Is the Background of God's Word Greek or Jewish?

[koverbd]

Replacement, Covenant, and Amillennial theologians completely miss the central importance of teaching Scripture
from a Jewish perspective and interpreting it literally. Even dispensationalists do not always fully recognize the
importance of the Jewish perspective in understanding God's message to us! Instead, Covenant/Replacement
theologians view the Scriptures from their own personal, theological position and bias, which was generated by
viewing the Scriptures from a western, Greek perspective through a filter of bias against the jewish people, while
using an allegorical approach to interpreting the Scriptures. These complex, anachronistic, and culturally clouded
approaches leave much to be desired.

In comparison, let me give simple points leading to interpreting God's Word when it is taken from its original perspective:

The Scriptures are Jewish, authored by 40-plus Jewish men.
The Scriptures are immersed in Jewish thought from the Middle East.
The customs of Scripture are Jewish customs.
The culture of Scripture is Jewish culture.
The central focus of Scripture is Israel.
The central focus of Scripture is not only Israel, but also specifically the Jewish Messiah.
Israel is the world's timepiece.
The Scriptures do not originate from a Greek background, a European background, or an American background, but
they do originate from a Jewish background.
The focus of Scripture is only temporarily on the Church, but start to finish, it is the story of Israel, its past, present,
and glorious future!
Gentile believers receive all the spiritual blessings of a Jewish New Covenant in which they are grafted into the Body
of Messiah -- Jew and Gentile, one in Messiah.
God is not done with Israel or the Jewish people; instead, one third of Scripture is yet to be fulfilled as God completes
the future plan He has described for them in Jeremiah 31:31-34.

This point, the Jewish frame of reference, needs to be understood by all believers. The Jewish background or frame of
reference of the Scriptures is not taught by Evangelical, Conservative, or Fundamental Christianity, yet the Jewish perspective
lays out the foundational understanding of the Covenants that God made with Israel. The Jewish perspective is the step
in Dispensationalism that gives it even more power and authority to dislodge personal theological biases. Without this
grounding, the understanding of the promises that God has made with national Israel and the Jewish people in general
is pushed into the background subconsciously, resulting in a skewed understanding of the Jewish people and the State of
Israel in the world today and lack of understanding of the very heart of God and His revealed plan.

Shalom rav

 

[TibiasDad]

The Scriptures are Jewish, authored by 40-plus Jewish men.

Luke was not Jewish!

Doug

 

[koverbd]

I thought everyone knew that? He is the only non-Jewish writer. Matthew was writing to a Jewish audience, Mark was writing to a Roman audience and Luke was writing to a Greek audience.
Shalom

 

[synergy]

Replacement, Covenant, and Amillennial theologians completely miss the central importance of teaching Scripture
from a Jewish perspective and interpreting it literally. Even dispensationalists do not always fully recognize the
importance of the Jewish perspective in understanding God's message to us! Instead, Covenant/Replacement
theologians view the Scriptures from their own personal, theological position and bias, which was generated by
viewing the Scriptures from a western, Greek perspective through a filter of bias against the jewish people, while
using an allegorical approach to interpreting the Scriptures. These complex, anachronistic, and culturally clouded
approaches leave much to be desired.

In comparison, let me give simple points leading to interpreting God's Word when it is taken from its original perspective:

The Scriptures are Jewish, authored by 40-plus Jewish men.
The Scriptures are immersed in Jewish thought from the Middle East.
The customs of Scripture are Jewish customs.
The culture of Scripture is Jewish culture.
The central focus of Scripture is Israel.
The central focus of Scripture is not only Israel, but also specifically the Jewish Messiah.
Israel is the world's timepiece.
The Scriptures do not originate from a Greek background, a European background, or an American background, but
they do originate from a Jewish background.
The focus of Scripture is only temporarily on the Church, but start to finish, it is the story of Israel, its past, present,
and glorious future!
Gentile believers receive all the spiritual blessings of a Jewish New Covenant in which they are grafted into the Body
of Messiah -- Jew and Gentile, one in Messiah.
God is not done with Israel or the Jewish people; instead, one third of Scripture is yet to be fulfilled as God completes
the future plan He has described for them in Jeremiah 31:31-34.

This point, the Jewish frame of reference, needs to be understood by all believers. The Jewish background or frame of
reference of the Scriptures is not taught by Evangelical, Conservative, or Fundamental Christianity, yet the Jewish perspective
lays out the foundational understanding of the Covenants that God made with Israel. The Jewish perspective is the step
in Dispensationalism that gives it even more power and authority to dislodge personal theological biases. Without this
grounding, the understanding of the promises that God has made with national Israel and the Jewish people in general
is pushed into the background subconsciously, resulting in a skewed understanding of the Jewish people and the State of
Israel in the world today and lack of understanding of the very heart of God and His revealed plan.

Shalom rav

Not everything is roses and peaches in the Jewish land. In the second century, Justin Martyr accused non-believing Jews of deliberately corrupting or altering the Hebrew Scriptures to undermine Christian claims about Jesus as the Messiah, an accusation echoed by several other Early Church Fathers. In his Dialogue with Trypho, Justin argues that Jewish scribes removed or modified passages that Christians used to demonstrate Christ’s divinity, suffering, and fulfillment of prophecy, particularly texts such as Isaiah 7:14, Psalm 22, and Isaiah 53. Similar charges appear in the writings of Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, and later Eusebius, who maintained that post-Christian Jewish textual traditions diverged from earlier forms preserved in the Septuagint, which they regarded as authoritative and inspired. These Fathers framed the alleged corruption as a polemical response to Christianity, asserting that Jewish rejection of Christ motivated textual changes intended to obscure messianic prophecies, thereby reinforcing the Church’s reliance on the Septuagint against the emerging rabbinic Hebrew text tradition.

 

[atpollard]

Luke was not Jewish!

Doug

Neither were the people that God raised up to build the church from the hands of the Apostles: Timothy, Titus or Philemon.

 

[koverbd]

Luke was not Jewish!

Doug

But the Scriptures still are Jewish

 

[atpollard]

But the Scriptures still are Jewish

For all the good it did them ...

• "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, and you have now become betrayers and murderers of Him; you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and [yet] did not keep it." - Acts 7:51-53 [NASB]

Not that we are any different ...

• "And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest." - Ephesians 2:1-3 [NASB]

 

[koverbd]

Acts 7:51
Stiffnecked.
This term is used six times in the Tanakh: Exodus 32:9, 33:3, 5: 34:9, Deuteronomy 9:6, 13.
Always it is Adonai portraying the Israelites to Moshe, or Moshe portraying them to God or to themselves.
Gentiles cannot call Jews stiffnecked without subjecting themselves to the charge of antisemitic. But Jews
can---in intra-family fights, different rules apply.

Ephesians 2:3
We all lived this way. All of us did---"we" Jews too, just like "you" Gentiles, who "used to be dead" (v. 1)
Thus Sha'ul introduces the topic of how Jews and Gentiles have been joined together into a single people
of God through the Messiah. This subject dominates chapters 2-3, having been hinted at already through
referring to God's "secret plan" (1:9) and the mention of "we" Jews and "you" Gentiles at 1:11-14.
Earlier, in his letter to the Romans, which occupies itself with the same topic, Sha'ul in turn singled out
for special attention both Jews (Rom. 2:17) and Gentiles (Rom. 11:13).

Shalom

 

[koverbd]

Neither were the people that God raised up to build the church from the hands of the Apostles: Timothy, Titus or Philemon.

Are they the cause of the Churches longstanding membership decline and moral decay?

Shalom

 

[synergy]

But the Scriptures still are Jewish

The Inspired Septuagint LXX (Greek OT) and the Inspired Greek NT are Greek.

If the Septuagint was inspired enough for the Apostles to quote directly from it then it's inspired enough for me.

 

[koverbd]

Not everything is roses and peaches in the Jewish land. In the second century, Justin Martyr accused non-believing Jews of deliberately corrupting or altering the Hebrew Scriptures to undermine Christian claims about Jesus as the Messiah, an accusation echoed by several other Early Church Fathers. In his Dialogue with Trypho, Justin argues that Jewish scribes removed or modified passages that Christians used to demonstrate Christ’s divinity, suffering, and fulfillment of prophecy, particularly texts such as Isaiah 7:14, Psalm 22, and Isaiah 53. Similar charges appear in the writings of Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, and later Eusebius, who maintained that post-Christian Jewish textual traditions diverged from earlier forms preserved in the Septuagint, which they regarded as authoritative and inspired. These Fathers framed the alleged corruption as a polemical response to Christianity, asserting that Jewish rejection of Christ motivated textual changes intended to obscure messianic prophecies, thereby reinforcing the Church’s reliance on the Septuagint against the emerging rabbinic Hebrew text tradition.

Here is the real truth about Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.)

"The Christians are the true Israeli race." "Tribulation was justly imposed on you for you have murdered the
Just One."

The Church Father Justin Martyr also claimed that the term, the seed of Jacob, in the Bible, when properly
understood, now referred to the Gentile Christians, not to the Jews. This is a very important point because
it signals the beginning of a shift in understanding of the early Church of biblical passages, especially relating
to Israel. What Justin is saying is that now the Gentile Church replaces Israel. This teaching of the spiritualization
of Genesis 25:23, a departure from its literal meaning. He taught that the Gentiles in the Church were now the
true Israeli race; and that the Gentile believers in Jesus were now the seed of Jacob, and the Jews were not
the seed of Jacob. This is the beginning of Replacement Theology. So Replacement Theology actually began
millennia ago and is not a recent development.

Tertullian (155-240 A.D.)
Tertullian of Carthage in North Africa, in the western branch of the Church, wrote some very strong Anti-Semitic
statements against the Jews. Meanwhile in the eastern branch of the Church, there was a very strong anti-Semitic
spirit that was developing against the Jewish people. Christians were call Jews "Christ killers." The Premillennial
view of the Scriptures was believed by the early Jewish Church and Judaism for centuries. Because the Premillennial
view of the Messiah setting up the earthly Messianic Kingdom was taught and believed by Jews, the Church
stigmatized Premillennial teaching as "Jewish" and therefore "heretical." Thus, one irrational anti-Semitic sentiment
spawned even more irrational thinking. As a result, Eastern Church leaders looked at Premillennial as heretical,
renouncing the literal, biblical teaching of the Second Coming of Jesus in the End Times.

Origen (185-254 A.D.)
Origen was a brilliant man who at the age of 18 was made the president of the Alexandrian School of Theology
in Egypt. Origen opposed Premillennialism, calling it a Jewish dream. He developed a whole new way of
interpreting the Scriptures called the Allegorical Method of Interpretation. This he inherited from Philo, who
was born in Alexandria, Egypt (25 B.C.- 50 A.D.)
Origen was a Hellenized Jewish philosopher who used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize
Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy. In this method, instead of giving the Scriptures a literal meaning,
one can simply spiritualize them, making them mirror whatever meaning is desired for the person's purpose.
According to this approach, when the Bible says "Israel" it does not necessarily mean literal Israel. but could
be interpreted as meaning the Church. The following quote expresses well the idea of allegorical interpretation:

According to Origen, the understanding of Scripture is "the art of arts" and "the science." The words of Scripture
are its body, or the visible element, that hides its spirit, or its invisible element. The spirit is the treasure hidden
in a field: hidden behind every word, every letter and even behind every iota used in the written Word of God.
Thus "everything in the Scripture is mystery," [Bolding my emphasis]

The teaching of mysteries is similar to the Agnostic heresies of ancient times, in which people believed that
knowledge came from reflection, and that knowledge was hidden from most. In error, they proposed the belief
that Jesus was a man who became God by gaining knowledge, which is the theme of many heresies through
the centuries. The Bible teaches that the Gospel message is clear and open to all.

John Chrysostom (347-407 A.D.
Known as the Patriarch of Constantinople, Chrysostom's legacy of anti-Semitism reflected the strongest attacks
on Jews and Judaism by the Church Fathers. His teachings are found in his writings, the Homilies of Chrysostom,
a collection of Antioch sermons. Ironically, he is considered to be among the most beloved and admired in
Church history. His name translates in Greek as "St. John, the Golden Mouthed." His discourses were prompted
by the fact that many Christians were meeting on friendly terms with Jews, visiting Jewish homes, and attending
their synagogues, which he viciously attacked. Understand the tremendous impact that Chrysostom had on the
future generations of priests for centuries to come.

The following are statements made by Chrysostom:
The Synagogue was...a criminal assembly of Jews...a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ.
Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are perfidious murders of Christ.
The Jews sacrifice their children to Satan...they are worse than wild beasts.
The Jews have fallen into a condition lower than the vilest animal.
The synagogue is a brothel, a den of scoundrels, the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults.
I hate the Jews because they violate the Law. I hate the synagogue because it has the Law and the Prophets.
It is the duty of all Christians to hate the Jews.

Chrysostom further said that the Jews had become a degenerate race (sounding like Hitler and the Nazis)
because of their "odious assassination of Christ for which there is no expiation possible, no indulgence,
no pardon, and for which they will always be a people without a nation, enduring a servitude without end.

At the hands of the Gentile Church, which was becoming increasingly ant-Semitic, the organized Church was
moving away from its Jewish roots and heritage toward a total and complete Gentile viewpoint. Jewish believers
in Messiah were not accepted by the Church were not accepted by the Church because Jewish believers
understandably wanted to keep their Jewish culture and ethnic heritage. Jewish believers in Messiah were not
accepted by the unbelieving Jewish population because they believed in the "Christian" Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Hence, the Jewish Church was not embraced by the Church nor was it embraced by the Jewish community.
The net result was the death of the Jewish Church because of their perspective of the Jewish background of
Scripture. To the Church, anything -- and I mean anything -- that had a Jewish connection was viewed by the
Gentile Church as Jewish, thus heretical! Next are just a few examples of the rejection of the Jewish background
of Passover, by three Church councils.

Council of Caesarea: 196 A.D.
The resurrection of Yeshua (Jesus) would be celebrated on a Sunday each year during the Feast of Eshtar,
a celebration of the pagan goddess of Egypt. So the resurrection of Jesus was to be celebrated on a pagan,
heathen holiday, not to be connected in any way with the Jewish Passover and the biblical Feast of First Fruits.

Council of Nicea: 325 A.D.
This council declared that Yeshua's resurrection was to be observed on Easter Sunday with no attachment
to the Jewish Passover.

Council of Antioch 341 A.D.
The Council of Antioch decreed that anyone attempting to celebrate the Passover on the 14th of Nissan was
to be excommunicated. Here is the unbiblical extreme that the Church Fathers forced upon the Church.
The Jewish Church disappeared after the Church Fathers laid the groundwork for centuries of Anti-Semitism
in the organized Church.. Because of all the anti-Jewish believers in Jesus, the Jewish Church of believers
was pushed out of existence because they did not want to lose their Jewishness, their ethnicity. It does not
mean that there were no Jewish people coming to the Faith, but it does mean that all Jewish believers had
to give up their Jewishness. Despite persecution, there has always been a believing Jewish remnant down
through history.

Shabbat Shalom (שַׁבָּת שָׁלוֹם)

 

[TibiasDad]

But the Scriptures still are Jewish

I would say they are divine and processed through the Jewish tradition, his chosen people to represent his will to the rest of us.

Doug

 

[koverbd]

The Inspired Septuagint LXX (Greek OT) and the Inspired Greek NT are Greek.

If the Septuagint was inspired enough for the Apostles to quote directly from it then it's inspired enough for me.

You are missing my point entirely, which I'm not surprised.
The Greek language was the language at the time. But the Greek speaking Jewish writers were communicating
through the Greek language with their Jewish mindset and culture. None of the Messianic Apostles were Gentiles.
They were bilingual and maybe even trilingual. Hebrew was the language in Jerusalem and Aramaic in
Babylon.

Perhaps most significant for the Septuagint, as distinct from other Greek versions, was that the Septuagint began to lose Jewish sanction after differences between it and contemporary Hebrew scriptures were discovered.

Jews largely rejected the Septuagint (LXX) primarily because early Christians adopted it, using its specific Greek wording (like "virgin" in Isaiah 7:14) to support Christian doctrines about Jesus as the Messiah, which Jewish leaders refuted. This led to a move towards Hebrew texts (the Masoretic Text), as rabbinic Judaism sought to distance itself from Christian interpretations, establishing a Hebrew canon closed centuries before Jesus and emphasizing original Hebrew sources to counter Christian claims.

The text of the Septuagint is contained in a few early, but not necessarily reliable, manuscripts. The best known of these are the Codex Vaticanus (B) and the Codex Sinaiticus (S), both dating from the 4th century ce, and the Codex Alexandrinus (A) from the 5th century. There are also numerous earlier papyrus fragments and many later manuscripts. The first printed copy of the Septuagint was in the Complutensian Polyglot (1514–22).

Shabbat Shalom