commandments of Elohim--by means of your decrees?
4 Is it not written in your Torah from the mouth of Elohim, Honor your father and
your mother? (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16) And moreover written, And he that curses his father and his mother will surely die? (Ex. 21:17; Lev. 20:9)
5 But you say, Whoever says to father and mother, It is all an offering-- whatever of mine might profit you,
6 And he honors not his father and his mother. Thus have you made void the
commandments of Elohim, on account of your judgments.
7 You hypocrites! Yesha'yahu did well indeed to prophesy concerning you, saying,
8 This people honors Me with their mouth and with their lips, but have removed
their heart far from Me.
9 And their fear of Me, is a commandment learned of men. (Isa. 29:13)
(Matt. 15:1-9 HRV)
This means that the Marvelous Work and a Wonder prophesied of in the very next verse (Isa. 29:14) would cause the bad halachic rulings of Pharisaic Judaism to perish in favor of halacha inspired by the Wisdom of YHWH. Thus “the wisdom of their wise men” and the “prudence of their prudent men” (Is. 29:14) refers to bad halachic rulings of the Pharisees like that depicted in Matthew 15:1-9. The Marvelous Work and a Wonder will cause these false halachot to perish.
Then in verses 20 and 21 Isaiah goes on to say:
20 For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner ceases, and all they that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21 That make a man an offender by words, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing of nought.
(Is. 29:20-21)
21 That make a man an offender by words, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing of nought.
(Is. 29:20-21)
The ancient Nazarene Commentator is quoted by Jerome as saying of this passage:
What we have understood to have been written about the devil and his angels, the Nazarenes believe to have been said against the Scribes and the Pharisees, because the deutrotai passed away, who earlier deceived the people with very vicious traditions (And they watch day and night to deceive the simple ones), who made men sin against the Word of Elohim in order that they should deny that Messiah was the Son of Elohim.
(On Is. 29:20-21)
(On Is. 29:20-21)
The word DEUTROTAI is a Greek word which appears in Jerome’s quote. Deutrotai is a Greek word which refers to something that is repeated, it is an exact Greek equivalent for the Hebrew word “Mishna”. The Nazarene Commentator confirms our understanding and tells us that the Marvelous Work and a Wonder will bring about the passing away of the Mishna by restoring true Halacha to the YHWH’s people.
Finally Isaiah concludes:
22 Therefore thus says YHWH, who redeemed Avraham, concerning the house of
Ya’akov: Ya’akov shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23 When he sees his children, the work of My hands, in the midst of him, that they sanctify My Name--yes, they shall sanctify HaKadesh of Ya’akov, and shall stand in awe of the Elohim of Yisra’el.
24 They also that err in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmur shall learn instruction.
(Is. 29:22-24 HRV)
Ya’akov: Ya’akov shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.
23 When he sees his children, the work of My hands, in the midst of him, that they sanctify My Name--yes, they shall sanctify HaKadesh of Ya’akov, and shall stand in awe of the Elohim of Yisra’el.
24 They also that err in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmur shall learn instruction.
(Is. 29:22-24 HRV)
Israel shall be restored to sanctify the Name of YHWH and a Marvelous Word and a Wonder shall be worked by YHWH among His people.
The Sealed Book has been opened and the errant Decrees of the Elders of the Pharisees recorded in the Mishna are being replaced by true halachot by a restored International Nazarene Beit Din. If you thought the apostasy of Judah brought a blessing to Israel, wait until you see what the Restoration of Judah brings!
The Marvelous Work and a Wonder is a restoration work of YHWH. The words of the Sealed Book (the Original Hebrew and Aramaic “New Testament”) are being heard (Through the Hebraic Roots Version Scriptures), and the halachot of the Mishna are passing away as the International Nazarene Beit Din correct its errant decrees with true halachot from the Wisdom of YHWH!
Community Rule
(“Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association”)
1QS, 4Q55-264a, 5Q11
Based on Wise, Abegg & Cook
(“Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association”)
1QS, 4Q55-264a, 5Q11
Based on Wise, Abegg & Cook
Bypassing the several rules of the community codified in this document, the devout reader is drawn to the kindness, wisdom, and humility of the Teacher of Righteousness, whose soliloquies pepper the document.
Other presentations of this text is accessed here:
The Teacher’s Scroll
A scroll belonging to [the Teacher, who is to teach the] Qadoshim[1] how to live according to the book of the Yahad's Rule.[2] He is to teach them to seek Elohim with all their heart and with all their soul, to do that which is good and upright before Him, just as He commanded through Moshe and all His servants the prophets. He is to teach them to love everything He chose and to hate everything He rejected, to distance themselves from all evil and to hold fast to all good deeds; to practice truth, justice, and righteousness in the land, and to walk no longer in a guilty, willful heart and lustful desires. Through such, they did every evil thing.
He is to induct all who volunteer to live by the laws of Elohim unto the Covenant of Mercy, so as to be joined to Elohim's society and walk faultless before Him, according to all that has been revealed for the times appointed them. He is to teach them both to love all the Children of Light—each commensurate with his rightful place in the council of Elohim—and to hate all the Children of Darkness, each commensurate with his guilt and the vengeance due him from Elohim.
All who volunteer for His truth are to bring the full measure of their knowledge, strength, and wealth into the Yahad of Elohim. Thus will they purify their knowledge in the truth of Elohim's laws, properly exercise their ability according to the perfection of His ways, and likewise their wealth by the set-rules[3] of His righteous counsel. They are not to deviate in the smallest detail from any of Elohim's words, even as they apply to the volunteer’s own time. They are neither to advance their sacred seasons nor to postpone any of their prescribed festivals. From His inerrant laws, they will turn aside neither to the right nor the left.
The Ritual of Blessing or Damning the Initiant[4]
All who enter the Yahad's Rule will be initiated into the Covenant before Elohim, agreeing to act according to all that He has commanded and not to backslide because of any fear, terror, or persecution that may occur during the time of Belial's dominion.[5] While the initiants are being inducted into the Covenant, the priests and the Levites will continuously bless the Elohim of deliverance for all His authentic acts. All the initiants into the Covenant will continuously respond, “Amein, amein.”
The priests are to rehearse Elohim's gracious acts made manifest by mighty deeds, heralding His loving mercies on Israel’s behalf. The Levites in turn will rehearse the vile acts of the children of Israel, all their guilty transgressions and sins committed during the dominion of Belial. All the initiants into the Covenant are to respond by confessing,
“We have been vile, transgressed, and [sinned]. We have been evil—we and our fathers before us—walking [in rebellion to the laws] of truth and righteousness, [so Elohim] has judged us, both we and our fathers. Yet He has also succored us with the loving acts of His mercy, long ago and for ages to come.”
Then the priests are to bless all those destined to Elohim, who walk faultless in all of His ways, saying
“May He bless you with every good thing and preserve you from every evil. May He enlighten your mind with wisdom for living, be gracious to you with the knowledge of enduring things, and lift up His gracious countenance upon you for long-lasting peace.”
The Levites in turn will curse all those destined to Belial. They will respond,
“May you be damned in return for all your vile, guilty actions. May the Elohim of terror give you over to ruthless avengers; may He visit your offspring with destruction at the hands of those who pay evil with evil. May you be damned without mercy in return for your dark deeds, an object of wrath licked by enduring flame, surrounded by total darkness. May Elohim have no mercy upon you when you cry out, nor forgive so as to atone for your sins. May He lift up His furious countenance upon you for vengeance. May you never find peace through the appeal of any mediator.”
All the initiants into the Covenant will respond to the blessers and cursors, saying, “Amein, amein.”
Is the Candidate Converted?
Then the priests and Levites will go on to declare,
“Damned be anyone initiated with unrepentant heart, who enters this Covenant, then sets up the stumbling block of his sin, so turning traitor. It will come to pass, when he hears the words of this Covenant, that he will bless himself in his heart, saying ‘Peace be with me, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’[6]
“Surrounded by abundant water, his spirit will nevertheless expire thirsty, without forgiveness. Elohim's anger and zeal for His commandments will burn against him for enduring destruction. All the curses of this Covenant will cleave to him, and Elohim will separate him out for a fate befitting his vileness. He will be cut off from all the Sons of Light because of his apostasy from Elohim, brought about by unrepentance and the stumbling block of sin. He will cast his lot with those damned for all time.”
The initiants are all to respond in turn, “Amein, amein.”
The Candidate’s Annual Revue
They will do as follows annually, all the days of Belial's dominion: the priests will pass in review first, ranked according to their spiritual distinction, one after another. Then the Levites will follow, and third all the people by rank, one after another, in their thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. Thus will each Israelite know his proper standing in the Yahad of Elohim, an enduring community. None will be demoted from his appointed place, none promoted beyond his destined rank. So will all together comprise a Yahad whose essence is truth, genuine humility, love of charity, and righteous intent, caring for one another this way within the blessed commune, comrades in an ever-enduring fellowship.
As for Those Rejected
Anyone who refuses to enter [the society of E]lohim, preferring to continue in his willful heart, will not [be initiated into the Yahad of His truth, inasmuch as his soul has rejected the disciplines foundational to knowledge: such are the laws of righteousness. He lacks the strength to repent. He is not to be reckoned among the upright; his knowledge, strength, and wealth are not to enter the Yahad Commune. Surely, he plows in the muck of vileness, so defiling stains would mar his repentance. Yet he cannot be justified by what his willful heart declares lawful, preferring to gaze on darkness rather than the ways of light. With such an eye he cannot be reckoned faultless.
Rituals of penance cannot restore his innocence, neither living waters his purity. He cannot be sanctified by baptism in oceans and rivers, nor purified by mere ritual washing. “Unclean, unclean”[7] will he be all the days that he rejects the laws of Elohim, refusing to be disciplined in His Yahad Commune.
For only through the spirit that fills Elohim's true community can there be atonement for a person's ways and all iniquities; so he can gaze on the life-light and so be joined to His truth by His devoted spirit, purified from all iniquity. His sin may be covered by his upright and humble attitude, and his flesh can be made clean by humbling himself before all Elohim's laws. This way only can he really receive the purifying waters and be purged by the cleansing flow. Let him order his steps to walk faultlessly in all of Elohim’s ways, just as He commanded for the seasons appointed him. Let him turn aside neither to the right nor the left, nor yet stray in the smallest detail from all of His words. Then indeed will he be accepted by Elohim, offering the sweet savor of the atoning sacrifice, and then only will he be a party to the Covenant of the enduring Yahad.
A New Scroll: Spiritual Life; The Two Spirits
A scroll belonging to the Teacher, who is to illuminate all the Sons of Light by instructing about the character and the fate of person: including all their spiritual gifts[8] with signs following, all their history family by family, and their visitation for discipline[9] as well as seasons of shalom.
All that is now and ever will be originates with the Elohim of knowledge. Before things come to be, He orders their designs, so that when they do come to exist—at their appointed times as ordained by His glorious plan—they fulfill their destiny, a destiny impossible to alter. He controls the laws governing all things, and He provides for all their interests.
He created humans to rule over the world, appointing for them two spirits in which to walk until the time set for His visitation. These are the spirits of truth and falsehood. An upright nature and destiny originate in the Territory of Light; a perverse nature originates in the Fountain of Darkness. The authority of the Prince of Light extends to governing of all righteous people; so of course, they walk in the paths of light. Likewise, the authority of the Angel of Darkness grips the government of all vile people, so naturally they walk in the paths of darkness.
The authority of the Angel of Darkness further extends to the corruption of all the righteous. All their sins, iniquities, shameful, and rebellious deeds are at his instigation, a situation that Elohim in His mysteries allows to continue until His age dawns. Even all the afflictions of the righteous, and every trial in its season, occur because of this Angel's diabolic rule. All the spirits allied with him share but a single resolution: the Sons of Light must be caused to stumble.
Yet the Elohim of Israel and the Malach of His Truth aid all the Sons of Light. It is actually He who created the spirits of light and darkness, making them the foundation-stone of everything done, their impulses the reason for every act. Elohim's love for one spirit endures forever. He will always be pleased with such acts. But the counsel of the other He hates, despising its every impulse for all time.
Here are their operations in the world: one lights up a person's mind, straightening the pathways before him in true righteousness and causing his heart to respect the laws of Elohim. This spirit produces humility, patience, great compassion, continued goodness, insight, understanding, and powerful wisdom resonating to each of Elohim's works, kept by His constant faithfulness. It produces a spirit knowledgeable in every plan of action, zealous for the laws of righteousness, devoted in its thoughts, and unfaltering in purpose. This spirit encourages plenty of compassion on all who hold tightly to the truth, and magnificent clarity combined with an instinctive hatred of impurity in its every disguise. It results in humble conduct combined with wide-ranging discernment, with an ability to conceal truth, that is, the mysteries of knowledge. So the earthly counsel of the spirit works to these ends for those whose character yearns for truth.
Through a gracious visitation all who walk in this spirit will know healing, bountiful peace, long life, and a prodigious family, followed by enduring blessings and continual joy through a long-lasting life. They will receive a crown of favor with a robe of honor, dazzling forever and ever.
The operations of the spirit of falsehood result in greed, neglect of righteous acts, vileness, lying, pride and conceit, cruel deceit and fraud, massive hypocrisy, a lack of self-control and a lot of foolishness, a zeal for arrogance, repulsive behavior fashioned by whorish cravings, lechery in its filthy expressions, a reviling tongue, blind eyes, deaf ears, stiff neck, and hard heart — to the end of walking in all the roads of darkness and evil cunning.
The verdict for all who walk in such ways will be multiple beatings at the hand of all the malachim of destruction, long-lasting damnation in the wrath of Elohim's furious vengeance, never-ending terror and reproach for all eternity, with a shameful annihilation in the fire of Sheol’s outer darkness. For all their generations, family by family, they will know miserable sorrow, bitter evil, and dark coincidences, until their utter destruction with neither remnant nor rescue.
Inherent, Spiritual Evil v. Good
The character and fate of all people reside with these spirits. The hordes of humanity, family by family, are heirs to these spiritual divisions; and they walk in their ways. Every human action is inherent in these divisions, according to each one’s spiritual inheritance, whether great or small, for every age and for all time. Elohim has appointed these spirits as equals until the final age, setting a long-lasting hostility between their divisions.
Acts done in falsehood are therefore an abomination against truth, while acts done in truth for the sake of perversity are equally disgraceful. Fierce disputing presents itself at every point of decision, for the two spirits they can never agree. In His mysterious insight and famous wisdom Elohim has tolerated an age in which perversity wins; yet at the appointed time of visitation, He will destroy such perversity for good. Then truth will present itself on the earth in victory.
Desecrated by vile ways while perversity still rules, the truth will be decreed at the appointed season of judgment. By His truth, Elohim will then purify all human acts, refining some people to exorcise every perverse spirit from the inward parts of the flesh, cleansing them from every vile act by a set-apart spirit. Like purifying waters, He will sprinkle each one with a spirit of truth, effective against all the abominations of lying and corruption by an unclean spirit. By this means, He will give the upright ones insight from the knowledge of El Elyon along with the wisdom of the malachim, making those following the perfect way wise. Yea, Elohim has chosen them for an ever-enduring covenant; all Adam’s honor will become theirs alone. Perversity will be extinct; every deceitful deed will be put to shame.
Until now the spirits of truth and perversity have contended within the human heart. All people walk in both wisdom and foolishness. As is a person's granting of truth and righteousness, so will he hate perversity; conversely, in proportion to his granting in the lot of evil, one will act vilely and detest truth. Elohim has appointed these spirits as equals until the announced time and the renewal. He foreknows the results of their actions through all the ages [of time]. He has granted these spirits dominion over humanity so to impart knowledge of good [and evil in order to de]cide the fate of every living being by the measure of whichever spirit predominates in hi[m, until the day of the appointed] visitation.
For Those Who Repent
This is the rule for the men of the Yahad who come forward[10] to repent from all evil and to hold fast to all that He, by His good will, has commanded. They are to separate from the congregation of perverse men. They are to come together as one with respect to Torah and money. Their discussions will be under the oversight of the Sons of Zadok — priests and preservers of the Covenant — and according to the majority rule of the men of the Yahad, who hold fast to the Covenant. These men will guide all decisions on matters of Torah, money, and judgment.
They are to practice truth together with humility, charity, justice, loving-kindness, and modesty in all their ways. As a result, none will continue in a willful heart and thus be seduced – no, not by his heart, neither by his eyes, nor yet by his lower nature. Together they will circumcise the foreskin of this nature, this stiff neck, and so establish a foundation of truth for Israel; that is, for the Yahad of the Enduring Covenant. They are to atone for all those in Aaron who volunteer to be set apart, and for those in Israel who belong to truth, and for Gentile converts who join them in the commune. Both by trial and by verdict they are to condemn any who break a rule.
Those Who Enter the New Covenant Are to be Separate
These are the rules that govern when they are gathered together as a community. Every initiant into the Yahad Commune is to enter the Covenant in full view of all who have come forward. He will take upon himself a binding oath to return to the Torah of Moshe (according to all that He commanded) with all his heart and with all his mind, to all that has been revealed from it to the Sons of Zadok — priests and preservers of the covenant, seekers of His will — and the majority of the men of their Covenant (that is, those who have jointly come forward for His truth and to live by what pleases Him).
Each one who thus enters the Covenant by oath is to separate himself from all of the perverse men, those who walk in the vile way, for such are not reckoned a part of His Covenant. They have not sought Him nor inquired of His statutes[11] so as to discover the hidden laws in which they err to their shame. They knowingly transgress even the obvious laws, thus stirring Elohim's judgmental wrath and full vengeance, which is composed of the curses of the Mosaic Covenant. He will bring against them heavy judgments and enduring destruction; none will be spared.
As For All Outsider
None of the perverse men is to enter purifying waters used by the Qadoshim so as to come in contact their purity. (In fact, it impossible to be purified without first repenting of evil, inasmuch as impurity sticks to all who transgress His word.) None is to be yoked with such a man in his work or wealth, lest he cause him to bear guilt.[12] On the contrary, one must keep far from him in every respect, for thus it is written: “Keep far from every false thing.”[13] None belonging to the Yahad is to discuss with such men matters of Torah or legal judgment, nor to eat or drink what is theirs, nor yet to take anything from them unless purchased; as it is written, “Turn away from mere mortals, in whose nostrils is only breath; for of what account are they?”[14] Hence, all who are not reckoned as belonging to His covenant must be separated out, along with everything they possess. The Qadosh One must not rely upon pointless actions, while all who do not know His Covenant are the very definition of pointlessness itself. He will destroy all those who despise His word from the face of the earth. Their every action is disgraceful before Him, all that is theirs being infested with impurity.
Rank & File
When anyone enters the Covenant — to live according to all these ordinances, to make common cause with the Congregation of Holiness — they will investigate his spiritual qualities as a community, each member taking part. They will investigate his understanding and works in relation to the Torah, guided both by the Sons of Aaron and the majority of Israel. The Sons of Aaron have jointly volunteered to uphold His Covenant and to observe all of the ordinances that He commanded them to execute. The majority of Israel has volunteered to return, as a community, to His Covenant.
The initiants are to be enrolled by rank, one man higher than his fellow — as the case may be — by virtue of his understanding and works. So each one will obey his companion, the lower man will obey his superior. Annually they will examine spiritual qualities and works, promoting a man because of his understanding and perfection of walk, or demoting him because of failure.
How will those higher in rank reprove their inferiors? Several rules govern this potentially divisive issue. Each man is to reprove his fellow in truth, humility, and loving-kindness. He should not speak to him in anger, with grumbling, with a [stiff] neck or with a vicious spirit [of zeal]. The one must not hate the other because of his own [uncircumcised] heart. Most assuredly he is to rebuke him on the day of the infraction so that he does not continue in sin. Also, no man is to bring a charge against his fellow before the general membership unless he has previously rebuked that man before witnesses.
Rules Concerning Food and Study
By these rules they are to govern themselves wherever they dwell, in accordance with each legal finding that bears upon communal life. Inferiors must obey their ranking superiors as regards to work and wealth. They will eat, pray, and deliberate communally. Wherever ten men belonging to the Yahad Commune are gathered, a priest must always be present. The men will sit before the priest by rank, and in that manner their opinions will be sought on any matter. When the table has been set for eating or the new wine readied for drinking, the priest is the one who will stretch out his hand first, blessing the first portion of the bread or the new wine. In any place where is gathered the ten-man minyan,[15] someone must always be engaged in study of the Torah, day and night, continually, each one taking his turn. The general membership will be diligent together for the first third of every night of the year, reading aloud from the Book, interpreting Scripture, and praying together.
Rules Concerning Meetings
This is the rule for the session of the general membership, each man being in his proper place. The priests will sit in the first row, the elders in the second, then the rest of the people, each in his proper place. In that order they will be questioned about any judgment, deliberation, or matter that may come before the general membership, so that each man may state his opinion to the Yahad Commune. None should interrupt the words of his comrade, speaking before his brother finishes what he has to say. Neither should anyone speak before another of higher rank. Only the man being questioned will speak in his turn. During the session of the general membership no man should say anything except by the permission of the general membership, or more particularly, of the man who is the Mevakre[16] of the general membership. If any man has something to say to the general membership, yet is of a lower rank than whoever is guiding the deliberations of the Yahad Commune, let him stand up. He should then say, “I have something to say to the general membership.” If they permit, he may speak.
Steps to Full Membership
If anyone of Israel volunteers for enrollment in the Yahad Commune, the man appointed as leader of the general membership will examine him regarding his understanding and works. If he has the potential for instruction, he is to begin initiation into the Covenant, returning to the truth and repenting of all perversity. He will be made to understand all the basic precepts of the Yahad. Subsequently in the process, he must stand before the general membership and the whole chapter will interrogate him about his particulars. According to the decision of the society of the general membership, he will either proceed or depart.
If he does proceed in joining the Yahad Commune, he must not touch the pure food of the general membership before they have examined him as to his spiritual fitness and works, and not before a full year has passed. Further, he must not yet mix his property with that of the general membership. When he has passed a full year in the Yahad, the general membership will inquire into the details of his understanding and works of the Torah, if it be ordained, in the opinion of the priests and the majority of the men of their Covenant, then he will be initiated further into the secret teaching of the Yahad. They will also take steps to incorporate his property, putting it under the authority of the Mevakre together with that of the general membership, and keeping an account of it— but it will not yet be disbursed along with that of the general membership.
The initiate[17] is not to touch the drink of the general membership prior to passing a second year among the men of the Yahad. When that second year has passed, the general membership will review his case. If it be ordained for him to proceed to full membership in the Yahad, they will enroll him at the appropriate rank among his brothers for discussion of the Torah, legal matters, participation in pure meals, and mixture of property. After that, the Yahad may draw upon his counsel and judgment.
Violations and Penalties
These are the rules by which cases are to be decided at a community inquiry. If there be found among them a man who has lied about money and done so knowingly, they will bar him from the pure meals of the general membership for one year; further, his ration of bread is to be reduced by one-fourth.[18] Anyone who answers his comrade defiantly or impatiently, thereby rejecting the instruction of his fellow and rebelling against the orders of his higher-ranked comrade, has usurped authority; he is to be punished by reduced rations and [exclusion from the pure meals] for one year.
Anyone who speaks aloud the M[ost] Esteemed Name of Elohim, [whether in haste] or in cursing or in blurting out at the time of trial or for any other reason, or while he is reading a book or praying, is to be expelled, never again to return to the Yahad Commune.
If anyone speaks angrily against one of the priests who is inscribed in the book, he is to be punished by reduced rations for one year and separated from the pure meals of the general membership, eating by himself. If, however, he spoke without premeditation, he will suffer reduced rations for only six months.
Anyone who knowingly lies is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
The man who accuses his comrade of sin, fully aware that he cannot prove the charge, is to suffer reduced rations for one year and be separated from the pure meals.
Whoever speaks with his companion deceitfully or knowingly practices fraud is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
If a man is drawn unawares into a fraudulent scheme by his comrade, then he is to be punished by reduced rations for only three months.
If money belonging to the Yahad is involved in a fraudulent scheme and lost, the man responsible must repay the sum from his own funds. If he lacks sufficient resources to repay it, then he is to suffer reduced rations for sixty days.
Whoever nurses a grudge against his companion — in blatant disregard of the Yahad statute about accusation on the very same day — is to be punished by reduced rations for six months. The same applies to the man who on any matter takes vengeance into his own hands.
Whoever speaks foolishness: three months.
Anyone interrupting his companion while in session: ten days.
Anyone who lies down and sleeps in a session of the general membership: thirty days.
The same applies to the man who leaves a session of the general membership without permission and without a good excuse three times in a single session. Up to the third time he will be punished by reduced rations only ten days. But if they have risen for prayer when he leaves, then he is suffer thirty days' reduced rations.
Anyone who walks about naked in the presence of a comrade, unless he is sick, is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
A man who spits into the midst of a session of the general membership is to be punished by reduced rations for thirty days.
Anyone who brings out his member from beneath his clothing — that is, his clothing is so full of holes that his nakedness is exposed — is to be punished by thirty days' reduced rations.
Anyone who bursts into foolish horse-laughter is to be punished by reduced rations for thirty days.
A man who draws out his left hand to gesture during conversation is to suffer ten days' reduced rations.
The man who gossips about his companion is to be barred for one year from the pure meals of the general membership and punished by reduced rations. But if a man gossips about the general membership, he is to be banished from them and may never return.
The man who murmurs against the secret teaching of the Yahad is to be banished, never to return. But if he murmurs against a comrade and cannot prove the charges, he is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
The man whose spirit deviates from the secret teaching of the Yahad, such that he forsakes the truth and walks in the stubbornness of his heart – if he repents, he is to be punished by two years of reduced rations. During the first year, he is not to touch the pure food of the general membership; during the second year, he is not to touch their drink. He will rank lower than all the men of the Yahad. When two full years have passed, the general membership will inquire into his particulars. If they allow him to proceed, he will be enrolled at the appropriate rank and take part in discussions of community business.
Any man who, having been in the Yahad Commune for ten full years, backslides spiritually so that he forsakes the Yahad and leaves the general membership, walking in his willful heart, may never again return to the Yahad Commune.
Also, any man belonging to the Ya[had who sh]ares with him his own pure food, his own wealth [or that of] the Yahad, is to suffer the same verdict: he is to be exp[elled.]
The Inner Circle
In the Yahad Commune there will be twelve laymen and three priests who are blameless in the light of all that has been revealed from the whole Torah, so as to work truth, righteousness, justice, loving-kindness, and humility, one with another, they are to preserve faith in the land with self-control and a broken spirit, atoning for sin by working toward justice and interfering against[19] affliction. They are to walk with all by the standard of truth and the dictates proper to the age.
When men like these come to be in Israel, then the Yahad Commune will truly be established as an “enduring planting,”[20] a temple for Israel, and — a mystery! — the Qodesh Qodeshim for Aaron[21] —true witnesses to justice, chosen by Elohim's will to atone for the land and to pay the depraved their due. They will be “the tested wall, the precious cornerstone”[22] whose “foundations will neither be shaken nor swayed, a fortress, a Qodesh Qodeshim for Aaron, all of them knowing the Covenant of Justice and so offering a sweet savor. They will be a blameless and true house in Israel, up-holding the covenant of enduring statutes. They will be an acceptable sacrifice atoning for the land and ringing in the verdict against evil, so that perversity ceases to exist.
When these men have been grounded in the instruction of the Yahad for two years — provided they are blameless in their conduct — they will be set apart as Qadoshim in the midst of the men of the Yahad. No scriptural teaching discovered by the Teacher (but concealed from Israel) is to be hidden from these men out of fear that they might backslide.
When such men as these come to be in Israel, conforming to these teachings, they will separate from the session of perverse men to go to the wilderness, there to prepare the way of truth, as it is written, “In the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH, make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.”[23] This means the expounding of the Torah, decreed by Elohim through Moshe for obedience and being interpreted by what has been uncovered for each age, and by what the prophets have revealed by His Ruach haQodesh.
The Rules
No man belonging to the Covenant of the Yahad who flagrantly deviates from any command is to touch the Qadoshim’s pure food. Further, he is not to participate in any of their business until all his works have been cleansed from evil, so that he is again able to walk blamelessly. They will admit him into the business by the decision of the general membership; afterwards, he will be enrolled at an appropriate rank. This is also the procedure for every initiate added to the Yahad.
These are the rules by which the blameless Qadoshim will conduct themselves, one with another. Any covenant member of the Yahad haQodesh (they who walk blamelessly as He commanded) who transgresses even one commandment from the Torah of Moshe intentionally or deviously is to be expelled from the Yahad Commune, never to return. Further, none of the Qadoshim is to do business with that man or advise him on any matter whatsoever.
But if the sinner transgressed without intention, then he is to be separated from the pure food, community deliberations, and legal matters for two years. He may return to the study sessions and business if he does not again unintentionally sin for two full years. A single unintentional sin may be punished by this two-year process, but the intentional sinner will never again return. Only the accidental sinner will be tested by the general membership over a two-year period for blameless conduct and right understanding. Afterwards, he may be enrolled at the appropriate rank within the Yahad haQodesh.
The Community, its Purpose, and its Future
When, united by all these precepts, such men as these come to be a community in Israel, they will establish enduring truth guided by the instruction of His Ruach haQodesh. They will atone for the guilt of disobedience and the rebellion of sin, becoming an acceptable sacrifice for the land through the flesh of burnt offerings, the fat of sacrificial portions, and prayer, becoming — as it were — justice itself, a sweet savor of righteousness and blameless behavior, a pleasing freewill offering.
At that time the Yahadim will withdraw, the set-apart house of Aaron uniting as a Qadosh Qadoshim, and the synagogue of Israel as those who walk blamelessly. The sons of Aaron alone will have authority in judicial and financial matters. They will decide on governing precepts for the men of the Yahad and on money matters for the Qadoshim who walk blamelessly. Their wealth is not to be mixed with that of rebellious men, who have failed to cleanse their path by separating themselves from perversity and walking blamelessly. They will deviate from none of the Torah’s teachings; otherwise they would walk in their willful heart completely. They will govern themselves by utilizing the original principles in which the Yahadim were from the beginning instructed, doing so until the Prophet and Messiah of Aaron and Israel come forth.
Rules for the Yahad’s Teacher
The following are the rules for the Teacher. He is to conduct himself by them in his relations with everybody, guided by the principles appropriate for each era and the value of each person. He is to work the will of Elohim according to what has been revealed for each period in history, studying all the wise legal findings of earlier times, as well as every statute applying to his own time.
He is to discern the true Sons of Righteousness and to weigh each person's spiritual qualities, sustaining (in His term) the Bacharim[24] in keeping His will and all He has commanded. In each case He will decide for what a man's spiritual traits qualify him, allowing him enter the Yahad if his virtue and understanding of the Torah measure up. By the same standards He will determine each man's rank.
The Teacher must not criticize the Men of the Pit, nor argue with them about proper scriptural understanding. Quite the contrary: he should conceal his own Torah insight when among perverse men. He will save His criticism — which is established in true knowledge and righteous judgment — for those who have chosen the Way, treating each as his spiritual qualities and the rules of the time require. He will establish them in knowledge by teaching them truly amazing mysteries; then if the secret Way is perfected among the Yahadim, each will walk blamelessly with his companions, guided by what has been revealed to them. That will be the time of “preparing the way in the desert.”[25] He will instruct them in every legal finding that is to regulate their works in that time, and teach them to separate from every person who fails to keep from perversity.
The Teacher’s Rules of Love & Hatred
These are the rules of the Way for the Teacher in these times, as to His loving and hating: enduring hatred yet employing a concealing spirit for the Men of the Pit! He will leave them their wealth and profit like a slave does his master — presently humble before His oppressor, but a zealot for Elohim's Torah whose time will come: even during the Day of Vengeance. He will work Elohim's will when He attacks the vile and exercises authority as He has commanded, so that He is pleased with all that is done, as with a freewill offering. Other than Elohim's will, He will delight in nothing else, finding pleasure only in [ev]ery word of His mouth. He will desire nothing that He has not commanded, ceaselessly seeking the [Tor]ah of Elohim. He will bless his Creator [for all of His good]ness, and re[count His loving-kindness] in all that is to be.
The Teacher in Prayer
He will bless Him at the times ordained of Elohim [with pray]er: when the daylight begins its dominion — each time it returns — and when, as ordained, it is regathered into its dwelling; when night begins its watches — as He opens His storehouse and spreads darkness over the earth — and when it cycles back, withdrawing before the light; when the luminaries show forth from their sacred space, and when they are regathered into their lofty place; when the times appointed for new moons arrive, and when, as their seasons require, each gives way to the next. Such renewal is special for the Qadosh Qadoshim; indeed, it is a sign that He is unlocking enduring loving-kindness each time these cycles renew as ordained, and so it will be for every age yet to come.
On the first of each month in its season, and on yomim tov[26] laid down as remembrances, in their seasons, I will bless Him in prayer — as a written rule forever — yea, when each new year begins and when its seasons turn, fulfilling the Torah in their decree, each day as set forth, day after day: harvest giving way to summer, planting to the shoots of spring, seasons, years, and weeks of years.
When weeks of years begin, Jubilee by Jubilee, while I live, the commandment will be inscribed on my tongue — with praise as its fruit, the gift of my lips. I will loudly and skillfully sing my music for the esteem of Elohim only — my harp and my lyre I touch the strings for His sanctity — I will lift up the flute of my lips with His Torah its tuning fork. At break of day and with the darkening of the sky, I will enter the Covenant of Elohim, and when they all leave I will recite His Ordinances; then I will set out the bounds of my path, never to turn back.
By His Torah I will convict myself, my iniquity the measure, my sin as a statute engraved before my eyes. To Elohim will I say, O, my Righteousness: all to El Elyon. O, You Seat of my Goodness, Spring of Da’at and Fount of Qodesha; Kavod ha Gadol, El Shaddai, Shekinah l’Olam!
What He teaches me, that will I choose; as He judges me, so will I delight. When first I begin my plan or journey, I will bless His name; when first I set out or turn to come back; when I sit down or rise up, when I spread my bed, then I will rejoice in Him. I will bless Him with the offering, the issue of my lips when in the ranks; before I lift hand to mouth to taste the ground’s pleasant bounty; when fear or terror break out, in the place of dire straits or desolation, I will praise Him.
I will meditate on His miracles and powerful acts; I will contemplate His loving-kindness, upon which I will rely all day long. Then will I know that the judgment of all the living reside in His hand, and all His works are truth. When I break out in depression, I will praise Him, and in His salvation will I rejoice.
To no one will I return evil for evil; I will go after a person only for good; for with Elohim resides the judgment of all the living, and He will compensate each one. My zeal will not be tarnished by a mean spirit, and I will not lust for riches gained through violence.
I will not take custody of the evil multitude until the Day of Vengeance; yet my fury will never subside from the Men of the Pit, and I will never be satisfied until righteousness will be established. I will not harbor a grudge of wrath against anyone repenting of sin yet I will neither love anyone who rebels against the Way; I will not comfort those smitten with sin until their walk is perfected. And I will give no refuge in my heart to Belial.
The Teacher’s Righteous Confessions
Neither foolishness nor sinful deceit will be heard from my mouth; neither fraud nor lies will be discovered between my lips.[27] Rather, qadosh fruits will be on my tongue — abominations will not be found there. I will open my mouth in thanksgiving, my tongue will always tell of Elohim’s righteousness. The rebellion accounted to man and made complete by sin will I purge from my lips as futility; I will erase impure and devious designs from my mind. In counsel with wisdom, I will speak of knowledge: both prudence and wisdom; and I will wrap it close about me to preserve my faith and strict judgment — conforming to the righteousness of Elohim.
I will mete out the rules by the proper measure to each time; [dispense] righteousness and loving-kindness to those cast down; and strongly encourage the anxious. [I will teach] those in error bout spiritual understanding, instructing complainers with wisdom — to answer in humility the arrogant of broken spirit, those who oppress, ridicule, speak vainly, and are zealous only for wealth. Elohim is the source of whatever goodness the worshiper may claim, and the truths that he possesses — hidden from others — are given only by Elohim.
As for me, my justification is with Elohim. The perfection of my walk and the virtue of my heart are in His hand. My disobedience is blotted out by His righteousness. My light shot forth from the fountain of His knowledge; my eye gazed on his wonders and the light of my heart on the mystery of what will happen.
The one who holds out is my right hand’s staff, my steps tread on the Mighty Rock: nothing will make them retreat now; for the truth of Elohim is the rock on which I step, and His mighty power is what my right hand holds. From His righteous fount comes my justification, the light of my heart from His wondrous mysteries.
My eye has gazed upon the future and the hidden wisdom: even at all the knowledge and wise prudence that has been concealed from all humanity. The source of righteousness, the gathering of power, and the abode of radiance are hidden from the counsel of flesh.
He has given all these to the Bacharim as an enduring possession. He has made them heirs in the bequest of the Qadoshim, and, along with the Malachim, He has united them in the assembly, a Yahad society.[28] They are an assembly built up to be set-apart, an enduring Planting for all ages to come.
As for me, I belong to evil humanity and the counsel of perverse flesh. My transgressions, evils, sins, and corrupt heart belong to the counsel of wormy rot with those who walk in darkness.
Surely a man's way is not his own; neither can any person firm up his own step. Surely justification is of Elohim; by His power is the way made perfect. All that will be, He foreknows, all that is, His plans establish; apart from Him is nothing accomplished.
As for me, if I stumble, Elohim's loving-kindness will save me every time. If through the sin of the flesh I fall, my justification will be by the righteousness of Elohim that endures for all time. Though my affliction breaks out upon me, He will draw my soul back from the Pit, and bolster my steps on the way. Through His love He has brought me close; by His loving-kindness He will provide my justification. By His righteous truth He has acquitted me; and through His exceeding goodness He will atone for all my sins. He cleans human defilement and disgrace from me by His righteousness to the end that I praise Elohim for His righteousness; yea, the Most High for His Radiance.
Blessed are You, O Eli, who has opened the mind of Your servant to knowledge. Establish all of his {the Teacher’s} works in righteousness; if it please You, raise up the son of Your handmaiden to be among those chosen out of humankind, to stand before You forever.[29]
Surely apart from You the way cannot be completed, nor can anything be finished unless it please You. You teach all knowledge and all that will happen, and by Your will it will al come to pass. Apart from You there is no one else able to dispute Your counsel, or fathom the design of Your devotion, or penetrate the depth of Your mysteries, or apprehend Your wonders and surpassing power.
Who can Your radiance measure? Who, indeed, is man among Your famous works? As how can he, born of a woman, be reckoned in comparison with You? Molded out of dirt, his body is the worm food; he is just so much spit and chewed off clay — craving only more clay.
Will the clay challenge the expertise of the One who designed the vase?
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The Teacher’s Scroll
A scroll belonging to [the Teacher, who is to teach the] Qadoshim[1] how to live according to the book of the Yahad's Rule.[2] He is to teach them to seek Elohim with all their heart and with all their soul, to do that which is good and upright before Him, just as He commanded through Moshe and all His servants the prophets. He is to teach them to love everything He chose and to hate everything He rejected, to distance themselves from all evil and to hold fast to all good deeds; to practice truth, justice, and righteousness in the land, and to walk no longer in a guilty, willful heart and lustful desires. Through such, they did every evil thing.
He is to induct all who volunteer to live by the laws of Elohim unto the Covenant of Mercy, so as to be joined to Elohim's society and walk faultless before Him, according to all that has been revealed for the times appointed them. He is to teach them both to love all the Children of Light—each commensurate with his rightful place in the council of Elohim—and to hate all the Children of Darkness, each commensurate with his guilt and the vengeance due him from Elohim.
All who volunteer for His truth are to bring the full measure of their knowledge, strength, and wealth into the Yahad of Elohim. Thus will they purify their knowledge in the truth of Elohim's laws, properly exercise their ability according to the perfection of His ways, and likewise their wealth by the set-rules[3] of His righteous counsel. They are not to deviate in the smallest detail from any of Elohim's words, even as they apply to the volunteer’s own time. They are neither to advance their sacred seasons nor to postpone any of their prescribed festivals. From His inerrant laws, they will turn aside neither to the right nor the left.
The Ritual of Blessing or Damning the Initiant[4]
All who enter the Yahad's Rule will be initiated into the Covenant before Elohim, agreeing to act according to all that He has commanded and not to backslide because of any fear, terror, or persecution that may occur during the time of Belial's dominion.[5] While the initiants are being inducted into the Covenant, the priests and the Levites will continuously bless the Elohim of deliverance for all His authentic acts. All the initiants into the Covenant will continuously respond, “Amein, amein.”
The priests are to rehearse Elohim's gracious acts made manifest by mighty deeds, heralding His loving mercies on Israel’s behalf. The Levites in turn will rehearse the vile acts of the children of Israel, all their guilty transgressions and sins committed during the dominion of Belial. All the initiants into the Covenant are to respond by confessing,
“We have been vile, transgressed, and [sinned]. We have been evil—we and our fathers before us—walking [in rebellion to the laws] of truth and righteousness, [so Elohim] has judged us, both we and our fathers. Yet He has also succored us with the loving acts of His mercy, long ago and for ages to come.”
Then the priests are to bless all those destined to Elohim, who walk faultless in all of His ways, saying
“May He bless you with every good thing and preserve you from every evil. May He enlighten your mind with wisdom for living, be gracious to you with the knowledge of enduring things, and lift up His gracious countenance upon you for long-lasting peace.”
The Levites in turn will curse all those destined to Belial. They will respond,
“May you be damned in return for all your vile, guilty actions. May the Elohim of terror give you over to ruthless avengers; may He visit your offspring with destruction at the hands of those who pay evil with evil. May you be damned without mercy in return for your dark deeds, an object of wrath licked by enduring flame, surrounded by total darkness. May Elohim have no mercy upon you when you cry out, nor forgive so as to atone for your sins. May He lift up His furious countenance upon you for vengeance. May you never find peace through the appeal of any mediator.”
All the initiants into the Covenant will respond to the blessers and cursors, saying, “Amein, amein.”
Is the Candidate Converted?
Then the priests and Levites will go on to declare,
“Damned be anyone initiated with unrepentant heart, who enters this Covenant, then sets up the stumbling block of his sin, so turning traitor. It will come to pass, when he hears the words of this Covenant, that he will bless himself in his heart, saying ‘Peace be with me, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’[6]
“Surrounded by abundant water, his spirit will nevertheless expire thirsty, without forgiveness. Elohim's anger and zeal for His commandments will burn against him for enduring destruction. All the curses of this Covenant will cleave to him, and Elohim will separate him out for a fate befitting his vileness. He will be cut off from all the Sons of Light because of his apostasy from Elohim, brought about by unrepentance and the stumbling block of sin. He will cast his lot with those damned for all time.”
The initiants are all to respond in turn, “Amein, amein.”
The Candidate’s Annual Revue
They will do as follows annually, all the days of Belial's dominion: the priests will pass in review first, ranked according to their spiritual distinction, one after another. Then the Levites will follow, and third all the people by rank, one after another, in their thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. Thus will each Israelite know his proper standing in the Yahad of Elohim, an enduring community. None will be demoted from his appointed place, none promoted beyond his destined rank. So will all together comprise a Yahad whose essence is truth, genuine humility, love of charity, and righteous intent, caring for one another this way within the blessed commune, comrades in an ever-enduring fellowship.
As for Those Rejected
Anyone who refuses to enter [the society of E]lohim, preferring to continue in his willful heart, will not [be initiated into the Yahad of His truth, inasmuch as his soul has rejected the disciplines foundational to knowledge: such are the laws of righteousness. He lacks the strength to repent. He is not to be reckoned among the upright; his knowledge, strength, and wealth are not to enter the Yahad Commune. Surely, he plows in the muck of vileness, so defiling stains would mar his repentance. Yet he cannot be justified by what his willful heart declares lawful, preferring to gaze on darkness rather than the ways of light. With such an eye he cannot be reckoned faultless.
Rituals of penance cannot restore his innocence, neither living waters his purity. He cannot be sanctified by baptism in oceans and rivers, nor purified by mere ritual washing. “Unclean, unclean”[7] will he be all the days that he rejects the laws of Elohim, refusing to be disciplined in His Yahad Commune.
For only through the spirit that fills Elohim's true community can there be atonement for a person's ways and all iniquities; so he can gaze on the life-light and so be joined to His truth by His devoted spirit, purified from all iniquity. His sin may be covered by his upright and humble attitude, and his flesh can be made clean by humbling himself before all Elohim's laws. This way only can he really receive the purifying waters and be purged by the cleansing flow. Let him order his steps to walk faultlessly in all of Elohim’s ways, just as He commanded for the seasons appointed him. Let him turn aside neither to the right nor the left, nor yet stray in the smallest detail from all of His words. Then indeed will he be accepted by Elohim, offering the sweet savor of the atoning sacrifice, and then only will he be a party to the Covenant of the enduring Yahad.
A New Scroll: Spiritual Life; The Two Spirits
A scroll belonging to the Teacher, who is to illuminate all the Sons of Light by instructing about the character and the fate of person: including all their spiritual gifts[8] with signs following, all their history family by family, and their visitation for discipline[9] as well as seasons of shalom.
All that is now and ever will be originates with the Elohim of knowledge. Before things come to be, He orders their designs, so that when they do come to exist—at their appointed times as ordained by His glorious plan—they fulfill their destiny, a destiny impossible to alter. He controls the laws governing all things, and He provides for all their interests.
He created humans to rule over the world, appointing for them two spirits in which to walk until the time set for His visitation. These are the spirits of truth and falsehood. An upright nature and destiny originate in the Territory of Light; a perverse nature originates in the Fountain of Darkness. The authority of the Prince of Light extends to governing of all righteous people; so of course, they walk in the paths of light. Likewise, the authority of the Angel of Darkness grips the government of all vile people, so naturally they walk in the paths of darkness.
The authority of the Angel of Darkness further extends to the corruption of all the righteous. All their sins, iniquities, shameful, and rebellious deeds are at his instigation, a situation that Elohim in His mysteries allows to continue until His age dawns. Even all the afflictions of the righteous, and every trial in its season, occur because of this Angel's diabolic rule. All the spirits allied with him share but a single resolution: the Sons of Light must be caused to stumble.
Yet the Elohim of Israel and the Malach of His Truth aid all the Sons of Light. It is actually He who created the spirits of light and darkness, making them the foundation-stone of everything done, their impulses the reason for every act. Elohim's love for one spirit endures forever. He will always be pleased with such acts. But the counsel of the other He hates, despising its every impulse for all time.
Here are their operations in the world: one lights up a person's mind, straightening the pathways before him in true righteousness and causing his heart to respect the laws of Elohim. This spirit produces humility, patience, great compassion, continued goodness, insight, understanding, and powerful wisdom resonating to each of Elohim's works, kept by His constant faithfulness. It produces a spirit knowledgeable in every plan of action, zealous for the laws of righteousness, devoted in its thoughts, and unfaltering in purpose. This spirit encourages plenty of compassion on all who hold tightly to the truth, and magnificent clarity combined with an instinctive hatred of impurity in its every disguise. It results in humble conduct combined with wide-ranging discernment, with an ability to conceal truth, that is, the mysteries of knowledge. So the earthly counsel of the spirit works to these ends for those whose character yearns for truth.
Through a gracious visitation all who walk in this spirit will know healing, bountiful peace, long life, and a prodigious family, followed by enduring blessings and continual joy through a long-lasting life. They will receive a crown of favor with a robe of honor, dazzling forever and ever.
The operations of the spirit of falsehood result in greed, neglect of righteous acts, vileness, lying, pride and conceit, cruel deceit and fraud, massive hypocrisy, a lack of self-control and a lot of foolishness, a zeal for arrogance, repulsive behavior fashioned by whorish cravings, lechery in its filthy expressions, a reviling tongue, blind eyes, deaf ears, stiff neck, and hard heart — to the end of walking in all the roads of darkness and evil cunning.
The verdict for all who walk in such ways will be multiple beatings at the hand of all the malachim of destruction, long-lasting damnation in the wrath of Elohim's furious vengeance, never-ending terror and reproach for all eternity, with a shameful annihilation in the fire of Sheol’s outer darkness. For all their generations, family by family, they will know miserable sorrow, bitter evil, and dark coincidences, until their utter destruction with neither remnant nor rescue.
Inherent, Spiritual Evil v. Good
The character and fate of all people reside with these spirits. The hordes of humanity, family by family, are heirs to these spiritual divisions; and they walk in their ways. Every human action is inherent in these divisions, according to each one’s spiritual inheritance, whether great or small, for every age and for all time. Elohim has appointed these spirits as equals until the final age, setting a long-lasting hostility between their divisions.
Acts done in falsehood are therefore an abomination against truth, while acts done in truth for the sake of perversity are equally disgraceful. Fierce disputing presents itself at every point of decision, for the two spirits they can never agree. In His mysterious insight and famous wisdom Elohim has tolerated an age in which perversity wins; yet at the appointed time of visitation, He will destroy such perversity for good. Then truth will present itself on the earth in victory.
Desecrated by vile ways while perversity still rules, the truth will be decreed at the appointed season of judgment. By His truth, Elohim will then purify all human acts, refining some people to exorcise every perverse spirit from the inward parts of the flesh, cleansing them from every vile act by a set-apart spirit. Like purifying waters, He will sprinkle each one with a spirit of truth, effective against all the abominations of lying and corruption by an unclean spirit. By this means, He will give the upright ones insight from the knowledge of El Elyon along with the wisdom of the malachim, making those following the perfect way wise. Yea, Elohim has chosen them for an ever-enduring covenant; all Adam’s honor will become theirs alone. Perversity will be extinct; every deceitful deed will be put to shame.
Until now the spirits of truth and perversity have contended within the human heart. All people walk in both wisdom and foolishness. As is a person's granting of truth and righteousness, so will he hate perversity; conversely, in proportion to his granting in the lot of evil, one will act vilely and detest truth. Elohim has appointed these spirits as equals until the announced time and the renewal. He foreknows the results of their actions through all the ages [of time]. He has granted these spirits dominion over humanity so to impart knowledge of good [and evil in order to de]cide the fate of every living being by the measure of whichever spirit predominates in hi[m, until the day of the appointed] visitation.
For Those Who Repent
This is the rule for the men of the Yahad who come forward[10] to repent from all evil and to hold fast to all that He, by His good will, has commanded. They are to separate from the congregation of perverse men. They are to come together as one with respect to Torah and money. Their discussions will be under the oversight of the Sons of Zadok — priests and preservers of the Covenant — and according to the majority rule of the men of the Yahad, who hold fast to the Covenant. These men will guide all decisions on matters of Torah, money, and judgment.
They are to practice truth together with humility, charity, justice, loving-kindness, and modesty in all their ways. As a result, none will continue in a willful heart and thus be seduced – no, not by his heart, neither by his eyes, nor yet by his lower nature. Together they will circumcise the foreskin of this nature, this stiff neck, and so establish a foundation of truth for Israel; that is, for the Yahad of the Enduring Covenant. They are to atone for all those in Aaron who volunteer to be set apart, and for those in Israel who belong to truth, and for Gentile converts who join them in the commune. Both by trial and by verdict they are to condemn any who break a rule.
Those Who Enter the New Covenant Are to be Separate
These are the rules that govern when they are gathered together as a community. Every initiant into the Yahad Commune is to enter the Covenant in full view of all who have come forward. He will take upon himself a binding oath to return to the Torah of Moshe (according to all that He commanded) with all his heart and with all his mind, to all that has been revealed from it to the Sons of Zadok — priests and preservers of the covenant, seekers of His will — and the majority of the men of their Covenant (that is, those who have jointly come forward for His truth and to live by what pleases Him).
Each one who thus enters the Covenant by oath is to separate himself from all of the perverse men, those who walk in the vile way, for such are not reckoned a part of His Covenant. They have not sought Him nor inquired of His statutes[11] so as to discover the hidden laws in which they err to their shame. They knowingly transgress even the obvious laws, thus stirring Elohim's judgmental wrath and full vengeance, which is composed of the curses of the Mosaic Covenant. He will bring against them heavy judgments and enduring destruction; none will be spared.
As For All Outsider
None of the perverse men is to enter purifying waters used by the Qadoshim so as to come in contact their purity. (In fact, it impossible to be purified without first repenting of evil, inasmuch as impurity sticks to all who transgress His word.) None is to be yoked with such a man in his work or wealth, lest he cause him to bear guilt.[12] On the contrary, one must keep far from him in every respect, for thus it is written: “Keep far from every false thing.”[13] None belonging to the Yahad is to discuss with such men matters of Torah or legal judgment, nor to eat or drink what is theirs, nor yet to take anything from them unless purchased; as it is written, “Turn away from mere mortals, in whose nostrils is only breath; for of what account are they?”[14] Hence, all who are not reckoned as belonging to His covenant must be separated out, along with everything they possess. The Qadosh One must not rely upon pointless actions, while all who do not know His Covenant are the very definition of pointlessness itself. He will destroy all those who despise His word from the face of the earth. Their every action is disgraceful before Him, all that is theirs being infested with impurity.
Rank & File
When anyone enters the Covenant — to live according to all these ordinances, to make common cause with the Congregation of Holiness — they will investigate his spiritual qualities as a community, each member taking part. They will investigate his understanding and works in relation to the Torah, guided both by the Sons of Aaron and the majority of Israel. The Sons of Aaron have jointly volunteered to uphold His Covenant and to observe all of the ordinances that He commanded them to execute. The majority of Israel has volunteered to return, as a community, to His Covenant.
The initiants are to be enrolled by rank, one man higher than his fellow — as the case may be — by virtue of his understanding and works. So each one will obey his companion, the lower man will obey his superior. Annually they will examine spiritual qualities and works, promoting a man because of his understanding and perfection of walk, or demoting him because of failure.
How will those higher in rank reprove their inferiors? Several rules govern this potentially divisive issue. Each man is to reprove his fellow in truth, humility, and loving-kindness. He should not speak to him in anger, with grumbling, with a [stiff] neck or with a vicious spirit [of zeal]. The one must not hate the other because of his own [uncircumcised] heart. Most assuredly he is to rebuke him on the day of the infraction so that he does not continue in sin. Also, no man is to bring a charge against his fellow before the general membership unless he has previously rebuked that man before witnesses.
Rules Concerning Food and Study
By these rules they are to govern themselves wherever they dwell, in accordance with each legal finding that bears upon communal life. Inferiors must obey their ranking superiors as regards to work and wealth. They will eat, pray, and deliberate communally. Wherever ten men belonging to the Yahad Commune are gathered, a priest must always be present. The men will sit before the priest by rank, and in that manner their opinions will be sought on any matter. When the table has been set for eating or the new wine readied for drinking, the priest is the one who will stretch out his hand first, blessing the first portion of the bread or the new wine. In any place where is gathered the ten-man minyan,[15] someone must always be engaged in study of the Torah, day and night, continually, each one taking his turn. The general membership will be diligent together for the first third of every night of the year, reading aloud from the Book, interpreting Scripture, and praying together.
Rules Concerning Meetings
This is the rule for the session of the general membership, each man being in his proper place. The priests will sit in the first row, the elders in the second, then the rest of the people, each in his proper place. In that order they will be questioned about any judgment, deliberation, or matter that may come before the general membership, so that each man may state his opinion to the Yahad Commune. None should interrupt the words of his comrade, speaking before his brother finishes what he has to say. Neither should anyone speak before another of higher rank. Only the man being questioned will speak in his turn. During the session of the general membership no man should say anything except by the permission of the general membership, or more particularly, of the man who is the Mevakre[16] of the general membership. If any man has something to say to the general membership, yet is of a lower rank than whoever is guiding the deliberations of the Yahad Commune, let him stand up. He should then say, “I have something to say to the general membership.” If they permit, he may speak.
Steps to Full Membership
If anyone of Israel volunteers for enrollment in the Yahad Commune, the man appointed as leader of the general membership will examine him regarding his understanding and works. If he has the potential for instruction, he is to begin initiation into the Covenant, returning to the truth and repenting of all perversity. He will be made to understand all the basic precepts of the Yahad. Subsequently in the process, he must stand before the general membership and the whole chapter will interrogate him about his particulars. According to the decision of the society of the general membership, he will either proceed or depart.
If he does proceed in joining the Yahad Commune, he must not touch the pure food of the general membership before they have examined him as to his spiritual fitness and works, and not before a full year has passed. Further, he must not yet mix his property with that of the general membership. When he has passed a full year in the Yahad, the general membership will inquire into the details of his understanding and works of the Torah, if it be ordained, in the opinion of the priests and the majority of the men of their Covenant, then he will be initiated further into the secret teaching of the Yahad. They will also take steps to incorporate his property, putting it under the authority of the Mevakre together with that of the general membership, and keeping an account of it— but it will not yet be disbursed along with that of the general membership.
The initiate[17] is not to touch the drink of the general membership prior to passing a second year among the men of the Yahad. When that second year has passed, the general membership will review his case. If it be ordained for him to proceed to full membership in the Yahad, they will enroll him at the appropriate rank among his brothers for discussion of the Torah, legal matters, participation in pure meals, and mixture of property. After that, the Yahad may draw upon his counsel and judgment.
Violations and Penalties
These are the rules by which cases are to be decided at a community inquiry. If there be found among them a man who has lied about money and done so knowingly, they will bar him from the pure meals of the general membership for one year; further, his ration of bread is to be reduced by one-fourth.[18] Anyone who answers his comrade defiantly or impatiently, thereby rejecting the instruction of his fellow and rebelling against the orders of his higher-ranked comrade, has usurped authority; he is to be punished by reduced rations and [exclusion from the pure meals] for one year.
Anyone who speaks aloud the M[ost] Esteemed Name of Elohim, [whether in haste] or in cursing or in blurting out at the time of trial or for any other reason, or while he is reading a book or praying, is to be expelled, never again to return to the Yahad Commune.
If anyone speaks angrily against one of the priests who is inscribed in the book, he is to be punished by reduced rations for one year and separated from the pure meals of the general membership, eating by himself. If, however, he spoke without premeditation, he will suffer reduced rations for only six months.
Anyone who knowingly lies is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
The man who accuses his comrade of sin, fully aware that he cannot prove the charge, is to suffer reduced rations for one year and be separated from the pure meals.
Whoever speaks with his companion deceitfully or knowingly practices fraud is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
If a man is drawn unawares into a fraudulent scheme by his comrade, then he is to be punished by reduced rations for only three months.
If money belonging to the Yahad is involved in a fraudulent scheme and lost, the man responsible must repay the sum from his own funds. If he lacks sufficient resources to repay it, then he is to suffer reduced rations for sixty days.
Whoever nurses a grudge against his companion — in blatant disregard of the Yahad statute about accusation on the very same day — is to be punished by reduced rations for six months. The same applies to the man who on any matter takes vengeance into his own hands.
Whoever speaks foolishness: three months.
Anyone interrupting his companion while in session: ten days.
Anyone who lies down and sleeps in a session of the general membership: thirty days.
The same applies to the man who leaves a session of the general membership without permission and without a good excuse three times in a single session. Up to the third time he will be punished by reduced rations only ten days. But if they have risen for prayer when he leaves, then he is suffer thirty days' reduced rations.
Anyone who walks about naked in the presence of a comrade, unless he is sick, is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
A man who spits into the midst of a session of the general membership is to be punished by reduced rations for thirty days.
Anyone who brings out his member from beneath his clothing — that is, his clothing is so full of holes that his nakedness is exposed — is to be punished by thirty days' reduced rations.
Anyone who bursts into foolish horse-laughter is to be punished by reduced rations for thirty days.
A man who draws out his left hand to gesture during conversation is to suffer ten days' reduced rations.
The man who gossips about his companion is to be barred for one year from the pure meals of the general membership and punished by reduced rations. But if a man gossips about the general membership, he is to be banished from them and may never return.
The man who murmurs against the secret teaching of the Yahad is to be banished, never to return. But if he murmurs against a comrade and cannot prove the charges, he is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
The man whose spirit deviates from the secret teaching of the Yahad, such that he forsakes the truth and walks in the stubbornness of his heart – if he repents, he is to be punished by two years of reduced rations. During the first year, he is not to touch the pure food of the general membership; during the second year, he is not to touch their drink. He will rank lower than all the men of the Yahad. When two full years have passed, the general membership will inquire into his particulars. If they allow him to proceed, he will be enrolled at the appropriate rank and take part in discussions of community business.
Any man who, having been in the Yahad Commune for ten full years, backslides spiritually so that he forsakes the Yahad and leaves the general membership, walking in his willful heart, may never again return to the Yahad Commune.
Also, any man belonging to the Ya[had who sh]ares with him his own pure food, his own wealth [or that of] the Yahad, is to suffer the same verdict: he is to be exp[elled.]
The Inner Circle
In the Yahad Commune there will be twelve laymen and three priests who are blameless in the light of all that has been revealed from the whole Torah, so as to work truth, righteousness, justice, loving-kindness, and humility, one with another, they are to preserve faith in the land with self-control and a broken spirit, atoning for sin by working toward justice and interfering against[19] affliction. They are to walk with all by the standard of truth and the dictates proper to the age.
When men like these come to be in Israel, then the Yahad Commune will truly be established as an “enduring planting,”[20] a temple for Israel, and — a mystery! — the Qodesh Qodeshim for Aaron[21] —true witnesses to justice, chosen by Elohim's will to atone for the land and to pay the depraved their due. They will be “the tested wall, the precious cornerstone”[22] whose “foundations will neither be shaken nor swayed, a fortress, a Qodesh Qodeshim for Aaron, all of them knowing the Covenant of Justice and so offering a sweet savor. They will be a blameless and true house in Israel, up-holding the covenant of enduring statutes. They will be an acceptable sacrifice atoning for the land and ringing in the verdict against evil, so that perversity ceases to exist.
When these men have been grounded in the instruction of the Yahad for two years — provided they are blameless in their conduct — they will be set apart as Qadoshim in the midst of the men of the Yahad. No scriptural teaching discovered by the Teacher (but concealed from Israel) is to be hidden from these men out of fear that they might backslide.
When such men as these come to be in Israel, conforming to these teachings, they will separate from the session of perverse men to go to the wilderness, there to prepare the way of truth, as it is written, “In the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH, make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.”[23] This means the expounding of the Torah, decreed by Elohim through Moshe for obedience and being interpreted by what has been uncovered for each age, and by what the prophets have revealed by His Ruach haQodesh.
The Rules
No man belonging to the Covenant of the Yahad who flagrantly deviates from any command is to touch the Qadoshim’s pure food. Further, he is not to participate in any of their business until all his works have been cleansed from evil, so that he is again able to walk blamelessly. They will admit him into the business by the decision of the general membership; afterwards, he will be enrolled at an appropriate rank. This is also the procedure for every initiate added to the Yahad.
These are the rules by which the blameless Qadoshim will conduct themselves, one with another. Any covenant member of the Yahad haQodesh (they who walk blamelessly as He commanded) who transgresses even one commandment from the Torah of Moshe intentionally or deviously is to be expelled from the Yahad Commune, never to return. Further, none of the Qadoshim is to do business with that man or advise him on any matter whatsoever.
But if the sinner transgressed without intention, then he is to be separated from the pure food, community deliberations, and legal matters for two years. He may return to the study sessions and business if he does not again unintentionally sin for two full years. A single unintentional sin may be punished by this two-year process, but the intentional sinner will never again return. Only the accidental sinner will be tested by the general membership over a two-year period for blameless conduct and right understanding. Afterwards, he may be enrolled at the appropriate rank within the Yahad haQodesh.
The Community, its Purpose, and its Future
When, united by all these precepts, such men as these come to be a community in Israel, they will establish enduring truth guided by the instruction of His Ruach haQodesh. They will atone for the guilt of disobedience and the rebellion of sin, becoming an acceptable sacrifice for the land through the flesh of burnt offerings, the fat of sacrificial portions, and prayer, becoming — as it were — justice itself, a sweet savor of righteousness and blameless behavior, a pleasing freewill offering.
At that time the Yahadim will withdraw, the set-apart house of Aaron uniting as a Qadosh Qadoshim, and the synagogue of Israel as those who walk blamelessly. The sons of Aaron alone will have authority in judicial and financial matters. They will decide on governing precepts for the men of the Yahad and on money matters for the Qadoshim who walk blamelessly. Their wealth is not to be mixed with that of rebellious men, who have failed to cleanse their path by separating themselves from perversity and walking blamelessly. They will deviate from none of the Torah’s teachings; otherwise they would walk in their willful heart completely. They will govern themselves by utilizing the original principles in which the Yahadim were from the beginning instructed, doing so until the Prophet and Messiah of Aaron and Israel come forth.
Rules for the Yahad’s Teacher
The following are the rules for the Teacher. He is to conduct himself by them in his relations with everybody, guided by the principles appropriate for each era and the value of each person. He is to work the will of Elohim according to what has been revealed for each period in history, studying all the wise legal findings of earlier times, as well as every statute applying to his own time.
He is to discern the true Sons of Righteousness and to weigh each person's spiritual qualities, sustaining (in His term) the Bacharim[24] in keeping His will and all He has commanded. In each case He will decide for what a man's spiritual traits qualify him, allowing him enter the Yahad if his virtue and understanding of the Torah measure up. By the same standards He will determine each man's rank.
The Teacher must not criticize the Men of the Pit, nor argue with them about proper scriptural understanding. Quite the contrary: he should conceal his own Torah insight when among perverse men. He will save His criticism — which is established in true knowledge and righteous judgment — for those who have chosen the Way, treating each as his spiritual qualities and the rules of the time require. He will establish them in knowledge by teaching them truly amazing mysteries; then if the secret Way is perfected among the Yahadim, each will walk blamelessly with his companions, guided by what has been revealed to them. That will be the time of “preparing the way in the desert.”[25] He will instruct them in every legal finding that is to regulate their works in that time, and teach them to separate from every person who fails to keep from perversity.
The Teacher’s Rules of Love & Hatred
These are the rules of the Way for the Teacher in these times, as to His loving and hating: enduring hatred yet employing a concealing spirit for the Men of the Pit! He will leave them their wealth and profit like a slave does his master — presently humble before His oppressor, but a zealot for Elohim's Torah whose time will come: even during the Day of Vengeance. He will work Elohim's will when He attacks the vile and exercises authority as He has commanded, so that He is pleased with all that is done, as with a freewill offering. Other than Elohim's will, He will delight in nothing else, finding pleasure only in [ev]ery word of His mouth. He will desire nothing that He has not commanded, ceaselessly seeking the [Tor]ah of Elohim. He will bless his Creator [for all of His good]ness, and re[count His loving-kindness] in all that is to be.
The Teacher in Prayer
He will bless Him at the times ordained of Elohim [with pray]er: when the daylight begins its dominion — each time it returns — and when, as ordained, it is regathered into its dwelling; when night begins its watches — as He opens His storehouse and spreads darkness over the earth — and when it cycles back, withdrawing before the light; when the luminaries show forth from their sacred space, and when they are regathered into their lofty place; when the times appointed for new moons arrive, and when, as their seasons require, each gives way to the next. Such renewal is special for the Qadosh Qadoshim; indeed, it is a sign that He is unlocking enduring loving-kindness each time these cycles renew as ordained, and so it will be for every age yet to come.
On the first of each month in its season, and on yomim tov[26] laid down as remembrances, in their seasons, I will bless Him in prayer — as a written rule forever — yea, when each new year begins and when its seasons turn, fulfilling the Torah in their decree, each day as set forth, day after day: harvest giving way to summer, planting to the shoots of spring, seasons, years, and weeks of years.
When weeks of years begin, Jubilee by Jubilee, while I live, the commandment will be inscribed on my tongue — with praise as its fruit, the gift of my lips. I will loudly and skillfully sing my music for the esteem of Elohim only — my harp and my lyre I touch the strings for His sanctity — I will lift up the flute of my lips with His Torah its tuning fork. At break of day and with the darkening of the sky, I will enter the Covenant of Elohim, and when they all leave I will recite His Ordinances; then I will set out the bounds of my path, never to turn back.
By His Torah I will convict myself, my iniquity the measure, my sin as a statute engraved before my eyes. To Elohim will I say, O, my Righteousness: all to El Elyon. O, You Seat of my Goodness, Spring of Da’at and Fount of Qodesha; Kavod ha Gadol, El Shaddai, Shekinah l’Olam!
What He teaches me, that will I choose; as He judges me, so will I delight. When first I begin my plan or journey, I will bless His name; when first I set out or turn to come back; when I sit down or rise up, when I spread my bed, then I will rejoice in Him. I will bless Him with the offering, the issue of my lips when in the ranks; before I lift hand to mouth to taste the ground’s pleasant bounty; when fear or terror break out, in the place of dire straits or desolation, I will praise Him.
I will meditate on His miracles and powerful acts; I will contemplate His loving-kindness, upon which I will rely all day long. Then will I know that the judgment of all the living reside in His hand, and all His works are truth. When I break out in depression, I will praise Him, and in His salvation will I rejoice.
To no one will I return evil for evil; I will go after a person only for good; for with Elohim resides the judgment of all the living, and He will compensate each one. My zeal will not be tarnished by a mean spirit, and I will not lust for riches gained through violence.
I will not take custody of the evil multitude until the Day of Vengeance; yet my fury will never subside from the Men of the Pit, and I will never be satisfied until righteousness will be established. I will not harbor a grudge of wrath against anyone repenting of sin yet I will neither love anyone who rebels against the Way; I will not comfort those smitten with sin until their walk is perfected. And I will give no refuge in my heart to Belial.
The Teacher’s Righteous Confessions
Neither foolishness nor sinful deceit will be heard from my mouth; neither fraud nor lies will be discovered between my lips.[27] Rather, qadosh fruits will be on my tongue — abominations will not be found there. I will open my mouth in thanksgiving, my tongue will always tell of Elohim’s righteousness. The rebellion accounted to man and made complete by sin will I purge from my lips as futility; I will erase impure and devious designs from my mind. In counsel with wisdom, I will speak of knowledge: both prudence and wisdom; and I will wrap it close about me to preserve my faith and strict judgment — conforming to the righteousness of Elohim.
I will mete out the rules by the proper measure to each time; [dispense] righteousness and loving-kindness to those cast down; and strongly encourage the anxious. [I will teach] those in error bout spiritual understanding, instructing complainers with wisdom — to answer in humility the arrogant of broken spirit, those who oppress, ridicule, speak vainly, and are zealous only for wealth. Elohim is the source of whatever goodness the worshiper may claim, and the truths that he possesses — hidden from others — are given only by Elohim.
As for me, my justification is with Elohim. The perfection of my walk and the virtue of my heart are in His hand. My disobedience is blotted out by His righteousness. My light shot forth from the fountain of His knowledge; my eye gazed on his wonders and the light of my heart on the mystery of what will happen.
The one who holds out is my right hand’s staff, my steps tread on the Mighty Rock: nothing will make them retreat now; for the truth of Elohim is the rock on which I step, and His mighty power is what my right hand holds. From His righteous fount comes my justification, the light of my heart from His wondrous mysteries.
My eye has gazed upon the future and the hidden wisdom: even at all the knowledge and wise prudence that has been concealed from all humanity. The source of righteousness, the gathering of power, and the abode of radiance are hidden from the counsel of flesh.
He has given all these to the Bacharim as an enduring possession. He has made them heirs in the bequest of the Qadoshim, and, along with the Malachim, He has united them in the assembly, a Yahad society.[28] They are an assembly built up to be set-apart, an enduring Planting for all ages to come.
As for me, I belong to evil humanity and the counsel of perverse flesh. My transgressions, evils, sins, and corrupt heart belong to the counsel of wormy rot with those who walk in darkness.
Surely a man's way is not his own; neither can any person firm up his own step. Surely justification is of Elohim; by His power is the way made perfect. All that will be, He foreknows, all that is, His plans establish; apart from Him is nothing accomplished.
As for me, if I stumble, Elohim's loving-kindness will save me every time. If through the sin of the flesh I fall, my justification will be by the righteousness of Elohim that endures for all time. Though my affliction breaks out upon me, He will draw my soul back from the Pit, and bolster my steps on the way. Through His love He has brought me close; by His loving-kindness He will provide my justification. By His righteous truth He has acquitted me; and through His exceeding goodness He will atone for all my sins. He cleans human defilement and disgrace from me by His righteousness to the end that I praise Elohim for His righteousness; yea, the Most High for His Radiance.
Blessed are You, O Eli, who has opened the mind of Your servant to knowledge. Establish all of his {the Teacher’s} works in righteousness; if it please You, raise up the son of Your handmaiden to be among those chosen out of humankind, to stand before You forever.[29]
Surely apart from You the way cannot be completed, nor can anything be finished unless it please You. You teach all knowledge and all that will happen, and by Your will it will al come to pass. Apart from You there is no one else able to dispute Your counsel, or fathom the design of Your devotion, or penetrate the depth of Your mysteries, or apprehend Your wonders and surpassing power.
Who can Your radiance measure? Who, indeed, is man among Your famous works? As how can he, born of a woman, be reckoned in comparison with You? Molded out of dirt, his body is the worm food; he is just so much spit and chewed off clay — craving only more clay.
Will the clay challenge the expertise of the One who designed the vase?
[1] Qadoshim = the class of people set apart from perversity.
[2] Yahad’s Rule = The Yahad is the Community of the Like-minded. It means something like “those in one accord.” The Rule is the collected constitution and by-laws of the Yahad collected down through time beginning with Torah. Many of the Rules are set forth in this document.
[3] Wise et al has “canon.”
[4] Initiant = One preparing for initiation, as distinguished from one who has been initiated -- the latter being an initiate.
[5] Belial = “the swallower,” or “the worthless one.” Belial is the Angel of Corruption or Destruction. In the time of the scrolls, his dominion may have been a personification of the foreigner power over the land of Israel, and certainly was a type of the Jerusalem Temple administration. “The Dominion of Darkness” is mentioned in Colossians, and the Apostle Paul referred previously to Belial (or Beliar) as the devil in 2 Corinthians 6:15.
[6] Deut. 29:18-19. This peace is a self-delusion, according to the Teacher.
[7] Leviticus 13:45.
[8] “Gifts” is used very generally. Wise has “varieties”; either way, Romans 12:6 is essentially the same as this pericope.
[9] Wise, affliction.
[10] Wise has “volunteer” or “volunteers” wherever I have “those who have come forward.”
[11] Zeph. 1:6.
[12] Lev. 22:16. Cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14.
[13] Exod. 23:7.
[14] Isa. 2:22.
[15] Minyan = quorum required for certain religious obligations.
[16] Mevakre, Mebakker, Mebachar = the one chosen as the chief Mevakre of the commune.
[17] Now the candidate has gone from being an initiant to an initiate,
[18] CF. Acts 5:3.
[19] Wise, “buffering affliction.”
[20] Jubilees 16:26.
[21] Qodesh Qodeshim = the shrine commonly known as the “Holy of Holies.”Aaron is the prototypical high priest.
[22] Isaiah 28:16.
[23] Isaiah 40:3.
[24] Bacharim = chosen ones, the elect.
[25] Isaiah 40:3.
[26] Yomim tov = high days, scriptural festivals.
[27] Cf. James 3:1-12.
[28] The Qadoshim, people who are keeping the rules, and Malachim, who are by and large supernatural beings (angels), are together joined in the assembly – thus the title Yahad, which means ‘being one’ or ‘coming together as one.’
[29] The Teacher desires to be of the Bacharim, which he may well be since the Yahad believes in total predestination
[2] Yahad’s Rule = The Yahad is the Community of the Like-minded. It means something like “those in one accord.” The Rule is the collected constitution and by-laws of the Yahad collected down through time beginning with Torah. Many of the Rules are set forth in this document.
[3] Wise et al has “canon.”
[4] Initiant = One preparing for initiation, as distinguished from one who has been initiated -- the latter being an initiate.
[5] Belial = “the swallower,” or “the worthless one.” Belial is the Angel of Corruption or Destruction. In the time of the scrolls, his dominion may have been a personification of the foreigner power over the land of Israel, and certainly was a type of the Jerusalem Temple administration. “The Dominion of Darkness” is mentioned in Colossians, and the Apostle Paul referred previously to Belial (or Beliar) as the devil in 2 Corinthians 6:15.
[6] Deut. 29:18-19. This peace is a self-delusion, according to the Teacher.
[7] Leviticus 13:45.
[8] “Gifts” is used very generally. Wise has “varieties”; either way, Romans 12:6 is essentially the same as this pericope.
[9] Wise, affliction.
[10] Wise has “volunteer” or “volunteers” wherever I have “those who have come forward.”
[11] Zeph. 1:6.
[12] Lev. 22:16. Cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14.
[13] Exod. 23:7.
[14] Isa. 2:22.
[15] Minyan = quorum required for certain religious obligations.
[16] Mevakre, Mebakker, Mebachar = the one chosen as the chief Mevakre of the commune.
[17] Now the candidate has gone from being an initiant to an initiate,
[18] CF. Acts 5:3.
[19] Wise, “buffering affliction.”
[20] Jubilees 16:26.
[21] Qodesh Qodeshim = the shrine commonly known as the “Holy of Holies.”Aaron is the prototypical high priest.
[22] Isaiah 28:16.
[23] Isaiah 40:3.
[24] Bacharim = chosen ones, the elect.
[25] Isaiah 40:3.
[26] Yomim tov = high days, scriptural festivals.
[27] Cf. James 3:1-12.
[28] The Qadoshim, people who are keeping the rules, and Malachim, who are by and large supernatural beings (angels), are together joined in the assembly – thus the title Yahad, which means ‘being one’ or ‘coming together as one.’
[29] The Teacher desires to be of the Bacharim, which he may well be since the Yahad believes in total predestination
The Ancient Sermon
from the Damascus Document
(CD, Geniza A + B, 4Q266 – 272)
The other characters in this sermon are, from the progressive viewpoint, not so difficult to identify. Therefore, the sermon is absolutely loaded with Nazorean / Essene concepts that later carry over into the New Testament, related writings, and the practices of the so-called 'Jesus Movement' of 35 - 70 AD.
Other presentations of this text is accessed here:
Italicized words from Manuscript B. Words within curly brackets {} are added for clarity. Words in < > are lacunae supplied by the authors. Words in bold have been emphasized by the editor. This is a modified version of the texts as found in The Dead Sea Scrolls - A New Translation, by Wise, Abegg & Cook (1996).
You may find it useful to click through the terms as you listen to the message.
Technical Terms / Characters / Places
[ ] The Sword
[ ] The Remnant
[ ] Rebellious Israel, a Company of Traitors
[ ] 390 years / 20 years
[ ] The Root
[ ] The Man / Men of Mockery / Spitter of Lies
[ ] The Boundary-Shifters
[ ] True Religion
[ ] The Fine Neck
[ ] The Annihilation
[ ] The Malachim of Destruction
[ ] The Rule / Rules
[ ] Set-apart Spirit
[ ] The Fallen Sky Malachim
[ ] The Friends of Elohim
[ ] The Commandments of Elohim
[ ] The Covenant of Elohim
[ ] A Faithful House
[ ] Zadok, Sons of Zadok
[ ] The Last Days
[ ] The House of Yahuda v. The House of Zadok
[ ] Belial
[ ] The Three Nets of Belial
[ ] The Shoddy Wall-builders
[ ] The Prince of Lights
[ ] The Anointed of the Spirit
[ ] The Well and the Rod
[ ] Damashek (Damascus)
[ ] The (Beloved) Teacher of Righteousness
[ ] The Man of the Lie
[ ] The Household of Torah
[ ] The Diggers
[ ] The Whitewashers
[ ] The City of Sanctuary
[ ] One’s Set-apart Spirit
[ ] The Two Houses of Israel
[ ] The Star, The Interpreter of the Torah
[ ] Sons of Sheth (Shat)
[ ] The Day of Judgment
[ ] The Snakes, their Eggs & Wine
[ ] The Whitewashers
[ ] The Moshiach
[ ] The Men of Sacred Perfection
[ ] The Household of Torah
[ ] The New Covenant (in the Land of Damashek)
[ ] The Man of the Lie
[ ] The Separatists
[ ] The Members of Yahad
Introduction to the Sermon
Listen, all you who recognize righteousness, and consider the deeds of Elohim. When he has a dispute with any mortal, he passes judgment on those who spurn him. For when Israel abandoned him by being faithless, he turned away from them and from His sanctuary and gave them up to the sword. But when He called to mind the covenant He made with their forefathers, He left a remnant for Israel and did not allow them to be exterminated. In the era of wrath – three hundred and ninety years at the time He handed them over to the power of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon – He took care of them and caused to grow from Israel and from Aaron a root of planting to inherit his land and to grow fat on the good produce of His soil. They considered their iniquity and they knew that they were guilty men, and had been like the blind and like those groping for the way twenty years. But Elohim considered their deeds, that they had sought Him with a whole heart. So He raised up for them a teacher of righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart. He taught to later generations what Elohim did to the generation deserving wrath, a company of traitors. They are the ones who depart from the proper way. That is the time of which it was written, “Like a rebellious cow,” so rebelled Israel.[1]
The Man of Mockery
When the Man of Mockery appeared, who spit lying waters upon Israel, he led them to wander in the trackless wasteland. He brought down the lofty heights of old, turned aside from paths of righteousness, and shifted the boundary marks that the forefathers had set up to mark their inheritance, so that the curses of His covenant took hold on them. Because of this they were handed over to the sword that avenges the breach of His Covenant.
For they had sought flattery, choosing travesties of true religion; they looked for ways to break the rules; they favored the fine neck. They called the guilty innocent and the innocent guilty. They overstepped covenant, violated Torah; and they conspired together to kill the innocent, for all those who lived pure lives they loathed from the bottom of their heart. So they persecuted them violently, and were happy to see the people quarrel. Because of all this Elohim became very angry with their company. He annihilated the lot of them, because all their deeds were uncleanness to Him.
The Immensity of Elohim’s Resources
So now listen to me, all members of the covenant, so I can make plain to you the ways of the despicable so you can leave the paths of sin. Elohim, who loves true knowledge, has positioned Wisdom and Intelligence[2] in front of Him; Ingenuity[3] and True Knowledge wait on him. He is very patient and forgiving, covering the sin of those who repent of wrongdoing. But Strength, Might, and great Wrath in the flames of fire with all the malachim of destruction will come against all who rebel against the proper way and who despise the rules, until they are without remnant of survivor, for Elohim had not chosen them from ancient eternity. Before they were created, He knew what they would do.[4] So He rejected the generations of old and turned away from the land until they were gone.
He knows the times of appearance and the number and exact times of everything that has ever existed and ever will exist before it happens in the proper time, for all eternity. And in all of these times, He has arranged that there should be for Himself people called by name, so that there would always be survivors on the earth, replenishing the surface of the earth with their descendants. He taught them through those anointed by set-apart spirit, the seers of truth. He explicitly called them by name. But whoever He had rejected He caused to stray.
The Fall of the Malachim
So now my children, listen to me that I may uncover your eyes to see and to understand the conduct[5] of Elohim, choosing what pleases Him and hating what He rejects, living perfectly in all His ways, not turning away through thoughts brought on by the sinful urge and lecherous eyes. For many have gone astray by such thoughts, even strong and fearless men of old faltered through them, and still do. When they went about in their willful heart, the Guardian Sky-Malachim fell and were ensnared by it, for they did not observe the commandments of Elohim. Their sons, who were as tall as cedars, and whose bodies were as big as mountains, fell by it. Everything mortal on dry land expired and became as if they had never existed, because they did their own will, and did not keep the commandments of their Maker, until finally His anger was aroused against them.
The Historical Results of Straying
By it the sons of Noah and their families went astray, and by it they were exterminated. {Though}Abraham did not live by it, he was {still} considered Elohim’s friend, because he observed the commandments of Elohim and he did not choose to follow the will of his own spirit; and he passed them on to Isaac and to Jacob and they too observed them. They too were recorded as friends of Elohim and eternal partners in the covenant. But the sons of Jacob went astray by them and were punished for their errors. In Egypt their descendants lived by their willful heart, too obstinate to consult the commandments of Elohim, each one doing what was right in his own eyes. They even ate blood; and the men were exterminated in the wilderness. <Elohim commanded> them at Kadesh, “Go up and possess <the land”; but they chose to follow the will of> their spirit; and they did not listen to their Maker’s voice or the commandments of their teacher; instead they grumbled in their tents. So Elohim became angry with their company.
Their sons perished because of it. Their kings were exterminated because of it. Their heroes perished because of it. Their land was devastated because of it, and because of it the members of the forefathers’ covenant committed sin, and so were handed over to the sword because they abandoned the covenant of Elohim, and chose their own will, and followed their own willful heart, each man doing his own will.
But when those of them who were left held firm to the commandments of Elohim, He instituted His covenant with Israel forever, revealing to them things hidden, in which all Israel had gone wrong: His sacred Sabbaths, His famous festivals, His righteous ordinances, His reliable ways. The desires of His will that man should carry out and so have life in them, He opened up to them. So they “dug a well,” yielding much water. Those who reject this < water He will not allow to live. > And although they had wallowed in the sin of humanity and in impure ways and said, “Surely this is our business,” Elohim in His mysterious ways atoned for their iniquity and forgave their transgression. So He built for them a faithful house in Israel, like none that had ever appeared before; and even at this day, those who hold firm to it will receive timeless life, and all human honor is rightly theirs, as Elohim promised them by Ezekiel the prophet, saying, “The priests and the Levites and the sons of Zadok who have kept the courses of My sanctuary when the children of Israel strayed from Me, they will bring Me fat and blood.”[6]
{As for} “the priests” – they are the captives of Israel, who go out of the land of Judah and the Levites are those accompanying them; {and as for} ” the sons of Zadok” – they are the chosen of Israel, the ones called by name, who are to appear in the Last Days.
The House of Judah Vanquished in the Time to Come
< . . . > holiness < . . . > whom Elohim atoned for, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty as well as all who came after them who act according to the interpretation of the Torah by which the forefathers were taught, until the age is over, that is, the present time. Like the covenant Elohim made with the forefathers to atone for their sin, so will Elohim atone for them. When the total years of this present age are complete, there will be no further need to be connected to the house of Judah, but instead each will his own tower; “the wall is built, the boundary removed” (Mic.7:11). But in the present age Belial is unrestrained in Israel, just as Elohim said by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, saying, “Fear and pit and snare are upon you, resident in the land.”[7]
Those Caught Up in the Three Nets of Belial
The true meaning of this verse concerns the three nets of Belial about which Levi son of Jacob said that Belial would catch Israel in, so he directed {those nets} toward three kinds of righteousness: The first is fornication; the second is wealth; the third is defiling the sanctuary. Who escapes from one is caught in the next; and whoever escapes from that is caught in the other.
{Regarding} the Shoddy-Wall-Builders who went after “Precept” - Precept[8] is a Raver[9] of whom it says, “they will surely rave”[10] – they are caught in two traps: fornication, by taking two wives in their lifetimes although the principle of creation is “male and female He created them”[11] and those who went into the ark “went into the ark two by two.”[12]
Concerning the Leader it is written, “he will not multiply wives to himself”[13]; but David had not read the sealed book of the Torah in the Ark; for it was not opened in Israel from the day of the death of Eleazar and Joshua and the elders who served the goddess Ashtoret. It lay buried <and was not> revealed until the appearance of Zadok. Nevertheless the deeds of David were all excellent, except the murder of Uriah, and Elohim forgave him for that.
They also defile the sanctuary, for they do not separate clean from unclean according to the Torah, and lie with a woman during her menstrual period. Furthermore they marry each man the daughter of his brothers and the daughter of his sister, although Moses said, “Unto the sister of your mother you will not draw near; she is the flesh of your mother.”[14] But the rule of consanguinity is written for males and females alike, so if the brother’s daughter uncovers the nakedness of the brother of her father, she is the flesh <of her father>.
Also they have corrupted their set-apart spirit, and with blasphemous language they have reviled the statutes of Elohim’s covenant, saying, “They are not well-founded.” They continually speak abhorrent things against them. “All of them are kindlers and lighters of brands”[15]; “the webs of a spider are their webs and the eggs of vipers are their eggs.”[16] Whoever touches them will not be clean. The more he does so, the more he is guilty, unless he is forced.
Against the Boundary-Shifters and For the Teacher in the Last Days
For in times past, Elohim punished their deeds and His wrath burned against their misdeeds, for “they are a people without insight”[17]; “they are a people wandering in counsel, for there is no insight in them.”[18] For in times past Moses and Aaron stood in the power of the Prince of Lights and Belial raised up Yannes and his brother in his cunning when seeking to do evil to Israel the first time. In the time of destruction of the land the Boundary-Shifters appeared and led Israel astray and the land was devastated, for they had spoken rebellion against the commandments of Elohim through Moses and also through the anointed of the spirit; and they prophesied falsehood to turn Israel from following Elohim. But Elohim called to mind the covenant of the forefathers; and He raised up from Aaron insightful men and from Israel wise men and He taught them and they dug the well of knowledge: “the well the princes dug, the nobility of the people dug it with
a rod.”[19]
{Regarding these verses,} the Well is the Torah, and its “diggers” are the captives of Israel who went out of the land of Judah and dwelt in the land of Damascus; because Elohim had called them all princes, for they sought Him and their honor was not denied by a single mouth. And the “rod” is the Interpreter of the Torah of whom Isaiah said, “he brings out a tool for his work.”[20] The nobility of the people are those who come to “dig the well” by following rules that the Rod made to live by during the whole era of despicableness, and without these rules they will obtain nothing until the appearance of One who teaches righteousness in the Last Days.
The Plan of Return and Teshuvah Unto Long Life
None who have been brought into the covenant will enter into the sanctuary to light up His altar in vain; they will lock the door, for Elohim said, “Would that one of you would lock My door so that you should not light up My altar in vain.”[21] They must be careful to act according to the specifications of the Torah for the era of despicableness, separating from corrupt people, avoiding filthy despicable lucre taken from what is vowed or consecrated to Elohim or found in the Temple funds. They must not rob “the poor of Elohim’s people, making widows’ wealth their booty and killing orphans.”[22] They must distinguish between defiled and pure, teaching
the difference between sacred and profane. They must keep the Sabbath day according to specification, and the sacred days and the fast day according to the commandments of the members of the new covenant in the land of Damascus, offering the sacred things according to their specifications. Each one must love his brother as himself, and support the poor, needy, and alien. They must seek each the welfare of his fellow, never betraying a family member according to the ordinance. Each must reprove his fellow according to the command, but must not bear a grudge day after day. They must separate from all kinds of ritual impurity according to their ordinance, not befouling each his holy spirit, just as Elohim has told them so to do.
In short, for all who conduct their lives by these ordinances, in perfect holiness, according to all the instructions, Elohim’s covenant stands firm “to give them life for thousands of generations as it is written,”He keeps the covenant and loyalty to those who love Him and keep my commandments for a thousand generations.”[23]
As For Those Who Reject
But those who reject the commandments and the rules <will perish>. When Elohim judged the land, bringing the just deserts of the despicable to them, that is when the oracle of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came true, which says, “Days are coming upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house that have never come before, since the departure of Ephraim from ]udah,”[24] that is, when the two houses of Israel separated, Ephraim departing from Judah. All who backslid were handed over to the sword, but all who held fast escaped to the land of the north, as it says, “I will exile the tents of your king and the foundation of your images beyond the tents of Damascus.”[25]
The books of Torah are the tents of the king, as it says, “I will re-erect the fallen tent of David.”[26] The king is <Leader of> the nation and the “foundation of your images” is the books of the prophets whose words Israel despised. The star is the Interpreter of the Torah who comes to Damascus, as it is written, “A star has left Jacob, a staff has risen from Israel.”[27] The latter is the Leader of the whole nation; when he appears, “he will shatter all the sons of Sheth.” [28] They escaped in the first period of Elohim’s judgment, but those who held back were handed over to the sword.
Alternate Explanation from Manuscript B
When the oracle of the prophet Zechariah comes true, “O sword, be lively and smite my shepherd and the man loyal to Me – so says Elohim. If you strike down the shepherd, the flock will scatter. Then I will turn my power against the little ones.”[29] But those who give heed to Elohim are “the poor of the flock”[30]: “they will escape in the time of punishment,but all the rest will be handed over to the sword when the Messiah of Aaron and of Israel comes, just as it happened during the time of the first punishment, as Ezekiel said, “Make a mark on the foreheads of those who moan and lament,”[31] but the rest were given to the sword that makes retaliation for covenant violations.
Pesherim on Various Prophetic Texts
And such is the verdict on all members of the covenant who do not hold firm to these ordinances: they are condemned to destruction by Belial. That is the day on which Elohim will judge as He has said, “The princes of Judah were those like Boundary-Shifters on whom I will pour out wrath like water.”[32] Truly they were too sick to be healed; every kind of galling wound adhered to them because they did not turn away from traitorous practices; they relished the customs of fornication and filthy lucre. Each of them vengefully bore a grudge against his brother, each hating his fellow; each of them kept away from nearest kin but grew close to indecency; they vaunted themselves in riches and in ill-gotten gains; each of them did just what he pleased; each chose to follow his own willful heart. They did not separate from the people and their sin, but arrogantly threw off all restraint, living by despicable customs, of which Elohim had said, “Their wine is the venom of snakes, the cruel poison of vipers.”[33]
“The snakes” are the kings of the Gentiles, and “their wine” is their customs and “the poison of vipers” is the chief of the kings of Greece, who comes to wreak vengeance on them. But the “Shoddy-Wall-Builders” and “Whitewashers” understood none of these things, for one who deals in mere wind, a spitter of lies, had spit on them, on whose entire company Elohim’s anger had burned hot. But as Moses said to Israel, “It is not for your righteousness or the integrity of your heart that you are going to dispossess these nations, but because He loved your ancestors and because He has kept his promise.[34] Such is the verdict on the captivity of Israel, those who turn away from the usages of the common people. Because Elohim loved the ancients who bore witness to the people following Him, so too He loves those who follow them, for to such truly belongs the covenant of the fathers. But against His enemies, the Shoddy-Wall-Builders, His anger burns.
The Return of the Teacher at the Eschaton
So it is with all the men who entered the new covenant in the land of Damascus, but then turned back and traitorously turned away from the fountain of living water. They will not be reckoned among the council of the people, and their names will not be written in their book from the day the Beloved Teacher dies until the Messiah from Aaron and from Israel appears. Such is the fate for all who join the company of the men of sacred perfection and then become sick of obeying virtuous rules. This is the type of person who “melts in the crucible.”[35] When his actions become evident he will be sent away from the company as if his lot had never fallen among the disciples of Elohim. In keeping with his wrongdoing the most knowledgeable men will punish him until he returns to take his place among the men of sacred perfection. When his actions become evident, according to the interpretation of the Torah that the men of sacred perfection live by, no one is allowed to share either wealth or work with such a one, for all the qadoshim of the Almighty have cursed him.
Such is the fate for all who reject the commandments, whether old or new, who have turned their thoughts to false gods and who have lived by their willful hearts: they have no part in the household of Torah. They will be condemned along with their companions who have gone back to the Men of Mockery, because they have uttered lies against the correct laws and rejected the sure covenant that they made in the land of Damascus, that is, the New Covenant. Neither they nor their families will have any part in the Household of Torah.
When the Judgment?
Now from the day the Beloved Teacher passed away to the destruction of all the warriors who went back to the Man of the Lie will be about forty years. Now at that time Elohim’s anger will burn against Israel, as He said, “Neither king nor prince”[36] nor judge nor one who exhorts to do what is right will be left. But those who repent of the sin of Jacob have kept Elohim’s covenant. Then each will speak to his fellow, vindicating his brother, helping him walk in Elohim’s way, and Elohim will listen to what they say and “write a record-book of those who fear Elohim and honor His name”[37] until salvation and righteousness are revealed for those who fear Elohim. “And you will again know the innocent from the guilty, those who serve Elohim and those who do not.”[38] “He keeps faith to those who love Him “and to those who keep Him for a thousand generations.”[39]
As for those separatists who left the city of the sanctuary and relied on Elohim in the time of Israel’s unfaithfulness, when the nation defiled the Temple, but returned once more to the way of the people in a few matters – each of them will be judged in the set-apart council according to his spirit. But all of the members of the covenant who breached the restrictions of the Torah, when the Shekinah of Elohim appears to Israel they will be excluded from the midst of the camp, and with them all who did evil in Judah when it was undergoing trial.
The Prayer of Teshuvah
But all who hold fast to these rules, going out and coming in according to the Torah, always obeying the Teacher and confessing to Elohim as follows: “We have cruelly sinned, we and our ancestors by living contrary to the covenant rules; just and true are Your judgments against us” and do not act arrogantly against His sacred rules and His righteous ordinances and His reliable declarations and who discipline themselves by the old rules by which the members of the Yahad were governed and listen attentively to the Teacher of Righteousness, not abandoning the correct ordinances when they hear them – they will rejoice and be happy and exultant. They will rule over all the inhabitants of the earth. Then Elohim will make atonement for them and they will experience His deliverance because they have trusted in His sacred name. {Amein}
from the Damascus Document
(CD, Geniza A + B, 4Q266 – 272)
The other characters in this sermon are, from the progressive viewpoint, not so difficult to identify. Therefore, the sermon is absolutely loaded with Nazorean / Essene concepts that later carry over into the New Testament, related writings, and the practices of the so-called 'Jesus Movement' of 35 - 70 AD.
Other presentations of this text is accessed here:
Italicized words from Manuscript B. Words within curly brackets {} are added for clarity. Words in < > are lacunae supplied by the authors. Words in bold have been emphasized by the editor. This is a modified version of the texts as found in The Dead Sea Scrolls - A New Translation, by Wise, Abegg & Cook (1996).
You may find it useful to click through the terms as you listen to the message.
Technical Terms / Characters / Places
[ ] The Sword
[ ] The Remnant
[ ] Rebellious Israel, a Company of Traitors
[ ] 390 years / 20 years
[ ] The Root
[ ] The Man / Men of Mockery / Spitter of Lies
[ ] The Boundary-Shifters
[ ] True Religion
[ ] The Fine Neck
[ ] The Annihilation
[ ] The Malachim of Destruction
[ ] The Rule / Rules
[ ] Set-apart Spirit
[ ] The Fallen Sky Malachim
[ ] The Friends of Elohim
[ ] The Commandments of Elohim
[ ] The Covenant of Elohim
[ ] A Faithful House
[ ] Zadok, Sons of Zadok
[ ] The Last Days
[ ] The House of Yahuda v. The House of Zadok
[ ] Belial
[ ] The Three Nets of Belial
[ ] The Shoddy Wall-builders
[ ] The Prince of Lights
[ ] The Anointed of the Spirit
[ ] The Well and the Rod
[ ] Damashek (Damascus)
[ ] The (Beloved) Teacher of Righteousness
[ ] The Man of the Lie
[ ] The Household of Torah
[ ] The Diggers
[ ] The Whitewashers
[ ] The City of Sanctuary
[ ] One’s Set-apart Spirit
[ ] The Two Houses of Israel
[ ] The Star, The Interpreter of the Torah
[ ] Sons of Sheth (Shat)
[ ] The Day of Judgment
[ ] The Snakes, their Eggs & Wine
[ ] The Whitewashers
[ ] The Moshiach
[ ] The Men of Sacred Perfection
[ ] The Household of Torah
[ ] The New Covenant (in the Land of Damashek)
[ ] The Man of the Lie
[ ] The Separatists
[ ] The Members of Yahad
Introduction to the Sermon
Listen, all you who recognize righteousness, and consider the deeds of Elohim. When he has a dispute with any mortal, he passes judgment on those who spurn him. For when Israel abandoned him by being faithless, he turned away from them and from His sanctuary and gave them up to the sword. But when He called to mind the covenant He made with their forefathers, He left a remnant for Israel and did not allow them to be exterminated. In the era of wrath – three hundred and ninety years at the time He handed them over to the power of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon – He took care of them and caused to grow from Israel and from Aaron a root of planting to inherit his land and to grow fat on the good produce of His soil. They considered their iniquity and they knew that they were guilty men, and had been like the blind and like those groping for the way twenty years. But Elohim considered their deeds, that they had sought Him with a whole heart. So He raised up for them a teacher of righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart. He taught to later generations what Elohim did to the generation deserving wrath, a company of traitors. They are the ones who depart from the proper way. That is the time of which it was written, “Like a rebellious cow,” so rebelled Israel.[1]
The Man of Mockery
When the Man of Mockery appeared, who spit lying waters upon Israel, he led them to wander in the trackless wasteland. He brought down the lofty heights of old, turned aside from paths of righteousness, and shifted the boundary marks that the forefathers had set up to mark their inheritance, so that the curses of His covenant took hold on them. Because of this they were handed over to the sword that avenges the breach of His Covenant.
For they had sought flattery, choosing travesties of true religion; they looked for ways to break the rules; they favored the fine neck. They called the guilty innocent and the innocent guilty. They overstepped covenant, violated Torah; and they conspired together to kill the innocent, for all those who lived pure lives they loathed from the bottom of their heart. So they persecuted them violently, and were happy to see the people quarrel. Because of all this Elohim became very angry with their company. He annihilated the lot of them, because all their deeds were uncleanness to Him.
The Immensity of Elohim’s Resources
So now listen to me, all members of the covenant, so I can make plain to you the ways of the despicable so you can leave the paths of sin. Elohim, who loves true knowledge, has positioned Wisdom and Intelligence[2] in front of Him; Ingenuity[3] and True Knowledge wait on him. He is very patient and forgiving, covering the sin of those who repent of wrongdoing. But Strength, Might, and great Wrath in the flames of fire with all the malachim of destruction will come against all who rebel against the proper way and who despise the rules, until they are without remnant of survivor, for Elohim had not chosen them from ancient eternity. Before they were created, He knew what they would do.[4] So He rejected the generations of old and turned away from the land until they were gone.
He knows the times of appearance and the number and exact times of everything that has ever existed and ever will exist before it happens in the proper time, for all eternity. And in all of these times, He has arranged that there should be for Himself people called by name, so that there would always be survivors on the earth, replenishing the surface of the earth with their descendants. He taught them through those anointed by set-apart spirit, the seers of truth. He explicitly called them by name. But whoever He had rejected He caused to stray.
The Fall of the Malachim
So now my children, listen to me that I may uncover your eyes to see and to understand the conduct[5] of Elohim, choosing what pleases Him and hating what He rejects, living perfectly in all His ways, not turning away through thoughts brought on by the sinful urge and lecherous eyes. For many have gone astray by such thoughts, even strong and fearless men of old faltered through them, and still do. When they went about in their willful heart, the Guardian Sky-Malachim fell and were ensnared by it, for they did not observe the commandments of Elohim. Their sons, who were as tall as cedars, and whose bodies were as big as mountains, fell by it. Everything mortal on dry land expired and became as if they had never existed, because they did their own will, and did not keep the commandments of their Maker, until finally His anger was aroused against them.
The Historical Results of Straying
By it the sons of Noah and their families went astray, and by it they were exterminated. {Though}Abraham did not live by it, he was {still} considered Elohim’s friend, because he observed the commandments of Elohim and he did not choose to follow the will of his own spirit; and he passed them on to Isaac and to Jacob and they too observed them. They too were recorded as friends of Elohim and eternal partners in the covenant. But the sons of Jacob went astray by them and were punished for their errors. In Egypt their descendants lived by their willful heart, too obstinate to consult the commandments of Elohim, each one doing what was right in his own eyes. They even ate blood; and the men were exterminated in the wilderness. <Elohim commanded> them at Kadesh, “Go up and possess <the land”; but they chose to follow the will of> their spirit; and they did not listen to their Maker’s voice or the commandments of their teacher; instead they grumbled in their tents. So Elohim became angry with their company.
Their sons perished because of it. Their kings were exterminated because of it. Their heroes perished because of it. Their land was devastated because of it, and because of it the members of the forefathers’ covenant committed sin, and so were handed over to the sword because they abandoned the covenant of Elohim, and chose their own will, and followed their own willful heart, each man doing his own will.
But when those of them who were left held firm to the commandments of Elohim, He instituted His covenant with Israel forever, revealing to them things hidden, in which all Israel had gone wrong: His sacred Sabbaths, His famous festivals, His righteous ordinances, His reliable ways. The desires of His will that man should carry out and so have life in them, He opened up to them. So they “dug a well,” yielding much water. Those who reject this < water He will not allow to live. > And although they had wallowed in the sin of humanity and in impure ways and said, “Surely this is our business,” Elohim in His mysterious ways atoned for their iniquity and forgave their transgression. So He built for them a faithful house in Israel, like none that had ever appeared before; and even at this day, those who hold firm to it will receive timeless life, and all human honor is rightly theirs, as Elohim promised them by Ezekiel the prophet, saying, “The priests and the Levites and the sons of Zadok who have kept the courses of My sanctuary when the children of Israel strayed from Me, they will bring Me fat and blood.”[6]
{As for} “the priests” – they are the captives of Israel, who go out of the land of Judah and the Levites are those accompanying them; {and as for} ” the sons of Zadok” – they are the chosen of Israel, the ones called by name, who are to appear in the Last Days.
The House of Judah Vanquished in the Time to Come
< . . . > holiness < . . . > whom Elohim atoned for, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty as well as all who came after them who act according to the interpretation of the Torah by which the forefathers were taught, until the age is over, that is, the present time. Like the covenant Elohim made with the forefathers to atone for their sin, so will Elohim atone for them. When the total years of this present age are complete, there will be no further need to be connected to the house of Judah, but instead each will his own tower; “the wall is built, the boundary removed” (Mic.7:11). But in the present age Belial is unrestrained in Israel, just as Elohim said by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, saying, “Fear and pit and snare are upon you, resident in the land.”[7]
Those Caught Up in the Three Nets of Belial
The true meaning of this verse concerns the three nets of Belial about which Levi son of Jacob said that Belial would catch Israel in, so he directed {those nets} toward three kinds of righteousness: The first is fornication; the second is wealth; the third is defiling the sanctuary. Who escapes from one is caught in the next; and whoever escapes from that is caught in the other.
{Regarding} the Shoddy-Wall-Builders who went after “Precept” - Precept[8] is a Raver[9] of whom it says, “they will surely rave”[10] – they are caught in two traps: fornication, by taking two wives in their lifetimes although the principle of creation is “male and female He created them”[11] and those who went into the ark “went into the ark two by two.”[12]
Concerning the Leader it is written, “he will not multiply wives to himself”[13]; but David had not read the sealed book of the Torah in the Ark; for it was not opened in Israel from the day of the death of Eleazar and Joshua and the elders who served the goddess Ashtoret. It lay buried <and was not> revealed until the appearance of Zadok. Nevertheless the deeds of David were all excellent, except the murder of Uriah, and Elohim forgave him for that.
They also defile the sanctuary, for they do not separate clean from unclean according to the Torah, and lie with a woman during her menstrual period. Furthermore they marry each man the daughter of his brothers and the daughter of his sister, although Moses said, “Unto the sister of your mother you will not draw near; she is the flesh of your mother.”[14] But the rule of consanguinity is written for males and females alike, so if the brother’s daughter uncovers the nakedness of the brother of her father, she is the flesh <of her father>.
Also they have corrupted their set-apart spirit, and with blasphemous language they have reviled the statutes of Elohim’s covenant, saying, “They are not well-founded.” They continually speak abhorrent things against them. “All of them are kindlers and lighters of brands”[15]; “the webs of a spider are their webs and the eggs of vipers are their eggs.”[16] Whoever touches them will not be clean. The more he does so, the more he is guilty, unless he is forced.
Against the Boundary-Shifters and For the Teacher in the Last Days
For in times past, Elohim punished their deeds and His wrath burned against their misdeeds, for “they are a people without insight”[17]; “they are a people wandering in counsel, for there is no insight in them.”[18] For in times past Moses and Aaron stood in the power of the Prince of Lights and Belial raised up Yannes and his brother in his cunning when seeking to do evil to Israel the first time. In the time of destruction of the land the Boundary-Shifters appeared and led Israel astray and the land was devastated, for they had spoken rebellion against the commandments of Elohim through Moses and also through the anointed of the spirit; and they prophesied falsehood to turn Israel from following Elohim. But Elohim called to mind the covenant of the forefathers; and He raised up from Aaron insightful men and from Israel wise men and He taught them and they dug the well of knowledge: “the well the princes dug, the nobility of the people dug it with
a rod.”[19]
{Regarding these verses,} the Well is the Torah, and its “diggers” are the captives of Israel who went out of the land of Judah and dwelt in the land of Damascus; because Elohim had called them all princes, for they sought Him and their honor was not denied by a single mouth. And the “rod” is the Interpreter of the Torah of whom Isaiah said, “he brings out a tool for his work.”[20] The nobility of the people are those who come to “dig the well” by following rules that the Rod made to live by during the whole era of despicableness, and without these rules they will obtain nothing until the appearance of One who teaches righteousness in the Last Days.
The Plan of Return and Teshuvah Unto Long Life
None who have been brought into the covenant will enter into the sanctuary to light up His altar in vain; they will lock the door, for Elohim said, “Would that one of you would lock My door so that you should not light up My altar in vain.”[21] They must be careful to act according to the specifications of the Torah for the era of despicableness, separating from corrupt people, avoiding filthy despicable lucre taken from what is vowed or consecrated to Elohim or found in the Temple funds. They must not rob “the poor of Elohim’s people, making widows’ wealth their booty and killing orphans.”[22] They must distinguish between defiled and pure, teaching
the difference between sacred and profane. They must keep the Sabbath day according to specification, and the sacred days and the fast day according to the commandments of the members of the new covenant in the land of Damascus, offering the sacred things according to their specifications. Each one must love his brother as himself, and support the poor, needy, and alien. They must seek each the welfare of his fellow, never betraying a family member according to the ordinance. Each must reprove his fellow according to the command, but must not bear a grudge day after day. They must separate from all kinds of ritual impurity according to their ordinance, not befouling each his holy spirit, just as Elohim has told them so to do.
In short, for all who conduct their lives by these ordinances, in perfect holiness, according to all the instructions, Elohim’s covenant stands firm “to give them life for thousands of generations as it is written,”He keeps the covenant and loyalty to those who love Him and keep my commandments for a thousand generations.”[23]
As For Those Who Reject
But those who reject the commandments and the rules <will perish>. When Elohim judged the land, bringing the just deserts of the despicable to them, that is when the oracle of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came true, which says, “Days are coming upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house that have never come before, since the departure of Ephraim from ]udah,”[24] that is, when the two houses of Israel separated, Ephraim departing from Judah. All who backslid were handed over to the sword, but all who held fast escaped to the land of the north, as it says, “I will exile the tents of your king and the foundation of your images beyond the tents of Damascus.”[25]
The books of Torah are the tents of the king, as it says, “I will re-erect the fallen tent of David.”[26] The king is <Leader of> the nation and the “foundation of your images” is the books of the prophets whose words Israel despised. The star is the Interpreter of the Torah who comes to Damascus, as it is written, “A star has left Jacob, a staff has risen from Israel.”[27] The latter is the Leader of the whole nation; when he appears, “he will shatter all the sons of Sheth.” [28] They escaped in the first period of Elohim’s judgment, but those who held back were handed over to the sword.
Alternate Explanation from Manuscript B
When the oracle of the prophet Zechariah comes true, “O sword, be lively and smite my shepherd and the man loyal to Me – so says Elohim. If you strike down the shepherd, the flock will scatter. Then I will turn my power against the little ones.”[29] But those who give heed to Elohim are “the poor of the flock”[30]: “they will escape in the time of punishment,but all the rest will be handed over to the sword when the Messiah of Aaron and of Israel comes, just as it happened during the time of the first punishment, as Ezekiel said, “Make a mark on the foreheads of those who moan and lament,”[31] but the rest were given to the sword that makes retaliation for covenant violations.
Pesherim on Various Prophetic Texts
And such is the verdict on all members of the covenant who do not hold firm to these ordinances: they are condemned to destruction by Belial. That is the day on which Elohim will judge as He has said, “The princes of Judah were those like Boundary-Shifters on whom I will pour out wrath like water.”[32] Truly they were too sick to be healed; every kind of galling wound adhered to them because they did not turn away from traitorous practices; they relished the customs of fornication and filthy lucre. Each of them vengefully bore a grudge against his brother, each hating his fellow; each of them kept away from nearest kin but grew close to indecency; they vaunted themselves in riches and in ill-gotten gains; each of them did just what he pleased; each chose to follow his own willful heart. They did not separate from the people and their sin, but arrogantly threw off all restraint, living by despicable customs, of which Elohim had said, “Their wine is the venom of snakes, the cruel poison of vipers.”[33]
“The snakes” are the kings of the Gentiles, and “their wine” is their customs and “the poison of vipers” is the chief of the kings of Greece, who comes to wreak vengeance on them. But the “Shoddy-Wall-Builders” and “Whitewashers” understood none of these things, for one who deals in mere wind, a spitter of lies, had spit on them, on whose entire company Elohim’s anger had burned hot. But as Moses said to Israel, “It is not for your righteousness or the integrity of your heart that you are going to dispossess these nations, but because He loved your ancestors and because He has kept his promise.[34] Such is the verdict on the captivity of Israel, those who turn away from the usages of the common people. Because Elohim loved the ancients who bore witness to the people following Him, so too He loves those who follow them, for to such truly belongs the covenant of the fathers. But against His enemies, the Shoddy-Wall-Builders, His anger burns.
The Return of the Teacher at the Eschaton
So it is with all the men who entered the new covenant in the land of Damascus, but then turned back and traitorously turned away from the fountain of living water. They will not be reckoned among the council of the people, and their names will not be written in their book from the day the Beloved Teacher dies until the Messiah from Aaron and from Israel appears. Such is the fate for all who join the company of the men of sacred perfection and then become sick of obeying virtuous rules. This is the type of person who “melts in the crucible.”[35] When his actions become evident he will be sent away from the company as if his lot had never fallen among the disciples of Elohim. In keeping with his wrongdoing the most knowledgeable men will punish him until he returns to take his place among the men of sacred perfection. When his actions become evident, according to the interpretation of the Torah that the men of sacred perfection live by, no one is allowed to share either wealth or work with such a one, for all the qadoshim of the Almighty have cursed him.
Such is the fate for all who reject the commandments, whether old or new, who have turned their thoughts to false gods and who have lived by their willful hearts: they have no part in the household of Torah. They will be condemned along with their companions who have gone back to the Men of Mockery, because they have uttered lies against the correct laws and rejected the sure covenant that they made in the land of Damascus, that is, the New Covenant. Neither they nor their families will have any part in the Household of Torah.
When the Judgment?
Now from the day the Beloved Teacher passed away to the destruction of all the warriors who went back to the Man of the Lie will be about forty years. Now at that time Elohim’s anger will burn against Israel, as He said, “Neither king nor prince”[36] nor judge nor one who exhorts to do what is right will be left. But those who repent of the sin of Jacob have kept Elohim’s covenant. Then each will speak to his fellow, vindicating his brother, helping him walk in Elohim’s way, and Elohim will listen to what they say and “write a record-book of those who fear Elohim and honor His name”[37] until salvation and righteousness are revealed for those who fear Elohim. “And you will again know the innocent from the guilty, those who serve Elohim and those who do not.”[38] “He keeps faith to those who love Him “and to those who keep Him for a thousand generations.”[39]
As for those separatists who left the city of the sanctuary and relied on Elohim in the time of Israel’s unfaithfulness, when the nation defiled the Temple, but returned once more to the way of the people in a few matters – each of them will be judged in the set-apart council according to his spirit. But all of the members of the covenant who breached the restrictions of the Torah, when the Shekinah of Elohim appears to Israel they will be excluded from the midst of the camp, and with them all who did evil in Judah when it was undergoing trial.
The Prayer of Teshuvah
But all who hold fast to these rules, going out and coming in according to the Torah, always obeying the Teacher and confessing to Elohim as follows: “We have cruelly sinned, we and our ancestors by living contrary to the covenant rules; just and true are Your judgments against us” and do not act arrogantly against His sacred rules and His righteous ordinances and His reliable declarations and who discipline themselves by the old rules by which the members of the Yahad were governed and listen attentively to the Teacher of Righteousness, not abandoning the correct ordinances when they hear them – they will rejoice and be happy and exultant. They will rule over all the inhabitants of the earth. Then Elohim will make atonement for them and they will experience His deliverance because they have trusted in His sacred name. {Amein}
The Ancient Nazarene Commentaries
on Isaiah as Interpreted by Jerome
Jerome (347 – 440 AD) was an ecclesiastical historian best known for his many translations of scripture into Latin, including his best-known work, the Vulgate. He may well have been in contact with the ancient sect of the Nazarenes, which he speaks of in favorable terms, and we suppose the following commentaries proceeded from common discourse with them. If so, these commentaries may well be one of the most important and most neglected sources of Nazarene lore in our possession. For commentary on these notices and the Latin text, see Ray Pritz, Nazarene Jewish Christianity, 2010. I have edited slightly for clarity. [jhs]
on Isaiah as Interpreted by Jerome
Jerome (347 – 440 AD) was an ecclesiastical historian best known for his many translations of scripture into Latin, including his best-known work, the Vulgate. He may well have been in contact with the ancient sect of the Nazarenes, which he speaks of in favorable terms, and we suppose the following commentaries proceeded from common discourse with them. If so, these commentaries may well be one of the most important and most neglected sources of Nazarene lore in our possession. For commentary on these notices and the Latin text, see Ray Pritz, Nazarene Jewish Christianity, 2010. I have edited slightly for clarity. [jhs]
On Isaiah 8:14. And [YHWH Tviot] will be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a trap to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The Nazarenes, who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old law, explain the two houses as the two families, viz. of Shammai and Hillel, from whom originated the Scribes and the Pharisees. (Akiba, who took over their school, is called the master of Aquila the proselyte, and after him came Meir who … succeeded … Joannes the son of Zakkai and after him Eliezer and further Telphon, and next Joseph Galilaeus and Joshua up to the capture of Jerusalem.) Shammai then and Hillel were born not long before the Master; they originated in Judea. The name of the first means scatterer and of the second unholy, because he scattered and denied the precepts of the Torah by his traditions and deuterōseis[1]. And these are the two houses who did not accept the Savior who has become to them destruction and shame.
On Isaiah 8:20. For Torah and for testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21. And they will pass through it, greatly distressed and hungry; and it will come to pass, that when they will be hungry, they will be enraged, and curse their king and their gods, and look upward.
For the rest the Nazarenes explain the passage in this way: when the Scribes and Pharisees tell you to listen to them, men who do everything for the love of the belly and who hiss during their incantations in the way of magicians in order to deceive you, you must answer them like this: "It is not strange if you follow your traditions since every tribe consults its own idols. We must not, therefore, consult your dead about the living ones. On the contrary. Elohim has given us the Torah and the testimonies of the scriptures. If you are not willing to follow them you will not have light, and the darkness will always oppress you. It will cover your earth and your doctrine so that, when you see that they have been deceived by you in error and they feel a longing for the truth, they will then be sad or angry. And let them who believe themselves to be like their own gods and kings curse you. And let them look at the sky and the earth in vain since they are always in darkness and they cannot flee away from your ambushes."
On Isaiah 9:1. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; they who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined. 2. You have multiplied the nation, and increased the joy; they rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the plunder. 3. For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the days of Midian. 4. For every shoe of the stormy warrior, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel of fire.
The Nazarenes, whose opinion I have set forth above, try to explain this passage in the following way: When Messiah came and his preaching shone out, the land of Zebulon and Naphtali first of all were freed from the errors of the Scribes and Pharisees and he shook off their shoulders the very heavy yoke of the Jewish traditions. Later, however, the preaching became more dominant, that means the preaching was multiplied, through the Good News of the apostle Paul who was the last of all the apostles. And the Good News of Messiah shone to the most distant tribes and the way of the whole sea. Finally the whole world, which earlier walked or sat in darkness and was imprisoned in the bonds of idolatry and death, has seen the clear light of the Good News.
On Isaiah 29:20. For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off; 21. Who, by a word, make a man an offender, and lay a trap for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for nothing.
What we have understood to have been written about the devil and his angels, the Nazarenes believe to have been said against the Scribes and the Pharisees, because the deuterōseis passed away, who earlier deceived the people with very vicious traditions (and they watch day and night to deceive the simple ones), who made men sin against the Word of Elohim in order that they should deny that Messiah was the Son of Elohim.
On Isaiah 31:6. Behold, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; which will pierce the hand of a man who leans in it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7. But if you say to me, We trust in YHWH our Elohim; is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar? 8. Now therefore make a wager, I beg you, with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. 9. How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
The Nazarenes understand this passage in this way: Sons of Israel, who deny the Son of Elohim with a most vicious opinion, turn to him and his apostles. For if you will do this, you will reject all idols that to you were a cause of sin in the past, and the devil will fall before you, not because of your powers, but because of the compassion of Elohim. And his young men, who at a certain time earlier fought for him, will be the tributaries of the assembly and any of [his] power and stone will pass. Also the philosophers and every perverse dogma will turn their backs to the sign of the cross. Because this is the meaning of YHWH that his will take place, whose fire or light is in Zion and his oven in Jerusalem.
The Nazarenes, who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old law, explain the two houses as the two families, viz. of Shammai and Hillel, from whom originated the Scribes and the Pharisees. (Akiba, who took over their school, is called the master of Aquila the proselyte, and after him came Meir who … succeeded … Joannes the son of Zakkai and after him Eliezer and further Telphon, and next Joseph Galilaeus and Joshua up to the capture of Jerusalem.) Shammai then and Hillel were born not long before the Master; they originated in Judea. The name of the first means scatterer and of the second unholy, because he scattered and denied the precepts of the Torah by his traditions and deuterōseis[1]. And these are the two houses who did not accept the Savior who has become to them destruction and shame.
On Isaiah 8:20. For Torah and for testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21. And they will pass through it, greatly distressed and hungry; and it will come to pass, that when they will be hungry, they will be enraged, and curse their king and their gods, and look upward.
For the rest the Nazarenes explain the passage in this way: when the Scribes and Pharisees tell you to listen to them, men who do everything for the love of the belly and who hiss during their incantations in the way of magicians in order to deceive you, you must answer them like this: "It is not strange if you follow your traditions since every tribe consults its own idols. We must not, therefore, consult your dead about the living ones. On the contrary. Elohim has given us the Torah and the testimonies of the scriptures. If you are not willing to follow them you will not have light, and the darkness will always oppress you. It will cover your earth and your doctrine so that, when you see that they have been deceived by you in error and they feel a longing for the truth, they will then be sad or angry. And let them who believe themselves to be like their own gods and kings curse you. And let them look at the sky and the earth in vain since they are always in darkness and they cannot flee away from your ambushes."
On Isaiah 9:1. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; they who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined. 2. You have multiplied the nation, and increased the joy; they rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the plunder. 3. For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the days of Midian. 4. For every shoe of the stormy warrior, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel of fire.
The Nazarenes, whose opinion I have set forth above, try to explain this passage in the following way: When Messiah came and his preaching shone out, the land of Zebulon and Naphtali first of all were freed from the errors of the Scribes and Pharisees and he shook off their shoulders the very heavy yoke of the Jewish traditions. Later, however, the preaching became more dominant, that means the preaching was multiplied, through the Good News of the apostle Paul who was the last of all the apostles. And the Good News of Messiah shone to the most distant tribes and the way of the whole sea. Finally the whole world, which earlier walked or sat in darkness and was imprisoned in the bonds of idolatry and death, has seen the clear light of the Good News.
On Isaiah 29:20. For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off; 21. Who, by a word, make a man an offender, and lay a trap for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for nothing.
What we have understood to have been written about the devil and his angels, the Nazarenes believe to have been said against the Scribes and the Pharisees, because the deuterōseis passed away, who earlier deceived the people with very vicious traditions (and they watch day and night to deceive the simple ones), who made men sin against the Word of Elohim in order that they should deny that Messiah was the Son of Elohim.
On Isaiah 31:6. Behold, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; which will pierce the hand of a man who leans in it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7. But if you say to me, We trust in YHWH our Elohim; is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar? 8. Now therefore make a wager, I beg you, with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. 9. How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
The Nazarenes understand this passage in this way: Sons of Israel, who deny the Son of Elohim with a most vicious opinion, turn to him and his apostles. For if you will do this, you will reject all idols that to you were a cause of sin in the past, and the devil will fall before you, not because of your powers, but because of the compassion of Elohim. And his young men, who at a certain time earlier fought for him, will be the tributaries of the assembly and any of [his] power and stone will pass. Also the philosophers and every perverse dogma will turn their backs to the sign of the cross. Because this is the meaning of YHWH that his will take place, whose fire or light is in Zion and his oven in Jerusalem.
Torah, Faith and Grace
By James Scott Trimm
Another misunderstanding common in the church today is the concept that Torah and Grace are mutually exclucive ideas. For exmple one author writes:
"A believer can not be under law and under grace at the same time."
(God's Plan of the Ages; Louis T. Tallbot; 1970; p. 83)
Now let us be noble Bereans to see if this is true. Let us ask ourselves: "How were people saved in 'Old Testament' times? Were they saved by works or by grace?
The fact is that often when Paul speaks of how we are saved by grace through faith he often cites the Tanak to prove his point. Two of his favorite proof texts for this concept are from the Tanak:
"And he believed in YHWH; and he counted it to him as righteousness."
(Genesis 15:6 = Romans 4:3, 22; Galatians 3:6)
"...the just shall live by his faith."
(Habakkuk 2:4 = Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11)
So Paul is arguing from the Tanak that one is saved by faith alone appart from works. In fact the real truth is that men of the "Old Testament" times were just as under grace as we are today:
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of YHWH."
(Genesis 6:8)
"...you have also found grace in my sight...."
(Exodus 33:12)
"...for you have found grace in my sight..."
(Exodus 33:17)
"...and now I have found grace in your sight..."
(Judges 6:17)
"The people... found grace in the wilderness..."
(Jereremiah 31:2)
Thus as noble Bereans we learn from the Tanak that people in "Old Testament" times were saved by grace through faith. They could not have earned their salvation any more than we could today, as Paul writes:
"Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by the faith of Yeshua the Messiah, even we have believed in Yeshua the Messiah, that we might be justified by the faith of Messiah, and not by works of the law; and by the works of the law shall no flesh be saved."
(Galatians 2:16)
In fact the "New Testament" contains more commandments than the "Old Testament". The New Testament contains 1050 commandments [as delineated in Dake's Annotated Reference Bible; By Finnis Jennings Dake; N.T. pp.313-316] while the "Old Testament" Mosaic Law contains only 613 (b.Makkot 23b; see Appendix). Thus faith and grace are in the "Old Testament" and law and works can be found in the New Testament. People in Old Testament times were saved by grace through faith just like people in New Testament times. Now many anomians will agree to this fact on the surface, but lets follow this thought through to its fullest conclusion. Lets go beyond the surface and really think this through. If what we have shown to be true is true, then the people in the wilderness in the days of Moses were saved by grace through faith. Now lets look at the full impact of that statement. That means that people were under grace, and saved by faith alone and not by works, when Moses was stoning people to death for violating the Torah! Obviously then being saved by grace through faith in no way affects Torah observance.
So if grace and faith do not negate the observance of Torah, then what is the true nature of faith and grace? What is faith? What is grace? Let us once again turn to the scriptures for answers.
Now part of the reason that many people have come to think that there is more "grace" in the New Testament than in the Old Testament is a translation bias in the KJV and many other English versions.
There are two words for "grace" in the Hebrew Tanak. The first word is CHEN (Strong's 2580/2581) which means "grace or charm". The other word is CHESED (Strong's 2616/2617 ) which carries the meaning of "grace, mercy or undue favor."
These two words closely parallel the meanings of the two Greek words used for grace in the Greek Bible. These are CHARIS (Strong's 5485/5463) which means "grace or charm" and ELEOS (Strong's 1651/1653) meaning "grace, mercy or undue favor."
Obviously Hebrew CHEN = Greek CHARIS and Hebrew CHESED = Greek ELEOS. Now the KJV tends to translate CHEN/CHARIS as "grace" but tends to translate CHESED/ELEOS as "mercy". Now when we think of "grace" in biblical terms we are ussually thinking of the concept of CHESED/ELEOS "undue favor".
Now if we follow with the KJV translation scheme then it appears that there is much more grace in the New Testament than the Tanak, since CHEN only appears 70 times in the Tanak while CHARIS appears 233 times in the New Testament. But remember, the concept of "undue favor" is actually CHESED/ELEOS. CHESED appears 251 times in the Tanak, while ELEOS appears only 50 times in the New Testament. If anything there is far more "grace" in the Tanak than in the New Testament.
Now let us turn to the Tanak to get a better understanding of what grace really is. According to the Scriptures there is a close connection between "grace" and the "fear of YHWH":
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his grace (CHESED) toward those who fear him."
(Psalm 103:11)
"Oh let those who fear YHWH say, 'His grace (CHESED) is everlasting.' "
(Psalm 118:4)
"By grace (CHESED) and truth iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of YHWH one keeps away from evil."
(Proverbs 16:6)
And the fear of YHWH, according to the Tanak, includes Torah observance:
"...that he may learn the fear of YHWH his God, to keep all the words of this Torah and these statutes, to do them:"
(Deuteronomy 17:19)
"...that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear YHWH your God, and observe to do all the words of this Torah."
(Deuteronomy 31:12)
Therefore there is clearly no conflict between grace and Torah. In fact the Torah is closely connected to grace.
The next word we need to examine is "faith". The Hebrew word is EMUNAH. EMUNAH can mean "belief, faith or trust" and is best translated "trusting faithfulness". When we speak of "faith" in YHWH we are not merely speaking about "belief" but "trusting faithfulness". If someone were to ask you if you are faithful to your spouse, you would not reply by saying "Yes, I believe my spouse exists." That is because it is clearly not an issue of what you believe but in whether you are faithful. Imagine a man who stays out late at night every night committing adultery with various women. Each night he comes home to his wife and tells her how much he loves her, and insists that since he believes in her existence that he therefore is faithful to her. Is this man faithful to his wife? Absolutely not! This understanding is confirmed to us in the Scriptures as follows:
"Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me your Torah. I have chosen the way of faith; I have placed your ordinances before me."
(Psalm 119:29-30)
Now I want to make it clear that we are not saying that one earns ones salvation by keeping Torah. At times I have been asked "Do I have to keep Torah to be saved?". I reply by saying "Of course not.... do you have to get cleaned up to take a bath?"
You may ask, "Well if we don't keep the Torah for salvation, then why do we keep the Torah?" First of all, keeping the Torah SHOWS our faith (Titus 3:5-8; 1Jn. 2:3-7; James 2:14-26). Secondly there are rewards for keeping the Torah (Titus 3:8). The Psalms tell us that it "restores the soul" (Ps. 19:7). Yeshua promises that those who keep the Torah and teach others to do so will be called first in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 5:19). Additionally, Jews who keep the Mosaic Torah are given a long list of other promises (Deuteronomy 28).
Now if the Torah is good and everlasting then it stands to reason that it should be observed. Paul tells us that we should not use grace as an excuse to sin (Rom. 6:1-2, 15) and that the only way to know sin is through the Torah (Rom. 7:7). Yeshua tells us that if we love him we will keep his commandments (Jn. 14:15, 21, 23-25; 15:10). The fact that we are saved by faith is all the more reason that we should keep the Torah, as the Scriptures tell us:
"...not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Yeshua the Messiah our Savior, that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men."
(Titus 3:5-8)
"And by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, 'I know him,' and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in him ought himself to walk just as he walked. Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning."
(1 John 2:3-7)
The Two Covenants of the Torah
By James Scott Trimm
Many of us have missed an important truth. The New Covenant has been in the Torah all along! And this amazing truth is a major key in understanding the writings of Paul. There are in fact two covenants in the Torah and two Mosaic Covenants.
The first Mosaic Covenant was made at Mt. Sinai at Horev.
The Second Mosaic Covenant was made at Mt. Nebo at Mo'av. This was a second covenant which YHWH made with the people of Israel through Moses which was made shortly before the death of Moses and the entry of Israel into the Land. This covenant was made near the end of the Torah:
"These are the words of the covenant which YHWH commanded Moshe to make with the children of Yisra'el in the land of Mo'av, beside the covenant which He made with them in Horev."
(Deuteronomy 28:69 / 29:1)
Note that this Covenant at Mo'av was made besides the Covenant made at Sinai.
Rashi makes an important comment about the significance of this word "besides":
"Besides the covenant [Namely,] the curses [which appear] in Lev. (26: 14-39), which were proclaimed at [Mount] Sinai."
(Rashi on Deuteronomy 28:69)
Rashi sees that these are two different covenants and that the word besides is intended to distinguish the Covenant at Sinai, characterized by "the curses" with this new Covenant made at Mo'av which is characterized not just by curses (Deuteronomy 29:16-29) but by blessings as well.
This covenant was centered around repentance (30:2, 8) and its rewards included a promise of a regathering of Israel from among the nations (30:3-4) a circumcised heart (30:2, 6) Israel would be his people and He would be their Elohim (29:13); a promise of land (30:5) and life (30:6, 15, 19).
This Covenant also includes Torah observance:
"If you shall hearken to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Torah; if you turn unto YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul."
(Deuteronomy 30:10)
Jeremiah and the New Covenant
In Jeremiah 11, the prophet Jeremiah was sent by YHWH to the people of Israel saying:
"Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Y'hudah, and to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim: and say you unto them: Thus says YHWH, the Elohim of Yisra'el: Cursed be the man that hears not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt…"
(Jeremiah 11:2-4a)
Here Jeremiah is quoting from the Torah (Deut. 27:26) and to the curse that was upon those who would fails to give heed to the covenant given at Sinai. He is warning the people of Judah that this curse is about to come upon them.
Ultimately Jeremiah prophesied to Israel that this curse would come upon them in the form of the seventy year Babylonian captivity:
" 'Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says YHWH, 'and I will send unto N'vukhadretzar the king of Bavel, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. …And this whole land shall be a desolation, and a waste; and these nations shall serve the king of Bavel seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Bavel, and that nation,' says YHWH, "for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it perpetual desolations.' "
(Jeremiah 25:9, 11-12)
"Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. So the cohanim and the prophets and all the people heard Yirmeyah speaking these words in the House of YHWH."
(Jeremiah 26:6-7)
But Jeremiah also prophesied to the people that at the end of this seventy year curse, he would bring them back into the land:
"For thus says YHWH: 'After seventy years are accomplished for Bavel, I will remember you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place."
(Jeremiah 29:10)
In connection with this return Jeremiah speaks of a New Covenant:
" 'Behold, the days come,' says YHWH, 'that I will make a renewed covenant with the House of Yisra'el, and with the House of Y'hudah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a husband over them,' says YHWH. 'But this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Yisra'el after those days,' says YHWH, 'I will put My Torah in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: "Know YHWH"; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,' says YHWH; 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more."
(Jeremiah 31:31)
(Throughout this article I will refer to this covenant as the "New Covenant" as it is commonly called, however the Hebrew is better understood as I have translated it above, as "renewed covenant".)
But one important thing that many of us have missed is that this "New Covenant" is the Covenant made at Mo'av. As we have already seen, there are two Mosaic Covenants in the Torah. The first Covenant was made at Sinai but there is also a second "new" covenant in the Torah which was mad at Mo'av. When we compare these two covenants it is clear that the Covenant at Mo'av is the New Covenant.
Covenant at Mo'av Compared to the New Covenant
"These are the words of the covenant which YHWH commanded Moshe to make with the children of Yisra'el in the land of Mo'av, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horev."
(Deuteronomy 28:69 / 29:1)
" 'Behold, the days come,' says YHWH, 'that I will make a renewed covenant with the House of Yisrael, and the House of Y'hudah; not according to the covenant that I made with their father in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a husband over them,' says YHWH."
(Jeremiah 31:31-32)
"And shall return unto YHWH your Elohim, and hearken to His voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;…And YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live."
(Deuteronomy 30:2, 6)
"But this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Yisra'el after those days, says YHWH, I will put My Torah in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it;… "
(Jeremiah 31:22a)
"…and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me."
(Jeremiah 32:40b)
"...that He may establish you this day unto Himself for a people, and that He may be unto you a Elohim, as He spoke unto you, and as He swore unto your fathers, to Avraham, to Yitz'chak and to Ya'akov."
(Deuteronomy 29:12 / 29:13)
"…and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people;"
(Jeremiah 31:33b)
"...and they shall be My people, and will be their Elohim;"
(Jeremiah 32:38)
"...that then YHWH your Elohim will turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where YHWH your Elohim has scattered you. If any of you that are dispersed be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there will YHWH your Elohim gather you, and from there will He fetch you."
(Deuteronomy 30:3-4)
"Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in My anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath;…"
(Jeremiah 32:37a)
"And YHWH your Elohim will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers."
(Deuteronomy 30:5)
"...and I will bring them back unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely;..."
(Jeremiah 32:37b)
Now if the Covenant at Mo'av is the New Covenant, then the Covenant at Sinai is an "Old Covenant". Both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant are in the Torah. But this "New Covenant" is Torah based, as the Covenant itself states "…you shall hearken to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Torah…" (Deut. 30:10). This New Covenant is an "everlasting covenant" (Jeremiah 32:40) which gives us "life" (Deuteronomy 30:6, 15, 19). An everlasting covenant which gives life, must by implication, give "everlasting life".
Daniel and the New Covenant
At the end of this seventy year curse we reach the time of Daniel chapter nine. Here Daniel has been studying these prophecies of Jeremiah and he knew the seventy years were over:
"In the first year of his reign I Daniel meditated in the books, over the number of the years, whereof the word of YHWH came to Yirmeyah the prophet, that He would accomplish for the desolations of Yerushalayim seventy years."
(Daniel 9:2)
Daniel knew that the curses mentioned in the Torah had come upon Israel:
"As it is written in the Torah of Moshe, all this evil is come upon us; yet have we not entreated the favour of YHWH our Elohim, that we might turn from our iniquities, and have discernment in Your truth."
(Daniel 9:13) (see Leviticus 26:14; Deuteronomy 28:15)
Daniel also knew that the Torah tells us that if after these curses come upon us, we still do not repent, Elohim would punish us seven times more:
"And if you will not yet for these things hearken unto Me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins."
(Leviticus 26:18, see also verses 21, 24, 28)
In Daniel 9 Daniel prays for mercy for Israel, because he knows Israel has failed to repent, and he knows that seven times seventy is 490 years, and he does not want Israel to now fall under a 490 year curse. Unfortunately Gavri'el (El is Severe) comes with Elohim's reply. Israel would indeed fall into a 490 year curse:
"Seventy weeks are decreed upon your people and upon your set-apart city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Set-apart. Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Yerushalayim unto Messiah, a prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, it shall be built again, with broad place and moat, but in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of a prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood; and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease; and upon the wing of detestable things shall be that which causes appalment; and that until the extermination wholly determined be poured out upon that which causes appalment."
(Daniel 9:24-27)
This 490 year curse was made up of seventy "weeks". The Hebrew word here for "weeks" actually only refers to "a period of seven" and does not have to refer to seven days, in fact here it refers to blocks of seven year periods. These are not just any seven year periods, these are seven year cycles of the Sabbath of the land. It was the failure to keep these Sabbaths of the land each seventh year that was the final straw resulting in the seventy year curse:
"To fulfil the word of YHWH by the mouth of Yirmeyah, until the land had been paid her sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years."
(2 Chronicles 36:21)
483 years into this 490 years the Messiah comes along and is "cut off, but not for himself":
"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of a prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood; and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."
(Daniel 9:26)
Why does the Messiah come seven years before the end of the 490 year curse?
Because the Land must have its seventh year Sabbath (2 Chronicles 36:21).
In order for the curse to end, the people of Israel would have to repent and turn back to Torah. Since the decisive issue had been the Sabbath of the Land, this repentance would need to manifest itself by the keeping of the Sabbath of the Land, but in order to do this, the people would need a seven year head start, they would have to start keeping a complete Sabbath of the Land cycle 483 years into the 490 year curse if they were to enter the New Covenant at the end of the 490 years. Thus YHWH in his infinite mercy was to send Messiah after 483 years to call the people to repentance.
Ramban: Messiah and the New Covenant
Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman) (1194-1270 C.E.) wrote one of the most authoritative Torah commentaries in Rabbinic Judaism. His comments connecting the Covenant of Mo'av with the "New Covenant" of Jeremiah 31 and connecting these with the "days of the Messiah" that I am giving his lengthy comments on Deuteronomy 30:6 in totol, along with some interspersed comments of my own:
"And YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart (Deuteronomy 30:6) It is this which the Rabbis have said, "If someone comes to purify himself, they assist him" [from on High]. The verse assures you that you will return to Him with all your heart and He will help you."
"This following subject is very apparent from Scripture: Since the time of Creation, man has had the power to do as he pleased, to be righteous or wicked. This [grant of free will] applies likewise to the entire Torah period, so that people can gain merit upon choosing the good and punishment for preferring evil. But in the days of the Messiah, the choice of their [genuine] good will be natural; the heart will not desire the improper and it will have no craving whatever for it. This is the "circumcision" mentioned here, for lust and desire are the "foreskin" of the heart, and circumcision of the heart means that it will not covet or desire evil."
Note that Ramban sees the ultimate fulfillment of the Covenant at Mo'av as taking place "in the days of the Messiah".
"Man will return at that time to what he was before the sin of Adam, when by his nature he did what should properly be done, and there were no conflicting desires in his will, as I have explained in Seder Bereshit."
This recalls to mind the words of Paul "For if because of the error of one [Adam], death reigned, much more those who receive the abundance of favor and of the gift and of righteousness will rein in life by way of one, Yeshua the Messiah." (see Romans 5:14-19; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 45).
"It is this which Scripture states in [the Book of] Jeremiah 31:30], 'Behold, the days come,' says YHWH, 'that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers ..etc. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Eternal, I will put my Law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it."
Here Ramban identifies the Covenant of Mo'av with Jeremiah's "New Covenant".
"This is a reference to the annulment of the evil instinct and to the natural performance by the heart of its proper function. Therefore Jeremiah said further, and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My People; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know YHWH; 'for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.'
Now, it is known that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth and it is necessary to instruct them, but at that time it will not be necessary to instruct them [to avoid evil] for their evil instinct will then be completely abolished. And so it is declared by Ezekiel, 'A new heart will I also give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will cause you to walk in My statutes.' " (Ezekiel 36:26)
Here Ramban ties the New Covenant to the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh.
"The new heart alludes to man's nature, and the [new] spirit to the desire and will. It is this which our Rabbis have said : "And the years draw nigh, when you shall say: I have no pleasure in them; these are the days of the Messiah, as they will offer opportunity neither for merit nor for guilt," for in the days of the Messiah there will be no [evil] desire in man but he will naturally perform the proper deeds and therefore there will be neither merit nor guilt in them, for merit and guilt are dependent upon desire."
(Ramban on Deuteronomy 29:6)
Yeshua and the New Covenant
Now the 483 year period mentioned in Daniel begins with "the word to restore to build Yerushalayim" (Dan. 9:25) which was the Artaxerxes decree (Ezra 7:11-16) given in 457 B.C.E.. The 483 year period ends with the appearance of Messiah on the scene (Daniel 9:25). If we add 483 years to 457 B.C.E. we come to 27 C.E. (although 457 + 27 = 484 one must subtract a year whenever crossing the line between BCE and CE on the timeline, since there is no zero point year on the calendar.) Now there is good evidence that Yeshua was born, not in 1 C.E. but in 3 B.C.E.. At the age of thirty (in 27 C.E.) Yeshua first began his ministry (Luke 3:23).
Shortly after Yeshua began his ministry he returned to his home synagogue in Nazareth where he did the haftorah reading (Luke 4:16-20). He stood and read from Isaiah 61:1-2:
"The spirit of the Adonai YHWH is upon me; because YHWH has anointed me to bring good tidings unto the humble; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the eyes to them that are bound; To proclaim the year of YHWH's good pleasure, and the day of vengeance of our Elohim; to comfort all that mourn;"
(Isaiah 61:1-2)
"Then Yeshua proclaimed 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.' "
(Luke 4:21)
The "year of YHWH's good pleasure" in which the captives have liberty proclaimed to them is the seventh year Sabbath of the Land. The Anointed one is the Messiah as depicted in Daniel 9:24-27.
Moreover the haftorah readings were originally instituted at a time when it was illegal to read the Torah in public. As a result the weekly Torah readings were substituted by readings from the Prophets which were intended to bring to mind the corresponding Torah readings. After it became legal again to read the Torah in public, the haftorah readings were retained. The Torah reading which this haftorah reading is supposed to call to mind is Nitzavim (Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20) which is the Covenant of Mo'av.
Yeshua was telling the synagogue that these passages were being fulfilled.
Isaiah 60:22 tells us that YHWH will either "hasten" the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel, or let it come about "in its [due] time", all depending on the New Covenant requirement of repentance (Deuteronomy 30:1-6.) This offer to repent began in the days of Yochanan the immerser (John the Baptist), as we read in Matthew 11:12:
"Only from the days of Yochanan the immerser until now the Kingdom of Heaven is constricted and the forceful despoil it."
(Matthew 11:12 from the DuTillet Hebrew ms.)
And in Luke 16:16 we read:
"The Torah and the prophets were until Yochanan henceforth the Kingdom of Eloah is announced but everyone treats it with violence."
(Luke 16:16 from Old Syriac & Peshitta Aramaic)
Yochanan had been announcing, "Repent you of your lives, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near to come" (Matthew 3:2 DuTillet.) And as soon as his work began, Yeshua proclaimed, "Turn you, turn you, in repentance: for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." (Matthew 4:17 DuTillet = Mark 1:14-15) Now the word for "near" here in the DuTillet and ShemTob Hebrew versions is karavah, in the Aramaic of the Old Syriac and Peshitta the Aramaic equivalent appears. The phrase "Kingdom of Elohim" is a variation of the phrase in the Tanak "Kingdom of YHWH" (1 Chronicles 28:5; 2 Chronicles 13:8) a term used to describe the Kingdom of Israel. After studying the "Kingdom of Elohim" with the Messiah for forty days (Acts 1:3) the emissaries wanted to know if the Kingdom would be restored to Israel "at this time", Yeshua answers that it is not for them to know the time (Acts 1:6-7). The truth is that the Kingdom of Elohim is the restored Kingdom of Israel (see Jeremiah 23:5-6; Isaiah 9:6-7; 11 with 1 Chronicles 28:5; 2 Chronicles 13:8). The Hebrew text of Matthew 3:2 & 4:17 = Mark 1:14-15 does indicate that the Kingdom was right there, available, if they would just repent.
Yeshua continued to proclaim this offer throughout his career (Matthew 12:28 = Luke 11:20; Mark 12:34; Luke 10:9, 11; 17:21) even sending out his emissaries with the same proclamation (Matthew 10:7.) This is the meaning of the passage, "...if you are willing to receive it (the New Covenant), he (Yochanan) is Elijah who is to come." (Matthew 11:14, see 11:12).
Despite the fact that the New Covenent was being offered as early as the service of Yochanan (John) the immerser, repentance was required for it to be realized (Matthew 3:2-3; Mt.4:17 = Mark 1:14-15; Deuteronomy 30:1-6). However, from the time of Yochanan forward, the Kingdom was being rejected, "plundered" and "treated with violence" (Matthew 11:12 DuTillet; Luke 16:16 Old Syriac & Peshitta.) Yeshua compared this rejection to those who would not dance for flute players (Matthew 11:12, 16-19.)
At Yeshua's so-called "Last Supper" which was a Passover Sader, Yeshua holds up the third cup of the Passover Sader known as the "cup of redemption" and said:
"Drink you all of it, for this is my blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many to atone for sinners. And I tell you, hereafter I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it with you in the Kingdom of my Father which is in heaven."
(Matthew 26:27-29)
Here Yeshua tells us that the "cup of redemption" which represents the blood of the Passover lamb, represents his own blood which will be the ratifying blood of the New Covenant.
The New Covenant Offer Extended
It would seem that the New Covenant offer was extended beyond the crucifixion. In his discourse at the Temple in Acts 3:12-26 Kefa repeated the Kingdom offer saying:
"Repent therefore, and be restored so that your sins be blotted out and times of rest come to you from the presence of YHWH, And he send to you him who was prepared for you, Yeshua the Messiah, Who it is required for heaven to receive until the fullness of the times of all those things that Eloah spoke by the mouth of his set-apart prophets of old."
(Acts 3:19-21)
Thus it would appear that if the people of Israel had entered a national repentance, even then, the Messiah would have returned to restore the Kingdom to Israel right then and there.
This Kingdom offer seems to have continued throughout the entire Acts period, until it expired at the end of the Book of Acts. In Acts 28 "Paul called the leaders of the Jews together... to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the Kingdom of Eloah, persuading them concerning Yeshua..." (Acts 28:17, 23). once again a corporate repentance did not occur "... some disbelieved. So they did not agree among themselves." (Acts 28:24b-25a). At this time Paul made known that the Kingdom offer had ended saying "...the salvation of Eloah has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!" (Acts. 28:28)
Paul and the New Covenant
This new understanding of the nature of the New Covenant sheds new light on the teachings of Paul which so many have misunderstood.
In Romans 2:27-29 Paul contrasts those with the "circumcision of the heart by the spirit" with those who have a circumcision "in the flesh [alone] … by the letter [only]". Of course the "circumcision of the heart by the spirit" is an element of the New Covenant of Moab. Paul is contrasting this with the Siniatic Covenant alone which is "in the flesh [alone]…" and "…by the letter [only]…."
In Romans 7:6 Paul contrasts "the renewal of the spirit" of the New Covenant" with the "oldness of the writing" of the Sianiatic Covenant alone. In this section of Romans (Romans 7-8) Paul contrasts the two Mosaic Covenants. He calls the Covenant of Mo'av the "Torah of Eloah" which he contrasts with the "law of sin" (7:25) He calls walking by the Siniatic Covenant alone as "of the flesh" but the New Covenant as "of the spirit" (8:4-5) He associates the Siniatic Covenant alone with "death" but the Covenent of Mo'av with "life" (8:6) just as the Torah also does (Deuteronomy 30:6, 15, 19).
In Romans 10:4-8 Paul contrasts the "righteousness that is by the Torah" (10:5) which he characterizes by quoting Lev. 18:5 with the "righteousness that is by faith" (10:6-8) which he characterizes by quoting from the Covenant at Mo'av:
"And the righteousness that is by faith, [he] thus says: Do not say in your heart: who has ascended to heaven and brought down the Messiah? And who has descended to the depth of She'ol and brought up the Messiah from among the dead? But what does it say? The answer is near to you, to your mouth and to your heart, which is the word of faith that we proclaim."
(Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
Paul goes on to say that this same covenant is the "word of faith that we proclaim" (10:8). Paul goes on to identify this covenant at Mo'av with the covenant of Messiah by which we are saved:
"And if you confess with your mouth our Adon Yeshua, and you believe in your heart that Eloah raised him from the dead, you will have life. For the heart that believes in him is made righteousness, and the mouth that confesses him has life. For the scripture has said that anyone who believes in him will not be humiliated. And in this it does not discriminate, either against Jews or against Aramaeans, for YHWH of all of them is one who is rich with all who call on him. For all who will call on the name of YHWH have life."
(Romans 10:9-13)
In 2 Corinthians 3:3-6 Paul refers to the "New Covenant" (3:6) when he contrasts the "letter" of the Torah which is "written on tablets of stone" with the "spirit" of the Torah which is written "on tablets of the heart of flesh". Paul says "the letter kills but the spirit gives life". Here again Paul is comparing the Siniatic Covenant alone with the New Covenant of Mo'av.
In Galatians 3 Paul alludes to the two Covenants. He tells us that Messiah redeemed us from the "curse of the law" (3:10-13) just as we noted earlier that Rashi tells us that the word "besides" in Deuteronomy 28:69 distinguishes the Covenant of Mo'av from the "curse" of the Law.
In Galatians 4:21-31 Paul plainly compares the two covenants of Torah saying "for these are the two covenants, one from Mount Sinai genders bondage…"
Hebrews is filled with references to these two covenants as well. The author of Hebrews (whom I believe to be Paul) tells us that chapter 8:1f begins "the main point of what we are saying" and then quotes all of Jeremiah 31:30-33 (31:31-34) regarding the "New Covenant" in Hebrews 8:8-11. Throughout this book Paul compares "the first [covenant]" with the second (covenant) (8:6, 7, 13; 9:1, 15; 10:9). Paul points out that this second covenant differed from the first covenant. While the first covenant had been ratified by the blood of bulls, the second ovenant was actually ratified by the blood of Messiah. Moreover while the Greek text of Hebrews states:
"For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law."
(Hebrews 7:12 KJV)
However the Torah cannot be changed (see Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32 & Matthew 5:17). The Hebrew text of Hebrews, however, actually reads:
"It is saying that according to which there is a repetition of the office of the priesthood of necessity, it is saying there is a repetition of the Torah."
(Hebrews 7:12 HRV)
The Torah was not "changed" by the New Covenant of Mo'av, but it was repeated with better promises. The fact that the "second" or "new" covenant of Hebrews is the Covenant made at Mo'av is further reinforced by the fact that Paul draws a strong parallel in Hebrews 3:7-4:10 between the "rest" we enter into and the entry into the Land which took place at the death of Moses at the end of the forty years immediately after the making of the Covenant of Mo'av.
It is beyond the scope of this article to fully explore all of the ramifications of this important truth to the writings of Paul. Nearly every word that Paul writes becomes pregnant with deeper meaning when we read them in light of this truth. We find that amazingly Paul is saying much the same things that Rashi and Ramban were saying about the curse of the law and the new covenant.
It all Comes Back to Mo'av
Finally we find an amazing prophecy found, not in the canon, but in one of the books known as the "Apocrypha". In 2 Maccabees 2:1-8 we read:
"One finds in the records that Jeremiah the prophet ordered those who were being deported to take some of the fire, as has been told, and that the prophet after giving them the law instructed those who were being deported not to forget the commandments of the Lord, nor to be led astray in their thoughts upon seeing the gold and silver statues and their adornment. And with other similar words he exhorted them that the law should not depart from their hearts. It was also in the writing that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God. And Jeremiah came and found a cave, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense, and he sealed up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up to mark the way, but could not find it. When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: "The place shall be unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated."
(2 Maccabees 2:1-8 RSV)
Here there is an allusion to Jeremiah and the new covenant which places the Torah in our hearts. This becomes tied again to Mo'av where Moshe had made the Covenant of Mo'av just before his death on Mount Nebo. According to this book the Tabernacle, the alter of incense and the Ark of the Covenant are all hidden inside Mount Nebo at Mo'av and at the time of the regathering (another allusion to the New Covenant of Mo'av) they will reveal their own position to the world. All of this will end where it began, we will finally enter the New Covenant Kingdom right there at Mo'av!
Conclusion
There are two covenants in the Torah, and the Torah is very much a part of both of them. Both Rashi and Paul tell us that the covenant of Mo'av or "new covenant" is distinguished from the "curse" of the first covenant. Both Ramban and Paul tell us that the New Covenant is tied to the work of Messiah, involves a change of a persons heart and inner desires and involves the implanting of the Spirit of YHWH to guide us in an inner desire to observe Torah. This Covenant has been offered to Israel collectively on at least three occasions: upon entering the Land (Deuteronomy 29-30); upon returning to the Land (Jeremiah 29:10; 31:30f) and at the first coming of Messiah (Matthew 26:27-29). While Israel may not collectively enter this covenant until Messiah returns, we as individuals may enter it early, becoming citizens of a Kingdom not yet established. This profound understanding of the nature of the New Covenant will radically improve our understanding of Scripture. This article is not the end of that process, it is only intended to serve as a modest beginning.
By James Scott Trimm
Another misunderstanding common in the church today is the concept that Torah and Grace are mutually exclucive ideas. For exmple one author writes:
"A believer can not be under law and under grace at the same time."
(God's Plan of the Ages; Louis T. Tallbot; 1970; p. 83)
Now let us be noble Bereans to see if this is true. Let us ask ourselves: "How were people saved in 'Old Testament' times? Were they saved by works or by grace?
The fact is that often when Paul speaks of how we are saved by grace through faith he often cites the Tanak to prove his point. Two of his favorite proof texts for this concept are from the Tanak:
"And he believed in YHWH; and he counted it to him as righteousness."
(Genesis 15:6 = Romans 4:3, 22; Galatians 3:6)
"...the just shall live by his faith."
(Habakkuk 2:4 = Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11)
So Paul is arguing from the Tanak that one is saved by faith alone appart from works. In fact the real truth is that men of the "Old Testament" times were just as under grace as we are today:
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of YHWH."
(Genesis 6:8)
"...you have also found grace in my sight...."
(Exodus 33:12)
"...for you have found grace in my sight..."
(Exodus 33:17)
"...and now I have found grace in your sight..."
(Judges 6:17)
"The people... found grace in the wilderness..."
(Jereremiah 31:2)
Thus as noble Bereans we learn from the Tanak that people in "Old Testament" times were saved by grace through faith. They could not have earned their salvation any more than we could today, as Paul writes:
"Knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by the faith of Yeshua the Messiah, even we have believed in Yeshua the Messiah, that we might be justified by the faith of Messiah, and not by works of the law; and by the works of the law shall no flesh be saved."
(Galatians 2:16)
In fact the "New Testament" contains more commandments than the "Old Testament". The New Testament contains 1050 commandments [as delineated in Dake's Annotated Reference Bible; By Finnis Jennings Dake; N.T. pp.313-316] while the "Old Testament" Mosaic Law contains only 613 (b.Makkot 23b; see Appendix). Thus faith and grace are in the "Old Testament" and law and works can be found in the New Testament. People in Old Testament times were saved by grace through faith just like people in New Testament times. Now many anomians will agree to this fact on the surface, but lets follow this thought through to its fullest conclusion. Lets go beyond the surface and really think this through. If what we have shown to be true is true, then the people in the wilderness in the days of Moses were saved by grace through faith. Now lets look at the full impact of that statement. That means that people were under grace, and saved by faith alone and not by works, when Moses was stoning people to death for violating the Torah! Obviously then being saved by grace through faith in no way affects Torah observance.
So if grace and faith do not negate the observance of Torah, then what is the true nature of faith and grace? What is faith? What is grace? Let us once again turn to the scriptures for answers.
Now part of the reason that many people have come to think that there is more "grace" in the New Testament than in the Old Testament is a translation bias in the KJV and many other English versions.
There are two words for "grace" in the Hebrew Tanak. The first word is CHEN (Strong's 2580/2581) which means "grace or charm". The other word is CHESED (Strong's 2616/2617 ) which carries the meaning of "grace, mercy or undue favor."
These two words closely parallel the meanings of the two Greek words used for grace in the Greek Bible. These are CHARIS (Strong's 5485/5463) which means "grace or charm" and ELEOS (Strong's 1651/1653) meaning "grace, mercy or undue favor."
Obviously Hebrew CHEN = Greek CHARIS and Hebrew CHESED = Greek ELEOS. Now the KJV tends to translate CHEN/CHARIS as "grace" but tends to translate CHESED/ELEOS as "mercy". Now when we think of "grace" in biblical terms we are ussually thinking of the concept of CHESED/ELEOS "undue favor".
Now if we follow with the KJV translation scheme then it appears that there is much more grace in the New Testament than the Tanak, since CHEN only appears 70 times in the Tanak while CHARIS appears 233 times in the New Testament. But remember, the concept of "undue favor" is actually CHESED/ELEOS. CHESED appears 251 times in the Tanak, while ELEOS appears only 50 times in the New Testament. If anything there is far more "grace" in the Tanak than in the New Testament.
Now let us turn to the Tanak to get a better understanding of what grace really is. According to the Scriptures there is a close connection between "grace" and the "fear of YHWH":
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his grace (CHESED) toward those who fear him."
(Psalm 103:11)
"Oh let those who fear YHWH say, 'His grace (CHESED) is everlasting.' "
(Psalm 118:4)
"By grace (CHESED) and truth iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of YHWH one keeps away from evil."
(Proverbs 16:6)
And the fear of YHWH, according to the Tanak, includes Torah observance:
"...that he may learn the fear of YHWH his God, to keep all the words of this Torah and these statutes, to do them:"
(Deuteronomy 17:19)
"...that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear YHWH your God, and observe to do all the words of this Torah."
(Deuteronomy 31:12)
Therefore there is clearly no conflict between grace and Torah. In fact the Torah is closely connected to grace.
The next word we need to examine is "faith". The Hebrew word is EMUNAH. EMUNAH can mean "belief, faith or trust" and is best translated "trusting faithfulness". When we speak of "faith" in YHWH we are not merely speaking about "belief" but "trusting faithfulness". If someone were to ask you if you are faithful to your spouse, you would not reply by saying "Yes, I believe my spouse exists." That is because it is clearly not an issue of what you believe but in whether you are faithful. Imagine a man who stays out late at night every night committing adultery with various women. Each night he comes home to his wife and tells her how much he loves her, and insists that since he believes in her existence that he therefore is faithful to her. Is this man faithful to his wife? Absolutely not! This understanding is confirmed to us in the Scriptures as follows:
"Remove the false way from me, and graciously grant me your Torah. I have chosen the way of faith; I have placed your ordinances before me."
(Psalm 119:29-30)
Now I want to make it clear that we are not saying that one earns ones salvation by keeping Torah. At times I have been asked "Do I have to keep Torah to be saved?". I reply by saying "Of course not.... do you have to get cleaned up to take a bath?"
You may ask, "Well if we don't keep the Torah for salvation, then why do we keep the Torah?" First of all, keeping the Torah SHOWS our faith (Titus 3:5-8; 1Jn. 2:3-7; James 2:14-26). Secondly there are rewards for keeping the Torah (Titus 3:8). The Psalms tell us that it "restores the soul" (Ps. 19:7). Yeshua promises that those who keep the Torah and teach others to do so will be called first in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 5:19). Additionally, Jews who keep the Mosaic Torah are given a long list of other promises (Deuteronomy 28).
Now if the Torah is good and everlasting then it stands to reason that it should be observed. Paul tells us that we should not use grace as an excuse to sin (Rom. 6:1-2, 15) and that the only way to know sin is through the Torah (Rom. 7:7). Yeshua tells us that if we love him we will keep his commandments (Jn. 14:15, 21, 23-25; 15:10). The fact that we are saved by faith is all the more reason that we should keep the Torah, as the Scriptures tell us:
"...not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Yeshua the Messiah our Savior, that having been justified by his grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men."
(Titus 3:5-8)
"And by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, 'I know him,' and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in him ought himself to walk just as he walked. Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning."
(1 John 2:3-7)
The Two Covenants of the Torah
By James Scott Trimm
Many of us have missed an important truth. The New Covenant has been in the Torah all along! And this amazing truth is a major key in understanding the writings of Paul. There are in fact two covenants in the Torah and two Mosaic Covenants.
The first Mosaic Covenant was made at Mt. Sinai at Horev.
The Second Mosaic Covenant was made at Mt. Nebo at Mo'av. This was a second covenant which YHWH made with the people of Israel through Moses which was made shortly before the death of Moses and the entry of Israel into the Land. This covenant was made near the end of the Torah:
"These are the words of the covenant which YHWH commanded Moshe to make with the children of Yisra'el in the land of Mo'av, beside the covenant which He made with them in Horev."
(Deuteronomy 28:69 / 29:1)
Note that this Covenant at Mo'av was made besides the Covenant made at Sinai.
Rashi makes an important comment about the significance of this word "besides":
"Besides the covenant [Namely,] the curses [which appear] in Lev. (26: 14-39), which were proclaimed at [Mount] Sinai."
(Rashi on Deuteronomy 28:69)
Rashi sees that these are two different covenants and that the word besides is intended to distinguish the Covenant at Sinai, characterized by "the curses" with this new Covenant made at Mo'av which is characterized not just by curses (Deuteronomy 29:16-29) but by blessings as well.
This covenant was centered around repentance (30:2, 8) and its rewards included a promise of a regathering of Israel from among the nations (30:3-4) a circumcised heart (30:2, 6) Israel would be his people and He would be their Elohim (29:13); a promise of land (30:5) and life (30:6, 15, 19).
This Covenant also includes Torah observance:
"If you shall hearken to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Torah; if you turn unto YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul."
(Deuteronomy 30:10)
Jeremiah and the New Covenant
In Jeremiah 11, the prophet Jeremiah was sent by YHWH to the people of Israel saying:
"Hear you the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Y'hudah, and to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim: and say you unto them: Thus says YHWH, the Elohim of Yisra'el: Cursed be the man that hears not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt…"
(Jeremiah 11:2-4a)
Here Jeremiah is quoting from the Torah (Deut. 27:26) and to the curse that was upon those who would fails to give heed to the covenant given at Sinai. He is warning the people of Judah that this curse is about to come upon them.
Ultimately Jeremiah prophesied to Israel that this curse would come upon them in the form of the seventy year Babylonian captivity:
" 'Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says YHWH, 'and I will send unto N'vukhadretzar the king of Bavel, My servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. …And this whole land shall be a desolation, and a waste; and these nations shall serve the king of Bavel seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Bavel, and that nation,' says YHWH, "for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it perpetual desolations.' "
(Jeremiah 25:9, 11-12)
"Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. So the cohanim and the prophets and all the people heard Yirmeyah speaking these words in the House of YHWH."
(Jeremiah 26:6-7)
But Jeremiah also prophesied to the people that at the end of this seventy year curse, he would bring them back into the land:
"For thus says YHWH: 'After seventy years are accomplished for Bavel, I will remember you, and perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place."
(Jeremiah 29:10)
In connection with this return Jeremiah speaks of a New Covenant:
" 'Behold, the days come,' says YHWH, 'that I will make a renewed covenant with the House of Yisra'el, and with the House of Y'hudah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a husband over them,' says YHWH. 'But this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Yisra'el after those days,' says YHWH, 'I will put My Torah in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: "Know YHWH"; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,' says YHWH; 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more."
(Jeremiah 31:31)
(Throughout this article I will refer to this covenant as the "New Covenant" as it is commonly called, however the Hebrew is better understood as I have translated it above, as "renewed covenant".)
But one important thing that many of us have missed is that this "New Covenant" is the Covenant made at Mo'av. As we have already seen, there are two Mosaic Covenants in the Torah. The first Covenant was made at Sinai but there is also a second "new" covenant in the Torah which was mad at Mo'av. When we compare these two covenants it is clear that the Covenant at Mo'av is the New Covenant.
Covenant at Mo'av Compared to the New Covenant
"These are the words of the covenant which YHWH commanded Moshe to make with the children of Yisra'el in the land of Mo'av, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horev."
(Deuteronomy 28:69 / 29:1)
" 'Behold, the days come,' says YHWH, 'that I will make a renewed covenant with the House of Yisrael, and the House of Y'hudah; not according to the covenant that I made with their father in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was a husband over them,' says YHWH."
(Jeremiah 31:31-32)
"And shall return unto YHWH your Elohim, and hearken to His voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul;…And YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live."
(Deuteronomy 30:2, 6)
"But this is the covenant that I will make with the House of Yisra'el after those days, says YHWH, I will put My Torah in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it;… "
(Jeremiah 31:22a)
"…and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me."
(Jeremiah 32:40b)
"...that He may establish you this day unto Himself for a people, and that He may be unto you a Elohim, as He spoke unto you, and as He swore unto your fathers, to Avraham, to Yitz'chak and to Ya'akov."
(Deuteronomy 29:12 / 29:13)
"…and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My people;"
(Jeremiah 31:33b)
"...and they shall be My people, and will be their Elohim;"
(Jeremiah 32:38)
"...that then YHWH your Elohim will turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples, where YHWH your Elohim has scattered you. If any of you that are dispersed be in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there will YHWH your Elohim gather you, and from there will He fetch you."
(Deuteronomy 30:3-4)
"Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries, where I have driven them in My anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath;…"
(Jeremiah 32:37a)
"And YHWH your Elohim will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will do you good, and multiply you above your fathers."
(Deuteronomy 30:5)
"...and I will bring them back unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely;..."
(Jeremiah 32:37b)
Now if the Covenant at Mo'av is the New Covenant, then the Covenant at Sinai is an "Old Covenant". Both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant are in the Torah. But this "New Covenant" is Torah based, as the Covenant itself states "…you shall hearken to the voice of YHWH your Elohim, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Torah…" (Deut. 30:10). This New Covenant is an "everlasting covenant" (Jeremiah 32:40) which gives us "life" (Deuteronomy 30:6, 15, 19). An everlasting covenant which gives life, must by implication, give "everlasting life".
Daniel and the New Covenant
At the end of this seventy year curse we reach the time of Daniel chapter nine. Here Daniel has been studying these prophecies of Jeremiah and he knew the seventy years were over:
"In the first year of his reign I Daniel meditated in the books, over the number of the years, whereof the word of YHWH came to Yirmeyah the prophet, that He would accomplish for the desolations of Yerushalayim seventy years."
(Daniel 9:2)
Daniel knew that the curses mentioned in the Torah had come upon Israel:
"As it is written in the Torah of Moshe, all this evil is come upon us; yet have we not entreated the favour of YHWH our Elohim, that we might turn from our iniquities, and have discernment in Your truth."
(Daniel 9:13) (see Leviticus 26:14; Deuteronomy 28:15)
Daniel also knew that the Torah tells us that if after these curses come upon us, we still do not repent, Elohim would punish us seven times more:
"And if you will not yet for these things hearken unto Me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins."
(Leviticus 26:18, see also verses 21, 24, 28)
In Daniel 9 Daniel prays for mercy for Israel, because he knows Israel has failed to repent, and he knows that seven times seventy is 490 years, and he does not want Israel to now fall under a 490 year curse. Unfortunately Gavri'el (El is Severe) comes with Elohim's reply. Israel would indeed fall into a 490 year curse:
"Seventy weeks are decreed upon your people and upon your set-apart city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Set-apart. Know therefore and discern, that from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Yerushalayim unto Messiah, a prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks, it shall be built again, with broad place and moat, but in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of a prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood; and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall make a firm covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease; and upon the wing of detestable things shall be that which causes appalment; and that until the extermination wholly determined be poured out upon that which causes appalment."
(Daniel 9:24-27)
This 490 year curse was made up of seventy "weeks". The Hebrew word here for "weeks" actually only refers to "a period of seven" and does not have to refer to seven days, in fact here it refers to blocks of seven year periods. These are not just any seven year periods, these are seven year cycles of the Sabbath of the land. It was the failure to keep these Sabbaths of the land each seventh year that was the final straw resulting in the seventy year curse:
"To fulfil the word of YHWH by the mouth of Yirmeyah, until the land had been paid her sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years."
(2 Chronicles 36:21)
483 years into this 490 years the Messiah comes along and is "cut off, but not for himself":
"And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself; and the people of a prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood; and unto the end of the war desolations are determined."
(Daniel 9:26)
Why does the Messiah come seven years before the end of the 490 year curse?
Because the Land must have its seventh year Sabbath (2 Chronicles 36:21).
In order for the curse to end, the people of Israel would have to repent and turn back to Torah. Since the decisive issue had been the Sabbath of the Land, this repentance would need to manifest itself by the keeping of the Sabbath of the Land, but in order to do this, the people would need a seven year head start, they would have to start keeping a complete Sabbath of the Land cycle 483 years into the 490 year curse if they were to enter the New Covenant at the end of the 490 years. Thus YHWH in his infinite mercy was to send Messiah after 483 years to call the people to repentance.
Ramban: Messiah and the New Covenant
Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman) (1194-1270 C.E.) wrote one of the most authoritative Torah commentaries in Rabbinic Judaism. His comments connecting the Covenant of Mo'av with the "New Covenant" of Jeremiah 31 and connecting these with the "days of the Messiah" that I am giving his lengthy comments on Deuteronomy 30:6 in totol, along with some interspersed comments of my own:
"And YHWH your Elohim will circumcise your heart (Deuteronomy 30:6) It is this which the Rabbis have said, "If someone comes to purify himself, they assist him" [from on High]. The verse assures you that you will return to Him with all your heart and He will help you."
"This following subject is very apparent from Scripture: Since the time of Creation, man has had the power to do as he pleased, to be righteous or wicked. This [grant of free will] applies likewise to the entire Torah period, so that people can gain merit upon choosing the good and punishment for preferring evil. But in the days of the Messiah, the choice of their [genuine] good will be natural; the heart will not desire the improper and it will have no craving whatever for it. This is the "circumcision" mentioned here, for lust and desire are the "foreskin" of the heart, and circumcision of the heart means that it will not covet or desire evil."
Note that Ramban sees the ultimate fulfillment of the Covenant at Mo'av as taking place "in the days of the Messiah".
"Man will return at that time to what he was before the sin of Adam, when by his nature he did what should properly be done, and there were no conflicting desires in his will, as I have explained in Seder Bereshit."
This recalls to mind the words of Paul "For if because of the error of one [Adam], death reigned, much more those who receive the abundance of favor and of the gift and of righteousness will rein in life by way of one, Yeshua the Messiah." (see Romans 5:14-19; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 45).
"It is this which Scripture states in [the Book of] Jeremiah 31:30], 'Behold, the days come,' says YHWH, 'that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers ..etc. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Eternal, I will put my Law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it."
Here Ramban identifies the Covenant of Mo'av with Jeremiah's "New Covenant".
"This is a reference to the annulment of the evil instinct and to the natural performance by the heart of its proper function. Therefore Jeremiah said further, and I will be their Elohim, and they shall be My People; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know YHWH; 'for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.'
Now, it is known that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth and it is necessary to instruct them, but at that time it will not be necessary to instruct them [to avoid evil] for their evil instinct will then be completely abolished. And so it is declared by Ezekiel, 'A new heart will I also give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will cause you to walk in My statutes.' " (Ezekiel 36:26)
Here Ramban ties the New Covenant to the gift of the Ruach HaKodesh.
"The new heart alludes to man's nature, and the [new] spirit to the desire and will. It is this which our Rabbis have said : "And the years draw nigh, when you shall say: I have no pleasure in them; these are the days of the Messiah, as they will offer opportunity neither for merit nor for guilt," for in the days of the Messiah there will be no [evil] desire in man but he will naturally perform the proper deeds and therefore there will be neither merit nor guilt in them, for merit and guilt are dependent upon desire."
(Ramban on Deuteronomy 29:6)
Yeshua and the New Covenant
Now the 483 year period mentioned in Daniel begins with "the word to restore to build Yerushalayim" (Dan. 9:25) which was the Artaxerxes decree (Ezra 7:11-16) given in 457 B.C.E.. The 483 year period ends with the appearance of Messiah on the scene (Daniel 9:25). If we add 483 years to 457 B.C.E. we come to 27 C.E. (although 457 + 27 = 484 one must subtract a year whenever crossing the line between BCE and CE on the timeline, since there is no zero point year on the calendar.) Now there is good evidence that Yeshua was born, not in 1 C.E. but in 3 B.C.E.. At the age of thirty (in 27 C.E.) Yeshua first began his ministry (Luke 3:23).
Shortly after Yeshua began his ministry he returned to his home synagogue in Nazareth where he did the haftorah reading (Luke 4:16-20). He stood and read from Isaiah 61:1-2:
"The spirit of the Adonai YHWH is upon me; because YHWH has anointed me to bring good tidings unto the humble; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the eyes to them that are bound; To proclaim the year of YHWH's good pleasure, and the day of vengeance of our Elohim; to comfort all that mourn;"
(Isaiah 61:1-2)
"Then Yeshua proclaimed 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.' "
(Luke 4:21)
The "year of YHWH's good pleasure" in which the captives have liberty proclaimed to them is the seventh year Sabbath of the Land. The Anointed one is the Messiah as depicted in Daniel 9:24-27.
Moreover the haftorah readings were originally instituted at a time when it was illegal to read the Torah in public. As a result the weekly Torah readings were substituted by readings from the Prophets which were intended to bring to mind the corresponding Torah readings. After it became legal again to read the Torah in public, the haftorah readings were retained. The Torah reading which this haftorah reading is supposed to call to mind is Nitzavim (Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20) which is the Covenant of Mo'av.
Yeshua was telling the synagogue that these passages were being fulfilled.
Isaiah 60:22 tells us that YHWH will either "hasten" the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel, or let it come about "in its [due] time", all depending on the New Covenant requirement of repentance (Deuteronomy 30:1-6.) This offer to repent began in the days of Yochanan the immerser (John the Baptist), as we read in Matthew 11:12:
"Only from the days of Yochanan the immerser until now the Kingdom of Heaven is constricted and the forceful despoil it."
(Matthew 11:12 from the DuTillet Hebrew ms.)
And in Luke 16:16 we read:
"The Torah and the prophets were until Yochanan henceforth the Kingdom of Eloah is announced but everyone treats it with violence."
(Luke 16:16 from Old Syriac & Peshitta Aramaic)
Yochanan had been announcing, "Repent you of your lives, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near to come" (Matthew 3:2 DuTillet.) And as soon as his work began, Yeshua proclaimed, "Turn you, turn you, in repentance: for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." (Matthew 4:17 DuTillet = Mark 1:14-15) Now the word for "near" here in the DuTillet and ShemTob Hebrew versions is karavah, in the Aramaic of the Old Syriac and Peshitta the Aramaic equivalent appears. The phrase "Kingdom of Elohim" is a variation of the phrase in the Tanak "Kingdom of YHWH" (1 Chronicles 28:5; 2 Chronicles 13:8) a term used to describe the Kingdom of Israel. After studying the "Kingdom of Elohim" with the Messiah for forty days (Acts 1:3) the emissaries wanted to know if the Kingdom would be restored to Israel "at this time", Yeshua answers that it is not for them to know the time (Acts 1:6-7). The truth is that the Kingdom of Elohim is the restored Kingdom of Israel (see Jeremiah 23:5-6; Isaiah 9:6-7; 11 with 1 Chronicles 28:5; 2 Chronicles 13:8). The Hebrew text of Matthew 3:2 & 4:17 = Mark 1:14-15 does indicate that the Kingdom was right there, available, if they would just repent.
Yeshua continued to proclaim this offer throughout his career (Matthew 12:28 = Luke 11:20; Mark 12:34; Luke 10:9, 11; 17:21) even sending out his emissaries with the same proclamation (Matthew 10:7.) This is the meaning of the passage, "...if you are willing to receive it (the New Covenant), he (Yochanan) is Elijah who is to come." (Matthew 11:14, see 11:12).
Despite the fact that the New Covenent was being offered as early as the service of Yochanan (John) the immerser, repentance was required for it to be realized (Matthew 3:2-3; Mt.4:17 = Mark 1:14-15; Deuteronomy 30:1-6). However, from the time of Yochanan forward, the Kingdom was being rejected, "plundered" and "treated with violence" (Matthew 11:12 DuTillet; Luke 16:16 Old Syriac & Peshitta.) Yeshua compared this rejection to those who would not dance for flute players (Matthew 11:12, 16-19.)
At Yeshua's so-called "Last Supper" which was a Passover Sader, Yeshua holds up the third cup of the Passover Sader known as the "cup of redemption" and said:
"Drink you all of it, for this is my blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for many to atone for sinners. And I tell you, hereafter I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it with you in the Kingdom of my Father which is in heaven."
(Matthew 26:27-29)
Here Yeshua tells us that the "cup of redemption" which represents the blood of the Passover lamb, represents his own blood which will be the ratifying blood of the New Covenant.
The New Covenant Offer Extended
It would seem that the New Covenant offer was extended beyond the crucifixion. In his discourse at the Temple in Acts 3:12-26 Kefa repeated the Kingdom offer saying:
"Repent therefore, and be restored so that your sins be blotted out and times of rest come to you from the presence of YHWH, And he send to you him who was prepared for you, Yeshua the Messiah, Who it is required for heaven to receive until the fullness of the times of all those things that Eloah spoke by the mouth of his set-apart prophets of old."
(Acts 3:19-21)
Thus it would appear that if the people of Israel had entered a national repentance, even then, the Messiah would have returned to restore the Kingdom to Israel right then and there.
This Kingdom offer seems to have continued throughout the entire Acts period, until it expired at the end of the Book of Acts. In Acts 28 "Paul called the leaders of the Jews together... to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the Kingdom of Eloah, persuading them concerning Yeshua..." (Acts 28:17, 23). once again a corporate repentance did not occur "... some disbelieved. So they did not agree among themselves." (Acts 28:24b-25a). At this time Paul made known that the Kingdom offer had ended saying "...the salvation of Eloah has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!" (Acts. 28:28)
Paul and the New Covenant
This new understanding of the nature of the New Covenant sheds new light on the teachings of Paul which so many have misunderstood.
In Romans 2:27-29 Paul contrasts those with the "circumcision of the heart by the spirit" with those who have a circumcision "in the flesh [alone] … by the letter [only]". Of course the "circumcision of the heart by the spirit" is an element of the New Covenant of Moab. Paul is contrasting this with the Siniatic Covenant alone which is "in the flesh [alone]…" and "…by the letter [only]…."
In Romans 7:6 Paul contrasts "the renewal of the spirit" of the New Covenant" with the "oldness of the writing" of the Sianiatic Covenant alone. In this section of Romans (Romans 7-8) Paul contrasts the two Mosaic Covenants. He calls the Covenant of Mo'av the "Torah of Eloah" which he contrasts with the "law of sin" (7:25) He calls walking by the Siniatic Covenant alone as "of the flesh" but the New Covenant as "of the spirit" (8:4-5) He associates the Siniatic Covenant alone with "death" but the Covenent of Mo'av with "life" (8:6) just as the Torah also does (Deuteronomy 30:6, 15, 19).
In Romans 10:4-8 Paul contrasts the "righteousness that is by the Torah" (10:5) which he characterizes by quoting Lev. 18:5 with the "righteousness that is by faith" (10:6-8) which he characterizes by quoting from the Covenant at Mo'av:
"And the righteousness that is by faith, [he] thus says: Do not say in your heart: who has ascended to heaven and brought down the Messiah? And who has descended to the depth of She'ol and brought up the Messiah from among the dead? But what does it say? The answer is near to you, to your mouth and to your heart, which is the word of faith that we proclaim."
(Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
Paul goes on to say that this same covenant is the "word of faith that we proclaim" (10:8). Paul goes on to identify this covenant at Mo'av with the covenant of Messiah by which we are saved:
"And if you confess with your mouth our Adon Yeshua, and you believe in your heart that Eloah raised him from the dead, you will have life. For the heart that believes in him is made righteousness, and the mouth that confesses him has life. For the scripture has said that anyone who believes in him will not be humiliated. And in this it does not discriminate, either against Jews or against Aramaeans, for YHWH of all of them is one who is rich with all who call on him. For all who will call on the name of YHWH have life."
(Romans 10:9-13)
In 2 Corinthians 3:3-6 Paul refers to the "New Covenant" (3:6) when he contrasts the "letter" of the Torah which is "written on tablets of stone" with the "spirit" of the Torah which is written "on tablets of the heart of flesh". Paul says "the letter kills but the spirit gives life". Here again Paul is comparing the Siniatic Covenant alone with the New Covenant of Mo'av.
In Galatians 3 Paul alludes to the two Covenants. He tells us that Messiah redeemed us from the "curse of the law" (3:10-13) just as we noted earlier that Rashi tells us that the word "besides" in Deuteronomy 28:69 distinguishes the Covenant of Mo'av from the "curse" of the Law.
In Galatians 4:21-31 Paul plainly compares the two covenants of Torah saying "for these are the two covenants, one from Mount Sinai genders bondage…"
Hebrews is filled with references to these two covenants as well. The author of Hebrews (whom I believe to be Paul) tells us that chapter 8:1f begins "the main point of what we are saying" and then quotes all of Jeremiah 31:30-33 (31:31-34) regarding the "New Covenant" in Hebrews 8:8-11. Throughout this book Paul compares "the first [covenant]" with the second (covenant) (8:6, 7, 13; 9:1, 15; 10:9). Paul points out that this second covenant differed from the first covenant. While the first covenant had been ratified by the blood of bulls, the second ovenant was actually ratified by the blood of Messiah. Moreover while the Greek text of Hebrews states:
"For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law."
(Hebrews 7:12 KJV)
However the Torah cannot be changed (see Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32 & Matthew 5:17). The Hebrew text of Hebrews, however, actually reads:
"It is saying that according to which there is a repetition of the office of the priesthood of necessity, it is saying there is a repetition of the Torah."
(Hebrews 7:12 HRV)
The Torah was not "changed" by the New Covenant of Mo'av, but it was repeated with better promises. The fact that the "second" or "new" covenant of Hebrews is the Covenant made at Mo'av is further reinforced by the fact that Paul draws a strong parallel in Hebrews 3:7-4:10 between the "rest" we enter into and the entry into the Land which took place at the death of Moses at the end of the forty years immediately after the making of the Covenant of Mo'av.
It is beyond the scope of this article to fully explore all of the ramifications of this important truth to the writings of Paul. Nearly every word that Paul writes becomes pregnant with deeper meaning when we read them in light of this truth. We find that amazingly Paul is saying much the same things that Rashi and Ramban were saying about the curse of the law and the new covenant.
It all Comes Back to Mo'av
Finally we find an amazing prophecy found, not in the canon, but in one of the books known as the "Apocrypha". In 2 Maccabees 2:1-8 we read:
"One finds in the records that Jeremiah the prophet ordered those who were being deported to take some of the fire, as has been told, and that the prophet after giving them the law instructed those who were being deported not to forget the commandments of the Lord, nor to be led astray in their thoughts upon seeing the gold and silver statues and their adornment. And with other similar words he exhorted them that the law should not depart from their hearts. It was also in the writing that the prophet, having received an oracle, ordered that the tent and the ark should follow with him, and that he went out to the mountain where Moses had gone up and had seen the inheritance of God. And Jeremiah came and found a cave, and he brought there the tent and the ark and the altar of incense, and he sealed up the entrance. Some of those who followed him came up to mark the way, but could not find it. When Jeremiah learned of it, he rebuked them and declared: "The place shall be unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows his mercy. And then the Lord will disclose these things, and the glory of the Lord and the cloud will appear, as they were shown in the case of Moses, and as Solomon asked that the place should be specially consecrated."
(2 Maccabees 2:1-8 RSV)
Here there is an allusion to Jeremiah and the new covenant which places the Torah in our hearts. This becomes tied again to Mo'av where Moshe had made the Covenant of Mo'av just before his death on Mount Nebo. According to this book the Tabernacle, the alter of incense and the Ark of the Covenant are all hidden inside Mount Nebo at Mo'av and at the time of the regathering (another allusion to the New Covenant of Mo'av) they will reveal their own position to the world. All of this will end where it began, we will finally enter the New Covenant Kingdom right there at Mo'av!
Conclusion
There are two covenants in the Torah, and the Torah is very much a part of both of them. Both Rashi and Paul tell us that the covenant of Mo'av or "new covenant" is distinguished from the "curse" of the first covenant. Both Ramban and Paul tell us that the New Covenant is tied to the work of Messiah, involves a change of a persons heart and inner desires and involves the implanting of the Spirit of YHWH to guide us in an inner desire to observe Torah. This Covenant has been offered to Israel collectively on at least three occasions: upon entering the Land (Deuteronomy 29-30); upon returning to the Land (Jeremiah 29:10; 31:30f) and at the first coming of Messiah (Matthew 26:27-29). While Israel may not collectively enter this covenant until Messiah returns, we as individuals may enter it early, becoming citizens of a Kingdom not yet established. This profound understanding of the nature of the New Covenant will radically improve our understanding of Scripture. This article is not the end of that process, it is only intended to serve as a modest beginning.
The Process of Salvation
By James Scott Trimm
You may have been told that you are saved, the Scriptures actually teach that salvation is a process which we "work out" (Philippians 2:12) with two primary phases. The first of these phases takes place now, but the second phase does not take place until the resurrection.
In the book of Romans, Paul lays out the two phases of salvation as follows:
"But Elohim commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to Elohim by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
(Romans 5:8-10)
The first phase of salvation is "justification" or "reconciliation". This is the present phase of Salvation, as Paul writes elsewhere:
"For he said, 'I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored you: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.' "
(2 Corinthians 6:2)
"Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Messiah Yeshua before the world began..."
(2 Timothy 1:9)
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Ruach HaKodesh..."
(Titus 3:5)
The second stage of salvation comes in the future, as the Scriptures state repeatedly:
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of YHWH shall be saved."
(Romans 10:13)
"So Messiah was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
(Hebrews 9:28)
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"
(Hebrews 1:14)
So how does this two phase process work?
How often are we asked "are you saved"? or who often do we hear of "the plan of salvation" yet the amazing truth is that the vast majority of people who ask us if we are "saved" or approach us with a "plan of salvation" even know what salvation is or how to get "saved". This booklet will explain to you, from the Scriptures themselves, what salvation really is and how you can be "saved".
When someone asks "are you saved"? the natural question is "saved from what?" "Saved" is a verb that begs for a direct object. Yet many who ask you "are you saved" cannot actually tell you what they mean. What do you need to be saved from? The Scriptures, however, give us a clear answer to this question. At the time of Messiah's birth, his mother Miriam (Mary), following instructions from YHWH, names Messiah "Yeshua" (the Hebrew word for "salvation"). Matthew writes of this event:
"And behold she will bear a son, and you will call his name Yeshua; for he will save his people from all their sins."
(Matthew 1:21)
Here is the answer to our question. Messiah came to save us from all of our sins. Thus Yochanan (John) spoke of Messiah saying:
"And on the day that followed, Yochanan saw Yeshua, who was walking toward him, and said, Behold, the lamb of Eloah who takes away the sin of the world."
(John 1:29)
Messiah came to save us from our sins, to take away the sins of the world. That is what "Salvation" is and what we need to be "saved" from. Moreove this is not a "New Testament" idea, this is an idea drawn right out of the Tanak ("Old Testament"):
"Behold, YHWH's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear; But your iniquities have separated between you and your Elohim, and your sins have hid His face from you, that he will not hear."
(Isaiah 59:1-2)
Man needs to be saved from sin.
Now lets take a moment to examine these words "save" and "salvation". These English words have a lot of baggage attached to them, a lot of theology that has been read into them over the last few centuries, instead of reading theology out of the words. As a result, it can be helpful to translate this same Hebrew word "YESHUA" with other English words that convey its meaning. Other words are "deliver/deliverance" or "rescue". There are two Aramaic words that are used for "salvation" in the Aramaic "New Testament", one of these is CHAI meaning "life, to vivify" and the other is P'RAK which comes from a root meaning "to separate" and invokes the image of one being "rescued" by being "separated" from a threat. In this case we need to be separated from "sin".
Now that we know that "sin" is what Messiah came to deliver (save) us from, we must understand just what "sin" is. Simply put, sin is falling short of observing tht Torah. As the Tanak says:
"And if any one sin, and do any of the things which YHWH has commanded not to be done, though he know it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity."
(Leviticus 5:17)
"But Yahu took no heed to walk in the Torah of YHWH, the Elohim of Yisra'el, with all his heart; he departed not from the sins of Yarov'am, with which he made Yisra'el to sin."
(2 Kings 10:31)
"With my whole heart have I sought You; O let me not err from Your commandments. Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You."
(Psalm 119:10-11)
Perhaps the clearest definition of "sin" is given in the "New Testament" itself:
"Whoever commits sin transgresses also the Torah, for sin is the transgression of the Torah."
(1 John 3:4)
So simply put, "sin" may be defined as "transgression of the Torah". Messiah, then, came to rescue (save) us from transgression of the Torah (Matthew 1:21) and to "take away Torah transgression" (John 1:29).
This is exactly what Scriptural "salvation" is all about, don't trust a thing that I say, look these Scriptures up for yourself! Elohim wants to rescue you from transgressing the Torah by taking away Torah transgression!
But there us a serious problem in being rescued from Torah transgression. The problem is that sin is bred into us. As the Psalmist writes:
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
(Psalm 51:5)
While in Christian culture, a baby is viewed as the picture of innocence, in Jewish (and Scriptural) understanding a baby is the picture of evil. Now you may be culturally shocked at this concept, but allow me to explain. A baby is born only caring about itself and its own needs, it does not have the capacity to care about others. This is the very definition of evil. Ever since the fall of Adam, we have been born with this sinful nature, as Paul writes:
12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13: (For until the Torah sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14: Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moshe, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15: But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of Elohim, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Yeshua the Messiah, has abounded unto many.
16: And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17: For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Yeshua the Messiah.)
18: Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19: For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20: Moreover the Torah entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21: That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5:12-21)
This inclination to do evil is called the Yetzer Ra (evil inclination). The inclination to do good (Yetzer Tov), by contrast, develops in time as one grows older. The result is that there are two natures within man, each struggling for control. Paul writes:
"For we know that the Torah is of the spirit, but I am of the flesh and I am sold to sin... For I rejoice in the Torah of Eloah in the inward son of man."
(Romans 7:14, 22 HRV)
"Because of this, we are not weary, for even if our outer man is corrupted, yet that which [is] inside is renewed day by day."
(2 Corinthians 4:16 HRV)
"For the flesh desires a thing which is opposed to the Spirit and the Spirit desires a thing that is opposed to the flesh and the two of these are opposed to each other, that you do not do the thing which you desire."
(Galatians 5:17 HRV)
The process of salvation begins with justification, but since "salvation" ultimately is the doing away with the sin nature, the second phase of salvation involves the death of Yetzer Ra ("inclination to do evil"). When we die, our Yetzer Ra will die with us, but in the resurrection only our Yetzer Tov will be resurrected with us. Through the death and resurrection of Messiah, we die and are resurrected with him. Through our covenant relationship with Messiah, we are his joint heirs. Thus when our Yetzer Ra dies and only our Yetzer Tov is resurrected, Messiah will have truly rescued us from sin and we shall experience the final phase of salvation: inheritance.
Romans 7:1-7 taken from my translation from the Aramaic:
1: Or do you not know, my brothers, (for I speak to learned ones of the Torah), that the Torah has authority over a man as long as he is alive,
2: As a woman who is bound by the Torah to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, she is freed by the Torah from her husband.
3: And if while her husband is alive she has intercourse with another man, she becomes an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is freed by the Torah; and she is not an adulteress if she marries another.
Paul takes an illustration from Jewish Law. A woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. She cannot marry another as long as he lives (unless he divorces her; she has no right to divorce) until her death.
4: And now, my brothers, you also are dead to the Torah in the body of the Messiah that you might be [married] to another who arose from the place of the dead, that you might bear fruit to Eloah.
As far as the Torah is concerned we die with Messiah and are freed from our former husband (sin) thus allowing us to be brides to Messiah.
5: For while we were in the flesh, the passions of sins that are in the Torah were working in our members, so that we would bear fruit unto death.
6: But now we are brought to an end by the Torah, and we are dead to that which was holding us, that we should serve from now on in the renewal of the spirit and not in the oldness of the writing.
The Torah allows us to be brides either to YHWH or to sin. When we are freed from sin we can become brides to Messiah.
7: What therefore are we saying? Is the Torah sin? Absolutely not! But I did not learn sin except by the hand of the Torah. For I had not known covetousness except that the Torah said, Do not covet.
Paul is concerned that his reader might misunderstand him and think that the Torah is sin and that therefore misunderstand his illustration as teaching that our previous bridegroom was the Torah which we are freed from in order to be bound to Messiah. Absolutely not! Paul says. Sin was our first love and former husband from whom the Torah frees us, but THE TORAH IS NOT SIN (it simply recognizes that we are married either to sin or Messiah) and since the TORAH IS NOT SIN then the Torah is NOT our former husband and we are NOT freed from Torah to be joined to Messiah. In fact the Torah is the instrument that allows us to be married to the Messiah. Without the Torah there is no marriage at all.
Salvation is a process. We receive justification and reconciliation now, but the completion of the process will ultimately involve our death and resurrection, only then will our salvation be complete.
By James Scott Trimm
You may have been told that you are saved, the Scriptures actually teach that salvation is a process which we "work out" (Philippians 2:12) with two primary phases. The first of these phases takes place now, but the second phase does not take place until the resurrection.
In the book of Romans, Paul lays out the two phases of salvation as follows:
"But Elohim commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to Elohim by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."
(Romans 5:8-10)
The first phase of salvation is "justification" or "reconciliation". This is the present phase of Salvation, as Paul writes elsewhere:
"For he said, 'I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored you: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.' "
(2 Corinthians 6:2)
"Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Messiah Yeshua before the world began..."
(2 Timothy 1:9)
"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Ruach HaKodesh..."
(Titus 3:5)
The second stage of salvation comes in the future, as the Scriptures state repeatedly:
"For whosoever shall call upon the name of YHWH shall be saved."
(Romans 10:13)
"So Messiah was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
(Hebrews 9:28)
"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?"
(Hebrews 1:14)
So how does this two phase process work?
How often are we asked "are you saved"? or who often do we hear of "the plan of salvation" yet the amazing truth is that the vast majority of people who ask us if we are "saved" or approach us with a "plan of salvation" even know what salvation is or how to get "saved". This booklet will explain to you, from the Scriptures themselves, what salvation really is and how you can be "saved".
When someone asks "are you saved"? the natural question is "saved from what?" "Saved" is a verb that begs for a direct object. Yet many who ask you "are you saved" cannot actually tell you what they mean. What do you need to be saved from? The Scriptures, however, give us a clear answer to this question. At the time of Messiah's birth, his mother Miriam (Mary), following instructions from YHWH, names Messiah "Yeshua" (the Hebrew word for "salvation"). Matthew writes of this event:
"And behold she will bear a son, and you will call his name Yeshua; for he will save his people from all their sins."
(Matthew 1:21)
Here is the answer to our question. Messiah came to save us from all of our sins. Thus Yochanan (John) spoke of Messiah saying:
"And on the day that followed, Yochanan saw Yeshua, who was walking toward him, and said, Behold, the lamb of Eloah who takes away the sin of the world."
(John 1:29)
Messiah came to save us from our sins, to take away the sins of the world. That is what "Salvation" is and what we need to be "saved" from. Moreove this is not a "New Testament" idea, this is an idea drawn right out of the Tanak ("Old Testament"):
"Behold, YHWH's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear; But your iniquities have separated between you and your Elohim, and your sins have hid His face from you, that he will not hear."
(Isaiah 59:1-2)
Man needs to be saved from sin.
Now lets take a moment to examine these words "save" and "salvation". These English words have a lot of baggage attached to them, a lot of theology that has been read into them over the last few centuries, instead of reading theology out of the words. As a result, it can be helpful to translate this same Hebrew word "YESHUA" with other English words that convey its meaning. Other words are "deliver/deliverance" or "rescue". There are two Aramaic words that are used for "salvation" in the Aramaic "New Testament", one of these is CHAI meaning "life, to vivify" and the other is P'RAK which comes from a root meaning "to separate" and invokes the image of one being "rescued" by being "separated" from a threat. In this case we need to be separated from "sin".
Now that we know that "sin" is what Messiah came to deliver (save) us from, we must understand just what "sin" is. Simply put, sin is falling short of observing tht Torah. As the Tanak says:
"And if any one sin, and do any of the things which YHWH has commanded not to be done, though he know it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity."
(Leviticus 5:17)
"But Yahu took no heed to walk in the Torah of YHWH, the Elohim of Yisra'el, with all his heart; he departed not from the sins of Yarov'am, with which he made Yisra'el to sin."
(2 Kings 10:31)
"With my whole heart have I sought You; O let me not err from Your commandments. Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You."
(Psalm 119:10-11)
Perhaps the clearest definition of "sin" is given in the "New Testament" itself:
"Whoever commits sin transgresses also the Torah, for sin is the transgression of the Torah."
(1 John 3:4)
So simply put, "sin" may be defined as "transgression of the Torah". Messiah, then, came to rescue (save) us from transgression of the Torah (Matthew 1:21) and to "take away Torah transgression" (John 1:29).
This is exactly what Scriptural "salvation" is all about, don't trust a thing that I say, look these Scriptures up for yourself! Elohim wants to rescue you from transgressing the Torah by taking away Torah transgression!
But there us a serious problem in being rescued from Torah transgression. The problem is that sin is bred into us. As the Psalmist writes:
"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
(Psalm 51:5)
While in Christian culture, a baby is viewed as the picture of innocence, in Jewish (and Scriptural) understanding a baby is the picture of evil. Now you may be culturally shocked at this concept, but allow me to explain. A baby is born only caring about itself and its own needs, it does not have the capacity to care about others. This is the very definition of evil. Ever since the fall of Adam, we have been born with this sinful nature, as Paul writes:
12: Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13: (For until the Torah sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14: Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moshe, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.
15: But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of Elohim, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Yeshua the Messiah, has abounded unto many.
16: And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.
17: For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Yeshua the Messiah.)
18: Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
19: For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
20: Moreover the Torah entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
21: That as sin has reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Romans 5:12-21)
This inclination to do evil is called the Yetzer Ra (evil inclination). The inclination to do good (Yetzer Tov), by contrast, develops in time as one grows older. The result is that there are two natures within man, each struggling for control. Paul writes:
"For we know that the Torah is of the spirit, but I am of the flesh and I am sold to sin... For I rejoice in the Torah of Eloah in the inward son of man."
(Romans 7:14, 22 HRV)
"Because of this, we are not weary, for even if our outer man is corrupted, yet that which [is] inside is renewed day by day."
(2 Corinthians 4:16 HRV)
"For the flesh desires a thing which is opposed to the Spirit and the Spirit desires a thing that is opposed to the flesh and the two of these are opposed to each other, that you do not do the thing which you desire."
(Galatians 5:17 HRV)
The process of salvation begins with justification, but since "salvation" ultimately is the doing away with the sin nature, the second phase of salvation involves the death of Yetzer Ra ("inclination to do evil"). When we die, our Yetzer Ra will die with us, but in the resurrection only our Yetzer Tov will be resurrected with us. Through the death and resurrection of Messiah, we die and are resurrected with him. Through our covenant relationship with Messiah, we are his joint heirs. Thus when our Yetzer Ra dies and only our Yetzer Tov is resurrected, Messiah will have truly rescued us from sin and we shall experience the final phase of salvation: inheritance.
Romans 7:1-7 taken from my translation from the Aramaic:
1: Or do you not know, my brothers, (for I speak to learned ones of the Torah), that the Torah has authority over a man as long as he is alive,
2: As a woman who is bound by the Torah to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, she is freed by the Torah from her husband.
3: And if while her husband is alive she has intercourse with another man, she becomes an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is freed by the Torah; and she is not an adulteress if she marries another.
Paul takes an illustration from Jewish Law. A woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. She cannot marry another as long as he lives (unless he divorces her; she has no right to divorce) until her death.
4: And now, my brothers, you also are dead to the Torah in the body of the Messiah that you might be [married] to another who arose from the place of the dead, that you might bear fruit to Eloah.
As far as the Torah is concerned we die with Messiah and are freed from our former husband (sin) thus allowing us to be brides to Messiah.
5: For while we were in the flesh, the passions of sins that are in the Torah were working in our members, so that we would bear fruit unto death.
6: But now we are brought to an end by the Torah, and we are dead to that which was holding us, that we should serve from now on in the renewal of the spirit and not in the oldness of the writing.
The Torah allows us to be brides either to YHWH or to sin. When we are freed from sin we can become brides to Messiah.
7: What therefore are we saying? Is the Torah sin? Absolutely not! But I did not learn sin except by the hand of the Torah. For I had not known covetousness except that the Torah said, Do not covet.
Paul is concerned that his reader might misunderstand him and think that the Torah is sin and that therefore misunderstand his illustration as teaching that our previous bridegroom was the Torah which we are freed from in order to be bound to Messiah. Absolutely not! Paul says. Sin was our first love and former husband from whom the Torah frees us, but THE TORAH IS NOT SIN (it simply recognizes that we are married either to sin or Messiah) and since the TORAH IS NOT SIN then the Torah is NOT our former husband and we are NOT freed from Torah to be joined to Messiah. In fact the Torah is the instrument that allows us to be married to the Messiah. Without the Torah there is no marriage at all.
Salvation is a process. We receive justification and reconciliation now, but the completion of the process will ultimately involve our death and resurrection, only then will our salvation be complete.
What do you Mean… “Church”?
By James Scott Trimm
There has been a great deal of confusion over the years over what the "church" is. Some have taught that the Church is a new entity which replaces Israel. Others have taught that the Church is a new body which is totally independent of Israel. Still others have taught that the Church and Israel are two different but overlapping entities. With all of the misconceptions about the identity of the "Church" the time has come to set the story straight and reveal what the "Church" really is.
The English word "Church" comes originally from the Old English word KIRKE. The Old English word KIRKE was the word the Anglo-Saxons used to refer to their pagan places of worship. When they became Christianized the Anglo-Saxons continued to call their places of worship KIRKES and as the language evolved "Churches". You may have heard that the word "Church" originally referred to the people and later came to refer to the building. This is not true. The word "Church" originally referred to the building and later came to refer to the people. Moreover the word "church" is of pagan origin.
Now if you look up the English word "Church" in Webster's dictionary you will find the following meanings:
A building set apart or consecrated for public worship, esp. one for Christian worship.
All Christians as a whole.
A denomination of Christians.
In short a "church" is either a building or a group of Christians.
Now wherever we see the English word "church" in an English Bible we would expect the underlying Greek word would be a Greek word that also means "a group of Christians". Since the English uses such a technical theological term one would expect that the Greek has also used a technical theological term. But the reality is that the Greek word that appears wherever the English has "church" is not a technical theological term and DOES NOT mean "a group of Christians" at all. That’s right, a technical theological term of pagan origin meaning "a group of Christians" has been inserted in your English Bible despite the fact that the corresponding Greek word is not a technical theological term and does not mean the same thing as the word "Church".
The Greek word that appears where our English Bible's have "church" is EKKLESIA. EKKLESIA is just the Greek word for "assembly". Although it comes from a root meaning "to call out" there is no special theological significance to this word. In fact this is the same Greek word which was used for "assembly" by the classical Pagan Greek writers. Inscriptions in ancient Greek auditoriums where pagan ritual dramas were performed by the Bachus cult have the audience section inscribed with the sign "EKKLESIA". This same Greek word EKKLESIA is used throughout the Greek Septuagint translation of the Tanak as the word for "assembly". There are also many places where the Greek word EKKLESIA appears in the NT but which the KJV and other translators did NOT translate the word as "church". This same Greek word is even used in Acts 19:32-41 to describe an unruly mob, yet here the translators suddenly translate the word as "assembly" rather than "church".
There is therefore no such thing as the "church" because the Greek word translated "church" does not mean "church" at all but "assembly".
Now there are some who claim that the "Church" was a new entity born in Acts 2 at Pentecost of 32 C.E. . However if we examine the events of Acts 2 we find that at that event persons were "added to" the "church" (Acts 2:47) which means that the "church" had to have already existed at that time. If we turn to Acts 7:38 we see that it speaks of Moses as "he that was in the church in the wilderness". Certainly this "church" could not have been a new "New Testament" entity.
Now while the term "church" is a mistranslation for a word simply meaning "assembly", there is an entity which is commonly referred to as "The Assembly" in the New Testament. Let us examine the Scriptures and determine what the true identity of this "Assembly" is.
To begin with we must understand that this Assembly is also known as the "Body of Messiah" as we read:
"And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence."
(Colossians 1:18 - KJV)
"And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
(Ephesians 1:22-23 - KJV)
Now one may ask what "Assembly" is the allegorical Messiah? To find the answer to that question lets look at Matthew 2:14-15:
"When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 'Out of Egypt have I called my son.' "
(Matthew 2:14-15 - KJV)
Now here Matthew is citing a prophecy in Hosea 11:1 and applying it to Messiah. Now let us go back and look at this prophecy in Hosea 11:1 in context:
"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt."
(Hosea 11:1 - KJV)
Here Hosea is referring to Israel as the son who is called out of Egypt. This points us back to a passage in the Torah:
"And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, 'Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.' "
(Exodus 4:22-23 - KJV)
From these two passages we learn that Israel is the firstborn son of Elohim who is called out of Egypt. However in Matthew it is Yeshua the Messiah who is called up out of Egypt and in Col. 1:18 Messiah is the "firstborn". Moreover Hebrews speaks of the "church of the firstborn" (Hebrews 12:23 - KJV).
Thus Israel is allegorically equivalent to the Messiah. There are some very important reasons for this allegorical relationship:
Both are the "firstborn Son of Elohim".
Both made a major impact on the world.
Both were born through a biological miracle on their mother's womb.
Both were taken into Egypt to save their lives.
Both were called up out of Egypt.
Both were despised and rejected by men.
Rome attempted to destroy them both.
Both are resurrected.
Thus Israel is the allegorical "Body of Messiah". Moreover in the Tanak, Israel is commonly called "The Assembly of Israel" and wherever the phrase "The Assembly of Israel" appears in the Tanak the Greek LXX has "EKKLESIA of Israel".
The so-called "church" which is the "Body of Messiah" is in reality "the Assembly of Israel". Yeshua did not come to create a new religion, but to be Messiah of the old one. Wherever your English New Testament refers to a "church" (i.e. a group of Christians) the Greek has "EKKLESIA a term which commonly refers to the "Assembly of Israel". The "Church" as most Christians have understood it never existed. All of the passage people have thought were talking about the "Church" were actually talking about the Assembly of Israel, not Christianity, but the Nazarene sect of Judaism.
By James Scott Trimm
There has been a great deal of confusion over the years over what the "church" is. Some have taught that the Church is a new entity which replaces Israel. Others have taught that the Church is a new body which is totally independent of Israel. Still others have taught that the Church and Israel are two different but overlapping entities. With all of the misconceptions about the identity of the "Church" the time has come to set the story straight and reveal what the "Church" really is.
The English word "Church" comes originally from the Old English word KIRKE. The Old English word KIRKE was the word the Anglo-Saxons used to refer to their pagan places of worship. When they became Christianized the Anglo-Saxons continued to call their places of worship KIRKES and as the language evolved "Churches". You may have heard that the word "Church" originally referred to the people and later came to refer to the building. This is not true. The word "Church" originally referred to the building and later came to refer to the people. Moreover the word "church" is of pagan origin.
Now if you look up the English word "Church" in Webster's dictionary you will find the following meanings:
A building set apart or consecrated for public worship, esp. one for Christian worship.
All Christians as a whole.
A denomination of Christians.
In short a "church" is either a building or a group of Christians.
Now wherever we see the English word "church" in an English Bible we would expect the underlying Greek word would be a Greek word that also means "a group of Christians". Since the English uses such a technical theological term one would expect that the Greek has also used a technical theological term. But the reality is that the Greek word that appears wherever the English has "church" is not a technical theological term and DOES NOT mean "a group of Christians" at all. That’s right, a technical theological term of pagan origin meaning "a group of Christians" has been inserted in your English Bible despite the fact that the corresponding Greek word is not a technical theological term and does not mean the same thing as the word "Church".
The Greek word that appears where our English Bible's have "church" is EKKLESIA. EKKLESIA is just the Greek word for "assembly". Although it comes from a root meaning "to call out" there is no special theological significance to this word. In fact this is the same Greek word which was used for "assembly" by the classical Pagan Greek writers. Inscriptions in ancient Greek auditoriums where pagan ritual dramas were performed by the Bachus cult have the audience section inscribed with the sign "EKKLESIA". This same Greek word EKKLESIA is used throughout the Greek Septuagint translation of the Tanak as the word for "assembly". There are also many places where the Greek word EKKLESIA appears in the NT but which the KJV and other translators did NOT translate the word as "church". This same Greek word is even used in Acts 19:32-41 to describe an unruly mob, yet here the translators suddenly translate the word as "assembly" rather than "church".
There is therefore no such thing as the "church" because the Greek word translated "church" does not mean "church" at all but "assembly".
Now there are some who claim that the "Church" was a new entity born in Acts 2 at Pentecost of 32 C.E. . However if we examine the events of Acts 2 we find that at that event persons were "added to" the "church" (Acts 2:47) which means that the "church" had to have already existed at that time. If we turn to Acts 7:38 we see that it speaks of Moses as "he that was in the church in the wilderness". Certainly this "church" could not have been a new "New Testament" entity.
Now while the term "church" is a mistranslation for a word simply meaning "assembly", there is an entity which is commonly referred to as "The Assembly" in the New Testament. Let us examine the Scriptures and determine what the true identity of this "Assembly" is.
To begin with we must understand that this Assembly is also known as the "Body of Messiah" as we read:
"And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence."
(Colossians 1:18 - KJV)
"And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
(Ephesians 1:22-23 - KJV)
Now one may ask what "Assembly" is the allegorical Messiah? To find the answer to that question lets look at Matthew 2:14-15:
"When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, 'Out of Egypt have I called my son.' "
(Matthew 2:14-15 - KJV)
Now here Matthew is citing a prophecy in Hosea 11:1 and applying it to Messiah. Now let us go back and look at this prophecy in Hosea 11:1 in context:
"When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt."
(Hosea 11:1 - KJV)
Here Hosea is referring to Israel as the son who is called out of Egypt. This points us back to a passage in the Torah:
"And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, 'Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.' "
(Exodus 4:22-23 - KJV)
From these two passages we learn that Israel is the firstborn son of Elohim who is called out of Egypt. However in Matthew it is Yeshua the Messiah who is called up out of Egypt and in Col. 1:18 Messiah is the "firstborn". Moreover Hebrews speaks of the "church of the firstborn" (Hebrews 12:23 - KJV).
Thus Israel is allegorically equivalent to the Messiah. There are some very important reasons for this allegorical relationship:
Both are the "firstborn Son of Elohim".
Both made a major impact on the world.
Both were born through a biological miracle on their mother's womb.
Both were taken into Egypt to save their lives.
Both were called up out of Egypt.
Both were despised and rejected by men.
Rome attempted to destroy them both.
Both are resurrected.
Thus Israel is the allegorical "Body of Messiah". Moreover in the Tanak, Israel is commonly called "The Assembly of Israel" and wherever the phrase "The Assembly of Israel" appears in the Tanak the Greek LXX has "EKKLESIA of Israel".
The so-called "church" which is the "Body of Messiah" is in reality "the Assembly of Israel". Yeshua did not come to create a new religion, but to be Messiah of the old one. Wherever your English New Testament refers to a "church" (i.e. a group of Christians) the Greek has "EKKLESIA a term which commonly refers to the "Assembly of Israel". The "Church" as most Christians have understood it never existed. All of the passage people have thought were talking about the "Church" were actually talking about the Assembly of Israel, not Christianity, but the Nazarene sect of Judaism.
Proof that Yeshua is the Messiah
By James Trimm
Yeshua MUST be Messiah (regardless of whether or not any other "Messianic Prophecies" are validly speaking of Yeshua)
Isaiah 29 ties the apostasy of Judah to a sealed book (29:10-12) but with the revealing of that sealed book comes an enlightenment and restoration (29:18).
Now it is very important to realize that according to Isaiah 29 our people (Judah) are in a state of general blindness/slumber until the sealed book is revealed (29:10-14, 18).
Now Isaiah does not tell us what the book is or when it is revealed. However that information is given elswhere in the Tanak. Daniel writes of his own book:
But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book to the time of the end... Go your way Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end."
(Daniel 12:4, 10)
So this "sealed book" would seem to be at least in part, the Book of Daniel and it seems to be come unsealed in the last days. Remember Daniel wrote after the days of Isaiah so Daniel knew about the sealed book of Isaiah 29:10-12, 18 when he wrote Daniel 12:4, 10.
So lets bring together Isaiah 29:10-14, 18 with Daniel 12:4, 10. What do we learn from these two sections of the Tanak taken together? We learn that our people Judah are in an apostasy until some information hidden in the Book of Daniel (and perhaps some other books) is revealed in the last days and the revealing of that information opens their eyes.
This means that mainline Judaism is in apostasy but in the last days there is a restoration of Judah when certain hidden (sealed) information in Daniel is revealed.
So what information is sealed in Daniel? The restoration of our people is usually tied to Messiah... could this hidden information in Daniel relate to the identity of Messiah?
Interesting the Talmud states:
The Targum of the Prophets was composed by Jonathon ben Uzziel under the guidance of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi... and a Bat Kol (voice from heaven) came forth and exclaimed, "Who is this that has revealed My secrets to mankind?"... He further sought to reveal by a Targum the inner meaning of the Ketuvim, but a bat kol went forth and said, "Enough!". What was the reason?-- Because the date of the Messiah is foretold in it.
(Babylonian Talmud; b.Megillah 3a)
Now the only prophetic book of the Ketuvim is Daniel and this is also a book of the Ketuvim for which no Targum was evr made. The following quote from Josephus also supports the theory that Daniel is the book in question:
We believe that Daniel conversed with God; for he did not only prophecy of future events, as did the other prophets, but also determined the time of their accomplishment.
(Josephus; Antiquities 10:11:7)
Now the Qumran community found just this information (the time of the Messiah) in the Book of Daniel:
The visitation is the Day of Salvation that He has decreed through Isaiah the prophet concerning all the captives, inasmuch as Scripture says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion "Your ELOHIM reigns"." (Isaiah 52;7)
This scriptures interpretation : "the mountains" are the prophets, they who were sent to proclaim God`s truth and to prophesy to all Israel. "The messengers" is the Anointed of the spirit, of whom Daniel spoke; "After the sixty-two weeks, a Messiah shall be cut off" (Daniel 9;26, from 11Q13)
So now we have learned that there is good reason to believe that the sealed information in the Book of Daniel which opens the eyes of Judah when it is revealed in the last days is the time of Messiah sealed up in Daniel 9:24-27.
Now lets recap:
Anyone can see from Isaiah 29 that the apostasy of Judah ends with the revealing of a sealed book.
Anyone can see from Daniel 12 that this sealed book is (at least in part) the Book of Daniel.
Anyone can see that the information sealed up in Daniel is (at least in part) the time of Messiah.
Anyone can see that this information is to be found in Daniel 9.
Daniel 9 unsealed
1: In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
2: In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Daniel has been doing some Tanak study. He has been reading Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10. He has read about the 70 year exile.
The reason for a 70 year captivity had been that YHWH was punishing us for having forsaken the Torah. He punished us with the curses of Deuteronomy 28-29 and Leviticus 26 as the Torah had warned us. The key issue here was that of the violation of the Sabbath of the Land (Exodus 21:2; 23:11; Leviticus.
25:2, 20; 26:2, 34; Deuteronomy 15:1)
According to the Torah, if we as a people did not keep the sabbath of the land every seven years we would be cursed (Leviticus 26:34)
3: And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
4: And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
5: We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
6: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7: O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
8: O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
9: To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
10: Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11: Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
12: And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
13: As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
14: Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
15: And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
17: Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
19: O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Daniel is very concerned. It has been 70 years and he wants to go home! He is a very old man by now. But he has worried because he knows his Torah. He knows that the Torah warns that if Israel still does not repent after the curse is inacted that Israel will have the punishment multiplied by seven (Lev. 26:18) Daniel is hoping that YHWH will not be enacting the next level punishment. For that would mean 70 * 7 or another 490 years!
20: And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21: Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22: And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23: At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Daniel learns that there will indeed be at least another 490 years of curses for Israel. The "weeks" here are not seven DAYS but seven YEARS. In fact the Hebrew word here actually just means "seven [somethings]"
25: Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
7 "weeks" here would be 49 years (a Jubilee cycle) plus theeescore and two weeks (3*20+2=62) is 69 "weeks" or 483 years.
But remember we are not counting years here but actual sabbath year cycles which are specific seven year blocks. In other words this is actually a count of how many sabbath year cycle blocks fall between these two points.
Our starting point is "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" which is Ezra 7:11-16 and gives us a start date of 457 BCE. Between that date and the Messiah 69 sabbath year cycle blocks would fall.
26: And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Messiah is cut off after ther 62 "weeks" which follow the 7 weeks. This elaboration allows us to see that the division of these two blocks (the 7 weeks and the 62 weeks) was to show that after the 7 weeks "the street shall be built again, and the wall" but the Messiah would not come until after the 62 week block following that.
The Messiah would be "cut off" at that time. This is an idiom meaning that he would be executed. He would not be executed for himself, but for others. Then the people of a prince destroy Jerusalem after that time.
27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Remember there were 490 years or 70 "weeks" but we have so far covered only 483 (or 69 "weeks").
This is because the big test of our trust in YHWH is the Sabbath of the land. This is where Israel SHOWS our trust in YHWH by trusting him to provide. The curse would not end until we reinstitute the sabbath of the land (2 Chronicles 36:21).
So YHWH in his infinite mercy would send the Messiah seven years BEFORE the 490 years would end to call us to repent and return to Torah in time to reinstitute the sabbath of the land BEFORE the 490 years are over. (See my paper THE KINGDOM OFFER)
The curse will not end until we as a people repent and show that by reinstituting the sabbath of the land. When we do that we will finally kick off the last seven years of the curse we have lived with all of this time.
There is so much to learn from this chapter. Including the nature of the Kingdom offer and the layout of the last seven years. But most importantly is the time that the Messiah would come and be "cut off".
Now if our start point is 457 BCE and 69 "weeks" must fall between this point and the death of Messiah, then Messiah would have to be executed sometime in a window from 26 C.E. to 40 C.E. (depending on how the sabbath year cycles fall).
So if Yeshua was NOT the Messiah that would be "cut off, but not for himself" during that window... then who was?
Messaih would be executed in a window of time somewhere between 26 and 44 C.E.. And he would arive in accordance to the completion of a series of sabbath-year-cycles and jubilee cycles. Now these cycles indicate "the year of release". So lets look for more clues about this Messiah who is cut off at such a time.
Lets look at Isaiah 60:22-61:2.
"A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I YHWH will hasten it in its time."
(Isaiah 60:22)
"A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation:" is the Kingdom represented by a stone in Daniel 2:34-35, 45 which "became a great mountain and filled the whole earth" (Daniel 3:35).
"I YHWH will hasten it in its time." refers to the "Kingdom offer".
"The Spirit of Adonai YHWH is upon me; because YHWH has anointed me to proclaim good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of YHWH, and the day of vengeance of our ELOHIM, to comfrort all who mourn."
(Isaiah 61:1-2)
Here we have an anointed one, a "Messiah" who comes in accordance with the jubilee and seven year cycles to proclaim liberty to captives. It is also significant as we will soon find that he makes this proclomation to "Zion" (Isaiah 61:3). This Messiah comes to REDEEM.
Lets see if Isaiah speaks any more about this figure who makes a proclomation of redemption to Zion. In Isaiah 52:7 we also read about a figure who also proclaims good tidings to Zion. This proclomation appears in Isaiah 53 and also involves one who comes to redeem (Isaiah 53:4-5, 11-12) and is cut off, but not for himself (53:8; 53:4-5, 11-12) just like the figure in Daniel. The figure must be the Messiah of Daniel 9 and Isaiah 61.
I wonder how this Messiah dies? Perhaps the prophets give me some clue. Zechariah writes:
"...they shall look upon me whom they have pierced..."
(Zechariah 12:10)
According to both the Talmud (b.Sukkot 52a) and the Targum, this "pierced one" is the Messiah. Now Zechariah 12:10 takes place at the coming of Messiah as king, but they notice that he was the same one whom they had "pierced" or "thrust through". Lets read on and see if Zechariah gives us any clues as to who this is and just how he was pierced. As we read further Zechariah 12:10-14 speaks of the people mourning over having pierced this guy. Zechariah 13:1-4 takes place at the intiation of the Messianic age. The Messiah is judging idolaters and false prophets. No wonder they are now mourning over this pierced one! Then in verses 5-6 we get a detailed scene of one of these judgements:
"And he shall say, 'I am no prophet, I am a husbandman; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.' And he [the defendant] shall say to him [Messiah], 'What are these wounds in your hands?' Then he [the Messiah] shall answer: 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.' "
Zechariah 13:5-6
Zechariah 13:6 points us back to 12:10 regarding how they mourn when they see he is the pierced one.
So now we have a Messiah who would be "cut off" sometime between 26 and 44 C.E. not for himself but to redeem others. This execution would involve having his hands pierced.
Now lets look at Zechariah 13:2. Notice that this guy will "cut off the names of the idols out of the land" (13:2). Sounds like the same guy about whom Micah 5:13 says "Your graven images also will I cut off". This guy is born in Beit-Lechem (Bethlehem) according to Micah 5:2 (and the Targum to Micah 5:2 says this is Messiah).
In summation
According to Isaiah 29 our people (Judah) are in a state of general blindness/slumber until the sealed book is revealed (29:10-14, 18).
Daniel tells us that his book is sealed until the last days (Daniel 12)
The sealed information in Daniel's book would appear to be the time of Messiah in Daniel 9.
Daniel 9 unsealed reveals to us that Messiah would be "cut off" for others sometime between 26 and 44 CE.
This passage points us to various other prophecies about this figure which also tell us that he is born in Beit-Lechem, and executed by having his hands pierced.
Who could this be?
By James Trimm
Yeshua MUST be Messiah (regardless of whether or not any other "Messianic Prophecies" are validly speaking of Yeshua)
Isaiah 29 ties the apostasy of Judah to a sealed book (29:10-12) but with the revealing of that sealed book comes an enlightenment and restoration (29:18).
Now it is very important to realize that according to Isaiah 29 our people (Judah) are in a state of general blindness/slumber until the sealed book is revealed (29:10-14, 18).
Now Isaiah does not tell us what the book is or when it is revealed. However that information is given elswhere in the Tanak. Daniel writes of his own book:
But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book to the time of the end... Go your way Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end."
(Daniel 12:4, 10)
So this "sealed book" would seem to be at least in part, the Book of Daniel and it seems to be come unsealed in the last days. Remember Daniel wrote after the days of Isaiah so Daniel knew about the sealed book of Isaiah 29:10-12, 18 when he wrote Daniel 12:4, 10.
So lets bring together Isaiah 29:10-14, 18 with Daniel 12:4, 10. What do we learn from these two sections of the Tanak taken together? We learn that our people Judah are in an apostasy until some information hidden in the Book of Daniel (and perhaps some other books) is revealed in the last days and the revealing of that information opens their eyes.
This means that mainline Judaism is in apostasy but in the last days there is a restoration of Judah when certain hidden (sealed) information in Daniel is revealed.
So what information is sealed in Daniel? The restoration of our people is usually tied to Messiah... could this hidden information in Daniel relate to the identity of Messiah?
Interesting the Talmud states:
The Targum of the Prophets was composed by Jonathon ben Uzziel under the guidance of Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi... and a Bat Kol (voice from heaven) came forth and exclaimed, "Who is this that has revealed My secrets to mankind?"... He further sought to reveal by a Targum the inner meaning of the Ketuvim, but a bat kol went forth and said, "Enough!". What was the reason?-- Because the date of the Messiah is foretold in it.
(Babylonian Talmud; b.Megillah 3a)
Now the only prophetic book of the Ketuvim is Daniel and this is also a book of the Ketuvim for which no Targum was evr made. The following quote from Josephus also supports the theory that Daniel is the book in question:
We believe that Daniel conversed with God; for he did not only prophecy of future events, as did the other prophets, but also determined the time of their accomplishment.
(Josephus; Antiquities 10:11:7)
Now the Qumran community found just this information (the time of the Messiah) in the Book of Daniel:
The visitation is the Day of Salvation that He has decreed through Isaiah the prophet concerning all the captives, inasmuch as Scripture says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion "Your ELOHIM reigns"." (Isaiah 52;7)
This scriptures interpretation : "the mountains" are the prophets, they who were sent to proclaim God`s truth and to prophesy to all Israel. "The messengers" is the Anointed of the spirit, of whom Daniel spoke; "After the sixty-two weeks, a Messiah shall be cut off" (Daniel 9;26, from 11Q13)
So now we have learned that there is good reason to believe that the sealed information in the Book of Daniel which opens the eyes of Judah when it is revealed in the last days is the time of Messiah sealed up in Daniel 9:24-27.
Now lets recap:
Anyone can see from Isaiah 29 that the apostasy of Judah ends with the revealing of a sealed book.
Anyone can see from Daniel 12 that this sealed book is (at least in part) the Book of Daniel.
Anyone can see that the information sealed up in Daniel is (at least in part) the time of Messiah.
Anyone can see that this information is to be found in Daniel 9.
Daniel 9 unsealed
1: In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;
2: In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.
Daniel has been doing some Tanak study. He has been reading Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10. He has read about the 70 year exile.
The reason for a 70 year captivity had been that YHWH was punishing us for having forsaken the Torah. He punished us with the curses of Deuteronomy 28-29 and Leviticus 26 as the Torah had warned us. The key issue here was that of the violation of the Sabbath of the Land (Exodus 21:2; 23:11; Leviticus.
25:2, 20; 26:2, 34; Deuteronomy 15:1)
According to the Torah, if we as a people did not keep the sabbath of the land every seven years we would be cursed (Leviticus 26:34)
3: And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:
4: And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
5: We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
6: Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
7: O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
8: O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
9: To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him;
10: Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets.
11: Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
12: And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
13: As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
14: Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.
15: And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.
16 O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
17: Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
18 O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
19: O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Daniel is very concerned. It has been 70 years and he wants to go home! He is a very old man by now. But he has worried because he knows his Torah. He knows that the Torah warns that if Israel still does not repent after the curse is inacted that Israel will have the punishment multiplied by seven (Lev. 26:18) Daniel is hoping that YHWH will not be enacting the next level punishment. For that would mean 70 * 7 or another 490 years!
20: And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
21: Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22: And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23: At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.
24: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Daniel learns that there will indeed be at least another 490 years of curses for Israel. The "weeks" here are not seven DAYS but seven YEARS. In fact the Hebrew word here actually just means "seven [somethings]"
25: Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
7 "weeks" here would be 49 years (a Jubilee cycle) plus theeescore and two weeks (3*20+2=62) is 69 "weeks" or 483 years.
But remember we are not counting years here but actual sabbath year cycles which are specific seven year blocks. In other words this is actually a count of how many sabbath year cycle blocks fall between these two points.
Our starting point is "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem" which is Ezra 7:11-16 and gives us a start date of 457 BCE. Between that date and the Messiah 69 sabbath year cycle blocks would fall.
26: And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Messiah is cut off after ther 62 "weeks" which follow the 7 weeks. This elaboration allows us to see that the division of these two blocks (the 7 weeks and the 62 weeks) was to show that after the 7 weeks "the street shall be built again, and the wall" but the Messiah would not come until after the 62 week block following that.
The Messiah would be "cut off" at that time. This is an idiom meaning that he would be executed. He would not be executed for himself, but for others. Then the people of a prince destroy Jerusalem after that time.
27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Remember there were 490 years or 70 "weeks" but we have so far covered only 483 (or 69 "weeks").
This is because the big test of our trust in YHWH is the Sabbath of the land. This is where Israel SHOWS our trust in YHWH by trusting him to provide. The curse would not end until we reinstitute the sabbath of the land (2 Chronicles 36:21).
So YHWH in his infinite mercy would send the Messiah seven years BEFORE the 490 years would end to call us to repent and return to Torah in time to reinstitute the sabbath of the land BEFORE the 490 years are over. (See my paper THE KINGDOM OFFER)
The curse will not end until we as a people repent and show that by reinstituting the sabbath of the land. When we do that we will finally kick off the last seven years of the curse we have lived with all of this time.
There is so much to learn from this chapter. Including the nature of the Kingdom offer and the layout of the last seven years. But most importantly is the time that the Messiah would come and be "cut off".
Now if our start point is 457 BCE and 69 "weeks" must fall between this point and the death of Messiah, then Messiah would have to be executed sometime in a window from 26 C.E. to 40 C.E. (depending on how the sabbath year cycles fall).
So if Yeshua was NOT the Messiah that would be "cut off, but not for himself" during that window... then who was?
Messaih would be executed in a window of time somewhere between 26 and 44 C.E.. And he would arive in accordance to the completion of a series of sabbath-year-cycles and jubilee cycles. Now these cycles indicate "the year of release". So lets look for more clues about this Messiah who is cut off at such a time.
Lets look at Isaiah 60:22-61:2.
"A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I YHWH will hasten it in its time."
(Isaiah 60:22)
"A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation:" is the Kingdom represented by a stone in Daniel 2:34-35, 45 which "became a great mountain and filled the whole earth" (Daniel 3:35).
"I YHWH will hasten it in its time." refers to the "Kingdom offer".
"The Spirit of Adonai YHWH is upon me; because YHWH has anointed me to proclaim good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of YHWH, and the day of vengeance of our ELOHIM, to comfrort all who mourn."
(Isaiah 61:1-2)
Here we have an anointed one, a "Messiah" who comes in accordance with the jubilee and seven year cycles to proclaim liberty to captives. It is also significant as we will soon find that he makes this proclomation to "Zion" (Isaiah 61:3). This Messiah comes to REDEEM.
Lets see if Isaiah speaks any more about this figure who makes a proclomation of redemption to Zion. In Isaiah 52:7 we also read about a figure who also proclaims good tidings to Zion. This proclomation appears in Isaiah 53 and also involves one who comes to redeem (Isaiah 53:4-5, 11-12) and is cut off, but not for himself (53:8; 53:4-5, 11-12) just like the figure in Daniel. The figure must be the Messiah of Daniel 9 and Isaiah 61.
I wonder how this Messiah dies? Perhaps the prophets give me some clue. Zechariah writes:
"...they shall look upon me whom they have pierced..."
(Zechariah 12:10)
According to both the Talmud (b.Sukkot 52a) and the Targum, this "pierced one" is the Messiah. Now Zechariah 12:10 takes place at the coming of Messiah as king, but they notice that he was the same one whom they had "pierced" or "thrust through". Lets read on and see if Zechariah gives us any clues as to who this is and just how he was pierced. As we read further Zechariah 12:10-14 speaks of the people mourning over having pierced this guy. Zechariah 13:1-4 takes place at the intiation of the Messianic age. The Messiah is judging idolaters and false prophets. No wonder they are now mourning over this pierced one! Then in verses 5-6 we get a detailed scene of one of these judgements:
"And he shall say, 'I am no prophet, I am a husbandman; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.' And he [the defendant] shall say to him [Messiah], 'What are these wounds in your hands?' Then he [the Messiah] shall answer: 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.' "
Zechariah 13:5-6
Zechariah 13:6 points us back to 12:10 regarding how they mourn when they see he is the pierced one.
So now we have a Messiah who would be "cut off" sometime between 26 and 44 C.E. not for himself but to redeem others. This execution would involve having his hands pierced.
Now lets look at Zechariah 13:2. Notice that this guy will "cut off the names of the idols out of the land" (13:2). Sounds like the same guy about whom Micah 5:13 says "Your graven images also will I cut off". This guy is born in Beit-Lechem (Bethlehem) according to Micah 5:2 (and the Targum to Micah 5:2 says this is Messiah).
In summation
According to Isaiah 29 our people (Judah) are in a state of general blindness/slumber until the sealed book is revealed (29:10-14, 18).
Daniel tells us that his book is sealed until the last days (Daniel 12)
The sealed information in Daniel's book would appear to be the time of Messiah in Daniel 9.
Daniel 9 unsealed reveals to us that Messiah would be "cut off" for others sometime between 26 and 44 CE.
This passage points us to various other prophecies about this figure which also tell us that he is born in Beit-Lechem, and executed by having his hands pierced.
Who could this be?
The Origin of the Essenes
By James Trimm
John Hycranas was succeeded as High Priest and King by his son Alexander Jannaeus (103-76). Once, while he was officiating as High Priest at Sukkot, the Pharisees pelted him with their citrons. Jannaeus responded by slaughtering Pharisees by the thousands (Josephus; Ant. 13:13:5). Pharisees joined with Jannaeus’ foreign enemies, but when he overtook them, he had the conspirators crucified. (Josephus; Ant. 13:14).
It seems that at this point in time a radical group split off from the Pharisees. This group became known as the Essenes. This group was led by a figure known to us only as the “Teacher of Righteousness”. The Teacher of Righteousness was at odds with a figure referred to simply as the “Wicked Priest” whom most scholars identify with Alexander Jannaeus.
At the same time the Essenes were at odds with the group from which they had split off from, which they refer to with several euphemisms, most notably the “wall builders” (clearly the Pharisees).
The Essenes describe their origin this way:
"…we separated from the majority of the people and from all their uncleanness and from being party to or going along with them in these matters."
(4QMMT C:7-9)
At the time the “majority” were the Pharisees, as Josephus writes:
"…the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich, and have not the populace obsequious to them, but the Pharisees have the majority on their side…"
(Ant. 13:10:6)
The Essenes separated from the Pharisees because they felt that the Pharisaic halacha was not strict enough, and that as a result the Temple was being defiled:
"They [the wall-builders] also defile the sanctuary, for they do not separate clean from unclean according to the Law."
(Dam. Doc. 5, 6-7)
The Essenes found the Pharisaic “wall” of restrictions to be too lax:
"The Wall-Builders who went after “Precept”—Precept is a Raver of whom it says, 'they shall surely rave' (Mic. 2:6)…"
(Dam. Doc. 4, 19)
"But against his enemies, the Wall-Builders, his anger burns."
(Dam. Doc. 8, 18)
Speaking of the Wall-Builders the Damascus Document states they fall into “three traps of Belial (4, 14-16) These three traps are given as “fornication… wealth… defiling the sanctuary.” (4, 17-18).
The first of these is that of “taking two wives in their lifetimes” (Dam. Doc. 4, 20-21) that is in allowing for divorce. This is similar to the position of the Pharisaic House of Shammai which allowed for divorce only in case of unchastity (m.Gittin 9:10). However the prevailing Halachah among the Pharisees was expressed by the House of Hillel Pharisees which said a man could divorce a woman “even if she spoiled his dish” (ibid).
The trap of “wealth” would seem to be more of an attack on the Sadducees, who tended to be wealthy, rather than the Pharisees, who represented the majority of the population. This trap may refer to the relationship by which Pharisees intimidated the wealthy Sadducees into implementing Pharisaic Halacha.
The Essenes believed that the Pharisees were defiling the sanctuary with their lax halacha. In the document known as MMT (Miqsat Ma’ase HaTorah) “Some of the Works of the Torah” the Essenes lay out twenty-four points of halacha related to purity about which they disagreed with the majority (the Pharisees), and because of which they believed the Pharisees were defiling the Temple. Many of the twenty-four points made in MMT are exact counterpoints of Pharisaic halacha given later in the Mishna.
The Essenes also held a stricter halacha than the Pharisees on the observance of the Sabbath. As Josephus writes:
"…they are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh day…"
(Wars 2:8:9)
Finally the Essenes held a stricter halacha on oaths than the Pharisees. The Pharisees had a complex wall established around the commandments concerning oaths. These are laid out in the Mishna. However the Essene wall was even stricter, allowing for no oaths at all. As Josephus writes:
"…whatsoever they say also is firmer than an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it worse than perjury for they say that he who cannot be believed without [swearing by] God is already condemned."
(Wars 2:8:6)
And as we read in the Damascus Document:
"A man must not swear either by Aleph and Lamedh (Elohim) or by Aleph and Daleth (Adonai)…"
(Dam. Doc. 15:1)
The Essenes began when its first adherents became followers of an individual known simply as the Teacher of Righteousness. They followed him to Damascus where they all entered into a covenant together which they believed was the New Covenant. This New Covenant was centered around purity:
"For when Israel abandoned Him by being faithless, He turned away from them and from His sanctuary and gave them up to the sword. But when He called to mind the covenant He made with their forefathers, He left a remnant for Israel... They considered their iniquity and knew they were guilty men... He raised up for them the Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of his heart..."
(Dam. Doc. A 1, 1-11)
"...the captives of Israel... went out of the land of Judah and dwelt in the land of Damascus..."
(Dam. Doc. 6, 5)
"...They [who have entered the covenant] must distinguish between defiled and pure, teaching the difference between holy and profane. They must keep the Sabbath day according to specification, and the holy days and the fast day according to the commandments of the members of the new covenant in the land of Damascus..."
(Dam. Doc. 6, 17-19)
They saw their salvation as coming from their faith in this Teacher of Righteousness:
" 'As for the righteous man, by faith to him one may find life.' (Hab. 2:4b) This refers to all those who obey the Law among the Jews whom God will rescue from among those doomed to judgment, because of their suffering and their faith in the Teacher of Righteousness."
(Hab. Com. 7, 17 - 8, 3)
They also saw their justification as coming from these New Covenant purity regulations which they came to refer to as the "Works of the Law"
These are some of our pronouncements concerning the Law of God. Specifically, some pronouncements concerning the Works of the Law that we have determined [are beneficial] and all of them concern defiling mixtures and purity....
A lengthy list of pronouncements is then given. Then the document concludes:
"Now we have written to you some of the Works of the Law, those which we determined would be beneficial for you and your people,... And it will be reckoned to you as righteousness..."
(4QMMT)
Thus the Qumran Community taught that they were all partakers in a New Covenant established by their Teacher of Righteousness, which offered them justification through their faith in him and his teachings, specifically purity regulations which were known as "Works of the Law". In other words their idea of the "New Covenant" was based on these "Works of the Law".
By James Trimm
John Hycranas was succeeded as High Priest and King by his son Alexander Jannaeus (103-76). Once, while he was officiating as High Priest at Sukkot, the Pharisees pelted him with their citrons. Jannaeus responded by slaughtering Pharisees by the thousands (Josephus; Ant. 13:13:5). Pharisees joined with Jannaeus’ foreign enemies, but when he overtook them, he had the conspirators crucified. (Josephus; Ant. 13:14).
It seems that at this point in time a radical group split off from the Pharisees. This group became known as the Essenes. This group was led by a figure known to us only as the “Teacher of Righteousness”. The Teacher of Righteousness was at odds with a figure referred to simply as the “Wicked Priest” whom most scholars identify with Alexander Jannaeus.
At the same time the Essenes were at odds with the group from which they had split off from, which they refer to with several euphemisms, most notably the “wall builders” (clearly the Pharisees).
The Essenes describe their origin this way:
"…we separated from the majority of the people and from all their uncleanness and from being party to or going along with them in these matters."
(4QMMT C:7-9)
At the time the “majority” were the Pharisees, as Josephus writes:
"…the Sadducees are able to persuade none but the rich, and have not the populace obsequious to them, but the Pharisees have the majority on their side…"
(Ant. 13:10:6)
The Essenes separated from the Pharisees because they felt that the Pharisaic halacha was not strict enough, and that as a result the Temple was being defiled:
"They [the wall-builders] also defile the sanctuary, for they do not separate clean from unclean according to the Law."
(Dam. Doc. 5, 6-7)
The Essenes found the Pharisaic “wall” of restrictions to be too lax:
"The Wall-Builders who went after “Precept”—Precept is a Raver of whom it says, 'they shall surely rave' (Mic. 2:6)…"
(Dam. Doc. 4, 19)
"But against his enemies, the Wall-Builders, his anger burns."
(Dam. Doc. 8, 18)
Speaking of the Wall-Builders the Damascus Document states they fall into “three traps of Belial (4, 14-16) These three traps are given as “fornication… wealth… defiling the sanctuary.” (4, 17-18).
The first of these is that of “taking two wives in their lifetimes” (Dam. Doc. 4, 20-21) that is in allowing for divorce. This is similar to the position of the Pharisaic House of Shammai which allowed for divorce only in case of unchastity (m.Gittin 9:10). However the prevailing Halachah among the Pharisees was expressed by the House of Hillel Pharisees which said a man could divorce a woman “even if she spoiled his dish” (ibid).
The trap of “wealth” would seem to be more of an attack on the Sadducees, who tended to be wealthy, rather than the Pharisees, who represented the majority of the population. This trap may refer to the relationship by which Pharisees intimidated the wealthy Sadducees into implementing Pharisaic Halacha.
The Essenes believed that the Pharisees were defiling the sanctuary with their lax halacha. In the document known as MMT (Miqsat Ma’ase HaTorah) “Some of the Works of the Torah” the Essenes lay out twenty-four points of halacha related to purity about which they disagreed with the majority (the Pharisees), and because of which they believed the Pharisees were defiling the Temple. Many of the twenty-four points made in MMT are exact counterpoints of Pharisaic halacha given later in the Mishna.
The Essenes also held a stricter halacha than the Pharisees on the observance of the Sabbath. As Josephus writes:
"…they are stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh day…"
(Wars 2:8:9)
Finally the Essenes held a stricter halacha on oaths than the Pharisees. The Pharisees had a complex wall established around the commandments concerning oaths. These are laid out in the Mishna. However the Essene wall was even stricter, allowing for no oaths at all. As Josephus writes:
"…whatsoever they say also is firmer than an oath; but swearing is avoided by them, and they esteem it worse than perjury for they say that he who cannot be believed without [swearing by] God is already condemned."
(Wars 2:8:6)
And as we read in the Damascus Document:
"A man must not swear either by Aleph and Lamedh (Elohim) or by Aleph and Daleth (Adonai)…"
(Dam. Doc. 15:1)
The Essenes began when its first adherents became followers of an individual known simply as the Teacher of Righteousness. They followed him to Damascus where they all entered into a covenant together which they believed was the New Covenant. This New Covenant was centered around purity:
"For when Israel abandoned Him by being faithless, He turned away from them and from His sanctuary and gave them up to the sword. But when He called to mind the covenant He made with their forefathers, He left a remnant for Israel... They considered their iniquity and knew they were guilty men... He raised up for them the Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the way of his heart..."
(Dam. Doc. A 1, 1-11)
"...the captives of Israel... went out of the land of Judah and dwelt in the land of Damascus..."
(Dam. Doc. 6, 5)
"...They [who have entered the covenant] must distinguish between defiled and pure, teaching the difference between holy and profane. They must keep the Sabbath day according to specification, and the holy days and the fast day according to the commandments of the members of the new covenant in the land of Damascus..."
(Dam. Doc. 6, 17-19)
They saw their salvation as coming from their faith in this Teacher of Righteousness:
" 'As for the righteous man, by faith to him one may find life.' (Hab. 2:4b) This refers to all those who obey the Law among the Jews whom God will rescue from among those doomed to judgment, because of their suffering and their faith in the Teacher of Righteousness."
(Hab. Com. 7, 17 - 8, 3)
They also saw their justification as coming from these New Covenant purity regulations which they came to refer to as the "Works of the Law"
These are some of our pronouncements concerning the Law of God. Specifically, some pronouncements concerning the Works of the Law that we have determined [are beneficial] and all of them concern defiling mixtures and purity....
A lengthy list of pronouncements is then given. Then the document concludes:
"Now we have written to you some of the Works of the Law, those which we determined would be beneficial for you and your people,... And it will be reckoned to you as righteousness..."
(4QMMT)
Thus the Qumran Community taught that they were all partakers in a New Covenant established by their Teacher of Righteousness, which offered them justification through their faith in him and his teachings, specifically purity regulations which were known as "Works of the Law". In other words their idea of the "New Covenant" was based on these "Works of the Law".
Yochanan and the Essenes
By James Scitt Trimm
A careful reading of the Gospels will show that John the Baptist had his own "disciples" (John 1:35) who continued on as such, apart from the Yeshua movement even after John and Yeshua had died (Acts 19:1-3). The flavor of John chapter one also indicates that John did not live alone in the wilderness, but lived with a community of followers near Bethabara (John 1:28) a town just eight miles from Qumran.
Now one of the most important similarities between John the Baptist and his disciples, and the Qumran community is quite obviously that of geography. As mentioned, John and his disciples resided "in the wilderness" near a town just eight miles from Qumran. In fact the caves in which the scrolls were found are just five miles from the location along the Jordan at which John was baptizing. Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament use the phrase "in the wilderness" (drawn from Isaiah 40:3) almost as a proper noun, to describe this area. One NT passage in particular seemed a mystery until the discovery of the Scrolls. Luke 1:80 states:
"...the child [John the Baptist] grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel."
(Luke 1:80)
What would a child be doing "in the wilderness?" Could John have been raised at the Qumran community? An apocryphal tradition once circulated in the Church of the East may offer some insight. The Protevangelion of James, once read in some eastern churches, records a tradition that at the time of the slaughter of the innocents,
"Elizabeth took her son and went up unto the mountains, and looked around for a place to hide him; and there was no secret place to be found. Then she groaned within herself, and said, 'O mountain of YHWH, receive the mother with the child.' For Elizabeth could not climb up. And instantly the mountain was divided and received them. And there appeared to them an angel (or messenger) of YHWH, to preserve them."
(Protevangelion 16:3-8)
Could this tradition be preserving an ancient tradition that John and his mother were taken in through an opening in the mountains (a cave) and a "messenger of YHWH" at Qumran took them in. This possibility is strengthened by the fact that Hugh Schonfield has shown that there are a number of parallelisms between DuTillet Hebrew Matthew and the Protevangelion, "which cannot be accidental." . Moreover Joesphus tells us that the Essenes commonly raised other peoples children (Josephus; Wars 2:8:3). Thus it would seem that John the Baptist was raised up in the Qumran community.
As a Levite, and descendant of Zadock, John would have held a prominent place in the Qumran community, which favored the priesthood heirs. However, John's normal life at Qumran was interrupted when "the word of Eloah came to Yochanan... in the wilderness" (Luke 3:2). In a rigid community where everyone had a rank and no one spoke out of turn, John's message may not have been welcome. This would explain why John and his disciples relocated near nearby Bethabara.
Both Matthew and Mark tell us that John ate locusts (Matthew 3:4; Mark 1:6). Now The Dead Sea Scrolls tell us that the Qumran community also made locusts as part of their diet. In fact, the Dead Sea Scrolls even tell us how they were to be cooked (Dam. Doc. xii, 11-15).
Both the Qumran community, and John quoted Isaiah 40:3 as being a prophecy foretelling of their work (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; Jn 1:23; Dam. Doc. viii, 12-14; ix, 20). This verse appears in most New Testaments as:
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.' "
However, the cantor markings in the Masoretic Text give us the understanding:
"The voice of one crying 'In the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH; make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.' "
As a result of their use of this verse, both John and the Qumran community referred to themselves as being "in the wilderness" and both the Qumran community and the early believers in Yeshua called their movement "the way". (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23; Dam. Doc. viii, 12-14; ix, 20).
As a result of their use of this verse, both John and the Qumran community referred to themselves as being "in the wilderness" and both the Qumran community and the early believers in Yeshua called their movement "the Way".
Another strong parallel between John and the Qumran community is that of the importance given to the practice of water immersion/baptism (Heb: T'vilah). The Torah requires "washing" for "uncleanness" (Leviticus 16-18) and "uncleanness" can result from sin (Leviticus 18:1ff for example.) King David spoke of this practice in the Psalms (Ps. 51:2, 7). In the Qumran community this practice was given great importance (Man. Disc. 3, 4f; v, 13; Dam. Doc. 10, 10-13) and it was certainly regarded as of high priority to John (Matthew 3:6, 11; Mark 1:4-5; Luke 3:2-3, 7; Acts 19:3-4). Both believed that water baptism was only symbolic of a greater cleansing of wickedness performed by the Ruach HaKodesh (Man. Disc. 4, 12-13).
One final similarity between John and the Qumran community was that both stressed that the day of fiery judgment was eminently approaching. Now having discussed the similarities between John the Baptist and the Qumran community, let us note the differences. Essenes always wore white (Josephus; Wars 2:8:3) yet John wore camel's hair (Matthew 3:4). Secondly, the Qumran community only ate food provided by their community yet John foraged for himself (Matthew 3:4). Finally and most importantly the Qumran community was not even a little bit evangelical. The Manual of Discipline specifically commands its adherents to "bear unremitting hatred towards all men of ill repute... to leave it to them to pursue wealth and mercenary gain... truckling to a depot." (Man. Disc. ix 21-26). But John called these men of ill repute to "Repent, for the Kingdom of Elohim is offered." (Matthew 3:2). This new teaching must have been the "word of Eloah" which John "received in the wilderness" (Luke 3:2) since it is later echoed by Yeshua (Matthew 4:17) and Yeshua's disciples (Matthew 10:7).
By James Scitt Trimm
A careful reading of the Gospels will show that John the Baptist had his own "disciples" (John 1:35) who continued on as such, apart from the Yeshua movement even after John and Yeshua had died (Acts 19:1-3). The flavor of John chapter one also indicates that John did not live alone in the wilderness, but lived with a community of followers near Bethabara (John 1:28) a town just eight miles from Qumran.
Now one of the most important similarities between John the Baptist and his disciples, and the Qumran community is quite obviously that of geography. As mentioned, John and his disciples resided "in the wilderness" near a town just eight miles from Qumran. In fact the caves in which the scrolls were found are just five miles from the location along the Jordan at which John was baptizing. Both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament use the phrase "in the wilderness" (drawn from Isaiah 40:3) almost as a proper noun, to describe this area. One NT passage in particular seemed a mystery until the discovery of the Scrolls. Luke 1:80 states:
"...the child [John the Baptist] grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the wilderness till the day of his manifestation to Israel."
(Luke 1:80)
What would a child be doing "in the wilderness?" Could John have been raised at the Qumran community? An apocryphal tradition once circulated in the Church of the East may offer some insight. The Protevangelion of James, once read in some eastern churches, records a tradition that at the time of the slaughter of the innocents,
"Elizabeth took her son and went up unto the mountains, and looked around for a place to hide him; and there was no secret place to be found. Then she groaned within herself, and said, 'O mountain of YHWH, receive the mother with the child.' For Elizabeth could not climb up. And instantly the mountain was divided and received them. And there appeared to them an angel (or messenger) of YHWH, to preserve them."
(Protevangelion 16:3-8)
Could this tradition be preserving an ancient tradition that John and his mother were taken in through an opening in the mountains (a cave) and a "messenger of YHWH" at Qumran took them in. This possibility is strengthened by the fact that Hugh Schonfield has shown that there are a number of parallelisms between DuTillet Hebrew Matthew and the Protevangelion, "which cannot be accidental." . Moreover Joesphus tells us that the Essenes commonly raised other peoples children (Josephus; Wars 2:8:3). Thus it would seem that John the Baptist was raised up in the Qumran community.
As a Levite, and descendant of Zadock, John would have held a prominent place in the Qumran community, which favored the priesthood heirs. However, John's normal life at Qumran was interrupted when "the word of Eloah came to Yochanan... in the wilderness" (Luke 3:2). In a rigid community where everyone had a rank and no one spoke out of turn, John's message may not have been welcome. This would explain why John and his disciples relocated near nearby Bethabara.
Both Matthew and Mark tell us that John ate locusts (Matthew 3:4; Mark 1:6). Now The Dead Sea Scrolls tell us that the Qumran community also made locusts as part of their diet. In fact, the Dead Sea Scrolls even tell us how they were to be cooked (Dam. Doc. xii, 11-15).
Both the Qumran community, and John quoted Isaiah 40:3 as being a prophecy foretelling of their work (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; Jn 1:23; Dam. Doc. viii, 12-14; ix, 20). This verse appears in most New Testaments as:
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.' "
However, the cantor markings in the Masoretic Text give us the understanding:
"The voice of one crying 'In the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH; make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.' "
As a result of their use of this verse, both John and the Qumran community referred to themselves as being "in the wilderness" and both the Qumran community and the early believers in Yeshua called their movement "the way". (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4; John 1:23; Dam. Doc. viii, 12-14; ix, 20).
As a result of their use of this verse, both John and the Qumran community referred to themselves as being "in the wilderness" and both the Qumran community and the early believers in Yeshua called their movement "the Way".
Another strong parallel between John and the Qumran community is that of the importance given to the practice of water immersion/baptism (Heb: T'vilah). The Torah requires "washing" for "uncleanness" (Leviticus 16-18) and "uncleanness" can result from sin (Leviticus 18:1ff for example.) King David spoke of this practice in the Psalms (Ps. 51:2, 7). In the Qumran community this practice was given great importance (Man. Disc. 3, 4f; v, 13; Dam. Doc. 10, 10-13) and it was certainly regarded as of high priority to John (Matthew 3:6, 11; Mark 1:4-5; Luke 3:2-3, 7; Acts 19:3-4). Both believed that water baptism was only symbolic of a greater cleansing of wickedness performed by the Ruach HaKodesh (Man. Disc. 4, 12-13).
One final similarity between John and the Qumran community was that both stressed that the day of fiery judgment was eminently approaching. Now having discussed the similarities between John the Baptist and the Qumran community, let us note the differences. Essenes always wore white (Josephus; Wars 2:8:3) yet John wore camel's hair (Matthew 3:4). Secondly, the Qumran community only ate food provided by their community yet John foraged for himself (Matthew 3:4). Finally and most importantly the Qumran community was not even a little bit evangelical. The Manual of Discipline specifically commands its adherents to "bear unremitting hatred towards all men of ill repute... to leave it to them to pursue wealth and mercenary gain... truckling to a depot." (Man. Disc. ix 21-26). But John called these men of ill repute to "Repent, for the Kingdom of Elohim is offered." (Matthew 3:2). This new teaching must have been the "word of Eloah" which John "received in the wilderness" (Luke 3:2) since it is later echoed by Yeshua (Matthew 4:17) and Yeshua's disciples (Matthew 10:7).
Yeshua, his Talmidim and the Essenes
By James Trimm
Yeshua came to be immersed by John in the wilderness at about the age of 30 and was proclaimed by John to be the "lamb" of Isaiah 53:7 (John 1:29). Certain of John's students then became students of Yeshua (John 1:35-51). Yeshua then began to proclaim, as John had proclaimed: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is offered." (Matthew 3:17). Later He sent his twelve students out with the same proclamation (Matthew 10).
Despite the fact that Yeshua's teachings largely agreed with that of the Pharisaic School of Hillel, there were occasions where Yeshua's teachings agreed with the School of Shammai against the School of Hillel. An important example of this is the issue of divorce where Yeshua agreed with Shammai against Hillel (Matthew 5:31-32 & m.Gittin 9:10). There were also occasions when Yeshua's teachings agreed with that of the Essenes against that of the Pharisees. One example is on the issue of oaths (compare Matthew 5:33-37 & Damascus Document- Geniza A; Col. 15; Lines 1-3).
While Yocahan was essentially an Essene, Yeshua did not appear to live the Essene lifestyle, as we read in Matthew 11:18-19:
"Yochanan came neither eating nor drinking…"
"The Son of man came eating and drinking…"
(Matthew 11:18-19)
Nonetheless there are many important similarities between the teachings of Yeshua and those of the Essenes/Qumran community. Yeshua went out into the wilderness to be tempted (Matthew 4:1f). Yeshua’s twelve talmidim (students) remind us of the council of twelve at Qumran (Manual of Discipline 1QS 8:1). Yeshua’s twelve talmidim seemed to be headed by three (Kefa (Peter), James (Ya’akov) and Yochanan (John) and the twelve laymen of Qumran were headed by three priests (1QS 8:1).
In Matthew 10:9-11 Yeshua instructs his Talmidim as follows:
"Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor lesser coin in your belts. Pack not for the journey, either two coats, or sandals, or a staff, for the laborer is worthy of his food. And into whatever city or town you will enter, enquire who in it is honorable, and there abide until you go out from there."
(Matthew 10:9-11)
Some light on this text may be acquired by examining a statement by Josephus concerning the first century Essene sect of Judaism:
"...and if any of their sect come from other places, what they have lies open for them, just as if it were their own; and they go into such as they never knew before, as if they had been ever so long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing with them when they travel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons with them, for fear of thieves. Accordingly there is, in every city where they live, one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and provide garments and other necessaries for them."
(Josephus; Wars 2:8:4)
Yeshua’s talmidim had for the most part, come from an Essene background. It would appear that they were therefore able to travel within Essene circles from town to town without having to carry additional supplies.
Also note that Yeshua and his Talmidim traveled armed (Luke 22:38) Were Yeshua and his Talmidim circulating to some extent within the Essene community network?
Also in Luke 22:24 (see also 9:46):
"And there was also strife among them about who among them was greatest..."
What? What kind of prideful, arrogant, self-righteous men had Yeshua chosen as his twelve emissaries? Are they really bickering over which of them is better than the other? The Dead Sea Scrolls offer some insight on what otherwise looks like a childish squabble that should be totally uncharacteristic of the kind of men Yeshua would have chosen as his twelve talmidim and emissaries (see comments to Matthew 10:2). In the Manual of Discipline we read:
"This is the rule for the session of the general membership, each man being in his proper place. The priest shall sit in the first row, the elders in the second, the rest of the people, each in his proper place…. So that each man may state his opinion to the society of the Yahad. None should interrupt the words of his comrade, speaking before his brother finishes what he has to say. Neither should anyone speak before another of higher rank."
(Manual of Discipline 1QS 6, 8-11)
The Essenes of Qumran were informed of their rank once a year at an annual review as we read elsewhere in the same document:
"They shall do as follows annually... the priests shall pass in review first, ranked according to their spiritual excellence, one after another. Then the Levites shall follow, and third all the people by rank, one after another, in their thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. Thus shall each Israelite know his proper standing in the Yahad of God..."
(Manual of Discipline 1QS 2, 19-22)
And regarding the Great Messianic Banquet (see comments to Matthew 26:17-30):
"The procedure for the [mee]ting of the men of reputation [when they are called] to the banquet held by the society of the Yahad, when [God] has fa[th]ered (?) the Messiah (or, when the Messiah has been revealed) among them: [the Priest,] as head of the entire congregation of Israel, shall enter first, trailed by all [his] brot[hers, the Sons of] Aaron, those priests [appointed] to the banquet of the men of reputation. They are to sit be[fore him] by rank. Then the [Mess]iah of Israel may en[ter], and the heads of the th[ousands of Israel] are to sit before him by rank. … all the heads of the congregation’s cl[ans], together with [their] wis[e and knowledgeable men]. Shall sit before them by rank. [When] they gather [at the] communal [tab]le, [having set out bread and w]ine so the communal table is set [for eating] and [the] wine (poured) for drinking, none [may r]each for the first portion of the bread or [the wine] before the Priest. For [he] shall [bl]ess the first portion of the bread and the wine, [reac]hing for the bread first. Afterw[ard] the Messiah of Israel [shall re]ach for the bread. [Finally,] ea[ch] member of the whole congregation of the Yahad [shall give a bl]essing, [in descending order of] rank. This procedure shall govern every me[al], provided at least ten me[n are ga]thered together."
(1Qsa 2, 11-22)
Since Passover is the spiritual new year for Israel, it stands to reason that this annual review coinsided with Passover. Yeshua’s talmidim are sitting down for the Passover Sader, for the acting out of the Messianic Banquet (see comments to Matthew 26:17-30). To their mainds they may have even been having the actual Messianic Feast (in light of the comments at Matthew 10:1 & 10:9-11) Yeshua’s talmidim, being mostly of Essene background (see comments to John 1:28-51) and sitting down for the Sader were anticipating that Yeshua would be assigning them each a rank so that they would each “know their proper standing”. This was not out of arrogance but out of humility. They did not want to be speaking presumptuously ahead of their rank. The statements involved in this dispute were likely not arrogant presumptuous claims of “I am greater [in rank] than you” but rather “_____ is surely greater [in rank] than I”.
In Matthew 21:23-27 The Pharisees challenge Yeshua as to where his s’mikhah, or authority comes from. Yeshua responds by asking them about where Yochanan’s authority came from. Yeshua was not evading their question. Yeshua was raising this point because Yeshua’s earthly authority (s’mikhah) came from Yochanan (John 1:6-8, 15, 26-27, 29-37) and Yochanan’s authority was from an Essenes rather than a Pharisaic source (see comments to Matthew 3:1). Thus Yeshua’s s’mikhah traced back through Yochanan to the Essene line of s’mikhah. Yeshua was putting the Pharisees in the position of either acknowledging Essene Halachic authority or declaring it to be false. It would appear that the Pharisees were hesitant to question the s’mikhah of a sect that was known for being even stricter on observance than they were.
Many of Yeshua’s halachic teachings parallel those of the Qumran community. Yeshua opposed the taking of oaths (Matthew 5:34) as did the Essenes (Josephus; Wars 2:8:6; Manual of Discipline 1QS 15:1-3). Yeshua's use of Genesis 1:27 to prove his halachic position on divorce is paralleled in the Dead Sea Scrolls:
"...they are caught in two traps: fornication, by taking two wives in their lifetimes although the principle of creation is: "male and female He created them."...they are caught in two traps:"
(Dam. Doc. Col. 4 line 20 through Col. 5 line 1)
Yeshua’s halachah on the issue of "CORBAN" (an offering) being used as an excuse to violate Torah in Matthew 15:1-8 parallels a similar ruling at Qumran (Damascus Document 16:13).
Matthew records a very interesting event involving Yeshua and the Temple Tax:
"...they that received tribute came to Kefa (Peter), and said, 'Does not your master pay tribute?' He said, 'Yes.' And when he came into the house Yeshua prevented him, saying, 'What do you think, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers?' Kefa (Peter) said to him, 'Of strangers.' Yeshua said to him, 'Then the children are free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go you to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first comes up; and when you have opened his mouth, you shall find a piece of money: that take, and give to them for me and you.' "
(Matthew 17:24-27)
Here Kefa indicates the Yeshua pays the Temple tax, but Yeshua indicates that neither himself, nor Kefa nor aparantly any of his followers owe the Temple tax. Yeshua does not seem to argue that he does not owe such a tax because he is the Messiah, for he extends the same privilage to Kefa and aparantly all of his followers. Is Yeshua teaching against Torah? The answer is no. The Torah does command that a Temple tax must be payed by every male 20 and older (Exodus 30:11-16) but is ambiguos as to how often it must be payed. The Pharisaic Halachah (and aparenetly the Sadducean Halachah) had the tax being paid annually during the month of Adar (m.Shek. 1:1, 3) However the Qumran community had a different Halachah. They taught:
"...concerning the Ransom: the money of the valuation which a man gives as ransom for his life shall be half a shekel in accordance with the shekel of the sanctuary. He shall give it only once in his life."
(4Q159 Frag 1; Col. 2; lines 6-7)
Now if Yeshua held to this Essene Halachah then He would not believe that he or his followers owed the tax, if they had already paid it at least once in their lifetime. This would explain why Kefa said that Yeshua pays the tax, while Yeshua claims that he and his followers don't owe the tax.
Like the Qumran community Yeshua speaks allegorically of "Living Water" coming from a well. . In John chapter four "living water" is symbolically drawn from Jacob's well, and brings salvation and eternal life. In the Manual of Discipline "living water" is the teachings of the community and is symbolicly drawn from the well of Num. 21:18 which is identified by the Scroll to be symbolic of the Law. Thus we may conclude that in John 4 Yeshua draws upon a Midrash (allegorical interpretation) which existed in his time (John 4:10 & Dam. Doc. VI, 4-5; VII, 9-VIII, 21).
Yeshua’s use of the Passover Sader as a sort of Messianic banquet certainly reminds us of the Messianic banquet of the Qumran Essenes (Josephus; Wars 2:8:5; Manual of Discipline 6:3-6 & 1QS Sa. 2, 17-20). The Qumran material even reads "the Messiah of Israel shall reach for the bread" (1QSa. 2:20-21) a phase which certainly reminds us of the "Last Supper" account of the New Testament. There were however some very important point with which Yeshua greatly disagreed with the Essenes. The Essenes held the strictest rules of resting on the Sabbath than any of the Jews (Josephus; Wars 2:8:9) The Qumran community, with its stricter Halacha likely did not permit healing on the Shabbat at all. They did not allow carrying medicine on the Shabbat nor did they allow using a tool to save a life on the Shabbat (Dam. Document col. 10; lines 14-18). Now Y'shua's Halacha on the issue seems to have been less strict. There is conflict between Yeshua and Qumran on the plucking and rubbing of wheat in Matthew 12:1=Luke 6:1=Mark 2:23. The activity described is clearly permitted by the Torah in general, though not necessarily on the Shabbat (Deuteronomy 23:26 (23:25 in non-Jewish editions)). This was forbidden by Qumran halacha which stated:
"A man may not go about in the field to do his desired activity on the Sabbath... A man may not eat anything on the Sabbath except food already prepared."
(Dam. Doc. Col. 10; lines 20-22).
Also Yeshua’s teaching that it is permitted to rescue an animal from a pit. (Matthew 12:11 and Luke 14:3-6) is in direct conflict with Qumran Halacha.(Dam. Doc. col. 10; lines 14-18).
Yeshua’s followers had much in common with the Essenes. Both were called "The Way" (Acts 9:2 & 1QS 9,18) and "B’nai Or" (Sons of Light) (Luke 16:8; John 12:36; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; Man. Of Disc. 1,9; 2, 24; 1QM). Like the Essenes they shared all things in common (Acts 2:44-45; Josephus; Ant. 18:1:5; Wars 2:8:3) and lying about such assets was regarded as a great sin (Acts 5:1-10). Although further study is needed, there may be some good connections between the Qumran hierarchy and that of the Nazarenes. Both groups seemed to have made some use of the Book of Enoch (1 Enoch 1:9 is quoted in Jude 1:14-15; seven fragmentary copies of Enoch were found at Qumran). Like the Qumran community, the Nazarenes also seem to have used Hebrew manuscripts of Tanak books which agreed in places with the text behind the Septuagint. The Nazarene belief in two comings of the Messiah is similar to the Qumran belief in two Messiahs. The Qumran community believed in a priestly Messiah who was a Melchizadek figure whom they termed EL, ELOHIM and YHWH (11Q13), a figure they believed was prophesied of in such passages as Dan. 9:24-27; Isaiah 52 (and presumably 53) and Isaiah 61:1. In like manner the Nazarenes saw their Messiah Yeshua as a Melchizadek figure (Hebrews 7) who fulfilled the very same prophecies.
By James Trimm
Yeshua came to be immersed by John in the wilderness at about the age of 30 and was proclaimed by John to be the "lamb" of Isaiah 53:7 (John 1:29). Certain of John's students then became students of Yeshua (John 1:35-51). Yeshua then began to proclaim, as John had proclaimed: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is offered." (Matthew 3:17). Later He sent his twelve students out with the same proclamation (Matthew 10).
Despite the fact that Yeshua's teachings largely agreed with that of the Pharisaic School of Hillel, there were occasions where Yeshua's teachings agreed with the School of Shammai against the School of Hillel. An important example of this is the issue of divorce where Yeshua agreed with Shammai against Hillel (Matthew 5:31-32 & m.Gittin 9:10). There were also occasions when Yeshua's teachings agreed with that of the Essenes against that of the Pharisees. One example is on the issue of oaths (compare Matthew 5:33-37 & Damascus Document- Geniza A; Col. 15; Lines 1-3).
While Yocahan was essentially an Essene, Yeshua did not appear to live the Essene lifestyle, as we read in Matthew 11:18-19:
"Yochanan came neither eating nor drinking…"
"The Son of man came eating and drinking…"
(Matthew 11:18-19)
Nonetheless there are many important similarities between the teachings of Yeshua and those of the Essenes/Qumran community. Yeshua went out into the wilderness to be tempted (Matthew 4:1f). Yeshua’s twelve talmidim (students) remind us of the council of twelve at Qumran (Manual of Discipline 1QS 8:1). Yeshua’s twelve talmidim seemed to be headed by three (Kefa (Peter), James (Ya’akov) and Yochanan (John) and the twelve laymen of Qumran were headed by three priests (1QS 8:1).
In Matthew 10:9-11 Yeshua instructs his Talmidim as follows:
"Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor lesser coin in your belts. Pack not for the journey, either two coats, or sandals, or a staff, for the laborer is worthy of his food. And into whatever city or town you will enter, enquire who in it is honorable, and there abide until you go out from there."
(Matthew 10:9-11)
Some light on this text may be acquired by examining a statement by Josephus concerning the first century Essene sect of Judaism:
"...and if any of their sect come from other places, what they have lies open for them, just as if it were their own; and they go into such as they never knew before, as if they had been ever so long acquainted with them. For which reason they carry nothing with them when they travel into remote parts, though still they take their weapons with them, for fear of thieves. Accordingly there is, in every city where they live, one appointed particularly to take care of strangers, and provide garments and other necessaries for them."
(Josephus; Wars 2:8:4)
Yeshua’s talmidim had for the most part, come from an Essene background. It would appear that they were therefore able to travel within Essene circles from town to town without having to carry additional supplies.
Also note that Yeshua and his Talmidim traveled armed (Luke 22:38) Were Yeshua and his Talmidim circulating to some extent within the Essene community network?
Also in Luke 22:24 (see also 9:46):
"And there was also strife among them about who among them was greatest..."
What? What kind of prideful, arrogant, self-righteous men had Yeshua chosen as his twelve emissaries? Are they really bickering over which of them is better than the other? The Dead Sea Scrolls offer some insight on what otherwise looks like a childish squabble that should be totally uncharacteristic of the kind of men Yeshua would have chosen as his twelve talmidim and emissaries (see comments to Matthew 10:2). In the Manual of Discipline we read:
"This is the rule for the session of the general membership, each man being in his proper place. The priest shall sit in the first row, the elders in the second, the rest of the people, each in his proper place…. So that each man may state his opinion to the society of the Yahad. None should interrupt the words of his comrade, speaking before his brother finishes what he has to say. Neither should anyone speak before another of higher rank."
(Manual of Discipline 1QS 6, 8-11)
The Essenes of Qumran were informed of their rank once a year at an annual review as we read elsewhere in the same document:
"They shall do as follows annually... the priests shall pass in review first, ranked according to their spiritual excellence, one after another. Then the Levites shall follow, and third all the people by rank, one after another, in their thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. Thus shall each Israelite know his proper standing in the Yahad of God..."
(Manual of Discipline 1QS 2, 19-22)
And regarding the Great Messianic Banquet (see comments to Matthew 26:17-30):
"The procedure for the [mee]ting of the men of reputation [when they are called] to the banquet held by the society of the Yahad, when [God] has fa[th]ered (?) the Messiah (or, when the Messiah has been revealed) among them: [the Priest,] as head of the entire congregation of Israel, shall enter first, trailed by all [his] brot[hers, the Sons of] Aaron, those priests [appointed] to the banquet of the men of reputation. They are to sit be[fore him] by rank. Then the [Mess]iah of Israel may en[ter], and the heads of the th[ousands of Israel] are to sit before him by rank. … all the heads of the congregation’s cl[ans], together with [their] wis[e and knowledgeable men]. Shall sit before them by rank. [When] they gather [at the] communal [tab]le, [having set out bread and w]ine so the communal table is set [for eating] and [the] wine (poured) for drinking, none [may r]each for the first portion of the bread or [the wine] before the Priest. For [he] shall [bl]ess the first portion of the bread and the wine, [reac]hing for the bread first. Afterw[ard] the Messiah of Israel [shall re]ach for the bread. [Finally,] ea[ch] member of the whole congregation of the Yahad [shall give a bl]essing, [in descending order of] rank. This procedure shall govern every me[al], provided at least ten me[n are ga]thered together."
(1Qsa 2, 11-22)
Since Passover is the spiritual new year for Israel, it stands to reason that this annual review coinsided with Passover. Yeshua’s talmidim are sitting down for the Passover Sader, for the acting out of the Messianic Banquet (see comments to Matthew 26:17-30). To their mainds they may have even been having the actual Messianic Feast (in light of the comments at Matthew 10:1 & 10:9-11) Yeshua’s talmidim, being mostly of Essene background (see comments to John 1:28-51) and sitting down for the Sader were anticipating that Yeshua would be assigning them each a rank so that they would each “know their proper standing”. This was not out of arrogance but out of humility. They did not want to be speaking presumptuously ahead of their rank. The statements involved in this dispute were likely not arrogant presumptuous claims of “I am greater [in rank] than you” but rather “_____ is surely greater [in rank] than I”.
In Matthew 21:23-27 The Pharisees challenge Yeshua as to where his s’mikhah, or authority comes from. Yeshua responds by asking them about where Yochanan’s authority came from. Yeshua was not evading their question. Yeshua was raising this point because Yeshua’s earthly authority (s’mikhah) came from Yochanan (John 1:6-8, 15, 26-27, 29-37) and Yochanan’s authority was from an Essenes rather than a Pharisaic source (see comments to Matthew 3:1). Thus Yeshua’s s’mikhah traced back through Yochanan to the Essene line of s’mikhah. Yeshua was putting the Pharisees in the position of either acknowledging Essene Halachic authority or declaring it to be false. It would appear that the Pharisees were hesitant to question the s’mikhah of a sect that was known for being even stricter on observance than they were.
Many of Yeshua’s halachic teachings parallel those of the Qumran community. Yeshua opposed the taking of oaths (Matthew 5:34) as did the Essenes (Josephus; Wars 2:8:6; Manual of Discipline 1QS 15:1-3). Yeshua's use of Genesis 1:27 to prove his halachic position on divorce is paralleled in the Dead Sea Scrolls:
"...they are caught in two traps: fornication, by taking two wives in their lifetimes although the principle of creation is: "male and female He created them."...they are caught in two traps:"
(Dam. Doc. Col. 4 line 20 through Col. 5 line 1)
Yeshua’s halachah on the issue of "CORBAN" (an offering) being used as an excuse to violate Torah in Matthew 15:1-8 parallels a similar ruling at Qumran (Damascus Document 16:13).
Matthew records a very interesting event involving Yeshua and the Temple Tax:
"...they that received tribute came to Kefa (Peter), and said, 'Does not your master pay tribute?' He said, 'Yes.' And when he came into the house Yeshua prevented him, saying, 'What do you think, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their own children, or of strangers?' Kefa (Peter) said to him, 'Of strangers.' Yeshua said to him, 'Then the children are free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go you to the sea, and cast a hook, and take up the fish that first comes up; and when you have opened his mouth, you shall find a piece of money: that take, and give to them for me and you.' "
(Matthew 17:24-27)
Here Kefa indicates the Yeshua pays the Temple tax, but Yeshua indicates that neither himself, nor Kefa nor aparantly any of his followers owe the Temple tax. Yeshua does not seem to argue that he does not owe such a tax because he is the Messiah, for he extends the same privilage to Kefa and aparantly all of his followers. Is Yeshua teaching against Torah? The answer is no. The Torah does command that a Temple tax must be payed by every male 20 and older (Exodus 30:11-16) but is ambiguos as to how often it must be payed. The Pharisaic Halachah (and aparenetly the Sadducean Halachah) had the tax being paid annually during the month of Adar (m.Shek. 1:1, 3) However the Qumran community had a different Halachah. They taught:
"...concerning the Ransom: the money of the valuation which a man gives as ransom for his life shall be half a shekel in accordance with the shekel of the sanctuary. He shall give it only once in his life."
(4Q159 Frag 1; Col. 2; lines 6-7)
Now if Yeshua held to this Essene Halachah then He would not believe that he or his followers owed the tax, if they had already paid it at least once in their lifetime. This would explain why Kefa said that Yeshua pays the tax, while Yeshua claims that he and his followers don't owe the tax.
Like the Qumran community Yeshua speaks allegorically of "Living Water" coming from a well. . In John chapter four "living water" is symbolically drawn from Jacob's well, and brings salvation and eternal life. In the Manual of Discipline "living water" is the teachings of the community and is symbolicly drawn from the well of Num. 21:18 which is identified by the Scroll to be symbolic of the Law. Thus we may conclude that in John 4 Yeshua draws upon a Midrash (allegorical interpretation) which existed in his time (John 4:10 & Dam. Doc. VI, 4-5; VII, 9-VIII, 21).
Yeshua’s use of the Passover Sader as a sort of Messianic banquet certainly reminds us of the Messianic banquet of the Qumran Essenes (Josephus; Wars 2:8:5; Manual of Discipline 6:3-6 & 1QS Sa. 2, 17-20). The Qumran material even reads "the Messiah of Israel shall reach for the bread" (1QSa. 2:20-21) a phase which certainly reminds us of the "Last Supper" account of the New Testament. There were however some very important point with which Yeshua greatly disagreed with the Essenes. The Essenes held the strictest rules of resting on the Sabbath than any of the Jews (Josephus; Wars 2:8:9) The Qumran community, with its stricter Halacha likely did not permit healing on the Shabbat at all. They did not allow carrying medicine on the Shabbat nor did they allow using a tool to save a life on the Shabbat (Dam. Document col. 10; lines 14-18). Now Y'shua's Halacha on the issue seems to have been less strict. There is conflict between Yeshua and Qumran on the plucking and rubbing of wheat in Matthew 12:1=Luke 6:1=Mark 2:23. The activity described is clearly permitted by the Torah in general, though not necessarily on the Shabbat (Deuteronomy 23:26 (23:25 in non-Jewish editions)). This was forbidden by Qumran halacha which stated:
"A man may not go about in the field to do his desired activity on the Sabbath... A man may not eat anything on the Sabbath except food already prepared."
(Dam. Doc. Col. 10; lines 20-22).
Also Yeshua’s teaching that it is permitted to rescue an animal from a pit. (Matthew 12:11 and Luke 14:3-6) is in direct conflict with Qumran Halacha.(Dam. Doc. col. 10; lines 14-18).
Yeshua’s followers had much in common with the Essenes. Both were called "The Way" (Acts 9:2 & 1QS 9,18) and "B’nai Or" (Sons of Light) (Luke 16:8; John 12:36; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5; Man. Of Disc. 1,9; 2, 24; 1QM). Like the Essenes they shared all things in common (Acts 2:44-45; Josephus; Ant. 18:1:5; Wars 2:8:3) and lying about such assets was regarded as a great sin (Acts 5:1-10). Although further study is needed, there may be some good connections between the Qumran hierarchy and that of the Nazarenes. Both groups seemed to have made some use of the Book of Enoch (1 Enoch 1:9 is quoted in Jude 1:14-15; seven fragmentary copies of Enoch were found at Qumran). Like the Qumran community, the Nazarenes also seem to have used Hebrew manuscripts of Tanak books which agreed in places with the text behind the Septuagint. The Nazarene belief in two comings of the Messiah is similar to the Qumran belief in two Messiahs. The Qumran community believed in a priestly Messiah who was a Melchizadek figure whom they termed EL, ELOHIM and YHWH (11Q13), a figure they believed was prophesied of in such passages as Dan. 9:24-27; Isaiah 52 (and presumably 53) and Isaiah 61:1. In like manner the Nazarenes saw their Messiah Yeshua as a Melchizadek figure (Hebrews 7) who fulfilled the very same prophecies.
The Foundations of Pharisaic Judaism
By James Scott Trimm
In Acts 23:6 Paul proclaims without reservation “I am a Pharisee”. This comes as a shock to many Christians who have a poor understanding of what it means to be a Pharisee.
Part of the reason for this is that the Christian understanding of what a Pharisee is has been defined by Christian commentators, not by Pharisaic sources. As a result, in Christian culture, the word “Pharisee” has come to be used idiomatically to mean “hypocrite”.
I recall some years ago seeing a Reverend Twistruth comic strip several years ago in which the Reverend had just been teaching on the parable of the Pharisee and the Plebian. He asked a church lady to close with a prayer and she begins “Thank you Lord for not making me like that Pharisee…”
Of course Rabbinic Judaism is the modern descendant of Phariseeism. If one wants a good understanding of what Phariseeism taught, one should look to primary sources of the actual teachings of the Pharisees, the Mishna, the Talmuds and the early Midrashim.
Upon the invasion of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity the monarchy of Israel was brought to an end. When the Babylonian captivity finally ended and exiles returned, Ezra reestablished the council of Elders:Ezra 7:25; 10:14, 16) which immediately began making halachic decisions (Ezra 10:10-19). This body became known as the Great Assembly.
The Mishna records the foundations of Pharisaic Judaism as follows:
Moses received Torah at Sinai and handed it on to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets, the prophets handed it on to the men of the Great Assembly…
(m.Avot 1:1)
This was a body of 120 Elders and is said to have introduced a regular order of prayers including the Shemoneh Esreh (eighteen benedictions) which eventually evolved into the Siddur. The Great Assembly collected the sacred writings and determined which books were to be regarded as canonical.
We do not know much more about the Great Assembly. We do know that one of the last members of this counsel was “Simon the Righteous” (219-196 B.C.E.). The Mishna says:
Simeon the Righteous was of the remnants of the Great Assembly. He used to say, “On three things the world stands: On the Torah, On the [Temple] Service, and on acts of piety (chasidim).
(m.Avot 1:2)
Ben Sira calls him “the leader of his brothers and the pride of his people.” (Sira 50:1) and dedicates an entire chapter to his good reputation. Simon was the earliest post-biblical sage cited in the Mishna. Simon was succeeded as High Priest by his son Onias III of whom we read in 2 Maccabees:
While the holy city was inhabited in unbroken peace and the laws were very well observed because of the piety of the high priest Onias and his hatred of wickedness.
(2 Maccabees 3:1)
About this time Antiochus Epiphanies rose to power over Israel and at about this same time period the High Priesthood passed from Onias III to his brother Jason by way of corruption:
…Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption, promising the king at an interview three hundred and sixty talents of silver and from another source of revenue, eighty talents… he at once shifted his countrymen over to the Greek way of life… and introduced new customs contrary to the Torah.
(2 Maccabees 4:7-8, 10, 11)
Jason’s High Priesthood was illegitimate and not regarded as valid as we read in 2Maccabees:
…Jason, who was ungodly and no high priest…
(2 Maccabees 4:13)
The corruption of the High Priesthood and the banishment of the true High Priest must have forced the disbandment of the Great Assembly.
At this time (175-140 BCE) many who wished to remain true to Torah escaped into the wilderness (1 Maccabees 1:62-64; 2:29) These refugees became know as the Chassidim (pious ones) (1 Maccabees 2:42-43).
While we know little about these Chassidim, they were probably led by a certain Antigones of Soko. The Mishnah says of him:
Antigones of Soko received [Torah] from Simeon the Righteous. He used to say, “Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of wages, but be like servants who serve their master with no thought of a wage – and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.”
(m.Avot 1:3)
The name “Chassidim” probably came from their devotion to the teaching of Simon the Righteous, that “CHASSIDIM” is one of the three things upon which the world stands.
The term CHASSEDIM is related to the same root as CHESED meaning “grace, mercy, loving kindness, charity”. You might say this was as “grace” movement.
One of Antigones’ talmidim (disciples, students), a certain Zadok, apostatized and formed the Sadducee sect (I laid this out in detail in my recent article “Paul argues Talmud Before the Sanhedrin).
The main line of Antigones’ talmidim went on to establish the body we know as the Pharisaic Sanhedrin (not to be confused with the political Sanhedrin that contained both Pharisees and Sadducees). In fact two of his talmidim went on to become the first Nasi and Av Beit Din of this Sanhedrin.
In other words Pharisaic Judaism was the succession of the Chassedim and the main line of Judaism. (The word “Pharisee” means “separate” and may well refer to the fact that the Chassidim had separated themselves from Jason’s corrupt apostasy from true Judaism). This was a CHESED (grace) based movement proceeding from the teachings of Simon the Righteous and Antigones of Soko.
Before proceeding let us therefore seek to understand the point of Antigones’ teaching:
“Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of wages, but be like servants who serve their master with no thought of a wage – and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.”
Antigones taught that we should observe Torah not as one trying to earn something, but as one who serves a master because he sincerely wants to from inside, out of respect and love for Elohim. He taught that Torah Observance meant nothing unless ones heart was right. Without this inner CHESED, Torah Observance was an empty outer expression, works without faith. This was the foundation of Pharisaic Judaism!
The earliest generations of the Pharisaic movement were known as the Zuggot (pairs). Hillel and Shammai were the last two “pairs” to lead the Pharisee Sanhedrin. The rift between them was so great that Shammai, who was known for his bad temper, forced Hillel to sit and listen to him at the point of his sword, as though he were his student. (b.Shab. 17a) The result was a complete split of Phariseeism into two Houses: The House of Shammai (the stricter school) and the House of Hillel (the less-strict school).
From this point forward the only Pharisee Sanhedrin we know of was led, not by “pairs” but by Hillel’s descendents.
Pharisees at this time polarized into two schools of thought: The School of Shammai and the School of Hillel. The two schools held differing view on many halachic issues and argued throughout the first century. Eventually the School of Hillel prevailed in these arguments and serves as the foundation of modern Rabbinic Judaism. There are also many important connections between the School of Hillel and the ancient sect of the Nazarenes.
Within Rabbinic literature we have record of over 350 disputes between the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai. Generally Shammai gave the stricter interpretation, while Hillels understandings were more relaxed. According to the Zohar (Ra'aya Meheimna 3:245a) The School of Shammai was based on GEVURAH ("severity") while the School of Hillel was based on CHESED ("grace"/"mercy").
A classic example of the conflict can be seen in one of the first passages of the Mishna, which records a conflict between the two houses over how to recite the Shema:
The House of Shammai says: In the evening one should recline in order to recite the shema, and in the morning they should stand. As it is written “when you lie down and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 6:7)
But the House of Hillel says: Everyone may recite the Shema in his own way, as it is written: “And you shall go by the way” (Deuteronomy 7:7)
(m.Berachot 1:3)
Note that the House of Shammai were concerned primarily with the outward expression, with whether one was standing or reclining, while the House of Hillel were less concerned with such outward expression and much more concerned with the way in which one recited the Shema, that they made it their own way, that they meant it and walked in it. Note the difference in emphasis of the two houses.
Hillel was more concerned with the inner man, while Shammai was more concerned with the outer man. Hillel was concerned with the Spirit of the Law, while Shammai was more concerned with the Letter of the Law.
This overriding concept of sincerity is also found in the Mishna in tractate Menachot:
“…all are the same, the one who offers much and the one who offers little, on condition that a man will direct his intention to Heaven.”
(m.Menachot 13:11)
You can imagine that a movement founded on sincerity of heart, would have no tolerance for hypocrisy. The Talmud lists Hypocrites as one of four classes who will not receive the presence of the Shekhinah:
R. Hisda also said in the name of R. Jeremiah b. Abba: Four classes will not recieve presence of the Shechinah, — the class of scoffers, the class of liars, the class of hypocrites, and the class of slanderers. `The class of scoffers' — as it is written, He withdrew His hand from the scoffers.(Hosea 7:5) `The class of liars' — as it is written, He that telleth lies, shall not tarry in my sight.(Ps. 101:7) `The class of hypocrites' — as it is written, For a hypocrite shall not come before him.(Job 13:15) `The class of slanderers — as it is written, For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee,'(Ps. 5:5) [which means] Thou art righteous, and hence there will not be evil in thy abode.
(b.San. 103a)
The Talmud however does recognize a problem with hypocrisy among the ranks of the Pharisees:
King Jannai said to his wife', `Fear not the Pharisees and the non-Pharisees but the hypocrites who are the Pharisees; because their deeds are the deeds of Zimri but they expect a reward like Phineas.'
(b.Sotah 22b)
It is this problem that Yeshua addresses when he criticizes hypocrisy among the Pharisees. Sincerity of heart is supposed to be the defining characteristic of the foundations of Pharisaic Judaism, Pharisaic Judaism stripped of its core principle became hollow. I believe this is what Yeshua meant when he said:
"You are the salt of the earth, and if the salt has lost its savor, how will it be salted? It is afterwards good for nothing, but to be cast aside, and trampled by men."
(Matthew 5:13)
Note in Matthew Yeshua says:
"…they [hypocrites] delight to stand in the assemblies and at the corners of the streets to pray, that men may see them."
(Matthew 6:5)
Some wrongly imagine that this is a blanket attack on a Pharisaic practice. In reality a similar condemnation appears in the Talmud “‘One who says the Tefillah so that it can be heard is of the small of faith’.” (b.Ber 24b)
Yeshua continues his attack on hypocrites saying:
"And when you pray, multiply not your words like the Goyim do…"
(Matthew 6:7-8)
Like verse 5 many mistakenly take this verse as a reference to Jewish liturgy. In fact the Pharisaic Mishna itself contains a similar instruction for behavior when praying:
Rabbi Simeon says: "Be meticulous in the recitation of the shema and the Prayer. And when you pray, don’t treat your praying as a matter of routine. But let it be a [plea for] mercy and supplication before the Omnipresent, blessed be He…"
(m.Avot 2:13)
Yeshua continues his criticism of “hypocrites” saying:
"…they begrime and disfigure their faces that they may appear in the sight of men to fast… when you fast anoint your head and wash your face…"
(Matthew 6:16-18)
Here Yeshua is not condemning a Pharisaic practice but an Essene practice as Josephus writes of the first century Essenes:
They think oil is defilement; and if one of them is anointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his body; for they think to be sweaty is a good thing…
(Josephus; Wars; 2:8:3)
Yeshua continues his criticism of hypocrites saying:
"lay up for yourselves stores in heaven, where caterpillar and moth waste not, and where thieves do not steal, for just where your store is, there your heart will be also."
(Matthew 6:19-21)
A similar teaching appears in the Talmud with very similar wording:
Our Rabbis taught: It is related of King Monobaz that he dissipated all his own hoards and the hoards of his fathers in years of scarcity. His brothers and his father's household came in a deputation to him and said to him, ‘Your father saved money and added to the treasures of his fathers, and you are squandering them.’ He replied: ‘My fathers stored up below and I am storing above, as it says, Truth springeth out of the earth and righteousness looketh down from heaven. My fathers stored in a place which can be tampered with, but I have stored in a place which cannot be tampered with, as it says, Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne. My fathers stored something which produces no fruits, but I have stored something which does produce fruits, as it is written, Say ye of the righteous [zaddik] that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings. My fathers gathered treasures of money, but I have gathered treasures of souls, as it is written, The fruit of the righteous [zaddik] is a tree of life, and he that is wise winneth souls. My fathers gathered for others and I have gathered for myself, as it says, And for thee it shall be righteousness [zedakah]. My fathers gathered for this world, but I have gathered for the future world, as it says, Thy righteousness [zedakah] shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.’
(b.Baba Batra 11a)
When Yeshua criticized Pharisees for hypocrisy he was challenging Pharisees to return to the Chassidic roots of Pharisaic Judaism. He was encouraging Pharisees to return to their foundational teachings, the Tanak and the teachings of Simon the Righteous and Atigones of Soko.
Yeshua was teaching CHESED, he was teaching Chassidism and he was teaching the values of Antigones of Soko. He was teaching us that we should not keep Torah as one wishing to earn something, but as one who has a sincere heart and inner desire to serve YHWH out of sincere love and respect for our Father.
In fact the ironic thing is that by this measure it is Christedom which is hypocritical. Talk to a Christian about Torah Observance and invariably they will respond that they do not have to keep Torah to be saved, and therefore they do not need to keep Torah. They are as ones only concerned with doing what they get paid for, and not as one serving YHWH simply out of love and respect for Him.
When Yeshua was criticizing hypocrisy among Pharisees, he was calling for a return to authentic Pharisaic Judaism, which is why Paul was able to say confidently “I am a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6)
There is an interesting parallel in the teachings of a later movement that also took on the name Chassidic and whose founder the Baal Shem Tov (c. 1750) taught that Judaism must be centered not simply around doing the Torah, but around feeling the Torah.
Now in closing I want to emphasize that the early Nazarenes also had deep roots in Essene Judaism (see my blog on this at http://nazarenespace.ning.com/group/essenenezarenes/forum/topics/2182335:Topic:5579)
Our Messiah was bringing together Pharisaic and Essenic Judaism. He was introducing Hillel style halachic teachings to Esseneism and introducing Essene Apocalyptic teaching to Pharisaic Judaism.
By James Scott Trimm
In Acts 23:6 Paul proclaims without reservation “I am a Pharisee”. This comes as a shock to many Christians who have a poor understanding of what it means to be a Pharisee.
Part of the reason for this is that the Christian understanding of what a Pharisee is has been defined by Christian commentators, not by Pharisaic sources. As a result, in Christian culture, the word “Pharisee” has come to be used idiomatically to mean “hypocrite”.
I recall some years ago seeing a Reverend Twistruth comic strip several years ago in which the Reverend had just been teaching on the parable of the Pharisee and the Plebian. He asked a church lady to close with a prayer and she begins “Thank you Lord for not making me like that Pharisee…”
Of course Rabbinic Judaism is the modern descendant of Phariseeism. If one wants a good understanding of what Phariseeism taught, one should look to primary sources of the actual teachings of the Pharisees, the Mishna, the Talmuds and the early Midrashim.
Upon the invasion of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity the monarchy of Israel was brought to an end. When the Babylonian captivity finally ended and exiles returned, Ezra reestablished the council of Elders:Ezra 7:25; 10:14, 16) which immediately began making halachic decisions (Ezra 10:10-19). This body became known as the Great Assembly.
The Mishna records the foundations of Pharisaic Judaism as follows:
Moses received Torah at Sinai and handed it on to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, the elders to the prophets, the prophets handed it on to the men of the Great Assembly…
(m.Avot 1:1)
This was a body of 120 Elders and is said to have introduced a regular order of prayers including the Shemoneh Esreh (eighteen benedictions) which eventually evolved into the Siddur. The Great Assembly collected the sacred writings and determined which books were to be regarded as canonical.
We do not know much more about the Great Assembly. We do know that one of the last members of this counsel was “Simon the Righteous” (219-196 B.C.E.). The Mishna says:
Simeon the Righteous was of the remnants of the Great Assembly. He used to say, “On three things the world stands: On the Torah, On the [Temple] Service, and on acts of piety (chasidim).
(m.Avot 1:2)
Ben Sira calls him “the leader of his brothers and the pride of his people.” (Sira 50:1) and dedicates an entire chapter to his good reputation. Simon was the earliest post-biblical sage cited in the Mishna. Simon was succeeded as High Priest by his son Onias III of whom we read in 2 Maccabees:
While the holy city was inhabited in unbroken peace and the laws were very well observed because of the piety of the high priest Onias and his hatred of wickedness.
(2 Maccabees 3:1)
About this time Antiochus Epiphanies rose to power over Israel and at about this same time period the High Priesthood passed from Onias III to his brother Jason by way of corruption:
…Jason the brother of Onias obtained the high priesthood by corruption, promising the king at an interview three hundred and sixty talents of silver and from another source of revenue, eighty talents… he at once shifted his countrymen over to the Greek way of life… and introduced new customs contrary to the Torah.
(2 Maccabees 4:7-8, 10, 11)
Jason’s High Priesthood was illegitimate and not regarded as valid as we read in 2Maccabees:
…Jason, who was ungodly and no high priest…
(2 Maccabees 4:13)
The corruption of the High Priesthood and the banishment of the true High Priest must have forced the disbandment of the Great Assembly.
At this time (175-140 BCE) many who wished to remain true to Torah escaped into the wilderness (1 Maccabees 1:62-64; 2:29) These refugees became know as the Chassidim (pious ones) (1 Maccabees 2:42-43).
While we know little about these Chassidim, they were probably led by a certain Antigones of Soko. The Mishnah says of him:
Antigones of Soko received [Torah] from Simeon the Righteous. He used to say, “Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of wages, but be like servants who serve their master with no thought of a wage – and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.”
(m.Avot 1:3)
The name “Chassidim” probably came from their devotion to the teaching of Simon the Righteous, that “CHASSIDIM” is one of the three things upon which the world stands.
The term CHASSEDIM is related to the same root as CHESED meaning “grace, mercy, loving kindness, charity”. You might say this was as “grace” movement.
One of Antigones’ talmidim (disciples, students), a certain Zadok, apostatized and formed the Sadducee sect (I laid this out in detail in my recent article “Paul argues Talmud Before the Sanhedrin).
The main line of Antigones’ talmidim went on to establish the body we know as the Pharisaic Sanhedrin (not to be confused with the political Sanhedrin that contained both Pharisees and Sadducees). In fact two of his talmidim went on to become the first Nasi and Av Beit Din of this Sanhedrin.
In other words Pharisaic Judaism was the succession of the Chassedim and the main line of Judaism. (The word “Pharisee” means “separate” and may well refer to the fact that the Chassidim had separated themselves from Jason’s corrupt apostasy from true Judaism). This was a CHESED (grace) based movement proceeding from the teachings of Simon the Righteous and Antigones of Soko.
Before proceeding let us therefore seek to understand the point of Antigones’ teaching:
“Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of wages, but be like servants who serve their master with no thought of a wage – and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.”
Antigones taught that we should observe Torah not as one trying to earn something, but as one who serves a master because he sincerely wants to from inside, out of respect and love for Elohim. He taught that Torah Observance meant nothing unless ones heart was right. Without this inner CHESED, Torah Observance was an empty outer expression, works without faith. This was the foundation of Pharisaic Judaism!
The earliest generations of the Pharisaic movement were known as the Zuggot (pairs). Hillel and Shammai were the last two “pairs” to lead the Pharisee Sanhedrin. The rift between them was so great that Shammai, who was known for his bad temper, forced Hillel to sit and listen to him at the point of his sword, as though he were his student. (b.Shab. 17a) The result was a complete split of Phariseeism into two Houses: The House of Shammai (the stricter school) and the House of Hillel (the less-strict school).
From this point forward the only Pharisee Sanhedrin we know of was led, not by “pairs” but by Hillel’s descendents.
Pharisees at this time polarized into two schools of thought: The School of Shammai and the School of Hillel. The two schools held differing view on many halachic issues and argued throughout the first century. Eventually the School of Hillel prevailed in these arguments and serves as the foundation of modern Rabbinic Judaism. There are also many important connections between the School of Hillel and the ancient sect of the Nazarenes.
Within Rabbinic literature we have record of over 350 disputes between the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai. Generally Shammai gave the stricter interpretation, while Hillels understandings were more relaxed. According to the Zohar (Ra'aya Meheimna 3:245a) The School of Shammai was based on GEVURAH ("severity") while the School of Hillel was based on CHESED ("grace"/"mercy").
A classic example of the conflict can be seen in one of the first passages of the Mishna, which records a conflict between the two houses over how to recite the Shema:
The House of Shammai says: In the evening one should recline in order to recite the shema, and in the morning they should stand. As it is written “when you lie down and when you rise up.” (Deuteronomy 6:7)
But the House of Hillel says: Everyone may recite the Shema in his own way, as it is written: “And you shall go by the way” (Deuteronomy 7:7)
(m.Berachot 1:3)
Note that the House of Shammai were concerned primarily with the outward expression, with whether one was standing or reclining, while the House of Hillel were less concerned with such outward expression and much more concerned with the way in which one recited the Shema, that they made it their own way, that they meant it and walked in it. Note the difference in emphasis of the two houses.
Hillel was more concerned with the inner man, while Shammai was more concerned with the outer man. Hillel was concerned with the Spirit of the Law, while Shammai was more concerned with the Letter of the Law.
This overriding concept of sincerity is also found in the Mishna in tractate Menachot:
“…all are the same, the one who offers much and the one who offers little, on condition that a man will direct his intention to Heaven.”
(m.Menachot 13:11)
You can imagine that a movement founded on sincerity of heart, would have no tolerance for hypocrisy. The Talmud lists Hypocrites as one of four classes who will not receive the presence of the Shekhinah:
R. Hisda also said in the name of R. Jeremiah b. Abba: Four classes will not recieve presence of the Shechinah, — the class of scoffers, the class of liars, the class of hypocrites, and the class of slanderers. `The class of scoffers' — as it is written, He withdrew His hand from the scoffers.(Hosea 7:5) `The class of liars' — as it is written, He that telleth lies, shall not tarry in my sight.(Ps. 101:7) `The class of hypocrites' — as it is written, For a hypocrite shall not come before him.(Job 13:15) `The class of slanderers — as it is written, For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee,'(Ps. 5:5) [which means] Thou art righteous, and hence there will not be evil in thy abode.
(b.San. 103a)
The Talmud however does recognize a problem with hypocrisy among the ranks of the Pharisees:
King Jannai said to his wife', `Fear not the Pharisees and the non-Pharisees but the hypocrites who are the Pharisees; because their deeds are the deeds of Zimri but they expect a reward like Phineas.'
(b.Sotah 22b)
It is this problem that Yeshua addresses when he criticizes hypocrisy among the Pharisees. Sincerity of heart is supposed to be the defining characteristic of the foundations of Pharisaic Judaism, Pharisaic Judaism stripped of its core principle became hollow. I believe this is what Yeshua meant when he said:
"You are the salt of the earth, and if the salt has lost its savor, how will it be salted? It is afterwards good for nothing, but to be cast aside, and trampled by men."
(Matthew 5:13)
Note in Matthew Yeshua says:
"…they [hypocrites] delight to stand in the assemblies and at the corners of the streets to pray, that men may see them."
(Matthew 6:5)
Some wrongly imagine that this is a blanket attack on a Pharisaic practice. In reality a similar condemnation appears in the Talmud “‘One who says the Tefillah so that it can be heard is of the small of faith’.” (b.Ber 24b)
Yeshua continues his attack on hypocrites saying:
"And when you pray, multiply not your words like the Goyim do…"
(Matthew 6:7-8)
Like verse 5 many mistakenly take this verse as a reference to Jewish liturgy. In fact the Pharisaic Mishna itself contains a similar instruction for behavior when praying:
Rabbi Simeon says: "Be meticulous in the recitation of the shema and the Prayer. And when you pray, don’t treat your praying as a matter of routine. But let it be a [plea for] mercy and supplication before the Omnipresent, blessed be He…"
(m.Avot 2:13)
Yeshua continues his criticism of “hypocrites” saying:
"…they begrime and disfigure their faces that they may appear in the sight of men to fast… when you fast anoint your head and wash your face…"
(Matthew 6:16-18)
Here Yeshua is not condemning a Pharisaic practice but an Essene practice as Josephus writes of the first century Essenes:
They think oil is defilement; and if one of them is anointed without his own approbation, it is wiped off his body; for they think to be sweaty is a good thing…
(Josephus; Wars; 2:8:3)
Yeshua continues his criticism of hypocrites saying:
"lay up for yourselves stores in heaven, where caterpillar and moth waste not, and where thieves do not steal, for just where your store is, there your heart will be also."
(Matthew 6:19-21)
A similar teaching appears in the Talmud with very similar wording:
Our Rabbis taught: It is related of King Monobaz that he dissipated all his own hoards and the hoards of his fathers in years of scarcity. His brothers and his father's household came in a deputation to him and said to him, ‘Your father saved money and added to the treasures of his fathers, and you are squandering them.’ He replied: ‘My fathers stored up below and I am storing above, as it says, Truth springeth out of the earth and righteousness looketh down from heaven. My fathers stored in a place which can be tampered with, but I have stored in a place which cannot be tampered with, as it says, Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne. My fathers stored something which produces no fruits, but I have stored something which does produce fruits, as it is written, Say ye of the righteous [zaddik] that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat of the fruit of their doings. My fathers gathered treasures of money, but I have gathered treasures of souls, as it is written, The fruit of the righteous [zaddik] is a tree of life, and he that is wise winneth souls. My fathers gathered for others and I have gathered for myself, as it says, And for thee it shall be righteousness [zedakah]. My fathers gathered for this world, but I have gathered for the future world, as it says, Thy righteousness [zedakah] shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward.’
(b.Baba Batra 11a)
When Yeshua criticized Pharisees for hypocrisy he was challenging Pharisees to return to the Chassidic roots of Pharisaic Judaism. He was encouraging Pharisees to return to their foundational teachings, the Tanak and the teachings of Simon the Righteous and Atigones of Soko.
Yeshua was teaching CHESED, he was teaching Chassidism and he was teaching the values of Antigones of Soko. He was teaching us that we should not keep Torah as one wishing to earn something, but as one who has a sincere heart and inner desire to serve YHWH out of sincere love and respect for our Father.
In fact the ironic thing is that by this measure it is Christedom which is hypocritical. Talk to a Christian about Torah Observance and invariably they will respond that they do not have to keep Torah to be saved, and therefore they do not need to keep Torah. They are as ones only concerned with doing what they get paid for, and not as one serving YHWH simply out of love and respect for Him.
When Yeshua was criticizing hypocrisy among Pharisees, he was calling for a return to authentic Pharisaic Judaism, which is why Paul was able to say confidently “I am a Pharisee” (Acts 23:6)
There is an interesting parallel in the teachings of a later movement that also took on the name Chassidic and whose founder the Baal Shem Tov (c. 1750) taught that Judaism must be centered not simply around doing the Torah, but around feeling the Torah.
Now in closing I want to emphasize that the early Nazarenes also had deep roots in Essene Judaism (see my blog on this at http://nazarenespace.ning.com/group/essenenezarenes/forum/topics/2182335:Topic:5579)
Our Messiah was bringing together Pharisaic and Essenic Judaism. He was introducing Hillel style halachic teachings to Esseneism and introducing Essene Apocalyptic teaching to Pharisaic Judaism.
Nazarenes and the Oral Law
Nazarenes and the Oral Law
By James Trimm
Nazarenes and the Oral Law
By James Trimm
There has been a great deal of discussion in the movement today over how
we as Nazarenes should view Jewish tradition, Oral Law and the Talmud.
we as Nazarenes should view Jewish tradition, Oral Law and the Talmud.
Now it is important to understand the first century world from which
Nazarene Judaism emerged. There were three major sects of Judaism at the
time: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes.
Nazarene Judaism emerged. There were three major sects of Judaism at the
time: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes.
The first century writer Josephus writes of the Pharisees:
"...the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by
succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of
Moses;..."
(Josephus; Ant. 13:11:6)
succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of
Moses;..."
(Josephus; Ant. 13:11:6)
The Pharisees became what is known as Rabbinic Judaism and eventually
wrote these traditions (known as "Oral Law") down in the Mishna and later
the Talmud. The Mishna and Talmud are not the Oral Law, but they do contain
the Oral Law as recorded by the Pharisees.
wrote these traditions (known as "Oral Law") down in the Mishna and later
the Talmud. The Mishna and Talmud are not the Oral Law, but they do contain
the Oral Law as recorded by the Pharisees.
The core of the Talmud is the Mishna. The Mishna was complied around 250
CE by Rabbi Y’hudah Ha Nasi from ealier oral and/or written traditions.
It cites the opinions or Rabbis and teachers who lived in the generation
immediately following Ezra and Nehemiah, up until the time of its
composition. The Talmud was compiled around 500 CE and consists of the
Mishna written in Hebrew and the commentary to the Mishna, known as the
Gemara, surrounding it in Aramaic characters.
CE by Rabbi Y’hudah Ha Nasi from ealier oral and/or written traditions.
It cites the opinions or Rabbis and teachers who lived in the generation
immediately following Ezra and Nehemiah, up until the time of its
composition. The Talmud was compiled around 500 CE and consists of the
Mishna written in Hebrew and the commentary to the Mishna, known as the
Gemara, surrounding it in Aramaic characters.
The Sadducees rejected these traditions, as Josephus continues:
"...for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them, and say that we
are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written
word, but are not to observe what are delivered from the tradition of our
forefathers..."
(ibid)
are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written
word, but are not to observe what are delivered from the tradition of our
forefathers..."
(ibid)
The Sadducees HAD to reject the Oral Law. They did not believe in a resurrection or an afterlife. They had rejected the things that Judaism has always held to. It was hard enough to make their views compatible with the Written Torah, it was easier for them to simply reject the Oral Torah out of hand. In fact they HAD to reject the Oral Law if they wanted to reject any understanding of the written Torah that included a resurrection and an afterlife!
Then there were the Essenes, these are they who are believed to have
written the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Essenes did not reject the concept of
Oral Law, as the Sadducees did, but they did have an ALTERNATE set of such
traditions, many of which are recorded in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Among the
Scrolls is a document called MMT ("Some of the Works of teh Torah). In
this document the Essenes point out some of their differences with the
Oral Law as recorded in the Mishna. For example in the Mishna (Hullin
4:1-5) there is an Oral tradition forbidding the eating of the fetus of a
slaughtered animal, while item 12 in MMT allows the eating of such a
fetus. Many of the points addressed in MMT are addressed directly at
points of Oral Torah found in the Mishna. Essenes did not reject the Oral
Torah, they had their own understanding of it.
written the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Essenes did not reject the concept of
Oral Law, as the Sadducees did, but they did have an ALTERNATE set of such
traditions, many of which are recorded in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Among the
Scrolls is a document called MMT ("Some of the Works of teh Torah). In
this document the Essenes point out some of their differences with the
Oral Law as recorded in the Mishna. For example in the Mishna (Hullin
4:1-5) there is an Oral tradition forbidding the eating of the fetus of a
slaughtered animal, while item 12 in MMT allows the eating of such a
fetus. Many of the points addressed in MMT are addressed directly at
points of Oral Torah found in the Mishna. Essenes did not reject the Oral
Torah, they had their own understanding of it.
Now our Nazarene forefathers had roots in Pharisaic Judaism and in Essene
Judaism but not in Sadduceean Judaism.
Judaism but not in Sadduceean Judaism.
Yeshua's teachings often echoed those of the famous Pharisaic teacher
Hillel. When Yeshu was still a child Hillel taught "Do not do to others
what you would not have them do to you" while Yeshua grew up to teach "do
onto others as you would have them do to you."
Hillel. When Yeshu was still a child Hillel taught "Do not do to others
what you would not have them do to you" while Yeshua grew up to teach "do
onto others as you would have them do to you."
The Nazarenes also clearly had roots in Essene Judaism. There is evidence
that Yochanan the immerser ("John the Baptist") came out of the Qumran
community. Several of Yeshua's Talmidim (including Kefa) had first been
talmidim of Yochanan. Both the Essenes and the Nazarenes called
themselves "The Way" and "Sons of Light".
that Yochanan the immerser ("John the Baptist") came out of the Qumran
community. Several of Yeshua's Talmidim (including Kefa) had first been
talmidim of Yochanan. Both the Essenes and the Nazarenes called
themselves "The Way" and "Sons of Light".
The Esseneic and Pharisaic origins of Nazarene Judaism are easily
documented and could fill volumes. I have reduced them here to a short
paragraph each.
documented and could fill volumes. I have reduced them here to a short
paragraph each.
The written Torah is not complete in itself. Instead it presupposes that the reader also has access to additional information. For example the observance of Torah involves the use of the Hebrew calendar. Nowhere does the written Torah tell us the inner workings of this calendar, it presupposes that this information was also passed down to us orally by our forefathers.
There are actually two types of “Oral Law” and they are very different from one another.
The first is Oral Torah from Sinai. Moshe was on Mt. Sinai for forty days. During this time her received much of the material that we know as the Written Torah as recorded in the five books of Moses. However if one to get the five books of Moses as a “books on tape” edition, it would not take anywhere near forty days to listen to them. It would not even take one day to listen to them. So is this ALL the information Moses received on Mount Sinai? Why does Leviticus 26:46 say that Moses received “Laws” (plural) on Mount Sinai? Could he have received Torah She-Bi-Khatav (The Written Torah) and Torah She-Al-Peh (The Oral Torah)?
As we stated earlier, there is not sufficient information in the written Torah to allow it to be observed without some additional information.
For example the written Torah says not to go out of ones “place” on the Sabbath (Ex. 16:29) but just what does this mean? If the Sabbath starts and I am in the latrine, must I stay there until it is over? If I am in my home and the Sabbath starts, must I wait until the Sabbath end to go out to the latrine? Does it mean I cannot leave my house? my yard? my city? Surely the ancient Hebrews (our forefathers) asked Moses what this commandment meant. Did Moses shrug his shoulders and say “heck if I know”, or was this part of the information he also received on Mount Sinai? If so then our forefathers had this information. Is this what the Psalmist means when he says:
1: Give ear, O my people, to my Torah: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2: I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4: We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of YHWH, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
(Ps. 78:1-4)
2: I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
3: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4: We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of YHWH, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
(Ps. 78:1-4)
Another example can be found in Deut. 12:21 which tells us that if we live to far from the Temple and need to slaughter an animal to eat, YHWH says we may do so as long as we do it “as I [YHWH] have commanded you”. But there are no instructions for the ritual slaughter of an animal in the written Torah. This commandment of the written Torah must be alluding to an oral companion to the written Torah.
One can give many more examples. What does it mean not to “work” on the Shabbat? what constitutes “work”? How does one “celebrate” the Shabbat (Ex. 31:16)? What constitutes a “Bill of Divorcement” (Deut. 24:1f) what is it supposed to say?
When Ezra read the Torah to the people in Nehemiah 8:1-8, he and the Levites also “gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (8:7-8). They gave them an oral companion to the written text:
1: And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spoke unto Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Torah of Moses, which YHWH had commanded to Israel.
2: And Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
3: And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the Book of the Torah.
4: And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
5: And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up:
6: And Ezra blessed YHWH, the great Elohim. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped YHWH with their faces to the ground.
7: Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the Torah: and the people stood in their place.
8: So they read in the Book in the Torah of Elohim distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
(Nehemiah 8:1-8)
2: And Ezra the priest brought the Torah before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.
3: And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the Book of the Torah.
4: And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand; and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
5: And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up:
6: And Ezra blessed YHWH, the great Elohim. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped YHWH with their faces to the ground.
7: Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites, caused the people to understand the Torah: and the people stood in their place.
8: So they read in the Book in the Torah of Elohim distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
(Nehemiah 8:1-8)
When the old Worldwide Church of God began observing the biblical festivals, one of the problems they ran into was how to celebrate them. Only sketchy information is given in the written Torah on many of these festivals (we will revisit this issue again later in this article in relation to Yeshua’s observances of Sukkot and Passover).
When it comes to answering these questions, we can turn to the understandings our forefathers had of these things, which they passed down to us orally, or we can make something up. Short of a mutually accepted pipeline to Elohim, those are our only choices.
Another form of Oral Law are the decrees from the Elders. The Elders are said to have ha the “halachic authority”. Halachic authority is the authority to make halachic determinations interpreting the Torah forbidding and permitting activities based on these interpretations (for example if a matter came up which was not settled by the written Torah), and resolving matters between fellow believers. The word "halacha" means "the way to walk." Torah observance requires halachic authority for three reasons. First there are matters about which the written Torah is ambiguous and must be clarified. Secondly is the matter of conflicting Torah commands. For example the Torah requires the priests to circumcise on the eight day after a birth, but also requires rest from work on the Sabbath. Which commandment holds priority? Finally the Torah requires us to establish courts (Deut. 16:18).
In the Torah the Halachic authority was originally held by Moses himself (Ex. 18:13) but later a council of Elders were appointed (Ex. 18:13-26; Dt. 1:9-18) These Elders showed men "the way wherein they must walk" (i.e. Halacha) (Ex. 18:20) Their judgments were regarded as the judgment of Elohim himself (Dt. 1:17) and were even called "Torah" (Dt. 17:11) At first these men had authority only in small matters (Ex. 18:22, 26; Dt. 1:17) but later their authority was expanded (Dt. 17:8). This council was later defined as seventy Elders whom Elohim placed his Spirit upon (Num. 11:16-17; 24-25).
The decrees of these elders added to the body of what was known as the “Oral Law” in much the same was as “legal precedence” does in secular law today.
One classic example of a matter settled by a Decree of the Elders was the issue of circumcision on the Sabbath. Circumcision is commanded to be done on the eighth day (Gen. 17:11) yet on every seventh day no work is allowed (Ex. 20:10). The Elders decreed that the commandment to circumcise on the eighth day held priority over the commandment to rest on the Sabbath (as recorded in the Mishna m.Shabbat 18:3-19:2 and in the Talmud b.Shabbat 128a). Yeshua alluded to and agreed with this Decree of the Elders when he said:
If a man is circumcised on the day of the Sabbath
that the Torah of Moshe be not loosed,
do you murmur against me because
I have healed a whole man on the Sabbath day?
(Jn. 7:23)
that the Torah of Moshe be not loosed,
do you murmur against me because
I have healed a whole man on the Sabbath day?
(Jn. 7:23)
Similarly we read in the Talmud:
Rabbi Eleazar answered and said: If circumcision
which attaches to one only of the two hundred and
forty eight members of the human body, suspends
the Sabbath, how much more shall [the saving of]
the whole body suspend the Sabbath!
b.Yoma 85b
which attaches to one only of the two hundred and
forty eight members of the human body, suspends
the Sabbath, how much more shall [the saving of]
the whole body suspend the Sabbath!
b.Yoma 85b
Yeshua clearly advocated and recognized the authority of these Elders when he said such things as “…whoever shall say to his brother, RAKA, shall be liable to the Sanhedrin…” (Mt. 5:22) and “The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat…” (Mt. 23:1).
At the same time Yeshua also took issue with the Decrees of the Elders when they conflicted with Scripture (Mt. 15; Mt. 23)
The Torah also allowed for the Halachic authority to be held by a King (Dt. 17:8-12; 14-20). Eventually the Elders decided to establish such a monarchy (1Sam. 8:1-7). The throne of these Kings was sees as being "the throne of Elohim" (1Chron. 29:23) Their Halachic authority became termed "the key of the House of David" (Is. 22:21-22).
The Pharisees once held the Keys of the House of David. Mt. 23:13 is key to understanding Yeshua's attitude to the Halachic authority of the Pharisees. Here Yeshua says:
But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men;
for you neither go in,
nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
For you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men;
for you neither go in,
nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
A parallel passage appears in Lk. 11:52:
Woe to you scribes!
For you have taken away the key of knowledge.
you did not enter in yourselves,
and those who were entering in you hindered.
For you have taken away the key of knowledge.
you did not enter in yourselves,
and those who were entering in you hindered.
Now when we look at these two passages together it becomes clear that
the "key" in Luke 11:52 had the potential to open up or shut up the
Kingdom of Heaven. This "key" is clearly then "the key of the house of
David" in Is. 22:22:
the "key" in Luke 11:52 had the potential to open up or shut up the
Kingdom of Heaven. This "key" is clearly then "the key of the house of
David" in Is. 22:22:
The key of the House of David I will lay on his shoulder;
so he shall open, and no one shall shut;
and he shall shut and no one shall open.
so he shall open, and no one shall shut;
and he shall shut and no one shall open.
The Pharisees took away the key (authority) thus shutting up the
Kingdom. They lost the authority, it was taken from them and given to
Yeshua's Talmidim:
Kingdom. They lost the authority, it was taken from them and given to
Yeshua's Talmidim:
In Mt. 16:18-19 Yeshua says he would give "the keys of the Kingdom" to
Kefa and his other talmidim:
Kefa and his other talmidim:
And I also say to you that you are Kefa,
And upon this rock I will build my assembly,
and the gates of Sheol shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
And upon this rock I will build my assembly,
and the gates of Sheol shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
The Pharisees lost this authority because of hypocrisy. Yeshua describes their hypocrisy in Mt. 23 as follows:
On Moshe's seat sit the scribes and P'rushim.
And all that he (Moshe) says to you observe and do.
But not according to their works,
for they say, but do not.
(Mt. 23:2-3)
And all that he (Moshe) says to you observe and do.
But not according to their works,
for they say, but do not.
(Mt. 23:2-3)
Yeshua repeatedly charges the Pharisees with Hypocrisy (Mt. 6; 15:7
and Matt. 23 for examples). Yeshua often charged Pharisees with
"hypocrisy" even the Talmud itself makes the same association:
and Matt. 23 for examples). Yeshua often charged Pharisees with
"hypocrisy" even the Talmud itself makes the same association:
King Jannai said to his wife', `Fear not the Pharisees and the
non-Pharisees but the hypocrites who are the Pharisees; because their
deeds are the deeds of Zimri but they expect a reward like Phineas'
(b.Sotah 22b)
non-Pharisees but the hypocrites who are the Pharisees; because their
deeds are the deeds of Zimri but they expect a reward like Phineas'
(b.Sotah 22b)
Job 13:16 says "a hypocrite shall not come before him."
Based on this verse the Talmud itself correctly lists Hypocrites as one of
four classes who will not receive the presence of the Shekhinah:
four classes who will not receive the presence of the Shekhinah:
R. Hisda also said in the name of R. Jeremiah b. Abba: Four classes
will not receive presence of the Shechinah, — the class of scoffers,
the class of liars, the class of hypocrites, and the class of
slanderers. `The class of scoffers' — as it is written, He withdrew
His hand from the scoffers.(Hosea 7:5) `The class of liars' — as it is
written, He that telleth lies, shall not tarry in my sight.(Ps. 101:7)
`The class of hypocrites' — as it is written, For a hypocrite shall
not come before him.(Job 13:16) `The class of slanderers — as it is
written, For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness:
neither shall evil dwell with thee,'(Ps. 5:5) [which means] Thou art
righteous, and hence there will not be evil in thy abode.
(b.San. 103a)
will not receive presence of the Shechinah, — the class of scoffers,
the class of liars, the class of hypocrites, and the class of
slanderers. `The class of scoffers' — as it is written, He withdrew
His hand from the scoffers.(Hosea 7:5) `The class of liars' — as it is
written, He that telleth lies, shall not tarry in my sight.(Ps. 101:7)
`The class of hypocrites' — as it is written, For a hypocrite shall
not come before him.(Job 13:16) `The class of slanderers — as it is
written, For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness:
neither shall evil dwell with thee,'(Ps. 5:5) [which means] Thou art
righteous, and hence there will not be evil in thy abode.
(b.San. 103a)
We know from Numbers 11:16-17 that the Elders must have the Spirit of Elohim upon them, but since hypocrites cannot receive the presence of the Shekhinah, they cannot serve as valid Elders.
Job says: "the congregation of the hypocrites shall be desolate" (Job. 15:34)
Thus Yeshua took the Keys from the Pharisees and gave these keys to Kefa and his Talmidim:
This key is the halachic authority. Yeshua recognized that the Pharisees held that halachic authority but he also tells us that they had squandered it by rejecting the Kingdom offer (see article "The Kingdom Offer") and refusing to use the key to help Messiah open up the Messianic Kingdom.
The Messiah himself also had the Key of David (Rev. 3:7). In Mt. 16:18-19 Yeshua says he would give "the keys of the Kingdom" to Kefa and his students:
And I also say to you that you are Kefa,
And upon this rock I will build my assembly,
and the gates of Sheol shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
And upon this rock I will build my assembly,
and the gates of Sheol shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
This passage is best understood when compared to Mt. 18:15-20 This passage deals with the law of witnesses (Mt. 18:16 = Dt. 19:15) and refers to an "assembly" (Mt. 18:17) which has the power to "bind" and "loose" (Mt. 18:18) just as does Mt. 16:18-19. Since Mt. 18:16 quotes Dt. 19:15 it is clear that the "assembly" in Mt. 18:17 (and also Mt. 16:18) is the "priests and judges who serve in those days" in Dt. 19:17. This is also clear because this "assembly" has the power to "bind" and "loose." These are two Semitic idioms used in Rabbinic literature as technical terms referring to Halachic authority. To "bind" means to "forbid" an activity and to "loose" means to permit an activity (as in j.Ber. 5b; 6c; j.San. 28a; b.Ab. Zar. 37a; b.Ned. 62a; b.Yeb. 106a; b.Bets. 2b; 22a; b.Ber. 35a; b.Hag. 3b). Thus in Mt. 16:18-19 & 18:18 Yeshua gave his students the Halachic authority which we see them using in Acts 15.
Today we as restored Nazarenes must also have our own unique halachic authority apart from that of Rabbinic Judaism. As "sons of light" we cannot be halachicly yoked with unbelievers. While we cannot be halachicly yoked with unbelievers (Rabbinic Judaism) we must "come out from among them and be separate" (2Cor. 6:14-18& Is. 52:11) for we must ourselves establish courts (Dt. 16:18).
We cannot turn to the "wisdom" of the "Pharisaic Rabbinical" Rabbis and sages of the last two thousand years and simply "accept all the Rabbinical Halakhah, except where Mashiach and His Talmidim clearly and definitely offer another position of Halakhah" for the Tenach warns us:
How can you say, "We are wise, and the Torah of YHWH is with us"?
Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.
The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken.
Behold they have rejected the Word of YHWH;
So what wisdom do they have?
(Jer. 8:8-9)
Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.
The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken.
Behold they have rejected the Word of YHWH;
So what wisdom do they have?
(Jer. 8:8-9)
The unbelieving sages and Rabbis of "Pharisaic Rabbinical" Judaism claim they "are wise" and that "the Torah of the LORD is with us." But they have "rejected the Word of YHWH" (i.e. Yeshua the Messiah; see Jn. 1:1, 14; Rev. 19:13) "So what wisdom do they have?"
There are preserved for us five fragments from an ancient Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah in which the fourth century Nazarene writer makes it clear that Nazarenes of the fourth century were not "following Pharisaic Rabbinical Halakhah." The following is taken from the Nazarene commentary on Isaiah 8:14:
"And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel¦"
The Nazarenes explain the two houses as the two houses of Shammai and Hillel, from whom originated the Scribes and Pharisees… [they Pharisees] scattered and defiled the precepts of the Torah by traditions and mishna. And these two houses
did not accept the Savior
The Nazarenes explain the two houses as the two houses of Shammai and Hillel, from whom originated the Scribes and Pharisees… [they Pharisees] scattered and defiled the precepts of the Torah by traditions and mishna. And these two houses
did not accept the Savior
The Nazarene commentary on Isaiah 8:20-21 has:
The Scribes and the Pharisees tell you to listen to them
answer them like this:
"It is not strange if you follow your traditions since every tribe
consults its own idols. We must not, therefore, consult your
dead [sages] about the living one."
answer them like this:
"It is not strange if you follow your traditions since every tribe
consults its own idols. We must not, therefore, consult your
dead [sages] about the living one."
So it is clear that the original Nazarenes were not "following Pharisaic Rabbinical Halakhah."
Let us return to the subject of the Oral Law in general. Now in Acts 23:6 Paul states “I am a Pharisee”. The Pharisees maintained a belief in the traditions handed down by their forefathers. As Josephus writes:
…the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great
many observances by succession from their fathers,
which are not written in the law of Moses; …
(Josephus; Ant. 13:10:6)
many observances by succession from their fathers,
which are not written in the law of Moses; …
(Josephus; Ant. 13:10:6)
Concerning his Pharisee background Paul says:
And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my
contemporaries in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous for the tradition of my fathers.
(Gal. 1:14)
contemporaries in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous for the tradition of my fathers.
(Gal. 1:14)
Notice that in Acts 28:17 Paul insists:
I have done nothing against our people
or the customs of our fathers.
(Acts 28:17)
or the customs of our fathers.
(Acts 28:17)
Paul writes to the Thessalonians concerning these “traditions”:
“Therefore, brothers stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught…
withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly and not after
the traditions which he received from us.”
(2Thes. 2:15; 3:6)
withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly and not after
the traditions which he received from us.”
(2Thes. 2:15; 3:6)
Paul even made use of these oral “traditions” in his writings. Paul says "...they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was Messiah." (1Cor. 10:4). The Torah records more than one occasion when Moshe (Moses) brought forth water from
a rock (Ex. 16:4-35; 17:1-9; Num. 20:1-13; 16-20). According to Rabbinic tradition the rock did in fact follow them. The Talmud says that it was "a moveable well" (b.Shabbat 35a) and calls it "the Well of Miriam" (b.Ta'anit 9a). Rashi comments on b.Ta'anit 9a saying that the rock "rolled and went along with Israel, and it was the rock Moshe struck." The tradition of the moving rock known as the "Well of Miriam" is also found in B'midbar Parshat Chukkat. Paul's statement that the rock "followed them" testifies to the
fact that he accepted this oral tradition as being factual.
a rock (Ex. 16:4-35; 17:1-9; Num. 20:1-13; 16-20). According to Rabbinic tradition the rock did in fact follow them. The Talmud says that it was "a moveable well" (b.Shabbat 35a) and calls it "the Well of Miriam" (b.Ta'anit 9a). Rashi comments on b.Ta'anit 9a saying that the rock "rolled and went along with Israel, and it was the rock Moshe struck." The tradition of the moving rock known as the "Well of Miriam" is also found in B'midbar Parshat Chukkat. Paul's statement that the rock "followed them" testifies to the
fact that he accepted this oral tradition as being factual.
The second century Nazarene writer Gish’fa (Heggissipus) made use in his writings of these oral traditions. Eusebius writes of him:
And he quotes some passages from The Gospel according to
the Hebrews and from ‘The Syriac’, and some particulars from
the Hebrew tongue, showing that he was … from the Hebrews,
and he mentions other matters as taken from the oral tradition
of the Jews.”
(Eccl. Hist. 4:22)
the Hebrews and from ‘The Syriac’, and some particulars from
the Hebrew tongue, showing that he was … from the Hebrews,
and he mentions other matters as taken from the oral tradition
of the Jews.”
(Eccl. Hist. 4:22)
Yeshua himself seems to have also accepted the “traditions of our fathers” which had been passed down orally.
In John 7:37-38 we read:
“And on the great day, which is the last of the feast, Yeshua stood and cried out and said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scriptures have said, rivers of water of life will flow from his belly.”
The occasion is the last great day of Sukkot (Jn. 7:2) and the setting appears to be the water libation ceremony at the Temple as prescribed by the Oral Law. A priest had a flask of gold filled with water and another has a flask of gold filled with wine. There were two silver bowls perforated with holes like a narrow snout. One was wide for the water the other is narrow for the wine. The priests poured the wine and water into each of their bowls. The wine and water mixed together. The wine flowing slowly through the narrow snout and the water flowing quickly through the wider snout. (m.Sukkot 4:9) Yeshua said that this ritual from the Oral Law was actually prophetic and symbolic of himself!
In all four Gospels Yeshua participates in the Passover Sader. The elements of the sader, such as the “cup of redemption”; dipping in bitter herbs; and the afikomen (the last piece of unleavened bread passed around and eaten at the end) all come from the Oral Law as recorded in the Mishna (m.Pes. 10). Yeshua not only accepted and kept these Oral Law rituals, but also spoke of them being prophetic of himself.
There is an interesting story in the Talmud which makes a profound point about the Oral Law:
Our Rabbis taught: A certain heathen once came before Shammai and asked him, ‘How many Torahs have you?’ ‘Two,’ he replied: ‘the Written Torah and the Oral Torah.’ ‘I believe you with respect to the Written, but not with respect to the Oral Torah; make me a proselyte on condition that you teach me the Written Torah [only]. [But] he scolded and repulsed him in anger. When he went before Hillel, he accepted him as a proselyte. On the first day, he taught him, Alef, beth, gimmel, daleth; the following day he reversed [them ] to him. ‘But yesterday you did not teach them to me thus,’ he protested. ‘Must you then not rely upon me? Then rely upon me with respect to the Oral [Torah] too.’
(b.Shabbat 31a)
(b.Shabbat 31a)
The point of the story is that the same forefathers that passed the written Torah down to us, also passed the Oral Torah down to us with it. What logic is there in accepting the written Torah that they delivered to us as truth, while rejecting the Oral Law passed down by the very same forefathers?
Now we as Nazarenes do not believe that the Rabbis or Pharisaic/Rabbinic
Judaism held the power to bind and loose after the first century, perhaps
not even before the first century. Thus we should not simply accept these
rulings, on the other hand we should not simply reject them out of hand.
In may cases the Talmud or the related halachic Midrashim present the line
of logic which led to the decisions being made. We should look at these
lines of logic to determine if the decisions were valid and sound.
Judaism held the power to bind and loose after the first century, perhaps
not even before the first century. Thus we should not simply accept these
rulings, on the other hand we should not simply reject them out of hand.
In may cases the Talmud or the related halachic Midrashim present the line
of logic which led to the decisions being made. We should look at these
lines of logic to determine if the decisions were valid and sound.
For example I heard one Messianic Rabbi bashing the Talmud and claiming
that the Rabbis had added thirty-nine rules to the simple commandment not
to work on the Sabbath. In fact the thirty-nine categories (given in
m.Shabbat 7:2) are drawn from the text of the Torah. In the Torah the
instructions concerning the building of the Tabernacle are interrupted by a
restatement of the commandment not to work on the Sabbath (Ex. 31:12-17).
The connection this section of Exodus has with the surrounding material
seems to be the word “work” (Ex. 31:14) and “workmanship” (Ex. 31:3) (same
word in the Hebrew). Thus the commandment not to “work” on the Sabbath
(Ex. 31:14) is restated as a reminder to abstain from the “workmanship” of
the Tabernacle mentioned in Ex. 31:3. Thus the term “work” in the
commandment not to work on the Sabbath may be elaborated and defined by the
thirty-nine categories of “workmanship” involved in building the
Tabernacle.
that the Rabbis had added thirty-nine rules to the simple commandment not
to work on the Sabbath. In fact the thirty-nine categories (given in
m.Shabbat 7:2) are drawn from the text of the Torah. In the Torah the
instructions concerning the building of the Tabernacle are interrupted by a
restatement of the commandment not to work on the Sabbath (Ex. 31:12-17).
The connection this section of Exodus has with the surrounding material
seems to be the word “work” (Ex. 31:14) and “workmanship” (Ex. 31:3) (same
word in the Hebrew). Thus the commandment not to “work” on the Sabbath
(Ex. 31:14) is restated as a reminder to abstain from the “workmanship” of
the Tabernacle mentioned in Ex. 31:3. Thus the term “work” in the
commandment not to work on the Sabbath may be elaborated and defined by the
thirty-nine categories of “workmanship” involved in building the
Tabernacle.
We as Nazarenes should not reject the material in the Talmud out of hand,
we should seek to understand it. Then we should “eat the date and spit
out the seeds”. The same approach should be taken to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
we should seek to understand it. Then we should “eat the date and spit
out the seeds”. The same approach should be taken to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Nazarenes should not be modern day Sadducees.
Yeshua and Hillel
Yeshua and Hillel By James Trimm Yeshua and Hillel on Love
Yeshua and Hillel By James Trimm Yeshua and Hillel on Love
One of the most significant parallels between Yeshua and Hillel is Their profound teaching of Love. Yeshua's teaching of love was a radical departure from the teachings at Qumran. Now Philo tells us that the
Essenes had great "desire to promote brotherly love" (Philo; The Hypothetica 11:2) this brotherly love seems to have been only to fellow
members of the Yachad (unity). This is reflected in the Damascus
Document's use of Lev. 19:18. In the Torah Leviticus 19:18 reads:
Essenes had great "desire to promote brotherly love" (Philo; The Hypothetica 11:2) this brotherly love seems to have been only to fellow
members of the Yachad (unity). This is reflected in the Damascus
Document's use of Lev. 19:18. In the Torah Leviticus 19:18 reads:
You shall not avenge,
nor bear any grudge against the children of my people,
But you shall love your neighbor as yourself:
I am YHWH.
nor bear any grudge against the children of my people,
But you shall love your neighbor as yourself:
I am YHWH.
Now the Damascus Document interprets this passage as follows:
As for the passage that says, "Take no vengeance and bear no grudge against your kinfolk" (Lev. 19:18) any covenant member who brings against his fellow an accusation not sworn to before witnesses or who makes an accusation in the heat of anger or who tells it to his elders to bring his fellow into repute, the same is a vengence-taker and a grudge-bearer….
(Damascus Document 9, 2)
(Damascus Document 9, 2)
Note that this Qumran interpretation of Lev. 19:19 would limit "neighbor" in Lev. 19:18 to "any covenant member" i.e. a member of the Yachad. In fact the Qumran sect taught:
…bear unremitting hatred towards all men of ill repute…
to leave it to them to pursue wealth and mercenary gain…
truckling to a depot.
(Man. Of Disc. Ix, 21-26)
to leave it to them to pursue wealth and mercenary gain…
truckling to a depot.
(Man. Of Disc. Ix, 21-26)
By contrast Hillel is quoted as saying:
Be disciples of Aaron,
loving peace and pursuing peace,
loving people and drawing them near to the Torah.
(m.Avot 1:12)
loving peace and pursuing peace,
loving people and drawing them near to the Torah.
(m.Avot 1:12)
The Qumran attitude was one of hatred to the sinner. There was no concept
of "drawing them near to the Torah" but rather to "leave it to them to
[sin]… truckling to a depot." Yet Hillel took the opposite approach.
Hillel's attitude was to "Love" the men of ill repute and draw them near to
the Torah. This was also Yeshua's approach.
of "drawing them near to the Torah" but rather to "leave it to them to
[sin]… truckling to a depot." Yet Hillel took the opposite approach.
Hillel's attitude was to "Love" the men of ill repute and draw them near to
the Torah. This was also Yeshua's approach.
Yeshua taught:
You have heard that it was said
"You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you persecute you
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;
for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brethren only,
what do you do more than others?
Do not even the tax collectors do so?
(Mt. 5:43-47)
"You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you,
do good to those who hate you,
and pray for those who spitefully use you persecute you
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven;
for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good,
and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brethren only,
what do you do more than others?
Do not even the tax collectors do so?
(Mt. 5:43-47)
Yeshua here begins by quoting the Tanak "Love your neighbor" (Lev. 19:18) but then gives the Qumran corollary "hate your enemy." Yeshua differs with this "hate your enemy" teaching in agreement with the love philosophy of Hillel. Apparently the Qumran community inferred from "Love your neighbor" (Lev. 19:18) that they should therefore bear unremitting hatred toward their enemies. To Yeshua (and presumably Hillel) the issue is the interpretation of "neighbor." In his Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:29-36) Yeshua argues that we cannot be sure who our "neighbor" is, so in order to make sure we do not violate Lev. 19:18 we should love everyone.
Hillel, Yeshua and the Golden Rule
Another strong parallel between Hillel and Yeshua is that of the so called "Golden Rule." There is a story in the Talmud in which Hillel gives a
summary of the Torah. The Talmud says:
summary of the Torah. The Talmud says:
…it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai
and said to him, "Make me a proselyte, on condition that you
teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Thereupon
he repulsed him with the builders cubit which was in his hand.
When he went before Hillel, he said to him "Do not to others
what you would not have them do to you: that is the whole Torah,
while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it."
(b.Shab. 31a)
and said to him, "Make me a proselyte, on condition that you
teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Thereupon
he repulsed him with the builders cubit which was in his hand.
When he went before Hillel, he said to him "Do not to others
what you would not have them do to you: that is the whole Torah,
while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it."
(b.Shab. 31a)
A similar incident occurs in the Gospels:
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him
a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Yeshua said to him, " 'You shall love YHWH your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is
the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it:
'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
"On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
(Mt. 22:34-40 = Mk. 12:28-31 = Lk. 10:25-37)
they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him
a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Yeshua said to him, " 'You shall love YHWH your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is
the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it:
'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
"On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
(Mt. 22:34-40 = Mk. 12:28-31 = Lk. 10:25-37)
Here Yeshua is pressed to summarize the Torah and answers with the Sh'ma
(Dt. 6:4-9) and the commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). This is remarkably similar to Hillel's answer to the same
question. It is important to note that the Pharisees agreed that Yeshua's
answer was correct. Yeshua elsewhere gives a summary of the Torah which parallels Hillel's answer even closer:
(Dt. 6:4-9) and the commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). This is remarkably similar to Hillel's answer to the same
question. It is important to note that the Pharisees agreed that Yeshua's
answer was correct. Yeshua elsewhere gives a summary of the Torah which parallels Hillel's answer even closer:
Whatever you would that men should do to you,
do you even to them,
for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
(Mt. 7:12 = Lk. 6:31)
do you even to them,
for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
(Mt. 7:12 = Lk. 6:31)
Priority of Chesed to Hillel and Yeshua
Within Rabbinic literature we have record of over 350 disputes between the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai. Generally Shammai gave the stricter interpretation, while Hillels understandings were more relaxed. According to the Zohar (Ra'aya Meheimna 3:245a) The School of Shammai was based on GEVURAH ("severity") while the School of Hillel was based on CHESED ("grace"/"mercy"). This is very significant. In Mark's account of Yeshua's summary of the Torah (Mk. 12:28-33) A "scribe" comes to question Yeshua. In Matthew's account this "scribe" is identified as a Pharisee (Mt. 22:34-36). According to Mark's account this Pharisee not only agreed with Yeshua's summary of Torah and repeated it adding:
…and to love his neighbor as himself,
is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
(Mt. 12:33b)
is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
(Mt. 12:33b)
It is not unlikely from this context that the Pharisee was quoting a
now-lost saying of Hillel here. In making this statement the Pharisee, who apparently was from the School of Hillel, was pointing to Hosea 6:6:
now-lost saying of Hillel here. In making this statement the Pharisee, who apparently was from the School of Hillel, was pointing to Hosea 6:6:
For I [YHWH] desire mercy (CHESED), and not sacrifice;
and the knowledge of ELOHIM more than burnt offerings.
and the knowledge of ELOHIM more than burnt offerings.
This Pharisee seemes to have identified "love your neighbor" of Lev. 19:18
with the CHESED of Hosea 6:6. Remember the relaxed halachic positions of the School of Hillel were based on CHESED, it is indeed likely that Hosea 6:6 served as a proof text for many of their halachic rulings, since this passage assigns a halachic weight to CHESED. We also find Yeshau using Hosea 6:6 in support of his relaxed halachic rulings regarding the Shabbat (Mt. 12:7 = Hosea 6:6) hereYeshus argues from Hosea 6:6 that CHESED is of greater weight than the sacrifices. Since CHESED out weighs sacrifice, and sacrifice out weighs Shabbat, then CHESED out weighs Shabbat.
with the CHESED of Hosea 6:6. Remember the relaxed halachic positions of the School of Hillel were based on CHESED, it is indeed likely that Hosea 6:6 served as a proof text for many of their halachic rulings, since this passage assigns a halachic weight to CHESED. We also find Yeshau using Hosea 6:6 in support of his relaxed halachic rulings regarding the Shabbat (Mt. 12:7 = Hosea 6:6) hereYeshus argues from Hosea 6:6 that CHESED is of greater weight than the sacrifices. Since CHESED out weighs sacrifice, and sacrifice out weighs Shabbat, then CHESED out weighs Shabbat.
It seems that both Yeshua and Hillel emphasised love for all men,
Taught the "gloden rule" and had many of their halachic rulings rooted in CHESED ("mercy").
Taught the "gloden rule" and had many of their halachic rulings rooted in CHESED ("mercy").
Yeshua the Pharisee?
By James Scott Trimm
In Yochanan we read that when Yochanan was immersing in the wilderness:
26 Yochanan answered and said to them, I immerse with water: but among you stands One, whom you do not know.
27 This is the One, who will come after me--yet was before me: the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose.
(John 1:26-27 HRV)
Now a basic rule of hermeneutics is to ask who is being spoken to in any given passage. In this case there is much to learn by asking this question, because Messiah himself is part of this "you" being addressed here by Yochanan. The answer as to who is "you" here lies in verse 24:
24 And those who were sent were from the P’rushim.
(John 1:24 HRV)
In other words, we could understand the passage as follows:
26 Yochanan answered and said to them, I immerse with water: but among you [Pharisees] stands One, whom you do not know. 27 This is the One, who will come after me--yet was before me: the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose.
(John 1:26-27 HRV)
Yeshua seems to be referred here as a Pharisee! This should not serve as a surprise. When Yeshua was born he received a special blessing from Hillel the Great's son Shim'on:
Now there was one man in Yerushalayim. His name was Shim’on. And this man was just and righteous and waiting for the comfort of Yisrael, and the Ruach HaKodesh was upon him.
(Luke 2:25-35 HRV)
This Shimon (Simon) was almost certainly Shim’on the son of Hillel who would later succeed his father as Nasi of the Pharisaic Sanhedrin. His son Gamliel would become the teacher of Paul (Acts 22:3) and would take a tolerant stance toward the Nazarene sect (Acts 5:34) possibly influenced by his father’s earlier blessing of Yehsua. ... (Taken from the Hebraic Roots Commentary on Luke http://www.lulu.com/nazarene)
One of the most significant parallels between Yeshua and Hillel is Their profound teaching of Love. Yeshua's teaching of love was a radical departure from the teachings at Qumran. Now Philo tells us that the Essenes had great "desire to promote brotherly love" (Philo; The Hypothetica 11:2) this brotherly love seems to have been only to fellow members of the Yachad (unity). This is reflected in the Damascus Document's use of Lev. 19:18. In the Torah Leviticus 19:18 reads:
You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of my people, But you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am YHWH.
Now the Damascus Document interprets this passage as follows:
As for the passage that says, "Take no vengeance and bear no grudge against your kinfolk" (Lev. 19:18) any covenant member who brings against his fellow an accusation not sworn to before witnesses or who makes an accusation in the heat of anger or who tells it to his elders to bring his fellow into repute, the same is a vengence-taker and a grudge-bearer….
(Damascus Document 9, 2)
Note that this Qumran interpretation of Lev. 19:19 would limit "neighbor" in Lev. 19:18 to "any covenant member" i.e. a member of the Yachad. In fact the Qumran sect taught:
…bear unremitting hatred towards all men of ill repute… to leave it to them to pursue wealth and mercenary gain… truckling to a depot.
(Manual Of Disc. Ix, 21-26)
By contrast Hillel is quoted as saying:
Be disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near to the Torah.
(m.Avot 1:12)
The Qumran attitude was one of hatred to the sinner. There was no concept of "drawing them near to the Torah" but rather to "leave it to them to [sin]… truckling to a depot." Yet Hillel took the opposite approach. Hillel's attitude was to "Love" the men of ill repute and draw them near to the Torah. This was also Yeshua's approach.
Yeshua taught:
You have heard that it was said "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
(Matthew 5:43-47)
Yeshua here begins by quoting the Tanak "Love your neighbor" (Lev. 19:18) but then gives the Qumran corollary "hate your enemy." Yeshua differs with this "hate your enemy" teaching in agreement with the love philosophy of Hillel. Apparently the Qumran community inferred from "Love your neighbor" (Lev. 19:18) that they should therefore bear unremitting hatred toward their enemies. To Yeshua (and presumably Hillel) the issue is the interpretation of "neighbor." In his Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:29-36) Yeshua argues that we cannot be sure who our "neighbor" is, so in order to make sure we do not violate Lev. 19:18 we should love everyone.
Hillel, Yeshua and the Golden Rule
Another strong parallel between Hillel and Yeshua is that of the so called "Golden Rule." There is a story in the Talmud in which Hillel gives a summary of the Torah. The Talmud says:
…it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, "Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Thereupon he repulsed him with the builders cubit which was in his hand. When he went before Hillel, he said to him "Do not to others what you would not have them do to you: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it."
(b.Shab. 31a)
A similar incident occurs in the Gospels:
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Yeshua said to him, " 'You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
(Matthew 22:34-40 = Mark 12:28-31 = Luke 10:25-37)
Here Yeshua is pressed to summarize the Torah and answers with the Sh'ma (Dt. 6:4-9) and the commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). This is remarkably similar to Hillel's answer to the same question. It is important to note that the Pharisees agreed that Yeshua's answer was correct. Yeshua elsewhere gives a summary of the Torah which parallels Hillel's answer even closer:
Whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even to them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
(Matthew 7:12 = Luke 6:31)
Priority of Chesed to Hillel and Yeshua
Within Rabbinic literature we have record of over 350 disputes between the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai. Generally Shammai gave the stricter interpretation, while Hillels understandings were more relaxed. According to the Zohar (Ra'aya Meheimna 3:245a) The School of Shammai was based on GEVURAH ("severity") while the School of Hillel was based on CHESED ("grace"/"mercy"). This is very significant. In Mark's account of Yeshua's summary of the Torah (Mk. 12:28-33) A "scribe" comes to question Yeshua. In Matthew's account this "scribe" is identified as a Pharisee (Mt. 22:34-36). According to Mark's account this Pharisee not only agreed with Yeshua's summary of Torah and repeated it adding:
…and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
(Matthew 12:33b)
It is not unlikely from this context that the Pharisee was quoting a now-lost saying of Hillel here. In making this statement the Pharisee, who apparently was from the School of Hillel, was pointing to Hosea 6:6:
For I [YHWH] desire mercy (CHESED), and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of ELOHIM more than burnt offerings.
This Pharisee seemes to have identified "love your neighbor" of Lev. 19:18 with the CHESED of Hosea 6:6. Remember the relaxed halachic positions of the School of Hillel were based on CHESED, it is indeed likely that Hosea 6:6 served as a proof text for many of their halachic rulings, since this passage assigns a halachic weight to CHESED. We also find Yeshau using Hosea 6:6 in support of his relaxed halachic rulings regarding the Shabbat (Mt. 12:7 = Hosea 6:6) hereYeshus argues from Hosea 6:6 that CHESED is of greater weight than the sacrifices. Since CHESED out weighs sacrifice, and sacrifice out weighs Shabbat, then CHESED out weighs Shabbat.
It seems that both Yeshua and Hillel emphasised love for all men, Taught the "gloden rule" and had many of their halachic rulings rooted in CHESED ("mercy").
By James Scott Trimm
In Yochanan we read that when Yochanan was immersing in the wilderness:
26 Yochanan answered and said to them, I immerse with water: but among you stands One, whom you do not know.
27 This is the One, who will come after me--yet was before me: the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose.
(John 1:26-27 HRV)
Now a basic rule of hermeneutics is to ask who is being spoken to in any given passage. In this case there is much to learn by asking this question, because Messiah himself is part of this "you" being addressed here by Yochanan. The answer as to who is "you" here lies in verse 24:
24 And those who were sent were from the P’rushim.
(John 1:24 HRV)
In other words, we could understand the passage as follows:
26 Yochanan answered and said to them, I immerse with water: but among you [Pharisees] stands One, whom you do not know. 27 This is the One, who will come after me--yet was before me: the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose.
(John 1:26-27 HRV)
Yeshua seems to be referred here as a Pharisee! This should not serve as a surprise. When Yeshua was born he received a special blessing from Hillel the Great's son Shim'on:
Now there was one man in Yerushalayim. His name was Shim’on. And this man was just and righteous and waiting for the comfort of Yisrael, and the Ruach HaKodesh was upon him.
(Luke 2:25-35 HRV)
This Shimon (Simon) was almost certainly Shim’on the son of Hillel who would later succeed his father as Nasi of the Pharisaic Sanhedrin. His son Gamliel would become the teacher of Paul (Acts 22:3) and would take a tolerant stance toward the Nazarene sect (Acts 5:34) possibly influenced by his father’s earlier blessing of Yehsua. ... (Taken from the Hebraic Roots Commentary on Luke http://www.lulu.com/nazarene)
One of the most significant parallels between Yeshua and Hillel is Their profound teaching of Love. Yeshua's teaching of love was a radical departure from the teachings at Qumran. Now Philo tells us that the Essenes had great "desire to promote brotherly love" (Philo; The Hypothetica 11:2) this brotherly love seems to have been only to fellow members of the Yachad (unity). This is reflected in the Damascus Document's use of Lev. 19:18. In the Torah Leviticus 19:18 reads:
You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of my people, But you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am YHWH.
Now the Damascus Document interprets this passage as follows:
As for the passage that says, "Take no vengeance and bear no grudge against your kinfolk" (Lev. 19:18) any covenant member who brings against his fellow an accusation not sworn to before witnesses or who makes an accusation in the heat of anger or who tells it to his elders to bring his fellow into repute, the same is a vengence-taker and a grudge-bearer….
(Damascus Document 9, 2)
Note that this Qumran interpretation of Lev. 19:19 would limit "neighbor" in Lev. 19:18 to "any covenant member" i.e. a member of the Yachad. In fact the Qumran sect taught:
…bear unremitting hatred towards all men of ill repute… to leave it to them to pursue wealth and mercenary gain… truckling to a depot.
(Manual Of Disc. Ix, 21-26)
By contrast Hillel is quoted as saying:
Be disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and drawing them near to the Torah.
(m.Avot 1:12)
The Qumran attitude was one of hatred to the sinner. There was no concept of "drawing them near to the Torah" but rather to "leave it to them to [sin]… truckling to a depot." Yet Hillel took the opposite approach. Hillel's attitude was to "Love" the men of ill repute and draw them near to the Torah. This was also Yeshua's approach.
Yeshua taught:
You have heard that it was said "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?
(Matthew 5:43-47)
Yeshua here begins by quoting the Tanak "Love your neighbor" (Lev. 19:18) but then gives the Qumran corollary "hate your enemy." Yeshua differs with this "hate your enemy" teaching in agreement with the love philosophy of Hillel. Apparently the Qumran community inferred from "Love your neighbor" (Lev. 19:18) that they should therefore bear unremitting hatred toward their enemies. To Yeshua (and presumably Hillel) the issue is the interpretation of "neighbor." In his Parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:29-36) Yeshua argues that we cannot be sure who our "neighbor" is, so in order to make sure we do not violate Lev. 19:18 we should love everyone.
Hillel, Yeshua and the Golden Rule
Another strong parallel between Hillel and Yeshua is that of the so called "Golden Rule." There is a story in the Talmud in which Hillel gives a summary of the Torah. The Talmud says:
…it happened that a certain heathen came before Shammai and said to him, "Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Thereupon he repulsed him with the builders cubit which was in his hand. When he went before Hillel, he said to him "Do not to others what you would not have them do to you: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it."
(b.Shab. 31a)
A similar incident occurs in the Gospels:
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Yeshua said to him, " 'You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the first and great commandment. "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
(Matthew 22:34-40 = Mark 12:28-31 = Luke 10:25-37)
Here Yeshua is pressed to summarize the Torah and answers with the Sh'ma (Dt. 6:4-9) and the commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev. 19:18). This is remarkably similar to Hillel's answer to the same question. It is important to note that the Pharisees agreed that Yeshua's answer was correct. Yeshua elsewhere gives a summary of the Torah which parallels Hillel's answer even closer:
Whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even to them, for this is the Torah and the Prophets.
(Matthew 7:12 = Luke 6:31)
Priority of Chesed to Hillel and Yeshua
Within Rabbinic literature we have record of over 350 disputes between the School of Hillel and the School of Shammai. Generally Shammai gave the stricter interpretation, while Hillels understandings were more relaxed. According to the Zohar (Ra'aya Meheimna 3:245a) The School of Shammai was based on GEVURAH ("severity") while the School of Hillel was based on CHESED ("grace"/"mercy"). This is very significant. In Mark's account of Yeshua's summary of the Torah (Mk. 12:28-33) A "scribe" comes to question Yeshua. In Matthew's account this "scribe" is identified as a Pharisee (Mt. 22:34-36). According to Mark's account this Pharisee not only agreed with Yeshua's summary of Torah and repeated it adding:
…and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
(Matthew 12:33b)
It is not unlikely from this context that the Pharisee was quoting a now-lost saying of Hillel here. In making this statement the Pharisee, who apparently was from the School of Hillel, was pointing to Hosea 6:6:
For I [YHWH] desire mercy (CHESED), and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of ELOHIM more than burnt offerings.
This Pharisee seemes to have identified "love your neighbor" of Lev. 19:18 with the CHESED of Hosea 6:6. Remember the relaxed halachic positions of the School of Hillel were based on CHESED, it is indeed likely that Hosea 6:6 served as a proof text for many of their halachic rulings, since this passage assigns a halachic weight to CHESED. We also find Yeshau using Hosea 6:6 in support of his relaxed halachic rulings regarding the Shabbat (Mt. 12:7 = Hosea 6:6) hereYeshus argues from Hosea 6:6 that CHESED is of greater weight than the sacrifices. Since CHESED out weighs sacrifice, and sacrifice out weighs Shabbat, then CHESED out weighs Shabbat.
It seems that both Yeshua and Hillel emphasised love for all men, Taught the "gloden rule" and had many of their halachic rulings rooted in CHESED ("mercy").
The Shocking True Story
Behind the “Jesus Family Tomb”
This is the Summarized & Anglicized Version of the Original found at this link
Dr. Jackson Snyder October 11, 2011
This Page is Written to be Viewed on Internet Explorer.
Greek Fonts will not show correctly in other browsers.
Behind the “Jesus Family Tomb”
This is the Summarized & Anglicized Version of the Original found at this link
Dr. Jackson Snyder October 11, 2011
This Page is Written to be Viewed on Internet Explorer.
Greek Fonts will not show correctly in other browsers.
If you didn’t know this already, the Discovery Channel aired “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” (the Talpiot tomb) a couple years ago (March, 2007). The claims made by the filmmakers were that they were certain they had found the tomb of the family of Yahshua, that they had his DNA, that Mary Magdalene was in there, and that they had a son who was in there, too, little Yahuda, as well as other biblical characters (WHO?). As a long-time student of archaeological findings and Christian origins, I found the discovery fascinating. What I couldn’t agree with was the direction in which the filmmakers took the discovery. Their rock-solid conclusion was that Mary Magdalene was the mother of ‘Jesus’s’ son and that she took their son to safety in Europe. When the Magdalene died, she was then sent back to Palestine and interred in the Jerusalem tomb. If you saw this presentation then you’ll know what I’m writing about.
Note: The Toledoth (genealogy) for Maryah mother of Yahshua is found in Matthew 1. The Toledoth of Yoseph aka Zadoc father of Yahshua is found in Luke 3:23ff. Most doctors have these mixed up, but textual evidence in Matthew 1 assures us that his toledoth is that of Maryah.
It Is the Real Thing
For the sake of my presentation, let’s temporarily believe that the “Jesus Family Tomb” is the real thing. I don’t have time to define all the terms or tell all the history behind what I am presenting to you. Rest assured what I’m writing is based in fact, not the incredulous presumptions of the DaVinci Code crowd. You may easily verify most of what I write by simple internet searches, reading Josephus, Philo or Eusebius, using the Search Engine at JacksonSnyder.com, or purchasing or any modern scholar’s book of the subject. (I have several excellent books listed at www.YAHpop.us. Or I can offer you references or sources if you are really interested. Contact me here: jack AT theyahad.com.)
Let the story begin: BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING IS HISTORICAL FICTION.
The Sons of Alfai to the Temple in Heliopolis
We read in our histories that when Joseph, the son of the famous Jacob, was raised from prison to become the administrator of Egypt, he received Asenath in marriage, a priestess of the sun god On.[i] Joseph, as a worshiper of YHWH, certainly had some influence in Egypt’s acceptance of Monotheism around 1400 BC.[ii] But when Joseph was gone and forgotten, the priests of On brought back the old Egyptian gods and brutally expelled or killed the priestly families and ultimately anyone who would not worship them. Many of the Hebrews in Egypt used the Nile as an escape route, finding safety south of the Egyptian border, in Cush, Numibia and Ethiopia, where some remain to this day (and are known to outsiders as Falasha[iii]). Our story begins in the city of Alfai, on the Nile River in what is today called Sudan, just south of the Egyptian border. Alfai is a sanctuary city, protected by the Cushite Kingdom[iv] as sovereign territory, off-limits to the armies of Egypt, Greece and later Rome. It takes its name from the fact that it is the first city south of Egypt – “Alfai” (alpha) means “first” just like “alpha and omega” means “first and last.”
500 B.C.: Over the next centuries arises a dynasty among the Alfai Hebrews of the line of Solomon by Menelik, the son of the Candace of Ethiopia. These priest-kings were unique as they had the power to regulate the weather, cast out swarms of locusts, and heal the sick in the name of YHWH. Over the centuries, the Alfai kings’ descendants became known throughout the dispersion of Israel as rainmakers and healers; their presence and gifts were highly valued everywhere. They became known as “Ben Chalfai” or “Sons of Alfai.” A few of the Sons of Alphai are still known today from ancient texts we all can read, such as Honi the Circle Drawer[v], Yahuda the Galilean, and Ya’aqov and Levi, “Sons of Alphaeus[vi] “in the New Testament.[vii] (Alphaeus is not a man; Alphaeus refers to a city in Cush and also a caste of priest-kings.)
200 B.C.: This brings us to the Egyptian city of Heliopolis where we find a community of Hebrews, many of whom migrated back to Egypt from Cush after the persecutions of King Ptolemy Philopator about 210 BC. King Ptolemy rounds up all those of the tribe of Judah who would not take the mark of the god Dionysius or wear the Greek hat; he had them corralled in the stadium at Alexandria. If they won’t give up the peculiarities of their faith, he would murder them all in one of the most creative ways imaginable: he would order the army’s five hundred elephants to be drug-crazed then stampeded through the stadium upon the Jews inside.
Though Ptolemy attempted the massacre a few times, YHWH stole the plan from his mind. YHWH instructed Ptolemy not only to set the captives free, but to commend them. This commendation ultimately led to the Jews gaining permission to rebuild the Temple of YHWH in Egypt and reinstall the legitimate Zadokite priesthood. All this in fulfillment of Isaiah 19:18-21 (excerpted here):
In that day there will be an altar dedicated to Yahweh in the center of Egypt and, close to the frontier, a pillar dedicated to Yahweh, and this will be a sign and a witness to YHWH Sabaoth in Egypt. In that day there will be five cities in Egypt … pledging themselves to YHWH Sabaoth; one of them called City of the Sun.[viii]
Few today realize that, while the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple was being bought and sold, a Temple of YHWH manned by the proper order of Zadokite priests existed in Egypt for 240 years, including the entire lifespan of the Messiah. And that the temple would be in the city of Heliopolis, which means “City of the Sun.” The announcement of the building of a new temple draws contractors and artisans from all over Africa. A few of these builders journey up from Alfai. Some of them are “Sons of Alphai,” now lay priests with construction skills, who could on occasion still call down rain, cast out locusts, and heal the sick.
Twins Marry Twins: Yohana & Yosef; Cleo(patra) & Cleopas
So it is now about 10 BC; and in Heliopolis of Egypt not far from the Temple of YHWH. Here lives a small community whose ancestors came up to build the Temple, descendants of “the Sons of Alfai,” by which surname they are still known. And they still follow the trade of their ancestors – the building business (that is, the tekton of Mark 6:3[ix]). These few families had been successful enough in their generations to inherit the wealth required to set up business in a new location, and they are blessed by YHWH and set-apart for great things to come.
There are two sets of twins, twins married to twins, descended from the builders of the temple. Twins were common in their ancestry, and their intermarriage is not uncommon among David’s descendants since prophecy decreed a Davidic Messiah to restore Jerusalem to holiness and order. One set of twins are named by Eli their father in the Hebrew style: they are Yohana and Yosef, surnamed Alfai (spell it). The other set are named by Lebbaeus their father in the Egyptian style: they are Cleo(patra)[x] and Cleopas, surnamed Alphaeus (spell it).
So we have two families from the same place with two different sets of customs, but each as Hebrew as the other, with one set Greco-Egyptian and the other Hebrew-Egyptian, ready to merge, and take on the task of trying to discover their common heritage.
The surnames Alfai and Alphaeus mean the same thing (as we will see later), yet the uniting of the Egyptian and Hebraic surnames is a sign to both that they have really been but One (Alef) from the beginning. Cleopas marries Yohana and Yosef marries Cleo(patra). The double marriage unites cousins and businesses too. They have worked together for generations anyway, and they will need a bigger company if they are going to contend for business outside of Egypt, where great building projects are shovel-ready. Herod the Great, so-called, has many great projects going all over Palestine, and it is their intention to be hired for some of them, even if it means pulling up stakes in Egypt and moving back to Bethlehem, their ancestral town of origin.
Being of the line of both David and Zadok the Priest is taken seriously, and the Sons of Alphaeus (as they are called by most others) are very faithful to their Hebraic roots. Though they’ve been brought up in the shadow of the Heliopolis Temple, the faith of their fathers and mothers never fit well with temple-Judaism. ¿What is the purpose of killing animals if one neither raises them nor eats them? The Sons of Alphaeus are strictly vegetarian. In their religious lives, they find personal prayer enlightening and individual ministry edifying, and good deeds more pleasing than either money or sacrifices. Though the Torah remains their Law, they’re more interested in do’s than don’t’s – and there is much good to do. Since Sons of Alphaeus are contractors, the real work is now done by skilled sub-contractors. The brothers-in-law Yosef and Cleopas have free time to be spent with family, education and worship.
With whatever seed is required within the human heart for a harvest of good works and a pleasing life – it had been planted within them. Hardly is a Torah necessary for such hearts; they would not disobey even had they never known of it; they simply could not. They loved too much. Some people are just born pretty good – with seven or eight parts light inside and just a little bit of darkness.[xi] After all, these are men and women of legend – worthy of awe and inspiration – priests just as much as any in the temple – of a higher priesthood that doesn’t require robes and bloodied knives – priests who would command weather, reproach plagues and heal the sick – bred of the seed of good and set-apart men and women ( – set by the Almighty in the midst of an evil world as salt and light) – hardly even subject to death – (some said they would live for a thousand generations[xii]) – yet even when they die, it is unto the resurrection of the just.
By this time, the ancient title of Alfai Priest is passing into insignificance while their new identity is published by the philosopher Philo the Jew. He simply calls the Alfai priesthood Healers (or Therapeutoi/ae). Cleopas and Yosef are hard-working yet highly religious healers. And they have been educating themselves all along – they participate in the study of the ancient manuscripts: they can read Coptic, Greek, Aramaic, and a little Hebrew. As a people set apart, they have a tradition of study, weather prediction, and healing through prayer and natural substances.
The Healers are known for high ethical standards. If necessary, they aid orphans and widows as commanded in Scripture. They see to the welfare of the poor. They take in children when possible. The money they make through their business, which is considerable, they place in a common fund to better the community, caring for both the less fortunate and those called to study Scripture.[xiii] The more they make, the more they can help. And though he is not very involved with the temple his kin helped to build, Yosef is known in religious circles as haZaddik, “Yosef the Just.”[xiv] I doubt that there is one soul who has read this far and would still not enjoy being known as a righteous man or woman.
Children of Yosef and Cleo(patra) – Yohana, Ya’aqov & Yahuda
Twin sons are born to Yosef and Cleo(patra), Ya’aqov and Yahuda (Jacob aka James and Judah aka Jude).
Ya’aqov: Ya’aqov (James), Ya’aqov receives the inherited title Alfai, which designates him as the alef, or firstborn, of twins. His ancient surname Alfai now has a second meaning. He will become known to historians as “James the Just”; but to Christians as “James, son of Alphaeus” or “James the Less” (both unfortunate errors contributing to the loss of this historical person’s identity), and have his letter to the dispersion published in what is to become the New Testament. Being the first-born son, Ya’aqov is set-apart for a life of study and ministry. At an early age he is sent to live among the Essene (men of perfect holiness) of Mount Carmel not far from Nazareth. Though he is sorely missed in family life, his parents know that he will be a gift to YHWH and the people of Israel. Besides, Mount Carmel is not so far away that he can’t return home occasionally.
Ya’aqov will take a significant place in secular history as the founder of the Assembly of Yahweh at Jerusalem and the overseer of the Nazorean Faith explosion in the mid-first century.
Yahuda: Yahuda is the second of twins, and receives the surname T’ma, which means “twin.” He will become known to scholars as Judas Didymus[xv] Thomas, the author of a New Testament letter as well as (what is often called) the fifth “gospel” (Gospel of Thomas). He is known to Christians as “Jude son of James” (in another erroneous translation) or the subject of the song “Hey Jude.” Yahuda’s fate is quite different than his brother’s. As the didymos “twin,” he is put to the education of work among the supervisors of the family business.
Yahuda will also play a significant role in the Nazorean movement as the torchbearer (the thaddaeus) of the movement in Asia as far as India.
Yohana: Several years after the twins, Yohana (a girl) finally comes forth, named for her father’s sister, whom she resembles. Yohana is betrothed before she was born to a Levite in Jerusalem, a descendant of an aristocratic though waning family. This old custom of infant betrothal was still practiced, though in fact, the betrothed seldom ended up in marriage. And a thousand years after her birth, she will be known only by a name – Joanna. What may never be known (except to me) is that “Joanna” and her Levite husband-to-be are the grandparents of a Roman emperor’s adopted son, Flavius Josephus the historian. And though a great joy will come to the family of Yosef later, for now there is mourning; for Cleo does not live through her daughter’s birth.
Death in childbirth is a very common occurrence at this time (as is death from anything - life expectancy was 29 years); it seems that YHWH would prevent such happening among the righteous, though we are told that the rain fells trees on both sides of the river (Ecc 11:3). Yosef is a widower and plans to remain unmarried. His children all attended to, his beloved gone; he will live a free man in a fettered world, choosing his work, redeeming his time, continuing in righteousness. But something is bound to happen in his life that will change his outlook entirely.
Twins of Cleopas and Yohana – Shimon and Shalome
When Yosef married Cleo, Cleopas also married Yohana, Yosef’s sister.[xvi] It’s not surprising that this couple also had twins, who also have a set of twins: Shimon and Shalom. (By the way, did I mention Yosef and Cleopas were distant cousins? Marriage within the extended family was expected and blessed in those days.)
Shimon: As the firstborn, Shimon, like Ya’aqov, is meant to enter the Essenes for his education. Unlike Ya’aqov, Shimon is too distracted for a life of utter holiness, and he rebels. In his early years, he becomes known for rebellion and Israeli nationalism, gaining him the surname “the Zealot.” But soon Shimon falls in love and settles down in the village of Cana of Galilee, which gains him yet another surname, “the Simon of Cana,” setting him apart from thousands of other Simons in the territory.
His significance in the Nazorean movement is that he becomes the overseer of the Movement after the execution of his cousin Ya’aqov in 62 AD. He will be the editor of a short book of great influence among Christian scholars of the 20th century; the book? The Teaching of the Twelve (also known as Didaché). Secular history will allot him 120 years, with oversight of the Movement for 40.
Shalom / Shalomé: Born into a community of Healers (and unlike her more traditional cousins in Israel), Shalom becomes a very well educated woman who chooses her own husband on the basis of love and faith. Two notices about Shalom survive, both of which are quite important. As an icon in the Nazorean movement of Egypt, history has been written that Yahshua (Jesus) and Shalom were very close, he making his home in her house, dining at her table and discussing matters of spirituality, experience, even mysticism.
The second contribution is a hymnbook that has caught the interest of 20th century scholars and religious laypeople. That book has become known as The Odes of Solomon. Egyptian and Syrian literature tells us that Shalom sang these hymns, and anyone who cares to read my translation of them will have no doubt afterward that Shalom, who loved Yahshua, wrote it.[xvii]
Like her sister-in-law Cleo, Yohana survived the birth of her twins for only a short time. She too succumbs to the birth of two through a birth canal barely large enough for one. Though Cleopas grieves, he realizes he cannot raise the children alone. It is not long before his neighbor’s daughter employs herself by taking care of Shimon and Shalom.
(Path A) Their father notices this girl who is named Mariamene in the Greek style. It is not long before Cleopas begins paying attention to her, and after not that much longer, They marry. OR,
(Path B) Their father notices this girl who is named Maria in the Latin style. It is not long before Cleopas begins paying attention to her, and after not that much longer, They marry.
Heliopolis to Netzeret, Cana and Khochba
We have watched this family go through several migrations and surnames already – from Cush to Heliopolis, known as “Benim Alphai,” Therepeutics, and Essenes. For generations, these families had been influenced by their submersion in Egyptian and Greek culture under the Ptolemys, but in these days, close to the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the advent of Messiah, both Yosef and Cleopas abandon Greek names and give their children strictly Hebrew appellations. As Alfai, they would still heal and call down rain. As temple-builders, they can still prove they have served Yahweh and his people Israel well. As Therepeutae, they retain the learning of contemporary science, mysticism, and medicine. As Essenes, they take the best of each transitional shift while they abandon the worst of all, now seeking out their ancient Hebraic origins even as they are working and traveling in business together (Matthew 9:17). There is a fellowship of Essenes of one sort or another in every city and town of Egypt, Palestine and Syria, so there is no lack for like-minded friends in their travels. Too much righteousness for men born of women? No. These men are Davidids (that is, in David's bloodline), and raised up by YHWH for important, historical events.
The cruel Herods are the greatest builders in history; there is no lack of work. In fact, Sepphoris is to be rebuilt as the administrative capital of Galilee. Yosef, Cleopas, Yahuda and Shimon and company are easily able to acquire long-term employment rebuilding the amphitheater in the center of the city. It is to be a showplace and Herod is sparing no expense. Galilee is dangerous for anyone, so the families are careful to choose where they will reside. They have kin in Sepphoris – Ya’akin, his wife Chana, and their daughter Maryah. With Ya’akin help, Yosef and Cleopas will move their families to three villages on the outskirts of Sepphoris: Nazareth, Khochba and Cana. Many builders are moving to this area and homesteads are in short supply, but Ya’akin relates that there is a detachment of Roman soldiers posted in these towns and they will be safe.
Reconnoiter
Now we have Yosef and his son Yahuda and daughter Yochana in Netzeret (shoot or branch), with his son Ya’aqov[xviii] at Mount Carmel (harvest). Yosef is a widower. His brother-in-law Cleopas and with his young wife Mariamene, and the twins by his former marriage to Yohana, Shimon and Shalom, settle in Cana (zeal). Many of the Hebrew workers that came with the family from Egypt live in Khochba, also known as The Place of the Star.
Here’s a new character: Maryah, the daughter of Ya’akin, a distant cousin of the Sons of Alphaeus, lives on the outskirts of Zippori (beautiful), where she was born.
Maryah and Yosef
1 A.D.: So we leave the business behind, recognizing that it got the family of the “Jesus Family Tomb” to Galilee, and Yosef, the widower, to Maryah the young woman. We already know the story of “Mary and Joseph.” But did you know that it was the duty of an Essene of Yosef’s type, i.e. “a righteous one” (a tzaddik) to accept betrothal of the youth Maryah, a kinswoman placed in Yosef’s care through the command of one of the Manuals of Discipline, as understood by her ailing parents? Yes, there was an obligation that Yosef needed to meet and that obligation was Maryah.
Essenes of all sects adopt children, help the poor, and even marry women to give them the benefit of a family name and (eventually) the Essene treasury. Some Essenes of means took the concept farther by multiplying wives and adopting several orphans. The reason an Essene might do this is not because of sexual desire, but because he greatly loves and is burdened with the troubled ones he sees, and thus desires a large and happy family (whether he participates in that family or not). There are righteous men I know who are like this. If it were for any other reason, Yosef certainly could not have made it through the three-year ordeal of joining the order, nor would he be judged righteous enough to continue in it. The Essenes are very strict in regards to obligations.
Some Essenes, especially those who were considered priests of the Alphai, or of Melchizedek, or Phineas (depending on the sect), remain celibate and increased their numbers by taking youth into their common discipleship programs. Yosef was such a man. The Book of Matthew clearly tells us he is an Essene priest by describing him as a zaddik (that’s what they called their priests, a “just” or “righteous one”).[xix] Now at the ripe old age of 42, he is expected to do his duty by accepting the betrothal.
Yahshua / Yahshua in Zippori
So now let us understand Maryah’s son who is named Yahshua by order of the malach of YHWH. She is seen as pregnant long before her betrothal, and once the son is born, the religious people consider him among the mamzerim, one who is born in unusual, often sinful, circumstances. No longer in Egypt where such discrimination was no longer practiced, a mamzer child was not allowed in the synagogues of the Pharisees, which were so numerous, thus Yahshua was not permitted an education with the rest of the youth.[xx] Yahshua, being a firstborn of the line of Yahuda and himself a scion of David, would work with his older ‘brother’ Yahuda in Sepphoris until the age of twelve, at which time he is committed to the care of his other brother ‘Ya’aqov, among the Nazorean Essene seminarians at Mt. Carmel.
Yahshua’s lost years would be in the company of Nazorean Essenes at Mt. Carmel, and wherever the elders there bid him go. These were the priests with which he had discussed the scriptures at age 12, marking the end of his apprenticeship in construction and the beginning of his education in the priesthood. At the age of 30, in accordance with the Manual of Discipline of his order, he was elected elder, at which time he could go forth into whatever his specialty had become.
When he came back to Netzeret, to the synagogue of the Pharisees, he was called on to read the haftorah (since he was undoubtedly dressed as a teacher and recognized as such). But when his actual identity was discovered by the townspeople, he again became "that mamzer" of ignoble birth they had all banned years before.
Yochana and Matyah Lebbaeus Alphaeus
Let us jump ahead a decade. About this time, Yohana, the daughter of Yosef, finally marries her intended, he being Matyah b. Mattityahu. He is from an aristocratic family of Jerusalem. But his family fortune is waning, and it is Matyah’s intention to get it back through his work as a Levite. Matyah becomes a tax farmer in the bustling city of Caesarea. Also the first of a set of twins (Mark 2:14), Matyah ha Levi becomes a rich young ruler of the Jews. Yohana and Matyah have children, one of whom takes on the family name Mattityahu. A generation later, in 37 C. E., Yohana has the privilege of naming her second grandson after her own father, that is, Yosef. This same Yosef becomes responsible for much of what we know of these times. For later he would be the governor of Galilee, fight the Roman Emperor Vespasian, and become adopted by him as Flavius Josephus. But not so long before, his grandfather Matyah was the secretary scribe for the Nazorean movement, spearheaded by Yahshua Messiah. Although many wonderful stories were to be told about him long after he was gone, Matyah was content to stay close to Yohana and Ya’aqov, his priestly brother-in-law, until Ya’aqov is gone. Shimon bar Cleopa, Matyah’s new pastor when he falls asleep, lays him in the family tomb and scratches his nickname on an ossuary.
Yahuda and Shimon
While the eldest brother Ya’aqov is studying Enoch and becoming “James the Just,” now in a Jerusalem house, his twin (toma), Yahuda, is studying current political events with Yohanan, an Egyptian Essene of the Damascus School. Yahuda the Egyptian talks about Yochanan with his father Yosef, the teen-ager Yahshua, along with Cleopas and Shimon bar Cleopas (Luke 24:18) (all of which are Egyptians) as they walk the three miles to work each day – to the theater in Zippori – the place where the youth Yahshua learns all about hypocrites by watching the actors rehearse. The double cousins Yahuda and Shimon, as the strong men of nationalistic fervor, are lured into the “Zeal for the Law” movement, also known as “The New Covenant of Phineas” (Numbers 25:6-13). The goal of this secret society is to bring about a theocratic Israel. Although there are many violent movements in these days, this Essene wing of the Covenant promotes passive resistance against the occupying Romans and Herodians.
Although Yahuda T’ma and Shimon are both married with children, Shimon’s marriage in Cana becomes one of the most famous ever known, even more so than the legendary marriage of the son of Tobit. Yahuda T’ma is Shimon’s best man, or architriklinos - manager of the wedding feast. For this, Yahuda will receive a nickname from the Roman soldiers assigned to watch the party. Yahuda (Jude), who is continually keeping the torches lit from table to table, becomes known as Thaddeaus – Latin for “the torch god.” But that’s another story.
The cousins find themselves, as descendants of King David, pushed up to the forefront of the Phineas New Covenant movement. And now, a great event is planned as a show of solidarity – a “reverse exodus” in which all covenanters walk east through the city of Tiberius and OUT of Palestine, into the desert of Perea for a week-long camp meeting. Tens of thousands march out, with Yahuda and Shimon – and even the younger Yahshua – leading the “Cana to Nazareth March.” (This would be called a “strike” today. So isn’t that part of what Shabbat is? A strike against secular commerce?)
The Roman general in Tiberius does not take the march well; it causes a major work shortage. So the General takes his armed divisions out to the desert, surrounding the campers and beheads the purported leaders. Yahshua and his half-cousin Shimon bar Cleopas of Cana escape along with about 400 others. But Yahuda the Torchbearer, son of Yosef (Acts 5:36), doesn’t return. His body is not found. It is a mystery. The bulk of the dissenters are sold into slavery. This would be the final peaceful demonstration against Greek and Roman authority. It made a great impression upon the youth Yahshua ha Moshiach.
Besides his wife, Yahuda leaves behind an infant child, Yahuda bar Yahuda.
Yosef and Yose
Grief over the death of his son, with whom he had worked closely for many years, also takes Yosef’s life at the age of 54, leaving behind his young Essenic wife, Maryah, his eldest son Ya’aqov (who is now in Jerusalem), Yahshua – his son by adoption, and his youngest son and namesake (of whom this is the first mention), Yoseh (‘Little Yosef’), the legendary “naked boy in a sheet.”[xxi]
Yahshua
Yahshua, now the Nazorean Essene Teacher of Mt. Carmel (a Nazarene), does a manly deed by adopting his nephew, Yahuda bar Yahuda, who is 4 years of age. His brother Yahudah has disappeared and is presumed dead. As a Zaddik after the order of Melchizedek, Yahshua would never be married nor have marital relations. Yet adoption is the right thing to do on the behalf of his brother. When his mother tells him he is too young to give his name to his nephew, he says to her, “Woman who is my mother, how old art thou?”
Yahshua continues to aid children, allowing all children to come unto him. Yahshua also continues to maintain a close relationship with his youngest brother and only kin, Yose[xxii], who would like to follow him like the teenaged disciples do. Though he is too young to do as a man does, so Yahshua takes Yoseh into the upper room of David’s tomb right next door to Ya’aqov’s home (in Jerusalem), and there teaches him, preparing him for baptism the next morning and discipleship.[xxiii] As a Nazorean Essene, Yahshua understands his community of brothers, sisters, and children to be family, but he supports his greater family financially and spiritually[xxiv] also, even as they all support his ministry.[xxv]
Of the people watching Yahshua from a distance when he is crucified are three women – Maryah his mother and Maria wife of Cleopas. Also there but farther away is Mariamene of Magdala, who is known as Yahshua’s “companion.” In histories outside of the canon, Mariamene Magdala is the sister of the Apostle Philip (notice both have greek names). Mariamene of Magdala is named after two Maccabean queens (both of which were married to Herod and also murdered by him). Nevertheless her name, Mariamene, means something like we might say, “Darling (mene) Marietta.” Her name is famous.
Yahshua's younger brother Yoseh is right beside the stake with his mother now. To Yoseh he says, “Look at your mother.” To Maryah he says, “Look at your son,” as Maria and Mariamene tearfully look on. Soon they must all migrate away to obscure, far-away places – some back to Egypt, some as far as Halfai, others to the backwaters of Europe and Great Britain.
Back to the Tomb
Now before we get to the so-called “Tomb of Jesus” I must make a few remarks: first off, the DNA was tested from the remains of the bone box marked “Yahshua b. Yoseph” and “Mariamene e Mara.” Then whatever other human remains found in “The Jesus Family Tomb” were buried in a common grave in 1980. Ossuaries, or bone-boxes, were employed in the first century; they were used over and over again for over as long as 100 years; whatever remains were in them were not necessarily those of the names inscribed on them. There is no telling what DNA material was soaked out of them and it is no wonder that – the DNA tested was found to be of unrelated individuals. (Unfortunately, this was the filmmaker’s only ‘proof’ that one of the boxes belonged to Mary Magdalene – she was obviously not related to Yahshua – they say.)
Next, let us be reminded of the story of Joseph of Arimathaea – that he secured his family tomb well in advance of his death, just as many today make funeral arrangement long before (Matthew 27:60). In my story, Ya’aqov ha Zaddik purchased the family tomb located in the modern-day Talpiot region, and right beside the tomb of David where the Messianic Seals were found..
Ya’aqov (James) became a well-established in Jerusalem; he was the head of the Assembly of Ebionite and Nazorean Essenes there; he worked for a living as a paid priest of the order of Melchizedek[xxvi], and we have James’ history right up to his assassination in 62 AD. His own bone box disappeared in 1980 and turned up in 2003, and has since been proven by patina analysis that it came out of this same tomb. His bone box is labeled “Ya’aqov son of Yoseph brother of Yahshua.” I have no doubt whatsoever that the James Ossuary is authentic. I have no problems with this tomb being authentic either.
DISCURSION: In considering the Netzari (Nazarene) Teaching of the Standing Stone and the Standing Man, we’re to the point of speaking of James the Just, who is my favorite character because we know so much about him from so many different sources. Besides Paul, no other character is so highly attested.
James, er, Jacob the Just – Little Known ‘Facts’
I’m speaking of the brother of Yahshua Messiah, James “Yaaqov,” surnamed Alphaeus, or the Just Man (that is, ha Tzaddik). Here are just a few things we can know about James. (If you want to know Where did you get that? – just ask.) James was never named James – that is King James’ name! James’ name is Yaaqov or Jacob, like the Patriarch. James and Paul had a serious altercation on the temple steps before Paul’s conversion. James had his legs broken by a Temple guard, which resulted in a mass migration of believers out of Jerusalem. James was known to have knees like camels – ostensibly from praying for the sinners of Israel. James was known as the pillar of Israel; and that if the pillar were to break, the entire land would be destroyed. James was the successor to Jesus in the Jesus Movement, not Kefa. The disciples asked Jesus, Who will lead us, since we know that you will leave us? Jesus replied, From wherever you happen to be, go to James the Just. It is for his sake that heaven and earth came into being. G. Thom. Jesus told the disciples before his death that they should go to James. James was executed by Caiaphas’ nephew at the Temple during Passover in 62 AD. Thrown down from the parapet. James 5:6 You have condemned, you have killed, the Just One, and he does not resisted you not. James’ death, according to a contemporary, resulted in the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. James’ burial box (ossuary) has been in custody for almost 30 years. It has been judged authentic. The ossuary is inscribed with the words Yaaqov bar Yoseph Achui de Yahshua – in churchy language, that’s James son of Joseph brother of Jesus. The Epistle to the Galatians by Paul includes a line-by-line refutation of the Epistle of James by James. One top school of scholarship has proven that James wrote some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. SHOULDN’T THIS GUY GET SOME MENTION IN SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS? One scholar has it right when he says that, "Knowing James is as close as you can get to knowing the historical Jesus.” So you don’t believe me! But what if these things are true? If we sort through and learn the circumstances of James’ life, think of how much closer we might get to Yahshua the Son of Adam! Many people go to the Holy Land because they want to walk where ‘Jesus’ walked. That’s well and good. But before us we have a brother (or half brother), about whom we can learn much. And seeing as how, in very fact, James was his brother’s successor, CONSIDER HOW CLOSE WE CAN GET TO THE SAVIOR RIGHT HERE AT HOME. When I study the life of James, I feel very close to the other Man of Galilee. Now consider – James and Jesus had other brothers, and nephews too. And we know something about them. Think of what we could learn.
Did you know that Shimon bar Cleopa, Ya’aqov’s cousin, also had an assembly in Jerusalem? Shimon was crucified after the turn of the first century, some 40 years after Ya’aqov’s bones was laid in the box. As it turns out, Yahuda bar Yosef, Ya’aqov’s twin surnamed “The Torch Bearer” did make his way back home to be executed by the Romans after making confirmed missionary trips to Kurdistan. Provinces and towns retain his name and title to this day. Yahuda’s other descendants were hunted down by two Roman Emperors and finally all crucified in the second century. His son, Yahuda, who was adopted by Yahshua, continued to bear Yahshua’s name. Yahuda’s grandsons, Zachar and Ya’aqov, were interrogated by Emperor Domition at the end of the first century and let go as simpletons.
The Ossuary Inscriptions
So that leaves us with the following bone boxes that have names on them. (Please recognize that these identities and spellings are arbitrarily chosen by those who transcribed them from the granite):
THE MEN
X Yahshua son of Yosef (vowels implied) –
Jesus son of Joseph,
Read right to left, beginning with a tau
(X, sign of the Passover) or a cross
Ya’aqov bar Yosef akui di Yahshua –
James son of Joseph brother of Jesus
Matyah – note the sacred name YAH
Yoseh – Joses – “Little Joseph” - The only occurrence of this name among all the thousands of ossuary names, corresponding directly to Matthew 13:55, 27:56; Mark 6:3 and 15:20.
Yahuda bar Yahshua – Judah son of Yahshua (Jesus). Did Yahshua make a son through the course of sexual relations? No need for him to do that. As an Essene, it was his duty to adopt children. When he said, “Let the children come to me,” he also said, “Not one will be cast out.”
THE LADIES
Maryah – Mary – second wife of Joseph the Just, mother of Jesus and Joses. The film makers said this name was scratched in Latin. As you can clearly see, this is round Hebrew and spells Maryah, which the filmmakers Latinized to Maria. They said it was written in Latin because of Roman devotees of Mary. That was simply a lie.
Mariamene Mara – This is in Greek letters and fairly easy to read. Mariamene (or Mariamne known as Mara): This is the sister-in-law of Maryah (Mary) and wife of Cleopas (John 19:25) – also known as “the other Mary” in the evangels – not necessarily Mary Magdalene. The filmmakers said because this inscription was in Greek, and that the Gospel of Philip refers to the Magdalene as "Mariamene," that this has to be Mary Magdalene. Also, because the DNA found in this box showed no relation to the DNA found in the “Jesus” box, this proved that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. What ridiculous conclusions! And this film host is a famous archaeologist – the “Naked Archaeologist.”
NOTE: Looking at the annunciation of the angel to Mary in Luke 1:28 - Gabriel calls Mary “kecharitōmenē” (kecaritwmenh). The ending, menē, is a sign of endearment, like “Lovely One” or “Little Darling!” Mariamene could be encoded with the same idea.
Where Are the Rest of the Kin?
The Family of Yahshua described in Scripture consists of Mary, Joseph, James, Jude, Jesus, Joses, Joanna, Salome, Cleopas, Shimon bar Cleopas (Simon the Canaanaean), maybe more. Reliable sources tell us that relatives of Jude were found in the Nazareth / Cana region from 60 years after the Resurrection to 300 years later. There were several other ossuaries in the tombs with no names (although there are certain symbols alike on all of them): we may account for them all the family if we want. In addition, there was in an adjoining tomb an ossuary with the name Shimon Kefa (Simon Kefa) on it. This name is very unusual. Didn’t they find his bones in Rome?
Is Jackson Snyder a Believer in the Jesus Family Tomb?
Updated October 25, 2011 - Yes, I am a believer; but before today, I wrote the following:
I have been thinking about “Jesus Family Tomb” since LONG before the television special. I have studied and imagined many scenarios. The very tale you have just read, The Shocking True Story Behind the “Jesus Family Tomb,” I wrote earlier in pieces in several essays going back as long as six years. It just so happens that my story fits the tomb inscriptions like O. J. Simpson fits his glove (not the bloody one). To me, the program was very inspirational, factual and believable . . . ;
yet the way the story trailed off into the DaVinci Code showed the extreme ignorance of the “Naked Archaeologist” in regard to first century history in Palestine, the Essene / Nazorean Movement and Yahshua’s history as we know it. (For crying out loud, the guy admitted he didn’t even know Yahshua had a brother – even after the James Ossuary came out 4 years ago!)
I believe the tomb was purchased by someone in the second to fourth century – someone who had these names scratched into the bone boxes and charged admission. The whole thing is just too pat, especially finding Simon Kefa in the next cave!
It Is the Real Thing
For the sake of my presentation, let’s temporarily believe that the “Jesus Family Tomb” is the real thing. I don’t have time to define all the terms or tell all the history behind what I am presenting to you. Rest assured what I’m writing is based in fact, not the incredulous presumptions of the DaVinci Code crowd. You may easily verify most of what I write by simple internet searches, reading Josephus, Philo or Eusebius, using the Search Engine at JacksonSnyder.com, or purchasing or any modern scholar’s book of the subject. (I have several excellent books listed at www.YAHpop.us. Or I can offer you references or sources if you are really interested. Contact me here: jack AT theyahad.com.)
Let the story begin: BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING IS HISTORICAL FICTION.
The Sons of Alfai to the Temple in Heliopolis
We read in our histories that when Joseph, the son of the famous Jacob, was raised from prison to become the administrator of Egypt, he received Asenath in marriage, a priestess of the sun god On.[i] Joseph, as a worshiper of YHWH, certainly had some influence in Egypt’s acceptance of Monotheism around 1400 BC.[ii] But when Joseph was gone and forgotten, the priests of On brought back the old Egyptian gods and brutally expelled or killed the priestly families and ultimately anyone who would not worship them. Many of the Hebrews in Egypt used the Nile as an escape route, finding safety south of the Egyptian border, in Cush, Numibia and Ethiopia, where some remain to this day (and are known to outsiders as Falasha[iii]). Our story begins in the city of Alfai, on the Nile River in what is today called Sudan, just south of the Egyptian border. Alfai is a sanctuary city, protected by the Cushite Kingdom[iv] as sovereign territory, off-limits to the armies of Egypt, Greece and later Rome. It takes its name from the fact that it is the first city south of Egypt – “Alfai” (alpha) means “first” just like “alpha and omega” means “first and last.”
500 B.C.: Over the next centuries arises a dynasty among the Alfai Hebrews of the line of Solomon by Menelik, the son of the Candace of Ethiopia. These priest-kings were unique as they had the power to regulate the weather, cast out swarms of locusts, and heal the sick in the name of YHWH. Over the centuries, the Alfai kings’ descendants became known throughout the dispersion of Israel as rainmakers and healers; their presence and gifts were highly valued everywhere. They became known as “Ben Chalfai” or “Sons of Alfai.” A few of the Sons of Alphai are still known today from ancient texts we all can read, such as Honi the Circle Drawer[v], Yahuda the Galilean, and Ya’aqov and Levi, “Sons of Alphaeus[vi] “in the New Testament.[vii] (Alphaeus is not a man; Alphaeus refers to a city in Cush and also a caste of priest-kings.)
200 B.C.: This brings us to the Egyptian city of Heliopolis where we find a community of Hebrews, many of whom migrated back to Egypt from Cush after the persecutions of King Ptolemy Philopator about 210 BC. King Ptolemy rounds up all those of the tribe of Judah who would not take the mark of the god Dionysius or wear the Greek hat; he had them corralled in the stadium at Alexandria. If they won’t give up the peculiarities of their faith, he would murder them all in one of the most creative ways imaginable: he would order the army’s five hundred elephants to be drug-crazed then stampeded through the stadium upon the Jews inside.
Though Ptolemy attempted the massacre a few times, YHWH stole the plan from his mind. YHWH instructed Ptolemy not only to set the captives free, but to commend them. This commendation ultimately led to the Jews gaining permission to rebuild the Temple of YHWH in Egypt and reinstall the legitimate Zadokite priesthood. All this in fulfillment of Isaiah 19:18-21 (excerpted here):
In that day there will be an altar dedicated to Yahweh in the center of Egypt and, close to the frontier, a pillar dedicated to Yahweh, and this will be a sign and a witness to YHWH Sabaoth in Egypt. In that day there will be five cities in Egypt … pledging themselves to YHWH Sabaoth; one of them called City of the Sun.[viii]
Few today realize that, while the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple was being bought and sold, a Temple of YHWH manned by the proper order of Zadokite priests existed in Egypt for 240 years, including the entire lifespan of the Messiah. And that the temple would be in the city of Heliopolis, which means “City of the Sun.” The announcement of the building of a new temple draws contractors and artisans from all over Africa. A few of these builders journey up from Alfai. Some of them are “Sons of Alphai,” now lay priests with construction skills, who could on occasion still call down rain, cast out locusts, and heal the sick.
Twins Marry Twins: Yohana & Yosef; Cleo(patra) & Cleopas
So it is now about 10 BC; and in Heliopolis of Egypt not far from the Temple of YHWH. Here lives a small community whose ancestors came up to build the Temple, descendants of “the Sons of Alfai,” by which surname they are still known. And they still follow the trade of their ancestors – the building business (that is, the tekton of Mark 6:3[ix]). These few families had been successful enough in their generations to inherit the wealth required to set up business in a new location, and they are blessed by YHWH and set-apart for great things to come.
There are two sets of twins, twins married to twins, descended from the builders of the temple. Twins were common in their ancestry, and their intermarriage is not uncommon among David’s descendants since prophecy decreed a Davidic Messiah to restore Jerusalem to holiness and order. One set of twins are named by Eli their father in the Hebrew style: they are Yohana and Yosef, surnamed Alfai (spell it). The other set are named by Lebbaeus their father in the Egyptian style: they are Cleo(patra)[x] and Cleopas, surnamed Alphaeus (spell it).
So we have two families from the same place with two different sets of customs, but each as Hebrew as the other, with one set Greco-Egyptian and the other Hebrew-Egyptian, ready to merge, and take on the task of trying to discover their common heritage.
The surnames Alfai and Alphaeus mean the same thing (as we will see later), yet the uniting of the Egyptian and Hebraic surnames is a sign to both that they have really been but One (Alef) from the beginning. Cleopas marries Yohana and Yosef marries Cleo(patra). The double marriage unites cousins and businesses too. They have worked together for generations anyway, and they will need a bigger company if they are going to contend for business outside of Egypt, where great building projects are shovel-ready. Herod the Great, so-called, has many great projects going all over Palestine, and it is their intention to be hired for some of them, even if it means pulling up stakes in Egypt and moving back to Bethlehem, their ancestral town of origin.
Being of the line of both David and Zadok the Priest is taken seriously, and the Sons of Alphaeus (as they are called by most others) are very faithful to their Hebraic roots. Though they’ve been brought up in the shadow of the Heliopolis Temple, the faith of their fathers and mothers never fit well with temple-Judaism. ¿What is the purpose of killing animals if one neither raises them nor eats them? The Sons of Alphaeus are strictly vegetarian. In their religious lives, they find personal prayer enlightening and individual ministry edifying, and good deeds more pleasing than either money or sacrifices. Though the Torah remains their Law, they’re more interested in do’s than don’t’s – and there is much good to do. Since Sons of Alphaeus are contractors, the real work is now done by skilled sub-contractors. The brothers-in-law Yosef and Cleopas have free time to be spent with family, education and worship.
With whatever seed is required within the human heart for a harvest of good works and a pleasing life – it had been planted within them. Hardly is a Torah necessary for such hearts; they would not disobey even had they never known of it; they simply could not. They loved too much. Some people are just born pretty good – with seven or eight parts light inside and just a little bit of darkness.[xi] After all, these are men and women of legend – worthy of awe and inspiration – priests just as much as any in the temple – of a higher priesthood that doesn’t require robes and bloodied knives – priests who would command weather, reproach plagues and heal the sick – bred of the seed of good and set-apart men and women ( – set by the Almighty in the midst of an evil world as salt and light) – hardly even subject to death – (some said they would live for a thousand generations[xii]) – yet even when they die, it is unto the resurrection of the just.
By this time, the ancient title of Alfai Priest is passing into insignificance while their new identity is published by the philosopher Philo the Jew. He simply calls the Alfai priesthood Healers (or Therapeutoi/ae). Cleopas and Yosef are hard-working yet highly religious healers. And they have been educating themselves all along – they participate in the study of the ancient manuscripts: they can read Coptic, Greek, Aramaic, and a little Hebrew. As a people set apart, they have a tradition of study, weather prediction, and healing through prayer and natural substances.
The Healers are known for high ethical standards. If necessary, they aid orphans and widows as commanded in Scripture. They see to the welfare of the poor. They take in children when possible. The money they make through their business, which is considerable, they place in a common fund to better the community, caring for both the less fortunate and those called to study Scripture.[xiii] The more they make, the more they can help. And though he is not very involved with the temple his kin helped to build, Yosef is known in religious circles as haZaddik, “Yosef the Just.”[xiv] I doubt that there is one soul who has read this far and would still not enjoy being known as a righteous man or woman.
Children of Yosef and Cleo(patra) – Yohana, Ya’aqov & Yahuda
Twin sons are born to Yosef and Cleo(patra), Ya’aqov and Yahuda (Jacob aka James and Judah aka Jude).
Ya’aqov: Ya’aqov (James), Ya’aqov receives the inherited title Alfai, which designates him as the alef, or firstborn, of twins. His ancient surname Alfai now has a second meaning. He will become known to historians as “James the Just”; but to Christians as “James, son of Alphaeus” or “James the Less” (both unfortunate errors contributing to the loss of this historical person’s identity), and have his letter to the dispersion published in what is to become the New Testament. Being the first-born son, Ya’aqov is set-apart for a life of study and ministry. At an early age he is sent to live among the Essene (men of perfect holiness) of Mount Carmel not far from Nazareth. Though he is sorely missed in family life, his parents know that he will be a gift to YHWH and the people of Israel. Besides, Mount Carmel is not so far away that he can’t return home occasionally.
Ya’aqov will take a significant place in secular history as the founder of the Assembly of Yahweh at Jerusalem and the overseer of the Nazorean Faith explosion in the mid-first century.
Yahuda: Yahuda is the second of twins, and receives the surname T’ma, which means “twin.” He will become known to scholars as Judas Didymus[xv] Thomas, the author of a New Testament letter as well as (what is often called) the fifth “gospel” (Gospel of Thomas). He is known to Christians as “Jude son of James” (in another erroneous translation) or the subject of the song “Hey Jude.” Yahuda’s fate is quite different than his brother’s. As the didymos “twin,” he is put to the education of work among the supervisors of the family business.
Yahuda will also play a significant role in the Nazorean movement as the torchbearer (the thaddaeus) of the movement in Asia as far as India.
Yohana: Several years after the twins, Yohana (a girl) finally comes forth, named for her father’s sister, whom she resembles. Yohana is betrothed before she was born to a Levite in Jerusalem, a descendant of an aristocratic though waning family. This old custom of infant betrothal was still practiced, though in fact, the betrothed seldom ended up in marriage. And a thousand years after her birth, she will be known only by a name – Joanna. What may never be known (except to me) is that “Joanna” and her Levite husband-to-be are the grandparents of a Roman emperor’s adopted son, Flavius Josephus the historian. And though a great joy will come to the family of Yosef later, for now there is mourning; for Cleo does not live through her daughter’s birth.
Death in childbirth is a very common occurrence at this time (as is death from anything - life expectancy was 29 years); it seems that YHWH would prevent such happening among the righteous, though we are told that the rain fells trees on both sides of the river (Ecc 11:3). Yosef is a widower and plans to remain unmarried. His children all attended to, his beloved gone; he will live a free man in a fettered world, choosing his work, redeeming his time, continuing in righteousness. But something is bound to happen in his life that will change his outlook entirely.
Twins of Cleopas and Yohana – Shimon and Shalome
When Yosef married Cleo, Cleopas also married Yohana, Yosef’s sister.[xvi] It’s not surprising that this couple also had twins, who also have a set of twins: Shimon and Shalom. (By the way, did I mention Yosef and Cleopas were distant cousins? Marriage within the extended family was expected and blessed in those days.)
Shimon: As the firstborn, Shimon, like Ya’aqov, is meant to enter the Essenes for his education. Unlike Ya’aqov, Shimon is too distracted for a life of utter holiness, and he rebels. In his early years, he becomes known for rebellion and Israeli nationalism, gaining him the surname “the Zealot.” But soon Shimon falls in love and settles down in the village of Cana of Galilee, which gains him yet another surname, “the Simon of Cana,” setting him apart from thousands of other Simons in the territory.
His significance in the Nazorean movement is that he becomes the overseer of the Movement after the execution of his cousin Ya’aqov in 62 AD. He will be the editor of a short book of great influence among Christian scholars of the 20th century; the book? The Teaching of the Twelve (also known as Didaché). Secular history will allot him 120 years, with oversight of the Movement for 40.
Shalom / Shalomé: Born into a community of Healers (and unlike her more traditional cousins in Israel), Shalom becomes a very well educated woman who chooses her own husband on the basis of love and faith. Two notices about Shalom survive, both of which are quite important. As an icon in the Nazorean movement of Egypt, history has been written that Yahshua (Jesus) and Shalom were very close, he making his home in her house, dining at her table and discussing matters of spirituality, experience, even mysticism.
The second contribution is a hymnbook that has caught the interest of 20th century scholars and religious laypeople. That book has become known as The Odes of Solomon. Egyptian and Syrian literature tells us that Shalom sang these hymns, and anyone who cares to read my translation of them will have no doubt afterward that Shalom, who loved Yahshua, wrote it.[xvii]
Like her sister-in-law Cleo, Yohana survived the birth of her twins for only a short time. She too succumbs to the birth of two through a birth canal barely large enough for one. Though Cleopas grieves, he realizes he cannot raise the children alone. It is not long before his neighbor’s daughter employs herself by taking care of Shimon and Shalom.
(Path A) Their father notices this girl who is named Mariamene in the Greek style. It is not long before Cleopas begins paying attention to her, and after not that much longer, They marry. OR,
(Path B) Their father notices this girl who is named Maria in the Latin style. It is not long before Cleopas begins paying attention to her, and after not that much longer, They marry.
Heliopolis to Netzeret, Cana and Khochba
We have watched this family go through several migrations and surnames already – from Cush to Heliopolis, known as “Benim Alphai,” Therepeutics, and Essenes. For generations, these families had been influenced by their submersion in Egyptian and Greek culture under the Ptolemys, but in these days, close to the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the advent of Messiah, both Yosef and Cleopas abandon Greek names and give their children strictly Hebrew appellations. As Alfai, they would still heal and call down rain. As temple-builders, they can still prove they have served Yahweh and his people Israel well. As Therepeutae, they retain the learning of contemporary science, mysticism, and medicine. As Essenes, they take the best of each transitional shift while they abandon the worst of all, now seeking out their ancient Hebraic origins even as they are working and traveling in business together (Matthew 9:17). There is a fellowship of Essenes of one sort or another in every city and town of Egypt, Palestine and Syria, so there is no lack for like-minded friends in their travels. Too much righteousness for men born of women? No. These men are Davidids (that is, in David's bloodline), and raised up by YHWH for important, historical events.
The cruel Herods are the greatest builders in history; there is no lack of work. In fact, Sepphoris is to be rebuilt as the administrative capital of Galilee. Yosef, Cleopas, Yahuda and Shimon and company are easily able to acquire long-term employment rebuilding the amphitheater in the center of the city. It is to be a showplace and Herod is sparing no expense. Galilee is dangerous for anyone, so the families are careful to choose where they will reside. They have kin in Sepphoris – Ya’akin, his wife Chana, and their daughter Maryah. With Ya’akin help, Yosef and Cleopas will move their families to three villages on the outskirts of Sepphoris: Nazareth, Khochba and Cana. Many builders are moving to this area and homesteads are in short supply, but Ya’akin relates that there is a detachment of Roman soldiers posted in these towns and they will be safe.
Reconnoiter
Now we have Yosef and his son Yahuda and daughter Yochana in Netzeret (shoot or branch), with his son Ya’aqov[xviii] at Mount Carmel (harvest). Yosef is a widower. His brother-in-law Cleopas and with his young wife Mariamene, and the twins by his former marriage to Yohana, Shimon and Shalom, settle in Cana (zeal). Many of the Hebrew workers that came with the family from Egypt live in Khochba, also known as The Place of the Star.
Here’s a new character: Maryah, the daughter of Ya’akin, a distant cousin of the Sons of Alphaeus, lives on the outskirts of Zippori (beautiful), where she was born.
Maryah and Yosef
1 A.D.: So we leave the business behind, recognizing that it got the family of the “Jesus Family Tomb” to Galilee, and Yosef, the widower, to Maryah the young woman. We already know the story of “Mary and Joseph.” But did you know that it was the duty of an Essene of Yosef’s type, i.e. “a righteous one” (a tzaddik) to accept betrothal of the youth Maryah, a kinswoman placed in Yosef’s care through the command of one of the Manuals of Discipline, as understood by her ailing parents? Yes, there was an obligation that Yosef needed to meet and that obligation was Maryah.
Essenes of all sects adopt children, help the poor, and even marry women to give them the benefit of a family name and (eventually) the Essene treasury. Some Essenes of means took the concept farther by multiplying wives and adopting several orphans. The reason an Essene might do this is not because of sexual desire, but because he greatly loves and is burdened with the troubled ones he sees, and thus desires a large and happy family (whether he participates in that family or not). There are righteous men I know who are like this. If it were for any other reason, Yosef certainly could not have made it through the three-year ordeal of joining the order, nor would he be judged righteous enough to continue in it. The Essenes are very strict in regards to obligations.
Some Essenes, especially those who were considered priests of the Alphai, or of Melchizedek, or Phineas (depending on the sect), remain celibate and increased their numbers by taking youth into their common discipleship programs. Yosef was such a man. The Book of Matthew clearly tells us he is an Essene priest by describing him as a zaddik (that’s what they called their priests, a “just” or “righteous one”).[xix] Now at the ripe old age of 42, he is expected to do his duty by accepting the betrothal.
Yahshua / Yahshua in Zippori
So now let us understand Maryah’s son who is named Yahshua by order of the malach of YHWH. She is seen as pregnant long before her betrothal, and once the son is born, the religious people consider him among the mamzerim, one who is born in unusual, often sinful, circumstances. No longer in Egypt where such discrimination was no longer practiced, a mamzer child was not allowed in the synagogues of the Pharisees, which were so numerous, thus Yahshua was not permitted an education with the rest of the youth.[xx] Yahshua, being a firstborn of the line of Yahuda and himself a scion of David, would work with his older ‘brother’ Yahuda in Sepphoris until the age of twelve, at which time he is committed to the care of his other brother ‘Ya’aqov, among the Nazorean Essene seminarians at Mt. Carmel.
Yahshua’s lost years would be in the company of Nazorean Essenes at Mt. Carmel, and wherever the elders there bid him go. These were the priests with which he had discussed the scriptures at age 12, marking the end of his apprenticeship in construction and the beginning of his education in the priesthood. At the age of 30, in accordance with the Manual of Discipline of his order, he was elected elder, at which time he could go forth into whatever his specialty had become.
When he came back to Netzeret, to the synagogue of the Pharisees, he was called on to read the haftorah (since he was undoubtedly dressed as a teacher and recognized as such). But when his actual identity was discovered by the townspeople, he again became "that mamzer" of ignoble birth they had all banned years before.
Yochana and Matyah Lebbaeus Alphaeus
Let us jump ahead a decade. About this time, Yohana, the daughter of Yosef, finally marries her intended, he being Matyah b. Mattityahu. He is from an aristocratic family of Jerusalem. But his family fortune is waning, and it is Matyah’s intention to get it back through his work as a Levite. Matyah becomes a tax farmer in the bustling city of Caesarea. Also the first of a set of twins (Mark 2:14), Matyah ha Levi becomes a rich young ruler of the Jews. Yohana and Matyah have children, one of whom takes on the family name Mattityahu. A generation later, in 37 C. E., Yohana has the privilege of naming her second grandson after her own father, that is, Yosef. This same Yosef becomes responsible for much of what we know of these times. For later he would be the governor of Galilee, fight the Roman Emperor Vespasian, and become adopted by him as Flavius Josephus. But not so long before, his grandfather Matyah was the secretary scribe for the Nazorean movement, spearheaded by Yahshua Messiah. Although many wonderful stories were to be told about him long after he was gone, Matyah was content to stay close to Yohana and Ya’aqov, his priestly brother-in-law, until Ya’aqov is gone. Shimon bar Cleopa, Matyah’s new pastor when he falls asleep, lays him in the family tomb and scratches his nickname on an ossuary.
Yahuda and Shimon
While the eldest brother Ya’aqov is studying Enoch and becoming “James the Just,” now in a Jerusalem house, his twin (toma), Yahuda, is studying current political events with Yohanan, an Egyptian Essene of the Damascus School. Yahuda the Egyptian talks about Yochanan with his father Yosef, the teen-ager Yahshua, along with Cleopas and Shimon bar Cleopas (Luke 24:18) (all of which are Egyptians) as they walk the three miles to work each day – to the theater in Zippori – the place where the youth Yahshua learns all about hypocrites by watching the actors rehearse. The double cousins Yahuda and Shimon, as the strong men of nationalistic fervor, are lured into the “Zeal for the Law” movement, also known as “The New Covenant of Phineas” (Numbers 25:6-13). The goal of this secret society is to bring about a theocratic Israel. Although there are many violent movements in these days, this Essene wing of the Covenant promotes passive resistance against the occupying Romans and Herodians.
Although Yahuda T’ma and Shimon are both married with children, Shimon’s marriage in Cana becomes one of the most famous ever known, even more so than the legendary marriage of the son of Tobit. Yahuda T’ma is Shimon’s best man, or architriklinos - manager of the wedding feast. For this, Yahuda will receive a nickname from the Roman soldiers assigned to watch the party. Yahuda (Jude), who is continually keeping the torches lit from table to table, becomes known as Thaddeaus – Latin for “the torch god.” But that’s another story.
The cousins find themselves, as descendants of King David, pushed up to the forefront of the Phineas New Covenant movement. And now, a great event is planned as a show of solidarity – a “reverse exodus” in which all covenanters walk east through the city of Tiberius and OUT of Palestine, into the desert of Perea for a week-long camp meeting. Tens of thousands march out, with Yahuda and Shimon – and even the younger Yahshua – leading the “Cana to Nazareth March.” (This would be called a “strike” today. So isn’t that part of what Shabbat is? A strike against secular commerce?)
The Roman general in Tiberius does not take the march well; it causes a major work shortage. So the General takes his armed divisions out to the desert, surrounding the campers and beheads the purported leaders. Yahshua and his half-cousin Shimon bar Cleopas of Cana escape along with about 400 others. But Yahuda the Torchbearer, son of Yosef (Acts 5:36), doesn’t return. His body is not found. It is a mystery. The bulk of the dissenters are sold into slavery. This would be the final peaceful demonstration against Greek and Roman authority. It made a great impression upon the youth Yahshua ha Moshiach.
Besides his wife, Yahuda leaves behind an infant child, Yahuda bar Yahuda.
Yosef and Yose
Grief over the death of his son, with whom he had worked closely for many years, also takes Yosef’s life at the age of 54, leaving behind his young Essenic wife, Maryah, his eldest son Ya’aqov (who is now in Jerusalem), Yahshua – his son by adoption, and his youngest son and namesake (of whom this is the first mention), Yoseh (‘Little Yosef’), the legendary “naked boy in a sheet.”[xxi]
Yahshua
Yahshua, now the Nazorean Essene Teacher of Mt. Carmel (a Nazarene), does a manly deed by adopting his nephew, Yahuda bar Yahuda, who is 4 years of age. His brother Yahudah has disappeared and is presumed dead. As a Zaddik after the order of Melchizedek, Yahshua would never be married nor have marital relations. Yet adoption is the right thing to do on the behalf of his brother. When his mother tells him he is too young to give his name to his nephew, he says to her, “Woman who is my mother, how old art thou?”
Yahshua continues to aid children, allowing all children to come unto him. Yahshua also continues to maintain a close relationship with his youngest brother and only kin, Yose[xxii], who would like to follow him like the teenaged disciples do. Though he is too young to do as a man does, so Yahshua takes Yoseh into the upper room of David’s tomb right next door to Ya’aqov’s home (in Jerusalem), and there teaches him, preparing him for baptism the next morning and discipleship.[xxiii] As a Nazorean Essene, Yahshua understands his community of brothers, sisters, and children to be family, but he supports his greater family financially and spiritually[xxiv] also, even as they all support his ministry.[xxv]
Of the people watching Yahshua from a distance when he is crucified are three women – Maryah his mother and Maria wife of Cleopas. Also there but farther away is Mariamene of Magdala, who is known as Yahshua’s “companion.” In histories outside of the canon, Mariamene Magdala is the sister of the Apostle Philip (notice both have greek names). Mariamene of Magdala is named after two Maccabean queens (both of which were married to Herod and also murdered by him). Nevertheless her name, Mariamene, means something like we might say, “Darling (mene) Marietta.” Her name is famous.
Yahshua's younger brother Yoseh is right beside the stake with his mother now. To Yoseh he says, “Look at your mother.” To Maryah he says, “Look at your son,” as Maria and Mariamene tearfully look on. Soon they must all migrate away to obscure, far-away places – some back to Egypt, some as far as Halfai, others to the backwaters of Europe and Great Britain.
Back to the Tomb
Now before we get to the so-called “Tomb of Jesus” I must make a few remarks: first off, the DNA was tested from the remains of the bone box marked “Yahshua b. Yoseph” and “Mariamene e Mara.” Then whatever other human remains found in “The Jesus Family Tomb” were buried in a common grave in 1980. Ossuaries, or bone-boxes, were employed in the first century; they were used over and over again for over as long as 100 years; whatever remains were in them were not necessarily those of the names inscribed on them. There is no telling what DNA material was soaked out of them and it is no wonder that – the DNA tested was found to be of unrelated individuals. (Unfortunately, this was the filmmaker’s only ‘proof’ that one of the boxes belonged to Mary Magdalene – she was obviously not related to Yahshua – they say.)
Next, let us be reminded of the story of Joseph of Arimathaea – that he secured his family tomb well in advance of his death, just as many today make funeral arrangement long before (Matthew 27:60). In my story, Ya’aqov ha Zaddik purchased the family tomb located in the modern-day Talpiot region, and right beside the tomb of David where the Messianic Seals were found..
Ya’aqov (James) became a well-established in Jerusalem; he was the head of the Assembly of Ebionite and Nazorean Essenes there; he worked for a living as a paid priest of the order of Melchizedek[xxvi], and we have James’ history right up to his assassination in 62 AD. His own bone box disappeared in 1980 and turned up in 2003, and has since been proven by patina analysis that it came out of this same tomb. His bone box is labeled “Ya’aqov son of Yoseph brother of Yahshua.” I have no doubt whatsoever that the James Ossuary is authentic. I have no problems with this tomb being authentic either.
DISCURSION: In considering the Netzari (Nazarene) Teaching of the Standing Stone and the Standing Man, we’re to the point of speaking of James the Just, who is my favorite character because we know so much about him from so many different sources. Besides Paul, no other character is so highly attested.
James, er, Jacob the Just – Little Known ‘Facts’
I’m speaking of the brother of Yahshua Messiah, James “Yaaqov,” surnamed Alphaeus, or the Just Man (that is, ha Tzaddik). Here are just a few things we can know about James. (If you want to know Where did you get that? – just ask.) James was never named James – that is King James’ name! James’ name is Yaaqov or Jacob, like the Patriarch. James and Paul had a serious altercation on the temple steps before Paul’s conversion. James had his legs broken by a Temple guard, which resulted in a mass migration of believers out of Jerusalem. James was known to have knees like camels – ostensibly from praying for the sinners of Israel. James was known as the pillar of Israel; and that if the pillar were to break, the entire land would be destroyed. James was the successor to Jesus in the Jesus Movement, not Kefa. The disciples asked Jesus, Who will lead us, since we know that you will leave us? Jesus replied, From wherever you happen to be, go to James the Just. It is for his sake that heaven and earth came into being. G. Thom. Jesus told the disciples before his death that they should go to James. James was executed by Caiaphas’ nephew at the Temple during Passover in 62 AD. Thrown down from the parapet. James 5:6 You have condemned, you have killed, the Just One, and he does not resisted you not. James’ death, according to a contemporary, resulted in the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. James’ burial box (ossuary) has been in custody for almost 30 years. It has been judged authentic. The ossuary is inscribed with the words Yaaqov bar Yoseph Achui de Yahshua – in churchy language, that’s James son of Joseph brother of Jesus. The Epistle to the Galatians by Paul includes a line-by-line refutation of the Epistle of James by James. One top school of scholarship has proven that James wrote some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. SHOULDN’T THIS GUY GET SOME MENTION IN SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS? One scholar has it right when he says that, "Knowing James is as close as you can get to knowing the historical Jesus.” So you don’t believe me! But what if these things are true? If we sort through and learn the circumstances of James’ life, think of how much closer we might get to Yahshua the Son of Adam! Many people go to the Holy Land because they want to walk where ‘Jesus’ walked. That’s well and good. But before us we have a brother (or half brother), about whom we can learn much. And seeing as how, in very fact, James was his brother’s successor, CONSIDER HOW CLOSE WE CAN GET TO THE SAVIOR RIGHT HERE AT HOME. When I study the life of James, I feel very close to the other Man of Galilee. Now consider – James and Jesus had other brothers, and nephews too. And we know something about them. Think of what we could learn.
Did you know that Shimon bar Cleopa, Ya’aqov’s cousin, also had an assembly in Jerusalem? Shimon was crucified after the turn of the first century, some 40 years after Ya’aqov’s bones was laid in the box. As it turns out, Yahuda bar Yosef, Ya’aqov’s twin surnamed “The Torch Bearer” did make his way back home to be executed by the Romans after making confirmed missionary trips to Kurdistan. Provinces and towns retain his name and title to this day. Yahuda’s other descendants were hunted down by two Roman Emperors and finally all crucified in the second century. His son, Yahuda, who was adopted by Yahshua, continued to bear Yahshua’s name. Yahuda’s grandsons, Zachar and Ya’aqov, were interrogated by Emperor Domition at the end of the first century and let go as simpletons.
The Ossuary Inscriptions
So that leaves us with the following bone boxes that have names on them. (Please recognize that these identities and spellings are arbitrarily chosen by those who transcribed them from the granite):
THE MEN
X Yahshua son of Yosef (vowels implied) –
Jesus son of Joseph,
Read right to left, beginning with a tau
(X, sign of the Passover) or a cross
Ya’aqov bar Yosef akui di Yahshua –
James son of Joseph brother of Jesus
Matyah – note the sacred name YAH
Yoseh – Joses – “Little Joseph” - The only occurrence of this name among all the thousands of ossuary names, corresponding directly to Matthew 13:55, 27:56; Mark 6:3 and 15:20.
Yahuda bar Yahshua – Judah son of Yahshua (Jesus). Did Yahshua make a son through the course of sexual relations? No need for him to do that. As an Essene, it was his duty to adopt children. When he said, “Let the children come to me,” he also said, “Not one will be cast out.”
THE LADIES
Maryah – Mary – second wife of Joseph the Just, mother of Jesus and Joses. The film makers said this name was scratched in Latin. As you can clearly see, this is round Hebrew and spells Maryah, which the filmmakers Latinized to Maria. They said it was written in Latin because of Roman devotees of Mary. That was simply a lie.
Mariamene Mara – This is in Greek letters and fairly easy to read. Mariamene (or Mariamne known as Mara): This is the sister-in-law of Maryah (Mary) and wife of Cleopas (John 19:25) – also known as “the other Mary” in the evangels – not necessarily Mary Magdalene. The filmmakers said because this inscription was in Greek, and that the Gospel of Philip refers to the Magdalene as "Mariamene," that this has to be Mary Magdalene. Also, because the DNA found in this box showed no relation to the DNA found in the “Jesus” box, this proved that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. What ridiculous conclusions! And this film host is a famous archaeologist – the “Naked Archaeologist.”
NOTE: Looking at the annunciation of the angel to Mary in Luke 1:28 - Gabriel calls Mary “kecharitōmenē” (kecaritwmenh). The ending, menē, is a sign of endearment, like “Lovely One” or “Little Darling!” Mariamene could be encoded with the same idea.
Where Are the Rest of the Kin?
The Family of Yahshua described in Scripture consists of Mary, Joseph, James, Jude, Jesus, Joses, Joanna, Salome, Cleopas, Shimon bar Cleopas (Simon the Canaanaean), maybe more. Reliable sources tell us that relatives of Jude were found in the Nazareth / Cana region from 60 years after the Resurrection to 300 years later. There were several other ossuaries in the tombs with no names (although there are certain symbols alike on all of them): we may account for them all the family if we want. In addition, there was in an adjoining tomb an ossuary with the name Shimon Kefa (Simon Kefa) on it. This name is very unusual. Didn’t they find his bones in Rome?
Is Jackson Snyder a Believer in the Jesus Family Tomb?
Updated October 25, 2011 - Yes, I am a believer; but before today, I wrote the following:
I have been thinking about “Jesus Family Tomb” since LONG before the television special. I have studied and imagined many scenarios. The very tale you have just read, The Shocking True Story Behind the “Jesus Family Tomb,” I wrote earlier in pieces in several essays going back as long as six years. It just so happens that my story fits the tomb inscriptions like O. J. Simpson fits his glove (not the bloody one). To me, the program was very inspirational, factual and believable . . . ;
yet the way the story trailed off into the DaVinci Code showed the extreme ignorance of the “Naked Archaeologist” in regard to first century history in Palestine, the Essene / Nazorean Movement and Yahshua’s history as we know it. (For crying out loud, the guy admitted he didn’t even know Yahshua had a brother – even after the James Ossuary came out 4 years ago!)
I believe the tomb was purchased by someone in the second to fourth century – someone who had these names scratched into the bone boxes and charged admission. The whole thing is just too pat, especially finding Simon Kefa in the next cave!
[i] Joseph (as Zaphenath-paneah, yonqomfant / Psonthomphantch) & Asenath, Genesis 41:45.
[ii] Joseph & King Akhenaten, c. 1400 BC. Akhenaten was the author of the source for Psalms 104. The Exodus, c. 1250 BC. King David, c. 1000 BC. Alexander, c. 300 BC.
[iii] Falasha, or Black Jews trace their heritage back to Solomon through Solomon’s (purported) son Menelik.
[iv] Moses was king of Cush from c. 1280 – 1250 BC according to Trimm, Sefer HaYashar 72ff. 2008 p. 410.
[v] Honi | Honiah ha Tzaddik, a holy man d. 65 BC, created rain according to both Talmud & Josephus. He was stoned to death, which, according to Frazer, was the penalty for heresy among the Alfai priesthood, as seen below.
[vi] I have done a lot of research into this ‘name’ and from it I believe that Alphaeus is not a name at all. Here are a few of my conclusions: 1. The Alphai were a sect of priests that could make rain and stop locusts (demons). They originated in Alphai, just south of the Egyptian border, a sanctuary city where Hebrews found solace from the many and varied persecutions of Monotheists in Egypt. Aphai is right on the trail of the so-called sojourn in Egypt. James the just was known to have possessed these powers, and was possibly of the Alphaeus Priesthood, as was Levi Alphaeus encountered later. 2. Alphaeus is a designation of the first-born of a set of twins. The second born would be known as Didymos or T’ma (thomas) in Hebrew. 3. Having the ‘Ya’aqov’ of the New Testament switch to the Latinized name James (Iakimus) gives us a nice testimonial to the presence King James I of England. 4. In very few of the “son of” notices is the word “son.” The ‘father’ name in these mistranslations happens to be in genitive case, which may make these nouns possessive, but hardly necessarily ‘sons.’ Take for instance, “Judas son of James.” The closest you can get to that in from he Greek is “Judah of James,” in this case the ‘of’ refers to James the Just, who was not the father of Judas, but the brother. “Judas of James” was of course the two brothers of Yahshua, James the Alphaeus and Judas the Didymos - twins. 5. The final one I’ll mention is that an Alphaeus was first of many brethren. Just as the Gospel of Thoms has Yahshua telling the rest to, upon his demise, go to “James the Just” as leader shows him to be the Alphaeus (Alpha male) of the group. I have been looking at Cleopas, Lebbaeus and Thaddeus also, if anyone is interested.
[vii] “Son of Alphaeus” – Mat 10:3, Mark 2:14; 3:18, Luk 6:15, Acts 1:13. The following report comes from The Golden Bough: The Roots of Religion and Folklore by James G. Frazer. Frazer is in turn quoting W. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 474 (Schaffhausen, 1864). Among tribes among tribes on the outskirts of Abyssinia a similar office exists and has been thus described by an observer: “The priesthood of the Alfai, as he is called by the Barea and Kunáma, is a remarkable one; he is believed to be able to make rain. This office formerly existed among the Algeds and appears to be still common to the Nuba (Nubian) negroes. The Alfai of the Bareas, who is also consulted by the northern Kunáma, lives near Tembádere on a mountain alone with his family. The people bring him tribute in the form of clothes and fruits, and cultivate for him a large field of his own. He is a kind of carrying, and his office passes by inheritance to his brother or sister’s son. He is supposed to conjure down rain and to drive away the locusts. But if he disappoints the people’s expectations and a great drought arises in the land, the Alfai is stoned to death, and his nearest relations are obliged to cast the first stone at him. When we passed through the country, the office of the Alfai was still held by an old man; but I heard that rainmaking had proved too dangerous for him and that he had renounced his office.”
[viii] Many translations have “city of destruction” instead of “city of the sun.” Whiston has proved to my satisfaction that the older version is “city of the sun,” and that “city of destruction” is a distraction offensive to the concept of an Egyptian temple. See Whiston’s editorial note on Josephus’ Antiquities 13:3:68.
[ix] Mark 6:3 is undoubtedly part of the Essene literature, fragment of Mark being found in Secacah Cave Seven. Is not this the carpenter (tektwn), the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”
[x] Cleopatra (f) and Cleopas (m) are very popular names; several Cleopatra were in the Egyptian royalty, the last being Cleopatra VII of history and legend. By 10 BC, Cleopatra VIII, the former’s daughter with Marc Anthony, was still alive as Queen of Mauritania (Algeria), and their gained personal fame.
[xi] 4Q186 (Cryptic) – the nine houses constitute an individual’s gestation period; of those nine parts, some may be light and some dark. Eight parts in the house of light and one part in the house of darkness would establish that individual as very righteous (Fragment 2.1.1ff), and eight parts darkness and one light as just the opposite (Fragment 1.3.5ff).
[xii] A thousand generations of life – this being the lifespan of those who lived in perfect (Torah) holiness, as per Josephus and Pliny, and John 5: 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life.
[xiii] www.gutenberg.org/etext/12821. Yes, their exist such people who live to use their resources for others. I know some of them – very few.
[xiv] Matthew 1:19; Acts 1:23.
[xv] Didymus = didumoV: the second: John 11:16.
[xvi] Originally, Mariamne – (John 19:25). Like Cleo(patra) and Cleopa, Mariamne is a common Greek form of a very common Hebrew name; two princesses of the Maccabees had this name, both married to Herod.
[xvii] I say “my translation” because the public domain translations sound like they came out of an 18th century Presbyterian church, like most older translation (or should we say propaganda) of the 18th through 20th centuries. Note 15a. Many scholars today at least admit that Odes is an ancient Nazorean hymnbook of mystical verse. But their translations and commentaries make it very clear that they do not understand either messianic love or original worship. Hearing any ancient Nazorean books in the public domain makes one feel she is in the church library.)
[xviii] The Essene treasury will purchase Ya’aqov a guest house in southwest Jerusalem. He eventually becomes a liaison between the Essenes all over Palestine and Egypt. (This according to the primary source histories.)
[xix] Matthew 1:19 identifies Yosef as an Essene, dikaioV wn = a (2)tzaddik (1)being.
[xx] The rule for mamzerim is found in Torah, Deuteronomy 23:2.
[xxi] Mark 14:51,52.
[xxii] Mark 6:3.
[xxiii] This initiation of the youth in the sheet is explained in Secret Mark.
[xxiv] Matthew 9:15, 12:50, 14:21, many more.
[xxv] Luke 8:1-3.
[xxvi] Acts 6:7: Ya’aqov is one of the Priests of the Poor (Ebionim)
[ii] Joseph & King Akhenaten, c. 1400 BC. Akhenaten was the author of the source for Psalms 104. The Exodus, c. 1250 BC. King David, c. 1000 BC. Alexander, c. 300 BC.
[iii] Falasha, or Black Jews trace their heritage back to Solomon through Solomon’s (purported) son Menelik.
[iv] Moses was king of Cush from c. 1280 – 1250 BC according to Trimm, Sefer HaYashar 72ff. 2008 p. 410.
[v] Honi | Honiah ha Tzaddik, a holy man d. 65 BC, created rain according to both Talmud & Josephus. He was stoned to death, which, according to Frazer, was the penalty for heresy among the Alfai priesthood, as seen below.
[vi] I have done a lot of research into this ‘name’ and from it I believe that Alphaeus is not a name at all. Here are a few of my conclusions: 1. The Alphai were a sect of priests that could make rain and stop locusts (demons). They originated in Alphai, just south of the Egyptian border, a sanctuary city where Hebrews found solace from the many and varied persecutions of Monotheists in Egypt. Aphai is right on the trail of the so-called sojourn in Egypt. James the just was known to have possessed these powers, and was possibly of the Alphaeus Priesthood, as was Levi Alphaeus encountered later. 2. Alphaeus is a designation of the first-born of a set of twins. The second born would be known as Didymos or T’ma (thomas) in Hebrew. 3. Having the ‘Ya’aqov’ of the New Testament switch to the Latinized name James (Iakimus) gives us a nice testimonial to the presence King James I of England. 4. In very few of the “son of” notices is the word “son.” The ‘father’ name in these mistranslations happens to be in genitive case, which may make these nouns possessive, but hardly necessarily ‘sons.’ Take for instance, “Judas son of James.” The closest you can get to that in from he Greek is “Judah of James,” in this case the ‘of’ refers to James the Just, who was not the father of Judas, but the brother. “Judas of James” was of course the two brothers of Yahshua, James the Alphaeus and Judas the Didymos - twins. 5. The final one I’ll mention is that an Alphaeus was first of many brethren. Just as the Gospel of Thoms has Yahshua telling the rest to, upon his demise, go to “James the Just” as leader shows him to be the Alphaeus (Alpha male) of the group. I have been looking at Cleopas, Lebbaeus and Thaddeus also, if anyone is interested.
[vii] “Son of Alphaeus” – Mat 10:3, Mark 2:14; 3:18, Luk 6:15, Acts 1:13. The following report comes from The Golden Bough: The Roots of Religion and Folklore by James G. Frazer. Frazer is in turn quoting W. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 474 (Schaffhausen, 1864). Among tribes among tribes on the outskirts of Abyssinia a similar office exists and has been thus described by an observer: “The priesthood of the Alfai, as he is called by the Barea and Kunáma, is a remarkable one; he is believed to be able to make rain. This office formerly existed among the Algeds and appears to be still common to the Nuba (Nubian) negroes. The Alfai of the Bareas, who is also consulted by the northern Kunáma, lives near Tembádere on a mountain alone with his family. The people bring him tribute in the form of clothes and fruits, and cultivate for him a large field of his own. He is a kind of carrying, and his office passes by inheritance to his brother or sister’s son. He is supposed to conjure down rain and to drive away the locusts. But if he disappoints the people’s expectations and a great drought arises in the land, the Alfai is stoned to death, and his nearest relations are obliged to cast the first stone at him. When we passed through the country, the office of the Alfai was still held by an old man; but I heard that rainmaking had proved too dangerous for him and that he had renounced his office.”
[viii] Many translations have “city of destruction” instead of “city of the sun.” Whiston has proved to my satisfaction that the older version is “city of the sun,” and that “city of destruction” is a distraction offensive to the concept of an Egyptian temple. See Whiston’s editorial note on Josephus’ Antiquities 13:3:68.
[ix] Mark 6:3 is undoubtedly part of the Essene literature, fragment of Mark being found in Secacah Cave Seven. Is not this the carpenter (tektwn), the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”
[x] Cleopatra (f) and Cleopas (m) are very popular names; several Cleopatra were in the Egyptian royalty, the last being Cleopatra VII of history and legend. By 10 BC, Cleopatra VIII, the former’s daughter with Marc Anthony, was still alive as Queen of Mauritania (Algeria), and their gained personal fame.
[xi] 4Q186 (Cryptic) – the nine houses constitute an individual’s gestation period; of those nine parts, some may be light and some dark. Eight parts in the house of light and one part in the house of darkness would establish that individual as very righteous (Fragment 2.1.1ff), and eight parts darkness and one light as just the opposite (Fragment 1.3.5ff).
[xii] A thousand generations of life – this being the lifespan of those who lived in perfect (Torah) holiness, as per Josephus and Pliny, and John 5: 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life.
[xiii] www.gutenberg.org/etext/12821. Yes, their exist such people who live to use their resources for others. I know some of them – very few.
[xiv] Matthew 1:19; Acts 1:23.
[xv] Didymus = didumoV: the second: John 11:16.
[xvi] Originally, Mariamne – (John 19:25). Like Cleo(patra) and Cleopa, Mariamne is a common Greek form of a very common Hebrew name; two princesses of the Maccabees had this name, both married to Herod.
[xvii] I say “my translation” because the public domain translations sound like they came out of an 18th century Presbyterian church, like most older translation (or should we say propaganda) of the 18th through 20th centuries. Note 15a. Many scholars today at least admit that Odes is an ancient Nazorean hymnbook of mystical verse. But their translations and commentaries make it very clear that they do not understand either messianic love or original worship. Hearing any ancient Nazorean books in the public domain makes one feel she is in the church library.)
[xviii] The Essene treasury will purchase Ya’aqov a guest house in southwest Jerusalem. He eventually becomes a liaison between the Essenes all over Palestine and Egypt. (This according to the primary source histories.)
[xix] Matthew 1:19 identifies Yosef as an Essene, dikaioV wn = a (2)tzaddik (1)being.
[xx] The rule for mamzerim is found in Torah, Deuteronomy 23:2.
[xxi] Mark 14:51,52.
[xxii] Mark 6:3.
[xxiii] This initiation of the youth in the sheet is explained in Secret Mark.
[xxiv] Matthew 9:15, 12:50, 14:21, many more.
[xxv] Luke 8:1-3.
[xxvi] Acts 6:7: Ya’aqov is one of the Priests of the Poor (Ebionim)
What Is Chag Yeshua?
There is an amazing and important festival on the Biblical calendar which has been lost and has not been observed for centuries. The festival was enacted in the 3rd Book of the Maccabees, but since this book was removed from the canon (along with the rest of the apocrypha), this festival was effectively removed with it. As the restoration of truth continues, one of the things that we need to do is restore this lost, biblical festival to our observance.
What is the background of this festival? After the Battle of Raphia in 217 B.C.E. Ptolemy IV sought to enter the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem, but was miraculously repulsed (3Macc. 1:1-2:24). Upon returning from Egypt he seeks to punish the Jews there for his humiliation. He lowers their political status and seeks to impose paganism on them (3Macc. 2:25-33) and tortures and kills those that refuse to renounce Judaism (3Macc. 3:1-5:51) An elder priest named Eleazar prays for the deliverance of his people (3Macc. 6:1-25), YHWH intervenes bringing about the repentance of the king and the deliverance of the Jews (6:16-7:23) The Jews declared an annual festival called “The Feast of Deliverance” (Chag Yeshua) as an annual celebration of the salvation of the Jews in Egypt at this time. The festival enacted from the 8th to the 14th of the Egyptian month of Epeiph. The Egyptian calendar was a Solar Calendar and these days correspond to 19 August 217 BCE on the Julian Calendar and this was 12th Elul 3544 on the Hebrew calendar. This festival should be observed beginning on the 12th of Elul each year.
And there is another element in this festival for us as believers in Messiah. The Hebrew word for “deliverance” is YESHUA so we have here “The Feast of Yeshua”. The deliverance of the Jews from the hand of Ptolemy IV points us forward to the deliverance of Israel by the Messiah Yeshua. This feast gives us another important theme, Messiah and the deliverance of Israel.
What do we do on Hag Yeshua? The text of 3 Maccabees tells us that the day was celebrated with rejoicing and they “were crowned with all kinds of fragrant flowers.” The text also tells us that they:
1. A celebratory meal called “The Banquet of Deliverance” or “The Banquet of Yeshua”. This should not be confused with the Passover Sader and would be more akin to a “Thanksgiving Dinner”, or this time of year, a barbeque. (3Macc. 6:31)
2. Traditional songs (“Songs of their fathers”) and praising Yah as “savior”. Particularly appropriate are songs about “Salvation” or which speak of Yah’s defense as our shield. (3Macc. 6:32)
Recommended Chag Yeshua songs:
Deliverance/Protection/Victory Theme:
Behold!
And it Shall Come to Pass
Melech Ozair
As the Mountains
Shield about Me
In the Shadow of your Wings
Shouts of Joy
Yeshau (the Messiah) Theme:
Do You Know Yeshua?
In Yeshua's Name
Rejoicing:
He Put Laughter into My Soul
He has Made me Glad
Roni Bat Tzion
3. Traditional Hebraic Dance (2Macc. 6:35)
4. Obviously the festival should involve recounting the story of 3 Maccabees.
Since the festival is in the summer (at least in the northern hemisphere) this points obviously to summer festivities. Modern activities could include barbeques and pool parties.
In 2011 Chag Yeshua (The Feast of Deliverance) will run seven days beginning Sept. 11 2011 .I want to encourage you to join WNAE and other Nazarenes around the world this summer as we observe this festival again for the second time in nearly 2,000 years (last year was the first).
So plan your own Chag Yeshua events for Sept. 11-17th 2011
(The 17th is the Weekly Sabbath and the Synagogue day for observance)
There is an amazing and important festival on the Biblical calendar which has been lost and has not been observed for centuries. The festival was enacted in the 3rd Book of the Maccabees, but since this book was removed from the canon (along with the rest of the apocrypha), this festival was effectively removed with it. As the restoration of truth continues, one of the things that we need to do is restore this lost, biblical festival to our observance.
What is the background of this festival? After the Battle of Raphia in 217 B.C.E. Ptolemy IV sought to enter the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem, but was miraculously repulsed (3Macc. 1:1-2:24). Upon returning from Egypt he seeks to punish the Jews there for his humiliation. He lowers their political status and seeks to impose paganism on them (3Macc. 2:25-33) and tortures and kills those that refuse to renounce Judaism (3Macc. 3:1-5:51) An elder priest named Eleazar prays for the deliverance of his people (3Macc. 6:1-25), YHWH intervenes bringing about the repentance of the king and the deliverance of the Jews (6:16-7:23) The Jews declared an annual festival called “The Feast of Deliverance” (Chag Yeshua) as an annual celebration of the salvation of the Jews in Egypt at this time. The festival enacted from the 8th to the 14th of the Egyptian month of Epeiph. The Egyptian calendar was a Solar Calendar and these days correspond to 19 August 217 BCE on the Julian Calendar and this was 12th Elul 3544 on the Hebrew calendar. This festival should be observed beginning on the 12th of Elul each year.
And there is another element in this festival for us as believers in Messiah. The Hebrew word for “deliverance” is YESHUA so we have here “The Feast of Yeshua”. The deliverance of the Jews from the hand of Ptolemy IV points us forward to the deliverance of Israel by the Messiah Yeshua. This feast gives us another important theme, Messiah and the deliverance of Israel.
What do we do on Hag Yeshua? The text of 3 Maccabees tells us that the day was celebrated with rejoicing and they “were crowned with all kinds of fragrant flowers.” The text also tells us that they:
1. A celebratory meal called “The Banquet of Deliverance” or “The Banquet of Yeshua”. This should not be confused with the Passover Sader and would be more akin to a “Thanksgiving Dinner”, or this time of year, a barbeque. (3Macc. 6:31)
2. Traditional songs (“Songs of their fathers”) and praising Yah as “savior”. Particularly appropriate are songs about “Salvation” or which speak of Yah’s defense as our shield. (3Macc. 6:32)
Recommended Chag Yeshua songs:
Deliverance/Protection/Victory Theme:
Behold!
And it Shall Come to Pass
Melech Ozair
As the Mountains
Shield about Me
In the Shadow of your Wings
Shouts of Joy
Yeshau (the Messiah) Theme:
Do You Know Yeshua?
In Yeshua's Name
Rejoicing:
He Put Laughter into My Soul
He has Made me Glad
Roni Bat Tzion
3. Traditional Hebraic Dance (2Macc. 6:35)
4. Obviously the festival should involve recounting the story of 3 Maccabees.
Since the festival is in the summer (at least in the northern hemisphere) this points obviously to summer festivities. Modern activities could include barbeques and pool parties.
In 2011 Chag Yeshua (The Feast of Deliverance) will run seven days beginning Sept. 11 2011 .I want to encourage you to join WNAE and other Nazarenes around the world this summer as we observe this festival again for the second time in nearly 2,000 years (last year was the first).
So plan your own Chag Yeshua events for Sept. 11-17th 2011
(The 17th is the Weekly Sabbath and the Synagogue day for observance)
The Ancient Nazarene Commentaries
on Isaiah as Interpreted by Jerome
Jerome (347 – 440 AD) was an ecclesiastical historian best known for his many translations of scripture into Latin, including his best-known work, the Vulgate. He may well have been in contact with the ancient sect of the Nazarenes, which he speaks of in favorable terms, and we suppose the following commentaries proceeded from common discourse with them. If so, these commentaries may well be one of the most important and most neglected sources of Nazarene lore in our possession. For commentary on these notices and the Latin text, see Ray Pritz, Nazarene Jewish Christianity, 2010. I have edited slightly for clarity. [jhs]
on Isaiah as Interpreted by Jerome
Jerome (347 – 440 AD) was an ecclesiastical historian best known for his many translations of scripture into Latin, including his best-known work, the Vulgate. He may well have been in contact with the ancient sect of the Nazarenes, which he speaks of in favorable terms, and we suppose the following commentaries proceeded from common discourse with them. If so, these commentaries may well be one of the most important and most neglected sources of Nazarene lore in our possession. For commentary on these notices and the Latin text, see Ray Pritz, Nazarene Jewish Christianity, 2010. I have edited slightly for clarity. [jhs]
On Isaiah 8:14. And [YHWH Tviot] will be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a trap to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
The Nazarenes, who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old law, explain the two houses as the two families, viz. of Shammai and Hillel, from whom originated the Scribes and the Pharisees. (Akiba, who took over their school, is called the master of Aquila the proselyte, and after him came Meir who … succeeded … Joannes the son of Zakkai and after him Eliezer and further Telphon, and next Joseph Galilaeus and Joshua up to the capture of Jerusalem.) Shammai then and Hillel were born not long before the Master; they originated in Judea. The name of the first means scatterer and of the second unholy, because he scattered and denied the precepts of the Torah by his traditions and deuterōseis[1]. And these are the two houses who did not accept the Savior who has become to them destruction and shame.
On Isaiah 8:20. For Torah and for testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21. And they will pass through it, greatly distressed and hungry; and it will come to pass, that when they will be hungry, they will be enraged, and curse their king and their gods, and look upward.
For the rest the Nazarenes explain the passage in this way: when the Scribes and Pharisees tell you to listen to them, men who do everything for the love of the belly and who hiss during their incantations in the way of magicians in order to deceive you, you must answer them like this: "It is not strange if you follow your traditions since every tribe consults its own idols. We must not, therefore, consult your dead about the living ones. On the contrary. Elohim has given us the Torah and the testimonies of the scriptures. If you are not willing to follow them you will not have light, and the darkness will always oppress you. It will cover your earth and your doctrine so that, when you see that they have been deceived by you in error and they feel a longing for the truth, they will then be sad or angry. And let them who believe themselves to be like their own gods and kings curse you. And let them look at the sky and the earth in vain since they are always in darkness and they cannot flee away from your ambushes."
On Isaiah 9:1. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; they who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined. 2. You have multiplied the nation, and increased the joy; they rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the plunder. 3. For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the days of Midian. 4. For every shoe of the stormy warrior, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel of fire.
The Nazarenes, whose opinion I have set forth above, try to explain this passage in the following way: When Messiah came and his preaching shone out, the land of Zebulon and Naphtali first of all were freed from the errors of the Scribes and Pharisees and he shook off their shoulders the very heavy yoke of the Jewish traditions. Later, however, the preaching became more dominant, that means the preaching was multiplied, through the Good News of the apostle Paul who was the last of all the apostles. And the Good News of Messiah shone to the most distant tribes and the way of the whole sea. Finally the whole world, which earlier walked or sat in darkness and was imprisoned in the bonds of idolatry and death, has seen the clear light of the Good News.
On Isaiah 29:20. For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off; 21. Who, by a word, make a man an offender, and lay a trap for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for nothing.
What we have understood to have been written about the devil and his angels, the Nazarenes believe to have been said against the Scribes and the Pharisees, because the deuterōseis passed away, who earlier deceived the people with very vicious traditions (and they watch day and night to deceive the simple ones), who made men sin against the Word of Elohim in order that they should deny that Messiah was the Son of Elohim.
On Isaiah 31:6. Behold, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; which will pierce the hand of a man who leans in it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7. But if you say to me, We trust in YHWH our Elohim; is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar? 8. Now therefore make a wager, I beg you, with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. 9. How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
The Nazarenes understand this passage in this way: Sons of Israel, who deny the Son of Elohim with a most vicious opinion, turn to him and his apostles. For if you will do this, you will reject all idols that to you were a cause of sin in the past, and the devil will fall before you, not because of your powers, but because of the compassion of Elohim. And his young men, who at a certain time earlier fought for him, will be the tributaries of the assembly and any of [his] power and stone will pass. Also the philosophers and every perverse dogma will turn their backs to the sign of the cross. Because this is the meaning of YHWH that his will take place, whose fire or light is in Zion and his oven in Jerusalem.
The Chag Yeshua Liturgy
(You may wish to open with other liturgy including the Shema)
AHVOT: The Fathers
(The first blessing of the Amidah)
Blessed Are You YHVH, our Elohim and Elohim of our fathers;
Baruch Atah YHVH Eloheynu v'Elohey a vo taynoo.
Elohim of Avraham, Elohim of Yitzchak, Elohim of Yaacov,
Elohey Avraham, Elohey Yitzchak V'Elohey Ya a kov,
The great and mighty and awesome Elohim, the most high Elohim,
Ha EL Ha Gadol, Ha Geebor, v'Ha Nora, El Elyon,
Who bestows grace and creates all
go mail chasadeem toveem, v'konay ha kol.
and remembers the kindnesses of the fathers and brings a Redeemer
v'zo care chas day ahvot oo mayvee go ail
to their children's children, for His Name's sake with love.
leevnay v'nay hem l'ma an sh'mo b'a havah.
Amein.
The Nazarenes, who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old law, explain the two houses as the two families, viz. of Shammai and Hillel, from whom originated the Scribes and the Pharisees. (Akiba, who took over their school, is called the master of Aquila the proselyte, and after him came Meir who … succeeded … Joannes the son of Zakkai and after him Eliezer and further Telphon, and next Joseph Galilaeus and Joshua up to the capture of Jerusalem.) Shammai then and Hillel were born not long before the Master; they originated in Judea. The name of the first means scatterer and of the second unholy, because he scattered and denied the precepts of the Torah by his traditions and deuterōseis[1]. And these are the two houses who did not accept the Savior who has become to them destruction and shame.
On Isaiah 8:20. For Torah and for testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. 21. And they will pass through it, greatly distressed and hungry; and it will come to pass, that when they will be hungry, they will be enraged, and curse their king and their gods, and look upward.
For the rest the Nazarenes explain the passage in this way: when the Scribes and Pharisees tell you to listen to them, men who do everything for the love of the belly and who hiss during their incantations in the way of magicians in order to deceive you, you must answer them like this: "It is not strange if you follow your traditions since every tribe consults its own idols. We must not, therefore, consult your dead about the living ones. On the contrary. Elohim has given us the Torah and the testimonies of the scriptures. If you are not willing to follow them you will not have light, and the darkness will always oppress you. It will cover your earth and your doctrine so that, when you see that they have been deceived by you in error and they feel a longing for the truth, they will then be sad or angry. And let them who believe themselves to be like their own gods and kings curse you. And let them look at the sky and the earth in vain since they are always in darkness and they cannot flee away from your ambushes."
On Isaiah 9:1. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; they who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them has the light shined. 2. You have multiplied the nation, and increased the joy; they rejoice before you according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the plunder. 3. For you have broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the days of Midian. 4. For every shoe of the stormy warrior, and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel of fire.
The Nazarenes, whose opinion I have set forth above, try to explain this passage in the following way: When Messiah came and his preaching shone out, the land of Zebulon and Naphtali first of all were freed from the errors of the Scribes and Pharisees and he shook off their shoulders the very heavy yoke of the Jewish traditions. Later, however, the preaching became more dominant, that means the preaching was multiplied, through the Good News of the apostle Paul who was the last of all the apostles. And the Good News of Messiah shone to the most distant tribes and the way of the whole sea. Finally the whole world, which earlier walked or sat in darkness and was imprisoned in the bonds of idolatry and death, has seen the clear light of the Good News.
On Isaiah 29:20. For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all who watch for iniquity are cut off; 21. Who, by a word, make a man an offender, and lay a trap for him who reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for nothing.
What we have understood to have been written about the devil and his angels, the Nazarenes believe to have been said against the Scribes and the Pharisees, because the deuterōseis passed away, who earlier deceived the people with very vicious traditions (and they watch day and night to deceive the simple ones), who made men sin against the Word of Elohim in order that they should deny that Messiah was the Son of Elohim.
On Isaiah 31:6. Behold, you trust in the staff of this broken reed, on Egypt; which will pierce the hand of a man who leans in it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7. But if you say to me, We trust in YHWH our Elohim; is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, You shall worship before this altar? 8. Now therefore make a wager, I beg you, with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them. 9. How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
The Nazarenes understand this passage in this way: Sons of Israel, who deny the Son of Elohim with a most vicious opinion, turn to him and his apostles. For if you will do this, you will reject all idols that to you were a cause of sin in the past, and the devil will fall before you, not because of your powers, but because of the compassion of Elohim. And his young men, who at a certain time earlier fought for him, will be the tributaries of the assembly and any of [his] power and stone will pass. Also the philosophers and every perverse dogma will turn their backs to the sign of the cross. Because this is the meaning of YHWH that his will take place, whose fire or light is in Zion and his oven in Jerusalem.
The Chag Yeshua Liturgy
(You may wish to open with other liturgy including the Shema)
AHVOT: The Fathers
(The first blessing of the Amidah)
Blessed Are You YHVH, our Elohim and Elohim of our fathers;
Baruch Atah YHVH Eloheynu v'Elohey a vo taynoo.
Elohim of Avraham, Elohim of Yitzchak, Elohim of Yaacov,
Elohey Avraham, Elohey Yitzchak V'Elohey Ya a kov,
The great and mighty and awesome Elohim, the most high Elohim,
Ha EL Ha Gadol, Ha Geebor, v'Ha Nora, El Elyon,
Who bestows grace and creates all
go mail chasadeem toveem, v'konay ha kol.
and remembers the kindnesses of the fathers and brings a Redeemer
v'zo care chas day ahvot oo mayvee go ail
to their children's children, for His Name's sake with love.
leevnay v'nay hem l'ma an sh'mo b'a havah.
Amein.
O King, helper Savior and Shield!
Melech Ozair U'MaSHEEAH u OO 'MAGEN
Blessed are You YHVH. Shield of Avraham.
Baruch Atah YHVH, Magen Avraham!
Blessing for Reading the Chag Yeshua
Blessed Are You YHVH, our Elohim, King of the universe,
Bo-ruch A-toh YHWH E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-olom
Who made us holy with His commandments
A-sher Ki-de-sho-nu Be-mitz-vo-sov
and commanded us about the Mitzvah of reading of the Feast of Yeshua.
Ve-tzi-vo-nu Al Mikra davar Chag Yeshua.
Amein.
Blessed Are You YHVH, our Elohim, King of the universe,
Bo-ruch A-toh YHWH E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-olom
Who made miracles for our forefathers, in those days at this time of the year.
She-o-so Ni-sim La-avo-sei-nu Ba-yo-mim Ho-heim Bi-z'man Ha-zeh
Melech Ozair U'MaSHEEAH u OO 'MAGEN
Blessed are You YHVH. Shield of Avraham.
Baruch Atah YHVH, Magen Avraham!
Blessing for Reading the Chag Yeshua
Blessed Are You YHVH, our Elohim, King of the universe,
Bo-ruch A-toh YHWH E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-olom
Who made us holy with His commandments
A-sher Ki-de-sho-nu Be-mitz-vo-sov
and commanded us about the Mitzvah of reading of the Feast of Yeshua.
Ve-tzi-vo-nu Al Mikra davar Chag Yeshua.
Amein.
Blessed Are You YHVH, our Elohim, King of the universe,
Bo-ruch A-toh YHWH E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-olom
Who made miracles for our forefathers, in those days at this time of the year.
She-o-so Ni-sim La-avo-sei-nu Ba-yo-mim Ho-heim Bi-z'man Ha-zeh
Shehecheyanu—The Blessing for the New Season
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe
Baruch atta YHWH Eloheynu Melech HaOlam
Who has kept us in life, and has preserved us,
Shehecheyanu v’ki-y’manu
and enabled us to reach this time.
v’higianu la-zman hazeh.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe
Baruch atta YHWH Eloheynu Melech HaOlam
Who has kept us in life, and has preserved us,
Shehecheyanu v’ki-y’manu
and enabled us to reach this time.
v’higianu la-zman hazeh.
(The 3 Maccabees passages are here read)
Horov es rivaynu—The Blessing for Success
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has contended for us and succeeding in our cause, avenging us by bringing retribution on all our mortal enemies and delivering us from our adversaries.
Bo-ruch A-toh YHWH E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-olom
Horov es rivaynu, v’hadon es dinaynu, v’kanokaym es nikmosaynu,
V’ham’shalaym g’mul l’chol o-y’vay nafshaynu
V’hanifro lonu mitzoraynu
Hoel Moshiach—The Blessing for Messiah
Blessed are You, YHWH,
Bo-ruch A-toh YHWH
who delivers His people Israel
hanifro l’amo yisro-ayl
from all their adversaries
mikol tzorayhem,
Elohim who brought Messiah.
Ho-Ayl haMoshiach
Amein.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has contended for us and succeeding in our cause, avenging us by bringing retribution on all our mortal enemies and delivering us from our adversaries.
Bo-ruch A-toh YHWH E-lo-hei-nu Me-lech Ha-olom
Horov es rivaynu, v’hadon es dinaynu, v’kanokaym es nikmosaynu,
V’ham’shalaym g’mul l’chol o-y’vay nafshaynu
V’hanifro lonu mitzoraynu
Hoel Moshiach—The Blessing for Messiah
Blessed are You, YHWH,
Bo-ruch A-toh YHWH
who delivers His people Israel
hanifro l’amo yisro-ayl
from all their adversaries
mikol tzorayhem,
Elohim who brought Messiah.
Ho-Ayl haMoshiach
Amein.
About Unique Baptism[1]
Early Apostolic Witness: Teaching of the Twelve[3] 7:1 Regarding (tevillah) baptism, here is how you will do them. After reciting all the necessary words, do miqvot in the name of h’Avi and ha Ben and ha Ruach haQodesh in running water. 2 If you do not have running water, you can do miqvot in other water; and if you do not have cold water, warm will do. 3 If you have neither, pour water on the head three times in the name of h’Avi and ha Ben and ha Ruach haQodesh[4] 4 Yet before the baptism, let both the one who cleanses and the one who is cleansed fast, as well as all others who are able; in fact, you will order the one who is to be cleansed to fast a day or two before.
9:5 Allow no one to eat or drink any of this Todah Rabbah, unless they have completed baptism in the name of the Master (‘o kurioV); who has spoken about this matter: Do not give that which is qadosh to goyim.[5]
Self-baptism recorded; Paul and Thecla 9:6 Afterwards they brought out many other wild beasts; but Thecla stood with her hands stretched towards the sky and prayed; and when she had done praying, she turned about, and saw a pit of water, and said, Now it is a proper time for me to be baptized. 7 Accordingly she threw herself into the water, and said, In your name, O my Master Yahshua Messiah, I am this last day baptized. The women and the people seeing this, cried out, and said, Do not throw yourself into the water. And the governor himself cried out, to think that the sea-calves were like to devour so much beauty.
The Tevillah of Yahshua; Kata Mattyah 3:11 Indeed, I dunk you in water in order for teshuvah; but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will dunk you in the Ruach haKodesh and in fire, 12 he whose winnowing shovel is in his hand. He will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor and gather his grain into the granary; but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. 13 Then came Yahshua from the Galil to the Yarden to Yochanon to be dunked by him. 14 But Yochanon forbade him, saying, I have need to be dunked by you and come you to me? 15 But Yahshua answered and said to him, Permit it now; for thus it becomes us to fulfill every righteous act. Then he permitted him. 16 Having been dunked, Yahshua immediately went up from the water; and hinneh! the shamayim opened, and he saw the Ruach of Yahweh descending like a dove and coming upon him. 17 And hinneh! a voice from the shamayim, saying, This is my beloved Son, this day I have begotten you.
In the Name: Ma’asei 2:38. And Peter said to them, “Shuv! every one of you be dunked in the name of Yahshua ha Moshiach for the forgiveness of your chattaim; and you will receive the gift of the Ruach haQodesh. 39. The promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Yahweh Eloheinu calls to him.” 40. And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked family.” 41. So those who received his word were dunked, and about three thousand people were added that day. 42. So they devoted themselves to the torah of the shlichim and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43. Awe came upon every person; and many portents and signs were done by the shlichim. 44. All who believed were in yahad and had all things in common; 45. They sold their stuff and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. 46. Day by day they attending the temple together and, breaking bread in their homes, they ate with happy and generous hearts, 47. praising Elohim in the favor of all. And Yahweh added the number of those being saved day by day.
The Saving Name: Ma’asei 4:10. (Kefa speaking) Be it known to you all, and to all of Israel, that by the name of Yahshua the Anointed of the Nazoreans (Ihsou Xristou tou Nazwraiou), whom you crucified, whom Elohim raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. 11. This is the stone that was rejected by you builders, but which has become the head of the corner. 12. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Yahweh-Yahshua: Ma’asei 19:3. And [Paul] said, "Into whom (tiV) then did you receive tevillah?" They said, "A tevillah into Yochanon." 4. And Paul said, "Yochanon executed the tevillah of teshuvah, telling them to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Yahshua." 5. On hearing this, they received tevillah in the name of Yahweh-Yahshua (to onoma tou kuriou Ihsou).
Qorintyim Aleph 1:10. I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Master (kurioV) Yahshua the Anointed that you all agree so there is no conflict among you and that you be echad in the same mind and judgment. 11. For it has been reported to me . . . that there is infighting among you, my brothers. 12. What I mean is that each one of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Messiah." 13. Is Messiah divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or did you receive tevillah in the name of Paul? 14. I am thankful that I did tevillah with none of you but Crispus and Gaius; 15. lest you should say that you received tevillah in my name.
1 Kefa 3:18. The Anointed One died for chattaim once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so he might bring us alive in ruach to Elohim (the basar put to death); 19. For which he went and proclaimed this to the ruachim in prison, 20. those who formerly did not obey when the patience of Yahweh awaited Noach’s day while the ark was being built, by which a few (eight persons) were saved through water. 21. Tevillah, corresponding with this, now saves you. It not only removes dirt from the body but also pleads Yahweh for a clear conscience through the rising of Yahshua the Anointed One, 22. who has gone into shamayim and is at the right hand of Elohim, with malachim, s'mikhim, and koachim subject to him.
(Thus tevillah saves you because it is the gate to the kingdom Way.)
As to the METHOD of baptism / tevillah, the following verses may be helpful in understanding sprinkling, splashing, and pouring: Ib’rim 9:22ff; Bamidbar 19:17,18; Shemot 24:6-8; Wayyiqra 8:19 &16:14. Yochanon discusses tevilla in context with purifications – also Bamidbar 8:5-7, 19:13; Wayyiqra 14:49-51; Tehillim 51:7; Marqos 7:4; Luqas 11:37ff. And as a fulfillment of prophecy – Yehezqel 36:24-28.
There is a strong case for tevillah by long-distance here and elsewhere:
Qorintyim Aleph 10:1. I WANT you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2. and all received tevillah into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3.All ate the same supernatural food. 4. All drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Messiah. (We might add that they did tevillah by drinking from this same Rock.)
Early Apostolic Witness: Teaching of the Twelve[3] 7:1 Regarding (tevillah) baptism, here is how you will do them. After reciting all the necessary words, do miqvot in the name of h’Avi and ha Ben and ha Ruach haQodesh in running water. 2 If you do not have running water, you can do miqvot in other water; and if you do not have cold water, warm will do. 3 If you have neither, pour water on the head three times in the name of h’Avi and ha Ben and ha Ruach haQodesh[4] 4 Yet before the baptism, let both the one who cleanses and the one who is cleansed fast, as well as all others who are able; in fact, you will order the one who is to be cleansed to fast a day or two before.
9:5 Allow no one to eat or drink any of this Todah Rabbah, unless they have completed baptism in the name of the Master (‘o kurioV); who has spoken about this matter: Do not give that which is qadosh to goyim.[5]
Self-baptism recorded; Paul and Thecla 9:6 Afterwards they brought out many other wild beasts; but Thecla stood with her hands stretched towards the sky and prayed; and when she had done praying, she turned about, and saw a pit of water, and said, Now it is a proper time for me to be baptized. 7 Accordingly she threw herself into the water, and said, In your name, O my Master Yahshua Messiah, I am this last day baptized. The women and the people seeing this, cried out, and said, Do not throw yourself into the water. And the governor himself cried out, to think that the sea-calves were like to devour so much beauty.
The Tevillah of Yahshua; Kata Mattyah 3:11 Indeed, I dunk you in water in order for teshuvah; but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will dunk you in the Ruach haKodesh and in fire, 12 he whose winnowing shovel is in his hand. He will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor and gather his grain into the granary; but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire. 13 Then came Yahshua from the Galil to the Yarden to Yochanon to be dunked by him. 14 But Yochanon forbade him, saying, I have need to be dunked by you and come you to me? 15 But Yahshua answered and said to him, Permit it now; for thus it becomes us to fulfill every righteous act. Then he permitted him. 16 Having been dunked, Yahshua immediately went up from the water; and hinneh! the shamayim opened, and he saw the Ruach of Yahweh descending like a dove and coming upon him. 17 And hinneh! a voice from the shamayim, saying, This is my beloved Son, this day I have begotten you.
In the Name: Ma’asei 2:38. And Peter said to them, “Shuv! every one of you be dunked in the name of Yahshua ha Moshiach for the forgiveness of your chattaim; and you will receive the gift of the Ruach haQodesh. 39. The promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Yahweh Eloheinu calls to him.” 40. And he testified with many other words and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked family.” 41. So those who received his word were dunked, and about three thousand people were added that day. 42. So they devoted themselves to the torah of the shlichim and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43. Awe came upon every person; and many portents and signs were done by the shlichim. 44. All who believed were in yahad and had all things in common; 45. They sold their stuff and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. 46. Day by day they attending the temple together and, breaking bread in their homes, they ate with happy and generous hearts, 47. praising Elohim in the favor of all. And Yahweh added the number of those being saved day by day.
The Saving Name: Ma’asei 4:10. (Kefa speaking) Be it known to you all, and to all of Israel, that by the name of Yahshua the Anointed of the Nazoreans (Ihsou Xristou tou Nazwraiou), whom you crucified, whom Elohim raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. 11. This is the stone that was rejected by you builders, but which has become the head of the corner. 12. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Yahweh-Yahshua: Ma’asei 19:3. And [Paul] said, "Into whom (tiV) then did you receive tevillah?" They said, "A tevillah into Yochanon." 4. And Paul said, "Yochanon executed the tevillah of teshuvah, telling them to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Yahshua." 5. On hearing this, they received tevillah in the name of Yahweh-Yahshua (to onoma tou kuriou Ihsou).
Qorintyim Aleph 1:10. I appeal to you, brethren, by the name of our Master (kurioV) Yahshua the Anointed that you all agree so there is no conflict among you and that you be echad in the same mind and judgment. 11. For it has been reported to me . . . that there is infighting among you, my brothers. 12. What I mean is that each one of you says, "I am of Paul," or "I am of Apollos," or "I am of Cephas," or "I am of Messiah." 13. Is Messiah divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or did you receive tevillah in the name of Paul? 14. I am thankful that I did tevillah with none of you but Crispus and Gaius; 15. lest you should say that you received tevillah in my name.
1 Kefa 3:18. The Anointed One died for chattaim once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, so he might bring us alive in ruach to Elohim (the basar put to death); 19. For which he went and proclaimed this to the ruachim in prison, 20. those who formerly did not obey when the patience of Yahweh awaited Noach’s day while the ark was being built, by which a few (eight persons) were saved through water. 21. Tevillah, corresponding with this, now saves you. It not only removes dirt from the body but also pleads Yahweh for a clear conscience through the rising of Yahshua the Anointed One, 22. who has gone into shamayim and is at the right hand of Elohim, with malachim, s'mikhim, and koachim subject to him.
(Thus tevillah saves you because it is the gate to the kingdom Way.)
As to the METHOD of baptism / tevillah, the following verses may be helpful in understanding sprinkling, splashing, and pouring: Ib’rim 9:22ff; Bamidbar 19:17,18; Shemot 24:6-8; Wayyiqra 8:19 &16:14. Yochanon discusses tevilla in context with purifications – also Bamidbar 8:5-7, 19:13; Wayyiqra 14:49-51; Tehillim 51:7; Marqos 7:4; Luqas 11:37ff. And as a fulfillment of prophecy – Yehezqel 36:24-28.
There is a strong case for tevillah by long-distance here and elsewhere:
Qorintyim Aleph 10:1. I WANT you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2. and all received tevillah into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3.All ate the same supernatural food. 4. All drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Messiah. (We might add that they did tevillah by drinking from this same Rock.)
Commentary: Now that we have discovered the name referenced in Ma’asei 4:12, it is incumbent upon us to utilize this name in the rite of baptism (tevillah). For those who have already been baptized in to another’s name (ie. Jesus’ name or ‘father, son & spirit’), we see plainly that the shlichim rebaptized, and they did so by any water source available (immersion, sprinkling, pouring, splashing). Further, we have proof that tevillah may be executed long-distance.
Following is a short liturgy for tevillah / re-tevillah to be used with the bottled water you have received already in the mail in the mail.
Nazorean Siddur Tevillah
For the Long-distance Rite
Instructions: You have already received a bottle of spring water blessed by elders who have undergone tevillah in the name of Yahweh-Yahshua. You must refrigerate it until it is very cold. It will suffice for the tevillah.
Fast a meal and study the passages above. If you are not convinced of the viability of tevillah other than by full immersion, please reconsider the baptismal passages of the Ma’asei, or check the METHOD references above.
Make this a short season of teshuvah; call upon Yahweh for forgiveness and the power through Yahshua the Anointed to cease from habits that insult him. This would include prayer, meditating on appropriate texts (Yochanon 17, the Prayers of Hezekiyah or Mannashe (this is in the apocrypha), or Tehillim 51.)
Go to an appropriate place where water may be spilled without consequence. You may go outside or even stand in the tub. Make sure there is at least two witnesses with you. Make copies of the siddur for whoever is attending. If more than one is to receive, you must complete your own first, then you may go on to others however you please. Anyway you do it, consider the importance of what you are doing and approach the whole thing with reverence and expectation.
When you are ready, open your bottle and hold it. Your witness will then read through the siddur, with your assent at the appropriate times.
THE SIDDUR (short form) (pdf)
All read the bold print.
The mar shofar blows the Shevarim (threes)
Blessed are You, Yahweh our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your mitzvoth and calls us to hear the qol shofar.
One leads in the ‘invocational’ prayer.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your mitzvot and commanded us concerning tevillah ("baptism").
Amein. Halleluyah.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has judged us rightly and put us on Pathway of salvation through Yahshua haMoshiach. So with joy will we will draw forth from the springs of salvation.
Amein. Halleluyah.
Let us pray: Our father Yahweh Eloheinu, we come into your presence in the name and life of Yahshua the Anointed One with praise and thanksgiving to celebrate the tevillah and yeshuah of our {sisters / brothers etc.}. We love {him / her / them}, and desire that you establish your name in {him / her / them} and immerse {him / her / them} afresh in the Ruach haQodesh.
Halleluyah, Amein.
Then the elder questions each candidate in turn. The answer to each question is ‘yes, I do.’
1 | What is your full name?
2 |Have you turned from your chattaim (sins) and turned toward the mitzvoth of commandment keeping and good acts of faith?
3 |Name, do you totally renounce and abolish Belial, Satan, Azazel, and the activities of any other foul spirit so to live in accordance to the devarim of Yahweh your Elohim to the best of your ability?
4 |Name, Do you solemnly promise Yahweh your Elohim to devote your time, talents, gifts, and service to Yahshua haMoshiach?
5 |Do you believe and expect that, besides the favor that flows from this tevillah, you will receive the outpouring of the Ruach HaQodesh and her Shekinah?
6 |Then by the authority vested in me by the Zachenim and Moshiach of the Netzari Vero Yahad,
{now pouring the water on the head, and hearing the {qol shofar}
7 |Into the name of Yahshua b. Yahweh, receive the tevillah of water! Thus may all be right with your nephesh, basar, neshamah, and ruach. Halleluyah. (ie, soul, body, mind, spirit)
{After the water is gone, the assistant lays a hand on the head of the newly ‘dunked.’}
8 |Into the name of Yahshua b. Yahweh, receive the tevillah of the set-apart Spirit!
The candidate gives testimony.
The next candidate steps forward.
End the Siddur this way:
The Shema
The Tov Devarim: Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and present you without blemish before the presence of his Shekinah with rejoicing, to the only Ĕl, our Savior Yahshua the Anointed our Master, be esteem, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amein.
THE SIDDUR (with commentary)
Bold means leader and people where appropriate.
Plain type means the candidate will say what is written.
{Optional” If there is a mar shofar (trumpet master) in the group:
Blessed are You, Yahweh our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your mitzvoth and calls us to hear the qol shofar. {The mar shofar blows the Shevarim (threes)}
Amen.}
{Otherwise, start here:}
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your mitzvot and commanded us concerning tevillah ("baptism").
Amein. Halleluyah.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has judged us rightly and put us on Pathway of salvation through Yahshua haMoshiach. So with joy will we will draw forth from the springs of salvation.
Amein. Halleluyah.
Let us pray: Our father Yahweh Eloheinu, we come into your presence in the name and life of Yahshua the Anointed One with praise and thanksgiving to celebrate the tevillah and yeshuah of our {choose: brother, sister, son, daughter, friend). We love him / her, and desire that you establish your name in him / her and immerse him / her afresh in the Ruach haQodesh.
Halleluyah, Amein.
What is your full name?
{Candidate responds with full name.}
Name, Do you solemnly promise Yahweh your Elohim to devote your time, talents, gifts, and service to Yahshua haMoshiach?
I do.
Have you turned from your chattaim (sins) and turned toward the mitzvoth of commandment keeping and good acts of faith?
Yes, I do.
Name, do you totally renounce and abolish Belial, Satan, Azazel, and the activities of any other foul spirit so to live in accordance to the devarim of Yahweh your Elohim to the best of your ability?
I do.
Do you believe and expect that, besides the favor that flows from this tevillah, you will receive the outpouring of the Ruach HaQodesh and her Shekinah?
Yes, I do.
Then by the authority vested in me by the Zachenim and Moshiach of the Netzari Vero Yahad,
{now pouring the water on the head}
Into the name of Yahshua b. Yahweh, receive the tevillah of water! Thus may all be right with your nephesh, basar, neshamah, and ruach. Halleluyah. (soul, body, mind, spirit)
{After the water is gone, the assistant lays a hand on the head of the newly ‘dunked.’}
Into the name of Yahshua b. Yahweh, receive the tevillah of the set-apart Spirit! Halleluyah.
The candidate gives testimony.
The next candidate steps forward.
End the Siddur this way:
The Shema
The Tov Devarim: Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and present you without blemish before the presence of his Shekinah with rejoicing, to the only Ĕl, our Savior Yahshua the Anointed our Master, be esteem, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amein.
Following is a short liturgy for tevillah / re-tevillah to be used with the bottled water you have received already in the mail in the mail.
Nazorean Siddur Tevillah
For the Long-distance Rite
Instructions: You have already received a bottle of spring water blessed by elders who have undergone tevillah in the name of Yahweh-Yahshua. You must refrigerate it until it is very cold. It will suffice for the tevillah.
Fast a meal and study the passages above. If you are not convinced of the viability of tevillah other than by full immersion, please reconsider the baptismal passages of the Ma’asei, or check the METHOD references above.
Make this a short season of teshuvah; call upon Yahweh for forgiveness and the power through Yahshua the Anointed to cease from habits that insult him. This would include prayer, meditating on appropriate texts (Yochanon 17, the Prayers of Hezekiyah or Mannashe (this is in the apocrypha), or Tehillim 51.)
Go to an appropriate place where water may be spilled without consequence. You may go outside or even stand in the tub. Make sure there is at least two witnesses with you. Make copies of the siddur for whoever is attending. If more than one is to receive, you must complete your own first, then you may go on to others however you please. Anyway you do it, consider the importance of what you are doing and approach the whole thing with reverence and expectation.
When you are ready, open your bottle and hold it. Your witness will then read through the siddur, with your assent at the appropriate times.
THE SIDDUR (short form) (pdf)
All read the bold print.
The mar shofar blows the Shevarim (threes)
Blessed are You, Yahweh our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your mitzvoth and calls us to hear the qol shofar.
One leads in the ‘invocational’ prayer.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your mitzvot and commanded us concerning tevillah ("baptism").
Amein. Halleluyah.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has judged us rightly and put us on Pathway of salvation through Yahshua haMoshiach. So with joy will we will draw forth from the springs of salvation.
Amein. Halleluyah.
Let us pray: Our father Yahweh Eloheinu, we come into your presence in the name and life of Yahshua the Anointed One with praise and thanksgiving to celebrate the tevillah and yeshuah of our {sisters / brothers etc.}. We love {him / her / them}, and desire that you establish your name in {him / her / them} and immerse {him / her / them} afresh in the Ruach haQodesh.
Halleluyah, Amein.
Then the elder questions each candidate in turn. The answer to each question is ‘yes, I do.’
1 | What is your full name?
2 |Have you turned from your chattaim (sins) and turned toward the mitzvoth of commandment keeping and good acts of faith?
3 |Name, do you totally renounce and abolish Belial, Satan, Azazel, and the activities of any other foul spirit so to live in accordance to the devarim of Yahweh your Elohim to the best of your ability?
4 |Name, Do you solemnly promise Yahweh your Elohim to devote your time, talents, gifts, and service to Yahshua haMoshiach?
5 |Do you believe and expect that, besides the favor that flows from this tevillah, you will receive the outpouring of the Ruach HaQodesh and her Shekinah?
6 |Then by the authority vested in me by the Zachenim and Moshiach of the Netzari Vero Yahad,
{now pouring the water on the head, and hearing the {qol shofar}
7 |Into the name of Yahshua b. Yahweh, receive the tevillah of water! Thus may all be right with your nephesh, basar, neshamah, and ruach. Halleluyah. (ie, soul, body, mind, spirit)
{After the water is gone, the assistant lays a hand on the head of the newly ‘dunked.’}
8 |Into the name of Yahshua b. Yahweh, receive the tevillah of the set-apart Spirit!
The candidate gives testimony.
The next candidate steps forward.
End the Siddur this way:
The Shema
The Tov Devarim: Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and present you without blemish before the presence of his Shekinah with rejoicing, to the only Ĕl, our Savior Yahshua the Anointed our Master, be esteem, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amein.
THE SIDDUR (with commentary)
Bold means leader and people where appropriate.
Plain type means the candidate will say what is written.
{Optional” If there is a mar shofar (trumpet master) in the group:
Blessed are You, Yahweh our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your mitzvoth and calls us to hear the qol shofar. {The mar shofar blows the Shevarim (threes)}
Amen.}
{Otherwise, start here:}
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has sanctified us by your mitzvot and commanded us concerning tevillah ("baptism").
Amein. Halleluyah.
Blessed are you YHWH our Elohim, King of the Universe, who has judged us rightly and put us on Pathway of salvation through Yahshua haMoshiach. So with joy will we will draw forth from the springs of salvation.
Amein. Halleluyah.
Let us pray: Our father Yahweh Eloheinu, we come into your presence in the name and life of Yahshua the Anointed One with praise and thanksgiving to celebrate the tevillah and yeshuah of our {choose: brother, sister, son, daughter, friend). We love him / her, and desire that you establish your name in him / her and immerse him / her afresh in the Ruach haQodesh.
Halleluyah, Amein.
What is your full name?
{Candidate responds with full name.}
Name, Do you solemnly promise Yahweh your Elohim to devote your time, talents, gifts, and service to Yahshua haMoshiach?
I do.
Have you turned from your chattaim (sins) and turned toward the mitzvoth of commandment keeping and good acts of faith?
Yes, I do.
Name, do you totally renounce and abolish Belial, Satan, Azazel, and the activities of any other foul spirit so to live in accordance to the devarim of Yahweh your Elohim to the best of your ability?
I do.
Do you believe and expect that, besides the favor that flows from this tevillah, you will receive the outpouring of the Ruach HaQodesh and her Shekinah?
Yes, I do.
Then by the authority vested in me by the Zachenim and Moshiach of the Netzari Vero Yahad,
{now pouring the water on the head}
Into the name of Yahshua b. Yahweh, receive the tevillah of water! Thus may all be right with your nephesh, basar, neshamah, and ruach. Halleluyah. (soul, body, mind, spirit)
{After the water is gone, the assistant lays a hand on the head of the newly ‘dunked.’}
Into the name of Yahshua b. Yahweh, receive the tevillah of the set-apart Spirit! Halleluyah.
The candidate gives testimony.
The next candidate steps forward.
End the Siddur this way:
The Shema
The Tov Devarim: Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and present you without blemish before the presence of his Shekinah with rejoicing, to the only Ĕl, our Savior Yahshua the Anointed our Master, be esteem, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amein.
THE JUBILEE CALENDAR
by Mikhael Bauer
A Major Point of Contention between the Zadokite Priesthood and the Hasmonean Priesthood?
Thankfully reprinted with permission from the Qumran Bet Community site
by Mikhael Bauer
A Major Point of Contention between the Zadokite Priesthood and the Hasmonean Priesthood?
Thankfully reprinted with permission from the Qumran Bet Community site
INTRODUCTION
Halachikally the Torah Law we follow today is according to the School of Hillel. The School of Hillel and the School of Shami were so far apart that the Talmud expresses fear that the One Torah might end up as two torot ("Sanhedrin" 88b). Medrashim say that when Moshiach comes we will follow the School of Shamai. In other words, the School of Hillel will become lower, and the School of Shamai higher.
This is difficult, because "in holy things we only elevate and do not lower (maalim bakodesh veein moridim)." This is because conflicting opinions in the Torah are considered complementary rather than exclusive, and the words of both Hillel and Shamai, even though they apparently contradict each other, are considered "the words of the Living God:" "Eleh VaEleh Divei Elokim Chaiim"
This is difficult because the "Oral Tradition", now called the Mishnah or the "Oral Law", developed as a sage was assigned to teach in an Academy during Shabbat, where he expounded the Scriptural lesson. His ideas then became known to all the others and what he said became part of the stream of an Oral Tradition passed on from one to the other and from generation to generation. Later, to enforce observance of the sage's teaching, it was taught that the Oral Tradition Law was given at Sinai. It was not written down until the beginning of the Third Century CE, by Judah ha-Nasi (Judah the Prince).
This was more than a thousand years since the giving of the written Torah. The truth is that the Mishnah developed over a period of a thousand years. We surely need the Mishnah, but to say it was given at Sinai is an unacceptable stretch. The tradition of the Mishnah is vital to our understanding; but now we must consider the evidence of a tradition more than a thousand years older, and that which properly explains the words of the Torah Itself: the calendar of the Sadducees.
Halachikally the Torah Law we follow today is according to the School of Hillel. The School of Hillel and the School of Shami were so far apart that the Talmud expresses fear that the One Torah might end up as two torot ("Sanhedrin" 88b). Medrashim say that when Moshiach comes we will follow the School of Shamai. In other words, the School of Hillel will become lower, and the School of Shamai higher.
This is difficult, because "in holy things we only elevate and do not lower (maalim bakodesh veein moridim)." This is because conflicting opinions in the Torah are considered complementary rather than exclusive, and the words of both Hillel and Shamai, even though they apparently contradict each other, are considered "the words of the Living God:" "Eleh VaEleh Divei Elokim Chaiim"
This is difficult because the "Oral Tradition", now called the Mishnah or the "Oral Law", developed as a sage was assigned to teach in an Academy during Shabbat, where he expounded the Scriptural lesson. His ideas then became known to all the others and what he said became part of the stream of an Oral Tradition passed on from one to the other and from generation to generation. Later, to enforce observance of the sage's teaching, it was taught that the Oral Tradition Law was given at Sinai. It was not written down until the beginning of the Third Century CE, by Judah ha-Nasi (Judah the Prince).
This was more than a thousand years since the giving of the written Torah. The truth is that the Mishnah developed over a period of a thousand years. We surely need the Mishnah, but to say it was given at Sinai is an unacceptable stretch. The tradition of the Mishnah is vital to our understanding; but now we must consider the evidence of a tradition more than a thousand years older, and that which properly explains the words of the Torah Itself: the calendar of the Sadducees.
In even earlier times there were also two schools of thought, that of the Sadducees (the Zadokite Priesthood), and that of the Pharisees (the Hasmonean Priesthood). Both the School of Hillel and the School of Shamai are of the Pharisees, who in times past, did not consider "conflicting opinions in the Torah complementary rather than exclusive" with regard to the Sadducees. Because of error and political hatred between these two groups the Holy Temple was destroyed. In this time of the "Restitution of All Things" we must heal this error before we begin to build the Third Beit HaMikdash.
A proper analysis of the relationship between our world and that of the ancient Sadducees requires the type of thorough survey only a Torah scholar, fluent in the Hebrew language, could provide. I do not possess these tools. The paradox herein is that one possessed of the proper qualities and tools would be so steeped in negative prejudice towards an objective study, that he would be unable to pursue an investigation from an unbiased viewpoint.
It is only natural that, starting from childhood, we carry with us cultural baggage (obviously with profound historical roots) which portrays the Sadducees as enemies. As a result, this culture is usually drawn in broad, ugly strokes, identifying Sadducee culture and tradition in general with crude ideas largely unsupported by fact.
The disadvantage of such an approach is in fact twofold. Firstly, it does not enable us to get to the crux of the issue and prevents us from understanding the full significance of the conflict between the two divergent subcultures in a profound way. Turning the opponent into a "straw man" makes it easier for us to deal with him, but the real battle - in terms of faith and belief, philosophy and culture - is never addressed. "Eleh VaEleh Divei Elokim Chaiim"
In addition, erecting a wall between us and this portion of our "roots" can lead us to voluntarily cutting ourselves off from its considerable wealth.
Consider the evidence in the MMT Scroll and the Manual of Discipline. For example, the Sons of Zadok (Sadducees) maintained the tradition of the white linen garments of the priesthood even in their exile to Qumran. The wicked (Pharisee) priest of Jerusalem had forsaken Torah commandments of wearing the white linen garments of the priesthood.
In light of the current preparation for the reinstitution of the Temple Cult we must investigate all areas of the conflict between the Sadducees and the Pharisees; so that errors of the past be not repeated.
As a point of departure, I have chosen one specific subject. This aspect - one of the most central ones - in the debate between these two groups - regards the calendar: a subject which is central to Judaism to this day. In doing so the reader must realize the importance of the calendar to Judaism; and that the writer's intent is not to discredit, but that it is to properly build for the future.
In our future lies a time of Restitution. This restitution must not be built on the errors that were causes for the events of the 9th of Av and the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. Truth must survive, whatever the cost to the memory of either the School of Hillel, the School of Shamai, the Sadducees or the Pharisees. After all, the underlying truth is that these became, in the end, little more than opposing political parties using the same tools which political parties use today. In the end, they both became caricatures much like the elephant and the donkey are today. In the beginning, the first had sought spirituality for Israel; the second came to promote strong central government and legislation to fight against Hellenism.
In our future lies a time of Restitution. This restitution must not be built on the errors that were causes for the events of the 9th of Av and the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. Truth must survive, whatever the cost to the memory of either the School of Hillel, the School of Shamai, the Sadducees or the Pharisees. After all, the underlying truth is that these became, in the end, little more than opposing political parties using the same tools which political parties use today. In the end, they both became caricatures much like the elephant and the donkey are today. In the beginning, the first had sought spirituality for Israel; the second came to promote strong central government and legislation to fight against Hellenism.
Toynbee wrote in his book about Greek culture, that the cardinal sin of Greek culture - from the Christian point of view - was its humanism. Hellenism held man in high esteem and viewed the world through human lenses. Together with abandoning all the primitive feelings of fear associated with paganism, the transition to this Greek humanism had done irreparable harm to the concept of holiness to which the Sadducees held.
Within the Greek Hellenism the sense of awe - not the primitive fear of the early pagans, but true religious fear, the awe associated with "Holy, holy, holy is the Hashem of Hosts," the G-d on High - this diminished and disappeared. When we see gods as humans (only slightly more sophisticated, perhaps) or as philosophical abstractions, then there is no longer any room for a sense of fear, awe or majesty.
This led to the obliteration in Greek culture of a category fundamental to us: commandments. In our world, man sees himself first and foremost as someone who is commanded, as the bearer of a Divine mission, as carrying upon his shoulders a task which must be fulfilled. This concept is generally lacking in the classical Greek world of Plato and Aristotle, and it was to fight for this concept that the Pharisees became a political force.
It appears that the REAL justification for the Oral Law being "inspired" -- is that it teaches the lunar-solar calendar. It also appears that the REAL justification for the lunar-solar calendar -- is that it is defined in the Oral Law. When these two justifications are taken together, they offer little confidence in either. When posed the question, "Is there any REAL justification for the teaching that the Talmud (Oral Law) was given to Moses at the same time as the Torah was given? What part of the Oral Law REALLY WAS given when the Torah was given?" Rabbi Mordechai Becher and the Rabbis at Ohr Somayach Institutions, Jerusalem, give us the following answer, which confirms the above conclusion:
"Good question, which is hard to do justice to in an email piece. I suggest a book called "The Infinite Chain: Torah, Mesorah and Man" by Rabbi Natan Lopez-Cordoza. I will try to answer your question briefly - In order to even read the Written Torah which is without vowels or punctuation requires an oral tradition. In addition for emphasis, emotion, pauses and continuity as well as for legal definitions, such as Work on Sabbath, affliction on Yom kippur, life, day, etc. In other words the Torah is incomprehensible without Oral traditions. Was the author being cruel? Or did He provide additional explanations? We say that the Oral Law is the Author's explanation of the Written Law In fact, it is mentioned in the Torah itself - "And you shall slaughter your flocks and cattle... as I have commanded you" - Deuteronomy 12:21 even though nowhere in the written law is the method of slaughter explained. In addition there are a number of pieces of evidence that indicate an ancient oral tradition."
"Uniform acceptance of basic principles. (Even Karaites and Sadducees) by worldwide Jewish communities throughout history.
"Artifacts predating redaction of Mishnah. e.g. Tefilin, Mikvaot - that conform exactly to the oral law requirements. (Yadin, Qumran, Masad
c) "Septuagint's Greek translations. e.g. tashbitu = destroy (Exodus 12:15, B.T. Pesachim 21a - is usually in concurrence with the oral "day after Shabbat" (Leviticus 23:11) = "day after Passover".
Hellenistic works.
d) "Prophets accept Oral Law as given. E.g. Carrying and commerce on Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:21-22)
e) "Judah the Prince lived in the Roman Empire, most Jews live in the Persian Empire. Nevertheless the Mishnah was universally accepted.
f) "Consistency and universality of complex calendar among all communities, even without communications. And the entire calendar is based mainly on Oral tradition.
"Uniform acceptance of basic principles. (Even Karaites and Sadducees) by worldwide Jewish communities throughout history.
"Artifacts predating redaction of Mishnah. e.g. Tefilin, Mikvaot - that conform exactly to the oral law requirements. (Yadin, Qumran, Masad
c) "Septuagint's Greek translations. e.g. tashbitu = destroy (Exodus 12:15, B.T. Pesachim 21a - is usually in concurrence with the oral "day after Shabbat" (Leviticus 23:11) = "day after Passover".
Hellenistic works.
d) "Prophets accept Oral Law as given. E.g. Carrying and commerce on Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:21-22)
e) "Judah the Prince lived in the Roman Empire, most Jews live in the Persian Empire. Nevertheless the Mishnah was universally accepted.
f) "Consistency and universality of complex calendar among all communities, even without communications. And the entire calendar is based mainly on Oral tradition.
" RECENT FINDINGS At Qumran in 1947, there were apocalyptic scrolls found, and among them the Books of Jubilees and the Second Mikdash writings of Enoch I which discuss the calendar and dating system by which these people lived. Scholars had been attentive of the Apocryphal Calendar before this find, but interest was renewed with the discovery of these scrolls by which the Qumran sect lived. It is based on 364 days per year. The year is divided into four periods (to correspond to the four seasons of the year), of 13 weeks or 91 days in each period. There are 12 months in each year or a total of 52 weeks. By using this exact measure and beginning the year on the Wednesday just after the vernal equinox, the holy days fall exactly on the same day, in the same month, every year.
This calendar warrants extensive study, as there are now numerous proofs it was the calendar used by Abraham, King Solomon, King David, and High Priest Zadok in the First Holy Mikdash. A different calendar was used in the Second Commonwealth, but that Mikdash had no Presence, no Ark of the Covenant, and no means for its apostate priesthood to communicate directly with Hashem. In fact, it is recorded that 300 high priests during the second Mikdash period, died when they went into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. Something, perhaps many things, were wrong with the Second Mikdash Cult.
A team of scholars was appointed to study the scrolls in 1952. They became an elite and secretive clique. In 1991 this monopoly was effectively broken when the Huntington Library in California announced it would allow public access to its collection of Dead Sea Scrolls photographs. This was soon followed by the publication of a Facsimile Edition by the Biblical Archaeology Society in Washington, D.C. Until this time scholars previously controlling access to the Scrolls had been publicly contending that there was nothing interesting in the remaining unpublished Scrolls and nothing throwing further light on Judaism and Christianity's rise in Palestine. (The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, Professor Robert Eisenman & Michael Wise).
The Talmud does not explain this calendar exactly, but does mention the argument of the calendars between the Pharisees and Sadducees.
THE SECOND MIKDASH
The Torah tells us that as the Second Mikdash was dedicated, the joyous noises of the happy Jews were drowned out by the grief-stricken cries of those older people who remembered the glory of the Solomon's Mikdash. There was not a lot of money in Jerusalem in those years, and worse still, there were not a lot of Jews; most had decided to stay behind in the strong Torah-communities of the exile rather than face the dangers and discomfort of settling the Holy Land. As if that wasn't enough, the local political climate at the birth of the second commonwealth was far from stable. Kussim (Samaritans), struggling for the favor of the Persian king, fought physical and political battles against the fragile Jewish community. The community itself was small and at times badly weakened by ignorance of Torah's commandments and even intermarriage (Nechemiya 9, 2).
The result of all the turmoil was a Mikdash that - while grand - couldn't compare to its predecessor. How could it be otherwise? The builders literally had to go about their work with sword in one hand (Nechemiya 4,15) and tools in the other. This second Mikdash lacked the ark (it had been buried decades before the previous destruction to protect it from the hands of the enemy); the high priest had no breastplate from which to consult G-d's advice (either the stones were missing or, according to another opinion, were there, but did not light up in response to questions); there were fewer open miracles with which to see the Divine presence and the materials and architecture of the building itself were disappointing. But it was better than exile.
The fact was, the whole period of the second empire was anyway a kind of half-exile. The sages, led by the 120 members of the Anshei Knesset Hagadol (Men of the Great Assembly), actually used the years of the Second Commonwealth as a preparation for the longer exile they knew would come. It was this body which, among other things, instituted much of the siddur (prayerbook) that we have today.
These were declining years for the Jewish people. Just over the horizon lay a seemingly endless exile. The future was bleak and the world's various powers (The Persians, Greeks and Romans) would not leave the little land and its people to enjoy its present either. But for the existence of our great leaders, like Shimon Hatzadik, Shemaya and Avtalion, Hillel and Shamai and Rabbi Akiva, our people would long before have been swallowed up by the sands of time. It was only the Torah - the Torah of those leaders - that acted as a beacon in the dark night to define us as a nation and show us the path to follow.
The Torah tells us that as the Second Mikdash was dedicated, the joyous noises of the happy Jews were drowned out by the grief-stricken cries of those older people who remembered the glory of the Solomon's Mikdash. There was not a lot of money in Jerusalem in those years, and worse still, there were not a lot of Jews; most had decided to stay behind in the strong Torah-communities of the exile rather than face the dangers and discomfort of settling the Holy Land. As if that wasn't enough, the local political climate at the birth of the second commonwealth was far from stable. Kussim (Samaritans), struggling for the favor of the Persian king, fought physical and political battles against the fragile Jewish community. The community itself was small and at times badly weakened by ignorance of Torah's commandments and even intermarriage (Nechemiya 9, 2).
The result of all the turmoil was a Mikdash that - while grand - couldn't compare to its predecessor. How could it be otherwise? The builders literally had to go about their work with sword in one hand (Nechemiya 4,15) and tools in the other. This second Mikdash lacked the ark (it had been buried decades before the previous destruction to protect it from the hands of the enemy); the high priest had no breastplate from which to consult G-d's advice (either the stones were missing or, according to another opinion, were there, but did not light up in response to questions); there were fewer open miracles with which to see the Divine presence and the materials and architecture of the building itself were disappointing. But it was better than exile.
The fact was, the whole period of the second empire was anyway a kind of half-exile. The sages, led by the 120 members of the Anshei Knesset Hagadol (Men of the Great Assembly), actually used the years of the Second Commonwealth as a preparation for the longer exile they knew would come. It was this body which, among other things, instituted much of the siddur (prayerbook) that we have today.
These were declining years for the Jewish people. Just over the horizon lay a seemingly endless exile. The future was bleak and the world's various powers (The Persians, Greeks and Romans) would not leave the little land and its people to enjoy its present either. But for the existence of our great leaders, like Shimon Hatzadik, Shemaya and Avtalion, Hillel and Shamai and Rabbi Akiva, our people would long before have been swallowed up by the sands of time. It was only the Torah - the Torah of those leaders - that acted as a beacon in the dark night to define us as a nation and show us the path to follow.
SHIMON HATZADIK
One of the earliest high priests of the Second Mikdash, Shimon Hatzadik was also one of the most famous. It was Shimon who was shown the image of a holy man clothed in white every Yom Kippur as he left the holy of holies (on the fortieth year, the last of his life, the image wore black - TB Menachos 109b). It was Shimon who, throughout his term as high priest Godol, merited that the oil in the "western" cup of the menora burned longer than any other (even though it was lit last) a clear, yet daily, miracle (TB Yoma 39a).
It was a very young Shimon who, at the head of a procession of Jerusalem's sages, set out to greet the great emperor, Alexander. The Greek, as far as anyone knew, was planning to destroy Jerusalem and end what he saw as its opposition to his rule. At the head of his huge army, astride his tall horse, Alexander was not likely to give the Jews much time to plead their case. But it was the face of Shimon that inspired the king to dismount and kneel on the ground before the Rabbi. "This face," explained Alexander, "appeared to me before every battle which I won..." (TB Yoma 69a) It was Shimon who strengthened the walls of the Holy City, and with them, the hearts of the dispirited Jews who had given up everything to live near the Mikdash. Shimon Hatzadik, A Sadducee of the Line of Zadok served as High Priest for 40 years. It was he who, as much as anyone, built the foundation for Jewish life in Israel for the next four hundred years, and by extension, set the tone for Jewish life until this day yet he, too, endured a personal struggle.
One of the earliest high priests of the Second Mikdash, Shimon Hatzadik was also one of the most famous. It was Shimon who was shown the image of a holy man clothed in white every Yom Kippur as he left the holy of holies (on the fortieth year, the last of his life, the image wore black - TB Menachos 109b). It was Shimon who, throughout his term as high priest Godol, merited that the oil in the "western" cup of the menora burned longer than any other (even though it was lit last) a clear, yet daily, miracle (TB Yoma 39a).
It was a very young Shimon who, at the head of a procession of Jerusalem's sages, set out to greet the great emperor, Alexander. The Greek, as far as anyone knew, was planning to destroy Jerusalem and end what he saw as its opposition to his rule. At the head of his huge army, astride his tall horse, Alexander was not likely to give the Jews much time to plead their case. But it was the face of Shimon that inspired the king to dismount and kneel on the ground before the Rabbi. "This face," explained Alexander, "appeared to me before every battle which I won..." (TB Yoma 69a) It was Shimon who strengthened the walls of the Holy City, and with them, the hearts of the dispirited Jews who had given up everything to live near the Mikdash. Shimon Hatzadik, A Sadducee of the Line of Zadok served as High Priest for 40 years. It was he who, as much as anyone, built the foundation for Jewish life in Israel for the next four hundred years, and by extension, set the tone for Jewish life until this day yet he, too, endured a personal struggle.
CHONYO
In one of the great ironies of history, Shimon Hatzadik, one of our people's greatest teachers, seemed to have had at least one son who was somehow ignorant in Torah-matters. The Talmud (Menachos 109b) leaves us with the story of Shimon, who, nearing death, instructed his younger son, Chonyo, to take over as high priest. Chonyo, it seems, wished not to embarrass his older brother, Shimi, and gave up the position. But as the day approached for Shimi to take on his new responsibilities, Chonyo regretted his generosity. He plotted to have his brother expelled from the position - and perhaps even killed! How did he do it? Knowing that his brother knew little about the Mikdash service, Chonyo offered to instruct Shimi on the details of the induction service. "Put on these clothes," he told his older brother, handing him women's clothing, "and meet me tomorrow morning in the Mikdash courtyard." The next day, Chonyo waited with all the rest of the priests for his brother's arrival. When Shimi came, dressed as he was, Chonyo pointed and shouted: "Look at that man! He promised his wife that as a sign of his love for her, he would wear her clothes the day he became high priest!"
In one of the great ironies of history, Shimon Hatzadik, one of our people's greatest teachers, seemed to have had at least one son who was somehow ignorant in Torah-matters. The Talmud (Menachos 109b) leaves us with the story of Shimon, who, nearing death, instructed his younger son, Chonyo, to take over as high priest. Chonyo, it seems, wished not to embarrass his older brother, Shimi, and gave up the position. But as the day approached for Shimi to take on his new responsibilities, Chonyo regretted his generosity. He plotted to have his brother expelled from the position - and perhaps even killed! How did he do it? Knowing that his brother knew little about the Mikdash service, Chonyo offered to instruct Shimi on the details of the induction service. "Put on these clothes," he told his older brother, handing him women's clothing, "and meet me tomorrow morning in the Mikdash courtyard." The next day, Chonyo waited with all the rest of the priests for his brother's arrival. When Shimi came, dressed as he was, Chonyo pointed and shouted: "Look at that man! He promised his wife that as a sign of his love for her, he would wear her clothes the day he became high priest!"
The other priests chased Shimi, intending to punish him for disgracing the Mikdash. But before they could do anything, Shimi managed to figure out what had happened and told the whole story. Now the priests' attention turned back to Chonyo, the real culprit... By the time all the dust had settled, Shimon Hatzadik's brother, Eliezer, was Kohen Godol and Chonyo was in Alexandria, Egypt. Once there, Chonyo built an altar and began to attract a following among the local gentiles, his goal, to teach the people about the true worship of the One G-d. No Jew offered sacrifices on this altar as Jewish sacrifices outside of the Mikdash in Jerusalem were (and still are) strictly forbidden. Eventually, Chonyo returned to Jerusalem and took up the position of high priest he had lost so many years before. Three generations later, another Chonyo (a direct descendent of Shimon Hatzadik's son) travelled to Egypt. He too built an altar - actually a replica from the Mikdash in Jerusalem - and there Jews offered their own (forbidden) sacrifices. Such was the strange state of the Jewish community of Alexandria.
YEB
...And if you think a Jewish Mikdash in Alexandria was strange, wait 'till you hear about Yeb! Around ninety years ago, archaeologists working near the present-day site of the Aswan Dam (on the Nile River) discovered a collection of perfectly preserved papyrus letters. The letters seemed to be the correspondence of the soldiers of a Persian garrison stationed in the area towards the beginning of the Second Mikdash period. What is interesting to us, is that these paid soldiers - and their families who lived alongside them - were Jewish! They lived in the garrison town for generations, cut off from Jewish life. Reading the letters (written originally in Aramaic) we can learn a great deal about the Jewish life of the period. For one thing, these Jews had a temple dedicated to idol worship. Apparently, some Egyptian vandals destroyed their temple and the Jews applied to the Persian governor in Alexandria for permission to rebuild it. They were unsuccessful. Later they wrote to the Jewish governor in Jerusalem from whom they received the permission to do what they wanted. In another letter, the high priest in Jerusalem found it necessary to inform the people of Yeb that the festival of Passover was approaching and that it was forbidden to eat chometz for the whole week. It is hard to imagine the ignorance that plagued such Jews EVEN WHILE THE MIKDASH STILL STOOD!
...And if you think a Jewish Mikdash in Alexandria was strange, wait 'till you hear about Yeb! Around ninety years ago, archaeologists working near the present-day site of the Aswan Dam (on the Nile River) discovered a collection of perfectly preserved papyrus letters. The letters seemed to be the correspondence of the soldiers of a Persian garrison stationed in the area towards the beginning of the Second Mikdash period. What is interesting to us, is that these paid soldiers - and their families who lived alongside them - were Jewish! They lived in the garrison town for generations, cut off from Jewish life. Reading the letters (written originally in Aramaic) we can learn a great deal about the Jewish life of the period. For one thing, these Jews had a temple dedicated to idol worship. Apparently, some Egyptian vandals destroyed their temple and the Jews applied to the Persian governor in Alexandria for permission to rebuild it. They were unsuccessful. Later they wrote to the Jewish governor in Jerusalem from whom they received the permission to do what they wanted. In another letter, the high priest in Jerusalem found it necessary to inform the people of Yeb that the festival of Passover was approaching and that it was forbidden to eat chometz for the whole week. It is hard to imagine the ignorance that plagued such Jews EVEN WHILE THE MIKDASH STILL STOOD!
THE LINGERING EXILE
The majority of Jews chose not to follow Ezra up to the Holy Land to rebuild the Second Mikdash. While the communities of the exile contributed funds and resources to the project, they were noticeably missing from the shattered city. Ezra, the leader of his generation, spoke harshly about those who stayed behind and on some of them, even invoked curses. The Jewish world was much bigger than one might think:. Babylonia: (modern-day Iraq) was the main Torah community and was host to the greatest Jewish population in the world. Already at the time of the destruction of the first Mikdash, the Babylonian community was strong and ready to receive and support the new exiles. It was one of G-d's many kindnesses that He arranged for Torah leaders to be brought to Babylonia to prepare a home, decades before the mass of Jewish exiles would arrive. North Africa: To this day, the island of Djerba is home to an ancient Jewish community. Strangely enough, they are nearly all priests (kohanim, a few yisroelim and no leviim at all. Legend has it that Ezra cursed the leviim of Djerba for not going to Jerusalem when they were needed. There is also a legend that any levy who goes to Djerba, will die within a year. don't personally know anyone who's put it to the test. France: France, four hundred years BEFORE the building of the first Mikdash.
There is a tradition from the Sefer Meiros Eynayim (a commentator on Shulchan Aruch, quoted by She'eris Yisroel), that there were members of the tribe of Benjamin who escaped from the Jewish civil war - fought just one hundred years after the exodus from Egypt (see Judges, chapters 19 and 20) - and ran to France. One of the communities they founded was the famous city of Worms (Rashi's home). The Sefer Meiros Eynayim contends that one of the reasons the city of Worms suffered so badly at the hands of the medieval crusaders was because their ancestors had failed to answer Ezra's plea for immigrants to the fledgling Jewish community in Jerusalem. The hand of the old sage, Ezra, reaches far indeed.
The majority of Jews chose not to follow Ezra up to the Holy Land to rebuild the Second Mikdash. While the communities of the exile contributed funds and resources to the project, they were noticeably missing from the shattered city. Ezra, the leader of his generation, spoke harshly about those who stayed behind and on some of them, even invoked curses. The Jewish world was much bigger than one might think:. Babylonia: (modern-day Iraq) was the main Torah community and was host to the greatest Jewish population in the world. Already at the time of the destruction of the first Mikdash, the Babylonian community was strong and ready to receive and support the new exiles. It was one of G-d's many kindnesses that He arranged for Torah leaders to be brought to Babylonia to prepare a home, decades before the mass of Jewish exiles would arrive. North Africa: To this day, the island of Djerba is home to an ancient Jewish community. Strangely enough, they are nearly all priests (kohanim, a few yisroelim and no leviim at all. Legend has it that Ezra cursed the leviim of Djerba for not going to Jerusalem when they were needed. There is also a legend that any levy who goes to Djerba, will die within a year. don't personally know anyone who's put it to the test. France: France, four hundred years BEFORE the building of the first Mikdash.
There is a tradition from the Sefer Meiros Eynayim (a commentator on Shulchan Aruch, quoted by She'eris Yisroel), that there were members of the tribe of Benjamin who escaped from the Jewish civil war - fought just one hundred years after the exodus from Egypt (see Judges, chapters 19 and 20) - and ran to France. One of the communities they founded was the famous city of Worms (Rashi's home). The Sefer Meiros Eynayim contends that one of the reasons the city of Worms suffered so badly at the hands of the medieval crusaders was because their ancestors had failed to answer Ezra's plea for immigrants to the fledgling Jewish community in Jerusalem. The hand of the old sage, Ezra, reaches far indeed.
THE SADDUCEES
The name Sadducee is derived from that of Zadok, the high priest of the Jerusalem Mikdash in the time of Solomon. But what proof have we that these Zaddikim were, in fact the rightful priesthood, expelled from the Mikdash by an apostate sect? What proof have they offered to us that their laws and customs bear the mark of authenticity?
The name Sadducee is derived from that of Zadok, the high priest of the Jerusalem Mikdash in the time of Solomon. But what proof have we that these Zaddikim were, in fact the rightful priesthood, expelled from the Mikdash by an apostate sect? What proof have they offered to us that their laws and customs bear the mark of authenticity?
Proof of the Zaddikim's authenticity lies in the evidence that they were the keepers of the true implements of the Mikdash Cult from the First Temple (Mikdash). Since the time of King Solomon, virtually without interruption up until the time of the Hasmonean Revolt, the Zadokite Priests had been in control of the Jerusalem Mikdash. They trace their ancestry back to the high priest Zadok, who officiated in King Solomon's Mikdash. It was members of this group who were to become known as Sadducees to the Pharisees. In other words, the Sadducees were the priestly aristocracy, The prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 44:9-16) assigned the priestly duties exclusively to this family.
In fact, according to the T'nach, only the sons of Zadok (the Zaddikim or Sadducees) will have the right to make sacrifices in the New Mikdash; see Ezek. 40:46. This means that the Dynasty of Zadok, the First High Priest in the Mikdash, will be restored. These items would include such items as the Mikdash incense, the anointing oil of the priesthood, the ashes of the Red Heifer, and the Ark of the Covenant.
Josephus, himself a priest of the Pharisees who had no knowledge of the Oral Law being given on Mt. Sinai, relates that the Sadducees reflected the traditions of the Fathers, which seems to have been the forerunner of the Oral Law, and was also observed as law by the Pharisees. It follows then that at the time of the First Holy Mikdash, it was not taught that the Oral Law was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. On the contrary, a smaller body of law was, at that time, referred to as TRADITION. Both groups adhered to this tradition. To justify and venerate their own rulings, the Pharisees began to call their own legislation the very Word of G-d. In this way they set themselves above their vanquished foe, the Sadducees, and rewrote history. The truth, however, has come back to bite them in the form of the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Sadducees.
Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and also in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literature, focused on the unique Halakhah peculiar to the Dead Sea sect. He began his study of the legal material with is doctoral dissertation in 1974, which dealt with "The Halakhah at Qumran."
A year later, in 1975, his dissertation was published in a volume by the same name, that dealt with the "conceptual framework behind the legal material in the Qumran corpus, how the sect derived its law, and how its members perceived this process. In 1991, he was appointed to the team publishing and researching the Dead Sea Scrolls. Dr. Schiffman has the respect of his contemporaries in Dead Sea Scrolls research as evidenced by the comments of Herschel Shanks and Emanuel Tov on the cover of his recent book, "Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls". Regarding the Qumran Sect, he tells us that: "The earliest members must have been Sadducees unwilling to accept the status quo establishment in the aftermath of the Maccabean revolt. The Maccabees, by replacing the Zadokite high priesthood with their own, reduced the Zadokites to a subsidiary position for as long as Hasmonean rule lasted. Even after leaving Jerusalem, the Dead Sea sect continued to refer to its leaders as the 'Sons of Zadok'. These were indeed Sadducees who protested the imposition of Pharisaic views in the Temple under the Hasmonean priests."
From the text of the Zadokites Fragments found in the Cairo genizah, we learn that "in ancient times Israel went astray." As a result G-d "hid His face" and allowed the destruction of the First Mikdash in 586 BCE, "yet a remnant of the defeated people remained," and it was they, who ultimately formed the sect." The Sadducee sect at Qumran, by their way of life and beliefs, claimed to be this remnant and the true Israel. The text below is telling us that the sect arose from Israel (the people) and from Aaron (the priesthood).
It also presents a chronological date for the formation of the Qumran Sadducee sect: "And in the period of wrath, three hundred and ninety years after He handed it (the Mikdash) over to Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, He remembered them (Israel) and caused to grow from Israel and Aaron the root of a plant (i.e. the sect)." Zadokite Fragments 1:5-7.THE PHARISEES Modern Rabbinic Judaism is descended from the Pharisees, who appeared (by name) suddenly in history as a distinct entity during the Hasmonean period, in the time of Jonathan Maccabee (150 BCE). These "Rabbinic sources trace their history back to the 'Men of the Great Assembly', who are said to have provided the religious leadership for Israel in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods.
"When the "Pharisees appear in Hasmonean times, they are part of a governing council that serves in coalition with the Sadducees, with whom they sought to advance their vision of how the Jewish People should live and govern themselves." Encyclopedia Judaica informs us that the name Pharisee is derived from the Hebrew word "perushim"; which means "cast out". Originally the Sadducees cast the perushim out of the Sanhedrin for their heretical ideas. These "cast out" Perushim, usurped the Zadokite Dynasty with the Hasmonean Dynasty -- and only 35% of the time did they come out of the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, alive.
A year later, in 1975, his dissertation was published in a volume by the same name, that dealt with the "conceptual framework behind the legal material in the Qumran corpus, how the sect derived its law, and how its members perceived this process. In 1991, he was appointed to the team publishing and researching the Dead Sea Scrolls. Dr. Schiffman has the respect of his contemporaries in Dead Sea Scrolls research as evidenced by the comments of Herschel Shanks and Emanuel Tov on the cover of his recent book, "Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls". Regarding the Qumran Sect, he tells us that: "The earliest members must have been Sadducees unwilling to accept the status quo establishment in the aftermath of the Maccabean revolt. The Maccabees, by replacing the Zadokite high priesthood with their own, reduced the Zadokites to a subsidiary position for as long as Hasmonean rule lasted. Even after leaving Jerusalem, the Dead Sea sect continued to refer to its leaders as the 'Sons of Zadok'. These were indeed Sadducees who protested the imposition of Pharisaic views in the Temple under the Hasmonean priests."
From the text of the Zadokites Fragments found in the Cairo genizah, we learn that "in ancient times Israel went astray." As a result G-d "hid His face" and allowed the destruction of the First Mikdash in 586 BCE, "yet a remnant of the defeated people remained," and it was they, who ultimately formed the sect." The Sadducee sect at Qumran, by their way of life and beliefs, claimed to be this remnant and the true Israel. The text below is telling us that the sect arose from Israel (the people) and from Aaron (the priesthood).
It also presents a chronological date for the formation of the Qumran Sadducee sect: "And in the period of wrath, three hundred and ninety years after He handed it (the Mikdash) over to Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, He remembered them (Israel) and caused to grow from Israel and Aaron the root of a plant (i.e. the sect)." Zadokite Fragments 1:5-7.THE PHARISEES Modern Rabbinic Judaism is descended from the Pharisees, who appeared (by name) suddenly in history as a distinct entity during the Hasmonean period, in the time of Jonathan Maccabee (150 BCE). These "Rabbinic sources trace their history back to the 'Men of the Great Assembly', who are said to have provided the religious leadership for Israel in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods.
"When the "Pharisees appear in Hasmonean times, they are part of a governing council that serves in coalition with the Sadducees, with whom they sought to advance their vision of how the Jewish People should live and govern themselves." Encyclopedia Judaica informs us that the name Pharisee is derived from the Hebrew word "perushim"; which means "cast out". Originally the Sadducees cast the perushim out of the Sanhedrin for their heretical ideas. These "cast out" Perushim, usurped the Zadokite Dynasty with the Hasmonean Dynasty -- and only 35% of the time did they come out of the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, alive.
The Gemara (Yoma 9a) states that the first Holy Mikdash where the Dynasty of Zadok served and which stood for 410 years, only had 18 High Priests who served in it. Tosafot state that Divrei Hayamim (I Chronicles 5:36) itemizes only eight High Priests who served.
In the second Holy Mikdash, which abided for 420 years, more than 300 Pharisee priests served. If you subtract the 40 years which Shimeon the Righteous served, the 80 years which Yochanan the High Priest served, the 10 years which Yishmael b. Fabi served or, as some say, the 11 years of Rabbi Eleazar b. Charsum, and then count the number of High Priests from then on -- you will find that none of them completed his year in office. The Jewish Press, Friday, May 9, 1997 states: "They all died when they entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur to pray for a good year for all Jews. This happened because they were corrupt. They bought the high priestly office for money and also accepted bribes."
AN ABOMINATION THAT MAKES DESOLATE
The people were so accustomed to see the priests die that they tied a rope around them and, when they didn't walk out from the Holy of Holies, the people knew they had died and they were then pulled out, for no one else was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies.
The people were so accustomed to see the priests die that they tied a rope around them and, when they didn't walk out from the Holy of Holies, the people knew they had died and they were then pulled out, for no one else was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies.
With the release of 4QMMT ("The Halakhic Letter" from the Dead Sea Scrolls) in 1985, the Sadducees exiled to Qumran once again spoke from their graves. The letter asserts that when an upper vessel, the source of a liquid stream is pure and the lower vessel is not, if the stream connects both liquids, then the impurity is also in the upper vessel. This assertion is even found in the Mishnah: "The Sadducees say: 'We complain against you Pharisees, for you declare pure the (poured out) liquid stream'". M Yadayim 4:7. The laws regarding the Red Heifer are also explained according to the Sadducean position.
One reason for HaShem to strike dead these 300 Perushim, who usurped the Zadokite Dynasty with the Hasmonean Dynasty; was called "deliberate contamination to undermine the influence of the Sadducees". Rabbi Chaim Richman, in his book The Mystery of the Red Heifer - Divine Promise of Purity (vanity published, 1997) describes this deliberate contamination (making the High Priest unfit) before he officiated the burning of the red heifer: "...Meanwhile, the elders of Israel left the Temple earlier, and already reached the place on the Mount of Olives prior to the arrival of the priest and his entourage. They embarked across the bridge by foot, as opposed to riding, to demonstrate how much they cherished the commandment of G-d. (sic)
One reason for HaShem to strike dead these 300 Perushim, who usurped the Zadokite Dynasty with the Hasmonean Dynasty; was called "deliberate contamination to undermine the influence of the Sadducees". Rabbi Chaim Richman, in his book The Mystery of the Red Heifer - Divine Promise of Purity (vanity published, 1997) describes this deliberate contamination (making the High Priest unfit) before he officiated the burning of the red heifer: "...Meanwhile, the elders of Israel left the Temple earlier, and already reached the place on the Mount of Olives prior to the arrival of the priest and his entourage. They embarked across the bridge by foot, as opposed to riding, to demonstrate how much they cherished the commandment of G-d. (sic)
"At the Place of Burning, they await the arrival of the procession. The Mishna records that an unusual procedure took place once the priest reached them: After the entire week during which he was so carefully guarded from the slightest shadow of impurity, the elders would deliberately contaminate him! Once again, this was done on account of the serious dispute between the Sages (sic) and the Sadducees. The traditional Mosaic law which states that immersion is sufficient purification for the attending priest, and that it is unnecessary for him to wait until after sunset, was not accepted by the Sadducees. By not accepting any traditional laws, the Sadducees declared war on the system established by the G-d of Israel Himself. (sic) In order to prove and maintain the authority and authenticity of these laws, the sages were careful at such an important and public occasion as the burning of a new heifer, to undermine the seditious Saduccean influence with the greatest publicity, and in the most ostentatious manner, as possible.
"The sages (sic) of Israel placed their hands upon the priest's head. (Some opinions hold that it was by this laying of the hands that they made him impure; other authorities maintain that they touched him with some other source of impurity). To facilitate the purpose of immediate purification from this contamination (so that he would burn the heifer directly, without waiting, as per the prevailing opinion of the sages), there was a special mikveh built at this spot for the kohen to immerse himself before beginning his task. With their hands upon his head, the elders declared: 'My master, the High Priest! Immerse yourself once!'
"The priest descended into the Chamber of Immersion and purified (sic) himself, and came up and dried himself. Through this act of contamination and purification, witnessed by a large assembly in the presence of the elders of Israel, the influence of the Sadducees and their illicit, unfounded rulings was silenced. At the same time, with the exception of this necessarily deliberate device which had its emphasis on the one specific halachic point of not waiting until sunset, the hallmark of the entire procedure was purity in the highest degree (sic). The most elaborate precautions had been taken for that purpose, as we have seen throughout." (emphasis added).
Of course, all who were sprinkled from the resultant impure ashes were rendered unclean, and when the ritually impure High Priest from the usurping Hasmonean dynasty entered into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur, he was struck dead and pulled away from the Presence with a rope. This being the case, one must wonder if a prudent priesthood would venture to use the ashes from the Second Holy Mikdash; even if they were found! To do so would bring the curse which fell upon the apostate Hasmonean Dynasty.If the Third Holy Mikdash is to be built and the priesthood purified and restored: It is of major importance that the ancient Halakhah and calendar be restored, and the Priesthood and Temple worship be kept pure.
THE COPPER SCROLL
The Copper Scroll from the Qumran Community offers this proof, for researchers studying the Copper Scroll have already located The Qetoret (Mikdash Incense) found in 1992 dig:
An estimated 600 lbs. of what looked like "reddish earth" was uncovered at the North entrance of the Cave of the Column by excavation volunteers in the late Spring of 1992. Team members reported detecting the smell of cinnamon present in the substance. Preliminary analysis by Dr. Marvin Antelman of the Wiezmann Institute revealed that the find was indeed, organic. "Density indicates that the material which is lighter than water is excluded from the category of red soil or red minerals......also the high percentage of ash is typical of plant source." Dr. Antelman later told the Jerusalem Post in a story dated May 1, 1992, "I'm very excited about this find. He added that he had positively identified borit karshina (karsina lye) which is one of the ingredients spelled out in the Talmud."
The Copper Scroll from the Qumran Community offers this proof, for researchers studying the Copper Scroll have already located The Qetoret (Mikdash Incense) found in 1992 dig:
An estimated 600 lbs. of what looked like "reddish earth" was uncovered at the North entrance of the Cave of the Column by excavation volunteers in the late Spring of 1992. Team members reported detecting the smell of cinnamon present in the substance. Preliminary analysis by Dr. Marvin Antelman of the Wiezmann Institute revealed that the find was indeed, organic. "Density indicates that the material which is lighter than water is excluded from the category of red soil or red minerals......also the high percentage of ash is typical of plant source." Dr. Antelman later told the Jerusalem Post in a story dated May 1, 1992, "I'm very excited about this find. He added that he had positively identified borit karshina (karsina lye) which is one of the ingredients spelled out in the Talmud."
Recently, Dr. Terry Hutter performed a more exhaustive analysis and stated that, "the red-brown spice sample is composed of nine different and unique plants. The plants are recognizable both by pollen and organic maceral types." Dr. Hutter listed these as: Three kinds of Cinnamon, Saffron, Balsam, Myrrh, Galbanum, Cassia, and Frankincense.
The quantity of the Incense is also significant. It corresponds to the amount prepared for one year of daily Temple service. The Torah only lists four ingredients for the Qetoret. The Mishna lists eleven, in addition to Sodom salt and Karcina lye. The latter text also tells of the Avtinas family and how they were charged with the secret of compounding these precious spices. The fragrance of the Qetoret was said to be so powerful that that when it was being prepared, one could smell it as far away as Jericho, 12 miles to the north of Qumran.
Curiously, when young Muhammed edh-Dhib, discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, only two of the ten clay jars contained anything. One of the pots held the Scrolls and the other was filled with "reddish earth"; Shemen Afarshimon.
Curiously, when young Muhammed edh-Dhib, discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, only two of the ten clay jars contained anything. One of the pots held the Scrolls and the other was filled with "reddish earth"; Shemen Afarshimon.
The Shemen Afarismon, the Holy Anointing Oil, from the Holy Temple, was found in April, 1988 by the VJRI excavation team. After intensive testing by the Pharmaceutical Department of Hebrew University, financed by the VJRI, the substance inside the small juglet was verified to indeed be the Shemen Afarshimon of Psalm 133.
The oil was used as the fragrance on the oblation for a sweet smelling savor on the sacrifices. It was also used as the Holy Anointing Oil for the priest, prophets and kings.
The oil was used as the fragrance on the oblation for a sweet smelling savor on the sacrifices. It was also used as the Holy Anointing Oil for the priest, prophets and kings.
The finding of the oil was important for two reasons. It is the first item to be found from the Second Temple period and is one of the items listed among the treasures in the Copper Scroll.
On February 15, 1989, the news of the find was broken to the public by the New York Times newspaper. During the ensuing few weeks, most major news media institutions, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, carried the story on national and international television. In October, 1989, National Geographic Magazine featured the find, followed by Omni Magazine in December of the same year. Countless other news sources carried the story for their publications. Few scholars indeed have admitted the significance of this find in relation to the identity of the Qumran Community, nor have they considered the possibility these were the rightful Mikdash Priesthood. Still, Allegro makes it abundantly clear that until the first Exile, Israel observed the solar Jubilee Calendar as the Zaddikim teach (while speaking of the Qumran Community as "Essenes". -- The scrolls themselves, however, speak of the Qumran Community as the Sons of Zadok, the Zaddikim (the Righteous Ones). The Hebrew term "Zaddikim" is translated to English as "Sadducees". These were the rightful lineage of King David's anointed high priest, the Kohen Gadol.
"It is clear from the Scrolls and certain apocryphal works like the books of Jubilees and Enoch, long known but now recognized as having emanated from Essene circles, that the sectarians observed their religious festivals according to a solar-based calendar, whereas the official Temple cultus [during the Second Temple Era] was regulated according to lunar observations. It has been shown that, in fact, the Essene system was the more ancient and traditional, traceable in literature to the time of the Exile at least, and, as with so much of Essene thinking, having its roots in the very heart of the old agricultural life of ancient Israel. The official adoption of a 'new-fangled' lunar reckoning may have been no older than the later Maccabean leadership, when it seemed more important to integrate Judaism closer into the Hellenistic world... If some form of dual-calendar compromise had ever been tried, the Hellenistic lunar arrangement being followed for diplomatic and commercial purposes, and the traditional solar reckoning being maintained for cultic use, it did not apparently satisfy the purist inclinations of the Essenes" (Allegro, Myth, p. 34).
Originally, Israel reckoned time and set festivals according to the ancient solar calendar the Sumerians or Babylonians used only for astronomical purposes. This calendar was very similar to the solar calendar used by the Egyptians during Israel's 430 year captivity there. Since the Karaites and Falashas did not follow the direction of the Pharisaic school during and after the Babylonian Captivity; they retained the solar "Jubilee" Calendar. The lunar calendar originally was useful only to the Babylonians for purposes of the Babylonian Mystery-Religion. By observation of the dates in the T'nach that the ancient patriarchs labored and began journeys you may arrive at what calendar they used. Only if they were keeping the Jubilee calendar did the dates they began journeys fall on all days of the week but Shabbat. All those who observe the Rabbinic lunar calendar celebrate the High Holy Days at the wrong time.
Originally, Israel reckoned time and set festivals according to the ancient solar calendar the Sumerians or Babylonians used only for astronomical purposes. This calendar was very similar to the solar calendar used by the Egyptians during Israel's 430 year captivity there. Since the Karaites and Falashas did not follow the direction of the Pharisaic school during and after the Babylonian Captivity; they retained the solar "Jubilee" Calendar. The lunar calendar originally was useful only to the Babylonians for purposes of the Babylonian Mystery-Religion. By observation of the dates in the T'nach that the ancient patriarchs labored and began journeys you may arrive at what calendar they used. Only if they were keeping the Jubilee calendar did the dates they began journeys fall on all days of the week but Shabbat. All those who observe the Rabbinic lunar calendar celebrate the High Holy Days at the wrong time.
In fact, during the Babylonian captivity after the first Commonwealth the Jewish people abandoned not only the Hebrew Calendar and customs - but also the Hebrew Alphabet. What we today consider the Hebrew Alphabet, Customs, and Calendar - is in truth Babylonian, and Assyrian (in the case of the modern alphabet, the Ksav Ashuris: Munk, p. 233). The modern Hebrew script is called Ksav Ashuris because it is of Assyrian origin ("Sanhedrin", 21b- 22a). The Torah was first written in Ksav Ivri (Ancient Hebrew Script). It was from this ancient script the Greeks derived their alphabet. Rabbinic Judaism abandoned it to the Samaritans (calling them the Cuthites) supposedly because it was "mundane" and "ungainly" ("Sanhedrin", 21b). Even the Torah's command to wear tassels (tzit-tzit) with a thread of blue is by and large ignored today. Only a few orthodox Jews have begun again to wear the tekhelet.
But regarding the calendar, the Torah teaches the sun is to govern "their appointed days" and the moon, the season. The days are determined by the travel of the sun's annual circuit through the 6 gates of the eastern horizon.
"It was an ancient custom among the Israelites to observe the new moon as a semi-festival, because the moon, being of dark substance and having to receive light from another planet, reflects the fate of Israel in this world (Fisch, p. 161). Obadiah Ben-Jacob Sforno (1475-1550) showed this to be the reason for "your"(Num. 28:11) in relation to the new moon and not to other festivals, and is undoubtedly the original "justification" used for adopting the Babylonian lunar calendar - which must have existed alongside Moshe's "Jubilee" calendar until into the Hasmonean Dynasty.
Notice that Moshe was instructed to give no changes to the then extant calendar, other than when the new year was to begin. At the time they left Egypt, after their 430 year sojourn there, they could have been using no other calendar than the Solar Calendar. Since this calendar was accurate, certainly much more so than the Babylonian lunar calendar (remember that the Babylonians used the solar calendar for astronomical purposes), Torah did not institute another. The Egyptian calendar was solar in nature, with 12 months of 30 days and five intercalary days added.
The Encyclopedia of Religion And Ethics records that even into the 9th Century C.E. remaining Zaddikim observed Solar months of 30 days, similar to this Egyptian Solar Calendar. The Zaddikim (called the Sadducees in the English Bible) were a sect formed of Priests, merchants, and aristocrats. Their name derives from Zadok, the high priest in the days of King David. Y'chezkel (Ezekiel 40:46; 43:19 & 44:10-15) selected this family as worthy of being entrusted with the control of the Mikdash. They were the conservative priestly group, holding to the older doctrines.
The Qumran Community, composed of these Zaddikim observed the Solar Jubilee Calendar.
Moshe had been educated as a prince in Egypt. His knowledge of the solar calendar was evidently passed to his brother Aharon; and this knowledge remained with Aharon and the priesthood. Egypt kept a year of 365 days. Every four years this calendar would fall one day short of the solar cycle. The Jubilee (solar) calendar, with 364 days, would fall five days short in the same period of time. However by observing the Biblical command concerning when to begin the year, this calendar would remain correct - and the High Holy Days would fall on the same day of the week every year.
The Qumran Community, composed of these Zaddikim observed the Solar Jubilee Calendar.
Moshe had been educated as a prince in Egypt. His knowledge of the solar calendar was evidently passed to his brother Aharon; and this knowledge remained with Aharon and the priesthood. Egypt kept a year of 365 days. Every four years this calendar would fall one day short of the solar cycle. The Jubilee (solar) calendar, with 364 days, would fall five days short in the same period of time. However by observing the Biblical command concerning when to begin the year, this calendar would remain correct - and the High Holy Days would fall on the same day of the week every year.
Originally then, it seems observation of the New Moon was not for the purpose of determining the calendar - but only so that the New Moons might be observed as Hashem had instructed.
Even the Mishna ("Tosefta Nazir") acknowledges the existence of the solar year and sets its length at 364 days. Jehuda the Persian, in the 9th Century CE, wrote that the Jews "had always reckoned by solar months (Sachau, p. 69). This would seem to indicate Israel was doing exactly as Babylon: reckoning the year by the solar calendar, but using a lunar calendar for religious purposes.
Even the Mishna ("Tosefta Nazir") acknowledges the existence of the solar year and sets its length at 364 days. Jehuda the Persian, in the 9th Century CE, wrote that the Jews "had always reckoned by solar months (Sachau, p. 69). This would seem to indicate Israel was doing exactly as Babylon: reckoning the year by the solar calendar, but using a lunar calendar for religious purposes.
"The distinguished scholar Geza Vermes has written 'To the (Qumran) Community this (the Lunar calendar) was an abomination of the Gentiles and directly counter to the certain Law from the mouth of G-d. It had itself (the Qumran Community) inherited, probably from priestly circles, a solar calendar based on the laws of the Great Light in heaven (Gen. 1:14) in which the year was divided into fifty-two weeks exactly; into, that is to say, four seasons of thirteen weeks'" (Pfeiffer, p. 75; Levy, 1983). Hebrew University Professor S. Talmon's book, "The World of Qumran from Within," contains a table outlining the Jubilee solar calendar, which, unlike the lunar calendar of Rabbinic Judaism, is remarkable for its regularity. Professor Talmon shows the first day of the New Year always falls on Wednesday. This meant that the Day of Atonement always fell on a Friday; Sukkot on a Wednesday; Pesach on a Wednesday; and the Feast of Weeks on a Sunday. Shemaryahu Talmon. The World of Qumran from Within (Jerusalem, 1989).
Found among the other scrolls at Qumran were the Book of Jubilees (Sefer Yobel) and the Book of Enoch; both of which explain the Hebrew version of the solar calendar. Until these scrolls were found at Qumran they had been only extant in the Ethiopic and Greek, since the early 1800's. The Temple Scroll from Qumran affirms that this was the calendar used by the Community; besides being the calendar used by the Zaddikim (Sadducees). The Encyclopedia Judaica advises that the Falasha Jews use the calendar of the Book of Jubilees, and base their ritual observances on it (Vol. 10, p. 326). Kenneth A. Strand (Strand, pp. 33-45) advances persuasive arguments that "the 364 days fixed solar 'priestly' calendar... could well have been adopted by a segment of early (messianic Jews)." Since Shavuot/Pentecost always falls on "Sunday" on this calendar, Strand sees a possible inference in some gentile minds for the observance of "Sunday."
If we can consider the Book of Jubilees as midrash, as it was undoubtedly intended, we find that the solar calendar consisted of 364 days, divided into four seasons of three months each, thirteen weeks to a season. Each month had thirty days, with one day intercalated for each of the four seasons. There were exactly fifty-two weeks in the year, the first day of the first month always falling on Wednesday. Thus the festivals would always recur on exactly the same day of the week each year.
The year began on the fourth day of the week (Wednesday) because it was explicitly written in the opening chapter of Genesis: "And Elohim said, 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years...' And it was so... And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day" (vs. 14-19). A traditional explanation for beginning each year and season on the 4th day of the week is found in the Talmud ("Rosh Hashanah" 11a): according to tradition the world was created in the (first month - Abib), and as the recognized era is reckoned from that event, an attempt was made to calculate the date of the conjunction which began the first month of Abib. The result arrived at was 4d, 9h, 642p,... i.e. Wednesday, 3h. 35'40" after midnight.
So then, the ancient Hebrews, believing the first day of the first year would have begun on the 4th day of the week - began each calendar year on this day of the week. When Ex. 34:18; 9:31 is observed no calculation is necessary, since observance of the barley each spring would keep the calendar in proper season and initiate one intercalated week approximately each Sabbatical and Jubilee year. The Jubilee year then, begins on "Wednesday" and always ends on "Tuesday."
The only annual changes to this calendar would be the lunar phases, which would simply be affixed to the "Jubilee" calendar as they are to the Julian calendar today - making the "Jubilee" calendar preferable to the calendar commonly in use today all over the world.
One might compare this with the present Rabbinical calendar, which only 40% of the time honors its own rule of being a lunar calendar because of these "postponements":
A. "Yom Kippur can not precede or follow a weekly Shabbat.
B. The last feast day of Sukkot can not fall on Shabbat.
C. Pesach can fall only on the 2d, 3d, 6th, or 7th day of the week."
A. "Yom Kippur can not precede or follow a weekly Shabbat.
B. The last feast day of Sukkot can not fall on Shabbat.
C. Pesach can fall only on the 2d, 3d, 6th, or 7th day of the week."
These postponements (dehioth) dictate that the months will not begin on the exact day of the New Moon. In other words the Rabbinical calendar is based not on the moon or Torah. It is based on the Babylonian Mystery-Religion, and on the Talmud, compiled by the Pharisees.
The Zaddikim taught that the four quarters of the Solar- Jubilee Calendar are the four seasons of change in climate and vegetation; that the universe moves in perfect numerical harmony; and that any other reckoning of the year is wrong. They stressed that there are exactly 52 (4 x 13) weeks in the year, and that those who use a lunar calendar observe the Festivals on the wrong dates. They also taught that Shavuot is the 15th of the third month. This date on the Jubilee calendar always falls on the first day of the week. Also, the first and last days of Pesach are always the 4th day of the week.
The Pharisees and rabbis today understand "Sabbath" with regard to the counting of the Omer, as referring to first festival of Passover. Hence count began on 16th day of first month, but not on a specific day of week. Therefore Shavuot would fall on sixth day of third month, but not on a specific day of week.
Samaritans understood the "Sabbath" to always be the Saturday within and ending the Passover week while using the Jubilee Calendar. The fifty-day count began on Sunday, the 26th and Shavuot turned out to be always on Sunday, the 15th day of third month.
Rabbis, following the tradition of the Pharisees emphasized that the Omer should be harvested even on the Sabbath. The Pharisees would stage an elaborate ceremony as follows:
"[When the sheaf was harvested] on the Sabbath he would say to them: Is today the Sabbath? and they would respond: Yes! Is today the Sabbath? and they would respond: Yes! Should I harvest it? And they would respond: Harvest it! Should I harvest it? And they would respond: Harvest it! Each item would be repeated three times. Why so much? Because of the Boethusians who used to claim that the harvest of the sheaf was not on the morrow of the festival." (Mishnah Menahot 10:3).
"[When the sheaf was harvested] on the Sabbath he would say to them: Is today the Sabbath? and they would respond: Yes! Is today the Sabbath? and they would respond: Yes! Should I harvest it? And they would respond: Harvest it! Should I harvest it? And they would respond: Harvest it! Each item would be repeated three times. Why so much? Because of the Boethusians who used to claim that the harvest of the sheaf was not on the morrow of the festival." (Mishnah Menahot 10:3).
Physical Evidence of Priestly Use of the Jubilee Calendar
The antiquity of the Jubilee Calendar is proven by the 7th Century BCE plaque shown in Biblical Archaeology Review (March-April, 1983, p. 37). This smooth bone plaque measures just over two inches long and one inch wide. Evidently a peg was moved each day of the month from one to the next of the 30 holes arranged in three rows of ten holes each. In the fourth row of 12 holes, another peg would be moved to mark off the beginning of each month. The last day of the first three quarters or seasons was marked by a peg within the Proto-Aeolic capital at the top of the plaque. Similar plaques have been found at other sites in Israel.
The antiquity of the Jubilee Calendar is proven by the 7th Century BCE plaque shown in Biblical Archaeology Review (March-April, 1983, p. 37). This smooth bone plaque measures just over two inches long and one inch wide. Evidently a peg was moved each day of the month from one to the next of the 30 holes arranged in three rows of ten holes each. In the fourth row of 12 holes, another peg would be moved to mark off the beginning of each month. The last day of the first three quarters or seasons was marked by a peg within the Proto-Aeolic capital at the top of the plaque. Similar plaques have been found at other sites in Israel.
Until Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, "Christianity" was considered to be merely another Jewish sect - observance of "Easter" was tied to the date of the "Jewish Passover." The Jews in Palestine employed the year count of the Seleucids, calling it Minyan Shetaroth (Count for Contracts). Those in the Diaspora awaited the arrival of messengers from Palestine with news of the determinations of the Sanhedrin each year before they could proclaim the annual calendar. The Gentile Christians had to wait to be told each year (by the Jews) when to observe "Easter."
The Missing 187 Years
The Rabbinic calendar of today belongs to the same family of calendars as those of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians. All three stem from the much earlier calendar of the Sumerians - the people of southern Mesopotamia (today's Iraq) who developed Man's first known high civilization nearly 6,000 years ago. These calendars were used for religious purposes, as the sun and the moon were worshipped in ancient Mesopotamia. For astronomical purposes they relied on a second calendar, the solar or astronomical calendar (Parise, 1982).
Abraham, the first Hebrew Patriarch, migrated to Canaan from Ur - a metropolis which in his time was the royal capital of the Sumerian empire. In his days, Nippur, the religious-scientific center, had been established for many years; and was one of the main centers of moon worship. Zecharia Sitchin (linguist and biblical scholar) suggests that by calling himself Ibri ("Hebrew") Abraham simply identified himself as one born in Nippur, whose Sumerian name was Ni-Ibru -- "The Watered Place of Crossing". It was there, scholars have found, that one of Mankind's first calendars, the Nippur calendar, was devised and introduced 3760 BCE. It became standard during the golden age of ancient Babylon under Hammurabi (New Catholic Encyclopedia; Vol. 2, p. 1068).
The Rabbinic calendar of today belongs to the same family of calendars as those of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians. All three stem from the much earlier calendar of the Sumerians - the people of southern Mesopotamia (today's Iraq) who developed Man's first known high civilization nearly 6,000 years ago. These calendars were used for religious purposes, as the sun and the moon were worshipped in ancient Mesopotamia. For astronomical purposes they relied on a second calendar, the solar or astronomical calendar (Parise, 1982).
Abraham, the first Hebrew Patriarch, migrated to Canaan from Ur - a metropolis which in his time was the royal capital of the Sumerian empire. In his days, Nippur, the religious-scientific center, had been established for many years; and was one of the main centers of moon worship. Zecharia Sitchin (linguist and biblical scholar) suggests that by calling himself Ibri ("Hebrew") Abraham simply identified himself as one born in Nippur, whose Sumerian name was Ni-Ibru -- "The Watered Place of Crossing". It was there, scholars have found, that one of Mankind's first calendars, the Nippur calendar, was devised and introduced 3760 BCE. It became standard during the golden age of ancient Babylon under Hammurabi (New Catholic Encyclopedia; Vol. 2, p. 1068).
Rabbinic years had no sequential number until the Eighth Century, CE. But the Jewish year corresponding to 1987 bore the number 5747. 5747 years since what? The traditional answer is: "Since the world was created." But we know that Earth and the solar system came into being billions of years ago. Actually, Rabbi Hillel worked through the calendar backward, from year one of the Common Era. Working out the complex calculations without the benefit of computers, he concluded the First of "Tishri" of the "first year" occurred 4,119 years earlier - in the year 3760 BCE. It was supposedly the number of years that had passed since the count of years had begun in ancient Babylon.
It was in reaction to the steps taken at the Council of Nicaea, and the new challenges facing the Jews of the time as a result, that the Sanhedrin, under the presidency of Rabbi Hillel (the Second), fixed and released to all the Jewish communities a permanent calendar (the Mundi Calendar). Along with that, the count of years was also determined. It was called Minyan Olam, "The Worldly Count". The word or connotation of Creation does not appear at all until the tenth century, in the writings of Rabbi Sherira.
In recent studies it has become evident that the Rabbinic (or Mundi Calendar) is off by a considerable number of years. It is a well known fact, for instance, that the First Mikdash was destroyed in 586 BCE and the Second Mikdash was consecrated in 516 BCE, and destroyed in 70 CE. The Second Mikdash, therefore, stood 585 years (not 586), while according to Jewish chronology, it stood only 420 years (See Yoma 9a and Yerushalmi Megilah I, 12). According to the Seder Olam and Ab. Zar. 9a, during the Second Commonwealth the Persians reigned 34 years, the Greeks 180, the Hasmoneans 103 and the Romans 103 years, which gives us a total of 420 years, a difference of 165 years. This mistake seems to lie in the time of the Persians which was much longer than 34 years (Edgar Frank: Talmundic and Rabbinical Chronology: The Systems of Counting Years in Jewish Literature; Feldmheim Publishers, NY, Jerusalem, p. 9).
This accusation is not difficult to check. The Babylonian exile ended in 538 B.C.E. with Cyrus' edict allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Mikdash. This date is supported by Ptolemy's Canon which recorded the occurrence of lunar eclipses during the Nabonasser Era, and which is verified by computerized astronomy. According to the Jewish calendar this was in the year 3410 AM (Aryeh Carmell: Aids to Talmud Study; 4th Ed., V. IX: The Roman Republic; 133-44 BC; Pompey's Later Campaigns, p. 382).
The following calculation will demonstrate the problem:
1987 CE + 538 BCE = 2525 years 5748 AM - 3410 AM = 2338 years 2525 yrs. - 2328 yrs. = 187 yrs. difference in the calendars
The following calculation will demonstrate the problem:
1987 CE + 538 BCE = 2525 years 5748 AM - 3410 AM = 2338 years 2525 yrs. - 2328 yrs. = 187 yrs. difference in the calendars
The Persians, Greeks and Romans were all foreign rulers. The Hasmoneans were Jewish rulers of the priestly class, but not of the line of Zadok. They also ruled as tyrants. Rabbinic sources as well as Flavius Josephus described them as tyrants who oppressed the people of the Second Commonwealth. It is not surprising to find them listed here among foreign rulers. The duration of each rule, from beginning to end, is what is recorded here, not the length of time that the Second Mikdash stood.
The Persian rule began with Cyrus' capture of Babylon in 538 BCE. Greek rule began with Alexander's conquest of the region in 333 BCE. Judas Maccabee took over the rebellion against the Syrio-Grecian Empire in 166 BCE. The Romans first extended their influence over the region when Pompey took Jerusalem in 63 BCE. By applying this information to the data recorded above we arrive at some very interesting results:
538-Cyrus - 34 yrs. = 504 BCE 333-Alexander - 180 yrs. = 153 BCE 166-Hasmoneans - 103 yrs. = 63 BCE 63-Romans + 103 yrs. = 40 CE
538-Cyrus - 34 yrs. = 504 BCE 333-Alexander - 180 yrs. = 153 BCE 166-Hasmoneans - 103 yrs. = 63 BCE 63-Romans + 103 yrs. = 40 CE
It is interesting that the end of the Hasmonean Era matches the beginning of the Roman Era. According to this record the Roman rule ended in 40 CE. However, it was in the spring of 41 CE that Emperor Claudius restored rule of Judea and Samaria to Agrippas I (The Cambridge Ancient History; 3d ed., V IX: The Roman Republic; 133-44 BC; Pompey's Later Campaigns, p. 382). Agrippas, unlike his grandfather King Herod, enjoyed the support of his countrymen and the rabbinate.
The solution to this enigma lies in the manner in which the rule of a king was calculated. Or, more important, when that rule was considered to have begun.
The rule of a Jewish king always began on the first of Nissan, which was the New Year of the Kings (Yom Teruah). This was in accordance with Exodus 12:2, "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you..." A foreign rule (which is what we are considered to be under today) was counted from the first of Tishri (Rosh Hashanah 2a).
The Mishna states in Rosh Hashanah Chapter 1, Mishna 1: There are four new years. On the first of Nisan is the New Year for Kings and for Festivals; on the first of Elul is the New Year for the tithe of animals - R. Eliezer and R. Simon say, on the first of Tishri - on the first of Tishri is the New Year for the years, for Sabbatical Years, for Jubilee Years, for planting and for vegetables; and on the first of Shevat is the New Year for Trees, according to the view of the School of Shammai, but the School of Hillel say, on the fifteenth thereof.
It was Annias who changed Rosh HaShanah to the 1st day of the 7th month as it remains on the Rabbinic calendar today. This was the disputation between the writer of the MMS Document found at Qumran against the ruling Pharisee Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Babylon and many other contemporary cultures reckoned the Autumn Equinox as the first day of the 7th month, as the beginning of the year. Other more ancient calendars, however, agreeing to that stated in Exodus 12:2, reckoned the Spring Equinox as the New Year.
The Jewish scribes used what is today called an antedating, non-accession system of reckoning regal years. In this system, if a king began to rule before the first of Nissan, even by only one day his second year began that New Year of the Kings. Since the Roman Era was considered to have ended in 40 CE, then he must have come to power before the first of Nissan; and thereby, was accredited with all of the preceding year.
The Hasmonean Era is here calculated from the beginning of the career of Judas Maccabee in 166 BCE. However, the Grecian Era did not end until 153. The wars of the Maccabeans were brought to a close by a League of Friendship between Jonathan of Judah and Bacchides (Josephus: Complete Works; translated by William Whiston, A.M.; Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 1982. Book XIII, Chapter I, part 6). Bacchides was commander of the forces of Demetrius I, a son of Antiochus Epiphanes, who ruled from 162 to 150 BCE. Here we find the date 153 for that pact of nonaggression.
The Second Mikdash was consecrated in the sixth year of Darius I (Ezra 6:15) which is identified as 516 BCE. What could have happened in 504 to give it special importance to the Rabbinic chroniclers?
In Ptolemy's Canon a Lunar eclipse is recorded as having taken place on Sept. 19, 503 BCE. This was the 246th year of the Nabonassar Era and the 20th year of Darius I (Edwin R. Thiele: The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings; The University of Chicago Press; 1955, Appendix H). According to the Jewish system of reckoning the rule of a foreign king, Darius I began his 20th year in the fall of 504. The only Biblical text that could possibly be linked to this date is Nehemiah's arrival in Jerusalem in the 20th year of Artaxerxes (Nehemiah 2:1). When discussing the Persians one comes across many problems. Not least among these is the number of honorary names given their kings. For more information on this subject see the commentary on Rosh Hashanah 2a (Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's) and on the Books of Nehemiah, Ezra and Esther. The dates of Nehemiah and Ezra are still unclear and hotly debated by scholars.
In 504 the Jewish people began an Era of Independence under the Great Sanhedrin. This lasted for 171 years, or until Alexander entered Jerusalem. A second period of self-rule began 40 CE under Agrippas I. His son, Agrippas II, was a puppet-king. The harsh realities of the remaining years of the Second Mikdash were those of tyrannical Roman rule. What is implied here is that these chronological notations preserved in the Seder Olam, were made during the life time of Agrippas I. Since the remaining 30 years are not recorded, the indications are that this may well be part of the Mikdash archives thought destroyed when it was burned by Titus.
What of the missing 187 years?
From the beginning of the Persian rule in 538 until the rebuilding of the Mikdash in 516, there had passed 22 years. From the rebuilding of the Mikdash until independence in 504, there had passed 12 years. The period of the Great Sanhedrin lasted for 171 years. The Greeks dominated the region for 167 years. The Maccabean wars lasted for 13 years. The Hasmoneans were in full control for 90 years. The Romans ruled for 103 (Sivan 63 BCE to Nissan of 40 CE). From the beginning of Agrippas I's rule to the destruction of the Second Mikdash in 70 CE, there had passed 30 years.
From the beginning of the Persian rule in 538 until the rebuilding of the Mikdash in 516, there had passed 22 years. From the rebuilding of the Mikdash until independence in 504, there had passed 12 years. The period of the Great Sanhedrin lasted for 171 years. The Greeks dominated the region for 167 years. The Maccabean wars lasted for 13 years. The Hasmoneans were in full control for 90 years. The Romans ruled for 103 (Sivan 63 BCE to Nissan of 40 CE). From the beginning of Agrippas I's rule to the destruction of the Second Mikdash in 70 CE, there had passed 30 years.
The full amount of time covered here is 607 years. If you take from this the 420 years that the rabbis of the Middle Ages mistakenly thought accounted for the period, then a difference of 187 years is discovered.
Since the current Jewish year is determined by adding 3760 to the secular year between January 1st and Rosh Hashanah, and 3761 between Rosh Hashanah and January 1st: the Jubilee calendar year would be determined by adding the numbers 3947 or 3948 (respectively). 5760 should have been 5948.
Each jubilee period consists of seven "weeks" of years, and naturally each of the weeks includes seven years. When dating events the Book of Jubilees almost always specifies the number of the jubilee, the week, and the year in which it occurred. The year, though solar, has only 364 days, not 365 and a fraction. The solar year of 364 days has certain obvious advantages: every date occurs on the same day of the week each year because 364 is precisely divisible by seven, and each year begins on the same week day. In the calendar that later became normative in Judaism, the holidays move through the days of the week, sometimes occurring on the Sabbath, while in the Jubilees calendar they never migrate. Thus, there never arises a conflict regarding which laws take precedence - those of the Sabbath or those of a festival that happens to fall on the Sabbath in a particular year. Several of the Dead Sea Scrolls employ the same calendar. This was one of the causes why the Qumran Community eventually separated from Jerusalem in mid second century B.C.E.
The Book of Jubilees and those in the Qumran insisted the celebration of festivals whose origins the Torah traces to the time of Moses, were in fact practiced by even Noah and Abraham. One significant example is Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks), which occurs fifty days after Pesach (Passover). Jubilees states it was not Moses and his contemporaries who first celebrated the holiday; rather, it was Noah and his sons who did so after the flood waters had dried from the earth. Moreover, though Noah and his sons were the first humans to mark the occasion, the festival had actually been celebrated since creation in the heavenly world. When Moses and the Israelites came along, they were merely renewing a holiday that had been neglected for some time (Jubilees 6:17-22) and entering a covenant on the anniversary of earlier pacts with Hashem. The same holds true for Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement. Further, there is every reason to believe that the author of the Book of Jubilees was himself a priest -- as were the whole community -- the rightful Holy Mikdash priesthood.
Jubilees appears to have been written in a time much like those years in Germany when Jews were raising questions about the laws which made their way of life different from that of all other peoples. Those years gave birth to the "Reform" and "Conservative" movements in Judaism. First Maccabees, which describes events that happened in the 170s-130s B.C.E., reports that some Jewish people wished to discard their legal system for one that more nearly aligned itself with the practices of the nations with whom they came into contact. Their case, if it resembled an approach that seems to have been popular elsewhere in the Hellenistic period, was that there had once been a time of legal purity or innocence for their people but that it had ended when the national lawgiver imposed narrow, ethnic rules on his people. It may be that the Jewish opponents of the traditional Mosaic laws wanted to return to what they surmised were the simpler conditions of patriarchal times, when great Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not celebrate the festivals, follow kosher law, or encumber the Sabbath with a multitude of crimping laws. All of that came only later, when Moses appeared on the scene. Would it not be better to imitate Abraham's practice and thus remove those barriers separating Jew from gentile?
Jubilees refutes this viewpoint and argues that if one reads Genesis properly it shows that the special Jewish practices did not arise in a later time but can be traced to earliest days - to the eras of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those who wished to imitate the ancestors would simply find themselves behaving in those distinctive ways which always differentiated the Hebrew people from gentiles. There was no pristine period of simple worship; Moses continued what had been in place long before. If the numerous copies of Jubilees in their library are any evidence, it certainly appealed to the priests at Qumran who wrote and copied the Dead Sea Scrolls. It also caught the fancy of some Christian groups who may have had strong legal interests and who appreciated how it supplemented the information in Genesis and Exodus.
Jubilees refutes this viewpoint and argues that if one reads Genesis properly it shows that the special Jewish practices did not arise in a later time but can be traced to earliest days - to the eras of Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those who wished to imitate the ancestors would simply find themselves behaving in those distinctive ways which always differentiated the Hebrew people from gentiles. There was no pristine period of simple worship; Moses continued what had been in place long before. If the numerous copies of Jubilees in their library are any evidence, it certainly appealed to the priests at Qumran who wrote and copied the Dead Sea Scrolls. It also caught the fancy of some Christian groups who may have had strong legal interests and who appreciated how it supplemented the information in Genesis and Exodus.
The rediscovery of this book in relatively recent times has thus revealed ancient debates and approaches to the biblical text. Jubilees illustrates the kind of milieu from which the community of the Dead Sea Scrolls was to take its inspiration when its leaders decided to separate from normal Jewish society and form an isolated community in the Judean wilderness. It suggests that those in the Qumran Community were strict interpreters of the law, avid students of scripture, and a group who looked eagerly to the final divine intervention in human affairs.
Recently Ze'ev Ben-Shahar obtained his doctorate in Philosophy with his thesis on "The Calendar of the Judean Desert Sect" wherein his confirms that the Jubilee calendar is the same as the "Apocrypha" or Jubilee Calendar. It may be seen from his thesis, that not only does the correct time for the keeping of the Feasts depend on the Solar Calendar; but only through use of this calendar does the third tithe support the keeping of the Sabbatical Year.
When Did The Year 5757 Begin In The Jubilee Calendar?
Disregarding the 165 year discrepancy this is the year 5757 in the Torah Jubilee Calendar (March 26, 1997, through March 24, 1998 by our present day "CE" dating). Last year was the 19th year of that 19-year rhythmic cycle used in the solar/lunar system.
Disregarding the 165 year discrepancy this is the year 5757 in the Torah Jubilee Calendar (March 26, 1997, through March 24, 1998 by our present day "CE" dating). Last year was the 19th year of that 19-year rhythmic cycle used in the solar/lunar system.
New Year (Rosh Hashanah) in the Jubilee Calendar always begins at sunset on the Tuesday evening following the vernal equinox, March 22. That is the day of the earth's turning point in its elliptic orbit around the sun. So, March 26, 1997 is the first day of the first month in the Torah Jubilee Year 5757. The Solar year always ends at sunset on the Tuesday following the vernal equinox. Once in about each 6 years an extra week is added to the old year. The insertion of this special week among 12 months, based on observation of barley crops in Israel aligns the monthly circuit with the solar year. This relationship is significant for achieving an annual monthly calendar that is usable year in and year out.
There are four Jewish "new years" representing the beginning of each of the four seasons: spring equinox, summer solstice, fall equinox, and the winter solstice. These are designated in the Jubilee Calendar by the added 31st day to the third month of each season. The meaning of the word Equinox is midway, half way, center, or Median of the year. The first day of the seventh month is specified as Yom Teruah a "Day of Blowing [Trumpets]" in Leviticus 23:24. It is half way through the year starting from just after the vernal equinox in March. It was not, however, to be considered the beginning of the year or Rosh Hashanah in the Torah reckoning of years, but rather the "new year" of the third season.
The Departure of The Presence of Shechinah from Israel
The writers of the Copper Scroll were Shimur HaLevi, Hizkiyah, Zekiyah, Haggai the Prophet and Zacharia the Son of Ido the Prophet. They wrote the Copper Scroll in the Jewish Year 3331 or 2,425 years ago. These men, under the command of Jeremiah (II Maccabees 2: 1-6), had removed the treasures of the Holy Mikdash 22 years before its destruction and hidden them in the Year 3331. Ezekiel had his vision of "The departure of the Presence of Shechinah, the Glory, of the L-RD from Israel" in the Year 3332. [See Eliezer Shulman's "Sequence of Events in the Old Testament" page 135].
The writers of the Copper Scroll were Shimur HaLevi, Hizkiyah, Zekiyah, Haggai the Prophet and Zacharia the Son of Ido the Prophet. They wrote the Copper Scroll in the Jewish Year 3331 or 2,425 years ago. These men, under the command of Jeremiah (II Maccabees 2: 1-6), had removed the treasures of the Holy Mikdash 22 years before its destruction and hidden them in the Year 3331. Ezekiel had his vision of "The departure of the Presence of Shechinah, the Glory, of the L-RD from Israel" in the Year 3332. [See Eliezer Shulman's "Sequence of Events in the Old Testament" page 135].
The Shechinah, the Glory of HaShem, never returned to Israel. It was one of the 10 things in the First Holy Mikdash that was absent in the Second Mikdash. According to the "records" mentioned in II Maccabees 2:1-8, the Glory of HaShem will return after the Mishkan (Tabernacle) is recovered and raised-up.
"It is also found in the records that the prophet Jeremiah ordered those who were carried away to take some of the fire, as has been described, and that after giving them the Law, the prophet charged those who were carried away not to forget the L-rd's commands, and not to be led astray in their minds when they saw gold and silver idols and their ornamentation. And with other similar exhortations, he told them that the Law should not pass from their hearts. It was also in the writing that the prophet, in obedience to a revelation, gave orders that the tent and the ark should accompany him, and that he went away to the mountain where Moses went up and beheld Hashem's inheritance. And Jeremiah came and found a cave-dwelling, and he took the tent and the ark and the incense altar into it, and he blocked up the door. And some of those who followed him came up to mark the road, and they could not find it. But when Jeremiah found it out, he blamed them and said, "The place shall be unknown until Hashem gathers the congregation of his people together and shows his mercy. Then the L-rd will show where they are, and the glory of the Lord will appear, as they were shown in the days of Moses, and when Solomon asked that the place might be made very sacred." (II Maccabees 2:1-8)
These Prophets who hid the first Mishkan (Tabernacle) followed the Torah Jubilee Calendar. Half a millennium later, the people who lived at Qumran, also used the Jubilee Calendar. In fact, there were 18 copies of the Book of Jubilees found at Qumran. Until the Qumran discovery of these scrolls of the Book of Jubilees in Hebrew, we only had them written in the Coptic Ethiopian language. The MMS document found at Qumran deals explicitly with the issue of the Jubilee Calendar and the Lunar Calendar.
But in Jerusalem, in the Mikdash, the Glory was gone. "The force of vitality for the Jewish Soul is the great yearning for the building of the Beit HaMikdash and returning its splendor, with the purpose of ideal perfection. Only this expectation elevates the spirit of all generations to know that there is an exalted purpose to their lives and a historical continuation. In this high point is hidden the Tree of Life of the connection of the Nation to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), and all the commandments dependent on the Land, however they apply, guard the moisture of this fundamental dew." (Ginzei HaReiyah, p. 154)
Will the ancient Jubilee Calendar be used by the priests when the building of the Beit HaMikdash takes place? From the evidence, this writer believes it is imperative. Further, it is the "time" for rabbinical Judaism (the descendants of the Pharisees who changed the calendar) to begin the "restoration" of all these things. The Sons of Zadok (Sadducees) can not, they have all been laid to rest.
But in Jerusalem, in the Mikdash, the Glory was gone. "The force of vitality for the Jewish Soul is the great yearning for the building of the Beit HaMikdash and returning its splendor, with the purpose of ideal perfection. Only this expectation elevates the spirit of all generations to know that there is an exalted purpose to their lives and a historical continuation. In this high point is hidden the Tree of Life of the connection of the Nation to Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel), and all the commandments dependent on the Land, however they apply, guard the moisture of this fundamental dew." (Ginzei HaReiyah, p. 154)
Will the ancient Jubilee Calendar be used by the priests when the building of the Beit HaMikdash takes place? From the evidence, this writer believes it is imperative. Further, it is the "time" for rabbinical Judaism (the descendants of the Pharisees who changed the calendar) to begin the "restoration" of all these things. The Sons of Zadok (Sadducees) can not, they have all been laid to rest.
How is the Year of Jubilee Determined?
We are told that a year of Jubilee occurred in 5752 or 1992-1993. If true and according to the Torah, the land would be returned to its original tribal inheritance. The Torah portion for the counting the Jubilee years is in Leviticus 25. There are several opinions among the rabbis when they should occur. Some teach the 15th and 65th year of each century in the Jewish Calendar was a Jubilee. There are, however, several opinions about the reckoning of the Jubilee. We learn from Joshua 4:19 that Joshua and Israel entered the Promised Land on the 10th day of the first month in the year 2449.
We are told that a year of Jubilee occurred in 5752 or 1992-1993. If true and according to the Torah, the land would be returned to its original tribal inheritance. The Torah portion for the counting the Jubilee years is in Leviticus 25. There are several opinions among the rabbis when they should occur. Some teach the 15th and 65th year of each century in the Jewish Calendar was a Jubilee. There are, however, several opinions about the reckoning of the Jubilee. We learn from Joshua 4:19 that Joshua and Israel entered the Promised Land on the 10th day of the first month in the year 2449.
In Leviticus 25:2, "... when you come into the land which I give you...", seems to indicate that the counting of the Shmittah or Sabbatical years should begin on the 49th year and the and seven years succeeding, on the 55th year would be the first Sabbatical Year.
Then in Leviticus 25:8-11, "And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years to thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths shall be to thee forty nine years. Then shalt thou cause the shofar to sound on the 10th day of the 7th month, on the Day of Atonement shall ye sound the Shofar throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the 50th year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants: it shall be a Jubilee for you; and you shall return every man to his possession, and you shall return every man to his family. A jubilee shall that 50th year be to you...."
Since we entered the land on the 10th day of the 1st month in the year 2489, some have assumed that the counting of the sabbatical year and the Jubilee would start on that year. However, they spent seven years at Gilgal in the conquest of the land, and another seven years in dividing the land to the tribal heirs. They did not enter into the "possession of the land" until fourteen years later in the year 2502. That was the first year of the counting of the seven years as the first sabbatical (shmittah) year.
Seven sabbatical years later, or the 49th year would be the year 2551. The following year was the Jubilee in 2552. The following year 2553 was the 1st year of the sabbatical year counting. Therefore, the 2nd and the 52nd year of each century would be sabbatical years. Thus, the year 5052 would have been our 19th Jubilee.
In actuality a Jubilee can not be observed today because there is no Mishkan (Tabernacle) or Mikdash (Temple). Moreover, the Urim and Thummim have not been recovered. So no priest can stand with the Urim and Thummim to determine exactly to which Tribe each head of an Israelite family belongs. Therefore, the Jubilee cannot be observed until those hidden treasures are returned which are the things described in the Copper Scroll.
Before the Holy House (actually, the Mishkan with the Ark and Ashes of the Red Cow, etc.) can be returned, there must be at least a symbolic return of the observant Jewish people to the Land of Israel for Torah reasons and not for mere political Zionist motivations. Within Israel, there must also be at least a symbolic and serious turning of the Israelis to Hashem and His Torah.
Before the Holy House (actually, the Mishkan with the Ark and Ashes of the Red Cow, etc.) can be returned, there must be at least a symbolic return of the observant Jewish people to the Land of Israel for Torah reasons and not for mere political Zionist motivations. Within Israel, there must also be at least a symbolic and serious turning of the Israelis to Hashem and His Torah.
That first symbolic return of the Jews to the Land of Israel for Torah reasons really only began to happen in the years from 1984 to the present. This return was greatly the result of the efforts of Menechem Begin.
The Present Influence of Rome
By what calendar do we calculate what year this is? When did this year's calculation presently begin? Also, it is imperative to compute The New Year, the Sabbatical years and Jubilees according to the Jubilee Solar Calendar.
The most difficult thing for most of us is to completely divorce ourselves from the BCE and CE or BC and AD Calendar. One has the same problem in trying to learn the metric system. One must forget inches, feet, yards and miles. Until we do we will always be confused in our minds and unable to think metric freely. I never contemplate about what the BC or BCE date is.
Let me explain why.
Today we reckon time by three different calendars. We have the Christian Calendar, the traditional Lunar Jewish Calendar and the Jubilee Torah Calendar based on the Sun and Zodiac.
By what calendar do we calculate what year this is? When did this year's calculation presently begin? Also, it is imperative to compute The New Year, the Sabbatical years and Jubilees according to the Jubilee Solar Calendar.
The most difficult thing for most of us is to completely divorce ourselves from the BCE and CE or BC and AD Calendar. One has the same problem in trying to learn the metric system. One must forget inches, feet, yards and miles. Until we do we will always be confused in our minds and unable to think metric freely. I never contemplate about what the BC or BCE date is.
Let me explain why.
Today we reckon time by three different calendars. We have the Christian Calendar, the traditional Lunar Jewish Calendar and the Jubilee Torah Calendar based on the Sun and Zodiac.
We are accustomed to the Christian system of reckoning dates using the Gregorian Calendar. This system was established by Pope Gregory XIII, in the year 1582. England, by the way, did not adopt this new calendar until 1752. Another change wrought by this new method was to mark January 1st as the beginning of the New Year. The monks computed time based on the year that they thought to be the birth of Christ. They designated that year as the year "0". The year before was Before Christ, or the year "0" was the year "1" BC. Whereas, the year after "0" was the year "1" Anno-Domini AD "1". This means from BC "1" plus the year "0" plus AD "1" is three years. Some church historians just add the 2+2=4 years.
These monks were better theologians than they were mathematicians, astronomers or historians. In view of mathematics, there was no year "0". If there was a year zero then it was a year nothing --zero -- happened. History and astronomy have no account of a year zero. So then, would the years BC "1" and AD "1" equal only two years?
No! If their system were logical (and it is not), the year one is the year "1". The Year "1" is neither BC nor AD. The year "2" BC would be the year before the year "1" and "2" AD would be the year after "1". Hence there is only one year between BC "2" and AD "2". Not four, not three, not two -- but only one year!
If the monk's time transit was off by two, three, or four years from zero degrees in the pivotal triangulation point, how much discrepancy would accumulate through the centuries both BC and AD? It took several centuries for them to acknowledge that: "Jesus was actually born four years Before Christ."
Now let us look briefly at the traditional Jewish Lunar/Solar Calendar
And they, teachers of lies and seers of falsehood, Have schemed against me a devilish scheme, To exchange [Thy] Law engraved on my heart by Thee For the smooth things (which they speak) to Thy people. And they withhold from the thirsty the drink of Knowledge, And assuage their thirst with vinegar, That they may gaze on their straying, On their folly concerning their feast days, On their fall into their snares. (1QH 4:9-12; p. 175)
This Calendar was adopted during the Hasmonean period. It was introduced by the High Priest Hannan, or Annias. He changed the months from the simple Biblical numerical designations of the 1st month, the 2nd month, and so on, to the names of the Babylonian months. The names of the Babylonian months were the names of the pagan Babylonian gods. We have like designations for the pagan names of the months and days of the week in the Christian System.
Hannan also changed Rosh Hashanah (New Year) from the first month that begins at Aviv, the Spring month, to the seventh month at the Autumn Equinox. The word, 'equinox' means equidistant, halfway or middle. The 7th month, Tishri, is the beginning month half way through the year from the 1st month of Aviv in the Spring.
Therefore, the New Year in the Jubilee Calendar is 6 months after the New Year in the Lunar Calendar.
Therefore, the New Year in the Jubilee Calendar is 6 months after the New Year in the Lunar Calendar.
The MMS document found at Qumran brings 24 charges against the Upper Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. Several of these charges relate to the use of the Lunar rather than the Solar Jubilee Calendar used in biblical times. Among those charges is the allegation that the Torah is very specific that the first day and the first month of the year is the Spring Equinox, or the month of Aviv (Spring) is the beginning of the year to the Nation of Israel. Exodus 12:2; "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. The first month of the year [Rosh Hashanah] shall it be unto you."
One can easily see the point of dissension that the writer of the MMS Document made against the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. The Lunar system requires the addition of 7 extra months in each 19 year cycle to keep it at least close to the Solar system.
In Genesis 1:14-18 and 8:22 the sun, moon and stars were set in their order to govern the earth.
The Sun was set to determine days and years. The sun is called the "Day Star". Since the sun is a star in the Galaxy, it is also sequenced to the Zodiac. The Moon was consigned to govern the night, seed-time and the harvest.
The Sun was set to determine days and years. The sun is called the "Day Star". Since the sun is a star in the Galaxy, it is also sequenced to the Zodiac. The Moon was consigned to govern the night, seed-time and the harvest.
The Stars, [Zodiacs or the 12 constellations] were designated to govern the signs and seasons. In Genesis 8:22, [after the flood], the Zodiac also controlled "Heat and Cold" which literally means "Warmth and Cool", [Spring and Autumn] and "Summer and Winter."
Babylon and many other contemporary cultures reckoned the Autumn Equinox as the first day of the 7th month, as the beginning of the year. Other more ancient calendars, however, agreeing to that stated in Exodus 12:2, reckoned the Spring Equinox as the New Year -- the Zodiac Sign of Aries (the Lamb) having fully entered into the Gate of the Sun, is the beginning of the Torah Jubilee year.
Annias [Hannan] changed Rosh Hashanah to the 1st day of the 7th month as it remains until today. This was the disputation between the writer of the MMS Document found at Qumran against the ruling Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.
300 Hundred High Priests Died keeping Yom Kippur by the Lunar Calendar
The Gemara (Yoma 9a) states that the first Holy Mikdash (Temple), which stood for 410 years, only had 18 High Priests who served in it. Tosafot state that Divrei Hayamim (I Chronicles 5:36) itemizes only eight High Priests who served.
The Gemara (Yoma 9a) states that the first Holy Mikdash (Temple), which stood for 410 years, only had 18 High Priests who served in it. Tosafot state that Divrei Hayamim (I Chronicles 5:36) itemizes only eight High Priests who served.
After the Babylonian captivity the Jews carried back with them the Babylonian solar/lunar calendar and used it to determine the dates for high Holy Days. A small bit of math, along with recorded history, reveals a startling fact:
"In the second Mikdash (temple), which abided for 420 years, more than 300 High Priests served. If you take off therefrom the 40 years which Shimeon the Righteous served, the 80 years which Yochanan the High Priest served, the 10 years which Yismael b. Fabi served or, as some say, the 11 years of Rabbi Eleazar b. Charsum, and then count the number of High Priests from then on -- you will find that none of them completed his year in office. They all died when they entered the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur" [by the "lunar" reckoning] "to make the atonement and pray for a good year for all Jews. This happened because they were corrupt. They bought the high priestly office for money and also accepted bribes." (Rabbi Sholom Klass, The Jewish Press, p. 5, May 9, 1997.)
"The people were so accustomed to see the priests die that they tied a rope around them and, when they didn't walk out from the Holy of Holies, the people knew they had died and they were then pulled out, for no one else was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies."
Qumran documents suggest that the founder of the sect (the Teacher of Righteousness) fled Jerusalem over calendar question. One of the "crowning accomplishments" of the Second Mikdash era High Priesthood was when the "high priest" there actually attacked the "Teacher of Righteousness" (who was probably the rightful high priest) in the Qumran Community, on what was the true (Jubilee Calendar) Yom Kippur. Since not even an apostate high priest would consider such a deed on the date he observed Yom Kippur, it is obvious that the two communities were observing Yom Kippur on different dates -- while using different calendars.
The Restoration of All Things
Then Hashem will heal His servants. They will rise and see great peace, He will expel their enemies. The Zaddikim [Righteous, Sadducees] will see (this), offer praise, and be very happy forever and ever. They will see all their punishments and curses on their enemies. Their bones will rest in the earth and their spirits will be very happy. They will know that Hashem is the One who executes Judgment but shows kindness to hundreds and thousands and to all who love Him. (Jubilees 23:30-31). One might ask "Why do the Rabbis not go back to the Original Jubilee Torah Calendar?" They answer that the Lunar Calendar was established by the recognized Sanhedrin of that day. No rabbi or group of rabbis have authority to change a decision of that Sanhedrin. They cannot change it even if that Sanhedrin was wrong! Today, many rabbis do hold that when the Messiah comes and the Third Holy Mikdash and Sanhedrin are reestablished, the Torah Jubilee Calendar will be restored. Perhaps it is time to begin using this calendar now.
Then Hashem will heal His servants. They will rise and see great peace, He will expel their enemies. The Zaddikim [Righteous, Sadducees] will see (this), offer praise, and be very happy forever and ever. They will see all their punishments and curses on their enemies. Their bones will rest in the earth and their spirits will be very happy. They will know that Hashem is the One who executes Judgment but shows kindness to hundreds and thousands and to all who love Him. (Jubilees 23:30-31). One might ask "Why do the Rabbis not go back to the Original Jubilee Torah Calendar?" They answer that the Lunar Calendar was established by the recognized Sanhedrin of that day. No rabbi or group of rabbis have authority to change a decision of that Sanhedrin. They cannot change it even if that Sanhedrin was wrong! Today, many rabbis do hold that when the Messiah comes and the Third Holy Mikdash and Sanhedrin are reestablished, the Torah Jubilee Calendar will be restored. Perhaps it is time to begin using this calendar now.
The Lord said to My Lord
The Truth about Psalm 110
By
James Scott Trimm
The Truth about Psalm 110
By
James Scott Trimm
In the Book of Matthew we read:
41 Now while the P'rushim were assembled, Yeshua asked them, saying:
42 How seems it to you concerning the Messiah? Whose Son is He? And they said to
Him, He is the Son of David.
43 But He said to them: And how then spoke David, by the Ruach HaKodesh calling
Him, My Adon, saying,
44 YHWH said to my Adon: Sit you on My right hand, until I make Your enemies
the footstool of your feet?
45 If David then calls Him, My Adon: how is He his son?
46 And they could not return Him a word: neither did any man wish again to question
Him further from that day.
(Matthew 22:41-46 HRV)
41 Now while the P'rushim were assembled, Yeshua asked them, saying:
42 How seems it to you concerning the Messiah? Whose Son is He? And they said to
Him, He is the Son of David.
43 But He said to them: And how then spoke David, by the Ruach HaKodesh calling
Him, My Adon, saying,
44 YHWH said to my Adon: Sit you on My right hand, until I make Your enemies
the footstool of your feet?
45 If David then calls Him, My Adon: how is He his son?
46 And they could not return Him a word: neither did any man wish again to question
Him further from that day.
(Matthew 22:41-46 HRV)
Here Yeshua cites Psalm 110 which reads (in its entirety):
1 A Psalm of David. (110:1) YHWH says unto my Adon: Sit you at My right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The rod of Your strength, YHWH will send out of Tziyon. Rule you in the midst of
your enemies.
3 Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your warfare; in adornments of Set-Apartness: from the womb of the dawn, yours is the dew of your youth.
4 YHWH has sworn, and will not repent: You are a cohen forever after the manner of
MalkiTzadek.
5 YHWH, at your right hand, does crush kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He will judge among the nations: He fills it with the dead bodies. He crushes the head
over a wide land.
7 He will drink of the brook in the way: therefore will he lift up the head.
(Ps. 110:1-7 HRV)
until I make your enemies your footstool.
2 The rod of Your strength, YHWH will send out of Tziyon. Rule you in the midst of
your enemies.
3 Your people offer themselves willingly in the day of your warfare; in adornments of Set-Apartness: from the womb of the dawn, yours is the dew of your youth.
4 YHWH has sworn, and will not repent: You are a cohen forever after the manner of
MalkiTzadek.
5 YHWH, at your right hand, does crush kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He will judge among the nations: He fills it with the dead bodies. He crushes the head
over a wide land.
7 He will drink of the brook in the way: therefore will he lift up the head.
(Ps. 110:1-7 HRV)
Yeshua identifies himself as the Messiah as being the “my Adon” who YHWH speaks to in verse 1.
The Midrash Tehillim (Midrash on Psalms) identifies the “My Adon” of Psalm 110:1 as Messiah. According to the Midrash Tehillim:
The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit you at My right hand.
To the Messiah it will also be said,
and in mercy the throne be established;…
(Midrash Tehillim on Ps. 110:1)
Sit you at My right hand.
To the Messiah it will also be said,
and in mercy the throne be established;…
(Midrash Tehillim on Ps. 110:1)
Tovia Singer and other anti-missionaries (and others who question the deity of Messiah) insist that the “my Adon” of this passage is not YHWH.
However this identification is based on one of the “Tikkun Soferim”, the “emendations of the scribes” (See my recent article “How the Anti-Missionaries Misrepresent the Text”
http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-anti-missionaries-m... )
http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-anti-missionaries-m... )
While in verse 5 the Masoretic Text has “Adonai”, this is one of 134 places where the Masoretic Text reads “Adonai” but which the Masorah indicates that the text originally read “YHWH” and had been altered by the scribes in an attempt on their part to clarify the text. A copy found at the Cairo Geniza also has “YHWH” here.
The scribes changed YHWH to Adonai in verse 5 because they did not want you to “mistakenly” identify the “My Adon” on the right hand of YHWH in verse 1 with the “YHWH” on the right and in verse 5.
As Jeremiah warns us:
8 How do you say, We are wise, and the Torah of YHWH is with us? Behold, certainly
in vain, has wrought the vain pen of the scribes.
9 The wise men are ashamed; they are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected
the word of YHWH, and what wisdom is in them?
(Jer. 8:8-9 HRV)
in vain, has wrought the vain pen of the scribes.
9 The wise men are ashamed; they are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected
the word of YHWH, and what wisdom is in them?
(Jer. 8:8-9 HRV)
Tovia Singer’s argument is based on an admittedly altered text. Singer elsewhere condemns those who “mess with” the text, yet here his entire argument is based on a text that was admittedly altered to prevent it from saying what it actually says.
Verse 5 tells us that the “Adon” on the right is also “YHWH”. The original reading of Psalm 110:5 identified the Adon on the right hand of YHWH as YHWH.
The Zohar make it clear that the “My Adon” of Psalm 110:1 is YHWH. According to the Zohar in this verse one aspect of the Godhead is speaking to another aspect of the Godhead:
Rabbi Simeon further gave an exposition of the verse:
The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand
Until I make your enemies your footstool (Ps. 110:1)
“The Lord says unto my Lord”:
to wit, the upper grade [of the Godhead],
said to the lower [grade of the Godhead],
“sit at My right hand”,…
(Zohar 1:50b)
The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand
Until I make your enemies your footstool (Ps. 110:1)
“The Lord says unto my Lord”:
to wit, the upper grade [of the Godhead],
said to the lower [grade of the Godhead],
“sit at My right hand”,…
(Zohar 1:50b)
Verse 4 of Psalm 110 identifies this figure as “Melchizadek.” This Melchizadek figure was especially important to the Essenes. One document found at Qumran commonly called the Melchizadek document (11Q13) deals with this Melchizadek figure. This document quotes from Isaiah 61:1 but substitutes “Melchizadek” for YHWH. The document goes on to call this Melchizadek figure both “El” and “Elohim” and to identify him with the Messiah who is “cut-off’ in Dan. 9:27:
(...) And concerning what Scripture says, "In this year of Jubilee you shall return, everyone f you, to your property" (Lev. 25:13) And what is also written; "And this is the manner of the remission; every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because God`s remission has been proclaimed" (Deut.15:2) the interpretation is that it applies to the Last Days and concerns the captives, just as Isaiah said: "To proclaim the Jubilee to the captives" (Isa. 61:1) (...) just as (...) and from the inheritance of Melchizedek, for (... Melchizedek), who will return them to what is rightfully theirs. He will proclaim to them the Jubilee, thereby releasing them from the debt of all their sins. He shall proclaim this decree in the first week of the jubilee period that follows nine jubilee periods. Then the "Day of Atonement" shall follow after the tenth jubilee period, when he shall atone for all the Sons of Light, and the people who are predestined to Melchizedek. (...) upon them (...) For this is the time decreed for the "Year of Melchizedek`s favor", and by his might he will judge Elohim`s holy ones and so establish a righteous kingdom, as it is written about him in the Songs of David ; "An ELOHIM has taken his place in the council of EL; in the midst of the ELOHIM he holds judgment" (Ps. 82:1). Scripture also says about him; "Over it take your seat in the highest heaven; A divine being will judge the peoples" (Ps. 7:7-8) Concerning what scripture says ; " How long will you judge unjustly , and show partiality with the wicked? Selah" (Ps. 82:2), the interpretation applies to Belial and the spirits predestined to him, because all of them have rebelled, turning from Elohim`s precepts and so becoming utterly wicked. Therefore Melchizedek will thoroughly prosecute the vengeance required by Elohim`s statutes. Also, he will deliver all the captives from the power of Belial, and from the power of all the spirits destined to him. Allied with him will be all the "righteous ELOHIM"(Isa. 61:3). (The ...) is that whi(ch ...all) the ELOHIM.
The visitation is the Day of Salvation that He has decreed through Isaiah the prophet concerning all the captives, inasmuch as Scripture says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion "Your ELOHIM reigns"." (Isa. 52:7) This scriptures interpretation : "the mountains" are the prophets, they who were sent to proclaim Elohim`s truth and to prophesy to all Israel. "The messengers" is the Anointed of the spirit, of whom Daniel spoke; "After the sixty-two weeks, an Anointed shall be cut off" (Dan. 9:26) The "messenger who brings good news, who announces Salvation" is the one of whom it is written; "to proclaim the year of YHWH`s favor , the day of the vengeance of our Elohim; to comfort all who mourn" (Isa. 61:2) This scripture’s interpretation: he is to instruct them about all the periods of history for eternity (... and in the statutes) of the truth. (...) (.... dominion) that passes from Belial and returns to the Sons of Light (....) (...) by the judgment of God, just as t is written concerning him; "who says to Zion "Your ELOHIM reigns" (Isa. 52:7) "Zion" is the congregation of all the sons of righteousness, who uphold the covenant and turn from walking in the way of the people. "Your ELOHIM" is Melchizedek, who will deliver them from the power of Belial. Concerning what scripture says, "Then you shall have the trumpet sounded loud; in the seventh month . . . " (Lev. 25;9)
(11Q13 Col. 2)
(11Q13 Col. 2)
The Book of Hebrews in an extended homiletic Midrash on Psalm 110 which also identifies Messiah with this Melchizadek figure.
Philo makes a very interesting comment concerning the Torah command of the cities of refuge (Num. 35:6-28; Josh. 20:1-9). The Torah says:
And the assembly shall deliver the manslayer, out of the hand of the avenger of
blood, and the assembly shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he was fled. And he
shall dwell therein until the death of the High Priest, who was anointed with the Set-
Apart oil.
(Numbers 35:25)
blood, and the assembly shall restore him to his city of refuge, where he was fled. And he
shall dwell therein until the death of the High Priest, who was anointed with the Set-
Apart oil.
(Numbers 35:25)
Philo makes an interesting observation on this passage, he writes:
The fourth and last of the points which we proposed to discuss, is the appointing as a period for the return of the fugitives the death of the high priest, which, if taken in the literal sense, causes me great perplexity; for a very unequal punishment is imposed by this enactment on those who have done the very same things, since some will be in banishment for a longer time, and others for a shorter time; for some of the high priests live to a very old age, and others die very early, and some are appointed while young men, and others not until they are old. And again of those who are convicted of unintentional homicide, some have been banished at the beginning of the high priest's entrance into office, and some when the high priest has been at the very point of death. So that some are deprived of their country for a very long time, and others suffer the same infliction only for a day, if it chance to be so; after which they lift up their heads, and exult, and so return among those whose nearest relations have been slain by them. This difficult and scarcely explicable perplexity we may escape if we adopt the inner and allegorical explanation in accordance with natural philosophy. For we say that the high priest is not a man, but is the Word (Logos) of God, who has not only no participation in intentional errors, but none even in those which are involuntary.
(On Flight 106-108)
(On Flight 106-108)
Elsewhere he writes:
XXVI. (82) But Melchisedek shall bring forward wine instead of water, and shall give your souls to drink, and shall cheer them with unmixed wine, in order that they may be wholly occupied with a divine intoxication, more sober than sobriety itself. For the Word is a priest, having, as its inheritance the true God, and entertaining lofty and sublime and magnificent ideas about him, "for he is the priest of the most high God."{38}{Genesis 14:18.} Not that there is any other God who is not the most high; for God being one, is in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath, and there is no other besides Him."{39}{Deuteronomy 4:39.} But he sets in motion the notion of the Most High, from his conceiving of God not in a low and grovelling spirit, but in one of exceeding greatness, and exceeding sublimity, apart from any conceptions of matter.
("De Allegoriis Legum," iii. 26).
("De Allegoriis Legum," iii. 26).
Moreover Philo taught the “Word” (Logos) and the Messiah are one and the same:
"The head of all things is the eternal Word (Logos) of the eternal God, under which, as if it were his feet or other limbs, is placed the whole world, over which He passes and firmly stands. Now it is not because Messiah is Lord that He passes and sits over the whole world, for His seat with His Father and God but because for its perfect fullness the world is in need of the care and superintendence of the best ordered dispensation, and for its own complete piety, of the Divine Word (Logos), just as living creatures (need) a head, without which it is impossible to live."
(Q&A on Exodus, II, 117)
(Q&A on Exodus, II, 117)
Philo thus concludes that the Messiah is the Word and the true High. If we follow Philo’s logic through, then through the death of the Messiah, these exiles are set free.
The “My Adon” of Psalm 110:1 is the Messiah. He is the Melchizadek figure, the heavenly High Priest of Ps. 110:4. And he is the YHWH on the right hand in Ps. 110:5.
This ministry has had the courage to dare to be different. We proclaim that Yeshua came to be the Jewish Messiah of Judaism and we pick no bones about making no claims to being Christians. And this puts us in a much better and authentic position to reach Jewish people with Messiah.
The Apostles’ Creed
1. I believe in the Father Elohim El Elyon, progenitor of sky and earth:
2. And in Yahshua Moshiach, his only begotten son, our master:
3. Who was conceived by the Ruach ha Qodesh, born of Almah Marya,
4. suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. (He descended into sheol.)
5. The third day he arose from the dead.
6. He ascended into the sky to be seated at the right hand of the Father Elohim El Elyon.
7. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
8. I believe in the Ruach ha Qodesh.
9. I believe in the qadosh universal assembly - the communion of zaddikim.
10. I believe in the forgiveness of sins –
11. The resurrection of the body –
12. And the life l’olam va-ed.
Amein.
Community Rule
(“Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association”)
1QS, 4Q55-264a, 5Q11
Based on Wise, Abegg & Cook
1. I believe in the Father Elohim El Elyon, progenitor of sky and earth:
2. And in Yahshua Moshiach, his only begotten son, our master:
3. Who was conceived by the Ruach ha Qodesh, born of Almah Marya,
4. suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. (He descended into sheol.)
5. The third day he arose from the dead.
6. He ascended into the sky to be seated at the right hand of the Father Elohim El Elyon.
7. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
8. I believe in the Ruach ha Qodesh.
9. I believe in the qadosh universal assembly - the communion of zaddikim.
10. I believe in the forgiveness of sins –
11. The resurrection of the body –
12. And the life l’olam va-ed.
Amein.
Community Rule
(“Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association”)
1QS, 4Q55-264a, 5Q11
Based on Wise, Abegg & Cook
Bypassing the several rules of the community codified in this document, the devout reader is drawn to the kindness, wisdom, and humility of the Teacher of Righteousness, whose soliloquies pepper the document.
Other presentations of this text is accessed here:
The Teacher’s Scroll
A scroll belonging to [the Teacher, who is to teach the] Qadoshim[1] how to live according to the book of the Yahad's Rule.[2] He is to teach them to seek Elohim with all their heart and with all their soul, to do that which is good and upright before Him, just as He commanded through Moshe and all His servants the prophets. He is to teach them to love everything He chose and to hate everything He rejected, to distance themselves from all evil and to hold fast to all good deeds; to practice truth, justice, and righteousness in the land, and to walk no longer in a guilty, willful heart and lustful desires. Through such, they did every evil thing.
He is to induct all who volunteer to live by the laws of Elohim unto the Covenant of Mercy, so as to be joined to Elohim's society and walk faultless before Him, according to all that has been revealed for the times appointed them. He is to teach them both to love all the Children of Light—each commensurate with his rightful place in the council of Elohim—and to hate all the Children of Darkness, each commensurate with his guilt and the vengeance due him from Elohim.
All who volunteer for His truth are to bring the full measure of their knowledge, strength, and wealth into the Yahad of Elohim. Thus will they purify their knowledge in the truth of Elohim's laws, properly exercise their ability according to the perfection of His ways, and likewise their wealth by the set-rules[3] of His righteous counsel. They are not to deviate in the smallest detail from any of Elohim's words, even as they apply to the volunteer’s own time. They are neither to advance their sacred seasons nor to postpone any of their prescribed festivals. From His inerrant laws, they will turn aside neither to the right nor the left.
The Ritual of Blessing or Damning the Initiant[4]
All who enter the Yahad's Rule will be initiated into the Covenant before Elohim, agreeing to act according to all that He has commanded and not to backslide because of any fear, terror, or persecution that may occur during the time of Belial's dominion.[5] While the initiants are being inducted into the Covenant, the priests and the Levites will continuously bless the Elohim of deliverance for all His authentic acts. All the initiants into the Covenant will continuously respond, “Amein, amein.”
The priests are to rehearse Elohim's gracious acts made manifest by mighty deeds, heralding His loving mercies on Israel’s behalf. The Levites in turn will rehearse the vile acts of the children of Israel, all their guilty transgressions and sins committed during the dominion of Belial. All the initiants into the Covenant are to respond by confessing,
“We have been vile, transgressed, and [sinned]. We have been evil—we and our fathers before us—walking [in rebellion to the laws] of truth and righteousness, [so Elohim] has judged us, both we and our fathers. Yet He has also succored us with the loving acts of His mercy, long ago and for ages to come.”
Then the priests are to bless all those destined to Elohim, who walk faultless in all of His ways, saying
“May He bless you with every good thing and preserve you from every evil. May He enlighten your mind with wisdom for living, be gracious to you with the knowledge of enduring things, and lift up His gracious countenance upon you for long-lasting peace.”
The Levites in turn will curse all those destined to Belial. They will respond,
“May you be damned in return for all your vile, guilty actions. May the Elohim of terror give you over to ruthless avengers; may He visit your offspring with destruction at the hands of those who pay evil with evil. May you be damned without mercy in return for your dark deeds, an object of wrath licked by enduring flame, surrounded by total darkness. May Elohim have no mercy upon you when you cry out, nor forgive so as to atone for your sins. May He lift up His furious countenance upon you for vengeance. May you never find peace through the appeal of any mediator.”
All the initiants into the Covenant will respond to the blessers and cursors, saying, “Amein, amein.”
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Codex Sinaiticus
New Testament:
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The Nazarene Acts
of the Apostles
Also known as
The Recognitions of Clement
Ever wonder why PAUL and not PETER received the mission to the lost tribes? Wasn't Peter the stone upon which the "church" was to be built? In this new translation of the Nazarene Acts, we follow Kefa (Peter) as he itinerates from Jerusalem and up the Mediterranean coast up to Tripoli, as recorded in the journals of his successor, Clement of Rome (Phi 4:3). Every message Kefa preached, the company he kept, and the great works of faith the the Almighty accomplished through him are herein recorded. This 300 page volume has been 'hidden' in the back of an obscure volume of the "Church Fathers" all this time. Could it be that, in establishing the Gentile 'church' by pushing away from Judaism, this history was purposely hidden?
Is the Candidate Converted?
Then the priests and Levites will go on to declare,
“Damned be anyone initiated with unrepentant heart, who enters this Covenant, then sets up the stumbling block of his sin, so turning traitor. It will come to pass, when he hears the words of this Covenant, that he will bless himself in his heart, saying ‘Peace be with me, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’[6]
“Surrounded by abundant water, his spirit will nevertheless expire thirsty, without forgiveness. Elohim's anger and zeal for His commandments will burn against him for enduring destruction. All the curses of this Covenant will cleave to him, and Elohim will separate him out for a fate befitting his vileness. He will be cut off from all the Sons of Light because of his apostasy from Elohim, brought about by unrepentance and the stumbling block of sin. He will cast his lot with those damned for all time.”
The initiants are all to respond in turn, “Amein, amein.”
The Candidate’s Annual Revue
They will do as follows annually, all the days of Belial's dominion: the priests will pass in review first, ranked according to their spiritual distinction, one after another. Then the Levites will follow, and third all the people by rank, one after another, in their thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. Thus will each Israelite know his proper standing in the Yahad of Elohim, an enduring community. None will be demoted from his appointed place, none promoted beyond his destined rank. So will all together comprise a Yahad whose essence is truth, genuine humility, love of charity, and righteous intent, caring for one another this way within the blessed commune, comrades in an ever-enduring fellowship.
As for Those Rejected
Anyone who refuses to enter [the society of E]lohim, preferring to continue in his willful heart, will not [be initiated into the Yahad of His truth, inasmuch as his soul has rejected the disciplines foundational to knowledge: such are the laws of righteousness. He lacks the strength to repent. He is not to be reckoned among the upright; his knowledge, strength, and wealth are not to enter the Yahad Commune. Surely, he plows in the muck of vileness, so defiling stains would mar his repentance. Yet he cannot be justified by what his willful heart declares lawful, preferring to gaze on darkness rather than the ways of light. With such an eye he cannot be reckoned faultless.
Rituals of penance cannot restore his innocence, neither living waters his purity. He cannot be sanctified by baptism in oceans and rivers, nor purified by mere ritual washing. “Unclean, unclean”[7] will he be all the days that he rejects the laws of Elohim, refusing to be disciplined in His Yahad Commune.
For only through the spirit that fills Elohim's true community can there be atonement for a person's ways and all iniquities; so he can gaze on the life-light and so be joined to His truth by His devoted spirit, purified from all iniquity. His sin may be covered by his upright and humble attitude, and his flesh can be made clean by humbling himself before all Elohim's laws. This way only can he really receive the purifying waters and be purged by the cleansing flow. Let him order his steps to walk faultlessly in all of Elohim’s ways, just as He commanded for the seasons appointed him. Let him turn aside neither to the right nor the left, nor yet stray in the smallest detail from all of His words. Then indeed will he be accepted by Elohim, offering the sweet savor of the atoning sacrifice, and then only will he be a party to the Covenant of the enduring Yahad.
A New Scroll: Spiritual Life; The Two Spirits
A scroll belonging to the Teacher, who is to illuminate all the Sons of Light by instructing about the character and the fate of person: including all their spiritual gifts[8] with signs following, all their history family by family, and their visitation for discipline[9] as well as seasons of shalom.
All that is now and ever will be originates with the Elohim of knowledge. Before things come to be, He orders their designs, so that when they do come to exist—at their appointed times as ordained by His glorious plan—they fulfill their destiny, a destiny impossible to alter. He controls the laws governing all things, and He provides for all their interests.
He created humans to rule over the world, appointing for them two spirits in which to walk until the time set for His visitation. These are the spirits of truth and falsehood. An upright nature and destiny originate in the Territory of Light; a perverse nature originates in the Fountain of Darkness. The authority of the Prince of Light extends to governing of all righteous people; so of course, they walk in the paths of light. Likewise, the authority of the Angel of Darkness grips the government of all vile people, so naturally they walk in the paths of darkness.
The authority of the Angel of Darkness further extends to the corruption of all the righteous. All their sins, iniquities, shameful, and rebellious deeds are at his instigation, a situation that Elohim in His mysteries allows to continue until His age dawns. Even all the afflictions of the righteous, and every trial in its season, occur because of this Angel's diabolic rule. All the spirits allied with him share but a single resolution: the Sons of Light must be caused to stumble.
Yet the Elohim of Israel and the Malach of His Truth aid all the Sons of Light. It is actually He who created the spirits of light and darkness, making them the foundation-stone of everything done, their impulses the reason for every act. Elohim's love for one spirit endures forever. He will always be pleased with such acts. But the counsel of the other He hates, despising its every impulse for all time.
Here are their operations in the world: one lights up a person's mind, straightening the pathways before him in true righteousness and causing his heart to respect the laws of Elohim. This spirit produces humility, patience, great compassion, continued goodness, insight, understanding, and powerful wisdom resonating to each of Elohim's works, kept by His constant faithfulness. It produces a spirit knowledgeable in every plan of action, zealous for the laws of righteousness, devoted in its thoughts, and unfaltering in purpose. This spirit encourages plenty of compassion on all who hold tightly to the truth, and magnificent clarity combined with an instinctive hatred of impurity in its every disguise. It results in humble conduct combined with wide-ranging discernment, with an ability to conceal truth, that is, the mysteries of knowledge. So the earthly counsel of the spirit works to these ends for those whose character yearns for truth.
Through a gracious visitation all who walk in this spirit will know healing, bountiful peace, long life, and a prodigious family, followed by enduring blessings and continual joy through a long-lasting life. They will receive a crown of favor with a robe of honor, dazzling forever and ever.
The operations of the spirit of falsehood result in greed, neglect of righteous acts, vileness, lying, pride and conceit, cruel deceit and fraud, massive hypocrisy, a lack of self-control and a lot of foolishness, a zeal for arrogance, repulsive behavior fashioned by whorish cravings, lechery in its filthy expressions, a reviling tongue, blind eyes, deaf ears, stiff neck, and hard heart — to the end of walking in all the roads of darkness and evil cunning.
The verdict for all who walk in such ways will be multiple beatings at the hand of all the malachim of destruction, long-lasting damnation in the wrath of Elohim's furious vengeance, never-ending terror and reproach for all eternity, with a shameful annihilation in the fire of Sheol’s outer darkness. For all their generations, family by family, they will know miserable sorrow, bitter evil, and dark coincidences, until their utter destruction with neither remnant nor rescue.
Inherent, Spiritual Evil v. Good
The character and fate of all people reside with these spirits. The hordes of humanity, family by family, are heirs to these spiritual divisions; and they walk in their ways. Every human action is inherent in these divisions, according to each one’s spiritual inheritance, whether great or small, for every age and for all time. Elohim has appointed these spirits as equals until the final age, setting a long-lasting hostility between their divisions.
Acts done in falsehood are therefore an abomination against truth, while acts done in truth for the sake of perversity are equally disgraceful. Fierce disputing presents itself at every point of decision, for the two spirits they can never agree. In His mysterious insight and famous wisdom Elohim has tolerated an age in which perversity wins; yet at the appointed time of visitation, He will destroy such perversity for good. Then truth will present itself on the earth in victory.
Desecrated by vile ways while perversity still rules, the truth will be decreed at the appointed season of judgment. By His truth, Elohim will then purify all human acts, refining some people to exorcise every perverse spirit from the inward parts of the flesh, cleansing them from every vile act by a set-apart spirit. Like purifying waters, He will sprinkle each one with a spirit of truth, effective against all the abominations of lying and corruption by an unclean spirit. By this means, He will give the upright ones insight from the knowledge of El Elyon along with the wisdom of the malachim, making those following the perfect way wise. Yea, Elohim has chosen them for an ever-enduring covenant; all Adam’s honor will become theirs alone. Perversity will be extinct; every deceitful deed will be put to shame.
Until now the spirits of truth and perversity have contended within the human heart. All people walk in both wisdom and foolishness. As is a person's granting of truth and righteousness, so will he hate perversity; conversely, in proportion to his granting in the lot of evil, one will act vilely and detest truth. Elohim has appointed these spirits as equals until the announced time and the renewal. He foreknows the results of their actions through all the ages [of time]. He has granted these spirits dominion over humanity so to impart knowledge of good [and evil in order to de]cide the fate of every living being by the measure of whichever spirit predominates in hi[m, until the day of the appointed] visitation.
For Those Who Repent
This is the rule for the men of the Yahad who come forward[10] to repent from all evil and to hold fast to all that He, by His good will, has commanded. They are to separate from the congregation of perverse men. They are to come together as one with respect to Torah and money. Their discussions will be under the oversight of the Sons of Zadok — priests and preservers of the Covenant — and according to the majority rule of the men of the Yahad, who hold fast to the Covenant. These men will guide all decisions on matters of Torah, money, and judgment.
They are to practice truth together with humility, charity, justice, loving-kindness, and modesty in all their ways. As a result, none will continue in a willful heart and thus be seduced – no, not by his heart, neither by his eyes, nor yet by his lower nature. Together they will circumcise the foreskin of this nature, this stiff neck, and so establish a foundation of truth for Israel; that is, for the Yahad of the Enduring Covenant. They are to atone for all those in Aaron who volunteer to be set apart, and for those in Israel who belong to truth, and for Gentile converts who join them in the commune. Both by trial and by verdict they are to condemn any who break a rule.
Those Who Enter the New Covenant Are to be Separate
These are the rules that govern when they are gathered together as a community. Every initiant into the Yahad Commune is to enter the Covenant in full view of all who have come forward. He will take upon himself a binding oath to return to the Torah of Moshe (according to all that He commanded) with all his heart and with all his mind, to all that has been revealed from it to the Sons of Zadok — priests and preservers of the covenant, seekers of His will — and the majority of the men of their Covenant (that is, those who have jointly come forward for His truth and to live by what pleases Him).
Each one who thus enters the Covenant by oath is to separate himself from all of the perverse men, those who walk in the vile way, for such are not reckoned a part of His Covenant. They have not sought Him nor inquired of His statutes[11] so as to discover the hidden laws in which they err to their shame. They knowingly transgress even the obvious laws, thus stirring Elohim's judgmental wrath and full vengeance, which is composed of the curses of the Mosaic Covenant. He will bring against them heavy judgments and enduring destruction; none will be spared.
As For All Outsider
None of the perverse men is to enter purifying waters used by the Qadoshim so as to come in contact their purity. (In fact, it impossible to be purified without first repenting of evil, inasmuch as impurity sticks to all who transgress His word.) None is to be yoked with such a man in his work or wealth, lest he cause him to bear guilt.[12] On the contrary, one must keep far from him in every respect, for thus it is written: “Keep far from every false thing.”[13] None belonging to the Yahad is to discuss with such men matters of Torah or legal judgment, nor to eat or drink what is theirs, nor yet to take anything from them unless purchased; as it is written, “Turn away from mere mortals, in whose nostrils is only breath; for of what account are they?”[14] Hence, all who are not reckoned as belonging to His covenant must be separated out, along with everything they possess. The Qadosh One must not rely upon pointless actions, while all who do not know His Covenant are the very definition of pointlessness itself. He will destroy all those who despise His word from the face of the earth. Their every action is disgraceful before Him, all that is theirs being infested with impurity.
Rank & File
When anyone enters the Covenant — to live according to all these ordinances, to make common cause with the Congregation of Holiness — they will investigate his spiritual qualities as a community, each member taking part. They will investigate his understanding and works in relation to the Torah, guided both by the Sons of Aaron and the majority of Israel. The Sons of Aaron have jointly volunteered to uphold His Covenant and to observe all of the ordinances that He commanded them to execute. The majority of Israel has volunteered to return, as a community, to His Covenant.
The initiants are to be enrolled by rank, one man higher than his fellow — as the case may be — by virtue of his understanding and works. So each one will obey his companion, the lower man will obey his superior. Annually they will examine spiritual qualities and works, promoting a man because of his understanding and perfection of walk, or demoting him because of failure.
How will those higher in rank reprove their inferiors? Several rules govern this potentially divisive issue. Each man is to reprove his fellow in truth, humility, and loving-kindness. He should not speak to him in anger, with grumbling, with a [stiff] neck or with a vicious spirit [of zeal]. The one must not hate the other because of his own [uncircumcised] heart. Most assuredly he is to rebuke him on the day of the infraction so that he does not continue in sin. Also, no man is to bring a charge against his fellow before the general membership unless he has previously rebuked that man before witnesses.
Rules Concerning Food and Study
By these rules they are to govern themselves wherever they dwell, in accordance with each legal finding that bears upon communal life. Inferiors must obey their ranking superiors as regards to work and wealth. They will eat, pray, and deliberate communally. Wherever ten men belonging to the Yahad Commune are gathered, a priest must always be present. The men will sit before the priest by rank, and in that manner their opinions will be sought on any matter. When the table has been set for eating or the new wine readied for drinking, the priest is the one who will stretch out his hand first, blessing the first portion of the bread or the new wine. In any place where is gathered the ten-man minyan,[15] someone must always be engaged in study of the Torah, day and night, continually, each one taking his turn. The general membership will be diligent together for the first third of every night of the year, reading aloud from the Book, interpreting Scripture, and praying together.
Rules Concerning Meetings
This is the rule for the session of the general membership, each man being in his proper place. The priests will sit in the first row, the elders in the second, then the rest of the people, each in his proper place. In that order they will be questioned about any judgment, deliberation, or matter that may come before the general membership, so that each man may state his opinion to the Yahad Commune. None should interrupt the words of his comrade, speaking before his brother finishes what he has to say. Neither should anyone speak before another of higher rank. Only the man being questioned will speak in his turn. During the session of the general membership no man should say anything except by the permission of the general membership, or more particularly, of the man who is the Mevakre[16] of the general membership. If any man has something to say to the general membership, yet is of a lower rank than whoever is guiding the deliberations of the Yahad Commune, let him stand up. He should then say, “I have something to say to the general membership.” If they permit, he may speak.
Steps to Full Membership
If anyone of Israel volunteers for enrollment in the Yahad Commune, the man appointed as leader of the general membership will examine him regarding his understanding and works. If he has the potential for instruction, he is to begin initiation into the Covenant, returning to the truth and repenting of all perversity. He will be made to understand all the basic precepts of the Yahad. Subsequently in the process, he must stand before the general membership and the whole chapter will interrogate him about his particulars. According to the decision of the society of the general membership, he will either proceed or depart.
If he does proceed in joining the Yahad Commune, he must not touch the pure food of the general membership before they have examined him as to his spiritual fitness and works, and not before a full year has passed. Further, he must not yet mix his property with that of the general membership. When he has passed a full year in the Yahad, the general membership will inquire into the details of his understanding and works of the Torah, if it be ordained, in the opinion of the priests and the majority of the men of their Covenant, then he will be initiated further into the secret teaching of the Yahad. They will also take steps to incorporate his property, putting it under the authority of the Mevakre together with that of the general membership, and keeping an account of it— but it will not yet be disbursed along with that of the general membership.
The initiate[17] is not to touch the drink of the general membership prior to passing a second year among the men of the Yahad. When that second year has passed, the general membership will review his case. If it be ordained for him to proceed to full membership in the Yahad, they will enroll him at the appropriate rank among his brothers for discussion of the Torah, legal matters, participation in pure meals, and mixture of property. After that, the Yahad may draw upon his counsel and judgment.
Violations and Penalties
These are the rules by which cases are to be decided at a community inquiry. If there be found among them a man who has lied about money and done so knowingly, they will bar him from the pure meals of the general membership for one year; further, his ration of bread is to be reduced by one-fourth.[18] Anyone who answers his comrade defiantly or impatiently, thereby rejecting the instruction of his fellow and rebelling against the orders of his higher-ranked comrade, has usurped authority; he is to be punished by reduced rations and [exclusion from the pure meals] for one year.
Anyone who speaks aloud the M[ost] Esteemed Name of Elohim, [whether in haste] or in cursing or in blurting out at the time of trial or for any other reason, or while he is reading a book or praying, is to be expelled, never again to return to the Yahad Commune.
If anyone speaks angrily against one of the priests who is inscribed in the book, he is to be punished by reduced rations for one year and separated from the pure meals of the general membership, eating by himself. If, however, he spoke without premeditation, he will suffer reduced rations for only six months.
Anyone who knowingly lies is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
The man who accuses his comrade of sin, fully aware that he cannot prove the charge, is to suffer reduced rations for one year and be separated from the pure meals.
Whoever speaks with his companion deceitfully or knowingly practices fraud is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
If a man is drawn unawares into a fraudulent scheme by his comrade, then he is to be punished by reduced rations for only three months.
If money belonging to the Yahad is involved in a fraudulent scheme and lost, the man responsible must repay the sum from his own funds. If he lacks sufficient resources to repay it, then he is to suffer reduced rations for sixty days.
Whoever nurses a grudge against his companion — in blatant disregard of the Yahad statute about accusation on the very same day — is to be punished by reduced rations for six months. The same applies to the man who on any matter takes vengeance into his own hands.
Whoever speaks foolishness: three months.
Anyone interrupting his companion while in session: ten days.
Anyone who lies down and sleeps in a session of the general membership: thirty days.
The same applies to the man who leaves a session of the general membership without permission and without a good excuse three times in a single session. Up to the third time he will be punished by reduced rations only ten days. But if they have risen for prayer when he leaves, then he is suffer thirty days' reduced rations.
Anyone who walks about naked in the presence of a comrade, unless he is sick, is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
A man who spits into the midst of a session of the general membership is to be punished by reduced rations for thirty days.
Anyone who brings out his member from beneath his clothing — that is, his clothing is so full of holes that his nakedness is exposed — is to be punished by thirty days' reduced rations.
Anyone who bursts into foolish horse-laughter is to be punished by reduced rations for thirty days.
A man who draws out his left hand to gesture during conversation is to suffer ten days' reduced rations.
The man who gossips about his companion is to be barred for one year from the pure meals of the general membership and punished by reduced rations. But if a man gossips about the general membership, he is to be banished from them and may never return.
The man who murmurs against the secret teaching of the Yahad is to be banished, never to return. But if he murmurs against a comrade and cannot prove the charges, he is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
The man whose spirit deviates from the secret teaching of the Yahad, such that he forsakes the truth and walks in the stubbornness of his heart – if he repents, he is to be punished by two years of reduced rations. During the first year, he is not to touch the pure food of the general membership; during the second year, he is not to touch their drink. He will rank lower than all the men of the Yahad. When two full years have passed, the general membership will inquire into his particulars. If they allow him to proceed, he will be enrolled at the appropriate rank and take part in discussions of community business.
Any man who, having been in the Yahad Commune for ten full years, backslides spiritually so that he forsakes the Yahad and leaves the general membership, walking in his willful heart, may never again return to the Yahad Commune.
Also, any man belonging to the Ya[had who sh]ares with him his own pure food, his own wealth [or that of] the Yahad, is to suffer the same verdict: he is to be exp[elled.]
The Inner Circle
In the Yahad Commune there will be twelve laymen and three priests who are blameless in the light of all that has been revealed from the whole Torah, so as to work truth, righteousness, justice, loving-kindness, and humility, one with another, they are to preserve faith in the land with self-control and a broken spirit, atoning for sin by working toward justice and interfering against[19] affliction. They are to walk with all by the standard of truth and the dictates proper to the age.
When men like these come to be in Israel, then the Yahad Commune will truly be established as an “enduring planting,”[20] a temple for Israel, and — a mystery! — the Qodesh Qodeshim for Aaron[21] —true witnesses to justice, chosen by Elohim's will to atone for the land and to pay the depraved their due. They will be “the tested wall, the precious cornerstone”[22] whose “foundations will neither be shaken nor swayed, a fortress, a Qodesh Qodeshim for Aaron, all of them knowing the Covenant of Justice and so offering a sweet savor. They will be a blameless and true house in Israel, up-holding the covenant of enduring statutes. They will be an acceptable sacrifice atoning for the land and ringing in the verdict against evil, so that perversity ceases to exist.
When these men have been grounded in the instruction of the Yahad for two years — provided they are blameless in their conduct — they will be set apart as Qadoshim in the midst of the men of the Yahad. No scriptural teaching discovered by the Teacher (but concealed from Israel) is to be hidden from these men out of fear that they might backslide.
When such men as these come to be in Israel, conforming to these teachings, they will separate from the session of perverse men to go to the wilderness, there to prepare the way of truth, as it is written, “In the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH, make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.”[23] This means the expounding of the Torah, decreed by Elohim through Moshe for obedience and being interpreted by what has been uncovered for each age, and by what the prophets have revealed by His Ruach haQodesh.
The Rules
No man belonging to the Covenant of the Yahad who flagrantly deviates from any command is to touch the Qadoshim’s pure food. Further, he is not to participate in any of their business until all his works have been cleansed from evil, so that he is again able to walk blamelessly. They will admit him into the business by the decision of the general membership; afterwards, he will be enrolled at an appropriate rank. This is also the procedure for every initiate added to the Yahad.
These are the rules by which the blameless Qadoshim will conduct themselves, one with another. Any covenant member of the Yahad haQodesh (they who walk blamelessly as He commanded) who transgresses even one commandment from the Torah of Moshe intentionally or deviously is to be expelled from the Yahad Commune, never to return. Further, none of the Qadoshim is to do business with that man or advise him on any matter whatsoever.
But if the sinner transgressed without intention, then he is to be separated from the pure food, community deliberations, and legal matters for two years. He may return to the study sessions and business if he does not again unintentionally sin for two full years. A single unintentional sin may be punished by this two-year process, but the intentional sinner will never again return. Only the accidental sinner will be tested by the general membership over a two-year period for blameless conduct and right understanding. Afterwards, he may be enrolled at the appropriate rank within the Yahad haQodesh.
The Community, its Purpose, and its Future
When, united by all these precepts, such men as these come to be a community in Israel, they will establish enduring truth guided by the instruction of His Ruach haQodesh. They will atone for the guilt of disobedience and the rebellion of sin, becoming an acceptable sacrifice for the land through the flesh of burnt offerings, the fat of sacrificial portions, and prayer, becoming — as it were — justice itself, a sweet savor of righteousness and blameless behavior, a pleasing freewill offering.
At that time the Yahadim will withdraw, the set-apart house of Aaron uniting as a Qadosh Qadoshim, and the synagogue of Israel as those who walk blamelessly. The sons of Aaron alone will have authority in judicial and financial matters. They will decide on governing precepts for the men of the Yahad and on money matters for the Qadoshim who walk blamelessly. Their wealth is not to be mixed with that of rebellious men, who have failed to cleanse their path by separating themselves from perversity and walking blamelessly. They will deviate from none of the Torah’s teachings; otherwise they would walk in their willful heart completely. They will govern themselves by utilizing the original principles in which the Yahadim were from the beginning instructed, doing so until the Prophet and Messiah of Aaron and Israel come forth.
Rules for the Yahad’s Teacher
The following are the rules for the Teacher. He is to conduct himself by them in his relations with everybody, guided by the principles appropriate for each era and the value of each person. He is to work the will of Elohim according to what has been revealed for each period in history, studying all the wise legal findings of earlier times, as well as every statute applying to his own time.
He is to discern the true Sons of Righteousness and to weigh each person's spiritual qualities, sustaining (in His term) the Bacharim[24] in keeping His will and all He has commanded. In each case He will decide for what a man's spiritual traits qualify him, allowing him enter the Yahad if his virtue and understanding of the Torah measure up. By the same standards He will determine each man's rank.
The Teacher must not criticize the Men of the Pit, nor argue with them about proper scriptural understanding. Quite the contrary: he should conceal his own Torah insight when among perverse men. He will save His criticism — which is established in true knowledge and righteous judgment — for those who have chosen the Way, treating each as his spiritual qualities and the rules of the time require. He will establish them in knowledge by teaching them truly amazing mysteries; then if the secret Way is perfected among the Yahadim, each will walk blamelessly with his companions, guided by what has been revealed to them. That will be the time of “preparing the way in the desert.”[25] He will instruct them in every legal finding that is to regulate their works in that time, and teach them to separate from every person who fails to keep from perversity.
The Teacher’s Rules of Love & Hatred
These are the rules of the Way for the Teacher in these times, as to His loving and hating: enduring hatred yet employing a concealing spirit for the Men of the Pit! He will leave them their wealth and profit like a slave does his master — presently humble before His oppressor, but a zealot for Elohim's Torah whose time will come: even during the Day of Vengeance. He will work Elohim's will when He attacks the vile and exercises authority as He has commanded, so that He is pleased with all that is done, as with a freewill offering. Other than Elohim's will, He will delight in nothing else, finding pleasure only in [ev]ery word of His mouth. He will desire nothing that He has not commanded, ceaselessly seeking the [Tor]ah of Elohim. He will bless his Creator [for all of His good]ness, and re[count His loving-kindness] in all that is to be.
The Teacher in Prayer
He will bless Him at the times ordained of Elohim [with pray]er: when the daylight begins its dominion — each time it returns — and when, as ordained, it is regathered into its dwelling; when night begins its watches — as He opens His storehouse and spreads darkness over the earth — and when it cycles back, withdrawing before the light; when the luminaries show forth from their sacred space, and when they are regathered into their lofty place; when the times appointed for new moons arrive, and when, as their seasons require, each gives way to the next. Such renewal is special for the Qadosh Qadoshim; indeed, it is a sign that He is unlocking enduring loving-kindness each time these cycles renew as ordained, and so it will be for every age yet to come.
On the first of each month in its season, and on yomim tov[26] laid down as remembrances, in their seasons, I will bless Him in prayer — as a written rule forever — yea, when each new year begins and when its seasons turn, fulfilling the Torah in their decree, each day as set forth, day after day: harvest giving way to summer, planting to the shoots of spring, seasons, years, and weeks of years.
When weeks of years begin, Jubilee by Jubilee, while I live, the commandment will be inscribed on my tongue — with praise as its fruit, the gift of my lips. I will loudly and skillfully sing my music for the esteem of Elohim only — my harp and my lyre I touch the strings for His sanctity — I will lift up the flute of my lips with His Torah its tuning fork. At break of day and with the darkening of the sky, I will enter the Covenant of Elohim, and when they all leave I will recite His Ordinances; then I will set out the bounds of my path, never to turn back.
By His Torah I will convict myself, my iniquity the measure, my sin as a statute engraved before my eyes. To Elohim will I say, O, my Righteousness: all to El Elyon. O, You Seat of my Goodness, Spring of Da’at and Fount of Qodesha; Kavod ha Gadol, El Shaddai, Shekinah l’Olam!
What He teaches me, that will I choose; as He judges me, so will I delight. When first I begin my plan or journey, I will bless His name; when first I set out or turn to come back; when I sit down or rise up, when I spread my bed, then I will rejoice in Him. I will bless Him with the offering, the issue of my lips when in the ranks; before I lift hand to mouth to taste the ground’s pleasant bounty; when fear or terror break out, in the place of dire straits or desolation, I will praise Him.
I will meditate on His miracles and powerful acts; I will contemplate His loving-kindness, upon which I will rely all day long. Then will I know that the judgment of all the living reside in His hand, and all His works are truth. When I break out in depression, I will praise Him, and in His salvation will I rejoice.
To no one will I return evil for evil; I will go after a person only for good; for with Elohim resides the judgment of all the living, and He will compensate each one. My zeal will not be tarnished by a mean spirit, and I will not lust for riches gained through violence.
I will not take custody of the evil multitude until the Day of Vengeance; yet my fury will never subside from the Men of the Pit, and I will never be satisfied until righteousness will be established. I will not harbor a grudge of wrath against anyone repenting of sin yet I will neither love anyone who rebels against the Way; I will not comfort those smitten with sin until their walk is perfected. And I will give no refuge in my heart to Belial.
The Teacher’s Righteous Confessions
Neither foolishness nor sinful deceit will be heard from my mouth; neither fraud nor lies will be discovered between my lips.[27] Rather, qadosh fruits will be on my tongue — abominations will not be found there. I will open my mouth in thanksgiving, my tongue will always tell of Elohim’s righteousness. The rebellion accounted to man and made complete by sin will I purge from my lips as futility; I will erase impure and devious designs from my mind. In counsel with wisdom, I will speak of knowledge: both prudence and wisdom; and I will wrap it close about me to preserve my faith and strict judgment — conforming to the righteousness of Elohim.
I will mete out the rules by the proper measure to each time; [dispense] righteousness and loving-kindness to those cast down; and strongly encourage the anxious. [I will teach] those in error bout spiritual understanding, instructing complainers with wisdom — to answer in humility the arrogant of broken spirit, those who oppress, ridicule, speak vainly, and are zealous only for wealth. Elohim is the source of whatever goodness the worshiper may claim, and the truths that he possesses — hidden from others — are given only by Elohim.
As for me, my justification is with Elohim. The perfection of my walk and the virtue of my heart are in His hand. My disobedience is blotted out by His righteousness. My light shot forth from the fountain of His knowledge; my eye gazed on his wonders and the light of my heart on the mystery of what will happen.
The one who holds out is my right hand’s staff, my steps tread on the Mighty Rock: nothing will make them retreat now; for the truth of Elohim is the rock on which I step, and His mighty power is what my right hand holds. From His righteous fount comes my justification, the light of my heart from His wondrous mysteries.
My eye has gazed upon the future and the hidden wisdom: even at all the knowledge and wise prudence that has been concealed from all humanity. The source of righteousness, the gathering of power, and the abode of radiance are hidden from the counsel of flesh.
He has given all these to the Bacharim as an enduring possession. He has made them heirs in the bequest of the Qadoshim, and, along with the Malachim, He has united them in the assembly, a Yahad society.[28] They are an assembly built up to be set-apart, an enduring Planting for all ages to come.
As for me, I belong to evil humanity and the counsel of perverse flesh. My transgressions, evils, sins, and corrupt heart belong to the counsel of wormy rot with those who walk in darkness.
Surely a man's way is not his own; neither can any person firm up his own step. Surely justification is of Elohim; by His power is the way made perfect. All that will be, He foreknows, all that is, His plans establish; apart from Him is nothing accomplished.
As for me, if I stumble, Elohim's loving-kindness will save me every time. If through the sin of the flesh I fall, my justification will be by the righteousness of Elohim that endures for all time. Though my affliction breaks out upon me, He will draw my soul back from the Pit, and bolster my steps on the way. Through His love He has brought me close; by His loving-kindness He will provide my justification. By His righteous truth He has acquitted me; and through His exceeding goodness He will atone for all my sins. He cleans human defilement and disgrace from me by His righteousness to the end that I praise Elohim for His righteousness; yea, the Most High for His Radiance.
Blessed are You, O Eli, who has opened the mind of Your servant to knowledge. Establish all of his {the Teacher’s} works in righteousness; if it please You, raise up the son of Your handmaiden to be among those chosen out of humankind, to stand before You forever.[29]
Surely apart from You the way cannot be completed, nor can anything be finished unless it please You. You teach all knowledge and all that will happen, and by Your will it will al come to pass. Apart from You there is no one else able to dispute Your counsel, or fathom the design of Your devotion, or penetrate the depth of Your mysteries, or apprehend Your wonders and surpassing power.
Who can Your radiance measure? Who, indeed, is man among Your famous works? As how can he, born of a woman, be reckoned in comparison with You? Molded out of dirt, his body is the worm food; he is just so much spit and chewed off clay — craving only more clay.
Will the clay challenge the expertise of the One who designed the vase?
Other presentations of this text is accessed here:
The Teacher’s Scroll
A scroll belonging to [the Teacher, who is to teach the] Qadoshim[1] how to live according to the book of the Yahad's Rule.[2] He is to teach them to seek Elohim with all their heart and with all their soul, to do that which is good and upright before Him, just as He commanded through Moshe and all His servants the prophets. He is to teach them to love everything He chose and to hate everything He rejected, to distance themselves from all evil and to hold fast to all good deeds; to practice truth, justice, and righteousness in the land, and to walk no longer in a guilty, willful heart and lustful desires. Through such, they did every evil thing.
He is to induct all who volunteer to live by the laws of Elohim unto the Covenant of Mercy, so as to be joined to Elohim's society and walk faultless before Him, according to all that has been revealed for the times appointed them. He is to teach them both to love all the Children of Light—each commensurate with his rightful place in the council of Elohim—and to hate all the Children of Darkness, each commensurate with his guilt and the vengeance due him from Elohim.
All who volunteer for His truth are to bring the full measure of their knowledge, strength, and wealth into the Yahad of Elohim. Thus will they purify their knowledge in the truth of Elohim's laws, properly exercise their ability according to the perfection of His ways, and likewise their wealth by the set-rules[3] of His righteous counsel. They are not to deviate in the smallest detail from any of Elohim's words, even as they apply to the volunteer’s own time. They are neither to advance their sacred seasons nor to postpone any of their prescribed festivals. From His inerrant laws, they will turn aside neither to the right nor the left.
The Ritual of Blessing or Damning the Initiant[4]
All who enter the Yahad's Rule will be initiated into the Covenant before Elohim, agreeing to act according to all that He has commanded and not to backslide because of any fear, terror, or persecution that may occur during the time of Belial's dominion.[5] While the initiants are being inducted into the Covenant, the priests and the Levites will continuously bless the Elohim of deliverance for all His authentic acts. All the initiants into the Covenant will continuously respond, “Amein, amein.”
The priests are to rehearse Elohim's gracious acts made manifest by mighty deeds, heralding His loving mercies on Israel’s behalf. The Levites in turn will rehearse the vile acts of the children of Israel, all their guilty transgressions and sins committed during the dominion of Belial. All the initiants into the Covenant are to respond by confessing,
“We have been vile, transgressed, and [sinned]. We have been evil—we and our fathers before us—walking [in rebellion to the laws] of truth and righteousness, [so Elohim] has judged us, both we and our fathers. Yet He has also succored us with the loving acts of His mercy, long ago and for ages to come.”
Then the priests are to bless all those destined to Elohim, who walk faultless in all of His ways, saying
“May He bless you with every good thing and preserve you from every evil. May He enlighten your mind with wisdom for living, be gracious to you with the knowledge of enduring things, and lift up His gracious countenance upon you for long-lasting peace.”
The Levites in turn will curse all those destined to Belial. They will respond,
“May you be damned in return for all your vile, guilty actions. May the Elohim of terror give you over to ruthless avengers; may He visit your offspring with destruction at the hands of those who pay evil with evil. May you be damned without mercy in return for your dark deeds, an object of wrath licked by enduring flame, surrounded by total darkness. May Elohim have no mercy upon you when you cry out, nor forgive so as to atone for your sins. May He lift up His furious countenance upon you for vengeance. May you never find peace through the appeal of any mediator.”
All the initiants into the Covenant will respond to the blessers and cursors, saying, “Amein, amein.”
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Codex Sinaiticus
New Testament:
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The Nazarene Acts
of the Apostles
Also known as
The Recognitions of Clement
Ever wonder why PAUL and not PETER received the mission to the lost tribes? Wasn't Peter the stone upon which the "church" was to be built? In this new translation of the Nazarene Acts, we follow Kefa (Peter) as he itinerates from Jerusalem and up the Mediterranean coast up to Tripoli, as recorded in the journals of his successor, Clement of Rome (Phi 4:3). Every message Kefa preached, the company he kept, and the great works of faith the the Almighty accomplished through him are herein recorded. This 300 page volume has been 'hidden' in the back of an obscure volume of the "Church Fathers" all this time. Could it be that, in establishing the Gentile 'church' by pushing away from Judaism, this history was purposely hidden?
Is the Candidate Converted?
Then the priests and Levites will go on to declare,
“Damned be anyone initiated with unrepentant heart, who enters this Covenant, then sets up the stumbling block of his sin, so turning traitor. It will come to pass, when he hears the words of this Covenant, that he will bless himself in his heart, saying ‘Peace be with me, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’[6]
“Surrounded by abundant water, his spirit will nevertheless expire thirsty, without forgiveness. Elohim's anger and zeal for His commandments will burn against him for enduring destruction. All the curses of this Covenant will cleave to him, and Elohim will separate him out for a fate befitting his vileness. He will be cut off from all the Sons of Light because of his apostasy from Elohim, brought about by unrepentance and the stumbling block of sin. He will cast his lot with those damned for all time.”
The initiants are all to respond in turn, “Amein, amein.”
The Candidate’s Annual Revue
They will do as follows annually, all the days of Belial's dominion: the priests will pass in review first, ranked according to their spiritual distinction, one after another. Then the Levites will follow, and third all the people by rank, one after another, in their thousands and hundreds and fifties and tens. Thus will each Israelite know his proper standing in the Yahad of Elohim, an enduring community. None will be demoted from his appointed place, none promoted beyond his destined rank. So will all together comprise a Yahad whose essence is truth, genuine humility, love of charity, and righteous intent, caring for one another this way within the blessed commune, comrades in an ever-enduring fellowship.
As for Those Rejected
Anyone who refuses to enter [the society of E]lohim, preferring to continue in his willful heart, will not [be initiated into the Yahad of His truth, inasmuch as his soul has rejected the disciplines foundational to knowledge: such are the laws of righteousness. He lacks the strength to repent. He is not to be reckoned among the upright; his knowledge, strength, and wealth are not to enter the Yahad Commune. Surely, he plows in the muck of vileness, so defiling stains would mar his repentance. Yet he cannot be justified by what his willful heart declares lawful, preferring to gaze on darkness rather than the ways of light. With such an eye he cannot be reckoned faultless.
Rituals of penance cannot restore his innocence, neither living waters his purity. He cannot be sanctified by baptism in oceans and rivers, nor purified by mere ritual washing. “Unclean, unclean”[7] will he be all the days that he rejects the laws of Elohim, refusing to be disciplined in His Yahad Commune.
For only through the spirit that fills Elohim's true community can there be atonement for a person's ways and all iniquities; so he can gaze on the life-light and so be joined to His truth by His devoted spirit, purified from all iniquity. His sin may be covered by his upright and humble attitude, and his flesh can be made clean by humbling himself before all Elohim's laws. This way only can he really receive the purifying waters and be purged by the cleansing flow. Let him order his steps to walk faultlessly in all of Elohim’s ways, just as He commanded for the seasons appointed him. Let him turn aside neither to the right nor the left, nor yet stray in the smallest detail from all of His words. Then indeed will he be accepted by Elohim, offering the sweet savor of the atoning sacrifice, and then only will he be a party to the Covenant of the enduring Yahad.
A New Scroll: Spiritual Life; The Two Spirits
A scroll belonging to the Teacher, who is to illuminate all the Sons of Light by instructing about the character and the fate of person: including all their spiritual gifts[8] with signs following, all their history family by family, and their visitation for discipline[9] as well as seasons of shalom.
All that is now and ever will be originates with the Elohim of knowledge. Before things come to be, He orders their designs, so that when they do come to exist—at their appointed times as ordained by His glorious plan—they fulfill their destiny, a destiny impossible to alter. He controls the laws governing all things, and He provides for all their interests.
He created humans to rule over the world, appointing for them two spirits in which to walk until the time set for His visitation. These are the spirits of truth and falsehood. An upright nature and destiny originate in the Territory of Light; a perverse nature originates in the Fountain of Darkness. The authority of the Prince of Light extends to governing of all righteous people; so of course, they walk in the paths of light. Likewise, the authority of the Angel of Darkness grips the government of all vile people, so naturally they walk in the paths of darkness.
The authority of the Angel of Darkness further extends to the corruption of all the righteous. All their sins, iniquities, shameful, and rebellious deeds are at his instigation, a situation that Elohim in His mysteries allows to continue until His age dawns. Even all the afflictions of the righteous, and every trial in its season, occur because of this Angel's diabolic rule. All the spirits allied with him share but a single resolution: the Sons of Light must be caused to stumble.
Yet the Elohim of Israel and the Malach of His Truth aid all the Sons of Light. It is actually He who created the spirits of light and darkness, making them the foundation-stone of everything done, their impulses the reason for every act. Elohim's love for one spirit endures forever. He will always be pleased with such acts. But the counsel of the other He hates, despising its every impulse for all time.
Here are their operations in the world: one lights up a person's mind, straightening the pathways before him in true righteousness and causing his heart to respect the laws of Elohim. This spirit produces humility, patience, great compassion, continued goodness, insight, understanding, and powerful wisdom resonating to each of Elohim's works, kept by His constant faithfulness. It produces a spirit knowledgeable in every plan of action, zealous for the laws of righteousness, devoted in its thoughts, and unfaltering in purpose. This spirit encourages plenty of compassion on all who hold tightly to the truth, and magnificent clarity combined with an instinctive hatred of impurity in its every disguise. It results in humble conduct combined with wide-ranging discernment, with an ability to conceal truth, that is, the mysteries of knowledge. So the earthly counsel of the spirit works to these ends for those whose character yearns for truth.
Through a gracious visitation all who walk in this spirit will know healing, bountiful peace, long life, and a prodigious family, followed by enduring blessings and continual joy through a long-lasting life. They will receive a crown of favor with a robe of honor, dazzling forever and ever.
The operations of the spirit of falsehood result in greed, neglect of righteous acts, vileness, lying, pride and conceit, cruel deceit and fraud, massive hypocrisy, a lack of self-control and a lot of foolishness, a zeal for arrogance, repulsive behavior fashioned by whorish cravings, lechery in its filthy expressions, a reviling tongue, blind eyes, deaf ears, stiff neck, and hard heart — to the end of walking in all the roads of darkness and evil cunning.
The verdict for all who walk in such ways will be multiple beatings at the hand of all the malachim of destruction, long-lasting damnation in the wrath of Elohim's furious vengeance, never-ending terror and reproach for all eternity, with a shameful annihilation in the fire of Sheol’s outer darkness. For all their generations, family by family, they will know miserable sorrow, bitter evil, and dark coincidences, until their utter destruction with neither remnant nor rescue.
Inherent, Spiritual Evil v. Good
The character and fate of all people reside with these spirits. The hordes of humanity, family by family, are heirs to these spiritual divisions; and they walk in their ways. Every human action is inherent in these divisions, according to each one’s spiritual inheritance, whether great or small, for every age and for all time. Elohim has appointed these spirits as equals until the final age, setting a long-lasting hostility between their divisions.
Acts done in falsehood are therefore an abomination against truth, while acts done in truth for the sake of perversity are equally disgraceful. Fierce disputing presents itself at every point of decision, for the two spirits they can never agree. In His mysterious insight and famous wisdom Elohim has tolerated an age in which perversity wins; yet at the appointed time of visitation, He will destroy such perversity for good. Then truth will present itself on the earth in victory.
Desecrated by vile ways while perversity still rules, the truth will be decreed at the appointed season of judgment. By His truth, Elohim will then purify all human acts, refining some people to exorcise every perverse spirit from the inward parts of the flesh, cleansing them from every vile act by a set-apart spirit. Like purifying waters, He will sprinkle each one with a spirit of truth, effective against all the abominations of lying and corruption by an unclean spirit. By this means, He will give the upright ones insight from the knowledge of El Elyon along with the wisdom of the malachim, making those following the perfect way wise. Yea, Elohim has chosen them for an ever-enduring covenant; all Adam’s honor will become theirs alone. Perversity will be extinct; every deceitful deed will be put to shame.
Until now the spirits of truth and perversity have contended within the human heart. All people walk in both wisdom and foolishness. As is a person's granting of truth and righteousness, so will he hate perversity; conversely, in proportion to his granting in the lot of evil, one will act vilely and detest truth. Elohim has appointed these spirits as equals until the announced time and the renewal. He foreknows the results of their actions through all the ages [of time]. He has granted these spirits dominion over humanity so to impart knowledge of good [and evil in order to de]cide the fate of every living being by the measure of whichever spirit predominates in hi[m, until the day of the appointed] visitation.
For Those Who Repent
This is the rule for the men of the Yahad who come forward[10] to repent from all evil and to hold fast to all that He, by His good will, has commanded. They are to separate from the congregation of perverse men. They are to come together as one with respect to Torah and money. Their discussions will be under the oversight of the Sons of Zadok — priests and preservers of the Covenant — and according to the majority rule of the men of the Yahad, who hold fast to the Covenant. These men will guide all decisions on matters of Torah, money, and judgment.
They are to practice truth together with humility, charity, justice, loving-kindness, and modesty in all their ways. As a result, none will continue in a willful heart and thus be seduced – no, not by his heart, neither by his eyes, nor yet by his lower nature. Together they will circumcise the foreskin of this nature, this stiff neck, and so establish a foundation of truth for Israel; that is, for the Yahad of the Enduring Covenant. They are to atone for all those in Aaron who volunteer to be set apart, and for those in Israel who belong to truth, and for Gentile converts who join them in the commune. Both by trial and by verdict they are to condemn any who break a rule.
Those Who Enter the New Covenant Are to be Separate
These are the rules that govern when they are gathered together as a community. Every initiant into the Yahad Commune is to enter the Covenant in full view of all who have come forward. He will take upon himself a binding oath to return to the Torah of Moshe (according to all that He commanded) with all his heart and with all his mind, to all that has been revealed from it to the Sons of Zadok — priests and preservers of the covenant, seekers of His will — and the majority of the men of their Covenant (that is, those who have jointly come forward for His truth and to live by what pleases Him).
Each one who thus enters the Covenant by oath is to separate himself from all of the perverse men, those who walk in the vile way, for such are not reckoned a part of His Covenant. They have not sought Him nor inquired of His statutes[11] so as to discover the hidden laws in which they err to their shame. They knowingly transgress even the obvious laws, thus stirring Elohim's judgmental wrath and full vengeance, which is composed of the curses of the Mosaic Covenant. He will bring against them heavy judgments and enduring destruction; none will be spared.
As For All Outsider
None of the perverse men is to enter purifying waters used by the Qadoshim so as to come in contact their purity. (In fact, it impossible to be purified without first repenting of evil, inasmuch as impurity sticks to all who transgress His word.) None is to be yoked with such a man in his work or wealth, lest he cause him to bear guilt.[12] On the contrary, one must keep far from him in every respect, for thus it is written: “Keep far from every false thing.”[13] None belonging to the Yahad is to discuss with such men matters of Torah or legal judgment, nor to eat or drink what is theirs, nor yet to take anything from them unless purchased; as it is written, “Turn away from mere mortals, in whose nostrils is only breath; for of what account are they?”[14] Hence, all who are not reckoned as belonging to His covenant must be separated out, along with everything they possess. The Qadosh One must not rely upon pointless actions, while all who do not know His Covenant are the very definition of pointlessness itself. He will destroy all those who despise His word from the face of the earth. Their every action is disgraceful before Him, all that is theirs being infested with impurity.
Rank & File
When anyone enters the Covenant — to live according to all these ordinances, to make common cause with the Congregation of Holiness — they will investigate his spiritual qualities as a community, each member taking part. They will investigate his understanding and works in relation to the Torah, guided both by the Sons of Aaron and the majority of Israel. The Sons of Aaron have jointly volunteered to uphold His Covenant and to observe all of the ordinances that He commanded them to execute. The majority of Israel has volunteered to return, as a community, to His Covenant.
The initiants are to be enrolled by rank, one man higher than his fellow — as the case may be — by virtue of his understanding and works. So each one will obey his companion, the lower man will obey his superior. Annually they will examine spiritual qualities and works, promoting a man because of his understanding and perfection of walk, or demoting him because of failure.
How will those higher in rank reprove their inferiors? Several rules govern this potentially divisive issue. Each man is to reprove his fellow in truth, humility, and loving-kindness. He should not speak to him in anger, with grumbling, with a [stiff] neck or with a vicious spirit [of zeal]. The one must not hate the other because of his own [uncircumcised] heart. Most assuredly he is to rebuke him on the day of the infraction so that he does not continue in sin. Also, no man is to bring a charge against his fellow before the general membership unless he has previously rebuked that man before witnesses.
Rules Concerning Food and Study
By these rules they are to govern themselves wherever they dwell, in accordance with each legal finding that bears upon communal life. Inferiors must obey their ranking superiors as regards to work and wealth. They will eat, pray, and deliberate communally. Wherever ten men belonging to the Yahad Commune are gathered, a priest must always be present. The men will sit before the priest by rank, and in that manner their opinions will be sought on any matter. When the table has been set for eating or the new wine readied for drinking, the priest is the one who will stretch out his hand first, blessing the first portion of the bread or the new wine. In any place where is gathered the ten-man minyan,[15] someone must always be engaged in study of the Torah, day and night, continually, each one taking his turn. The general membership will be diligent together for the first third of every night of the year, reading aloud from the Book, interpreting Scripture, and praying together.
Rules Concerning Meetings
This is the rule for the session of the general membership, each man being in his proper place. The priests will sit in the first row, the elders in the second, then the rest of the people, each in his proper place. In that order they will be questioned about any judgment, deliberation, or matter that may come before the general membership, so that each man may state his opinion to the Yahad Commune. None should interrupt the words of his comrade, speaking before his brother finishes what he has to say. Neither should anyone speak before another of higher rank. Only the man being questioned will speak in his turn. During the session of the general membership no man should say anything except by the permission of the general membership, or more particularly, of the man who is the Mevakre[16] of the general membership. If any man has something to say to the general membership, yet is of a lower rank than whoever is guiding the deliberations of the Yahad Commune, let him stand up. He should then say, “I have something to say to the general membership.” If they permit, he may speak.
Steps to Full Membership
If anyone of Israel volunteers for enrollment in the Yahad Commune, the man appointed as leader of the general membership will examine him regarding his understanding and works. If he has the potential for instruction, he is to begin initiation into the Covenant, returning to the truth and repenting of all perversity. He will be made to understand all the basic precepts of the Yahad. Subsequently in the process, he must stand before the general membership and the whole chapter will interrogate him about his particulars. According to the decision of the society of the general membership, he will either proceed or depart.
If he does proceed in joining the Yahad Commune, he must not touch the pure food of the general membership before they have examined him as to his spiritual fitness and works, and not before a full year has passed. Further, he must not yet mix his property with that of the general membership. When he has passed a full year in the Yahad, the general membership will inquire into the details of his understanding and works of the Torah, if it be ordained, in the opinion of the priests and the majority of the men of their Covenant, then he will be initiated further into the secret teaching of the Yahad. They will also take steps to incorporate his property, putting it under the authority of the Mevakre together with that of the general membership, and keeping an account of it— but it will not yet be disbursed along with that of the general membership.
The initiate[17] is not to touch the drink of the general membership prior to passing a second year among the men of the Yahad. When that second year has passed, the general membership will review his case. If it be ordained for him to proceed to full membership in the Yahad, they will enroll him at the appropriate rank among his brothers for discussion of the Torah, legal matters, participation in pure meals, and mixture of property. After that, the Yahad may draw upon his counsel and judgment.
Violations and Penalties
These are the rules by which cases are to be decided at a community inquiry. If there be found among them a man who has lied about money and done so knowingly, they will bar him from the pure meals of the general membership for one year; further, his ration of bread is to be reduced by one-fourth.[18] Anyone who answers his comrade defiantly or impatiently, thereby rejecting the instruction of his fellow and rebelling against the orders of his higher-ranked comrade, has usurped authority; he is to be punished by reduced rations and [exclusion from the pure meals] for one year.
Anyone who speaks aloud the M[ost] Esteemed Name of Elohim, [whether in haste] or in cursing or in blurting out at the time of trial or for any other reason, or while he is reading a book or praying, is to be expelled, never again to return to the Yahad Commune.
If anyone speaks angrily against one of the priests who is inscribed in the book, he is to be punished by reduced rations for one year and separated from the pure meals of the general membership, eating by himself. If, however, he spoke without premeditation, he will suffer reduced rations for only six months.
Anyone who knowingly lies is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
The man who accuses his comrade of sin, fully aware that he cannot prove the charge, is to suffer reduced rations for one year and be separated from the pure meals.
Whoever speaks with his companion deceitfully or knowingly practices fraud is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
If a man is drawn unawares into a fraudulent scheme by his comrade, then he is to be punished by reduced rations for only three months.
If money belonging to the Yahad is involved in a fraudulent scheme and lost, the man responsible must repay the sum from his own funds. If he lacks sufficient resources to repay it, then he is to suffer reduced rations for sixty days.
Whoever nurses a grudge against his companion — in blatant disregard of the Yahad statute about accusation on the very same day — is to be punished by reduced rations for six months. The same applies to the man who on any matter takes vengeance into his own hands.
Whoever speaks foolishness: three months.
Anyone interrupting his companion while in session: ten days.
Anyone who lies down and sleeps in a session of the general membership: thirty days.
The same applies to the man who leaves a session of the general membership without permission and without a good excuse three times in a single session. Up to the third time he will be punished by reduced rations only ten days. But if they have risen for prayer when he leaves, then he is suffer thirty days' reduced rations.
Anyone who walks about naked in the presence of a comrade, unless he is sick, is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
A man who spits into the midst of a session of the general membership is to be punished by reduced rations for thirty days.
Anyone who brings out his member from beneath his clothing — that is, his clothing is so full of holes that his nakedness is exposed — is to be punished by thirty days' reduced rations.
Anyone who bursts into foolish horse-laughter is to be punished by reduced rations for thirty days.
A man who draws out his left hand to gesture during conversation is to suffer ten days' reduced rations.
The man who gossips about his companion is to be barred for one year from the pure meals of the general membership and punished by reduced rations. But if a man gossips about the general membership, he is to be banished from them and may never return.
The man who murmurs against the secret teaching of the Yahad is to be banished, never to return. But if he murmurs against a comrade and cannot prove the charges, he is to be punished by reduced rations for six months.
The man whose spirit deviates from the secret teaching of the Yahad, such that he forsakes the truth and walks in the stubbornness of his heart – if he repents, he is to be punished by two years of reduced rations. During the first year, he is not to touch the pure food of the general membership; during the second year, he is not to touch their drink. He will rank lower than all the men of the Yahad. When two full years have passed, the general membership will inquire into his particulars. If they allow him to proceed, he will be enrolled at the appropriate rank and take part in discussions of community business.
Any man who, having been in the Yahad Commune for ten full years, backslides spiritually so that he forsakes the Yahad and leaves the general membership, walking in his willful heart, may never again return to the Yahad Commune.
Also, any man belonging to the Ya[had who sh]ares with him his own pure food, his own wealth [or that of] the Yahad, is to suffer the same verdict: he is to be exp[elled.]
The Inner Circle
In the Yahad Commune there will be twelve laymen and three priests who are blameless in the light of all that has been revealed from the whole Torah, so as to work truth, righteousness, justice, loving-kindness, and humility, one with another, they are to preserve faith in the land with self-control and a broken spirit, atoning for sin by working toward justice and interfering against[19] affliction. They are to walk with all by the standard of truth and the dictates proper to the age.
When men like these come to be in Israel, then the Yahad Commune will truly be established as an “enduring planting,”[20] a temple for Israel, and — a mystery! — the Qodesh Qodeshim for Aaron[21] —true witnesses to justice, chosen by Elohim's will to atone for the land and to pay the depraved their due. They will be “the tested wall, the precious cornerstone”[22] whose “foundations will neither be shaken nor swayed, a fortress, a Qodesh Qodeshim for Aaron, all of them knowing the Covenant of Justice and so offering a sweet savor. They will be a blameless and true house in Israel, up-holding the covenant of enduring statutes. They will be an acceptable sacrifice atoning for the land and ringing in the verdict against evil, so that perversity ceases to exist.
When these men have been grounded in the instruction of the Yahad for two years — provided they are blameless in their conduct — they will be set apart as Qadoshim in the midst of the men of the Yahad. No scriptural teaching discovered by the Teacher (but concealed from Israel) is to be hidden from these men out of fear that they might backslide.
When such men as these come to be in Israel, conforming to these teachings, they will separate from the session of perverse men to go to the wilderness, there to prepare the way of truth, as it is written, “In the wilderness prepare the way of YHWH, make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.”[23] This means the expounding of the Torah, decreed by Elohim through Moshe for obedience and being interpreted by what has been uncovered for each age, and by what the prophets have revealed by His Ruach haQodesh.
The Rules
No man belonging to the Covenant of the Yahad who flagrantly deviates from any command is to touch the Qadoshim’s pure food. Further, he is not to participate in any of their business until all his works have been cleansed from evil, so that he is again able to walk blamelessly. They will admit him into the business by the decision of the general membership; afterwards, he will be enrolled at an appropriate rank. This is also the procedure for every initiate added to the Yahad.
These are the rules by which the blameless Qadoshim will conduct themselves, one with another. Any covenant member of the Yahad haQodesh (they who walk blamelessly as He commanded) who transgresses even one commandment from the Torah of Moshe intentionally or deviously is to be expelled from the Yahad Commune, never to return. Further, none of the Qadoshim is to do business with that man or advise him on any matter whatsoever.
But if the sinner transgressed without intention, then he is to be separated from the pure food, community deliberations, and legal matters for two years. He may return to the study sessions and business if he does not again unintentionally sin for two full years. A single unintentional sin may be punished by this two-year process, but the intentional sinner will never again return. Only the accidental sinner will be tested by the general membership over a two-year period for blameless conduct and right understanding. Afterwards, he may be enrolled at the appropriate rank within the Yahad haQodesh.
The Community, its Purpose, and its Future
When, united by all these precepts, such men as these come to be a community in Israel, they will establish enduring truth guided by the instruction of His Ruach haQodesh. They will atone for the guilt of disobedience and the rebellion of sin, becoming an acceptable sacrifice for the land through the flesh of burnt offerings, the fat of sacrificial portions, and prayer, becoming — as it were — justice itself, a sweet savor of righteousness and blameless behavior, a pleasing freewill offering.
At that time the Yahadim will withdraw, the set-apart house of Aaron uniting as a Qadosh Qadoshim, and the synagogue of Israel as those who walk blamelessly. The sons of Aaron alone will have authority in judicial and financial matters. They will decide on governing precepts for the men of the Yahad and on money matters for the Qadoshim who walk blamelessly. Their wealth is not to be mixed with that of rebellious men, who have failed to cleanse their path by separating themselves from perversity and walking blamelessly. They will deviate from none of the Torah’s teachings; otherwise they would walk in their willful heart completely. They will govern themselves by utilizing the original principles in which the Yahadim were from the beginning instructed, doing so until the Prophet and Messiah of Aaron and Israel come forth.
Rules for the Yahad’s Teacher
The following are the rules for the Teacher. He is to conduct himself by them in his relations with everybody, guided by the principles appropriate for each era and the value of each person. He is to work the will of Elohim according to what has been revealed for each period in history, studying all the wise legal findings of earlier times, as well as every statute applying to his own time.
He is to discern the true Sons of Righteousness and to weigh each person's spiritual qualities, sustaining (in His term) the Bacharim[24] in keeping His will and all He has commanded. In each case He will decide for what a man's spiritual traits qualify him, allowing him enter the Yahad if his virtue and understanding of the Torah measure up. By the same standards He will determine each man's rank.
The Teacher must not criticize the Men of the Pit, nor argue with them about proper scriptural understanding. Quite the contrary: he should conceal his own Torah insight when among perverse men. He will save His criticism — which is established in true knowledge and righteous judgment — for those who have chosen the Way, treating each as his spiritual qualities and the rules of the time require. He will establish them in knowledge by teaching them truly amazing mysteries; then if the secret Way is perfected among the Yahadim, each will walk blamelessly with his companions, guided by what has been revealed to them. That will be the time of “preparing the way in the desert.”[25] He will instruct them in every legal finding that is to regulate their works in that time, and teach them to separate from every person who fails to keep from perversity.
The Teacher’s Rules of Love & Hatred
These are the rules of the Way for the Teacher in these times, as to His loving and hating: enduring hatred yet employing a concealing spirit for the Men of the Pit! He will leave them their wealth and profit like a slave does his master — presently humble before His oppressor, but a zealot for Elohim's Torah whose time will come: even during the Day of Vengeance. He will work Elohim's will when He attacks the vile and exercises authority as He has commanded, so that He is pleased with all that is done, as with a freewill offering. Other than Elohim's will, He will delight in nothing else, finding pleasure only in [ev]ery word of His mouth. He will desire nothing that He has not commanded, ceaselessly seeking the [Tor]ah of Elohim. He will bless his Creator [for all of His good]ness, and re[count His loving-kindness] in all that is to be.
The Teacher in Prayer
He will bless Him at the times ordained of Elohim [with pray]er: when the daylight begins its dominion — each time it returns — and when, as ordained, it is regathered into its dwelling; when night begins its watches — as He opens His storehouse and spreads darkness over the earth — and when it cycles back, withdrawing before the light; when the luminaries show forth from their sacred space, and when they are regathered into their lofty place; when the times appointed for new moons arrive, and when, as their seasons require, each gives way to the next. Such renewal is special for the Qadosh Qadoshim; indeed, it is a sign that He is unlocking enduring loving-kindness each time these cycles renew as ordained, and so it will be for every age yet to come.
On the first of each month in its season, and on yomim tov[26] laid down as remembrances, in their seasons, I will bless Him in prayer — as a written rule forever — yea, when each new year begins and when its seasons turn, fulfilling the Torah in their decree, each day as set forth, day after day: harvest giving way to summer, planting to the shoots of spring, seasons, years, and weeks of years.
When weeks of years begin, Jubilee by Jubilee, while I live, the commandment will be inscribed on my tongue — with praise as its fruit, the gift of my lips. I will loudly and skillfully sing my music for the esteem of Elohim only — my harp and my lyre I touch the strings for His sanctity — I will lift up the flute of my lips with His Torah its tuning fork. At break of day and with the darkening of the sky, I will enter the Covenant of Elohim, and when they all leave I will recite His Ordinances; then I will set out the bounds of my path, never to turn back.
By His Torah I will convict myself, my iniquity the measure, my sin as a statute engraved before my eyes. To Elohim will I say, O, my Righteousness: all to El Elyon. O, You Seat of my Goodness, Spring of Da’at and Fount of Qodesha; Kavod ha Gadol, El Shaddai, Shekinah l’Olam!
What He teaches me, that will I choose; as He judges me, so will I delight. When first I begin my plan or journey, I will bless His name; when first I set out or turn to come back; when I sit down or rise up, when I spread my bed, then I will rejoice in Him. I will bless Him with the offering, the issue of my lips when in the ranks; before I lift hand to mouth to taste the ground’s pleasant bounty; when fear or terror break out, in the place of dire straits or desolation, I will praise Him.
I will meditate on His miracles and powerful acts; I will contemplate His loving-kindness, upon which I will rely all day long. Then will I know that the judgment of all the living reside in His hand, and all His works are truth. When I break out in depression, I will praise Him, and in His salvation will I rejoice.
To no one will I return evil for evil; I will go after a person only for good; for with Elohim resides the judgment of all the living, and He will compensate each one. My zeal will not be tarnished by a mean spirit, and I will not lust for riches gained through violence.
I will not take custody of the evil multitude until the Day of Vengeance; yet my fury will never subside from the Men of the Pit, and I will never be satisfied until righteousness will be established. I will not harbor a grudge of wrath against anyone repenting of sin yet I will neither love anyone who rebels against the Way; I will not comfort those smitten with sin until their walk is perfected. And I will give no refuge in my heart to Belial.
The Teacher’s Righteous Confessions
Neither foolishness nor sinful deceit will be heard from my mouth; neither fraud nor lies will be discovered between my lips.[27] Rather, qadosh fruits will be on my tongue — abominations will not be found there. I will open my mouth in thanksgiving, my tongue will always tell of Elohim’s righteousness. The rebellion accounted to man and made complete by sin will I purge from my lips as futility; I will erase impure and devious designs from my mind. In counsel with wisdom, I will speak of knowledge: both prudence and wisdom; and I will wrap it close about me to preserve my faith and strict judgment — conforming to the righteousness of Elohim.
I will mete out the rules by the proper measure to each time; [dispense] righteousness and loving-kindness to those cast down; and strongly encourage the anxious. [I will teach] those in error bout spiritual understanding, instructing complainers with wisdom — to answer in humility the arrogant of broken spirit, those who oppress, ridicule, speak vainly, and are zealous only for wealth. Elohim is the source of whatever goodness the worshiper may claim, and the truths that he possesses — hidden from others — are given only by Elohim.
As for me, my justification is with Elohim. The perfection of my walk and the virtue of my heart are in His hand. My disobedience is blotted out by His righteousness. My light shot forth from the fountain of His knowledge; my eye gazed on his wonders and the light of my heart on the mystery of what will happen.
The one who holds out is my right hand’s staff, my steps tread on the Mighty Rock: nothing will make them retreat now; for the truth of Elohim is the rock on which I step, and His mighty power is what my right hand holds. From His righteous fount comes my justification, the light of my heart from His wondrous mysteries.
My eye has gazed upon the future and the hidden wisdom: even at all the knowledge and wise prudence that has been concealed from all humanity. The source of righteousness, the gathering of power, and the abode of radiance are hidden from the counsel of flesh.
He has given all these to the Bacharim as an enduring possession. He has made them heirs in the bequest of the Qadoshim, and, along with the Malachim, He has united them in the assembly, a Yahad society.[28] They are an assembly built up to be set-apart, an enduring Planting for all ages to come.
As for me, I belong to evil humanity and the counsel of perverse flesh. My transgressions, evils, sins, and corrupt heart belong to the counsel of wormy rot with those who walk in darkness.
Surely a man's way is not his own; neither can any person firm up his own step. Surely justification is of Elohim; by His power is the way made perfect. All that will be, He foreknows, all that is, His plans establish; apart from Him is nothing accomplished.
As for me, if I stumble, Elohim's loving-kindness will save me every time. If through the sin of the flesh I fall, my justification will be by the righteousness of Elohim that endures for all time. Though my affliction breaks out upon me, He will draw my soul back from the Pit, and bolster my steps on the way. Through His love He has brought me close; by His loving-kindness He will provide my justification. By His righteous truth He has acquitted me; and through His exceeding goodness He will atone for all my sins. He cleans human defilement and disgrace from me by His righteousness to the end that I praise Elohim for His righteousness; yea, the Most High for His Radiance.
Blessed are You, O Eli, who has opened the mind of Your servant to knowledge. Establish all of his {the Teacher’s} works in righteousness; if it please You, raise up the son of Your handmaiden to be among those chosen out of humankind, to stand before You forever.[29]
Surely apart from You the way cannot be completed, nor can anything be finished unless it please You. You teach all knowledge and all that will happen, and by Your will it will al come to pass. Apart from You there is no one else able to dispute Your counsel, or fathom the design of Your devotion, or penetrate the depth of Your mysteries, or apprehend Your wonders and surpassing power.
Who can Your radiance measure? Who, indeed, is man among Your famous works? As how can he, born of a woman, be reckoned in comparison with You? Molded out of dirt, his body is the worm food; he is just so much spit and chewed off clay — craving only more clay.
Will the clay challenge the expertise of the One who designed the vase?
[1] Qadoshim = the class of people set apart from perversity.
[2] Yahad’s Rule = The Yahad is the Community of the Like-minded. It means something like “those in one accord.” The Rule is the collected constitution and by-laws of the Yahad collected down through time beginning with Torah. Many of the Rules are set forth in this document.
[3] Wise et al has “canon.”
[4] Initiant = One preparing for initiation, as distinguished from one who has been initiated -- the latter being an initiate.
[5] Belial = “the swallower,” or “the worthless one.” Belial is the Angel of Corruption or Destruction. In the time of the scrolls, his dominion may have been a personification of the foreigner power over the land of Israel, and certainly was a type of the Jerusalem Temple administration. “The Dominion of Darkness” is mentioned in Colossians, and the Apostle Paul referred previously to Belial (or Beliar) as the devil in 2 Corinthians 6:15.
[6] Deut. 29:18-19. This peace is a self-delusion, according to the Teacher.
[7] Leviticus 13:45.
[8] “Gifts” is used very generally. Wise has “varieties”; either way, Romans 12:6 is essentially the same as this pericope.
[9] Wise, affliction.
[10] Wise has “volunteer” or “volunteers” wherever I have “those who have come forward.”
[11] Zeph. 1:6.
[12] Lev. 22:16. Cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14.
[13] Exod. 23:7.
[14] Isa. 2:22.
[15] Minyan = quorum required for certain religious obligations.
[16] Mevakre, Mebakker, Mebachar = the one chosen as the chief Mevakre of the commune.
[17] Now the candidate has gone from being an initiant to an initiate,
[18] CF. Acts 5:3.
[19] Wise, “buffering affliction.”
[20] Jubilees 16:26.
[21] Qodesh Qodeshim = the shrine commonly known as the “Holy of Holies.”Aaron is the prototypical high priest.
[22] Isaiah 28:16.
[23] Isaiah 40:3.
[24] Bacharim = chosen ones, the elect.
[25] Isaiah 40:3.
[26] Yomim tov = high days, scriptural festivals.
[27] Cf. James 3:1-12.
[28] The Qadoshim, people who are keeping the rules, and Malachim, who are by and large supernatural beings (angels), are together joined in the assembly – thus the title Yahad, which means ‘being one’ or ‘coming together as one.’
[29] The Teacher desires to be of the Bacharim, which he may well be since the Yahad believes in total predestination.
The Ancient Sermon
from the Damascus Document
(CD, Geniza A + B, 4Q266 – 272)
The sermon from the Dead Sea Scrolls is dated between 150 BC and 50 AD, with the progressive scholars dating it even later - to after 62 AD, the year that the Messiah's brother Ya'aqov (James the Just) was executed by the High Priest Ananus. According to the 'progressives,
the Teacher of Righteousness is James,
the Shoddy-Wall Builders, Whitewashers, and Boundary Shifters are the Pharisees,
the Sons of Zadok & Household of Torah are the Righteous Priests of Acts 6:7,
and the Spitter of Lies is the Apostle Paul (see, for instance, Galatians 1:19,20).
The other characters in this sermon are, from the progressive viewpoint, not so difficult to identify. Therefore, the sermon is absolutely loaded with Nazorean / Essene concepts that later carry over into the New Testament, related writings, and the practices of the so-called 'Jesus Movement' of 35 - 70 AD.
Other presentations of this text is accessed here:
Italicized words from Manuscript B. Words within curly brackets {} are added for clarity. Words in < > are lacunae supplied by the authors. Words in bold have been emphasized by the editor. This is a modified version of the texts as found in The Dead Sea Scrolls - A New Translation, by Wise, Abegg & Cook (1996).
You may find it useful to click through the terms as you listen to the message.
Technical Terms / Characters / Places
[ ] The Sword
[ ] The Remnant
[ ] Rebellious Israel, a Company of Traitors
[ ] 390 years / 20 years
[ ] The Root
[ ] The Man / Men of Mockery / Spitter of Lies
[ ] The Boundary-Shifters
[ ] True Religion
[ ] The Fine Neck
[ ] The Annihilation
[ ] The Malachim of Destruction
[ ] The Rule / Rules
[ ] Set-apart Spirit
[ ] The Fallen Sky Malachim
[ ] The Friends of Elohim
[ ] The Commandments of Elohim
[ ] The Covenant of Elohim
[ ] A Faithful House
[ ] Zadok, Sons of Zadok
[ ] The Last Days
[ ] The House of Yahuda v. The House of Zadok
[ ] Belial
[ ] The Three Nets of Belial
[ ] The Shoddy Wall-builders
[ ] The Prince of Lights
[ ] The Anointed of the Spirit
[ ] The Well and the Rod
[ ] Damashek (Damascus)
[ ] The (Beloved) Teacher of Righteousness
[ ] The Man of the Lie
[ ] The Household of Torah
[ ] The Diggers
[ ] The Whitewashers
[ ] The City of Sanctuary
[ ] One’s Set-apart Spirit
[ ] The Two Houses of Israel
[ ] The Star, The Interpreter of the Torah
[ ] Sons of Sheth (Shat)
[ ] The Day of Judgment
[ ] The Snakes, their Eggs & Wine
[ ] The Whitewashers
[ ] The Moshiach
[ ] The Men of Sacred Perfection
[ ] The Household of Torah
[ ] The New Covenant (in the Land of Damashek)
[ ] The Man of the Lie
[ ] The Separatists
[ ] The Members of Yahad
Introduction to the Sermon
Listen, all you who recognize righteousness, and consider the deeds of Elohim. When he has a dispute with any mortal, he passes judgment on those who spurn him. For when Israel abandoned him by being faithless, he turned away from them and from His sanctuary and gave them up to the sword. But when He called to mind the covenant He made with their forefathers, He left a remnant for Israel and did not allow them to be exterminated. In the era of wrath – three hundred and ninety years at the time He handed them over to the power of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon – He took care of them and caused to grow from Israel and from Aaron a root of planting to inherit his land and to grow fat on the good produce of His soil. They considered their iniquity and they knew that they were guilty men, and had been like the blind and like those groping for the way twenty years. But Elohim considered their deeds, that they had sought Him with a whole heart. So He raised up for them a teacher of righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart. He taught to later generations what Elohim did to the generation deserving wrath, a company of traitors. They are the ones who depart from the proper way. That is the time of which it was written, “Like a rebellious cow,” so rebelled Israel.[1]
Jeremiah in Ireland
Excerpt from
The Lost Ten Tribes
By REV. JOSEPH WILD, D. D.
Late Pastor of Congregational Churches at Brooklyn, N. Y. and Toronto
BOSTON, A. A. BEAUCHAMP
I 9 I 9
Jacob's Stone.
Tara. Lothair Croffin was changed into Tara at the time of the wedding. Tara means law. Thus began the seed of David to take root, and from there it spread over all Ireland, then to Scotland, thence to England, and Jacob's Stone in Westminster Abbey marks the journey of David's throne, and has always kept with the seed, and they have been always crowned on it. Ezekiel's riddle is at once solved. The tender twigs were Zedekiah's daughters. One of these twigs was planted by the great waters in a land of traffic. Our Episcopalian friends intended by their beautiful service to aid the members of their communion to read in order, and through the Bible, or a given portion of each chapter, once per year. But strange to say, this 17th chapter of Ezekiel, they have left out both of the Old and New Lectionary. It is itself a riddle, why this should so happen, that the only two chapters of the Bible left out or prescribed are the 17th and 21st of Ezekiel; surely blindness in part has happened to Israel, and what we esteemed as accidental in the increased light of Revelation, stands to view as the ordered purposes of an all-seeing God.
The royal standard of England has nine lions on it, and a unicorn. Let anyone set this standard before him as a map, the right hand will represent East, the top North, left West, the bottom South. The unicorn comes from the East, it has a chain around its neck. So the Tribe of Benjamin came that way, and, as Normans, were finally attached to the throne. The big lion comes from the West, so it did from Ireland to Scotland and London. On the top we have a crown, and on the top of this we have a lion. On the first quarter are three lions, second quarter one, on the third a stringed harp with an angel's head, and on the fourth three lions, the total of lions nine, and an unicorn. The fact is, this standard, had we time, teaches a world of history, and with the Psalmist we may say: "Thou hast given a banner, to them that fear Thee ; that it may be displayed because of the truth" (Psa. ix. 14). The genealogy and descent of King Edward from Zedekiah is to be had.
This genealogy has been completed by the faithful and very persevering labours of Rev. F. R. A. Glover, M.A., and Rev. A. B. Grimaldi, M. A., and later writers. The chart is supposed to be as near perfect as any such thing can be. Thus do we see how God has kept His word to David, and with this view, English and American history are at once understandable. The future is assuring and grand. God will assuredly overturn till His throne once more is planted in Jerusalem.
Discourse XVI. — Jeremiah and St. Patrick.
The Prophet's Commission — His Life — The Tribes in His Day — Landing of Jeremiah in Ireland — What He Brought With Him — Colonization of Ireland — Jeremiah the Founder of the Ancient Irish Government and Religion — Tea Tephi and Heremon — The Ancient Irish Flag — The Harp and Lion — Season of Ireland's Historical Prestige — Causes of Her Decline — St. Patrick a Benjamite — Hozv Rome Destroyed Jeremiah's Memory Among the Irish — Destruction of Tara — Ulster Never Conquered — Irish Independence — Ark of the Covenant.
"See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." — Jer. i. 10.
In these words we have set forth the Divine commission given to the prophet Jeremiah. Never before, or since, was such a commission given to mortal man. It is not that Jeremiah is constituted a prophet for his own people, or over his own nation, and country, but he was divinely appointed and set over the nations and kingdoms of the earth, with an authority "to root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down." Surely he was rightly named, for the word Jeremiah means the exalted, or appointed one of the Lord. By common consent, the Jews gave him the first place and name among the prophets. Up to the time of the Babylonian captivity he was second, Isaiah being first. But after the captivity on the re-arrangement of the holy canon, his name was put first, and ever after he was regarded and accepted as the patron saint of Judaea. He was born of a priestly family, about 641 B.C., in the priestly town of Anathoth, which was situated a few miles North of Jerusalem, in the territory of Benjamin. His work and commission awaited, because they antedated his birth, for he says (chapter i. 4), "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah's life work, extent and devotion, can only find a parallel in the majesty and compass of his commission. It is the extent of this commission that I wish you would specially notice, for it is neither tribal nor national in its limitations. He was ordained a prophet unto the nations. Hear the voice of his wailing (chapter xv. 10), "Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth."
Consistent with the vastness of this commission is the recorded fact that he was forbidden to marry in his own land, for "the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons and daughters in this place" (Jeremiah xvi. 2). The claims of a wife and cares of a family could only have been harshly fitted on to such a work and commission. Indeed, every peculiar fact in the life of Jeremiah may be best accounted for by taking into consideration the greatness of his commission. To discard this is simply to invite confusion, and yet, strange to say, many prefer confusion rather than admit that he performed the role assigned him of Heaven. For this very reason writers, even Jewish historians, are at a loss to account for the latter half of the prophet's life. They do not seem to know where he spent his last days ; they know not the time, manner, nor place of his death. And why, you ask? We answer, because they selfishly and persistently limited his life and labours to his own land. They have not been willing to allow that he has set as a prophet over nations and kingdoms. Then again, they have been willing to allow him to be a puller down and destroyer, but not a builder and planter. To grant that he was a builder and planter, would have obliged them to have found the place of his building and the objects of his planting. These they well knew could not be found in Palestine, and they were as loath as many are unwilling to-day to permit Jeremiah to leave his own land. A man who would be equal to the Bible must be large-hearted, generous and free, not fettered and bound by the errors of youthful training, the selfishness of sectarianism, the bigotry of orthodoxy or the indifference of infidelity, but seek the truth, no matter from whence, or what it upsets or overturns of preconceived ideas. The command is, "Prove all things and hold fast that which is good." To hear some people talk and lament, you would think that the command was, Prove nothing, but hold hard on to what you have got.
Try now, and reasonably and patiently follow me while I trace the wanderings of Jeremiah to Old Ireland. You will be surprised to find how intimate Irishology and theology are.
[2] Yahad’s Rule = The Yahad is the Community of the Like-minded. It means something like “those in one accord.” The Rule is the collected constitution and by-laws of the Yahad collected down through time beginning with Torah. Many of the Rules are set forth in this document.
[3] Wise et al has “canon.”
[4] Initiant = One preparing for initiation, as distinguished from one who has been initiated -- the latter being an initiate.
[5] Belial = “the swallower,” or “the worthless one.” Belial is the Angel of Corruption or Destruction. In the time of the scrolls, his dominion may have been a personification of the foreigner power over the land of Israel, and certainly was a type of the Jerusalem Temple administration. “The Dominion of Darkness” is mentioned in Colossians, and the Apostle Paul referred previously to Belial (or Beliar) as the devil in 2 Corinthians 6:15.
[6] Deut. 29:18-19. This peace is a self-delusion, according to the Teacher.
[7] Leviticus 13:45.
[8] “Gifts” is used very generally. Wise has “varieties”; either way, Romans 12:6 is essentially the same as this pericope.
[9] Wise, affliction.
[10] Wise has “volunteer” or “volunteers” wherever I have “those who have come forward.”
[11] Zeph. 1:6.
[12] Lev. 22:16. Cf. 2 Corinthians 6:14.
[13] Exod. 23:7.
[14] Isa. 2:22.
[15] Minyan = quorum required for certain religious obligations.
[16] Mevakre, Mebakker, Mebachar = the one chosen as the chief Mevakre of the commune.
[17] Now the candidate has gone from being an initiant to an initiate,
[18] CF. Acts 5:3.
[19] Wise, “buffering affliction.”
[20] Jubilees 16:26.
[21] Qodesh Qodeshim = the shrine commonly known as the “Holy of Holies.”Aaron is the prototypical high priest.
[22] Isaiah 28:16.
[23] Isaiah 40:3.
[24] Bacharim = chosen ones, the elect.
[25] Isaiah 40:3.
[26] Yomim tov = high days, scriptural festivals.
[27] Cf. James 3:1-12.
[28] The Qadoshim, people who are keeping the rules, and Malachim, who are by and large supernatural beings (angels), are together joined in the assembly – thus the title Yahad, which means ‘being one’ or ‘coming together as one.’
[29] The Teacher desires to be of the Bacharim, which he may well be since the Yahad believes in total predestination.
The Ancient Sermon
from the Damascus Document
(CD, Geniza A + B, 4Q266 – 272)
The sermon from the Dead Sea Scrolls is dated between 150 BC and 50 AD, with the progressive scholars dating it even later - to after 62 AD, the year that the Messiah's brother Ya'aqov (James the Just) was executed by the High Priest Ananus. According to the 'progressives,
the Teacher of Righteousness is James,
the Shoddy-Wall Builders, Whitewashers, and Boundary Shifters are the Pharisees,
the Sons of Zadok & Household of Torah are the Righteous Priests of Acts 6:7,
and the Spitter of Lies is the Apostle Paul (see, for instance, Galatians 1:19,20).
The other characters in this sermon are, from the progressive viewpoint, not so difficult to identify. Therefore, the sermon is absolutely loaded with Nazorean / Essene concepts that later carry over into the New Testament, related writings, and the practices of the so-called 'Jesus Movement' of 35 - 70 AD.
Other presentations of this text is accessed here:
Italicized words from Manuscript B. Words within curly brackets {} are added for clarity. Words in < > are lacunae supplied by the authors. Words in bold have been emphasized by the editor. This is a modified version of the texts as found in The Dead Sea Scrolls - A New Translation, by Wise, Abegg & Cook (1996).
You may find it useful to click through the terms as you listen to the message.
Technical Terms / Characters / Places
[ ] The Sword
[ ] The Remnant
[ ] Rebellious Israel, a Company of Traitors
[ ] 390 years / 20 years
[ ] The Root
[ ] The Man / Men of Mockery / Spitter of Lies
[ ] The Boundary-Shifters
[ ] True Religion
[ ] The Fine Neck
[ ] The Annihilation
[ ] The Malachim of Destruction
[ ] The Rule / Rules
[ ] Set-apart Spirit
[ ] The Fallen Sky Malachim
[ ] The Friends of Elohim
[ ] The Commandments of Elohim
[ ] The Covenant of Elohim
[ ] A Faithful House
[ ] Zadok, Sons of Zadok
[ ] The Last Days
[ ] The House of Yahuda v. The House of Zadok
[ ] Belial
[ ] The Three Nets of Belial
[ ] The Shoddy Wall-builders
[ ] The Prince of Lights
[ ] The Anointed of the Spirit
[ ] The Well and the Rod
[ ] Damashek (Damascus)
[ ] The (Beloved) Teacher of Righteousness
[ ] The Man of the Lie
[ ] The Household of Torah
[ ] The Diggers
[ ] The Whitewashers
[ ] The City of Sanctuary
[ ] One’s Set-apart Spirit
[ ] The Two Houses of Israel
[ ] The Star, The Interpreter of the Torah
[ ] Sons of Sheth (Shat)
[ ] The Day of Judgment
[ ] The Snakes, their Eggs & Wine
[ ] The Whitewashers
[ ] The Moshiach
[ ] The Men of Sacred Perfection
[ ] The Household of Torah
[ ] The New Covenant (in the Land of Damashek)
[ ] The Man of the Lie
[ ] The Separatists
[ ] The Members of Yahad
Introduction to the Sermon
Listen, all you who recognize righteousness, and consider the deeds of Elohim. When he has a dispute with any mortal, he passes judgment on those who spurn him. For when Israel abandoned him by being faithless, he turned away from them and from His sanctuary and gave them up to the sword. But when He called to mind the covenant He made with their forefathers, He left a remnant for Israel and did not allow them to be exterminated. In the era of wrath – three hundred and ninety years at the time He handed them over to the power of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon – He took care of them and caused to grow from Israel and from Aaron a root of planting to inherit his land and to grow fat on the good produce of His soil. They considered their iniquity and they knew that they were guilty men, and had been like the blind and like those groping for the way twenty years. But Elohim considered their deeds, that they had sought Him with a whole heart. So He raised up for them a teacher of righteousness to guide them in the way of His heart. He taught to later generations what Elohim did to the generation deserving wrath, a company of traitors. They are the ones who depart from the proper way. That is the time of which it was written, “Like a rebellious cow,” so rebelled Israel.[1]
Jeremiah in Ireland
Excerpt from
The Lost Ten Tribes
By REV. JOSEPH WILD, D. D.
Late Pastor of Congregational Churches at Brooklyn, N. Y. and Toronto
BOSTON, A. A. BEAUCHAMP
I 9 I 9
Jacob's Stone.
Tara. Lothair Croffin was changed into Tara at the time of the wedding. Tara means law. Thus began the seed of David to take root, and from there it spread over all Ireland, then to Scotland, thence to England, and Jacob's Stone in Westminster Abbey marks the journey of David's throne, and has always kept with the seed, and they have been always crowned on it. Ezekiel's riddle is at once solved. The tender twigs were Zedekiah's daughters. One of these twigs was planted by the great waters in a land of traffic. Our Episcopalian friends intended by their beautiful service to aid the members of their communion to read in order, and through the Bible, or a given portion of each chapter, once per year. But strange to say, this 17th chapter of Ezekiel, they have left out both of the Old and New Lectionary. It is itself a riddle, why this should so happen, that the only two chapters of the Bible left out or prescribed are the 17th and 21st of Ezekiel; surely blindness in part has happened to Israel, and what we esteemed as accidental in the increased light of Revelation, stands to view as the ordered purposes of an all-seeing God.
The royal standard of England has nine lions on it, and a unicorn. Let anyone set this standard before him as a map, the right hand will represent East, the top North, left West, the bottom South. The unicorn comes from the East, it has a chain around its neck. So the Tribe of Benjamin came that way, and, as Normans, were finally attached to the throne. The big lion comes from the West, so it did from Ireland to Scotland and London. On the top we have a crown, and on the top of this we have a lion. On the first quarter are three lions, second quarter one, on the third a stringed harp with an angel's head, and on the fourth three lions, the total of lions nine, and an unicorn. The fact is, this standard, had we time, teaches a world of history, and with the Psalmist we may say: "Thou hast given a banner, to them that fear Thee ; that it may be displayed because of the truth" (Psa. ix. 14). The genealogy and descent of King Edward from Zedekiah is to be had.
This genealogy has been completed by the faithful and very persevering labours of Rev. F. R. A. Glover, M.A., and Rev. A. B. Grimaldi, M. A., and later writers. The chart is supposed to be as near perfect as any such thing can be. Thus do we see how God has kept His word to David, and with this view, English and American history are at once understandable. The future is assuring and grand. God will assuredly overturn till His throne once more is planted in Jerusalem.
Discourse XVI. — Jeremiah and St. Patrick.
The Prophet's Commission — His Life — The Tribes in His Day — Landing of Jeremiah in Ireland — What He Brought With Him — Colonization of Ireland — Jeremiah the Founder of the Ancient Irish Government and Religion — Tea Tephi and Heremon — The Ancient Irish Flag — The Harp and Lion — Season of Ireland's Historical Prestige — Causes of Her Decline — St. Patrick a Benjamite — Hozv Rome Destroyed Jeremiah's Memory Among the Irish — Destruction of Tara — Ulster Never Conquered — Irish Independence — Ark of the Covenant.
"See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." — Jer. i. 10.
In these words we have set forth the Divine commission given to the prophet Jeremiah. Never before, or since, was such a commission given to mortal man. It is not that Jeremiah is constituted a prophet for his own people, or over his own nation, and country, but he was divinely appointed and set over the nations and kingdoms of the earth, with an authority "to root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down." Surely he was rightly named, for the word Jeremiah means the exalted, or appointed one of the Lord. By common consent, the Jews gave him the first place and name among the prophets. Up to the time of the Babylonian captivity he was second, Isaiah being first. But after the captivity on the re-arrangement of the holy canon, his name was put first, and ever after he was regarded and accepted as the patron saint of Judaea. He was born of a priestly family, about 641 B.C., in the priestly town of Anathoth, which was situated a few miles North of Jerusalem, in the territory of Benjamin. His work and commission awaited, because they antedated his birth, for he says (chapter i. 4), "Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah's life work, extent and devotion, can only find a parallel in the majesty and compass of his commission. It is the extent of this commission that I wish you would specially notice, for it is neither tribal nor national in its limitations. He was ordained a prophet unto the nations. Hear the voice of his wailing (chapter xv. 10), "Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth."
Consistent with the vastness of this commission is the recorded fact that he was forbidden to marry in his own land, for "the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons and daughters in this place" (Jeremiah xvi. 2). The claims of a wife and cares of a family could only have been harshly fitted on to such a work and commission. Indeed, every peculiar fact in the life of Jeremiah may be best accounted for by taking into consideration the greatness of his commission. To discard this is simply to invite confusion, and yet, strange to say, many prefer confusion rather than admit that he performed the role assigned him of Heaven. For this very reason writers, even Jewish historians, are at a loss to account for the latter half of the prophet's life. They do not seem to know where he spent his last days ; they know not the time, manner, nor place of his death. And why, you ask? We answer, because they selfishly and persistently limited his life and labours to his own land. They have not been willing to allow that he has set as a prophet over nations and kingdoms. Then again, they have been willing to allow him to be a puller down and destroyer, but not a builder and planter. To grant that he was a builder and planter, would have obliged them to have found the place of his building and the objects of his planting. These they well knew could not be found in Palestine, and they were as loath as many are unwilling to-day to permit Jeremiah to leave his own land. A man who would be equal to the Bible must be large-hearted, generous and free, not fettered and bound by the errors of youthful training, the selfishness of sectarianism, the bigotry of orthodoxy or the indifference of infidelity, but seek the truth, no matter from whence, or what it upsets or overturns of preconceived ideas. The command is, "Prove all things and hold fast that which is good." To hear some people talk and lament, you would think that the command was, Prove nothing, but hold hard on to what you have got.
Try now, and reasonably and patiently follow me while I trace the wanderings of Jeremiah to Old Ireland. You will be surprised to find how intimate Irishology and theology are.
Ireland and the Tribe of Dan have a peculiar history, which history only can be made plain by reference to the Bible. Ireland has had much to undergo, yet of it God says, "To the island He will repay — recompense: so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West."
Ireland's first name was Scuite's Land, or the Island of the Wanderers. Her second name was Scotia Major, and Scotland was Scotia Minor, and England was Tarshish, and Dannoii and Baratamac, or Land of Eirin. Yar in-Eirin means the land of the setting sun. Hibernia is a Hebrew word, and means from beyond the river or waters.
Two colonies settled in Ireland : the first, the Phoenicians, who were the Philistines or ancient Canaanites ; the second settlers were the Tuath de Danan, meaning the Tribe of Dan. The words are Hebrew, yet in Irish. For further information let anyone read "Pinnock's Catechism on Ireland." The Phoenicians were a seafaring people; pressed by Israel, Egypt, and Assyria, they finally left Canaan, and settled in Ireland. We find nine-tenths of Irish historians agreeing on this. Then the monuments teach the same — ancient inscriptions, one of which written was, "We are Canaanites who have fled from Joshua, the son of Nun, the robber." The people who show tourists the seven churches of Glendenlough, say they are Hittites and Hivites. Again, ruins of Baal temples. Cromlechs, round towers, go to confirm the same. Customs — Baal fires, on May eve, in Irish Ninna-baal-tinne ; funeral wakes, or cup of consolation, forbidden to Israel when they sought to copy after the Philistines. '"Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for father or mother" (Jer. xvi.7). The Irish language came from the Phoenician, the alphabet of both being composed of sixteen letters originally, the only alphabet in the world so agreeing. From the Irish came the Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, and the Manx from them all.
The second settlement of Ireland is what puzzles historians of to-day — not the old historians, for they, nine out of ten, admit that the Formorians, Firbolgs and Tuath de Danans, were one and the same people. They were a divine folk. The Tribe of Dan was a seafaring Tribe, trading from Tyre to Tarshish for tin, and so became acquainted with the British Isles, and during Ahab's persecution many of them fled; so of the Simeonites who settled in Wales. This shows us why the North and South of Ireland should be so distinct to this day in religion, enterprise and general characteristics. When the tribe of Dan finally left Palestine, they with the other Nine Tribes went North, settling in Denmark, as in the North of Ireland, leaving their names on rivers, hills, cities and things.
It is this that accounts for so many words of a Hebrew origin being found in the Irish language. General Valiancy has compared thousands and finds them thus related to the Hebrew. Instance: Jobhan-Moran, Chief Justice; Rectaire, Judge; Mur-Ollam, School of the Prophets; Ollam-FoUa, Divine Teacher ; Mergech, a Depository ; Tara, Law ; Tephi, Prince of the East; Lia-Fail, Stone of Destiny; Eben Gedoulah, precious stone.
If to Irish history we join Bible history, all is plain. God promised David repeatedly that he should always have his throne and on it his seed. The permanence of David's throne makes it a fit type of Christ's. Now, Jeremiah took charge of Zedekiah's daughter when Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews captive. He went to Egypt, then escaped, God promising to keep him whithersoever he went. So he disappears. No account of his death in the Bible. He had charge of the ark of the covenant, royal seed and Jacob's pillow— the stone of Israel. Irish histories, some twenty of which we find agree, say that about 585 b.c a divine man landed in Ulster, halving with him the king's daughter, stone of destiny, and ark, and many other wonderful things. The people of Ulster of Dan understood the old adventurer. Jeremiah married Tephi, Zedekiah's daughter, to Eochaid, who agreed to abandon Baal worship and build a school for the prophets. So he did. He then assumed the title of Heremon of Tara. Now, at Tara, Jeremiah buried the ark of the covenant, tables of law, etc and instituted the nine-arch degree of Masonry, to keep in mind its hiding-place — so all may understand Jer. iii. 16: "And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord: they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more." This means that when the ark is found the ceremony will end ; for the ark has to be found and go before the Jews when they return to their own land. Jeremiah was the first Grand Master. He, too, is the real St. Patrick — simply the Patriarchal Saint, which became St. Patriarch, then St. Patrick. The Roman Church introduced St. Patrick to offset the St. Patriarch.
Jeremiah well knew where the Tribes of Israel were in his day. He knew that Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, were in Babylon, filling in the seventy years of captivity, and the small remnant that Nebuchadnezzar left of them in Judah were scattered hither and thither. The Nine Tribes, or Israel, were settled in Central Asia, and were spreading Northward and Westward. This he knew, as easily as Peter did centuries after, when he wrote his epistle to the brethren, scattered abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia ; or as James, who dedicated his epistle to the Twelve Tribes which were scattered abroad ; or as the Blessed Master, commissioned and sent His disciples after the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
The place and locality of the Nine Tribes were known to the Jewish nation in the time of Josephus, the historian, for he speaks of them, and gives them a fraternal letter which the House of Judah sent unto the House of Israel. You are to keep in mind that it is after this the Tribes of Israel are to be lost. All prophecies after 700 b.c up to this, our day, and till about 1888 a.d., that had reference to Israel, plainly mark out the dwelling-place of these Tribes, and yet these prophecies not being understood, till these latter days, Israel was as plainly lost as if there had been no such prophecies. These prophecies were first sent North, then West, and then to the "isles of the sea." The law of the Gospel of Jesus would be sent to these Tribes: till then the "isles had to wait for the law." In due time this law was carried to them by the missionaries of the Tribe of Benjamin. This very thing and time the prophet had foretold, for he says: "Wherefore glorify ye the Lord by the Urim; the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the Western sea." How true, indeed, "the isles of the sea saw it, and feared." Jeremiah knew that the Tribe of Dan were a seafaring people, and in their trading they had become acquainted with Northern Europe and the British Isles. During the persecutions of Ahab thousands of them had left Palestine, settling in Denmark — this word Denmark means the circle of Dan. In course of time they crossed the sea and took possession of the North of Ireland, settling in the province of Ulster. The Tribe of Simeon, that had ever cast its lot with Dan, left Palestine and settled in Wales. Read the prophetic benedictions of the patriarch Jacob in the light of these historical facts, and they will stand out in sunlight brightness. "Dan shall judge his people as one of the Tribes of Israel." In his oneness, all alone he shall go out first, mark out and prepare the way of the other Tribes ; and the royal seed, the ruling power, shall hide itself in him. "Dan shall be a serpent by the way; an adder in the path that biteth the horse's heels so that his rider shall fall backward." Yes, Dan will be hid among the Gentiles. He will bite them, sting them, frustrating their purposes. Then exclaims Jacob: "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord." Dan did wait, until the prophet Jeremiah landed in his midst with Tea Tephi, the daughter of Zedekiah, the royal seed, with the ark of the covenant, the tables of the law, the Urim and Thummim, which would enable Dan to judge his people, with the stone of Jacob, the pillar witness, which is now in the royal chair in Westminster Abbey; and also with the standard of Judah.
Thus the prophet, who was the rightful custodian of all these things, carefully cared for the same, leaving them in charge of Dan. All but the stone have been concealed till the latter day. For on this stone have been crowned all the kings and queens of David's line.
Ireland's first name was Scuite's Land, or the Island of the Wanderers. Her second name was Scotia Major, and Scotland was Scotia Minor, and England was Tarshish, and Dannoii and Baratamac, or Land of Eirin. Yar in-Eirin means the land of the setting sun. Hibernia is a Hebrew word, and means from beyond the river or waters.
Two colonies settled in Ireland : the first, the Phoenicians, who were the Philistines or ancient Canaanites ; the second settlers were the Tuath de Danan, meaning the Tribe of Dan. The words are Hebrew, yet in Irish. For further information let anyone read "Pinnock's Catechism on Ireland." The Phoenicians were a seafaring people; pressed by Israel, Egypt, and Assyria, they finally left Canaan, and settled in Ireland. We find nine-tenths of Irish historians agreeing on this. Then the monuments teach the same — ancient inscriptions, one of which written was, "We are Canaanites who have fled from Joshua, the son of Nun, the robber." The people who show tourists the seven churches of Glendenlough, say they are Hittites and Hivites. Again, ruins of Baal temples. Cromlechs, round towers, go to confirm the same. Customs — Baal fires, on May eve, in Irish Ninna-baal-tinne ; funeral wakes, or cup of consolation, forbidden to Israel when they sought to copy after the Philistines. '"Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for father or mother" (Jer. xvi.7). The Irish language came from the Phoenician, the alphabet of both being composed of sixteen letters originally, the only alphabet in the world so agreeing. From the Irish came the Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, and the Manx from them all.
The second settlement of Ireland is what puzzles historians of to-day — not the old historians, for they, nine out of ten, admit that the Formorians, Firbolgs and Tuath de Danans, were one and the same people. They were a divine folk. The Tribe of Dan was a seafaring Tribe, trading from Tyre to Tarshish for tin, and so became acquainted with the British Isles, and during Ahab's persecution many of them fled; so of the Simeonites who settled in Wales. This shows us why the North and South of Ireland should be so distinct to this day in religion, enterprise and general characteristics. When the tribe of Dan finally left Palestine, they with the other Nine Tribes went North, settling in Denmark, as in the North of Ireland, leaving their names on rivers, hills, cities and things.
It is this that accounts for so many words of a Hebrew origin being found in the Irish language. General Valiancy has compared thousands and finds them thus related to the Hebrew. Instance: Jobhan-Moran, Chief Justice; Rectaire, Judge; Mur-Ollam, School of the Prophets; Ollam-FoUa, Divine Teacher ; Mergech, a Depository ; Tara, Law ; Tephi, Prince of the East; Lia-Fail, Stone of Destiny; Eben Gedoulah, precious stone.
If to Irish history we join Bible history, all is plain. God promised David repeatedly that he should always have his throne and on it his seed. The permanence of David's throne makes it a fit type of Christ's. Now, Jeremiah took charge of Zedekiah's daughter when Nebuchadnezzar took the Jews captive. He went to Egypt, then escaped, God promising to keep him whithersoever he went. So he disappears. No account of his death in the Bible. He had charge of the ark of the covenant, royal seed and Jacob's pillow— the stone of Israel. Irish histories, some twenty of which we find agree, say that about 585 b.c a divine man landed in Ulster, halving with him the king's daughter, stone of destiny, and ark, and many other wonderful things. The people of Ulster of Dan understood the old adventurer. Jeremiah married Tephi, Zedekiah's daughter, to Eochaid, who agreed to abandon Baal worship and build a school for the prophets. So he did. He then assumed the title of Heremon of Tara. Now, at Tara, Jeremiah buried the ark of the covenant, tables of law, etc and instituted the nine-arch degree of Masonry, to keep in mind its hiding-place — so all may understand Jer. iii. 16: "And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord: they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more." This means that when the ark is found the ceremony will end ; for the ark has to be found and go before the Jews when they return to their own land. Jeremiah was the first Grand Master. He, too, is the real St. Patrick — simply the Patriarchal Saint, which became St. Patriarch, then St. Patrick. The Roman Church introduced St. Patrick to offset the St. Patriarch.
Jeremiah well knew where the Tribes of Israel were in his day. He knew that Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, were in Babylon, filling in the seventy years of captivity, and the small remnant that Nebuchadnezzar left of them in Judah were scattered hither and thither. The Nine Tribes, or Israel, were settled in Central Asia, and were spreading Northward and Westward. This he knew, as easily as Peter did centuries after, when he wrote his epistle to the brethren, scattered abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Asia ; or as James, who dedicated his epistle to the Twelve Tribes which were scattered abroad ; or as the Blessed Master, commissioned and sent His disciples after the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
The place and locality of the Nine Tribes were known to the Jewish nation in the time of Josephus, the historian, for he speaks of them, and gives them a fraternal letter which the House of Judah sent unto the House of Israel. You are to keep in mind that it is after this the Tribes of Israel are to be lost. All prophecies after 700 b.c up to this, our day, and till about 1888 a.d., that had reference to Israel, plainly mark out the dwelling-place of these Tribes, and yet these prophecies not being understood, till these latter days, Israel was as plainly lost as if there had been no such prophecies. These prophecies were first sent North, then West, and then to the "isles of the sea." The law of the Gospel of Jesus would be sent to these Tribes: till then the "isles had to wait for the law." In due time this law was carried to them by the missionaries of the Tribe of Benjamin. This very thing and time the prophet had foretold, for he says: "Wherefore glorify ye the Lord by the Urim; the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the Western sea." How true, indeed, "the isles of the sea saw it, and feared." Jeremiah knew that the Tribe of Dan were a seafaring people, and in their trading they had become acquainted with Northern Europe and the British Isles. During the persecutions of Ahab thousands of them had left Palestine, settling in Denmark — this word Denmark means the circle of Dan. In course of time they crossed the sea and took possession of the North of Ireland, settling in the province of Ulster. The Tribe of Simeon, that had ever cast its lot with Dan, left Palestine and settled in Wales. Read the prophetic benedictions of the patriarch Jacob in the light of these historical facts, and they will stand out in sunlight brightness. "Dan shall judge his people as one of the Tribes of Israel." In his oneness, all alone he shall go out first, mark out and prepare the way of the other Tribes ; and the royal seed, the ruling power, shall hide itself in him. "Dan shall be a serpent by the way; an adder in the path that biteth the horse's heels so that his rider shall fall backward." Yes, Dan will be hid among the Gentiles. He will bite them, sting them, frustrating their purposes. Then exclaims Jacob: "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord." Dan did wait, until the prophet Jeremiah landed in his midst with Tea Tephi, the daughter of Zedekiah, the royal seed, with the ark of the covenant, the tables of the law, the Urim and Thummim, which would enable Dan to judge his people, with the stone of Jacob, the pillar witness, which is now in the royal chair in Westminster Abbey; and also with the standard of Judah.
Thus the prophet, who was the rightful custodian of all these things, carefully cared for the same, leaving them in charge of Dan. All but the stone have been concealed till the latter day. For on this stone have been crowned all the kings and queens of David's line.
Now just here we must take up history — especially Irish history — for in this matter and at this very point, you will find profane and sacred histories agreeing. One will beautifully explain the other; nor can anybody understand Irish history unless they get the key from sacred history. To take this key later writers have been unwilling, and, therefore, they have been unable to solve the problem embodied in this race and nation. No people on the face of the earth have been less understood and more misrepresented. The real allophyllians of Ireland, that is, the first native settlers, are unknown. The present inhabitants are not autochthonal, no more than we are the first settlers of this country. On one point all old historians are agreed — namely, that Ireland has been settled by two distinct colonies of people; and from these two colonies come the present Irish race. These two colonies were distinct in features, manners, customs, enterprise and religion, and after all these centuries have passed away, these differences are discernible in some degree, especially so in enterprise and religion. And though, of course in these latter years they have become considerably mixed, yet an appeal on either of these points will mark out the Danite from the Phoenician.
The Phoenicians, or Philistines, were the ancient Canaanites. They took early possession of Ireland. On this point the old as well as the new historians generally agree. But there was another early settlement in the North of Ireland, whom the historians called Tuath de Danan, which simply means the folks of the Tribe of Dan. They introduced into the Irish language hundreds of Hebrew words, with many customs and legends of the Hebrews. They were very distinct in their enterprise and religion from the other settlers. About the year 580 B.C. there appeared before this people a strange man, whom the historians call Ollam-Folla, which means a Divine teacher; the name or title is in Hebrew. This man, whoever he was, soon wielded great power in their midst. What he commanded they seemed ready to do. He very soon inaugurated wonderful reforms. He gave them a parliament ; made them give up their idolatrous customs. He founded a college to train students to teach and preach his religion. It was called Mur-Ollam, school of the Divine. Here again the narne is Hebrew, although in Irish. This wonderful man had with him a fair young princess, whose name in Hebrew-Irish was Tea-Tephi, which means the beautiful one from the East. This lovely princess was married to the governor of Ulster, Heremon. He resided in the city of Lothair Crof[?n]. In the agreement of the marriage, among many things, he was to accept her religion, give her joint authority, and build the Mur-Ollam, or college, and sustain it. Also to change the name of the city from Lothair Croffin to Tara, which means law ; to adopt her standard or banner emblem, the harp and lion, and to be crowned on the wonderful stone called in Irish-Hebrew, Lia-Fail, which means stone of destiny, sometimes called Eben Gedoulah, the precious stone. From this Tea Tephi we get our female goddess of liberty, who on old coins is seated upon a lion with the Davidian harp in her hand.
Our text tells us that Jeremiah was to plant and build up. Here he planted, and here he did build. He planted and built a throne, a college, and a religion. Turn to Ezekiel, chapter xvii., and read the famous riddle. Tea Tephi is the tender twig that was cropped off from the high cedar, King Zedekiah, and planted among the merchants by great waters on the mountain of Israel. She was the tender one that was to take root downward. To Jeremiah the Lord said, "Verily it shall be well with thy remnant." Nay, more, He told him that He would give him his life for a prey whithersoever he went. And in 2 Kings xix. 30, we read : "And the remnant that is escaped of the House of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion ; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." And Ezekiel, in his captivity, sent forth a prophecy referring to the wicked prince Zedekiah, saying of his throne in the name of Jehovah: "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until He come
whose right it is, and I will give it Him." So was this throne overturned, and was never after established in Jerusalem.
You will notice that there are three overturnings, and as Scriptural language is emphatic and not superfluous or tautological, these overturnings mean something. Turn to history, and you will find this throne has been turned over just three times — first, from Jerusalem to Ireland ; second, through King Fergus to Scotland ; and third, through King James, from Scotland to England. This throne can never be turned over again, for Jerusalem will be incorporated into the British Empire. The throne has turned over till it got home again ; hence, as surely as we live, Palestine will go into the hands of England. The throne, religion and education established by the prophet have ever kept together. This is the secret of Ireland's prestige and marvellous pre-eminence in centuries past. The college of Armagh could boast of 7,000 students at a time. Missionaries went forth from Ireland through all Europe, teaching Christianity and founding schools. Few men can compare to Virgilus, Erigina, Columbanus, and Columba. In olden times she was known as the "Isle of the Saints." The day of Ireland's weakness and distress came to her when she permitted her religion to be corrupted and controlled by foreigners ; and by these same Italian intriguers she is now impoverished and enslaved. But for this the throne might have remained with her to-day, and England and Scotland have been under her. But when a nation loses her religion, she loses the right arm of power, and the ability to preserve freedom.
Jeremiah was the patron-saint for Ireland for a long time. Simeon the Welsh had and have David ; and as surely as the Welsh have kept their saint, so surely ought Ireland. St. Patrick is looked upon by many as a mythical person. I believe, however, that he was a veritable man. The best authorities make out that he was born at Bonavena. In ancient Gaul, near what is now called Boulogne, some time about 387a.d. He is reported as having died March 17th, 465. in the county Down. His father's name was Calpumius. Young Calpurnius, or St. Patrick, as he was afterwards called, had a hard Ufe of it in youth. I believe him to have been a Benjamite, a Christian; for the Benjamites began to fill in that part of France about that period. This Tribe were by nature missionaries. This prompted him to desire to redeem his brethren in Ireland. In Ulster he began his labours. From this same Tribe others had visited Ireland. History mentions four who preceded St. Patrick. The name of St. Paul, by many, is connected with a visit to Ireland. It is very easy to see how Jeremiah, the patron-saint of Judah, would be installed in such a relation with the Danites after his death. He was the real sainted patriarch of Ireland. And by a crafty design of Rome young Calpurnius was created sainted patriarch, or St. Patrick, and by this means Rome linked the greater part of the Irish nation on to herself. Anybody honest and familiar with history, knows that St. Patrick was a Christian, and in no
sense of the word a Roman Catholic. The fact is, Rome began early to covet Ireland. Once they got possession, it was necessary for them to destroy the influence of Jeremiah. This they did, in part, by substituting the name of St. Patrick in the place of the prophets ; and more, they then set work to destroy even the old and famous capital city of Tara. In 565 St. Ruadham, along with a posse of bishops and chiefs of the South of Ireland, cursed the city, so that neither King nor Queen might ever rule or reign therein again. They forced the government, monarchy and people to abandon the place. From thence Tara. was deserted, and the harp sounded no more through Tara's halls. The city thus cursed crumbled to ruins, and remains to this day buried, awaiting a glorious resurrection. Rome caught her prize at last; but neither Rome nor any other power ever enslaved or conquered Ulster. Beyond the pale — that is, the dividing line, running from the Boyne to the Shannon — Rome never got, nor never will. Irishmen clamour for independence, to be free from England, and wonder why they are not. The reason is that God cannot trust liberty to them ; for a people that yoke themselves to a foreigner, and give themselves over to be governed in spiritual matters, would make a poor effort if trusted with their temporal government. We all know that if Ireland had been free, she would not long have remained so, for body, as well as soul, she would have committed to Rome. Why Irish Catholics should ask for freedom when they so voluntarily bind themselves to a foreigner I fail to see. As the Protestants of the North have asked, and had granted, spiritual freedom in the severance of Church and State, so let the men of the South ask and demand, and stop not short of freedom from Rome. A free religion is the parent of a free State, and a free State of free School. A people who are not wise enough to take care of their own religion, are very poorly prepared to be the guardians of liberties. Once Ireland becomes free religiously, it will not be long before she will be free politically. Substitute Jeremiah for St. Patrick, and the Lord Jesus for the Pope, then the day of freedom will not long tarry.
The Real Reason for the Season (excerpts)
By Edward Levi Nydle
According to history no one really knows the origin of Christ-Mass. But, we do know from Scripture that the early Nazarenes did not celebrate the birth of Messiah Yahshua. Luke does record in his Gospel that Yahshua was born in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius. However, no month or day is given in his account. According to Hebraic tradition and ritual, birthdays were not celebrated by the Jewish people at the time of the Second Temple.
The date of the birth of Yahshua was not set for certain by the early so-called “Church” fathers. Even by the end of the second century, no date was set. Therefore, the early “church” never acknowledged the birth of the Messiah, nor could they even agree on the date.
The early Nazarenes never celebrated a feast called Christ-Mass. But, we do have clear record of the observance of Passover and Shavuot until the fourth century.
Within the Christian Church, no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance. For over 350 years the Believers never celebrated His birth.
That brings us to the question: “Why did Christians begin to celebrate Christ-Mass after the fourth century?” On account of the pagans and their customs coming into the community of Believers, leaders compromised and adopted Roman religious festivals into their calendar.
The meeting of Christians and Pagans half-way developed early; and we find Tertullian, even in about the year 230, bitterly lamenting the inconsistency of the disciples of [Messiah] in this respect, and contrasting it with the strict fidelity of the Pagans to their own superstition.
"By us," says he, "who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to Elohim, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with ruckus, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians. Upright men strive to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant, was submerged under Pagan superstition.”
That Christmas is a Pagan festival is beyond all doubt. According to the Calendar of Julius Caesar set in 45 BCE, December was the month of the winter solstice. The Romans called this Brumalia. To establish the divinity of the Emperor, the Roman government incorporated the celebration of the sun / solstice to prove his divinity. December 25th was decreed as Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, The Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, by Emperor Aurelian (270-275CE). This was carried on by Diocletian, Constantine, and Julian, all three being rabid persecutors of the Nazarenes.
But Brumalia lacked the excitement of religious ritual that the people wanted. They added their pagan rites of Mithraism from Iran to supply the rituals and brotherhood needed to make this date appeal to the people. These included blood rituals and gross pornographic practices. These practices continue today (as proven on the internet).
Chrysostom (398-403CE) announced that Christ-Mass replaced the celebration of Brumalia:
“On this day also the Birthday of Christ was lately fixed at Rome in order that while the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies the Christians might perform their sacred rites undisturbed. They call this (December 25th), the Birthday of the Solar Disc, but Christ the Sun of Righteousness.”
Besides Brumalia and the Rites of Mithras, Saturnalia (December 17-24), also was another factor in the picking of the date of December 25th by the Roman Church. The celebration of Saturnalia was in honor of the hope of the return of the Golden Age of Rome.
It was no mere astronomic festival, then, that the Pagans celebrated at the winter solstice. That festival at Rome was called the feast of Saturn …. The feast, as regulated by Caligula, lasted five days; loose reins were given to drunkenness and revelry. Hislop, Two Babylons, pg. 95
Saturnalia was celebrated by a stopping of all work and the schools were dismissed throughout the Roman Empire. Public buildings were decked with flowers and shrubs. Gifts were sent and received between friends and family. It was a time of great drunkenness and pornographic rituals.
A letter from Pope Gregory 1 advised Augustine of Canterbury to encourage the people to observe these harmless pagan customs that were capable of “Christian “interpretations. The use of evergreen trees after the custom of the Roman Saturnalia was permitted and even encouraged by the Pope. This was done to satisfy the masses of heathens in the Church. Thus, the Church allowed the use of occultic pagan symbols and practices to keep the people happy in the Christian faith. This extends today with the Chrismon Tree and a host of other abominable carryovers. (See Jeremiah 10:1-4, 2:20, 3:6)
Along with evergreens were holly berries and mistletoe. Holly was placed in the windows to attract the forest demons. Mistletoe (also known as the Golden Bough), was believed to hold magical powers. Druids called mistletoe “all-heal” and claimed it held several occult powers. It was used in many rituals by the Druids.
Homes and buildings of so-called Believers continue to be decorated in exactly the same manner as the ancient Saturnalia. It is strange that those who claimed to have the Spirit of Truth are lead into such gross error. At least the American Puritans had the sense to outlaw the celebration of Saturnalia / Christmas, recognizing its origins – and the supernatural power that continues to keep its adherents in cultic bondage.[1][3]
Can we make kadosh (holy) a pagan holiday by using it for “witnessing” of the Messiah? What does YHWH say about borrowing pagan symbols and celebrations for His worship? And what if the pagan symbols of Christ Mass have changed over the centuries for people? Can’t this holiday be used for good?
The term “syncretism” means “to attempt union or reconciliation of two diverse or opposite tenants or practices in religion.” Such is what Scripture considers an impure mixture.
YHWH does not accept syncretism. The term KADOSH (set-apart) means separation from the profane. Throughout the Scriptures, YHWH’s people were to separate themselves form the pagan religions and customs of the lands around them. Elohim took a people for Himself, and set them apart to Himself. They were to be different and keep YHWH’s Holy Days as given in the Torah.
According to Torah, Yisrael was forbidden to make impure mixture. This included cloth, seed, and animals. No admixture was allowed. But is there something morally wrong in mixing two kinds of seeds? No! The message YHWH was communicating is that there was to be absolutely no “heart-mixture.” HIS were to love HIM with all their heart, soul, and strength. All religious mixture is forbidden.
This is not saying that people who celebrate XMass are knowingly worshiping false gods. However, they have been greatly deceived and misled to believe that YHWH looks favorably upon rituals and rites taken from paganism, idolatry and pornographic practices. They also believe it is fine to keep these pagan holidays if they put “Christ” into them.
However, dressing a pig in a tuxedo does not change that fact this mixture is still a pig! By accepting and practicing the customs of one’s culture and community without first testing them against the Word of YHWH, people are unknowingly violating the Torah and Words of YHWH.
It is also clear, according to Scripture, that YHWH does not always punish syncretism by His people immediately. This is shown in Scripture by the history of Yisrael and their slow downward spiral taking place over centuries before their exile from the Land. The real danger of syncretism is that it leads to increasing compromise in matters of obedience to YHWH and His Torah. The worship of Baal and Easter in the Temple of YHWH did not take place overnight. It began by accepting a little at a time things which differed from the true worship of the Elohim of Yisrael, Yahweh.
I do not celebrate XMass because I am convinced it is a substitute for many pagan holidays and it is steeped in paganism and is syncretistic in nature. All the symbols associated with XMass, such as the tree, reindeer, elves, holly, yule logs, mistletoe, and the lie of Santa are still attached to the demonic womb from which they were birthed. But, even more important, XMass has robbed the Believer in Messiah of the true roots of their faith and heritage. XMass is a time when Yisrael and the world are united in a common pagan celebration. The result is that there is no visible distinction between the holy and the profane.
“And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose for yourselves this day whom you are going to serve, whether the mighty ones which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the mighty ones of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But I and my house, we serve YHWH.” 16And the people answered and said, “Far be it from us to forsake YHWH, to serve other mighty ones.” Joshua 24:15
The Shocking True Story
Behind the “Jesus Family Tomb”
This is the Summarized & Anglicized Version of the Original found at this link
Dr. Jackson Snyder October 11, 2011
This Page is Written to be Viewed on Internet Explorer.
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I would suggest you read over the Discovery Channel site before delving into the historical fiction below. The Lost Tomb Video on YouTube You will want to return here after you see the video program.
If you didn’t know this already, the Discovery Channel aired “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” (the Talpiot tomb) a couple years ago (March, 2007). The claims made by the filmmakers were that they were certain they had found the tomb of the family of Yahshua, that they had his DNA, that Mary Magdalene was in there, and that they had a son who was in there, too, little Yahuda, as well as other biblical characters (WHO?). As a long-time student of archaeological findings and Christian origins, I found the discovery fascinating. What I couldn’t agree with was the direction in which the filmmakers took the discovery. Their rock-solid conclusion was that Mary Magdalene was the mother of ‘Jesus’s’ son and that she took their son to safety in Europe. When the Magdalene died, she was then sent back to Palestine and interred in the Jerusalem tomb. If you saw this presentation then you’ll know what I’m writing about. If you didn’t, you may still see clips and presentations at http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/tomb.html.
The Phoenicians, or Philistines, were the ancient Canaanites. They took early possession of Ireland. On this point the old as well as the new historians generally agree. But there was another early settlement in the North of Ireland, whom the historians called Tuath de Danan, which simply means the folks of the Tribe of Dan. They introduced into the Irish language hundreds of Hebrew words, with many customs and legends of the Hebrews. They were very distinct in their enterprise and religion from the other settlers. About the year 580 B.C. there appeared before this people a strange man, whom the historians call Ollam-Folla, which means a Divine teacher; the name or title is in Hebrew. This man, whoever he was, soon wielded great power in their midst. What he commanded they seemed ready to do. He very soon inaugurated wonderful reforms. He gave them a parliament ; made them give up their idolatrous customs. He founded a college to train students to teach and preach his religion. It was called Mur-Ollam, school of the Divine. Here again the narne is Hebrew, although in Irish. This wonderful man had with him a fair young princess, whose name in Hebrew-Irish was Tea-Tephi, which means the beautiful one from the East. This lovely princess was married to the governor of Ulster, Heremon. He resided in the city of Lothair Crof[?n]. In the agreement of the marriage, among many things, he was to accept her religion, give her joint authority, and build the Mur-Ollam, or college, and sustain it. Also to change the name of the city from Lothair Croffin to Tara, which means law ; to adopt her standard or banner emblem, the harp and lion, and to be crowned on the wonderful stone called in Irish-Hebrew, Lia-Fail, which means stone of destiny, sometimes called Eben Gedoulah, the precious stone. From this Tea Tephi we get our female goddess of liberty, who on old coins is seated upon a lion with the Davidian harp in her hand.
Our text tells us that Jeremiah was to plant and build up. Here he planted, and here he did build. He planted and built a throne, a college, and a religion. Turn to Ezekiel, chapter xvii., and read the famous riddle. Tea Tephi is the tender twig that was cropped off from the high cedar, King Zedekiah, and planted among the merchants by great waters on the mountain of Israel. She was the tender one that was to take root downward. To Jeremiah the Lord said, "Verily it shall be well with thy remnant." Nay, more, He told him that He would give him his life for a prey whithersoever he went. And in 2 Kings xix. 30, we read : "And the remnant that is escaped of the House of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion ; the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this." And Ezekiel, in his captivity, sent forth a prophecy referring to the wicked prince Zedekiah, saying of his throne in the name of Jehovah: "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more until He come
whose right it is, and I will give it Him." So was this throne overturned, and was never after established in Jerusalem.
You will notice that there are three overturnings, and as Scriptural language is emphatic and not superfluous or tautological, these overturnings mean something. Turn to history, and you will find this throne has been turned over just three times — first, from Jerusalem to Ireland ; second, through King Fergus to Scotland ; and third, through King James, from Scotland to England. This throne can never be turned over again, for Jerusalem will be incorporated into the British Empire. The throne has turned over till it got home again ; hence, as surely as we live, Palestine will go into the hands of England. The throne, religion and education established by the prophet have ever kept together. This is the secret of Ireland's prestige and marvellous pre-eminence in centuries past. The college of Armagh could boast of 7,000 students at a time. Missionaries went forth from Ireland through all Europe, teaching Christianity and founding schools. Few men can compare to Virgilus, Erigina, Columbanus, and Columba. In olden times she was known as the "Isle of the Saints." The day of Ireland's weakness and distress came to her when she permitted her religion to be corrupted and controlled by foreigners ; and by these same Italian intriguers she is now impoverished and enslaved. But for this the throne might have remained with her to-day, and England and Scotland have been under her. But when a nation loses her religion, she loses the right arm of power, and the ability to preserve freedom.
Jeremiah was the patron-saint for Ireland for a long time. Simeon the Welsh had and have David ; and as surely as the Welsh have kept their saint, so surely ought Ireland. St. Patrick is looked upon by many as a mythical person. I believe, however, that he was a veritable man. The best authorities make out that he was born at Bonavena. In ancient Gaul, near what is now called Boulogne, some time about 387a.d. He is reported as having died March 17th, 465. in the county Down. His father's name was Calpumius. Young Calpurnius, or St. Patrick, as he was afterwards called, had a hard Ufe of it in youth. I believe him to have been a Benjamite, a Christian; for the Benjamites began to fill in that part of France about that period. This Tribe were by nature missionaries. This prompted him to desire to redeem his brethren in Ireland. In Ulster he began his labours. From this same Tribe others had visited Ireland. History mentions four who preceded St. Patrick. The name of St. Paul, by many, is connected with a visit to Ireland. It is very easy to see how Jeremiah, the patron-saint of Judah, would be installed in such a relation with the Danites after his death. He was the real sainted patriarch of Ireland. And by a crafty design of Rome young Calpurnius was created sainted patriarch, or St. Patrick, and by this means Rome linked the greater part of the Irish nation on to herself. Anybody honest and familiar with history, knows that St. Patrick was a Christian, and in no
sense of the word a Roman Catholic. The fact is, Rome began early to covet Ireland. Once they got possession, it was necessary for them to destroy the influence of Jeremiah. This they did, in part, by substituting the name of St. Patrick in the place of the prophets ; and more, they then set work to destroy even the old and famous capital city of Tara. In 565 St. Ruadham, along with a posse of bishops and chiefs of the South of Ireland, cursed the city, so that neither King nor Queen might ever rule or reign therein again. They forced the government, monarchy and people to abandon the place. From thence Tara. was deserted, and the harp sounded no more through Tara's halls. The city thus cursed crumbled to ruins, and remains to this day buried, awaiting a glorious resurrection. Rome caught her prize at last; but neither Rome nor any other power ever enslaved or conquered Ulster. Beyond the pale — that is, the dividing line, running from the Boyne to the Shannon — Rome never got, nor never will. Irishmen clamour for independence, to be free from England, and wonder why they are not. The reason is that God cannot trust liberty to them ; for a people that yoke themselves to a foreigner, and give themselves over to be governed in spiritual matters, would make a poor effort if trusted with their temporal government. We all know that if Ireland had been free, she would not long have remained so, for body, as well as soul, she would have committed to Rome. Why Irish Catholics should ask for freedom when they so voluntarily bind themselves to a foreigner I fail to see. As the Protestants of the North have asked, and had granted, spiritual freedom in the severance of Church and State, so let the men of the South ask and demand, and stop not short of freedom from Rome. A free religion is the parent of a free State, and a free State of free School. A people who are not wise enough to take care of their own religion, are very poorly prepared to be the guardians of liberties. Once Ireland becomes free religiously, it will not be long before she will be free politically. Substitute Jeremiah for St. Patrick, and the Lord Jesus for the Pope, then the day of freedom will not long tarry.
The Real Reason for the Season (excerpts)
By Edward Levi Nydle
According to history no one really knows the origin of Christ-Mass. But, we do know from Scripture that the early Nazarenes did not celebrate the birth of Messiah Yahshua. Luke does record in his Gospel that Yahshua was born in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius. However, no month or day is given in his account. According to Hebraic tradition and ritual, birthdays were not celebrated by the Jewish people at the time of the Second Temple.
The date of the birth of Yahshua was not set for certain by the early so-called “Church” fathers. Even by the end of the second century, no date was set. Therefore, the early “church” never acknowledged the birth of the Messiah, nor could they even agree on the date.
The early Nazarenes never celebrated a feast called Christ-Mass. But, we do have clear record of the observance of Passover and Shavuot until the fourth century.
Within the Christian Church, no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance. For over 350 years the Believers never celebrated His birth.
That brings us to the question: “Why did Christians begin to celebrate Christ-Mass after the fourth century?” On account of the pagans and their customs coming into the community of Believers, leaders compromised and adopted Roman religious festivals into their calendar.
The meeting of Christians and Pagans half-way developed early; and we find Tertullian, even in about the year 230, bitterly lamenting the inconsistency of the disciples of [Messiah] in this respect, and contrasting it with the strict fidelity of the Pagans to their own superstition.
"By us," says he, "who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to Elohim, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year's day presents are made with ruckus, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion, who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians. Upright men strive to stem the tide, but in spite of all their efforts, the apostasy went on, till the Church, with the exception of a small remnant, was submerged under Pagan superstition.”
That Christmas is a Pagan festival is beyond all doubt. According to the Calendar of Julius Caesar set in 45 BCE, December was the month of the winter solstice. The Romans called this Brumalia. To establish the divinity of the Emperor, the Roman government incorporated the celebration of the sun / solstice to prove his divinity. December 25th was decreed as Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, The Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, by Emperor Aurelian (270-275CE). This was carried on by Diocletian, Constantine, and Julian, all three being rabid persecutors of the Nazarenes.
But Brumalia lacked the excitement of religious ritual that the people wanted. They added their pagan rites of Mithraism from Iran to supply the rituals and brotherhood needed to make this date appeal to the people. These included blood rituals and gross pornographic practices. These practices continue today (as proven on the internet).
Chrysostom (398-403CE) announced that Christ-Mass replaced the celebration of Brumalia:
“On this day also the Birthday of Christ was lately fixed at Rome in order that while the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies the Christians might perform their sacred rites undisturbed. They call this (December 25th), the Birthday of the Solar Disc, but Christ the Sun of Righteousness.”
Besides Brumalia and the Rites of Mithras, Saturnalia (December 17-24), also was another factor in the picking of the date of December 25th by the Roman Church. The celebration of Saturnalia was in honor of the hope of the return of the Golden Age of Rome.
It was no mere astronomic festival, then, that the Pagans celebrated at the winter solstice. That festival at Rome was called the feast of Saturn …. The feast, as regulated by Caligula, lasted five days; loose reins were given to drunkenness and revelry. Hislop, Two Babylons, pg. 95
Saturnalia was celebrated by a stopping of all work and the schools were dismissed throughout the Roman Empire. Public buildings were decked with flowers and shrubs. Gifts were sent and received between friends and family. It was a time of great drunkenness and pornographic rituals.
A letter from Pope Gregory 1 advised Augustine of Canterbury to encourage the people to observe these harmless pagan customs that were capable of “Christian “interpretations. The use of evergreen trees after the custom of the Roman Saturnalia was permitted and even encouraged by the Pope. This was done to satisfy the masses of heathens in the Church. Thus, the Church allowed the use of occultic pagan symbols and practices to keep the people happy in the Christian faith. This extends today with the Chrismon Tree and a host of other abominable carryovers. (See Jeremiah 10:1-4, 2:20, 3:6)
Along with evergreens were holly berries and mistletoe. Holly was placed in the windows to attract the forest demons. Mistletoe (also known as the Golden Bough), was believed to hold magical powers. Druids called mistletoe “all-heal” and claimed it held several occult powers. It was used in many rituals by the Druids.
Homes and buildings of so-called Believers continue to be decorated in exactly the same manner as the ancient Saturnalia. It is strange that those who claimed to have the Spirit of Truth are lead into such gross error. At least the American Puritans had the sense to outlaw the celebration of Saturnalia / Christmas, recognizing its origins – and the supernatural power that continues to keep its adherents in cultic bondage.[1][3]
Can we make kadosh (holy) a pagan holiday by using it for “witnessing” of the Messiah? What does YHWH say about borrowing pagan symbols and celebrations for His worship? And what if the pagan symbols of Christ Mass have changed over the centuries for people? Can’t this holiday be used for good?
The term “syncretism” means “to attempt union or reconciliation of two diverse or opposite tenants or practices in religion.” Such is what Scripture considers an impure mixture.
YHWH does not accept syncretism. The term KADOSH (set-apart) means separation from the profane. Throughout the Scriptures, YHWH’s people were to separate themselves form the pagan religions and customs of the lands around them. Elohim took a people for Himself, and set them apart to Himself. They were to be different and keep YHWH’s Holy Days as given in the Torah.
According to Torah, Yisrael was forbidden to make impure mixture. This included cloth, seed, and animals. No admixture was allowed. But is there something morally wrong in mixing two kinds of seeds? No! The message YHWH was communicating is that there was to be absolutely no “heart-mixture.” HIS were to love HIM with all their heart, soul, and strength. All religious mixture is forbidden.
This is not saying that people who celebrate XMass are knowingly worshiping false gods. However, they have been greatly deceived and misled to believe that YHWH looks favorably upon rituals and rites taken from paganism, idolatry and pornographic practices. They also believe it is fine to keep these pagan holidays if they put “Christ” into them.
However, dressing a pig in a tuxedo does not change that fact this mixture is still a pig! By accepting and practicing the customs of one’s culture and community without first testing them against the Word of YHWH, people are unknowingly violating the Torah and Words of YHWH.
It is also clear, according to Scripture, that YHWH does not always punish syncretism by His people immediately. This is shown in Scripture by the history of Yisrael and their slow downward spiral taking place over centuries before their exile from the Land. The real danger of syncretism is that it leads to increasing compromise in matters of obedience to YHWH and His Torah. The worship of Baal and Easter in the Temple of YHWH did not take place overnight. It began by accepting a little at a time things which differed from the true worship of the Elohim of Yisrael, Yahweh.
I do not celebrate XMass because I am convinced it is a substitute for many pagan holidays and it is steeped in paganism and is syncretistic in nature. All the symbols associated with XMass, such as the tree, reindeer, elves, holly, yule logs, mistletoe, and the lie of Santa are still attached to the demonic womb from which they were birthed. But, even more important, XMass has robbed the Believer in Messiah of the true roots of their faith and heritage. XMass is a time when Yisrael and the world are united in a common pagan celebration. The result is that there is no visible distinction between the holy and the profane.
“And if it seems evil in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose for yourselves this day whom you are going to serve, whether the mighty ones which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the mighty ones of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But I and my house, we serve YHWH.” 16And the people answered and said, “Far be it from us to forsake YHWH, to serve other mighty ones.” Joshua 24:15
The Shocking True Story
Behind the “Jesus Family Tomb”
This is the Summarized & Anglicized Version of the Original found at this link
Dr. Jackson Snyder October 11, 2011
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I would suggest you read over the Discovery Channel site before delving into the historical fiction below. The Lost Tomb Video on YouTube You will want to return here after you see the video program.
If you didn’t know this already, the Discovery Channel aired “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” (the Talpiot tomb) a couple years ago (March, 2007). The claims made by the filmmakers were that they were certain they had found the tomb of the family of Yahshua, that they had his DNA, that Mary Magdalene was in there, and that they had a son who was in there, too, little Yahuda, as well as other biblical characters (WHO?). As a long-time student of archaeological findings and Christian origins, I found the discovery fascinating. What I couldn’t agree with was the direction in which the filmmakers took the discovery. Their rock-solid conclusion was that Mary Magdalene was the mother of ‘Jesus’s’ son and that she took their son to safety in Europe. When the Magdalene died, she was then sent back to Palestine and interred in the Jerusalem tomb. If you saw this presentation then you’ll know what I’m writing about. If you didn’t, you may still see clips and presentations at http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/tomb/tomb.html.
Click the Illustration for a Larger Version
Note: The Toledoth (genealogy) for Maryah mother of Yahshua is found in Matthew 1. The Toledoth of Yoseph aka Zadoc father of Yahshua is found in Luke 3:23ff. Most doctors have these mixed up, but textual evidence in Matthew 1 assures us that his toledoth is that of Maryah.
It Is the Real Thing
For the sake of my presentation, let’s temporarily believe that the “Jesus Family Tomb” is the real thing. I don’t have time to define all the terms or tell all the history behind what I am presenting to you. Rest assured what I’m writing is based in fact, not the incredulous presumptions of the DaVinci Code crowd. You may easily verify most of what I write by simple internet searches, reading Josephus, Philo or Eusebius, using the Search Engine at JacksonSnyder.com, or purchasing or any modern scholar’s book of the subject. (I have several excellent books listed at www.YAHpop.us. Or I can offer you references or sources if you are really interested. Contact me here: jack AT theyahad.com.)
Let the story begin: BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING IS HISTORICAL FICTION.
The Sons of Alfai to the Temple in Heliopolis
We read in our histories that when Joseph, the son of the famous Jacob, was raised from prison to become the administrator of Egypt, he received Asenath in marriage, a priestess of the sun god On.[i] Joseph, as a worshiper of YHWH, certainly had some influence in Egypt’s acceptance of Monotheism around 1400 BC.[ii] But when Joseph was gone and forgotten, the priests of On brought back the old Egyptian gods and brutally expelled or killed the priestly families and ultimately anyone who would not worship them. Many of the Hebrews in Egypt used the Nile as an escape route, finding safety south of the Egyptian border, in Cush, Numibia and Ethiopia, where some remain to this day (and are known to outsiders as Falasha[iii]). Our story begins in the city of Alfai, on the Nile River in what is today called Sudan, just south of the Egyptian border. Alfai is a sanctuary city, protected by the Cushite Kingdom[iv] as sovereign territory, off-limits to the armies of Egypt, Greece and later Rome. It takes its name from the fact that it is the first city south of Egypt – “Alfai” (alpha) means “first” just like “alpha and omega” means “first and last.”
Halfa 1941 and current, covered by Lake Nasser
500 B.C.: Over the next centuries arises a dynasty among the Alfai Hebrews of the line of Solomon by Menelik, the son of the Candace of Ethiopia. These priest-kings were unique as they had the power to regulate the weather, cast out swarms of locusts, and heal the sick in the name of YHWH. Over the centuries, the Alfai kings’ descendants became known throughout the dispersion of Israel as rainmakers and healers; their presence and gifts were highly valued everywhere. They became known as “Ben Chalfai” or “Sons of Alfai.” A few of the Sons of Alphai are still known today from ancient texts we all can read, such as Honi the Circle Drawer[v], Yahuda the Galilean, and Ya’aqov and Levi, “Sons of Alphaeus[vi] “in the New Testament.[vii] (Alphaeus is not a man; Alphaeus refers to a city in Cush and also a caste of priest-kings.)
200 B.C.: This brings us to the Egyptian city of Heliopolis where we find a community of Hebrews, many of whom migrated back to Egypt from Cush after the persecutions of King Ptolemy Philopator about 210 BC. King Ptolemy rounds up all those of the tribe of Judah who would not take the mark of the god Dionysius or wear the Greek hat; he had them corralled in the stadium at Alexandria. If they won’t give up the peculiarities of their faith, he would murder them all in one of the most creative ways imaginable: he would order the army’s five hundred elephants to be drug-crazed then stampeded through the stadium upon the Jews inside.
Though Ptolemy attempted the massacre a few times, YHWH stole the plan from his mind. YHWH instructed Ptolemy not only to set the captives free, but to commend them. This commendation ultimately led to the Jews gaining permission to rebuild the Temple of YHWH in Egypt and reinstall the legitimate Zadokite priesthood. All this in fulfillment of Isaiah 19:18-21 (excerpted here):
In that day there will be an altar dedicated to Yahweh in the center of Egypt and, close to the frontier, a pillar dedicated to Yahweh, and this will be a sign and a witness to YHWH Sabaoth in Egypt. In that day there will be five cities in Egypt … pledging themselves to YHWH Sabaoth; one of them called City of the Sun.[viii]
Few today realize that, while the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple was being bought and sold, a Temple of YHWH manned by the proper order of Zadokite priests existed in Egypt for 240 years, including the entire lifespan of the Messiah. And that the temple would be in the city of Heliopolis, which means “City of the Sun.” The announcement of the building of a new temple draws contractors and artisans from all over Africa. A few of these builders journey up from Alfai. Some of them are “Sons of Alphai,” now lay priests with construction skills, who could on occasion still call down rain, cast out locusts, and heal the sick. (Continued after ad.)
I rebuild, restore & repair brass and silver musical instruments. The proceeds of sales go for our occupational rehabilitation ministry. Pictured are 1910 White and 1920 York silver cornets, which came to me each in very poor condition. Each horn was chemically cleaned, de-tarnished, de-dented, re-soldered, padded and corked, with valves lapped and lubricated. They are ready as vintage instruments to go back into service, along with many more beauties. Do you have instruments you no longer use - any make, model, condition or type? We can put them to use in ministry. Perhaps you are a player or need a used instrument. Maybe I can help. Call (801) 850 6901 and leave me a message or use the contact form. Jackson Snyder
Twins Marry Twins: Yohana & Yosef; Cleo(patra) & Cleopas
So it is now about 10 BC; and in Heliopolis of Egypt not far from the Temple of YHWH. Here lives a small community whose ancestors came up to build the Temple, descendants of “the Sons of Alfai,” by which surname they are still known. And they still follow the trade of their ancestors – the building business (that is, the tekton of Mark 6:3[ix]). These few families had been successful enough in their generations to inherit the wealth required to set up business in a new location, and they are blessed by YHWH and set-apart for great things to come.
There are two sets of twins, twins married to twins, descended from the builders of the temple. Twins were common in their ancestry, and their intermarriage is not uncommon among David’s descendants since prophecy decreed a Davidic Messiah to restore Jerusalem to holiness and order. One set of twins are named by Eli their father in the Hebrew style: they are Yohana and Yosef, surnamed Alfai (spell it). The other set are named by Lebbaeus their father in the Egyptian style: they are Cleo(patra)[x] and Cleopas, surnamed Alphaeus (spell it).
So we have two families from the same place with two different sets of customs, but each as Hebrew as the other, with one set Greco-Egyptian and the other Hebrew-Egyptian, ready to merge, and take on the task of trying to discover their common heritage.
The surnames Alfai and Alphaeus mean the same thing (as we will see later), yet the uniting of the Egyptian and Hebraic surnames is a sign to both that they have really been but One (Alef) from the beginning. Cleopas marries Yohana and Yosef marries Cleo(patra). The double marriage unites cousins and businesses too. They have worked together for generations anyway, and they will need a bigger company if they are going to contend for business outside of Egypt, where great building projects are shovel-ready. Herod the Great, so-called, has many great projects going all over Palestine, and it is their intention to be hired for some of them, even if it means pulling up stakes in Egypt and moving back to Bethlehem, their ancestral town of origin.
Being of the line of both David and Zadok the Priest is taken seriously, and the Sons of Alphaeus (as they are called by most others) are very faithful to their Hebraic roots. Though they’ve been brought up in the shadow of the Heliopolis Temple, the faith of their fathers and mothers never fit well with temple-Judaism. ¿What is the purpose of killing animals if one neither raises them nor eats them? The Sons of Alphaeus are strictly vegetarian. In their religious lives, they find personal prayer enlightening and individual ministry edifying, and good deeds more pleasing than either money or sacrifices. Though the Torah remains their Law, they’re more interested in do’s than don’t’s – and there is much good to do. Since Sons of Alphaeus are contractors, the real work is now done by skilled sub-contractors. The brothers-in-law Yosef and Cleopas have free time to be spent with family, education and worship.
With whatever seed is required within the human heart for a harvest of good works and a pleasing life – it had been planted within them. Hardly is a Torah necessary for such hearts; they would not disobey even had they never known of it; they simply could not. They loved too much. Some people are just born pretty good – with seven or eight parts light inside and just a little bit of darkness.[xi] After all, these are men and women of legend – worthy of awe and inspiration – priests just as much as any in the temple – of a higher priesthood that doesn’t require robes and bloodied knives – priests who would command weather, reproach plagues and heal the sick – bred of the seed of good and set-apart men and women ( – set by the Almighty in the midst of an evil world as salt and light) – hardly even subject to death – (some said they would live for a thousand generations[xii]) – yet even when they die, it is unto the resurrection of the just.
By this time, the ancient title of Alfai Priest is passing into insignificance while their new identity is published by the philosopher Philo the Jew. He simply calls the Alfai priesthood Healers (or Therapeutoi/ae). Cleopas and Yosef are hard-working yet highly religious healers. And they have been educating themselves all along – they participate in the study of the ancient manuscripts: they can read Coptic, Greek, Aramaic, and a little Hebrew. As a people set apart, they have a tradition of study, weather prediction, and healing through prayer and natural substances.
The Healers are known for high ethical standards. If necessary, they aid orphans and widows as commanded in Scripture. They see to the welfare of the poor. They take in children when possible. The money they make through their business, which is considerable, they place in a common fund to better the community, caring for both the less fortunate and those called to study Scripture.[xiii] The more they make, the more they can help. And though he is not very involved with the temple his kin helped to build, Yosef is known in religious circles as haZaddik, “Yosef the Just.”[xiv] I doubt that there is one soul who has read this far and would still not enjoy being known as a righteous man or woman.
Children of Yosef and Cleo(patra) – Yohana, Ya’aqov & Yahuda
Twin sons are born to Yosef and Cleo(patra), Ya’aqov and Yahuda (Jacob aka James and Judah aka Jude).
Ya’aqov: Ya’aqov (James), Ya’aqov receives the inherited title Alfai, which designates him as the alef, or firstborn, of twins. His ancient surname Alfai now has a second meaning. He will become known to historians as “James the Just”; but to Christians as “James, son of Alphaeus” or “James the Less” (both unfortunate errors contributing to the loss of this historical person’s identity), and have his letter to the dispersion published in what is to become the New Testament. Being the first-born son, Ya’aqov is set-apart for a life of study and ministry. At an early age he is sent to live among the Essene (men of perfect holiness) of Mount Carmel not far from Nazareth. Though he is sorely missed in family life, his parents know that he will be a gift to YHWH and the people of Israel. Besides, Mount Carmel is not so far away that he can’t return home occasionally.
Ya’aqov will take a significant place in secular history as the founder of the Assembly of Yahweh at Jerusalem and the overseer of the Nazorean Faith explosion in the mid-first century.
Yahuda: Yahuda is the second of twins, and receives the surname T’ma, which means “twin.” He will become known to scholars as Judas Didymus[xv] Thomas, the author of a New Testament letter as well as (what is often called) the fifth “gospel” (Gospel of Thomas). He is known to Christians as “Jude son of James” (in another erroneous translation) or the subject of the song “Hey Jude.” Yahuda’s fate is quite different than his brother’s. As the didymos “twin,” he is put to the education of work among the supervisors of the family business.
Yahuda will also play a significant role in the Nazorean movement as the torchbearer (the thaddaeus) of the movement in Asia as far as India.
Yohana: Several years after the twins, Yohana (a girl) finally comes forth, named for her father’s sister, whom she resembles. Yohana is betrothed before she was born to a Levite in Jerusalem, a descendant of an aristocratic though waning family. This old custom of infant betrothal was still practiced, though in fact, the betrothed seldom ended up in marriage. And a thousand years after her birth, she will be known only by a name – Joanna. What may never be known (except to me) is that “Joanna” and her Levite husband-to-be are the grandparents of a Roman emperor’s adopted son, Flavius Josephus the historian. And though a great joy will come to the family of Yosef later, for now there is mourning; for Cleo does not live through her daughter’s birth.
Death in childbirth is a very common occurrence at this time (as is death from anything - life expectancy was 29 years); it seems that YHWH would prevent such happening among the righteous, though we are told that the rain fells trees on both sides of the river (Ecc 11:3). Yosef is a widower and plans to remain unmarried. His children all attended to, his beloved gone; he will live a free man in a fettered world, choosing his work, redeeming his time, continuing in righteousness. But something is bound to happen in his life that will change his outlook entirely.
Twins of Cleopas and Yohana – Shimon and Shalome
When Yosef married Cleo, Cleopas also married Yohana, Yosef’s sister.[xvi] It’s not surprising that this couple also had twins, who also have a set of twins: Shimon and Shalom. (By the way, did I mention Yosef and Cleopas were distant cousins? Marriage within the extended family was expected and blessed in those days.)
Shimon: As the firstborn, Shimon, like Ya’aqov, is meant to enter the Essenes for his education. Unlike Ya’aqov, Shimon is too distracted for a life of utter holiness, and he rebels. In his early years, he becomes known for rebellion and Israeli nationalism, gaining him the surname “the Zealot.” But soon Shimon falls in love and settles down in the village of Cana of Galilee, which gains him yet another surname, “the Simon of Cana,” setting him apart from thousands of other Simons in the territory.
His significance in the Nazorean movement is that he becomes the overseer of the Movement after the execution of his cousin Ya’aqov in 62 AD. He will be the editor of a short book of great influence among Christian scholars of the 20th century; the book? The Teaching of the Twelve (also known as Didaché). Secular history will allot him 120 years, with oversight of the Movement for 40.
Shalom / Shalomé: Born into a community of Healers (and unlike her more traditional cousins in Israel), Shalom becomes a very well educated woman who chooses her own husband on the basis of love and faith. Two notices about Shalom survive, both of which are quite important. As an icon in the Nazorean movement of Egypt, history has been written that Yahshua (Jesus) and Shalom were very close, he making his home in her house, dining at her table and discussing matters of spirituality, experience, even mysticism.
The second contribution is a hymnbook that has caught the interest of 20th century scholars and religious laypeople. That book has become known as The Odes of Solomon. Egyptian and Syrian literature tells us that Shalom sang these hymns, and anyone who cares to read my translation of them will have no doubt afterward that Shalom, who loved Yahshua, wrote it.[xvii]
Like her sister-in-law Cleo, Yohana survived the birth of her twins for only a short time. She too succumbs to the birth of two through a birth canal barely large enough for one. Though Cleopas grieves, he realizes he cannot raise the children alone. It is not long before his neighbor’s daughter employs herself by taking care of Shimon and Shalom.
(Path A) Their father notices this girl who is named Mariamene in the Greek style. It is not long before Cleopas begins paying attention to her, and after not that much longer, They marry. OR,
(Path B) Their father notices this girl who is named Maria in the Latin style. It is not long before Cleopas begins paying attention to her, and after not that much longer, They marry.
Heliopolis to Netzeret, Cana and Khochba
We have watched this family go through several migrations and surnames already – from Cush to Heliopolis, known as “Benim Alphai,” Therepeutics, and Essenes. For generations, these families had been influenced by their submersion in Egyptian and Greek culture under the Ptolemys, but in these days, close to the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the advent of Messiah, both Yosef and Cleopas abandon Greek names and give their children strictly Hebrew appellations. As Alfai, they would still heal and call down rain. As temple-builders, they can still prove they have served Yahweh and his people Israel well. As Therepeutae, they retain the learning of contemporary science, mysticism, and medicine. As Essenes, they take the best of each transitional shift while they abandon the worst of all, now seeking out their ancient Hebraic origins even as they are working and traveling in business together (Matthew 9:17). There is a fellowship of Essenes of one sort or another in every city and town of Egypt, Palestine and Syria, so there is no lack for like-minded friends in their travels. Too much righteousness for men born of women? No. These men are Davidids (that is, in David's bloodline), and raised up by YHWH for important, historical events.
The cruel Herods are the greatest builders in history; there is no lack of work. In fact, Sepphoris is to be rebuilt as the administrative capital of Galilee. Yosef, Cleopas, Yahuda and Shimon and company are easily able to acquire long-term employment rebuilding the amphitheater in the center of the city. It is to be a showplace and Herod is sparing no expense. Galilee is dangerous for anyone, so the families are careful to choose where they will reside. They have kin in Sepphoris – Ya’akin, his wife Chana, and their daughter Maryah. With Ya’akin help, Yosef and Cleopas will move their families to three villages on the outskirts of Sepphoris: Nazareth, Khochba and Cana. Many builders are moving to this area and homesteads are in short supply, but Ya’akin relates that there is a detachment of Roman soldiers posted in these towns and they will be safe.
Reconnoiter
Now we have Yosef and his son Yahuda and daughter Yochana in Netzeret (shoot or branch), with his son Ya’aqov[xviii] at Mount Carmel (harvest). Yosef is a widower. His brother-in-law Cleopas and with his young wife Mariamene, and the twins by his former marriage to Yohana, Shimon and Shalom, settle in Cana (zeal). Many of the Hebrew workers that came with the family from Egypt live in Khochba, also known as The Place of the Star.
Here’s a new character: Maryah, the daughter of Ya’akin, a distant cousin of the Sons of Alphaeus, lives on the outskirts of Zippori (beautiful), where she was born.
Maryah and Yosef
1 A.D.: So we leave the business behind, recognizing that it got the family of the “Jesus Family Tomb” to Galilee, and Yosef, the widower, to Maryah the young woman. We already know the story of “Mary and Joseph.” But did you know that it was the duty of an Essene of Yosef’s type, i.e. “a righteous one” (a tzaddik) to accept betrothal of the youth Maryah, a kinswoman placed in Yosef’s care through the command of one of the Manuals of Discipline, as understood by her ailing parents? Yes, there was an obligation that Yosef needed to meet and that obligation was Maryah.
Essenes of all sects adopt children, help the poor, and even marry women to give them the benefit of a family name and (eventually) the Essene treasury. Some Essenes of means took the concept farther by multiplying wives and adopting several orphans. The reason an Essene might do this is not because of sexual desire, but because he greatly loves and is burdened with the troubled ones he sees, and thus desires a large and happy family (whether he participates in that family or not). There are righteous men I know who are like this. If it were for any other reason, Yosef certainly could not have made it through the three-year ordeal of joining the order, nor would he be judged righteous enough to continue in it. The Essenes are very strict in regards to obligations.
Some Essenes, especially those who were considered priests of the Alphai, or of Melchizedek, or Phineas (depending on the sect), remain celibate and increased their numbers by taking youth into their common discipleship programs. Yosef was such a man. The Book of Matthew clearly tells us he is an Essene priest by describing him as a zaddik (that’s what they called their priests, a “just” or “righteous one”).[xix] Now at the ripe old age of 42, he is expected to do his duty by accepting the betrothal.
Yahshua / Yahshua in Zippori
So now let us understand Maryah’s son who is named Yahshua by order of the malach of YHWH. She is seen as pregnant long before her betrothal, and once the son is born, the religious people consider him among the mamzerim, one who is born in unusual, often sinful, circumstances. No longer in Egypt where such discrimination was no longer practiced, a mamzer child was not allowed in the synagogues of the Pharisees, which were so numerous, thus Yahshua was not permitted an education with the rest of the youth.[xx] Yahshua, being a firstborn of the line of Yahuda and himself a scion of David, would work with his older ‘brother’ Yahuda in Sepphoris until the age of twelve, at which time he is committed to the care of his other brother ‘Ya’aqov, among the Nazorean Essene seminarians at Mt. Carmel.
Yahshua’s lost years would be in the company of Nazorean Essenes at Mt. Carmel, and wherever the elders there bid him go. These were the priests with which he had discussed the scriptures at age 12, marking the end of his apprenticeship in construction and the beginning of his education in the priesthood. At the age of 30, in accordance with the Manual of Discipline of his order, he was elected elder, at which time he could go forth into whatever his specialty had become.
When he came back to Netzeret, to the synagogue of the Pharisees, he was called on to read the haftorah (since he was undoubtedly dressed as a teacher and recognized as such). But when his actual identity was discovered by the townspeople, he again became "that mamzer" of ignoble birth they had all banned years before.
Yochana and Matyah Lebbaeus Alphaeus
Let us jump ahead a decade. About this time, Yohana, the daughter of Yosef, finally marries her intended, he being Matyah b. Mattityahu. He is from an aristocratic family of Jerusalem. But his family fortune is waning, and it is Matyah’s intention to get it back through his work as a Levite. Matyah becomes a tax farmer in the bustling city of Caesarea. Also the first of a set of twins (Mark 2:14), Matyah ha Levi becomes a rich young ruler of the Jews. Yohana and Matyah have children, one of whom takes on the family name Mattityahu. A generation later, in 37 C. E., Yohana has the privilege of naming her second grandson after her own father, that is, Yosef. This same Yosef becomes responsible for much of what we know of these times. For later he would be the governor of Galilee, fight the Roman Emperor Vespasian, and become adopted by him as Flavius Josephus. But not so long before, his grandfather Matyah was the secretary scribe for the Nazorean movement, spearheaded by Yahshua Messiah. Although many wonderful stories were to be told about him long after he was gone, Matyah was content to stay close to Yohana and Ya’aqov, his priestly brother-in-law, until Ya’aqov is gone. Shimon bar Cleopa, Matyah’s new pastor when he falls asleep, lays him in the family tomb and scratches his nickname on an ossuary.
Yahuda and Shimon
While the eldest brother Ya’aqov is studying Enoch and becoming “James the Just,” now in a Jerusalem house, his twin (toma), Yahuda, is studying current political events with Yohanan, an Egyptian Essene of the Damascus School. Yahuda the Egyptian talks about Yochanan with his father Yosef, the teen-ager Yahshua, along with Cleopas and Shimon bar Cleopas (Luke 24:18) (all of which are Egyptians) as they walk the three miles to work each day – to the theater in Zippori – the place where the youth Yahshua learns all about hypocrites by watching the actors rehearse. The double cousins Yahuda and Shimon, as the strong men of nationalistic fervor, are lured into the “Zeal for the Law” movement, also known as “The New Covenant of Phineas” (Numbers 25:6-13). The goal of this secret society is to bring about a theocratic Israel. Although there are many violent movements in these days, this Essene wing of the Covenant promotes passive resistance against the occupying Romans and Herodians.
Although Yahuda T’ma and Shimon are both married with children, Shimon’s marriage in Cana becomes one of the most famous ever known, even more so than the legendary marriage of the son of Tobit. Yahuda T’ma is Shimon’s best man, or architriklinos - manager of the wedding feast. For this, Yahuda will receive a nickname from the Roman soldiers assigned to watch the party. Yahuda (Jude), who is continually keeping the torches lit from table to table, becomes known as Thaddeaus – Latin for “the torch god.” But that’s another story.
The cousins find themselves, as descendants of King David, pushed up to the forefront of the Phineas New Covenant movement. And now, a great event is planned as a show of solidarity – a “reverse exodus” in which all covenanters walk east through the city of Tiberius and OUT of Palestine, into the desert of Perea for a week-long camp meeting. Tens of thousands march out, with Yahuda and Shimon – and even the younger Yahshua – leading the “Cana to Nazareth March.” (This would be called a “strike” today. So isn’t that part of what Shabbat is? A strike against secular commerce?)
The Roman general in Tiberius does not take the march well; it causes a major work shortage. So the General takes his armed divisions out to the desert, surrounding the campers and beheads the purported leaders. Yahshua and his half-cousin Shimon bar Cleopas of Cana escape along with about 400 others. But Yahuda the Torchbearer, son of Yosef (Acts 5:36), doesn’t return. His body is not found. It is a mystery. The bulk of the dissenters are sold into slavery. This would be the final peaceful demonstration against Greek and Roman authority. It made a great impression upon the youth Yahshua ha Moshiach.
Besides his wife, Yahuda leaves behind an infant child, Yahuda bar Yahuda.
Yosef and Yose
Grief over the death of his son, with whom he had worked closely for many years, also takes Yosef’s life at the age of 54, leaving behind his young Essenic wife, Maryah, his eldest son Ya’aqov (who is now in Jerusalem), Yahshua – his son by adoption, and his youngest son and namesake (of whom this is the first mention), Yoseh (‘Little Yosef’), the legendary “naked boy in a sheet.”[xxi]
Yahshua
Yahshua, now the Nazorean Essene Teacher of Mt. Carmel (a Nazarene), does a manly deed by adopting his nephew, Yahuda bar Yahuda, who is 4 years of age. His brother Yahudah has disappeared and is presumed dead. As a Zaddik after the order of Melchizedek, Yahshua would never be married nor have marital relations. Yet adoption is the right thing to do on the behalf of his brother. When his mother tells him he is too young to give his name to his nephew, he says to her, “Woman who is my mother, how old art thou?”
Yahshua continues to aid children, allowing all children to come unto him. Yahshua also continues to maintain a close relationship with his youngest brother and only kin, Yose[xxii], who would like to follow him like the teenaged disciples do. Though he is too young to do as a man does, so Yahshua takes Yoseh into the upper room of David’s tomb right next door to Ya’aqov’s home (in Jerusalem), and there teaches him, preparing him for baptism the next morning and discipleship.[xxiii] As a Nazorean Essene, Yahshua understands his community of brothers, sisters, and children to be family, but he supports his greater family financially and spiritually[xxiv] also, even as they all support his ministry.[xxv]
Of the people watching Yahshua from a distance when he is crucified are three women – Maryah his mother and Maria wife of Cleopas. Also there but farther away is Mariamene of Magdala, who is known as Yahshua’s “companion.” In histories outside of the canon, Mariamene Magdala is the sister of the Apostle Philip (notice both have greek names). Mariamene of Magdala is named after two Maccabean queens (both of which were married to Herod and also murdered by him). Nevertheless her name, Mariamene, means something like we might say, “Darling (mene) Marietta.” Her name is famous.
Yahshua's younger brother Yoseh is right beside the stake with his mother now. To Yoseh he says, “Look at your mother.” To Maryah he says, “Look at your son,” as Maria and Mariamene tearfully look on. Soon they must all migrate away to obscure, far-away places – some back to Egypt, some as far as Halfai, others to the backwaters of Europe and Great Britain.
Back to the Tomb
Now before we get to the so-called “Tomb of Jesus” I must make a few remarks: first off, the DNA was tested from the remains of the bone box marked “Yahshua b. Yoseph” and “Mariamene e Mara.” Then whatever other human remains found in “The Jesus Family Tomb” were buried in a common grave in 1980. Ossuaries, or bone-boxes, were employed in the first century; they were used over and over again for over as long as 100 years; whatever remains were in them were not necessarily those of the names inscribed on them. There is no telling what DNA material was soaked out of them and it is no wonder that – the DNA tested was found to be of unrelated individuals. (Unfortunately, this was the filmmaker’s only ‘proof’ that one of the boxes belonged to Mary Magdalene – she was obviously not related to Yahshua – they say.)
Next, let us be reminded of the story of Joseph of Arimathaea – that he secured his family tomb well in advance of his death, just as many today make funeral arrangement long before (Matthew 27:60). In my story, Ya’aqov ha Zaddik purchased the family tomb located in the modern-day Talpiot region, and right beside the tomb of David where the Messianic Seals were found..
Ya’aqov (James) became a well-established in Jerusalem; he was the head of the Assembly of Ebionite and Nazorean Essenes there; he worked for a living as a paid priest of the order of Melchizedek[xxvi], and we have James’ history right up to his assassination in 62 AD. His own bone box disappeared in 1980 and turned up in 2003, and has since been proven by patina analysis that it came out of this same tomb. His bone box is labeled “Ya’aqov son of Yoseph brother of Yahshua.” I have no doubt whatsoever that the James Ossuary is authentic. I have no problems with this tomb being authentic either.
DISCURSION: In considering the Netzari (Nazarene) Teaching of the Standing Stone and the Standing Man, we’re to the point of speaking of James the Just, who is my favorite character because we know so much about him from so many different sources. Besides Paul, no other character is so highly attested.
James, er, Jacob the Just – Little Known ‘Facts’
I’m speaking of the brother of Yahshua Messiah, James “Yaaqov,” surnamed Alphaeus, or the Just Man (that is, ha Tzaddik). Here are just a few things we can know about James. (If you want to know Where did you get that? – just ask.) James was never named James – that is King James’ name! James’ name is Yaaqov or Jacob, like the Patriarch. James and Paul had a serious altercation on the temple steps before Paul’s conversion. James had his legs broken by a Temple guard, which resulted in a mass migration of believers out of Jerusalem. James was known to have knees like camels – ostensibly from praying for the sinners of Israel. James was known as the pillar of Israel; and that if the pillar were to break, the entire land would be destroyed. James was the successor to Jesus in the Jesus Movement, not Kefa. The disciples asked Jesus, Who will lead us, since we know that you will leave us? Jesus replied, From wherever you happen to be, go to James the Just. It is for his sake that heaven and earth came into being. G. Thom. Jesus told the disciples before his death that they should go to James. James was executed by Caiaphas’ nephew at the Temple during Passover in 62 AD. Thrown down from the parapet. James 5:6 You have condemned, you have killed, the Just One, and he does not resisted you not. James’ death, according to a contemporary, resulted in the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. James’ burial box (ossuary) has been in custody for almost 30 years. It has been judged authentic. The ossuary is inscribed with the words Yaaqov bar Yoseph Achui de Yahshua – in churchy language, that’s James son of Joseph brother of Jesus. The Epistle to the Galatians by Paul includes a line-by-line refutation of the Epistle of James by James. One top school of scholarship has proven that James wrote some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. SHOULDN’T THIS GUY GET SOME MENTION IN SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS? One scholar has it right when he says that, "Knowing James is as close as you can get to knowing the historical Jesus.” So you don’t believe me! But what if these things are true? If we sort through and learn the circumstances of James’ life, think of how much closer we might get to Yahshua the Son of Adam! Many people go to the Holy Land because they want to walk where ‘Jesus’ walked. That’s well and good. But before us we have a brother (or half brother), about whom we can learn much. And seeing as how, in very fact, James was his brother’s successor, CONSIDER HOW CLOSE WE CAN GET TO THE SAVIOR RIGHT HERE AT HOME. When I study the life of James, I feel very close to the other Man of Galilee. Now consider – James and Jesus had other brothers, and nephews too. And we know something about them. Think of what we could learn.
Did you know that Shimon bar Cleopa, Ya’aqov’s cousin, also had an assembly in Jerusalem? Shimon was crucified after the turn of the first century, some 40 years after Ya’aqov’s bones was laid in the box. As it turns out, Yahuda bar Yosef, Ya’aqov’s twin surnamed “The Torch Bearer” did make his way back home to be executed by the Romans after making confirmed missionary trips to Kurdistan. Provinces and towns retain his name and title to this day. Yahuda’s other descendants were hunted down by two Roman Emperors and finally all crucified in the second century. His son, Yahuda, who was adopted by Yahshua, continued to bear Yahshua’s name. Yahuda’s grandsons, Zachar and Ya’aqov, were interrogated by Emperor Domition at the end of the first century and let go as simpletons.
The Ossuary Inscriptions
So that leaves us with the following bone boxes that have names on them. (Please recognize that these identities and spellings are arbitrarily chosen by those who transcribed them from the granite):
THE MEN
X Yahshua son of Yosef (vowels implied) –
Jesus son of Joseph,
Read right to left, beginning with a tau
(X, sign of the Passover) or a cross
Ya’aqov bar Yosef akui di Yahshua –
James son of Joseph brother of Jesus
Matyah – note the sacred name YAH
Yoseh – Joses – “Little Joseph” - The only occurrence of this name among all the thousands of ossuary names, corresponding directly to Matthew 13:55, 27:56; Mark 6:3 and 15:20.
Yahuda bar Yahshua – Judah son of Yahshua (Jesus). Did Yahshua make a son through the course of sexual relations? No need for him to do that. As an Essene, it was his duty to adopt children. When he said, “Let the children come to me,” he also said, “Not one will be cast out.”
THE LADIES
Maryah – Mary – second wife of Joseph the Just, mother of Jesus and Joses. The film makers said this name was scratched in Latin. As you can clearly see, this is round Hebrew and spells Maryah, which the filmmakers Latinized to Maria. They said it was written in Latin because of Roman devotees of Mary. That was simply a lie.
Mariamene Mara – This is in Greek letters and fairly easy to read. Mariamene (or Mariamne known as Mara): This is the sister-in-law of Maryah (Mary) and wife of Cleopas (John 19:25) – also known as “the other Mary” in the evangels – not necessarily Mary Magdalene. The filmmakers said because this inscription was in Greek, and that the Gospel of Philip refers to the Magdalene as "Mariamene," that this has to be Mary Magdalene. Also, because the DNA found in this box showed no relation to the DNA found in the “Jesus” box, this proved that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. What ridiculous conclusions! And this film host is a famous archaeologist – the “Naked Archaeologist.”
NOTE: Looking at the annunciation of the angel to Mary in Luke 1:28 - Gabriel calls Mary “kecharitōmenē” (kecaritwmenh). The ending, menē, is a sign of endearment, like “Lovely One” or “Little Darling!” Mariamene could be encoded with the same idea.
http://www.visiontv.ca/NakedArchaeologist/index2.htm
Where Are the Rest of the Kin?
The Family of Yahshua described in Scripture consists of Mary, Joseph, James, Jude, Jesus, Joses, Joanna, Salome, Cleopas, Shimon bar Cleopas (Simon the Canaanaean), maybe more. Reliable sources tell us that relatives of Jude were found in the Nazareth / Cana region from 60 years after the Resurrection to 300 years later. There were several other ossuaries in the tombs with no names (although there are certain symbols alike on all of them): we may account for them all the family if we want. In addition, there was in an adjoining tomb an ossuary with the name Shimon Kefa (Simon Kefa) on it. This name is very unusual. Didn’t they find his bones in Rome?
Is Jackson Snyder a Believer in the Jesus Family Tomb?
Updated October 25, 2011 - Yes, I am a believer; but before today, I wrote the following:
I have been thinking about “Jesus Family Tomb” since LONG before the television special. I have studied and imagined many scenarios. The very tale you have just read, The Shocking True Story Behind the “Jesus Family Tomb,” I wrote earlier in pieces in several essays going back as long as six years. It just so happens that my story fits the tomb inscriptions like O. J. Simpson fits his glove (not the bloody one). To me, the program was very inspirational, factual and believable . . . ;
yet the way the story trailed off into the DaVinci Code showed the extreme ignorance of the “Naked Archaeologist” in regard to first century history in Palestine, the Essene / Nazorean Movement and Yahshua’s history as we know it. (For crying out loud, the guy admitted he didn’t even know Yahshua had a brother – even after the James Ossuary came out 4 years ago!)
I believe the tomb was purchased by someone in the second to fourth century – someone who had these names scratched into the bone boxes and charged admission. The whole thing is just too pat, especially finding Simon Kefa in the next cave!
Note: The Toledoth (genealogy) for Maryah mother of Yahshua is found in Matthew 1. The Toledoth of Yoseph aka Zadoc father of Yahshua is found in Luke 3:23ff. Most doctors have these mixed up, but textual evidence in Matthew 1 assures us that his toledoth is that of Maryah.
It Is the Real Thing
For the sake of my presentation, let’s temporarily believe that the “Jesus Family Tomb” is the real thing. I don’t have time to define all the terms or tell all the history behind what I am presenting to you. Rest assured what I’m writing is based in fact, not the incredulous presumptions of the DaVinci Code crowd. You may easily verify most of what I write by simple internet searches, reading Josephus, Philo or Eusebius, using the Search Engine at JacksonSnyder.com, or purchasing or any modern scholar’s book of the subject. (I have several excellent books listed at www.YAHpop.us. Or I can offer you references or sources if you are really interested. Contact me here: jack AT theyahad.com.)
Let the story begin: BUT PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING IS HISTORICAL FICTION.
The Sons of Alfai to the Temple in Heliopolis
We read in our histories that when Joseph, the son of the famous Jacob, was raised from prison to become the administrator of Egypt, he received Asenath in marriage, a priestess of the sun god On.[i] Joseph, as a worshiper of YHWH, certainly had some influence in Egypt’s acceptance of Monotheism around 1400 BC.[ii] But when Joseph was gone and forgotten, the priests of On brought back the old Egyptian gods and brutally expelled or killed the priestly families and ultimately anyone who would not worship them. Many of the Hebrews in Egypt used the Nile as an escape route, finding safety south of the Egyptian border, in Cush, Numibia and Ethiopia, where some remain to this day (and are known to outsiders as Falasha[iii]). Our story begins in the city of Alfai, on the Nile River in what is today called Sudan, just south of the Egyptian border. Alfai is a sanctuary city, protected by the Cushite Kingdom[iv] as sovereign territory, off-limits to the armies of Egypt, Greece and later Rome. It takes its name from the fact that it is the first city south of Egypt – “Alfai” (alpha) means “first” just like “alpha and omega” means “first and last.”
Halfa 1941 and current, covered by Lake Nasser
500 B.C.: Over the next centuries arises a dynasty among the Alfai Hebrews of the line of Solomon by Menelik, the son of the Candace of Ethiopia. These priest-kings were unique as they had the power to regulate the weather, cast out swarms of locusts, and heal the sick in the name of YHWH. Over the centuries, the Alfai kings’ descendants became known throughout the dispersion of Israel as rainmakers and healers; their presence and gifts were highly valued everywhere. They became known as “Ben Chalfai” or “Sons of Alfai.” A few of the Sons of Alphai are still known today from ancient texts we all can read, such as Honi the Circle Drawer[v], Yahuda the Galilean, and Ya’aqov and Levi, “Sons of Alphaeus[vi] “in the New Testament.[vii] (Alphaeus is not a man; Alphaeus refers to a city in Cush and also a caste of priest-kings.)
200 B.C.: This brings us to the Egyptian city of Heliopolis where we find a community of Hebrews, many of whom migrated back to Egypt from Cush after the persecutions of King Ptolemy Philopator about 210 BC. King Ptolemy rounds up all those of the tribe of Judah who would not take the mark of the god Dionysius or wear the Greek hat; he had them corralled in the stadium at Alexandria. If they won’t give up the peculiarities of their faith, he would murder them all in one of the most creative ways imaginable: he would order the army’s five hundred elephants to be drug-crazed then stampeded through the stadium upon the Jews inside.
Though Ptolemy attempted the massacre a few times, YHWH stole the plan from his mind. YHWH instructed Ptolemy not only to set the captives free, but to commend them. This commendation ultimately led to the Jews gaining permission to rebuild the Temple of YHWH in Egypt and reinstall the legitimate Zadokite priesthood. All this in fulfillment of Isaiah 19:18-21 (excerpted here):
In that day there will be an altar dedicated to Yahweh in the center of Egypt and, close to the frontier, a pillar dedicated to Yahweh, and this will be a sign and a witness to YHWH Sabaoth in Egypt. In that day there will be five cities in Egypt … pledging themselves to YHWH Sabaoth; one of them called City of the Sun.[viii]
Few today realize that, while the priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple was being bought and sold, a Temple of YHWH manned by the proper order of Zadokite priests existed in Egypt for 240 years, including the entire lifespan of the Messiah. And that the temple would be in the city of Heliopolis, which means “City of the Sun.” The announcement of the building of a new temple draws contractors and artisans from all over Africa. A few of these builders journey up from Alfai. Some of them are “Sons of Alphai,” now lay priests with construction skills, who could on occasion still call down rain, cast out locusts, and heal the sick. (Continued after ad.)
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Twins Marry Twins: Yohana & Yosef; Cleo(patra) & Cleopas
So it is now about 10 BC; and in Heliopolis of Egypt not far from the Temple of YHWH. Here lives a small community whose ancestors came up to build the Temple, descendants of “the Sons of Alfai,” by which surname they are still known. And they still follow the trade of their ancestors – the building business (that is, the tekton of Mark 6:3[ix]). These few families had been successful enough in their generations to inherit the wealth required to set up business in a new location, and they are blessed by YHWH and set-apart for great things to come.
There are two sets of twins, twins married to twins, descended from the builders of the temple. Twins were common in their ancestry, and their intermarriage is not uncommon among David’s descendants since prophecy decreed a Davidic Messiah to restore Jerusalem to holiness and order. One set of twins are named by Eli their father in the Hebrew style: they are Yohana and Yosef, surnamed Alfai (spell it). The other set are named by Lebbaeus their father in the Egyptian style: they are Cleo(patra)[x] and Cleopas, surnamed Alphaeus (spell it).
So we have two families from the same place with two different sets of customs, but each as Hebrew as the other, with one set Greco-Egyptian and the other Hebrew-Egyptian, ready to merge, and take on the task of trying to discover their common heritage.
The surnames Alfai and Alphaeus mean the same thing (as we will see later), yet the uniting of the Egyptian and Hebraic surnames is a sign to both that they have really been but One (Alef) from the beginning. Cleopas marries Yohana and Yosef marries Cleo(patra). The double marriage unites cousins and businesses too. They have worked together for generations anyway, and they will need a bigger company if they are going to contend for business outside of Egypt, where great building projects are shovel-ready. Herod the Great, so-called, has many great projects going all over Palestine, and it is their intention to be hired for some of them, even if it means pulling up stakes in Egypt and moving back to Bethlehem, their ancestral town of origin.
Being of the line of both David and Zadok the Priest is taken seriously, and the Sons of Alphaeus (as they are called by most others) are very faithful to their Hebraic roots. Though they’ve been brought up in the shadow of the Heliopolis Temple, the faith of their fathers and mothers never fit well with temple-Judaism. ¿What is the purpose of killing animals if one neither raises them nor eats them? The Sons of Alphaeus are strictly vegetarian. In their religious lives, they find personal prayer enlightening and individual ministry edifying, and good deeds more pleasing than either money or sacrifices. Though the Torah remains their Law, they’re more interested in do’s than don’t’s – and there is much good to do. Since Sons of Alphaeus are contractors, the real work is now done by skilled sub-contractors. The brothers-in-law Yosef and Cleopas have free time to be spent with family, education and worship.
With whatever seed is required within the human heart for a harvest of good works and a pleasing life – it had been planted within them. Hardly is a Torah necessary for such hearts; they would not disobey even had they never known of it; they simply could not. They loved too much. Some people are just born pretty good – with seven or eight parts light inside and just a little bit of darkness.[xi] After all, these are men and women of legend – worthy of awe and inspiration – priests just as much as any in the temple – of a higher priesthood that doesn’t require robes and bloodied knives – priests who would command weather, reproach plagues and heal the sick – bred of the seed of good and set-apart men and women ( – set by the Almighty in the midst of an evil world as salt and light) – hardly even subject to death – (some said they would live for a thousand generations[xii]) – yet even when they die, it is unto the resurrection of the just.
By this time, the ancient title of Alfai Priest is passing into insignificance while their new identity is published by the philosopher Philo the Jew. He simply calls the Alfai priesthood Healers (or Therapeutoi/ae). Cleopas and Yosef are hard-working yet highly religious healers. And they have been educating themselves all along – they participate in the study of the ancient manuscripts: they can read Coptic, Greek, Aramaic, and a little Hebrew. As a people set apart, they have a tradition of study, weather prediction, and healing through prayer and natural substances.
The Healers are known for high ethical standards. If necessary, they aid orphans and widows as commanded in Scripture. They see to the welfare of the poor. They take in children when possible. The money they make through their business, which is considerable, they place in a common fund to better the community, caring for both the less fortunate and those called to study Scripture.[xiii] The more they make, the more they can help. And though he is not very involved with the temple his kin helped to build, Yosef is known in religious circles as haZaddik, “Yosef the Just.”[xiv] I doubt that there is one soul who has read this far and would still not enjoy being known as a righteous man or woman.
Children of Yosef and Cleo(patra) – Yohana, Ya’aqov & Yahuda
Twin sons are born to Yosef and Cleo(patra), Ya’aqov and Yahuda (Jacob aka James and Judah aka Jude).
Ya’aqov: Ya’aqov (James), Ya’aqov receives the inherited title Alfai, which designates him as the alef, or firstborn, of twins. His ancient surname Alfai now has a second meaning. He will become known to historians as “James the Just”; but to Christians as “James, son of Alphaeus” or “James the Less” (both unfortunate errors contributing to the loss of this historical person’s identity), and have his letter to the dispersion published in what is to become the New Testament. Being the first-born son, Ya’aqov is set-apart for a life of study and ministry. At an early age he is sent to live among the Essene (men of perfect holiness) of Mount Carmel not far from Nazareth. Though he is sorely missed in family life, his parents know that he will be a gift to YHWH and the people of Israel. Besides, Mount Carmel is not so far away that he can’t return home occasionally.
Ya’aqov will take a significant place in secular history as the founder of the Assembly of Yahweh at Jerusalem and the overseer of the Nazorean Faith explosion in the mid-first century.
Yahuda: Yahuda is the second of twins, and receives the surname T’ma, which means “twin.” He will become known to scholars as Judas Didymus[xv] Thomas, the author of a New Testament letter as well as (what is often called) the fifth “gospel” (Gospel of Thomas). He is known to Christians as “Jude son of James” (in another erroneous translation) or the subject of the song “Hey Jude.” Yahuda’s fate is quite different than his brother’s. As the didymos “twin,” he is put to the education of work among the supervisors of the family business.
Yahuda will also play a significant role in the Nazorean movement as the torchbearer (the thaddaeus) of the movement in Asia as far as India.
Yohana: Several years after the twins, Yohana (a girl) finally comes forth, named for her father’s sister, whom she resembles. Yohana is betrothed before she was born to a Levite in Jerusalem, a descendant of an aristocratic though waning family. This old custom of infant betrothal was still practiced, though in fact, the betrothed seldom ended up in marriage. And a thousand years after her birth, she will be known only by a name – Joanna. What may never be known (except to me) is that “Joanna” and her Levite husband-to-be are the grandparents of a Roman emperor’s adopted son, Flavius Josephus the historian. And though a great joy will come to the family of Yosef later, for now there is mourning; for Cleo does not live through her daughter’s birth.
Death in childbirth is a very common occurrence at this time (as is death from anything - life expectancy was 29 years); it seems that YHWH would prevent such happening among the righteous, though we are told that the rain fells trees on both sides of the river (Ecc 11:3). Yosef is a widower and plans to remain unmarried. His children all attended to, his beloved gone; he will live a free man in a fettered world, choosing his work, redeeming his time, continuing in righteousness. But something is bound to happen in his life that will change his outlook entirely.
Twins of Cleopas and Yohana – Shimon and Shalome
When Yosef married Cleo, Cleopas also married Yohana, Yosef’s sister.[xvi] It’s not surprising that this couple also had twins, who also have a set of twins: Shimon and Shalom. (By the way, did I mention Yosef and Cleopas were distant cousins? Marriage within the extended family was expected and blessed in those days.)
Shimon: As the firstborn, Shimon, like Ya’aqov, is meant to enter the Essenes for his education. Unlike Ya’aqov, Shimon is too distracted for a life of utter holiness, and he rebels. In his early years, he becomes known for rebellion and Israeli nationalism, gaining him the surname “the Zealot.” But soon Shimon falls in love and settles down in the village of Cana of Galilee, which gains him yet another surname, “the Simon of Cana,” setting him apart from thousands of other Simons in the territory.
His significance in the Nazorean movement is that he becomes the overseer of the Movement after the execution of his cousin Ya’aqov in 62 AD. He will be the editor of a short book of great influence among Christian scholars of the 20th century; the book? The Teaching of the Twelve (also known as Didaché). Secular history will allot him 120 years, with oversight of the Movement for 40.
Shalom / Shalomé: Born into a community of Healers (and unlike her more traditional cousins in Israel), Shalom becomes a very well educated woman who chooses her own husband on the basis of love and faith. Two notices about Shalom survive, both of which are quite important. As an icon in the Nazorean movement of Egypt, history has been written that Yahshua (Jesus) and Shalom were very close, he making his home in her house, dining at her table and discussing matters of spirituality, experience, even mysticism.
The second contribution is a hymnbook that has caught the interest of 20th century scholars and religious laypeople. That book has become known as The Odes of Solomon. Egyptian and Syrian literature tells us that Shalom sang these hymns, and anyone who cares to read my translation of them will have no doubt afterward that Shalom, who loved Yahshua, wrote it.[xvii]
Like her sister-in-law Cleo, Yohana survived the birth of her twins for only a short time. She too succumbs to the birth of two through a birth canal barely large enough for one. Though Cleopas grieves, he realizes he cannot raise the children alone. It is not long before his neighbor’s daughter employs herself by taking care of Shimon and Shalom.
(Path A) Their father notices this girl who is named Mariamene in the Greek style. It is not long before Cleopas begins paying attention to her, and after not that much longer, They marry. OR,
(Path B) Their father notices this girl who is named Maria in the Latin style. It is not long before Cleopas begins paying attention to her, and after not that much longer, They marry.
Heliopolis to Netzeret, Cana and Khochba
We have watched this family go through several migrations and surnames already – from Cush to Heliopolis, known as “Benim Alphai,” Therepeutics, and Essenes. For generations, these families had been influenced by their submersion in Egyptian and Greek culture under the Ptolemys, but in these days, close to the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy of the advent of Messiah, both Yosef and Cleopas abandon Greek names and give their children strictly Hebrew appellations. As Alfai, they would still heal and call down rain. As temple-builders, they can still prove they have served Yahweh and his people Israel well. As Therepeutae, they retain the learning of contemporary science, mysticism, and medicine. As Essenes, they take the best of each transitional shift while they abandon the worst of all, now seeking out their ancient Hebraic origins even as they are working and traveling in business together (Matthew 9:17). There is a fellowship of Essenes of one sort or another in every city and town of Egypt, Palestine and Syria, so there is no lack for like-minded friends in their travels. Too much righteousness for men born of women? No. These men are Davidids (that is, in David's bloodline), and raised up by YHWH for important, historical events.
The cruel Herods are the greatest builders in history; there is no lack of work. In fact, Sepphoris is to be rebuilt as the administrative capital of Galilee. Yosef, Cleopas, Yahuda and Shimon and company are easily able to acquire long-term employment rebuilding the amphitheater in the center of the city. It is to be a showplace and Herod is sparing no expense. Galilee is dangerous for anyone, so the families are careful to choose where they will reside. They have kin in Sepphoris – Ya’akin, his wife Chana, and their daughter Maryah. With Ya’akin help, Yosef and Cleopas will move their families to three villages on the outskirts of Sepphoris: Nazareth, Khochba and Cana. Many builders are moving to this area and homesteads are in short supply, but Ya’akin relates that there is a detachment of Roman soldiers posted in these towns and they will be safe.
Reconnoiter
Now we have Yosef and his son Yahuda and daughter Yochana in Netzeret (shoot or branch), with his son Ya’aqov[xviii] at Mount Carmel (harvest). Yosef is a widower. His brother-in-law Cleopas and with his young wife Mariamene, and the twins by his former marriage to Yohana, Shimon and Shalom, settle in Cana (zeal). Many of the Hebrew workers that came with the family from Egypt live in Khochba, also known as The Place of the Star.
Here’s a new character: Maryah, the daughter of Ya’akin, a distant cousin of the Sons of Alphaeus, lives on the outskirts of Zippori (beautiful), where she was born.
Maryah and Yosef
1 A.D.: So we leave the business behind, recognizing that it got the family of the “Jesus Family Tomb” to Galilee, and Yosef, the widower, to Maryah the young woman. We already know the story of “Mary and Joseph.” But did you know that it was the duty of an Essene of Yosef’s type, i.e. “a righteous one” (a tzaddik) to accept betrothal of the youth Maryah, a kinswoman placed in Yosef’s care through the command of one of the Manuals of Discipline, as understood by her ailing parents? Yes, there was an obligation that Yosef needed to meet and that obligation was Maryah.
Essenes of all sects adopt children, help the poor, and even marry women to give them the benefit of a family name and (eventually) the Essene treasury. Some Essenes of means took the concept farther by multiplying wives and adopting several orphans. The reason an Essene might do this is not because of sexual desire, but because he greatly loves and is burdened with the troubled ones he sees, and thus desires a large and happy family (whether he participates in that family or not). There are righteous men I know who are like this. If it were for any other reason, Yosef certainly could not have made it through the three-year ordeal of joining the order, nor would he be judged righteous enough to continue in it. The Essenes are very strict in regards to obligations.
Some Essenes, especially those who were considered priests of the Alphai, or of Melchizedek, or Phineas (depending on the sect), remain celibate and increased their numbers by taking youth into their common discipleship programs. Yosef was such a man. The Book of Matthew clearly tells us he is an Essene priest by describing him as a zaddik (that’s what they called their priests, a “just” or “righteous one”).[xix] Now at the ripe old age of 42, he is expected to do his duty by accepting the betrothal.
Yahshua / Yahshua in Zippori
So now let us understand Maryah’s son who is named Yahshua by order of the malach of YHWH. She is seen as pregnant long before her betrothal, and once the son is born, the religious people consider him among the mamzerim, one who is born in unusual, often sinful, circumstances. No longer in Egypt where such discrimination was no longer practiced, a mamzer child was not allowed in the synagogues of the Pharisees, which were so numerous, thus Yahshua was not permitted an education with the rest of the youth.[xx] Yahshua, being a firstborn of the line of Yahuda and himself a scion of David, would work with his older ‘brother’ Yahuda in Sepphoris until the age of twelve, at which time he is committed to the care of his other brother ‘Ya’aqov, among the Nazorean Essene seminarians at Mt. Carmel.
Yahshua’s lost years would be in the company of Nazorean Essenes at Mt. Carmel, and wherever the elders there bid him go. These were the priests with which he had discussed the scriptures at age 12, marking the end of his apprenticeship in construction and the beginning of his education in the priesthood. At the age of 30, in accordance with the Manual of Discipline of his order, he was elected elder, at which time he could go forth into whatever his specialty had become.
When he came back to Netzeret, to the synagogue of the Pharisees, he was called on to read the haftorah (since he was undoubtedly dressed as a teacher and recognized as such). But when his actual identity was discovered by the townspeople, he again became "that mamzer" of ignoble birth they had all banned years before.
Yochana and Matyah Lebbaeus Alphaeus
Let us jump ahead a decade. About this time, Yohana, the daughter of Yosef, finally marries her intended, he being Matyah b. Mattityahu. He is from an aristocratic family of Jerusalem. But his family fortune is waning, and it is Matyah’s intention to get it back through his work as a Levite. Matyah becomes a tax farmer in the bustling city of Caesarea. Also the first of a set of twins (Mark 2:14), Matyah ha Levi becomes a rich young ruler of the Jews. Yohana and Matyah have children, one of whom takes on the family name Mattityahu. A generation later, in 37 C. E., Yohana has the privilege of naming her second grandson after her own father, that is, Yosef. This same Yosef becomes responsible for much of what we know of these times. For later he would be the governor of Galilee, fight the Roman Emperor Vespasian, and become adopted by him as Flavius Josephus. But not so long before, his grandfather Matyah was the secretary scribe for the Nazorean movement, spearheaded by Yahshua Messiah. Although many wonderful stories were to be told about him long after he was gone, Matyah was content to stay close to Yohana and Ya’aqov, his priestly brother-in-law, until Ya’aqov is gone. Shimon bar Cleopa, Matyah’s new pastor when he falls asleep, lays him in the family tomb and scratches his nickname on an ossuary.
Yahuda and Shimon
While the eldest brother Ya’aqov is studying Enoch and becoming “James the Just,” now in a Jerusalem house, his twin (toma), Yahuda, is studying current political events with Yohanan, an Egyptian Essene of the Damascus School. Yahuda the Egyptian talks about Yochanan with his father Yosef, the teen-ager Yahshua, along with Cleopas and Shimon bar Cleopas (Luke 24:18) (all of which are Egyptians) as they walk the three miles to work each day – to the theater in Zippori – the place where the youth Yahshua learns all about hypocrites by watching the actors rehearse. The double cousins Yahuda and Shimon, as the strong men of nationalistic fervor, are lured into the “Zeal for the Law” movement, also known as “The New Covenant of Phineas” (Numbers 25:6-13). The goal of this secret society is to bring about a theocratic Israel. Although there are many violent movements in these days, this Essene wing of the Covenant promotes passive resistance against the occupying Romans and Herodians.
Although Yahuda T’ma and Shimon are both married with children, Shimon’s marriage in Cana becomes one of the most famous ever known, even more so than the legendary marriage of the son of Tobit. Yahuda T’ma is Shimon’s best man, or architriklinos - manager of the wedding feast. For this, Yahuda will receive a nickname from the Roman soldiers assigned to watch the party. Yahuda (Jude), who is continually keeping the torches lit from table to table, becomes known as Thaddeaus – Latin for “the torch god.” But that’s another story.
The cousins find themselves, as descendants of King David, pushed up to the forefront of the Phineas New Covenant movement. And now, a great event is planned as a show of solidarity – a “reverse exodus” in which all covenanters walk east through the city of Tiberius and OUT of Palestine, into the desert of Perea for a week-long camp meeting. Tens of thousands march out, with Yahuda and Shimon – and even the younger Yahshua – leading the “Cana to Nazareth March.” (This would be called a “strike” today. So isn’t that part of what Shabbat is? A strike against secular commerce?)
The Roman general in Tiberius does not take the march well; it causes a major work shortage. So the General takes his armed divisions out to the desert, surrounding the campers and beheads the purported leaders. Yahshua and his half-cousin Shimon bar Cleopas of Cana escape along with about 400 others. But Yahuda the Torchbearer, son of Yosef (Acts 5:36), doesn’t return. His body is not found. It is a mystery. The bulk of the dissenters are sold into slavery. This would be the final peaceful demonstration against Greek and Roman authority. It made a great impression upon the youth Yahshua ha Moshiach.
Besides his wife, Yahuda leaves behind an infant child, Yahuda bar Yahuda.
Yosef and Yose
Grief over the death of his son, with whom he had worked closely for many years, also takes Yosef’s life at the age of 54, leaving behind his young Essenic wife, Maryah, his eldest son Ya’aqov (who is now in Jerusalem), Yahshua – his son by adoption, and his youngest son and namesake (of whom this is the first mention), Yoseh (‘Little Yosef’), the legendary “naked boy in a sheet.”[xxi]
Yahshua
Yahshua, now the Nazorean Essene Teacher of Mt. Carmel (a Nazarene), does a manly deed by adopting his nephew, Yahuda bar Yahuda, who is 4 years of age. His brother Yahudah has disappeared and is presumed dead. As a Zaddik after the order of Melchizedek, Yahshua would never be married nor have marital relations. Yet adoption is the right thing to do on the behalf of his brother. When his mother tells him he is too young to give his name to his nephew, he says to her, “Woman who is my mother, how old art thou?”
Yahshua continues to aid children, allowing all children to come unto him. Yahshua also continues to maintain a close relationship with his youngest brother and only kin, Yose[xxii], who would like to follow him like the teenaged disciples do. Though he is too young to do as a man does, so Yahshua takes Yoseh into the upper room of David’s tomb right next door to Ya’aqov’s home (in Jerusalem), and there teaches him, preparing him for baptism the next morning and discipleship.[xxiii] As a Nazorean Essene, Yahshua understands his community of brothers, sisters, and children to be family, but he supports his greater family financially and spiritually[xxiv] also, even as they all support his ministry.[xxv]
Of the people watching Yahshua from a distance when he is crucified are three women – Maryah his mother and Maria wife of Cleopas. Also there but farther away is Mariamene of Magdala, who is known as Yahshua’s “companion.” In histories outside of the canon, Mariamene Magdala is the sister of the Apostle Philip (notice both have greek names). Mariamene of Magdala is named after two Maccabean queens (both of which were married to Herod and also murdered by him). Nevertheless her name, Mariamene, means something like we might say, “Darling (mene) Marietta.” Her name is famous.
Yahshua's younger brother Yoseh is right beside the stake with his mother now. To Yoseh he says, “Look at your mother.” To Maryah he says, “Look at your son,” as Maria and Mariamene tearfully look on. Soon they must all migrate away to obscure, far-away places – some back to Egypt, some as far as Halfai, others to the backwaters of Europe and Great Britain.
Back to the Tomb
Now before we get to the so-called “Tomb of Jesus” I must make a few remarks: first off, the DNA was tested from the remains of the bone box marked “Yahshua b. Yoseph” and “Mariamene e Mara.” Then whatever other human remains found in “The Jesus Family Tomb” were buried in a common grave in 1980. Ossuaries, or bone-boxes, were employed in the first century; they were used over and over again for over as long as 100 years; whatever remains were in them were not necessarily those of the names inscribed on them. There is no telling what DNA material was soaked out of them and it is no wonder that – the DNA tested was found to be of unrelated individuals. (Unfortunately, this was the filmmaker’s only ‘proof’ that one of the boxes belonged to Mary Magdalene – she was obviously not related to Yahshua – they say.)
Next, let us be reminded of the story of Joseph of Arimathaea – that he secured his family tomb well in advance of his death, just as many today make funeral arrangement long before (Matthew 27:60). In my story, Ya’aqov ha Zaddik purchased the family tomb located in the modern-day Talpiot region, and right beside the tomb of David where the Messianic Seals were found..
Ya’aqov (James) became a well-established in Jerusalem; he was the head of the Assembly of Ebionite and Nazorean Essenes there; he worked for a living as a paid priest of the order of Melchizedek[xxvi], and we have James’ history right up to his assassination in 62 AD. His own bone box disappeared in 1980 and turned up in 2003, and has since been proven by patina analysis that it came out of this same tomb. His bone box is labeled “Ya’aqov son of Yoseph brother of Yahshua.” I have no doubt whatsoever that the James Ossuary is authentic. I have no problems with this tomb being authentic either.
DISCURSION: In considering the Netzari (Nazarene) Teaching of the Standing Stone and the Standing Man, we’re to the point of speaking of James the Just, who is my favorite character because we know so much about him from so many different sources. Besides Paul, no other character is so highly attested.
James, er, Jacob the Just – Little Known ‘Facts’
I’m speaking of the brother of Yahshua Messiah, James “Yaaqov,” surnamed Alphaeus, or the Just Man (that is, ha Tzaddik). Here are just a few things we can know about James. (If you want to know Where did you get that? – just ask.) James was never named James – that is King James’ name! James’ name is Yaaqov or Jacob, like the Patriarch. James and Paul had a serious altercation on the temple steps before Paul’s conversion. James had his legs broken by a Temple guard, which resulted in a mass migration of believers out of Jerusalem. James was known to have knees like camels – ostensibly from praying for the sinners of Israel. James was known as the pillar of Israel; and that if the pillar were to break, the entire land would be destroyed. James was the successor to Jesus in the Jesus Movement, not Kefa. The disciples asked Jesus, Who will lead us, since we know that you will leave us? Jesus replied, From wherever you happen to be, go to James the Just. It is for his sake that heaven and earth came into being. G. Thom. Jesus told the disciples before his death that they should go to James. James was executed by Caiaphas’ nephew at the Temple during Passover in 62 AD. Thrown down from the parapet. James 5:6 You have condemned, you have killed, the Just One, and he does not resisted you not. James’ death, according to a contemporary, resulted in the destruction of the Temple in 70AD. James’ burial box (ossuary) has been in custody for almost 30 years. It has been judged authentic. The ossuary is inscribed with the words Yaaqov bar Yoseph Achui de Yahshua – in churchy language, that’s James son of Joseph brother of Jesus. The Epistle to the Galatians by Paul includes a line-by-line refutation of the Epistle of James by James. One top school of scholarship has proven that James wrote some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. SHOULDN’T THIS GUY GET SOME MENTION IN SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS? One scholar has it right when he says that, "Knowing James is as close as you can get to knowing the historical Jesus.” So you don’t believe me! But what if these things are true? If we sort through and learn the circumstances of James’ life, think of how much closer we might get to Yahshua the Son of Adam! Many people go to the Holy Land because they want to walk where ‘Jesus’ walked. That’s well and good. But before us we have a brother (or half brother), about whom we can learn much. And seeing as how, in very fact, James was his brother’s successor, CONSIDER HOW CLOSE WE CAN GET TO THE SAVIOR RIGHT HERE AT HOME. When I study the life of James, I feel very close to the other Man of Galilee. Now consider – James and Jesus had other brothers, and nephews too. And we know something about them. Think of what we could learn.
Did you know that Shimon bar Cleopa, Ya’aqov’s cousin, also had an assembly in Jerusalem? Shimon was crucified after the turn of the first century, some 40 years after Ya’aqov’s bones was laid in the box. As it turns out, Yahuda bar Yosef, Ya’aqov’s twin surnamed “The Torch Bearer” did make his way back home to be executed by the Romans after making confirmed missionary trips to Kurdistan. Provinces and towns retain his name and title to this day. Yahuda’s other descendants were hunted down by two Roman Emperors and finally all crucified in the second century. His son, Yahuda, who was adopted by Yahshua, continued to bear Yahshua’s name. Yahuda’s grandsons, Zachar and Ya’aqov, were interrogated by Emperor Domition at the end of the first century and let go as simpletons.
The Ossuary Inscriptions
So that leaves us with the following bone boxes that have names on them. (Please recognize that these identities and spellings are arbitrarily chosen by those who transcribed them from the granite):
THE MEN
X Yahshua son of Yosef (vowels implied) –
Jesus son of Joseph,
Read right to left, beginning with a tau
(X, sign of the Passover) or a cross
Ya’aqov bar Yosef akui di Yahshua –
James son of Joseph brother of Jesus
Matyah – note the sacred name YAH
Yoseh – Joses – “Little Joseph” - The only occurrence of this name among all the thousands of ossuary names, corresponding directly to Matthew 13:55, 27:56; Mark 6:3 and 15:20.
Yahuda bar Yahshua – Judah son of Yahshua (Jesus). Did Yahshua make a son through the course of sexual relations? No need for him to do that. As an Essene, it was his duty to adopt children. When he said, “Let the children come to me,” he also said, “Not one will be cast out.”
THE LADIES
Maryah – Mary – second wife of Joseph the Just, mother of Jesus and Joses. The film makers said this name was scratched in Latin. As you can clearly see, this is round Hebrew and spells Maryah, which the filmmakers Latinized to Maria. They said it was written in Latin because of Roman devotees of Mary. That was simply a lie.
Mariamene Mara – This is in Greek letters and fairly easy to read. Mariamene (or Mariamne known as Mara): This is the sister-in-law of Maryah (Mary) and wife of Cleopas (John 19:25) – also known as “the other Mary” in the evangels – not necessarily Mary Magdalene. The filmmakers said because this inscription was in Greek, and that the Gospel of Philip refers to the Magdalene as "Mariamene," that this has to be Mary Magdalene. Also, because the DNA found in this box showed no relation to the DNA found in the “Jesus” box, this proved that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. What ridiculous conclusions! And this film host is a famous archaeologist – the “Naked Archaeologist.”
NOTE: Looking at the annunciation of the angel to Mary in Luke 1:28 - Gabriel calls Mary “kecharitōmenē” (kecaritwmenh). The ending, menē, is a sign of endearment, like “Lovely One” or “Little Darling!” Mariamene could be encoded with the same idea.
http://www.visiontv.ca/NakedArchaeologist/index2.htm
Where Are the Rest of the Kin?
The Family of Yahshua described in Scripture consists of Mary, Joseph, James, Jude, Jesus, Joses, Joanna, Salome, Cleopas, Shimon bar Cleopas (Simon the Canaanaean), maybe more. Reliable sources tell us that relatives of Jude were found in the Nazareth / Cana region from 60 years after the Resurrection to 300 years later. There were several other ossuaries in the tombs with no names (although there are certain symbols alike on all of them): we may account for them all the family if we want. In addition, there was in an adjoining tomb an ossuary with the name Shimon Kefa (Simon Kefa) on it. This name is very unusual. Didn’t they find his bones in Rome?
Is Jackson Snyder a Believer in the Jesus Family Tomb?
Updated October 25, 2011 - Yes, I am a believer; but before today, I wrote the following:
I have been thinking about “Jesus Family Tomb” since LONG before the television special. I have studied and imagined many scenarios. The very tale you have just read, The Shocking True Story Behind the “Jesus Family Tomb,” I wrote earlier in pieces in several essays going back as long as six years. It just so happens that my story fits the tomb inscriptions like O. J. Simpson fits his glove (not the bloody one). To me, the program was very inspirational, factual and believable . . . ;
yet the way the story trailed off into the DaVinci Code showed the extreme ignorance of the “Naked Archaeologist” in regard to first century history in Palestine, the Essene / Nazorean Movement and Yahshua’s history as we know it. (For crying out loud, the guy admitted he didn’t even know Yahshua had a brother – even after the James Ossuary came out 4 years ago!)
I believe the tomb was purchased by someone in the second to fourth century – someone who had these names scratched into the bone boxes and charged admission. The whole thing is just too pat, especially finding Simon Kefa in the next cave!
[i] Joseph (as Zaphenath-paneah, yonqomfant / Psonthomphantch) & Asenath, Genesis 41:45.
[ii] Joseph & King Akhenaten, c. 1400 BC. Akhenaten was the author of the source for Psalms 104. The Exodus, c. 1250 BC. King David, c. 1000 BC. Alexander, c. 300 BC.
[iii] Falasha, or Black Jews trace their heritage back to Solomon through Solomon’s (purported) son Menelik.
[iv] Moses was king of Cush from c. 1280 – 1250 BC according to Trimm, Sefer HaYashar 72ff. 2008 p. 410.
[v] Honi | Honiah ha Tzaddik, a holy man d. 65 BC, created rain according to both Talmud & Josephus. He was stoned to death, which, according to Frazer, was the penalty for heresy among the Alfai priesthood, as seen below.
[vi] I have done a lot of research into this ‘name’ and from it I believe that Alphaeus is not a name at all. Here are a few of my conclusions: 1. The Alphai were a sect of priests that could make rain and stop locusts (demons). They originated in Alphai, just south of the Egyptian border, a sanctuary city where Hebrews found solace from the many and varied persecutions of Monotheists in Egypt. Aphai is right on the trail of the so-called sojourn in Egypt. James the just was known to have possessed these powers, and was possibly of the Alphaeus Priesthood, as was Levi Alphaeus encountered later. 2. Alphaeus is a designation of the first-born of a set of twins. The second born would be known as Didymos or T’ma (thomas) in Hebrew. 3. Having the ‘Ya’aqov’ of the New Testament switch to the Latinized name James (Iakimus) gives us a nice testimonial to the presence King James I of England. 4. In very few of the “son of” notices is the word “son.” The ‘father’ name in these mistranslations happens to be in genitive case, which may make these nouns possessive, but hardly necessarily ‘sons.’ Take for instance, “Judas son of James.” The closest you can get to that in from he Greek is “Judah of James,” in this case the ‘of’ refers to James the Just, who was not the father of Judas, but the brother. “Judas of James” was of course the two brothers of Yahshua, James the Alphaeus and Judas the Didymos - twins. 5. The final one I’ll mention is that an Alphaeus was first of many brethren. Just as the Gospel of Thoms has Yahshua telling the rest to, upon his demise, go to “James the Just” as leader shows him to be the Alphaeus (Alpha male) of the group. I have been looking at Cleopas, Lebbaeus and Thaddeus also, if anyone is interested.
[vii] “Son of Alphaeus” – Mat 10:3, Mark 2:14; 3:18, Luk 6:15, Acts 1:13. The following report comes from The Golden Bough: The Roots of Religion and Folklore by James G. Frazer. Frazer is in turn quoting W. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 474 (Schaffhausen, 1864). Among tribes among tribes on the outskirts of Abyssinia a similar office exists and has been thus described by an observer: “The priesthood of the Alfai, as he is called by the Barea and Kunáma, is a remarkable one; he is believed to be able to make rain. This office formerly existed among the Algeds and appears to be still common to the Nuba (Nubian) negroes. The Alfai of the Bareas, who is also consulted by the northern Kunáma, lives near Tembádere on a mountain alone with his family. The people bring him tribute in the form of clothes and fruits, and cultivate for him a large field of his own. He is a kind of carrying, and his office passes by inheritance to his brother or sister’s son. He is supposed to conjure down rain and to drive away the locusts. But if he disappoints the people’s expectations and a great drought arises in the land, the Alfai is stoned to death, and his nearest relations are obliged to cast the first stone at him. When we passed through the country, the office of the Alfai was still held by an old man; but I heard that rainmaking had proved too dangerous for him and that he had renounced his office.”
[viii] Many translations have “city of destruction” instead of “city of the sun.” Whiston has proved to my satisfaction that the older version is “city of the sun,” and that “city of destruction” is a distraction offensive to the concept of an Egyptian temple. See Whiston’s editorial note on Josephus’ Antiquities 13:3:68.
[ix] Mark 6:3 is undoubtedly part of the Essene literature, fragment of Mark being found in Secacah Cave Seven. Is not this the carpenter (tektwn), the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”
[x] Cleopatra (f) and Cleopas (m) are very popular names; several Cleopatra were in the Egyptian royalty, the last being Cleopatra VII of history and legend. By 10 BC, Cleopatra VIII, the former’s daughter with Marc Anthony, was still alive as Queen of Mauritania (Algeria), and their gained personal fame.
[xi] 4Q186 (Cryptic) – the nine houses constitute an individual’s gestation period; of those nine parts, some may be light and some dark. Eight parts in the house of light and one part in the house of darkness would establish that individual as very righteous (Fragment 2.1.1ff), and eight parts darkness and one light as just the opposite (Fragment 1.3.5ff).
[xii] A thousand generations of life – this being the lifespan of those who lived in perfect (Torah) holiness, as per Josephus and Pliny, and John 5: 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life.
[xiii] www.gutenberg.org/etext/12821. Yes, their exist such people who live to use their resources for others. I know some of them – very few.
[xiv] Matthew 1:19; Acts 1:23.
[xv] Didymus = didumoV: the second: John 11:16.
[xvi] Originally, Mariamne – (John 19:25). Like Cleo(patra) and Cleopa, Mariamne is a common Greek form of a very common Hebrew name; two princesses of the Maccabees had this name, both married to Herod.
[xvii] I say “my translation” because the public domain translations sound like they came out of an 18th century Presbyterian church, like most older translation (or should we say propaganda) of the 18th through 20th centuries. Note 15a. Many scholars today at least admit that Odes is an ancient Nazorean hymnbook of mystical verse. But their translations and commentaries make it very clear that they do not understand either messianic love or original worship. Hearing any ancient Nazorean books in the public domain makes one feel she is in the church library.)
[xviii] The Essene treasury will purchase Ya’aqov a guest house in southwest Jerusalem. He eventually becomes a liaison between the Essenes all over Palestine and Egypt. (This according to the primary source histories.)
[xix] Matthew 1:19 identifies Yosef as an Essene, dikaioV wn = a (2)tzaddik (1)being.
[xx] The rule for mamzerim is found in Torah, Deuteronomy 23:2.
[xxi] Mark 14:51,52.
[xxii] Mark 6:3.
[xxiii] This initiation of the youth in the sheet is explained in Secret Mark.
[xxiv] Matthew 9:15, 12:50, 14:21, many more.
[xxv] Luke 8:1-3.
[xxvi] Acts 6:7: Ya’aqov is one of the Priests of the Poor (Ebionim).
[ii] Joseph & King Akhenaten, c. 1400 BC. Akhenaten was the author of the source for Psalms 104. The Exodus, c. 1250 BC. King David, c. 1000 BC. Alexander, c. 300 BC.
[iii] Falasha, or Black Jews trace their heritage back to Solomon through Solomon’s (purported) son Menelik.
[iv] Moses was king of Cush from c. 1280 – 1250 BC according to Trimm, Sefer HaYashar 72ff. 2008 p. 410.
[v] Honi | Honiah ha Tzaddik, a holy man d. 65 BC, created rain according to both Talmud & Josephus. He was stoned to death, which, according to Frazer, was the penalty for heresy among the Alfai priesthood, as seen below.
[vi] I have done a lot of research into this ‘name’ and from it I believe that Alphaeus is not a name at all. Here are a few of my conclusions: 1. The Alphai were a sect of priests that could make rain and stop locusts (demons). They originated in Alphai, just south of the Egyptian border, a sanctuary city where Hebrews found solace from the many and varied persecutions of Monotheists in Egypt. Aphai is right on the trail of the so-called sojourn in Egypt. James the just was known to have possessed these powers, and was possibly of the Alphaeus Priesthood, as was Levi Alphaeus encountered later. 2. Alphaeus is a designation of the first-born of a set of twins. The second born would be known as Didymos or T’ma (thomas) in Hebrew. 3. Having the ‘Ya’aqov’ of the New Testament switch to the Latinized name James (Iakimus) gives us a nice testimonial to the presence King James I of England. 4. In very few of the “son of” notices is the word “son.” The ‘father’ name in these mistranslations happens to be in genitive case, which may make these nouns possessive, but hardly necessarily ‘sons.’ Take for instance, “Judas son of James.” The closest you can get to that in from he Greek is “Judah of James,” in this case the ‘of’ refers to James the Just, who was not the father of Judas, but the brother. “Judas of James” was of course the two brothers of Yahshua, James the Alphaeus and Judas the Didymos - twins. 5. The final one I’ll mention is that an Alphaeus was first of many brethren. Just as the Gospel of Thoms has Yahshua telling the rest to, upon his demise, go to “James the Just” as leader shows him to be the Alphaeus (Alpha male) of the group. I have been looking at Cleopas, Lebbaeus and Thaddeus also, if anyone is interested.
[vii] “Son of Alphaeus” – Mat 10:3, Mark 2:14; 3:18, Luk 6:15, Acts 1:13. The following report comes from The Golden Bough: The Roots of Religion and Folklore by James G. Frazer. Frazer is in turn quoting W. Munzinger, Ostafrikanische Studien, p. 474 (Schaffhausen, 1864). Among tribes among tribes on the outskirts of Abyssinia a similar office exists and has been thus described by an observer: “The priesthood of the Alfai, as he is called by the Barea and Kunáma, is a remarkable one; he is believed to be able to make rain. This office formerly existed among the Algeds and appears to be still common to the Nuba (Nubian) negroes. The Alfai of the Bareas, who is also consulted by the northern Kunáma, lives near Tembádere on a mountain alone with his family. The people bring him tribute in the form of clothes and fruits, and cultivate for him a large field of his own. He is a kind of carrying, and his office passes by inheritance to his brother or sister’s son. He is supposed to conjure down rain and to drive away the locusts. But if he disappoints the people’s expectations and a great drought arises in the land, the Alfai is stoned to death, and his nearest relations are obliged to cast the first stone at him. When we passed through the country, the office of the Alfai was still held by an old man; but I heard that rainmaking had proved too dangerous for him and that he had renounced his office.”
[viii] Many translations have “city of destruction” instead of “city of the sun.” Whiston has proved to my satisfaction that the older version is “city of the sun,” and that “city of destruction” is a distraction offensive to the concept of an Egyptian temple. See Whiston’s editorial note on Josephus’ Antiquities 13:3:68.
[ix] Mark 6:3 is undoubtedly part of the Essene literature, fragment of Mark being found in Secacah Cave Seven. Is not this the carpenter (tektwn), the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?”
[x] Cleopatra (f) and Cleopas (m) are very popular names; several Cleopatra were in the Egyptian royalty, the last being Cleopatra VII of history and legend. By 10 BC, Cleopatra VIII, the former’s daughter with Marc Anthony, was still alive as Queen of Mauritania (Algeria), and their gained personal fame.
[xi] 4Q186 (Cryptic) – the nine houses constitute an individual’s gestation period; of those nine parts, some may be light and some dark. Eight parts in the house of light and one part in the house of darkness would establish that individual as very righteous (Fragment 2.1.1ff), and eight parts darkness and one light as just the opposite (Fragment 1.3.5ff).
[xii] A thousand generations of life – this being the lifespan of those who lived in perfect (Torah) holiness, as per Josephus and Pliny, and John 5: 24. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life.
[xiii] www.gutenberg.org/etext/12821. Yes, their exist such people who live to use their resources for others. I know some of them – very few.
[xiv] Matthew 1:19; Acts 1:23.
[xv] Didymus = didumoV: the second: John 11:16.
[xvi] Originally, Mariamne – (John 19:25). Like Cleo(patra) and Cleopa, Mariamne is a common Greek form of a very common Hebrew name; two princesses of the Maccabees had this name, both married to Herod.
[xvii] I say “my translation” because the public domain translations sound like they came out of an 18th century Presbyterian church, like most older translation (or should we say propaganda) of the 18th through 20th centuries. Note 15a. Many scholars today at least admit that Odes is an ancient Nazorean hymnbook of mystical verse. But their translations and commentaries make it very clear that they do not understand either messianic love or original worship. Hearing any ancient Nazorean books in the public domain makes one feel she is in the church library.)
[xviii] The Essene treasury will purchase Ya’aqov a guest house in southwest Jerusalem. He eventually becomes a liaison between the Essenes all over Palestine and Egypt. (This according to the primary source histories.)
[xix] Matthew 1:19 identifies Yosef as an Essene, dikaioV wn = a (2)tzaddik (1)being.
[xx] The rule for mamzerim is found in Torah, Deuteronomy 23:2.
[xxi] Mark 14:51,52.
[xxii] Mark 6:3.
[xxiii] This initiation of the youth in the sheet is explained in Secret Mark.
[xxiv] Matthew 9:15, 12:50, 14:21, many more.
[xxv] Luke 8:1-3.
[xxvi] Acts 6:7: Ya’aqov is one of the Priests of the Poor (Ebionim).
NAZOREANS, CHRISTIANS, AND THE FAMINE OF ’46
In this Passover preparation time, we recall the slavery, famine and degradation of our ancestors in Egypt. We look forward to eating the Passover and abstaining from leaven.
Here is a story of the famine that came upon Jerusalem ten years after Yahshua ate the last Passover with his disciples. It is a rather long story, but it is a seldom-told and important story. Read all of it – in parts if necessary. You will learn a lot about the Nazoreans of Antioch and Jerusalem, and you will also get to read excerpts from a several ancient texts that are also valuable but seldom taken from the shelf.
The Epistle of Barnabas (Bar Nabi) is used in this message. This letter is included in the earliest New Testament manuscript we have, the Codex Sinaiticus. If you’d like to read my translation of this early text (the only translation of it on the Internet), go to www.sinaiticus.com. Barnabas is very important for a number of reasons, including the fact that he makes it clear exactly when the Apostles believed Yahshua was returning. See if you can understand when Barnabas is talking about.
The Gospel of Yahuda, aka The Gospel of Thomas is also quoted. This work is very early and close to “the source.” It may have been written by Yahshua’s brother Yahuda (Jude) and refers to why the elder brother Ya’aqov (James) is named as the chief Apostle in Acts 15 and elsewhere.
Also used is the history of Flavius Josephus, possibly the son of the disciple Matthew. You can find his histories about everywhere. Josephus tells us about the famine in Palestine that occurred in 46 AD and Queen Helene’s help. Helene was a convert to the Nazorean Way. She was also under a Nazarite vow. Helene’s contributions helped stave off the famine (that Paul speaks of in 2 Cor 9).
May Yahweh bless you this set-apart season as you read of his great work among the Antiochan believers in 46 AD. –Jackson Snyder
Acts 11:19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. {The rest is read in the course of the message.}
Epistle of Barnabas 15 1 And, moreover, concerning the sabbath it is written in the ten commandments, in which he spake on Mount Sinai unto Moses face to face: Sanctify ye the sabbath of the Lord with pure hands and a pure heart. 2 And in another place he saith, If my sons shall keep my sabbath, then will I place my mercy upon them. 3 He speaketh, too, of the sabbath in the beginning of the creation: And God made in six days the works of his hands, and finished them on the seventh day, and rested in it and sanctified it. 4 Consider, my children, what signify the words, He finished them in six days. They mean this: that in six thousand years the Lord will make an end of all things, for a day is with him as a thousand years. And he himself beareth witness unto me, saying: Behold this day a day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, my children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, shall all things be brought to an end.
Josephus Antiquities 20:1.3-2.5: Herod, the brother of Agrippa who had perished, was allowed to govern over Chalcis. He asked Claudius Caesar for control over the temple along with the sacred treasury, and the ability to choose the high priests, and he was given all that he had asked for.
Around this time lived queen Helena of Adiabene, along with her son Izates. They both began to follow the Jewish way, turning away from their past lifestyle . . . Her arrival was of great help to the masses in Jerusalem; for there was a famine in the land that overtook them, and many people died of starvation.
When it became necessary to obtain food abroad, queen Helena sent some of her attendants, with money, to the city of Alexandria to purchase as much grain as possible. She also sent others to the island of Cyprus to bring back dried figs. This whole process happened very quickly, and as soon as they had returned, they handed the provisions out to those who were in dire need of them. Because of this, she left behind a legacy and was held in great respect by the people and the nation at large. And when her son Izates became aware of this famine, he sent a large gift to the leaders in Jerusalem.
Luke 4:16. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read; 17. and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18. "The Spirit of Yahweh is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19. to proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh." 20. And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21. And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Prayer of John Chrysostom (347 – 407) O Messiah our Elohim, who are yourself the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and did fulfill all the ordered purpose of the Father, always fill our hearts with joy and gladness, now and forever, world without end.
Weary Willy
If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Some people are so unsure of their purpose in life that the only time they’re confident of where they’re going is when they drink prune juice.
Consider Weary Willy, a prisoner in Leavenworth whose temperament was studied and recorded in the book My Six Convicts (Donald Wilson). Although Willy hadn’t committed a serious crime, he was the willing patsy for a smarter criminal, doing the other man’s time. Day after day, Weary Willy shuffles up and down prison corridors. He’s not done that much wrong in his life; nor has he done that much good either. He has no vision other than to carry out another man’s sentence. From the cell, up the hall, down the hall, back to the cell – twenty-five years to life. And he’s not even doing that well because he has no mission in life other than to spend it, incarcerated, pacing back and forth. It’s sad, but sadder still is the fact that Willy isn’t unique. He represents millions of people – millions with no viable mission.
The Scandal of Converts!
Acts 11:19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. 20. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching Yahshua the Master. 21. And the hand of Yahweh was with them, and a great number that believed turned to Yahweh. 22. News of this came to the ears of the assembly in Jerusalem
Antioch is a city in Asia Minor, which, in the time of the Apostles, was the third largest in the Roman Empire and the capital of Syria. It was a very influential center of Greek culture since it was situated on the trade route between Rome and Jerusalem.
Due to persecution against the “Nazoreans” (Notzrim) in Jerusalem and Judea, many Jewish believers in Yahshua migrated and settled within the relative safety of Antioch’s ethnic melting pot. As immigrants, they gathered with other Palestinian Jews - people whose customs, traditions, language and culture were similar. And they followed the custom of Yahshua: They met with the “orthodox” Jews every Sabbath in the synagogue to learn and witness that Yahshua had come to seek and save lost Israel.
Other Jewish believers came from Cyprus and Cyrene to Antioch. (Cyrene is situated in modern-day Libya.) These newcomers to Antioch were more liberal and better educated, having been raised far from the traditions and poverty of Jerusalem. They’d been previously baptized in the Holy Spirit and arrived anointed to tell their stories of how Yahshua had influenced their lives outside the bounds of the Jewish cult.
Through the prophetic voice of these Cypriots and Africans, secular, pagan and godless people were repenting and believing that Yahweh was the Almighty One and that Yahshua came as his Son to reconcile all people. And "a great number believed" the testimony of the Cypriots and Africans. These proselytes from pork-eating paganism were brought out of the shrine and into the Antioch synagogue to learn the Torah every Sabbath right alongside the long-bearded Pharisee.
Needless to say, this influx of pagans scandalized the long beards.
“These are idolaters coming in! They’re not Jews! They know nothing of our Law and traditions. Do they bring defilement in with them? Shall we be accursed by Yahweh because they’re here? What should we do?”
These folks probably wanted their congregation to grow, but not to the extent of sacrificing their traditional way of thinking, meeting, acting, behaving and worshiping. These Greeks didn’t even know enough to stand for the Doxology. They didn’t even know the names of the books in the Torah. They didn’t even know “The Lord’s Prayer.” Did they really belong there? Shouldn’t they be put out?
Early on in his ministry, Yahshua commanded that, should he go away, his disciples should defer to Ya’aqov haZaddik (James the Just), his brother, for leadership and counsel.
(Yahuda / Thomas 12. The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?” Yahshua said to them, “No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”)
In their dismay, these Antiochan stalwarts of the faith sent word to Jerusalem.
“There are pigs coming in the synagogue! They don’t know the Law. They aren’t circumcised. Ya’aqov! What should we do now?”
This is where we again take up the text.
Bar Nabi – One Thumb Up
22b. Ya’aqov (James) sent bar Nabi (Barnabas) to Antioch. 23. When he came and saw the favor of Elohim, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to Yahweh with steadfast purpose; 24. for he was a good man, full of the Set-apart Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Master.
Yusef bar Nabi (Barnabas), who was from Cyprus (like some of the evangelists who stirred up the Antioch synagogue) served Ya’aqov (James) in Jerusalem. Bar Nabi was speedily dispatched to observe the situation and make recommendations to headquarters in Jerusalem. (Bar Nabi means “Son of a Seer.”) Bar Nabi, like James and Peter, strictly kept the Torah, including Sabbaths, feasts and food ordinances. But after surveying the situation in Antioch, he did not condemn the evangelists or their movement. No, but he did admonish them all to be faithful to Yahweh no matter what.
Here’s the gist of bar Nabi’s admonition in his own words from his letter we know as:
The Epistle of Barnabas 21 (excerpts): It is well that those who’ve learned the judgments of Yahweh should walk in them. For he who keeps these shall be glorified in the kingdom of God; but he who chooses other things shall be destroyed with his works. There will be a resurrection and a retribution. I beseech you who are in authority, show kindness. For the day is at hand on which all things evil shall perish. Yahweh is near, as is His reward. So be good lawgivers one to another; continue to be faithful counselors of one another; do away with all hypocrisy. And may Elohim, who rules the world, give to you wisdom, intelligence, understanding, knowledge of His judgments – with patience.
My friend, you can’t go wrong if you’re faithful to the Commandments and to one another.
Bar Nabi was a spirit-filled Apostle with the gift of faith. His faith made him wise enough to see past the current confusion to the greater picture – that Jew and Gentile might become one in Messiah, as the prophets foretold. He was a man ahead of his time. Yet no little help would be necessary if his vision of Yahweh’s will for the assembly in Antioch was to become real.
Bar Nabi was also experienced in business matters (Acts 4:36,37). He wasn’t so overtaken by his vision that he didn’t perceive the lack of a common purpose among the believers at Antioch. He exhorted them to acquire a steadfast purpose – find a mission – some heavenly reason to be together. Why? Because “if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.” The only way that Bar Nabi’s prophetic vision could come to pass would be if the two factions at Antioch kept the religious law and unified in spirit and action. Any assembly that wants to go forward absolutely must see a vision of tomorrow and set about in unity to make it happen. This is what is meant in verse 23 by “a steadfast purpose.”
No congregation is ever meant to evolve into a religious hobby club or retire as a monument to the past. Bar Nabi stilled the storm by calling them all back to faithfulness, but he could readily perceive that Antioch simply didn’t know how to walk through the tremendous door of opportunity that conflict had opened. But he knew what to do about that, and that it wouldn’t be a quick fix. So Bar Nabi exhorted them to “be faithful,” then he said goodbye to the Antioch assembly temporarily. Like MacArthur, he promised, “I shall return!”
What Is a Christian?
25. So Bar Nabi went to Tarsus to look for Shaul (Paul); 26. and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the assembly, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.
Tarsus is about 100 miles west of Antioch by boat, and Bar Nabi catches the next passage. When he and Shaul return together, they begin a leadership training seminar in Antioch that lasts an entire year. Not three nights, not four Sunday School moments, but twelve full months of intense training on the subject of what it means to be a steadfast, Spirit-driven congregation.
You’ve got to hand it to those Antiochans. Of course some people left. But those that Yahweh had chosen to redeem Bar Nabi’s vision didn’t quit and they didn’t split. The task forces, committees and focus groups that Shaul and Bar Nabi put together raised a stir in that city because the residents witnessed Old-liners and Greenies working together side by side for a common religious purpose – and certainly for the first time in history. They became Christians.
For your information, “Christian” is a title borrowed from the world of paganism. (Oh, so you knew that already!) The believers in Antioch didn’t call themselves Christians; outsiders did. To be called a Christian then was a smear. Literally! “Christ” simply meant “smear.” Calling the assembly “Christians” was like saying, “They are smears.” (“Smear” has extremely insulting connotations.)
But the very fact that outsiders called these Nazoreans of the Antioch synagogue by a common name, even if it was derogatory, proves that they were seen as having a common purpose. People who had once hated each other were coming together. That’s what’s supposed to happen in a synagogue.
Synagogue means “a coming together place.” This public demonstration of unity may never have happened had not Shaul and Bar Nabi sacrificed an entire year teaching the commandments of Yahweh and the testimony of Yahshua.
After the year, these Antiochan “Christians” retained shared values, theology, diet, ordinances, morals and understandings. They desired, prayed for and received diverse gifts and graces and used them in the service of Yahweh. They came to love one another through the smearing.
But their common mission hadn’t yet manifested. When it arrived, it did so by means of a supernatural event – a miracle.
(By the way, the insult of being called a Christian backfired. “Smeared” has another meaning – “anointed,” as in “smeared with oil.” Christ, in the case of Yahshua, came to mean “the Anointed King,” while “Christian” still means “follower of the Anointed” (Luke 4:18). So that which was meant as an insult turned for good by the Holy Spirit. However, Christians of today have practices more like Greeks in the Shrine of Mithra than the Nazoreans of the Antioch Synagogue!)
The Famine of ‘46
27. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world; and this took place in the days of Claudius (41-54 AD). 29. And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea; 30. and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Bar Nabi and Shaul.
Agabus was a wandering prophet. “Agabus” means “locust” as in “locust plague,” a favorite subject of the Hebrew prophets. Yahweh foretold a disastrous “locust plague” through this gifted man: a "great dearth" - a famine. The famine swept into Palestine in 46 A.D during the reign of Claudius Caesar. Well-documented in secular history, many important people of good will helped to bring relief to Jerusalem.
Shaul and Bar Nabi saw the famine as an opportunity to bring unity of purpose to the assembly at Antioch. “Hadn’t the famine first been prophesied right here in this place?” they exhorted. “And didn’t our Master minister throughout Israel?” they preached. “And aren’t his brothers and sisters and disciples and the whole menagerie of his followers yet there?” they cried. “And aren’t they hungry there in the Holy Land of our fathers?” they repeated. “How many of you here are from Jerusalem – raise your hand!” Bar Nabi commanded. A few raised their hands. “So doesn’t this give us a hint as to just who Yahweh is calling to help with relief?” he proclaimed.
Over and over they preached relief – mission – purpose – single-mindedness. Shaul and Bar Nabi insisted that purpose grow out of mission. The believers in Antioch, spurred on by the call to good works, finally began to act. The interesting thing about the offering they received for Jerusalem is that both Jew and Gentile united. Though diverse, they acquired a one-mindedness through the teachings of the Apostles, the vision of Yahweh, and agapē for one another.
“Steadfast Purpose”
Let’s go back for a moment to Acts 11:23 and Bar Nabi’s speech to the Antiochan Nazoreans.
Weymouth’s New Testament says that Bar Nabi “encouraged them all to remain, with fixed resolve, faithful to Yahweh.” The Revised Standard Version says, “he exhorted them all to remain faithful to Yahweh with steadfast purpose.” The King James says that he “exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto Yahweh.” What is this “purpose of heart” that drove the mission toward the vision?
We can explain it in intellectual terms. The Bible word prothesis, here translated purpose, means “placing an action in view” or “exhibiting” something – i.e. putting something on display. The word is used in the Old Testament (reshiyth) to describe the showbread – twelve loaves of wheat bread representing the twelve tribes of Israel set out on the table in the sanctuary of the temple. The loaves were split into two rows of six, signifying that the tribes of Israel were likewise split, yet all Israel remained before Yahweh and, by the mouth of prophets, would be ONE in the end.
Of the showbread, the Law demands,
Every sabbath [the priest] shall set it in order, a memorial, even an offering to Yahweh, and everlasting covenant, and a statute for all your generations (Leviticus 24:8).
So the significance of purpose for the Antiochan assembly and for us folks today is that our vision, mission and “purpose of the heart” is instituted not by Shaul and bar Nabi, not by an ecclesiastical authority, but by the heavenly Father, who expects our Elohim-given purpose, like the presentation of the showbread, to be carried out before Yahweh and all people forever. His purpose carries cosmic authority and awesome responsibility, and is to be powered naturally and supernaturally – with teaching and with gifts. Everyone involved is to take ownership and get on board. No exceptions. Ours is an everlasting covenant. Reward or retribution await.
Three Little Magic Words
As the purpose of the Antiochan Nazoreans still stands today for us in Acts 11:28-30, our reason to be should be exhibited as the showbread. Everyone who reads this message should know exactly what we’re about without a second thought.
The sign outside one church I led had a simple mission statement consisting of three action verbs written in red. I asked the Sunday School classes for four weeks in a row before anyone could remember the three red action verbs.
To know them wasn’t really that important, except that memorizing them was meant to be the first step in doing them. And we must do them to realize our reason to be. What else are we to do but win, disciple and glorify? If not these, then we’re only to be judged as lacking later on.
The Antioch Congregation had its vision resisters – those who would have liked everything to remain comfortable and slothful – those who wouldn’t even read their own sign. And some are simply unwilling to do anything to fulfill those three words.
When Jerusalem was suffering famine, the Gentiles of the congregation wouldn’t have had any natural inclination to help. They had no real religious or blood connection with either Jerusalem, Nazoreans or Jews. Relief was something the old guard – the minority – felt called to do.
But the Gentiles of the new era caught the vision of the old guard. Both new and the old became caught up in the mission of fund raising. We’re fortunate to have a written, first-hand report of the actions of a similar congregation when it fulfilled the same mission.
I’m speaking of the Corinth assembly that was also fund raising for the relief of Jerusalem. Paul records the efforts of the Corinthians in:
2 Corinthians 8:2. These believers suffered hard testing. However, even though they were very poor, they gave very generously. They were so happy. 3. They gave as much as they could – even more than they should –because they really wanted to. 4. They begged us again and again for the privilege of having a part in helping the set-apart ones. 5. They did not do as we expected. No, the first thing they did was to give themselves to Yahweh. Then they gave themselves to us to be used in whatever way the he wanted. (SIM)
What this testimony plainly reveals is that, like in Antioch, this synagogue had no bankroll or savings accounts with thousands of shekels to spare. But they got on board with Yahweh by being obedient to his commandments then they begged to do more. No, they didn’t hoard and gripe – they didn’t demonstrate a “depression mentality” (Shaul and Bar Nabi wouldn’t stand for it) – but they happily impoverished themselves for the privilege of relieving the holy ones.
And What of Your Mission?
The congregation at Antioch listened and learned, planned their work, then worked their plan; they became unified by their purpose of heart. No other congregation after Jerusalem became so closely identified with Apostles and Prophets than Antioch. Antioch is where Shaul and Bar Nabi began their long joint ministry. And it was in Antioch where revival and universal evangelism first broke out. This is where believers were first called Christians – smeared ones. Here foreign missions were born.
Later, Antioch became home to many important Christian writers whose works are still prized today: the Epistle of Bar Nabi that we have quoted, Ignatius, Lucian, John Chrysostom – all on account of that first pairing of Jews with Gentiles in a common Nazorean purpose of heart.
And today in the modern world, if you can believe this, the Antiochan Orthodox Church is one of the fastest growing movements back to authentic Christianity (says Bishop Sanchez). Why? Because even now the Antiochans retain the same purpose of heart that’s recorded in a book we call Acts of the Apostles.
I wonder what the historians will say about our congregations? Will believers read of our exploits a thousand years hence? Will our mission make enough difference to change the course of human events or even one human life? Will we care enough at this stage to acquire a vision and fulfill the three little red verbs on the sign? Will those on the outside see our good works and either insult us or glorify the Father for us? Will we win, disciple, glorify? What you’ll do now, right now, will determine that.
But I’ll leave you with BarNabi’s benediction from his letter while you make up your mind.
Benediction: Epistle of Barnabas 21: And may El, who ruleth over all the world, give to you wisdom, intelligence, understanding, knowledge of His judgments, with patience. And be ye taught of El, inquiring diligently what the Master asks from you; and do it that ye maybe safe in the day of judgment. While yet you are in this fair vessel, fulfill every commandment. Farewell, ye children of love and peace. Yahweh of Shekinah and of all grace be with your spirit. Amein.
The Messianic Seal
“For the Oil of the Spirit”
Some of this from “B’nai Yahshua” and Used by Permission
In this Passover preparation time, we recall the slavery, famine and degradation of our ancestors in Egypt. We look forward to eating the Passover and abstaining from leaven.
Here is a story of the famine that came upon Jerusalem ten years after Yahshua ate the last Passover with his disciples. It is a rather long story, but it is a seldom-told and important story. Read all of it – in parts if necessary. You will learn a lot about the Nazoreans of Antioch and Jerusalem, and you will also get to read excerpts from a several ancient texts that are also valuable but seldom taken from the shelf.
The Epistle of Barnabas (Bar Nabi) is used in this message. This letter is included in the earliest New Testament manuscript we have, the Codex Sinaiticus. If you’d like to read my translation of this early text (the only translation of it on the Internet), go to www.sinaiticus.com. Barnabas is very important for a number of reasons, including the fact that he makes it clear exactly when the Apostles believed Yahshua was returning. See if you can understand when Barnabas is talking about.
The Gospel of Yahuda, aka The Gospel of Thomas is also quoted. This work is very early and close to “the source.” It may have been written by Yahshua’s brother Yahuda (Jude) and refers to why the elder brother Ya’aqov (James) is named as the chief Apostle in Acts 15 and elsewhere.
Also used is the history of Flavius Josephus, possibly the son of the disciple Matthew. You can find his histories about everywhere. Josephus tells us about the famine in Palestine that occurred in 46 AD and Queen Helene’s help. Helene was a convert to the Nazorean Way. She was also under a Nazarite vow. Helene’s contributions helped stave off the famine (that Paul speaks of in 2 Cor 9).
May Yahweh bless you this set-apart season as you read of his great work among the Antiochan believers in 46 AD. –Jackson Snyder
Acts 11:19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. {The rest is read in the course of the message.}
Epistle of Barnabas 15 1 And, moreover, concerning the sabbath it is written in the ten commandments, in which he spake on Mount Sinai unto Moses face to face: Sanctify ye the sabbath of the Lord with pure hands and a pure heart. 2 And in another place he saith, If my sons shall keep my sabbath, then will I place my mercy upon them. 3 He speaketh, too, of the sabbath in the beginning of the creation: And God made in six days the works of his hands, and finished them on the seventh day, and rested in it and sanctified it. 4 Consider, my children, what signify the words, He finished them in six days. They mean this: that in six thousand years the Lord will make an end of all things, for a day is with him as a thousand years. And he himself beareth witness unto me, saying: Behold this day a day shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, my children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, shall all things be brought to an end.
Josephus Antiquities 20:1.3-2.5: Herod, the brother of Agrippa who had perished, was allowed to govern over Chalcis. He asked Claudius Caesar for control over the temple along with the sacred treasury, and the ability to choose the high priests, and he was given all that he had asked for.
Around this time lived queen Helena of Adiabene, along with her son Izates. They both began to follow the Jewish way, turning away from their past lifestyle . . . Her arrival was of great help to the masses in Jerusalem; for there was a famine in the land that overtook them, and many people died of starvation.
When it became necessary to obtain food abroad, queen Helena sent some of her attendants, with money, to the city of Alexandria to purchase as much grain as possible. She also sent others to the island of Cyprus to bring back dried figs. This whole process happened very quickly, and as soon as they had returned, they handed the provisions out to those who were in dire need of them. Because of this, she left behind a legacy and was held in great respect by the people and the nation at large. And when her son Izates became aware of this famine, he sent a large gift to the leaders in Jerusalem.
Luke 4:16. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the Sabbath day. And he stood up to read; 17. and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 18. "The Spirit of Yahweh is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19. to proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh." 20. And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21. And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Prayer of John Chrysostom (347 – 407) O Messiah our Elohim, who are yourself the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and did fulfill all the ordered purpose of the Father, always fill our hearts with joy and gladness, now and forever, world without end.
Weary Willy
If you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. Some people are so unsure of their purpose in life that the only time they’re confident of where they’re going is when they drink prune juice.
Consider Weary Willy, a prisoner in Leavenworth whose temperament was studied and recorded in the book My Six Convicts (Donald Wilson). Although Willy hadn’t committed a serious crime, he was the willing patsy for a smarter criminal, doing the other man’s time. Day after day, Weary Willy shuffles up and down prison corridors. He’s not done that much wrong in his life; nor has he done that much good either. He has no vision other than to carry out another man’s sentence. From the cell, up the hall, down the hall, back to the cell – twenty-five years to life. And he’s not even doing that well because he has no mission in life other than to spend it, incarcerated, pacing back and forth. It’s sad, but sadder still is the fact that Willy isn’t unique. He represents millions of people – millions with no viable mission.
The Scandal of Converts!
Acts 11:19. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to none except Jews. 20. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Greeks also, preaching Yahshua the Master. 21. And the hand of Yahweh was with them, and a great number that believed turned to Yahweh. 22. News of this came to the ears of the assembly in Jerusalem
Antioch is a city in Asia Minor, which, in the time of the Apostles, was the third largest in the Roman Empire and the capital of Syria. It was a very influential center of Greek culture since it was situated on the trade route between Rome and Jerusalem.
Due to persecution against the “Nazoreans” (Notzrim) in Jerusalem and Judea, many Jewish believers in Yahshua migrated and settled within the relative safety of Antioch’s ethnic melting pot. As immigrants, they gathered with other Palestinian Jews - people whose customs, traditions, language and culture were similar. And they followed the custom of Yahshua: They met with the “orthodox” Jews every Sabbath in the synagogue to learn and witness that Yahshua had come to seek and save lost Israel.
Other Jewish believers came from Cyprus and Cyrene to Antioch. (Cyrene is situated in modern-day Libya.) These newcomers to Antioch were more liberal and better educated, having been raised far from the traditions and poverty of Jerusalem. They’d been previously baptized in the Holy Spirit and arrived anointed to tell their stories of how Yahshua had influenced their lives outside the bounds of the Jewish cult.
Through the prophetic voice of these Cypriots and Africans, secular, pagan and godless people were repenting and believing that Yahweh was the Almighty One and that Yahshua came as his Son to reconcile all people. And "a great number believed" the testimony of the Cypriots and Africans. These proselytes from pork-eating paganism were brought out of the shrine and into the Antioch synagogue to learn the Torah every Sabbath right alongside the long-bearded Pharisee.
Needless to say, this influx of pagans scandalized the long beards.
“These are idolaters coming in! They’re not Jews! They know nothing of our Law and traditions. Do they bring defilement in with them? Shall we be accursed by Yahweh because they’re here? What should we do?”
These folks probably wanted their congregation to grow, but not to the extent of sacrificing their traditional way of thinking, meeting, acting, behaving and worshiping. These Greeks didn’t even know enough to stand for the Doxology. They didn’t even know the names of the books in the Torah. They didn’t even know “The Lord’s Prayer.” Did they really belong there? Shouldn’t they be put out?
Early on in his ministry, Yahshua commanded that, should he go away, his disciples should defer to Ya’aqov haZaddik (James the Just), his brother, for leadership and counsel.
(Yahuda / Thomas 12. The disciples said to Jesus, “We know that you are going to leave us. Who will be our leader?” Yahshua said to them, “No matter where you are you are to go to James the Just, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being.”)
In their dismay, these Antiochan stalwarts of the faith sent word to Jerusalem.
“There are pigs coming in the synagogue! They don’t know the Law. They aren’t circumcised. Ya’aqov! What should we do now?”
This is where we again take up the text.
Bar Nabi – One Thumb Up
22b. Ya’aqov (James) sent bar Nabi (Barnabas) to Antioch. 23. When he came and saw the favor of Elohim, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to Yahweh with steadfast purpose; 24. for he was a good man, full of the Set-apart Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Master.
Yusef bar Nabi (Barnabas), who was from Cyprus (like some of the evangelists who stirred up the Antioch synagogue) served Ya’aqov (James) in Jerusalem. Bar Nabi was speedily dispatched to observe the situation and make recommendations to headquarters in Jerusalem. (Bar Nabi means “Son of a Seer.”) Bar Nabi, like James and Peter, strictly kept the Torah, including Sabbaths, feasts and food ordinances. But after surveying the situation in Antioch, he did not condemn the evangelists or their movement. No, but he did admonish them all to be faithful to Yahweh no matter what.
Here’s the gist of bar Nabi’s admonition in his own words from his letter we know as:
The Epistle of Barnabas 21 (excerpts): It is well that those who’ve learned the judgments of Yahweh should walk in them. For he who keeps these shall be glorified in the kingdom of God; but he who chooses other things shall be destroyed with his works. There will be a resurrection and a retribution. I beseech you who are in authority, show kindness. For the day is at hand on which all things evil shall perish. Yahweh is near, as is His reward. So be good lawgivers one to another; continue to be faithful counselors of one another; do away with all hypocrisy. And may Elohim, who rules the world, give to you wisdom, intelligence, understanding, knowledge of His judgments – with patience.
My friend, you can’t go wrong if you’re faithful to the Commandments and to one another.
Bar Nabi was a spirit-filled Apostle with the gift of faith. His faith made him wise enough to see past the current confusion to the greater picture – that Jew and Gentile might become one in Messiah, as the prophets foretold. He was a man ahead of his time. Yet no little help would be necessary if his vision of Yahweh’s will for the assembly in Antioch was to become real.
Bar Nabi was also experienced in business matters (Acts 4:36,37). He wasn’t so overtaken by his vision that he didn’t perceive the lack of a common purpose among the believers at Antioch. He exhorted them to acquire a steadfast purpose – find a mission – some heavenly reason to be together. Why? Because “if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there.” The only way that Bar Nabi’s prophetic vision could come to pass would be if the two factions at Antioch kept the religious law and unified in spirit and action. Any assembly that wants to go forward absolutely must see a vision of tomorrow and set about in unity to make it happen. This is what is meant in verse 23 by “a steadfast purpose.”
No congregation is ever meant to evolve into a religious hobby club or retire as a monument to the past. Bar Nabi stilled the storm by calling them all back to faithfulness, but he could readily perceive that Antioch simply didn’t know how to walk through the tremendous door of opportunity that conflict had opened. But he knew what to do about that, and that it wouldn’t be a quick fix. So Bar Nabi exhorted them to “be faithful,” then he said goodbye to the Antioch assembly temporarily. Like MacArthur, he promised, “I shall return!”
What Is a Christian?
25. So Bar Nabi went to Tarsus to look for Shaul (Paul); 26. and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the assembly, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.
Tarsus is about 100 miles west of Antioch by boat, and Bar Nabi catches the next passage. When he and Shaul return together, they begin a leadership training seminar in Antioch that lasts an entire year. Not three nights, not four Sunday School moments, but twelve full months of intense training on the subject of what it means to be a steadfast, Spirit-driven congregation.
You’ve got to hand it to those Antiochans. Of course some people left. But those that Yahweh had chosen to redeem Bar Nabi’s vision didn’t quit and they didn’t split. The task forces, committees and focus groups that Shaul and Bar Nabi put together raised a stir in that city because the residents witnessed Old-liners and Greenies working together side by side for a common religious purpose – and certainly for the first time in history. They became Christians.
For your information, “Christian” is a title borrowed from the world of paganism. (Oh, so you knew that already!) The believers in Antioch didn’t call themselves Christians; outsiders did. To be called a Christian then was a smear. Literally! “Christ” simply meant “smear.” Calling the assembly “Christians” was like saying, “They are smears.” (“Smear” has extremely insulting connotations.)
But the very fact that outsiders called these Nazoreans of the Antioch synagogue by a common name, even if it was derogatory, proves that they were seen as having a common purpose. People who had once hated each other were coming together. That’s what’s supposed to happen in a synagogue.
Synagogue means “a coming together place.” This public demonstration of unity may never have happened had not Shaul and Bar Nabi sacrificed an entire year teaching the commandments of Yahweh and the testimony of Yahshua.
After the year, these Antiochan “Christians” retained shared values, theology, diet, ordinances, morals and understandings. They desired, prayed for and received diverse gifts and graces and used them in the service of Yahweh. They came to love one another through the smearing.
But their common mission hadn’t yet manifested. When it arrived, it did so by means of a supernatural event – a miracle.
(By the way, the insult of being called a Christian backfired. “Smeared” has another meaning – “anointed,” as in “smeared with oil.” Christ, in the case of Yahshua, came to mean “the Anointed King,” while “Christian” still means “follower of the Anointed” (Luke 4:18). So that which was meant as an insult turned for good by the Holy Spirit. However, Christians of today have practices more like Greeks in the Shrine of Mithra than the Nazoreans of the Antioch Synagogue!)
The Famine of ‘46
27. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28. And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world; and this took place in the days of Claudius (41-54 AD). 29. And the disciples determined, every one according to his ability, to send relief to the brethren who lived in Judea; 30. and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Bar Nabi and Shaul.
Agabus was a wandering prophet. “Agabus” means “locust” as in “locust plague,” a favorite subject of the Hebrew prophets. Yahweh foretold a disastrous “locust plague” through this gifted man: a "great dearth" - a famine. The famine swept into Palestine in 46 A.D during the reign of Claudius Caesar. Well-documented in secular history, many important people of good will helped to bring relief to Jerusalem.
Shaul and Bar Nabi saw the famine as an opportunity to bring unity of purpose to the assembly at Antioch. “Hadn’t the famine first been prophesied right here in this place?” they exhorted. “And didn’t our Master minister throughout Israel?” they preached. “And aren’t his brothers and sisters and disciples and the whole menagerie of his followers yet there?” they cried. “And aren’t they hungry there in the Holy Land of our fathers?” they repeated. “How many of you here are from Jerusalem – raise your hand!” Bar Nabi commanded. A few raised their hands. “So doesn’t this give us a hint as to just who Yahweh is calling to help with relief?” he proclaimed.
Over and over they preached relief – mission – purpose – single-mindedness. Shaul and Bar Nabi insisted that purpose grow out of mission. The believers in Antioch, spurred on by the call to good works, finally began to act. The interesting thing about the offering they received for Jerusalem is that both Jew and Gentile united. Though diverse, they acquired a one-mindedness through the teachings of the Apostles, the vision of Yahweh, and agapē for one another.
“Steadfast Purpose”
Let’s go back for a moment to Acts 11:23 and Bar Nabi’s speech to the Antiochan Nazoreans.
Weymouth’s New Testament says that Bar Nabi “encouraged them all to remain, with fixed resolve, faithful to Yahweh.” The Revised Standard Version says, “he exhorted them all to remain faithful to Yahweh with steadfast purpose.” The King James says that he “exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto Yahweh.” What is this “purpose of heart” that drove the mission toward the vision?
We can explain it in intellectual terms. The Bible word prothesis, here translated purpose, means “placing an action in view” or “exhibiting” something – i.e. putting something on display. The word is used in the Old Testament (reshiyth) to describe the showbread – twelve loaves of wheat bread representing the twelve tribes of Israel set out on the table in the sanctuary of the temple. The loaves were split into two rows of six, signifying that the tribes of Israel were likewise split, yet all Israel remained before Yahweh and, by the mouth of prophets, would be ONE in the end.
Of the showbread, the Law demands,
Every sabbath [the priest] shall set it in order, a memorial, even an offering to Yahweh, and everlasting covenant, and a statute for all your generations (Leviticus 24:8).
So the significance of purpose for the Antiochan assembly and for us folks today is that our vision, mission and “purpose of the heart” is instituted not by Shaul and bar Nabi, not by an ecclesiastical authority, but by the heavenly Father, who expects our Elohim-given purpose, like the presentation of the showbread, to be carried out before Yahweh and all people forever. His purpose carries cosmic authority and awesome responsibility, and is to be powered naturally and supernaturally – with teaching and with gifts. Everyone involved is to take ownership and get on board. No exceptions. Ours is an everlasting covenant. Reward or retribution await.
Three Little Magic Words
As the purpose of the Antiochan Nazoreans still stands today for us in Acts 11:28-30, our reason to be should be exhibited as the showbread. Everyone who reads this message should know exactly what we’re about without a second thought.
The sign outside one church I led had a simple mission statement consisting of three action verbs written in red. I asked the Sunday School classes for four weeks in a row before anyone could remember the three red action verbs.
To know them wasn’t really that important, except that memorizing them was meant to be the first step in doing them. And we must do them to realize our reason to be. What else are we to do but win, disciple and glorify? If not these, then we’re only to be judged as lacking later on.
The Antioch Congregation had its vision resisters – those who would have liked everything to remain comfortable and slothful – those who wouldn’t even read their own sign. And some are simply unwilling to do anything to fulfill those three words.
When Jerusalem was suffering famine, the Gentiles of the congregation wouldn’t have had any natural inclination to help. They had no real religious or blood connection with either Jerusalem, Nazoreans or Jews. Relief was something the old guard – the minority – felt called to do.
But the Gentiles of the new era caught the vision of the old guard. Both new and the old became caught up in the mission of fund raising. We’re fortunate to have a written, first-hand report of the actions of a similar congregation when it fulfilled the same mission.
I’m speaking of the Corinth assembly that was also fund raising for the relief of Jerusalem. Paul records the efforts of the Corinthians in:
2 Corinthians 8:2. These believers suffered hard testing. However, even though they were very poor, they gave very generously. They were so happy. 3. They gave as much as they could – even more than they should –because they really wanted to. 4. They begged us again and again for the privilege of having a part in helping the set-apart ones. 5. They did not do as we expected. No, the first thing they did was to give themselves to Yahweh. Then they gave themselves to us to be used in whatever way the he wanted. (SIM)
What this testimony plainly reveals is that, like in Antioch, this synagogue had no bankroll or savings accounts with thousands of shekels to spare. But they got on board with Yahweh by being obedient to his commandments then they begged to do more. No, they didn’t hoard and gripe – they didn’t demonstrate a “depression mentality” (Shaul and Bar Nabi wouldn’t stand for it) – but they happily impoverished themselves for the privilege of relieving the holy ones.
And What of Your Mission?
The congregation at Antioch listened and learned, planned their work, then worked their plan; they became unified by their purpose of heart. No other congregation after Jerusalem became so closely identified with Apostles and Prophets than Antioch. Antioch is where Shaul and Bar Nabi began their long joint ministry. And it was in Antioch where revival and universal evangelism first broke out. This is where believers were first called Christians – smeared ones. Here foreign missions were born.
Later, Antioch became home to many important Christian writers whose works are still prized today: the Epistle of Bar Nabi that we have quoted, Ignatius, Lucian, John Chrysostom – all on account of that first pairing of Jews with Gentiles in a common Nazorean purpose of heart.
And today in the modern world, if you can believe this, the Antiochan Orthodox Church is one of the fastest growing movements back to authentic Christianity (says Bishop Sanchez). Why? Because even now the Antiochans retain the same purpose of heart that’s recorded in a book we call Acts of the Apostles.
I wonder what the historians will say about our congregations? Will believers read of our exploits a thousand years hence? Will our mission make enough difference to change the course of human events or even one human life? Will we care enough at this stage to acquire a vision and fulfill the three little red verbs on the sign? Will those on the outside see our good works and either insult us or glorify the Father for us? Will we win, disciple, glorify? What you’ll do now, right now, will determine that.
But I’ll leave you with BarNabi’s benediction from his letter while you make up your mind.
Benediction: Epistle of Barnabas 21: And may El, who ruleth over all the world, give to you wisdom, intelligence, understanding, knowledge of His judgments, with patience. And be ye taught of El, inquiring diligently what the Master asks from you; and do it that ye maybe safe in the day of judgment. While yet you are in this fair vessel, fulfill every commandment. Farewell, ye children of love and peace. Yahweh of Shekinah and of all grace be with your spirit. Amein.
The Messianic Seal
“For the Oil of the Spirit”
Some of this from “B’nai Yahshua” and Used by Permission
FOUND: The First Century baptismal grotto of James the Just and the Apostles on Mount Zion, Jerusalem. James, the brother of Yahshua, was the leader of the first Nazarene (Messianic) church located in the Upper Room on Mount Zion.
Our story begins in 1963, when a small ceremonial silver lamina (a thin plate) was found in the Judean Desert near Jerusalem, dating back to the first Century. A Catholic priest and archaeologist named Emanuel Testa deciphered the Aramaic text of this artifact, the first line of which reads: “For the Oil of the Spirit.” Testa was amazed to find that the text was nearly identical to James 5:14-16. This tiny lamina (3"x1") is a sort of pass card or certificate of belief in Yahshua, used in early Jewish-Christian baptism to confirm the forgiveness of sins and “right of passage” into the Kingdom of Heaven.
This text from the Book of James clearly indicates that the earliest Jewish Christians anointed believers with oil. What has not been clearly understood until now is how this anointing was connected with baptism and the entry into the faith. This is no longer a mystery.
In 1990, Ludwig Schneider, editor in chief of the magazine Israel Update, struck up a friendship with an old Greek Orthodox monk who lived as a hermit in the Old City of Jerusalem. On one occasion, the monk showed Schneider a cache of artifacts that he had secretly excavated on Mount Zion before the Six Day War in 1967. Schneider was taken aback. Many of these pottery shards, oil lamps and stone pieces were engraved with an unknown symbol. The symbol consisted of a menorah on top, a Star of David in the center and a fish at the bottom. Schneider was immediately convinced that this must have been a symbol of the first Jewish-Christian church (assembly).
The monk then led Schneider to a cavity in the rock adjacent to the Tomb of David and the Upper Room on Mount Zion, and told him that this is where he found the artifacts. Today, the cave is dark and musty and sealed off with iron bars. As legend has it, some great secrets are hidden there. Some say that according to the Dead Sea Scrolls, it is a cache of Second Temple treasures. The most popular legend is that deep within this cave lies the long lost Ark of the Covenant.
As it turns out, this is the sacred baptismal grotto of the first Nazarene (Messianic) church, and the treasure hidden there was the First and Second Century artifacts (about 60 in all) found by the monk. Among these artifacts is a brick-shaped piece of local marble inscribed with the Messianic Seal and the words in ancient Aramaic: “For the Oil of the Spirit.” This seems to have been the base for a vial of anointing oil. A small pottery flask with a Messianic Seal found nearby supports this theory.
In my opinion, this piece of marble came into use in the earliest Nazarene times at this baptismal site, below the church in the Upper Room established by James the Just and the Apostles. This was, of course, a perfect place for the first church, because the Upper Room is where the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples at Pentecost. The church was located in the heart of the Essene (a strict, contemplative Jewish sect) Quarter, and was probably a Qumran-like Essene community. According to the Book of Acts, there was strict discipline and a hierarchy. It stands to reason that this group would have immediately established Nazarene ritual, including a ceremonial healing and baptismal center where conversions were sealed by immersion in water and anointing with oil. Judging from the inscription “For the Oil of the Spirit,” the anointing was symbolic of baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Book of Acts records 3,000 conversions here on the day of Pentecost alone.
I believe that James and the Apostles administered the “Oil of the Spirit” from this very stone base. That would make this piece, if my suspicions are correct, the earliest known Christian artifact. I believe that the previously discovered lamina with the same inscription was also used in this congregation.
But ten years after its discovery, this historic, amazing find remains a well-kept secret. Ludwig Schneider approached the Israel Museum with the artifacts, and was promised that they would be put on display. But it never happened. It seems that the Israeli authorities do not want the mystery of the Messianic Seal to come to light.
By Reuven E. Schmalz
Ancient Christian Symbol Rediscovered On Mount Zion
AURORA, Colo. (EP) -- A Messianic Seal from the Christian church in ancient Jerusalem has been rediscovered after 2,000 years. This ancient symbol was found on Mount Zion. It is believed to have been created and used by the Jewish believers who called themselves Nazarenes in the first Messianic Church.
Three companies -- Olim Creative Products of Tiberias, News About Israel (NAI) of Jerusalem, and Christian Floral Delivery of Colorado -- jointly announced the discovery of this ancient symbol, which has been copyrighted by NAI. It consists of three separate but integrated symbols: a menorah at the top, a star of David in the middle, and a fish at the bottom. In each of the renditions of the three-part symbol the star is created by interlacing the stand of the menorah with the tail of the fish.
The Messianic Seal was found etched or inscribed on eight ancient artifacts. The artifacts were presented to Ludwig Schneider, editor in chief of NAI's magazine Israel Today, in 1990. They came from Tech Otecus, an elderly monk who lived as a hermit in the Old City of Jerusalem. Otecus said that in the 1960's he had personally excavated about 40 artifacts bearing the Messianic Seal from an ancient grotto located in the immediate vicinity of the Upper Room on Mount Zion.
What was once the main entrance to the grotto is now covered with a jail-like heavy wire mesh enclosure. Its door, leading down into the ancient baptismal place, is tightly secured with a heavy chain and lock. According to Schneider, the last remaining entry to the grotto was sealed shortly after he excitedly told the priests at the local monastery about the discovery of the Messianic Seal.
Schneider photographed eight artifacts which were given to him by Otecus, and showed the pictures to the curator of the Israel Museum. "When he had carefully studied my pictures," Schneider recalled, "the curator immediately promised me that these artifacts and their unique symbol were an important find. He told me that the museum already had seen other artifacts bearing the same three-part symbol from some other sources he did not specify."
According to Bob Fischer, president of Olim Creative Products and co-author with local historian and artist Reuven Schmalz of their book, The Messianic Seal of the Jerusalem Church, the ancient three-part symbol has, since 135 AD, been suppressed by various Israeli groups or agencies, such as the Israel Museum and Orthodox rabbis in the Old City of Jerusalem, while simultaneously being buried for these nearly two millennia by the church.
According to Fischer, at least two of the eight artifacts were obviously ceremonial pieces which may well have been used by James the Just, the brother of Yahshua, who is said to be the first pastor of the church, or perhaps even by one or more of the Twelve Apostles.
One of the eight artifacts is a brick-sized block of well-worn local marble. This piece bears an etched version of the Messianic Seal with a Taw (the last letter in the ancient Hebrew alphabet that looks exactly like a sign of the cross) in the eye of the fish symbol, as well as the ancient Aramaic lettering proclaiming the use of this artifact as a stand to hold a vial of anointing oil. The ancient Aramaic is transliterated as, "La Shemen Ruehon" (For the Oil of the Spirit). Another of the eight artifacts is a small, almost intact, vial which could well have sat on top of the marble stand.
Commenting on what he characterized as the "monumental importance" of this archaeological discovery, Fischer said, "Beyond the historical background of the Nazarenes, the first Jewish believers who founded the Jerusalem Church, the Messianic Seal itself proclaims to the world the pervasive Jewishness of Yahshua Christ and the decidedly Jewish foundation and roots of the church founded in His name."
"The Messianic Seal of the Jerusalem Church," Fischer continued, "strikes at the very roots of anti-Semitism while proclaiming a compelling message that restores unity: Jew with Jew, and Jew with Gentile. The importance of this discovery cannot be minimized. The Messianic Seal is not only just the key to understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, it can and should shake the foundations of the church and Orthodox Judaism with its incredible message of unity and love. It breaks down barriers that have existed for millennia and points the way toward restoration."
(EP - Evangelical Press News Service) (Post date: July 6, 1999)
The emblem which has become known as the “Messianic Seal” was apparently used by Believers in Moshiach in first century Jerusalem in the Messianic Synagogue that was lead by Ya`akov ben Yosef, the half-brother of Yeshua. Discovered on artifacts that were secretly excavated from Mt. Zion prior to the 1967 six-day war by a Greek Orthodox monk who was living as a hermit in the Old City, the Seal consists of a menorah whose base is intertwined with the tail of a fish, creating a Magen David, or Shield (Star) of David. The artifacts were discovered in a grotto near the Tomb of David and the traditional site of the Upper Room in the Old City, which was apparently used by the Miqra at Yerushalayim for their mikvah and as a place for anointing with oil for healing. It is also speculated that new believers were anointed with oil as part of their mikvah to symbolize the immersion of the believer by the Ruach HaKodesh into the Body of Moshiach. The menorah reminds us of the Holy Temple (Exod. 25:31-37) and conveys the message of hope and salvation associated with it. Seven is the number of perfection. Its seven-branched shape symbolizes the Tree of Life that stood in the middle of the Garden of Eden, and which will stand again in the New Yerushalayim, and carries the promise of eternal life. Its seven lamps which give the light in its fullest intensity symbolizes the light of Elohim, assurance of Elohim’s enlightening presence in the middle of New Yerushalayim. (Zech 4:1-6; Rev. 22:1-5) It also speaks to us of the light of Torah and the Righteousness of Elohim. (Prov. 6:23; 13:9; Psalm 36:9-10; 37:6; 119:105, 130; Job 29:3; Isa. 2:1-5) It also reminds us that Yisra'el is called by Elohim to be a light to the Goyim (Isa. 42:6-7; 49:6; 6:1-5). The menorah has been used as a symbol for Torah for over 3,000 years.
The Messianic Seal: First century inscription in stone.
By Jane Diffenderfer, Messianic Home
Recently discovered artifacts found in Jerusalem reveal the Hebraic nature of the first century believers in Messiah Yahshua [Yahshua’s actual name]. Several pieces of pottery have been found with the symbol of the Menorah and Fish intertwined together in such a way as to reveal a Star of David in the center of artwork. What is the meaning of this symbol and why has the Holy One of Israel allowed it to be discovered at this time in history?
The Menorah, or seven branched lampstand has been a symbol of Jewish identity from ancient times. It represents the Torah (Instructions of the Law) given to Israel. For the commandment is a lamp; and the Torah/law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life (Prov. 6:23). Israel is destined by Elohim to be a light unto the nations and the Menorah is a beautiful symbol of that Light.
The fish has been a symbol of Christian identity for nearly 2000 years. Our Messiah first spoke to a small group of fishermen with the words: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:18). The new disciples were quick to drop their nets to go and gather men for the Holy One of Israel because of the Hebrew Scripture: Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the YHWH, and they shall fish them... (Jer. 16:16). The Fish has been a meaningful symbol of the followers of Yahshua who have been commissioned by Elohim to reveal His Grace.
For the past 1700 years the Menorah has stood alone to represent the Torah and the Fish has been swimming on it’s own to represent Grace. In these miraculous days Abba is restoring His truth to His people and we are seeing the two become one in Messiah. We are to become one people, one body, and one faith. The Two Sticks of Ezekiel (Ez. 37) are to become one in the hand of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. When Torah and Grace are in perfect balance they reveal the Star of David, the Son of David who is our Messiah and King.
There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel (Num. 24:17). Yahshua said of Himself: I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star (Rev. 22:16).
The Messianic Seal and its recent discovery is revealing the original intent of our Father for His People. Jews and Gentiles are to find their identity together as one people belonging to Messiah. Yahshua is the Torah (in Hebrew -devar - the Word) made flesh and when He is lifted up many Gentiles will come to the brightness of His rising and be captivated by the Grace and Mercy of the Holy One of Israel. The Gentile Fish is not to continue swimming on it’s own but is to be caught for Messiah. In discovering the Hebraic roots of the faith many former Gentiles are finding themselves joined to the chosen people - the Israel of Elohim. Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, ... That at that time ye were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without Elohim in the world: But now in Messiah Yahshua ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Messiah (Eph 2:11-13).
The Messianic Seal reveals Yahweh’s original intention for His people and what Messiah has accomplished for us. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us (Eph. 14).
Yahshua’s death on the cross/tree abolished in his flesh the enmity [the opposing of Elohim and one another], even the law of commandments contained in ordinances [dogmas]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto Elohim in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off [Gentiles/LoAmmi Israel], and to them that were nigh [Jews/Torah faithful Israel]. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers [without knowledge] and foreigners [of Elohim’s Kingdom], but fellow citizens [same citizenship of the people consecrated unto Elohim - the chosen people] with the saints [Hebrews], and of the household [related by blood, kindred] of Elohim (Eph. 2:15-18).
Yahshua did not abolish the Torah of Elohim. We need to heed His instructions and renew our minds to: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets (Matt. 5:17). Yahshua came to fulfill Torah by correctly interpreting it. The Torah represented by the Menorah will continue until as Yahshua says: For verily [truthfully] I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled [come to pass]. Many of the Torah’s prophecies about Messiah, Israel and the Gentiles have not come to pass even today.
Yahshua came to abolish only the enmity caused by man’s sin and the wrong interpretations of Torah that opposed Elohim. The sin had separated man from Elohim. The wrong interpretations of Torah created isolationism instead of evangelism and withheld the goodness of YHWH’s Word from others. It has always been the Father’s intention for His Torah to be given to the nations/Gentiles as well as to Israel. Israel is to be a light (menorah) to the nations. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of YHWH is risen upon thee ... YHWH shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light (Is. 60:1-3).
It is through the Torah that Yahshua is revealed. In Messiah’s own words He upholds Torah. For had ye believed Moshe/Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John 5:46).
The Menorah is a symbol for the Tree of Life. The pattern given to Moshe describes the Menorah as being fashioned of gold with almond buds upon it’s branches (see Exodus 25:33). At it’s roots we see the symbol for Messiah in the Star of David ... there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious (Is. 11:10).
The Star of David is only displayed in the Messianic Seal when the Menorah and Fish come together. It does not exist independent of the Torah and Grace symbols. The Star of David has six points to it representing the six days of creation. At the center of the perfectly balanced star we find the Sabbath rest given to us as a free gift in Messiah. And His rest (Sabbath) is glorious.
The Fish symbolizing Grace needs to be caught on the Hebraic roots of the faith. The swimming fish displayed by Christians is separated from the Jewishness of it’s Messiah. Fishers of men need to go forth and preach the gospel that will be received by the Jew first and then to the Gentile. Those who have been given the understanding of the Messianic Seal need to preach the good news of the Torah-Grace of Elohim available to whosoever will receive it. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Messiah: for it is the power of Elohim unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek [Gentile] (Rom.1:16).
The Menorah is steadfast and firm. It’s symbolism is of eternal value because it was created from the pattern of the heavenly. The Fish has mobility as long as it is swimming and on it’s own. When captured by Yahshua’s fisherman the Fish will lose it’s life in Messiah. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it (Matt. 8:35).
The Fish needs to come to the Menorah. In Ezekiel’s Two Sticks, Ephraim (from the Church) is brought to Judah (from the Synagogue). Thus saith the YHWH Elohim; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand (Ez. 37:19). Yahweh is doing this work of grafting all believers in Yahshua into the same Olive Tree of Israel.
When the Star of David is in perfect balance between Torah and Grace we see the truth of who Messiah is. Torah without Messiah as taught in rabbinic Judaism does not reveal Yahshua to the world. Messiah’s Grace without Torah as taught in the Church does not reflect the reality of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. It is time the two voices for the Holy One of Israel unite as one. When they do the beauty of Messiah will be revealed to both Houses of Israel (Judah and Ephraim) and to the Gentiles. The Messianic Seal reveals this message in it’s rich Biblical symbolism.
Our story begins in 1963, when a small ceremonial silver lamina (a thin plate) was found in the Judean Desert near Jerusalem, dating back to the first Century. A Catholic priest and archaeologist named Emanuel Testa deciphered the Aramaic text of this artifact, the first line of which reads: “For the Oil of the Spirit.” Testa was amazed to find that the text was nearly identical to James 5:14-16. This tiny lamina (3"x1") is a sort of pass card or certificate of belief in Yahshua, used in early Jewish-Christian baptism to confirm the forgiveness of sins and “right of passage” into the Kingdom of Heaven.
This text from the Book of James clearly indicates that the earliest Jewish Christians anointed believers with oil. What has not been clearly understood until now is how this anointing was connected with baptism and the entry into the faith. This is no longer a mystery.
In 1990, Ludwig Schneider, editor in chief of the magazine Israel Update, struck up a friendship with an old Greek Orthodox monk who lived as a hermit in the Old City of Jerusalem. On one occasion, the monk showed Schneider a cache of artifacts that he had secretly excavated on Mount Zion before the Six Day War in 1967. Schneider was taken aback. Many of these pottery shards, oil lamps and stone pieces were engraved with an unknown symbol. The symbol consisted of a menorah on top, a Star of David in the center and a fish at the bottom. Schneider was immediately convinced that this must have been a symbol of the first Jewish-Christian church (assembly).
The monk then led Schneider to a cavity in the rock adjacent to the Tomb of David and the Upper Room on Mount Zion, and told him that this is where he found the artifacts. Today, the cave is dark and musty and sealed off with iron bars. As legend has it, some great secrets are hidden there. Some say that according to the Dead Sea Scrolls, it is a cache of Second Temple treasures. The most popular legend is that deep within this cave lies the long lost Ark of the Covenant.
As it turns out, this is the sacred baptismal grotto of the first Nazarene (Messianic) church, and the treasure hidden there was the First and Second Century artifacts (about 60 in all) found by the monk. Among these artifacts is a brick-shaped piece of local marble inscribed with the Messianic Seal and the words in ancient Aramaic: “For the Oil of the Spirit.” This seems to have been the base for a vial of anointing oil. A small pottery flask with a Messianic Seal found nearby supports this theory.
In my opinion, this piece of marble came into use in the earliest Nazarene times at this baptismal site, below the church in the Upper Room established by James the Just and the Apostles. This was, of course, a perfect place for the first church, because the Upper Room is where the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples at Pentecost. The church was located in the heart of the Essene (a strict, contemplative Jewish sect) Quarter, and was probably a Qumran-like Essene community. According to the Book of Acts, there was strict discipline and a hierarchy. It stands to reason that this group would have immediately established Nazarene ritual, including a ceremonial healing and baptismal center where conversions were sealed by immersion in water and anointing with oil. Judging from the inscription “For the Oil of the Spirit,” the anointing was symbolic of baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Book of Acts records 3,000 conversions here on the day of Pentecost alone.
I believe that James and the Apostles administered the “Oil of the Spirit” from this very stone base. That would make this piece, if my suspicions are correct, the earliest known Christian artifact. I believe that the previously discovered lamina with the same inscription was also used in this congregation.
But ten years after its discovery, this historic, amazing find remains a well-kept secret. Ludwig Schneider approached the Israel Museum with the artifacts, and was promised that they would be put on display. But it never happened. It seems that the Israeli authorities do not want the mystery of the Messianic Seal to come to light.
By Reuven E. Schmalz
Ancient Christian Symbol Rediscovered On Mount Zion
AURORA, Colo. (EP) -- A Messianic Seal from the Christian church in ancient Jerusalem has been rediscovered after 2,000 years. This ancient symbol was found on Mount Zion. It is believed to have been created and used by the Jewish believers who called themselves Nazarenes in the first Messianic Church.
Three companies -- Olim Creative Products of Tiberias, News About Israel (NAI) of Jerusalem, and Christian Floral Delivery of Colorado -- jointly announced the discovery of this ancient symbol, which has been copyrighted by NAI. It consists of three separate but integrated symbols: a menorah at the top, a star of David in the middle, and a fish at the bottom. In each of the renditions of the three-part symbol the star is created by interlacing the stand of the menorah with the tail of the fish.
The Messianic Seal was found etched or inscribed on eight ancient artifacts. The artifacts were presented to Ludwig Schneider, editor in chief of NAI's magazine Israel Today, in 1990. They came from Tech Otecus, an elderly monk who lived as a hermit in the Old City of Jerusalem. Otecus said that in the 1960's he had personally excavated about 40 artifacts bearing the Messianic Seal from an ancient grotto located in the immediate vicinity of the Upper Room on Mount Zion.
What was once the main entrance to the grotto is now covered with a jail-like heavy wire mesh enclosure. Its door, leading down into the ancient baptismal place, is tightly secured with a heavy chain and lock. According to Schneider, the last remaining entry to the grotto was sealed shortly after he excitedly told the priests at the local monastery about the discovery of the Messianic Seal.
Schneider photographed eight artifacts which were given to him by Otecus, and showed the pictures to the curator of the Israel Museum. "When he had carefully studied my pictures," Schneider recalled, "the curator immediately promised me that these artifacts and their unique symbol were an important find. He told me that the museum already had seen other artifacts bearing the same three-part symbol from some other sources he did not specify."
According to Bob Fischer, president of Olim Creative Products and co-author with local historian and artist Reuven Schmalz of their book, The Messianic Seal of the Jerusalem Church, the ancient three-part symbol has, since 135 AD, been suppressed by various Israeli groups or agencies, such as the Israel Museum and Orthodox rabbis in the Old City of Jerusalem, while simultaneously being buried for these nearly two millennia by the church.
According to Fischer, at least two of the eight artifacts were obviously ceremonial pieces which may well have been used by James the Just, the brother of Yahshua, who is said to be the first pastor of the church, or perhaps even by one or more of the Twelve Apostles.
One of the eight artifacts is a brick-sized block of well-worn local marble. This piece bears an etched version of the Messianic Seal with a Taw (the last letter in the ancient Hebrew alphabet that looks exactly like a sign of the cross) in the eye of the fish symbol, as well as the ancient Aramaic lettering proclaiming the use of this artifact as a stand to hold a vial of anointing oil. The ancient Aramaic is transliterated as, "La Shemen Ruehon" (For the Oil of the Spirit). Another of the eight artifacts is a small, almost intact, vial which could well have sat on top of the marble stand.
Commenting on what he characterized as the "monumental importance" of this archaeological discovery, Fischer said, "Beyond the historical background of the Nazarenes, the first Jewish believers who founded the Jerusalem Church, the Messianic Seal itself proclaims to the world the pervasive Jewishness of Yahshua Christ and the decidedly Jewish foundation and roots of the church founded in His name."
"The Messianic Seal of the Jerusalem Church," Fischer continued, "strikes at the very roots of anti-Semitism while proclaiming a compelling message that restores unity: Jew with Jew, and Jew with Gentile. The importance of this discovery cannot be minimized. The Messianic Seal is not only just the key to understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, it can and should shake the foundations of the church and Orthodox Judaism with its incredible message of unity and love. It breaks down barriers that have existed for millennia and points the way toward restoration."
(EP - Evangelical Press News Service) (Post date: July 6, 1999)
The emblem which has become known as the “Messianic Seal” was apparently used by Believers in Moshiach in first century Jerusalem in the Messianic Synagogue that was lead by Ya`akov ben Yosef, the half-brother of Yeshua. Discovered on artifacts that were secretly excavated from Mt. Zion prior to the 1967 six-day war by a Greek Orthodox monk who was living as a hermit in the Old City, the Seal consists of a menorah whose base is intertwined with the tail of a fish, creating a Magen David, or Shield (Star) of David. The artifacts were discovered in a grotto near the Tomb of David and the traditional site of the Upper Room in the Old City, which was apparently used by the Miqra at Yerushalayim for their mikvah and as a place for anointing with oil for healing. It is also speculated that new believers were anointed with oil as part of their mikvah to symbolize the immersion of the believer by the Ruach HaKodesh into the Body of Moshiach. The menorah reminds us of the Holy Temple (Exod. 25:31-37) and conveys the message of hope and salvation associated with it. Seven is the number of perfection. Its seven-branched shape symbolizes the Tree of Life that stood in the middle of the Garden of Eden, and which will stand again in the New Yerushalayim, and carries the promise of eternal life. Its seven lamps which give the light in its fullest intensity symbolizes the light of Elohim, assurance of Elohim’s enlightening presence in the middle of New Yerushalayim. (Zech 4:1-6; Rev. 22:1-5) It also speaks to us of the light of Torah and the Righteousness of Elohim. (Prov. 6:23; 13:9; Psalm 36:9-10; 37:6; 119:105, 130; Job 29:3; Isa. 2:1-5) It also reminds us that Yisra'el is called by Elohim to be a light to the Goyim (Isa. 42:6-7; 49:6; 6:1-5). The menorah has been used as a symbol for Torah for over 3,000 years.
The Messianic Seal: First century inscription in stone.
By Jane Diffenderfer, Messianic Home
Recently discovered artifacts found in Jerusalem reveal the Hebraic nature of the first century believers in Messiah Yahshua [Yahshua’s actual name]. Several pieces of pottery have been found with the symbol of the Menorah and Fish intertwined together in such a way as to reveal a Star of David in the center of artwork. What is the meaning of this symbol and why has the Holy One of Israel allowed it to be discovered at this time in history?
The Menorah, or seven branched lampstand has been a symbol of Jewish identity from ancient times. It represents the Torah (Instructions of the Law) given to Israel. For the commandment is a lamp; and the Torah/law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life (Prov. 6:23). Israel is destined by Elohim to be a light unto the nations and the Menorah is a beautiful symbol of that Light.
The fish has been a symbol of Christian identity for nearly 2000 years. Our Messiah first spoke to a small group of fishermen with the words: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men (Matt. 4:18). The new disciples were quick to drop their nets to go and gather men for the Holy One of Israel because of the Hebrew Scripture: Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the YHWH, and they shall fish them... (Jer. 16:16). The Fish has been a meaningful symbol of the followers of Yahshua who have been commissioned by Elohim to reveal His Grace.
For the past 1700 years the Menorah has stood alone to represent the Torah and the Fish has been swimming on it’s own to represent Grace. In these miraculous days Abba is restoring His truth to His people and we are seeing the two become one in Messiah. We are to become one people, one body, and one faith. The Two Sticks of Ezekiel (Ez. 37) are to become one in the hand of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. When Torah and Grace are in perfect balance they reveal the Star of David, the Son of David who is our Messiah and King.
There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel (Num. 24:17). Yahshua said of Himself: I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star (Rev. 22:16).
The Messianic Seal and its recent discovery is revealing the original intent of our Father for His People. Jews and Gentiles are to find their identity together as one people belonging to Messiah. Yahshua is the Torah (in Hebrew -devar - the Word) made flesh and when He is lifted up many Gentiles will come to the brightness of His rising and be captivated by the Grace and Mercy of the Holy One of Israel. The Gentile Fish is not to continue swimming on it’s own but is to be caught for Messiah. In discovering the Hebraic roots of the faith many former Gentiles are finding themselves joined to the chosen people - the Israel of Elohim. Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, ... That at that time ye were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without Elohim in the world: But now in Messiah Yahshua ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Messiah (Eph 2:11-13).
The Messianic Seal reveals Yahweh’s original intention for His people and what Messiah has accomplished for us. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us (Eph. 14).
Yahshua’s death on the cross/tree abolished in his flesh the enmity [the opposing of Elohim and one another], even the law of commandments contained in ordinances [dogmas]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto Elohim in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off [Gentiles/LoAmmi Israel], and to them that were nigh [Jews/Torah faithful Israel]. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers [without knowledge] and foreigners [of Elohim’s Kingdom], but fellow citizens [same citizenship of the people consecrated unto Elohim - the chosen people] with the saints [Hebrews], and of the household [related by blood, kindred] of Elohim (Eph. 2:15-18).
Yahshua did not abolish the Torah of Elohim. We need to heed His instructions and renew our minds to: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets (Matt. 5:17). Yahshua came to fulfill Torah by correctly interpreting it. The Torah represented by the Menorah will continue until as Yahshua says: For verily [truthfully] I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled [come to pass]. Many of the Torah’s prophecies about Messiah, Israel and the Gentiles have not come to pass even today.
Yahshua came to abolish only the enmity caused by man’s sin and the wrong interpretations of Torah that opposed Elohim. The sin had separated man from Elohim. The wrong interpretations of Torah created isolationism instead of evangelism and withheld the goodness of YHWH’s Word from others. It has always been the Father’s intention for His Torah to be given to the nations/Gentiles as well as to Israel. Israel is to be a light (menorah) to the nations. Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of YHWH is risen upon thee ... YHWH shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light (Is. 60:1-3).
It is through the Torah that Yahshua is revealed. In Messiah’s own words He upholds Torah. For had ye believed Moshe/Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John 5:46).
The Menorah is a symbol for the Tree of Life. The pattern given to Moshe describes the Menorah as being fashioned of gold with almond buds upon it’s branches (see Exodus 25:33). At it’s roots we see the symbol for Messiah in the Star of David ... there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious (Is. 11:10).
The Star of David is only displayed in the Messianic Seal when the Menorah and Fish come together. It does not exist independent of the Torah and Grace symbols. The Star of David has six points to it representing the six days of creation. At the center of the perfectly balanced star we find the Sabbath rest given to us as a free gift in Messiah. And His rest (Sabbath) is glorious.
The Fish symbolizing Grace needs to be caught on the Hebraic roots of the faith. The swimming fish displayed by Christians is separated from the Jewishness of it’s Messiah. Fishers of men need to go forth and preach the gospel that will be received by the Jew first and then to the Gentile. Those who have been given the understanding of the Messianic Seal need to preach the good news of the Torah-Grace of Elohim available to whosoever will receive it. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Messiah: for it is the power of Elohim unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek [Gentile] (Rom.1:16).
The Menorah is steadfast and firm. It’s symbolism is of eternal value because it was created from the pattern of the heavenly. The Fish has mobility as long as it is swimming and on it’s own. When captured by Yahshua’s fisherman the Fish will lose it’s life in Messiah. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it (Matt. 8:35).
The Fish needs to come to the Menorah. In Ezekiel’s Two Sticks, Ephraim (from the Church) is brought to Judah (from the Synagogue). Thus saith the YHWH Elohim; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand (Ez. 37:19). Yahweh is doing this work of grafting all believers in Yahshua into the same Olive Tree of Israel.
When the Star of David is in perfect balance between Torah and Grace we see the truth of who Messiah is. Torah without Messiah as taught in rabbinic Judaism does not reveal Yahshua to the world. Messiah’s Grace without Torah as taught in the Church does not reflect the reality of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. It is time the two voices for the Holy One of Israel unite as one. When they do the beauty of Messiah will be revealed to both Houses of Israel (Judah and Ephraim) and to the Gentiles. The Messianic Seal reveals this message in it’s rich Biblical symbolism.
[1] You might recall that John came out of exile a few times to insult the religious authorities, correct the collection policies of tax men, and give Roman soldiers new orders. He castigated the King for his incestuous affairs. He called the church leaders “a brood of vipers.” And, most importantly, he told people not to look to him for anything but a good dunking – another was coming who’d do more.
CLASSIC GNOSTICISM
(The Catholic Encyclopedia)
The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word (gnosis "knowledge", gnostikos, "good at knowing"), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were "people who knew", and their knowledge at once constituted them a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was essentially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know. A more complete and historical definition of Gnosticism would be:
A collective name for a large number of greatly-varying and pantheistic-idealistic sects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God-sent Saviour.
However unsatisfactory this definition may be, the obscurity, multiplicity, and wild confusion of Gnostic systems will hardly allow of another. Many scholars, moreover, would hold that every attempt to give a generic description of Gnostic sects is labour lost.
ORIGIN
The beginnings of Gnosticism have long been a matter of controversy and are still largely a subject of research. The more these origins are studied, the farther they seem to recede in the past.
Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly a corruption of Christianity, it now seems clear that the first traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. Its Eastern origin was already maintained by Gieseler and Neander; F. Ch. Bauer (1831) and Lassen (1858) sought to prove its relation to the religions of India; Lipsius (1860) pointed to Syria and Phoenicia as its home, and Hilgenfeld (1884) thought it was connected with later Mazdeism. Joel (1880), Weingarten (1881), Koffmane (1881), Anrich (1894), and Wobbermin (1896) sought to account for the rise of Gnosticism by the influence of Greek Platonic philosophy and the Greek mysteries, while Harnack described it as "acute Hellenization of Christianity".
For the past twenty-five years, however, the trend of scholarship has steadily moved towards proving the pre-Christian Oriental origins of Gnosticism. At the Fifth Congress of Orientalists (Berlin, 1882) Kessler brought out the connection between Gnosis and the Babylonian religion. By this latter name, however, he meant not the original religion of Babylonia, but the syncretistic religion which arose after the conquest of Cyrus. The same idea is brought out in his "Mani" seven years later. In the same year F.W. Brandt published his "Mandiäische Religion". This Mandaean religion is so unmistakably a form of Gnosticism that it seems beyond doubt that Gnosticism existed independent of, and anterior to, Christianity.
In more recent years (1897) Wilhelm Anz pointed out the close similarity between Babylonian astrology and the Gnostic theories of the Hebdomad and Ogdoad. Though in many instances speculations on the Babylonian Astrallehre have gone beyond all sober scholarship, yet in this particular instance the inferences made by Anz seem sound and reliable. Researches in the same direction were continued and instituted on a wider scale by W. Bousset, in 1907, and led to carefully ascertained results. In 1898 the attempt was made by M. Friedländer to trace Gnosticism in pre-Christian Judaism. His opinion that the Rabbinic term Minnim designated not Christians, as was commonly believed, but Antinomian Gnostics, has not found universal acceptance. In fact, E. Schürer brought sufficient proof to show that Minnim is the exact Armaean dialectic equivalent for ethne. Nevertheless Friedländer's essay retains its value in tracing strong antinomian tendencies with Gnostic colouring on Jewish soil.
Not a few scholars have laboured to find the source of Gnostic theories on Hellenistic and, specifically, Alexandrian soil. In 1880 Joel sought to prove that the germ of all Gnostic theories was to be found in Plato. Though this may be dismissed as an exaggeration, some Greek influence on the birth, but especially on the growth, of Gnosticism cannot be denied. In Trismegistic literature, as pointed out by Reitzenstein (Poimandres, 1904), we find much that is strangely akin to Gnosticism. Its Egyptian origin was defended by E. Amélineau, in 1887, and illustrated by A. Dietrich, in 1891 (Abraxas Studien) and 1903 (Mithrasliturgie). The relation of Plotinus's philosophy to Gnosticism was brought out by C. Schmidt in 1901. That Alexandrian thought had some share at least in the development of Christian Gnosticism is clear from the fact that the bulk of Gnostic literature which we possess comes to us from Egyptian (Coptic) sources. That this share was not a predominant one is, however, acknowledged by O. Gruppe in his "Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte" (1902). It is true that the Greek mysteries, as G. Anrich pointed out in 1894, had much in common with esoteric Gnosticism; but there remains the further question, in how far these Greek mysteries, as they are known to us, were the genuine product of Greek thought, and not much rather due to the overpowering influence of Orientalism.
Although the origins of Gnosticism are still largely enveloped in obscurity, so much light has been shed on the problem by the combined labours of many scholars that it is possible to give the following tentative solution: Although Gnosticism may at first sight appear a mere thoughtless syncretism of well nigh all religious systems in antiquity, it has in reality one deep root-principle, which assimilated in every soil what is needed for its life and growth; this principle is philosophical and religious pessimism.
The Gnostics, it is true, borrowed their terminology almost entirely from existing religions, but they only used it to illustrate their great idea of the essential evil of this present existence and the duty to escape it by the help of magic spells and a superhuman Saviour. Whatever they borrowed, this pessimism they did not borrow -- not from Greek thought, which was a joyous acknowledgment of and homage to the beautiful and noble in this world, with a studied disregard of the element of sorrow; not from Egyptian thought, which did not allow its elaborate speculations on retribution and judgment in the netherworld to cast a gloom on this present existence, but considered the universe created or evolved under the presiding wisdom of Thoth; not from Iranian thought, which held to the absolute supremacy of Ahura Mazda and only allowed Ahriman a subordinate share in the creation, or rather counter-creation, of the world; not from Indian Brahminic thought, which was Pantheism pure and simple, or God dwelling in, nay identified with, the universe, rather than the Universe existing as the contradictory of God; not, lastly, from Semitic thought, for Semitic religions were strangely reticent as to the fate of the soul after death, and saw all practical wisdom in the worship of Baal, or Marduk, or Assur, or Hadad, that they might live long on this earth.
This utter pessimism, bemoaning the existence of the whole universe as a corruption and a calamity, with a feverish craving to be freed from the body of this death and a mad hope that, if we only knew, we could by some mystic words undo the cursed spell of this existence -- this is the foundation of all Gnostic thought. It has the same parent-soil as Buddhism; but Buddhism is ethical, it endeavours to obtain its end by the extinction of all desire; Gnosticism is pseudo-intellectual, and trusts exclusively to magical knowledge. Moreover, Gnosticism, placed in other historical surroundings, developed from the first on other lines than Buddhism.
When Cyrus entered Babylon in 539 B.C., two great worlds of thought met, and syncretism in religion, as far as we know it, began. Iranian thought began to mix with the ancient civilization of Babylon. The idea of the great struggle between evil and good, ever continuing in this universe, is the parent idea of Mazdeism, or Iranian dualism. This, and the imagined existence of numberless intermediate spirits, angels and devas, are the conviction which overcame the contentedness of Semitism.
On the other hand, the unshakable trust in astrology, the persuasion that the planetary system had a fatalistic influence on this world's affairs, stood its ground on the soil of Chaldea. The greatness of the Seven -- the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn -- the sacred Hebdomad, symbolized for millenniums by the staged towers of Babylonia, remained undiminished. They ceased, indeed, to be worshipped as deities, but they remained archontes and dynameis, rules and powers whose almost irresistible force was dreaded by man. Practically, they were changed from gods to devas, or evil spirits. The religions of the invaders and of the invaded effected a compromise: the astral faith of Babylon was true, but beyond the Hebodomad was the infinite light in the Ogdoad, and every human soul had to pass the adverse influence of the god or gods of the Hebdomad before it could ascend to the only good God beyond. This ascent of the soul through the planetary spheres to the heaven beyond (an idea not unknown even to ancient Babylonian speculations) began to be conceived as a struggle with adverse powers, and became the first and predominant idea in Gnosticism.
The second great component of Gnostic thought is magic, properly so called, i.e. the power ex opere operato of weird names, sounds, gestures, and actions, as also the mixture of elements to produce effects totally disproportionate to the cause. These magic formulae, which caused laughter and disgust to outsiders, are not a later and accidental corruption, but an essential part of Gnosticism, for they are found in all forms of Christian Gnosticism and likewise in Mandaeism. No Gnosis was essentially complete without the knowledge of the formulae, which, once pronounced, were the undoing of the higher hostile powers. Magic is the original sin of Gnosticism, nor is it difficult to guess whence it is inherited. To a certain extent it formed part of every pagan religion, especially the ancient mysteries, yet the thousands of magic tablets unearthed is Assyria and Babylonia show us where the rankest growth of magic was to be found. Moreover, the terms and names of earliest of Gnosticism bear an unmistakable similarity to Semitic sounds and words.
Gnosticism came early into contact with Judaism, and it betrays a knowledge of the Old Testament, if only to reject it or borrow a few names from it. Considering the strong, well-organized, and highly-cultured Jewish colonies in the Euphrates valley, this early contact with Judaism is perfectly natural. Perhaps the Gnostic idea of a Redeemer is not unconnected with Jewish Messianic hopes. But from the first the Gnostic conception of a Saviour is more superhuman than that of popular Judaism; their Manda d'Haye, or Soter, is some immediate manifestation of the Deity, a Light-King, an Æon (Aion), and an emanation of the good God.
When Gnosticism came in touch with Christianity, which must have happened almost immediately on its appearance, Gnosticism threw herself with strange rapidity into Christian forms of thought, borrowed its nomenclature, acknowledged Jesus as Saviour of the world, simulated its sacraments, pretended to be an esoteric revelation of Christ and His Apostles, flooded the world with apocryphal Gospels, and Acts, and Apocalypses, to substantiate its claim. As Christianity grew within and without the Roman Empire, Gnosticism spread as a fungus at its root, and claimed to be the only true form of Christianity, unfit, indeed, for the vulgar crowd, but set apart for the gifted and the elect. So rank was its poisonous growth that there seemed danger of its stifling Christianity altogether, and the earliest Fathers devoted their energies to uprooting it. Though in reality the spirit of Gnosticism is utterly alien to that of Christianity, it then seemed to the unwary merely a modification or refinement thereof. When domiciled on Greek soil, Gnosticism, slightly changing its barbarous and Seminitic terminology and giving its "emanatons" and"syzygies" Greek names, sounded somewhat like neo-Platonism, thought it was strongly repudiated by Plotinus. In Egypt the national worship left its mark more on Gnostic practice than on its theories.
In dealing with the origins of Gnosticism, one might be tempted to mention Manichaeism, as a number of Gnostic ideas seem to be borrowed from Manichaeism, where they are obviously at home. This, however, would hardly be correct. Manichaeism, as historically connected with Mani, its founder, could not have arisen much earlier than A.D. 250, when Gnosticism was already in rapid decline. Manichaeism, however, in many of its elements dates back far beyond its commonly accepted founder; but then it is a parallel development with the Gnosis, rather than one of its sources. Sometimes Manichaeism is even classed as a form of Gnosticism and styled Parsee Gnosis, as distinguished from Syrian and Egyptian Gnosis. This classification, however, ignores the fact that the two systems, though they have the doctrine of the evil of matter in common, start from different principles, Manichaeism from dualism, while Gnosticism, as an idealistic Pantheism, proceeds from the conception of matter as a gradual deterioration of the Godhead.
DOCTRINES
Owing to the multiplicity and divergence of Gnostic theories, a detailed exposition in this article would be unsatisfactory and confusing and to acertain extent even misleading, since Gnosticism never possessed a nucleus of stable doctrine, or any sort of depositum fidei round which a number of varied developments and heresies or sects might be grouped; at most it had some leading ideas, which are more or less clearly traceable in different schools. Moreover, a fair idea of Gnostic doctrines can be obtained from the articles on leaders and phases of Gnostic thought (e.g. BASILIDES; VALENTINUS; MARCION; DOCETAE; DEMIURGE). We shall here only indicate some main phases of thought, which can be regarded as keys and which, though not fitting all systems, will unlock most of the mysteries of the Gnosis.
(a) Cosmogony
Gnosticism is thinly disguised Pantheism. In the beginning was the Depth; the Fulness of Being; the Not-Being God; the First Father, the Monad, the Man; the First Source, the unknown God (Bythos pleroma, ouk on theos, propator, monas, anthropos, proarche, hagnostos theos), or by whatever other name it might be called. This undefined infinite Something, though it might be addressed by the title of the Good God, was not a personal Being, but, like Tad of Brahma of the Hindus, the "Great Unknown" of modern thought. The Unknown God, however, was in the beginning pure spirituality; matter as yet was not.
This source of all being causes to emanate (proballei) from itself a number of pure spirit forces. In the different systems these emanations are differently named, classified, and described, but the emanation theory itself is common too all forms of Gnosticism. In the Basilidian Gnosis they are called sonships (uiotetes), in Valentinianism they form antithetic pairs or "syzygies" (syzygoi); Depth and Silence produce Mind and Truth; these produce Reason and Life, these again Man and State (ekklesia). According to Marcus, they are numbers and sounds.
These are the primary roots of the Æons. With bewildering fertility hierarchies of Æons are thus produced, sometimes to the number of thirty. These Æons belong to the purely ideal, noumenal, intelligible, or supersensible world; they are immaterial, they are hypostatic ideas. Together with the source from which they emanate they form the pleroma.
The transition from the immaterial to the material, from the noumenal to the sensible, is brought about by a flaw, or a passion, or a sin, in one of the Æons. According to Basilides, it is a flaw in the last sonship; according to others it is the passion of the female Æon Sophia; according to others the sin of the Great Archon, or Æon-Creator, of the Universe.
The ultimate end of all Gnosis is metanoia, or repentance, the undoing of the sin of material existence and the return to the Pleroma.
(b) Sophia-Myth
In the greater number of Gnostic systems an important role is played by the Æon Wisdom -- Sophia or Achamoth. In some sense she seems to represent the supreme female principle, as for instance in the Ptolemaic system, in which the mother of the seven heavens is called Achamoth, in the Valentinian system, in which he ano Sophia, the Wisdom above, is distinguished from he kato Sophia, or Achamoth, the former being the female principle of the noumenal world, and in the Archotian system, where we find a "Lightsome Mother" (he meter he photeine), and in which beyond the heavens of the Archons is he meter ton panton and likewise in the Barbelognosis, where the female Barbelos is but the counterpart of the Unknown Father, which also occurs amongst the Ophites described by Irenaeus (Adv. Haeres., III, vii, 4).
Moreover, the Eucharistic prayer in the Acts of Thomas (ch. 1) seems addressed to this supreme female principle. W. Bousset's suggestion, that the Gnostic Sophia is nothing else than a disguise for the Dea Syra, the great goddess Istar, or Astarte, seems worthy of consideration. On the other hand, the Æon Sophia usually plays another role; she is he Prouneikos or "the Lustful One", once a virginal goddess, who by her fall from original purity is the cause of this sinful material world.
One of the earliest forms of this myth is found in Simonian Gnosis, in which Simon, the Great Power, finds Helena, who during ten years had been a prostitute in Tyre, but who is Simon's ennoia, or understanding, and whom his followers worshipped under the form of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
According to Valentinus's system, as described by Hippolytus (Book VI, xxv-xxvi), Sophia is the youngest of the twenty-eight æons. Observing the multitude of æons and the power of begetting them, she hurries back into the depth of the Father, and seeks to emulate him by producing offspring without conjugal intercourse, but only projects an abortion, a formless substance. Upon this she is cast out of Pleroma. According to the Valentinian system as described by Irenaeus (op. cit., I) and Tertullian (Adv. Valent., ix), Sophia conceives a passion for the First Father himself, or rather, under pretext of love she seeks to know him, the Unknowable, and to comprehend his greatness. She should have suffered the consequence of her audacity by ultimate dissolution into the immensity of the Father, but for the Boundary Spirit. According to the Pistis Sophia (ch. xxix) Sophia, daughter of Barbelos, originally dwelt in the highest, or thirteenth heaven, but she is seduced by the demon Authades by means of a ray of light, which she mistook as an emanation from the First Father. Authades thus enticed her into Chaos below the twelve Æons, where she was imprisoned by evil powers.
According to these ideas, matter is the fruit of the sin of Sophia; this, however, was but a Valentinian development; in the older speculations the existence of matter is tacitly presupposed as eternal with the Pleroma, and through her sin Sophia falls from the realm of light into Chaos or realm of darkness.
This original dualism, however, was overcome by the predominant spirit of Gnosticism, pantheistic emanationism. The Sophia myth is completely absent from the Basilidian and kindred systems. It is suggested, with great verisimilitude, that the Egyptian myth of Isis was the original source of the Gnostic "lower wisdom". In many systems this Kato Sophia is sharply distinguished from the Higher Wisdom mentioned above; as, for instance, in the magic formula for the dead mentioned by Irenaeus (op. cit., I, xxi, 5), in which the departed has to address the hostile archons thus: "I am a vessel more precious than the female who made you. If your mother ignores the source whence she is, I know myself, and I known whence I am and invoke the incorruptible Sophia, whois in the Father, the mother of your mother, who has neither father nor husband. A man-woman, born from a woman, has made you, not knowing her mother, but thinking herself alone. But I invoke her mother." This agrees with the system minutely described by Irenaeus (op. cit., I, iv-v), where Sophia Achamoth, or Lower Wisdom, the daughter of Higher Wisdom, becomes the mother of the Demiurge; she being the Ogdoad, her son the Hebdomad, they form a counterpart of the heavenly Ogdoad in the Pleromata. This is evidently a clumsy attempt to fuse into one two systems radically different, the Basilidian and the Valentinian; the ignorance of the Great Archon, which is the central idea of Basilides, is here transferred to Sophia, and the hybrid system ends in bewildering confusion.
(c) Soteriology
Gnostic salvation is not merely individual redemption of each human soul; it is a cosmic process. It is the return of all things to what they were before the flaw in the sphere of the Æons brought matter into existence and imprisoned some part of the Divine Light into the evil Hyle (Hyle). This setting free of the light sparks is the process of salvation; when all light shall have left Hyle, it will be burnt up, destroyed, or be a sort of everlasting hell for the Hylicoi.
In Basilidianism it is the Third Filiation that is captive in matter, and is gradually being saved, now that the knowledge of its existence has been brought to the first Archon and then to the Second Archon, to each by his respective Son; and the news has been spread through the Hebdomad by Jesus the son of Mary, who died to redeem the Third Filiation.
In Valentinianism the process is extraordinarily elaborate. When this world has been born from Sophia in consequence of her sin, Nous and Aletheia, two Æons, by command of the Father, produce two new Æons, Christ and the Holy Ghost; these restore order in the Pleroma, and in consequence all Æons together produce a new Æon, Jesus Logos, Soter, or Christ, whom they offer to the Father. Christ, the Son of Nous and Aletheia, has pity on the abortive substance born of Sophia and gives it essence and form. Whereupon Sophia tries to rise again to the Father, but in vain. Now the Æon Jesus-Soter is sent as second Saviour, he unites himself to the man Jesus, the son of Mary, at his baptism, and becomes the Saviour of men. Man is a creature of the Demiurge, a compound of soul, body, and spirit. His salvation consists in the return of his pneuma or spirit to the Pleroma; or if he be only a Psychicist, not a full Gnostic, his soul (psyche) shall return to Achamoth. There is no resurrection of the body. (For further details and differences see VALENTINUS.)
In Marcionism, the most dualistic phase of Gnosticism, salvation consisted in the possession of the knowledge of the Good God and the rejection of the Demiurge. The Good God revealed himself in Jesus and appeared as man in Judea; to know him, and to become entirely free from the yoke of the World-Creator or God of the Old Testament, is the end of all salvation.
The Gnostic Saviour, therefore, is entirely different from the Christian one. For the Gnostic Saviour does not save. Gnosticism lacks the idea of atonement. There is no sin to be atoned for, except ignorance be that sin. Nor does the Saviour in any sense benefit the human race by vicarious sufferings. Nor, finally, does he immediately and actively affect any individual human soul by the power of grace or draw it to God. He was a teacher, he once brought into the world the truth, which alone can save. As a flame sets naphtha on fire, so the Saviour's light ignites predisposed souls moving down the stream of time. Of a real Saviour who with love human and Divine seeks out sinners to save them, Gnosticism knows nothing.
The Gnostic Saviour has no human nature, he is an æon, not a man; he only seemed a man, as the three Angels who visited Abraham seemed to be men. (For a detailed exposition see DOCETAE.) The Æon Soter is brought into the strangest relation to Sophia: in some systems he is her brother, in others her son, in other again her spouse. He is sometimes identified with Christ, sometimes with Jesus; sometimes Christ and Jesus are the same æon, sometimes they are different; sometimes Christ and the Holy Ghost are identified. Gnosticism did its best to utilize the Christian concept of the Holy Ghost, but never quite succeeded. She made him the Horos, or Methorion Pneuma (Horos, Metherion Pneuma), the Boundary-Spirit, the Sweet Odour of the Second Filiation, a companion æon with Christos, etc., etc. In some systems he is entirely left out.
(d) Eschatology
It is the merit of recent scholarship to have proved that Gnostic eschatology, consisting in the soul's struggle with hostile archons in its attempt to reach the Pleroma, is simply the soul's ascent, in Babylonian astrology, through the realms of the seven planets to Anu.
Origen (Contra Celsum, VI, xxxi), referring to the Ophitic system, gives us the names of the seven archons as Jaldabaoth, Jao, Sabaoth, Adonaios, Astaphaios, Ailoaios, and Oraios, and tells us that Jaldabaoth is the planet Saturn. Astraphaios is beyond doubt the planet Venus, as there are gnostic gems with a female figure and the legend ASTAPHE, which name is also used in magic spells as the name of a goddess. In the Mandaean system Adonaios represents the Sun. Moreover, St. Irenæus tells us: "Sanctam Hebdomadem VII stellas, quas dictunt planetas, esse volunt." It is safe, therefore, to take the above seven Gnostic names as designating the seven stars, then considered planets,
Jaldabaoth (Child of Chaos? -- Saturn, called "the Lion-faced", leontoeides) is the outermost, and therefore the chief ruler, and later on the Demiurge par excellence.
Jao (Iao, perhaps from Jahu, Jahveh, but possibly also from the magic cry iao in the mysteries) is Jupiter.
Sabaoth (the Old-Testament title -- God of Hosts) was misunderstood; "of hosts" was thought a proper name, hence Jupiter Sabbas (Jahve Sabaoth) was Mars.
Astaphaios (taken from magic tablets) was Venus.
Adonaios (from the Hebrew term for "the Lord", used of God; Adonis of the Syrians representing the Winter sun in the cosmic tragedy of Tammuz) was the Sun;
Ailoaios, or sometimes Ailoein (Elohim, God), Mercury;
Oraios (Jaroah? or light?), the Moon.
In the hellenized form of Gnosticism either all or some of these names are replaced by personified vices. Authadia (Authades), or Audacity, is the obvious description of Jaldabaoth, the presumptuous Demiurge, who is lion-faced as the Archon Authadia. Of the Archons Kakia, Zelos, Phthonos, Errinnys, Epithymia, the last obviously represents Venus. The number seven is obtained by placing a proarchon or chief archon at the head. That these names are only a disguise for the Sancta Hebdomas is clear, for Sophia, the mother of them, retains the name of Ogdoas, Octonatio. Occasionally one meets with the Archon Esaldaios, which is evidently the El Shaddai of the Bible, and he is described as the Archon "number four" (harithmo tetartos) and must represent the Sun.
In the system of the Gnostics mentioned by Epiphanius we find, as the Seven Archons, Iao, Saklas, Seth, David, Eloiein, Elilaios, and Jaldabaoth (or no. 6 Jaldaboath, no. 7 Sabaoth). Of these, Saklas is the chief demon of Manichaeism; Elilaios is probably connected with En-lil, the Bel of Nippur, the ancient god of Babylonia. In this, as in several other systems, the traces of the planetary seven have been obscured, but hardly in any have they become totally effaced. What tended most to obliterate the sevenfold distinction was the identification of the God of the Jews, the Lawgiver, with Jaldabaoth and his designation as World-creator, whereas formerly the seven planets together ruled the world. This confusion, however, was suggested by the very fact that at least five of the seven archons bore Old-Testament names for God -- El Shaddai, Adonai, Elohim, Jehovah, Sabaoth.
(e) Doctrine of the Primeval Man
The speculations on Primeval Man (Protanthropos, Adam) occupy a prominent place in several Gnostic systems.
According to Irenaeus (I, xxix, 3) the Æon Autogenes emits the true and perfect Anthrôpos, also called Adamas; he has a helpmate, "Perfect Knowledge", and receives an irresistible force, so that all things rest in him. Others say (Irenaeus, I, xxx) there is a blessed and incorruptible and endless light in the power of Bythos; this is the Father of all things who is invoked as the First Man, who, with his Ennœa, emits "the Son of Man", or Euteranthrôpos.
According to Valentinus, Adam was created in the name of Anthrôpos and overawes the demons by the fear of the pre-existent man (tou proontos anthropou). In the Valentinian syzygies and in the Marcosian system we meet in the fourth (originally the third) place Anthrôpos and Ecclesia. In the Pistis Sophia the Æon Jeu is called the First Man, he is the overseer of the Light, messenger of the First Precept, and constitutes the forces of the Heimarmene. In the Books of the Jeu this "great Man" is the King of the Light-treasure, he is enthroned above all things and is the goal of all souls. According to the Naassenes, the Protanthropos is the first element; the fundamental being before its differentiation into individuals. "The Son of Man" is the same being after it has been individualized into existing things and thus sunk into matter.
The Gnostic Anthrôpos, therefore, or Adamas, as it is sometimes called, is a cosmogonic element, pure mind as distinct from matter, mind conceived hypostatically as emanating from God and not yet darkened by contact with matter. This mind is considered as the reason of humanity, or humanity itself, as a personified idea, a category without corporeality, the human reason conceived as the World-Soul.
This speculation about the Anthrôpos is completely developed in Manichaeism, where, in fact, it is the basis of the whole system. God, in danger of the power of darkness, creates with the help of the Spirit, the five worlds, the twelve elements, and the Eternal Man, and makes him combat the darkness. But this Man is somehow overcome by evil and swallowed up by darkness. The present universe is in throes to deliver the captive Man from the powers of darkness. In the Clementine Homilies the cosmogonic Anthrôpos is strangely mixed up with the historical figure of the first man, Adam. Adam "was the true prophet, running through all ages, and hastening to rest"; "the Christ, who was from the beginning and is always, who was ever present to every generation in a hidden manner indeed, yet ever present". In fact Adam was, to use Modernist language, the Godhead immanent in the world and ever manifesting itself to the inner consciousness of the elect.
The same idea, somewhat modified, occurs in Hermetic literature, especially the "Poimandres". It is elaborated by Philo, makes an ingenious distinction between the human being created first "after God's image and likeness" and the historic figures of Adam and Eve created afterwards. Adam kat eikona is: "Idea, Genus, Character, belonging to the world, of Understanding, without body, neither male nor female; he is the Beginning, the Name of God, the Logos, immortal, incorruptible" (De opif. mund., 134-148; De conf. ling.,146). These ideas in Talmudism, Philonism, Gnosticism, and Trismegistic literature, all come from once source, the late Mazdea development of the Gayomarthians, or worshipper of the Super-Man.
(f) The Barbelo
This Gnostic figure, appearing in a number of systems, the Nicolaites, the "Gnostics" of Epiphanius, the Sethians, the system of the "Evangelium Mariae" and that in Irenaeus, I, xxix, 2 sq., remains to a certain extent an enigma. The name barbelo, barbeloth, barthenos has not been explained with certainty. In any case she represents the supreme female principle, is in fact the highest Godhead in its female aspect. Barbelo has most of the functions of the ano Sophia as described above. So prominent was her place amongst some Gnostics that some schools were designated as Barbeliotae, Barbelo worshippers of Barbelognostics. She is probably none other than the Light-Maiden of the Pistis Sophia, the thygater tou photos or simply the Maiden, parthenos. In Epiphanius (Haer., xxvi, 1) and Philastrius (Haer., xxxiii) Parthenos (Barbelos) seems identical with Noria, whoplays a great role as wife either of Noah or of Seth. The suggestion, that Noria is "Maiden", parthenos, Istar, Athena, Wisdom, Sophia, or Archamoth, seems worthy of consideration.
RITES
We are not so well informed about the practical and ritual side of Gnosticism as we are about its doctrinal and theoretical side. However, St. Irenæus's account of the Marcosians, Hippolytus's account of the Elcesaites, the liturgical portions of the "Acta Thomae", some passages in the Pseudo-Clementines, and above all Coptic Gnostic and Mandaean literature gives us at least some insight into their liturgical practices.
(a) Baptism
All Gnostic sects possessed this rite in some way; in Mandaeism daily baptism is one of the great practices of the system. The formulae used by Christian Gnostics seem to have varied widely from that enjoyed by Christ. The Marcosians said: "In [eis] the name of the unknown Father of all, in [eis] the Truth, the Mother of all, in him, who came down on Jesus [eis ton katelthonta eis Iesoun]". The Elcesaites said: "In [en] the name of the great and highest God and in the name of his Son, the great King". In Irenaeus (I, xxi, 3) we find the formula: "In the name that was hidden from every divinity and lordship and truth, which [name] Jesus the Nazarene has put on in the regions of light" and several other formulae, which were sometimes pronounced in Hebrew or Aramaic. The Mandaeans said: "The name of the Life and the name of the Manda d'Haye is named over thee". In connection with Baptism the Sphragis was of great importance; in what the seal or sign consisted wherewith they were marked is not easy to say. There was also the tradition of a name either by utterance or by handing a tablet with some mystic word on it.
(b) Confirmation
The anointing of the candidate with chrism, or odoriferous ointment, is a Gnostic rite which overshadows the importance of baptism. In the "Acta Thomae", so some scholars maintain, it had completely replaced baptism, and was the sole sacrament of initiation. This however is not yet proven. The Marcosians went so far as to reject Christian baptism and to substitute a mixture of oil and water which they poured over the head of the candidate. By confirmation the Gnostics intended not so much to give the Holy Ghost as to seal the candidates against the attacks of the archons, or to drive them away by the sweet odour which is above all things (tes uter ta hola euodias). The balsam was somehow supposed to have flowed from the Tree of Life, and this tree was again mystically connected with the Cross; for the chrism is in the "Acta Thomae" called "the hidden mystery in which the Cross is shown to us".
(c) The Eucharist
It is remarkable that so little is known of the Gnostic substitute for the Eucharist. In a number of passages we read of the breaking of the bread, but in what this consisted is not easy to determine. The use of salt in this rite seems to have been important (Clem., Hom. xiv), for we read distinctly how St. Peter broke the bread of the Eucharist and "putting salt thereon, he gave first to the mother and then to us". There is furthermore a great likelihood, though no certainty, that the Eucharist referred to in the "Acta Thomae" was merely a breaking of bread without the use of the cup. This point is strongly controverted, but the contrary can hardly be proven. It is beyond doubt that the Gnostics often substituted water for the wine (Acta Thomae, Baptism of Mygdonia, ch. cxxi). What formula of consecration was used we do not know, but the bread was certainly signed with the Cross. It is to be noted that the Gnostics called the Eucharist by Christian sacrificial terms -- prosphora, "oblation", Thysia (II bk. of Jeû, 45). In the Coptic Books (Pistis Sophia, 142; II Jeû, 45-47) we find a long description of some apparently Eucharistic ceremonies carried out by Jesus Himself. In these fire and incense, two flasks, and also two cups, one with water, the other with wine, and branches of the vine are used. Christ crowns the Apostles with olive wreaths, begs Melchisedech to come and change wine into water for baptism, puts herbs in the Apostles' mouths and hands. Whether these actions in some sense reflect the ritual of Gnosticism, or are only imaginations of the author, cannot be decided. The Gnostics seem also to have used oil sacramentally for the healing of the sick, and even the dead were anointed by them to be rendered safe and invisible in their transit through the realms of the archons.
(d) The Nymphôn
They possessed a special Gnostic sacrament of the bridechamber (nymphon) in which, through some symbolical actions, their souls were wedded to their angels in the Pleroma. Details of its rites are not as yet known. Tertullian no doubt alluded to them in the words "Eleusinia fecerunt lenocinia".
(e) The Magic Vowels
An extraordinary prominence is given to the utterance of the vowels: alpha, epsilon, eta, iota, omicron, upsilon, omega. The Saviour and His disciples are supposed in the midst of their sentences to have broken out in an interminable gibberish of only vowels; magic spells have come down to us consisting of vowels by the fourscore; on amulets the seven vowels, repeated according to all sorts of artifices, form a very common inscription. Within the last few years these Gnostic vowels, so long a mystery, have been the object of careful study by Ruelle, Poirée, and Leclercq, and it may be considered proven that each vowel represents one of the seven planets, or archons; that the seven together represent the Universe, but without consonants they represent the Ideal and Infinite not yet imprisoned and limited by matter; that they represent a musical scale, probably like the Gregorian 1 tone re-re, or d, e, f, g, a, b, c, and many a Gnostic sheet of vowels is in fact a sheet of music. But research on this subject has only just begun. Among the Gnostics the Ophites were particularly fond of representing their cosmogonic speculations by diagrams, circles within circles, squares, and parallel lines, and other mathematical figures combined, with names written within them. How far these sacred diagrams were used as symbols in their liturgy, we do not know.
(The Catholic Encyclopedia)
The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word (gnosis "knowledge", gnostikos, "good at knowing"), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were "people who knew", and their knowledge at once constituted them a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was essentially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know. A more complete and historical definition of Gnosticism would be:
A collective name for a large number of greatly-varying and pantheistic-idealistic sects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God-sent Saviour.
However unsatisfactory this definition may be, the obscurity, multiplicity, and wild confusion of Gnostic systems will hardly allow of another. Many scholars, moreover, would hold that every attempt to give a generic description of Gnostic sects is labour lost.
ORIGIN
The beginnings of Gnosticism have long been a matter of controversy and are still largely a subject of research. The more these origins are studied, the farther they seem to recede in the past.
Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered mostly a corruption of Christianity, it now seems clear that the first traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. Its Eastern origin was already maintained by Gieseler and Neander; F. Ch. Bauer (1831) and Lassen (1858) sought to prove its relation to the religions of India; Lipsius (1860) pointed to Syria and Phoenicia as its home, and Hilgenfeld (1884) thought it was connected with later Mazdeism. Joel (1880), Weingarten (1881), Koffmane (1881), Anrich (1894), and Wobbermin (1896) sought to account for the rise of Gnosticism by the influence of Greek Platonic philosophy and the Greek mysteries, while Harnack described it as "acute Hellenization of Christianity".
For the past twenty-five years, however, the trend of scholarship has steadily moved towards proving the pre-Christian Oriental origins of Gnosticism. At the Fifth Congress of Orientalists (Berlin, 1882) Kessler brought out the connection between Gnosis and the Babylonian religion. By this latter name, however, he meant not the original religion of Babylonia, but the syncretistic religion which arose after the conquest of Cyrus. The same idea is brought out in his "Mani" seven years later. In the same year F.W. Brandt published his "Mandiäische Religion". This Mandaean religion is so unmistakably a form of Gnosticism that it seems beyond doubt that Gnosticism existed independent of, and anterior to, Christianity.
In more recent years (1897) Wilhelm Anz pointed out the close similarity between Babylonian astrology and the Gnostic theories of the Hebdomad and Ogdoad. Though in many instances speculations on the Babylonian Astrallehre have gone beyond all sober scholarship, yet in this particular instance the inferences made by Anz seem sound and reliable. Researches in the same direction were continued and instituted on a wider scale by W. Bousset, in 1907, and led to carefully ascertained results. In 1898 the attempt was made by M. Friedländer to trace Gnosticism in pre-Christian Judaism. His opinion that the Rabbinic term Minnim designated not Christians, as was commonly believed, but Antinomian Gnostics, has not found universal acceptance. In fact, E. Schürer brought sufficient proof to show that Minnim is the exact Armaean dialectic equivalent for ethne. Nevertheless Friedländer's essay retains its value in tracing strong antinomian tendencies with Gnostic colouring on Jewish soil.
Not a few scholars have laboured to find the source of Gnostic theories on Hellenistic and, specifically, Alexandrian soil. In 1880 Joel sought to prove that the germ of all Gnostic theories was to be found in Plato. Though this may be dismissed as an exaggeration, some Greek influence on the birth, but especially on the growth, of Gnosticism cannot be denied. In Trismegistic literature, as pointed out by Reitzenstein (Poimandres, 1904), we find much that is strangely akin to Gnosticism. Its Egyptian origin was defended by E. Amélineau, in 1887, and illustrated by A. Dietrich, in 1891 (Abraxas Studien) and 1903 (Mithrasliturgie). The relation of Plotinus's philosophy to Gnosticism was brought out by C. Schmidt in 1901. That Alexandrian thought had some share at least in the development of Christian Gnosticism is clear from the fact that the bulk of Gnostic literature which we possess comes to us from Egyptian (Coptic) sources. That this share was not a predominant one is, however, acknowledged by O. Gruppe in his "Griechische Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte" (1902). It is true that the Greek mysteries, as G. Anrich pointed out in 1894, had much in common with esoteric Gnosticism; but there remains the further question, in how far these Greek mysteries, as they are known to us, were the genuine product of Greek thought, and not much rather due to the overpowering influence of Orientalism.
Although the origins of Gnosticism are still largely enveloped in obscurity, so much light has been shed on the problem by the combined labours of many scholars that it is possible to give the following tentative solution: Although Gnosticism may at first sight appear a mere thoughtless syncretism of well nigh all religious systems in antiquity, it has in reality one deep root-principle, which assimilated in every soil what is needed for its life and growth; this principle is philosophical and religious pessimism.
The Gnostics, it is true, borrowed their terminology almost entirely from existing religions, but they only used it to illustrate their great idea of the essential evil of this present existence and the duty to escape it by the help of magic spells and a superhuman Saviour. Whatever they borrowed, this pessimism they did not borrow -- not from Greek thought, which was a joyous acknowledgment of and homage to the beautiful and noble in this world, with a studied disregard of the element of sorrow; not from Egyptian thought, which did not allow its elaborate speculations on retribution and judgment in the netherworld to cast a gloom on this present existence, but considered the universe created or evolved under the presiding wisdom of Thoth; not from Iranian thought, which held to the absolute supremacy of Ahura Mazda and only allowed Ahriman a subordinate share in the creation, or rather counter-creation, of the world; not from Indian Brahminic thought, which was Pantheism pure and simple, or God dwelling in, nay identified with, the universe, rather than the Universe existing as the contradictory of God; not, lastly, from Semitic thought, for Semitic religions were strangely reticent as to the fate of the soul after death, and saw all practical wisdom in the worship of Baal, or Marduk, or Assur, or Hadad, that they might live long on this earth.
This utter pessimism, bemoaning the existence of the whole universe as a corruption and a calamity, with a feverish craving to be freed from the body of this death and a mad hope that, if we only knew, we could by some mystic words undo the cursed spell of this existence -- this is the foundation of all Gnostic thought. It has the same parent-soil as Buddhism; but Buddhism is ethical, it endeavours to obtain its end by the extinction of all desire; Gnosticism is pseudo-intellectual, and trusts exclusively to magical knowledge. Moreover, Gnosticism, placed in other historical surroundings, developed from the first on other lines than Buddhism.
When Cyrus entered Babylon in 539 B.C., two great worlds of thought met, and syncretism in religion, as far as we know it, began. Iranian thought began to mix with the ancient civilization of Babylon. The idea of the great struggle between evil and good, ever continuing in this universe, is the parent idea of Mazdeism, or Iranian dualism. This, and the imagined existence of numberless intermediate spirits, angels and devas, are the conviction which overcame the contentedness of Semitism.
On the other hand, the unshakable trust in astrology, the persuasion that the planetary system had a fatalistic influence on this world's affairs, stood its ground on the soil of Chaldea. The greatness of the Seven -- the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn -- the sacred Hebdomad, symbolized for millenniums by the staged towers of Babylonia, remained undiminished. They ceased, indeed, to be worshipped as deities, but they remained archontes and dynameis, rules and powers whose almost irresistible force was dreaded by man. Practically, they were changed from gods to devas, or evil spirits. The religions of the invaders and of the invaded effected a compromise: the astral faith of Babylon was true, but beyond the Hebodomad was the infinite light in the Ogdoad, and every human soul had to pass the adverse influence of the god or gods of the Hebdomad before it could ascend to the only good God beyond. This ascent of the soul through the planetary spheres to the heaven beyond (an idea not unknown even to ancient Babylonian speculations) began to be conceived as a struggle with adverse powers, and became the first and predominant idea in Gnosticism.
The second great component of Gnostic thought is magic, properly so called, i.e. the power ex opere operato of weird names, sounds, gestures, and actions, as also the mixture of elements to produce effects totally disproportionate to the cause. These magic formulae, which caused laughter and disgust to outsiders, are not a later and accidental corruption, but an essential part of Gnosticism, for they are found in all forms of Christian Gnosticism and likewise in Mandaeism. No Gnosis was essentially complete without the knowledge of the formulae, which, once pronounced, were the undoing of the higher hostile powers. Magic is the original sin of Gnosticism, nor is it difficult to guess whence it is inherited. To a certain extent it formed part of every pagan religion, especially the ancient mysteries, yet the thousands of magic tablets unearthed is Assyria and Babylonia show us where the rankest growth of magic was to be found. Moreover, the terms and names of earliest of Gnosticism bear an unmistakable similarity to Semitic sounds and words.
Gnosticism came early into contact with Judaism, and it betrays a knowledge of the Old Testament, if only to reject it or borrow a few names from it. Considering the strong, well-organized, and highly-cultured Jewish colonies in the Euphrates valley, this early contact with Judaism is perfectly natural. Perhaps the Gnostic idea of a Redeemer is not unconnected with Jewish Messianic hopes. But from the first the Gnostic conception of a Saviour is more superhuman than that of popular Judaism; their Manda d'Haye, or Soter, is some immediate manifestation of the Deity, a Light-King, an Æon (Aion), and an emanation of the good God.
When Gnosticism came in touch with Christianity, which must have happened almost immediately on its appearance, Gnosticism threw herself with strange rapidity into Christian forms of thought, borrowed its nomenclature, acknowledged Jesus as Saviour of the world, simulated its sacraments, pretended to be an esoteric revelation of Christ and His Apostles, flooded the world with apocryphal Gospels, and Acts, and Apocalypses, to substantiate its claim. As Christianity grew within and without the Roman Empire, Gnosticism spread as a fungus at its root, and claimed to be the only true form of Christianity, unfit, indeed, for the vulgar crowd, but set apart for the gifted and the elect. So rank was its poisonous growth that there seemed danger of its stifling Christianity altogether, and the earliest Fathers devoted their energies to uprooting it. Though in reality the spirit of Gnosticism is utterly alien to that of Christianity, it then seemed to the unwary merely a modification or refinement thereof. When domiciled on Greek soil, Gnosticism, slightly changing its barbarous and Seminitic terminology and giving its "emanatons" and"syzygies" Greek names, sounded somewhat like neo-Platonism, thought it was strongly repudiated by Plotinus. In Egypt the national worship left its mark more on Gnostic practice than on its theories.
In dealing with the origins of Gnosticism, one might be tempted to mention Manichaeism, as a number of Gnostic ideas seem to be borrowed from Manichaeism, where they are obviously at home. This, however, would hardly be correct. Manichaeism, as historically connected with Mani, its founder, could not have arisen much earlier than A.D. 250, when Gnosticism was already in rapid decline. Manichaeism, however, in many of its elements dates back far beyond its commonly accepted founder; but then it is a parallel development with the Gnosis, rather than one of its sources. Sometimes Manichaeism is even classed as a form of Gnosticism and styled Parsee Gnosis, as distinguished from Syrian and Egyptian Gnosis. This classification, however, ignores the fact that the two systems, though they have the doctrine of the evil of matter in common, start from different principles, Manichaeism from dualism, while Gnosticism, as an idealistic Pantheism, proceeds from the conception of matter as a gradual deterioration of the Godhead.
DOCTRINES
Owing to the multiplicity and divergence of Gnostic theories, a detailed exposition in this article would be unsatisfactory and confusing and to acertain extent even misleading, since Gnosticism never possessed a nucleus of stable doctrine, or any sort of depositum fidei round which a number of varied developments and heresies or sects might be grouped; at most it had some leading ideas, which are more or less clearly traceable in different schools. Moreover, a fair idea of Gnostic doctrines can be obtained from the articles on leaders and phases of Gnostic thought (e.g. BASILIDES; VALENTINUS; MARCION; DOCETAE; DEMIURGE). We shall here only indicate some main phases of thought, which can be regarded as keys and which, though not fitting all systems, will unlock most of the mysteries of the Gnosis.
(a) Cosmogony
Gnosticism is thinly disguised Pantheism. In the beginning was the Depth; the Fulness of Being; the Not-Being God; the First Father, the Monad, the Man; the First Source, the unknown God (Bythos pleroma, ouk on theos, propator, monas, anthropos, proarche, hagnostos theos), or by whatever other name it might be called. This undefined infinite Something, though it might be addressed by the title of the Good God, was not a personal Being, but, like Tad of Brahma of the Hindus, the "Great Unknown" of modern thought. The Unknown God, however, was in the beginning pure spirituality; matter as yet was not.
This source of all being causes to emanate (proballei) from itself a number of pure spirit forces. In the different systems these emanations are differently named, classified, and described, but the emanation theory itself is common too all forms of Gnosticism. In the Basilidian Gnosis they are called sonships (uiotetes), in Valentinianism they form antithetic pairs or "syzygies" (syzygoi); Depth and Silence produce Mind and Truth; these produce Reason and Life, these again Man and State (ekklesia). According to Marcus, they are numbers and sounds.
These are the primary roots of the Æons. With bewildering fertility hierarchies of Æons are thus produced, sometimes to the number of thirty. These Æons belong to the purely ideal, noumenal, intelligible, or supersensible world; they are immaterial, they are hypostatic ideas. Together with the source from which they emanate they form the pleroma.
The transition from the immaterial to the material, from the noumenal to the sensible, is brought about by a flaw, or a passion, or a sin, in one of the Æons. According to Basilides, it is a flaw in the last sonship; according to others it is the passion of the female Æon Sophia; according to others the sin of the Great Archon, or Æon-Creator, of the Universe.
The ultimate end of all Gnosis is metanoia, or repentance, the undoing of the sin of material existence and the return to the Pleroma.
(b) Sophia-Myth
In the greater number of Gnostic systems an important role is played by the Æon Wisdom -- Sophia or Achamoth. In some sense she seems to represent the supreme female principle, as for instance in the Ptolemaic system, in which the mother of the seven heavens is called Achamoth, in the Valentinian system, in which he ano Sophia, the Wisdom above, is distinguished from he kato Sophia, or Achamoth, the former being the female principle of the noumenal world, and in the Archotian system, where we find a "Lightsome Mother" (he meter he photeine), and in which beyond the heavens of the Archons is he meter ton panton and likewise in the Barbelognosis, where the female Barbelos is but the counterpart of the Unknown Father, which also occurs amongst the Ophites described by Irenaeus (Adv. Haeres., III, vii, 4).
Moreover, the Eucharistic prayer in the Acts of Thomas (ch. 1) seems addressed to this supreme female principle. W. Bousset's suggestion, that the Gnostic Sophia is nothing else than a disguise for the Dea Syra, the great goddess Istar, or Astarte, seems worthy of consideration. On the other hand, the Æon Sophia usually plays another role; she is he Prouneikos or "the Lustful One", once a virginal goddess, who by her fall from original purity is the cause of this sinful material world.
One of the earliest forms of this myth is found in Simonian Gnosis, in which Simon, the Great Power, finds Helena, who during ten years had been a prostitute in Tyre, but who is Simon's ennoia, or understanding, and whom his followers worshipped under the form of Athena, the goddess of wisdom.
According to Valentinus's system, as described by Hippolytus (Book VI, xxv-xxvi), Sophia is the youngest of the twenty-eight æons. Observing the multitude of æons and the power of begetting them, she hurries back into the depth of the Father, and seeks to emulate him by producing offspring without conjugal intercourse, but only projects an abortion, a formless substance. Upon this she is cast out of Pleroma. According to the Valentinian system as described by Irenaeus (op. cit., I) and Tertullian (Adv. Valent., ix), Sophia conceives a passion for the First Father himself, or rather, under pretext of love she seeks to know him, the Unknowable, and to comprehend his greatness. She should have suffered the consequence of her audacity by ultimate dissolution into the immensity of the Father, but for the Boundary Spirit. According to the Pistis Sophia (ch. xxix) Sophia, daughter of Barbelos, originally dwelt in the highest, or thirteenth heaven, but she is seduced by the demon Authades by means of a ray of light, which she mistook as an emanation from the First Father. Authades thus enticed her into Chaos below the twelve Æons, where she was imprisoned by evil powers.
According to these ideas, matter is the fruit of the sin of Sophia; this, however, was but a Valentinian development; in the older speculations the existence of matter is tacitly presupposed as eternal with the Pleroma, and through her sin Sophia falls from the realm of light into Chaos or realm of darkness.
This original dualism, however, was overcome by the predominant spirit of Gnosticism, pantheistic emanationism. The Sophia myth is completely absent from the Basilidian and kindred systems. It is suggested, with great verisimilitude, that the Egyptian myth of Isis was the original source of the Gnostic "lower wisdom". In many systems this Kato Sophia is sharply distinguished from the Higher Wisdom mentioned above; as, for instance, in the magic formula for the dead mentioned by Irenaeus (op. cit., I, xxi, 5), in which the departed has to address the hostile archons thus: "I am a vessel more precious than the female who made you. If your mother ignores the source whence she is, I know myself, and I known whence I am and invoke the incorruptible Sophia, whois in the Father, the mother of your mother, who has neither father nor husband. A man-woman, born from a woman, has made you, not knowing her mother, but thinking herself alone. But I invoke her mother." This agrees with the system minutely described by Irenaeus (op. cit., I, iv-v), where Sophia Achamoth, or Lower Wisdom, the daughter of Higher Wisdom, becomes the mother of the Demiurge; she being the Ogdoad, her son the Hebdomad, they form a counterpart of the heavenly Ogdoad in the Pleromata. This is evidently a clumsy attempt to fuse into one two systems radically different, the Basilidian and the Valentinian; the ignorance of the Great Archon, which is the central idea of Basilides, is here transferred to Sophia, and the hybrid system ends in bewildering confusion.
(c) Soteriology
Gnostic salvation is not merely individual redemption of each human soul; it is a cosmic process. It is the return of all things to what they were before the flaw in the sphere of the Æons brought matter into existence and imprisoned some part of the Divine Light into the evil Hyle (Hyle). This setting free of the light sparks is the process of salvation; when all light shall have left Hyle, it will be burnt up, destroyed, or be a sort of everlasting hell for the Hylicoi.
In Basilidianism it is the Third Filiation that is captive in matter, and is gradually being saved, now that the knowledge of its existence has been brought to the first Archon and then to the Second Archon, to each by his respective Son; and the news has been spread through the Hebdomad by Jesus the son of Mary, who died to redeem the Third Filiation.
In Valentinianism the process is extraordinarily elaborate. When this world has been born from Sophia in consequence of her sin, Nous and Aletheia, two Æons, by command of the Father, produce two new Æons, Christ and the Holy Ghost; these restore order in the Pleroma, and in consequence all Æons together produce a new Æon, Jesus Logos, Soter, or Christ, whom they offer to the Father. Christ, the Son of Nous and Aletheia, has pity on the abortive substance born of Sophia and gives it essence and form. Whereupon Sophia tries to rise again to the Father, but in vain. Now the Æon Jesus-Soter is sent as second Saviour, he unites himself to the man Jesus, the son of Mary, at his baptism, and becomes the Saviour of men. Man is a creature of the Demiurge, a compound of soul, body, and spirit. His salvation consists in the return of his pneuma or spirit to the Pleroma; or if he be only a Psychicist, not a full Gnostic, his soul (psyche) shall return to Achamoth. There is no resurrection of the body. (For further details and differences see VALENTINUS.)
In Marcionism, the most dualistic phase of Gnosticism, salvation consisted in the possession of the knowledge of the Good God and the rejection of the Demiurge. The Good God revealed himself in Jesus and appeared as man in Judea; to know him, and to become entirely free from the yoke of the World-Creator or God of the Old Testament, is the end of all salvation.
The Gnostic Saviour, therefore, is entirely different from the Christian one. For the Gnostic Saviour does not save. Gnosticism lacks the idea of atonement. There is no sin to be atoned for, except ignorance be that sin. Nor does the Saviour in any sense benefit the human race by vicarious sufferings. Nor, finally, does he immediately and actively affect any individual human soul by the power of grace or draw it to God. He was a teacher, he once brought into the world the truth, which alone can save. As a flame sets naphtha on fire, so the Saviour's light ignites predisposed souls moving down the stream of time. Of a real Saviour who with love human and Divine seeks out sinners to save them, Gnosticism knows nothing.
The Gnostic Saviour has no human nature, he is an æon, not a man; he only seemed a man, as the three Angels who visited Abraham seemed to be men. (For a detailed exposition see DOCETAE.) The Æon Soter is brought into the strangest relation to Sophia: in some systems he is her brother, in others her son, in other again her spouse. He is sometimes identified with Christ, sometimes with Jesus; sometimes Christ and Jesus are the same æon, sometimes they are different; sometimes Christ and the Holy Ghost are identified. Gnosticism did its best to utilize the Christian concept of the Holy Ghost, but never quite succeeded. She made him the Horos, or Methorion Pneuma (Horos, Metherion Pneuma), the Boundary-Spirit, the Sweet Odour of the Second Filiation, a companion æon with Christos, etc., etc. In some systems he is entirely left out.
(d) Eschatology
It is the merit of recent scholarship to have proved that Gnostic eschatology, consisting in the soul's struggle with hostile archons in its attempt to reach the Pleroma, is simply the soul's ascent, in Babylonian astrology, through the realms of the seven planets to Anu.
Origen (Contra Celsum, VI, xxxi), referring to the Ophitic system, gives us the names of the seven archons as Jaldabaoth, Jao, Sabaoth, Adonaios, Astaphaios, Ailoaios, and Oraios, and tells us that Jaldabaoth is the planet Saturn. Astraphaios is beyond doubt the planet Venus, as there are gnostic gems with a female figure and the legend ASTAPHE, which name is also used in magic spells as the name of a goddess. In the Mandaean system Adonaios represents the Sun. Moreover, St. Irenæus tells us: "Sanctam Hebdomadem VII stellas, quas dictunt planetas, esse volunt." It is safe, therefore, to take the above seven Gnostic names as designating the seven stars, then considered planets,
Jaldabaoth (Child of Chaos? -- Saturn, called "the Lion-faced", leontoeides) is the outermost, and therefore the chief ruler, and later on the Demiurge par excellence.
Jao (Iao, perhaps from Jahu, Jahveh, but possibly also from the magic cry iao in the mysteries) is Jupiter.
Sabaoth (the Old-Testament title -- God of Hosts) was misunderstood; "of hosts" was thought a proper name, hence Jupiter Sabbas (Jahve Sabaoth) was Mars.
Astaphaios (taken from magic tablets) was Venus.
Adonaios (from the Hebrew term for "the Lord", used of God; Adonis of the Syrians representing the Winter sun in the cosmic tragedy of Tammuz) was the Sun;
Ailoaios, or sometimes Ailoein (Elohim, God), Mercury;
Oraios (Jaroah? or light?), the Moon.
In the hellenized form of Gnosticism either all or some of these names are replaced by personified vices. Authadia (Authades), or Audacity, is the obvious description of Jaldabaoth, the presumptuous Demiurge, who is lion-faced as the Archon Authadia. Of the Archons Kakia, Zelos, Phthonos, Errinnys, Epithymia, the last obviously represents Venus. The number seven is obtained by placing a proarchon or chief archon at the head. That these names are only a disguise for the Sancta Hebdomas is clear, for Sophia, the mother of them, retains the name of Ogdoas, Octonatio. Occasionally one meets with the Archon Esaldaios, which is evidently the El Shaddai of the Bible, and he is described as the Archon "number four" (harithmo tetartos) and must represent the Sun.
In the system of the Gnostics mentioned by Epiphanius we find, as the Seven Archons, Iao, Saklas, Seth, David, Eloiein, Elilaios, and Jaldabaoth (or no. 6 Jaldaboath, no. 7 Sabaoth). Of these, Saklas is the chief demon of Manichaeism; Elilaios is probably connected with En-lil, the Bel of Nippur, the ancient god of Babylonia. In this, as in several other systems, the traces of the planetary seven have been obscured, but hardly in any have they become totally effaced. What tended most to obliterate the sevenfold distinction was the identification of the God of the Jews, the Lawgiver, with Jaldabaoth and his designation as World-creator, whereas formerly the seven planets together ruled the world. This confusion, however, was suggested by the very fact that at least five of the seven archons bore Old-Testament names for God -- El Shaddai, Adonai, Elohim, Jehovah, Sabaoth.
(e) Doctrine of the Primeval Man
The speculations on Primeval Man (Protanthropos, Adam) occupy a prominent place in several Gnostic systems.
According to Irenaeus (I, xxix, 3) the Æon Autogenes emits the true and perfect Anthrôpos, also called Adamas; he has a helpmate, "Perfect Knowledge", and receives an irresistible force, so that all things rest in him. Others say (Irenaeus, I, xxx) there is a blessed and incorruptible and endless light in the power of Bythos; this is the Father of all things who is invoked as the First Man, who, with his Ennœa, emits "the Son of Man", or Euteranthrôpos.
According to Valentinus, Adam was created in the name of Anthrôpos and overawes the demons by the fear of the pre-existent man (tou proontos anthropou). In the Valentinian syzygies and in the Marcosian system we meet in the fourth (originally the third) place Anthrôpos and Ecclesia. In the Pistis Sophia the Æon Jeu is called the First Man, he is the overseer of the Light, messenger of the First Precept, and constitutes the forces of the Heimarmene. In the Books of the Jeu this "great Man" is the King of the Light-treasure, he is enthroned above all things and is the goal of all souls. According to the Naassenes, the Protanthropos is the first element; the fundamental being before its differentiation into individuals. "The Son of Man" is the same being after it has been individualized into existing things and thus sunk into matter.
The Gnostic Anthrôpos, therefore, or Adamas, as it is sometimes called, is a cosmogonic element, pure mind as distinct from matter, mind conceived hypostatically as emanating from God and not yet darkened by contact with matter. This mind is considered as the reason of humanity, or humanity itself, as a personified idea, a category without corporeality, the human reason conceived as the World-Soul.
This speculation about the Anthrôpos is completely developed in Manichaeism, where, in fact, it is the basis of the whole system. God, in danger of the power of darkness, creates with the help of the Spirit, the five worlds, the twelve elements, and the Eternal Man, and makes him combat the darkness. But this Man is somehow overcome by evil and swallowed up by darkness. The present universe is in throes to deliver the captive Man from the powers of darkness. In the Clementine Homilies the cosmogonic Anthrôpos is strangely mixed up with the historical figure of the first man, Adam. Adam "was the true prophet, running through all ages, and hastening to rest"; "the Christ, who was from the beginning and is always, who was ever present to every generation in a hidden manner indeed, yet ever present". In fact Adam was, to use Modernist language, the Godhead immanent in the world and ever manifesting itself to the inner consciousness of the elect.
The same idea, somewhat modified, occurs in Hermetic literature, especially the "Poimandres". It is elaborated by Philo, makes an ingenious distinction between the human being created first "after God's image and likeness" and the historic figures of Adam and Eve created afterwards. Adam kat eikona is: "Idea, Genus, Character, belonging to the world, of Understanding, without body, neither male nor female; he is the Beginning, the Name of God, the Logos, immortal, incorruptible" (De opif. mund., 134-148; De conf. ling.,146). These ideas in Talmudism, Philonism, Gnosticism, and Trismegistic literature, all come from once source, the late Mazdea development of the Gayomarthians, or worshipper of the Super-Man.
(f) The Barbelo
This Gnostic figure, appearing in a number of systems, the Nicolaites, the "Gnostics" of Epiphanius, the Sethians, the system of the "Evangelium Mariae" and that in Irenaeus, I, xxix, 2 sq., remains to a certain extent an enigma. The name barbelo, barbeloth, barthenos has not been explained with certainty. In any case she represents the supreme female principle, is in fact the highest Godhead in its female aspect. Barbelo has most of the functions of the ano Sophia as described above. So prominent was her place amongst some Gnostics that some schools were designated as Barbeliotae, Barbelo worshippers of Barbelognostics. She is probably none other than the Light-Maiden of the Pistis Sophia, the thygater tou photos or simply the Maiden, parthenos. In Epiphanius (Haer., xxvi, 1) and Philastrius (Haer., xxxiii) Parthenos (Barbelos) seems identical with Noria, whoplays a great role as wife either of Noah or of Seth. The suggestion, that Noria is "Maiden", parthenos, Istar, Athena, Wisdom, Sophia, or Archamoth, seems worthy of consideration.
RITES
We are not so well informed about the practical and ritual side of Gnosticism as we are about its doctrinal and theoretical side. However, St. Irenæus's account of the Marcosians, Hippolytus's account of the Elcesaites, the liturgical portions of the "Acta Thomae", some passages in the Pseudo-Clementines, and above all Coptic Gnostic and Mandaean literature gives us at least some insight into their liturgical practices.
(a) Baptism
All Gnostic sects possessed this rite in some way; in Mandaeism daily baptism is one of the great practices of the system. The formulae used by Christian Gnostics seem to have varied widely from that enjoyed by Christ. The Marcosians said: "In [eis] the name of the unknown Father of all, in [eis] the Truth, the Mother of all, in him, who came down on Jesus [eis ton katelthonta eis Iesoun]". The Elcesaites said: "In [en] the name of the great and highest God and in the name of his Son, the great King". In Irenaeus (I, xxi, 3) we find the formula: "In the name that was hidden from every divinity and lordship and truth, which [name] Jesus the Nazarene has put on in the regions of light" and several other formulae, which were sometimes pronounced in Hebrew or Aramaic. The Mandaeans said: "The name of the Life and the name of the Manda d'Haye is named over thee". In connection with Baptism the Sphragis was of great importance; in what the seal or sign consisted wherewith they were marked is not easy to say. There was also the tradition of a name either by utterance or by handing a tablet with some mystic word on it.
(b) Confirmation
The anointing of the candidate with chrism, or odoriferous ointment, is a Gnostic rite which overshadows the importance of baptism. In the "Acta Thomae", so some scholars maintain, it had completely replaced baptism, and was the sole sacrament of initiation. This however is not yet proven. The Marcosians went so far as to reject Christian baptism and to substitute a mixture of oil and water which they poured over the head of the candidate. By confirmation the Gnostics intended not so much to give the Holy Ghost as to seal the candidates against the attacks of the archons, or to drive them away by the sweet odour which is above all things (tes uter ta hola euodias). The balsam was somehow supposed to have flowed from the Tree of Life, and this tree was again mystically connected with the Cross; for the chrism is in the "Acta Thomae" called "the hidden mystery in which the Cross is shown to us".
(c) The Eucharist
It is remarkable that so little is known of the Gnostic substitute for the Eucharist. In a number of passages we read of the breaking of the bread, but in what this consisted is not easy to determine. The use of salt in this rite seems to have been important (Clem., Hom. xiv), for we read distinctly how St. Peter broke the bread of the Eucharist and "putting salt thereon, he gave first to the mother and then to us". There is furthermore a great likelihood, though no certainty, that the Eucharist referred to in the "Acta Thomae" was merely a breaking of bread without the use of the cup. This point is strongly controverted, but the contrary can hardly be proven. It is beyond doubt that the Gnostics often substituted water for the wine (Acta Thomae, Baptism of Mygdonia, ch. cxxi). What formula of consecration was used we do not know, but the bread was certainly signed with the Cross. It is to be noted that the Gnostics called the Eucharist by Christian sacrificial terms -- prosphora, "oblation", Thysia (II bk. of Jeû, 45). In the Coptic Books (Pistis Sophia, 142; II Jeû, 45-47) we find a long description of some apparently Eucharistic ceremonies carried out by Jesus Himself. In these fire and incense, two flasks, and also two cups, one with water, the other with wine, and branches of the vine are used. Christ crowns the Apostles with olive wreaths, begs Melchisedech to come and change wine into water for baptism, puts herbs in the Apostles' mouths and hands. Whether these actions in some sense reflect the ritual of Gnosticism, or are only imaginations of the author, cannot be decided. The Gnostics seem also to have used oil sacramentally for the healing of the sick, and even the dead were anointed by them to be rendered safe and invisible in their transit through the realms of the archons.
(d) The Nymphôn
They possessed a special Gnostic sacrament of the bridechamber (nymphon) in which, through some symbolical actions, their souls were wedded to their angels in the Pleroma. Details of its rites are not as yet known. Tertullian no doubt alluded to them in the words "Eleusinia fecerunt lenocinia".
(e) The Magic Vowels
An extraordinary prominence is given to the utterance of the vowels: alpha, epsilon, eta, iota, omicron, upsilon, omega. The Saviour and His disciples are supposed in the midst of their sentences to have broken out in an interminable gibberish of only vowels; magic spells have come down to us consisting of vowels by the fourscore; on amulets the seven vowels, repeated according to all sorts of artifices, form a very common inscription. Within the last few years these Gnostic vowels, so long a mystery, have been the object of careful study by Ruelle, Poirée, and Leclercq, and it may be considered proven that each vowel represents one of the seven planets, or archons; that the seven together represent the Universe, but without consonants they represent the Ideal and Infinite not yet imprisoned and limited by matter; that they represent a musical scale, probably like the Gregorian 1 tone re-re, or d, e, f, g, a, b, c, and many a Gnostic sheet of vowels is in fact a sheet of music. But research on this subject has only just begun. Among the Gnostics the Ophites were particularly fond of representing their cosmogonic speculations by diagrams, circles within circles, squares, and parallel lines, and other mathematical figures combined, with names written within them. How far these sacred diagrams were used as symbols in their liturgy, we do not know.
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