Jewish Roots
Roy Fowler
This Section is devoted to Jewish Roots. Here are some teachings that have Jewish Roots about our Christian Faith. Click on them to go to that page. (There are more Jewish Roots in my book "A Time to Change".)
The Mystery of Aleph-Tav Pointing to Jesus (Yah-shua)
WHAT ARE JEWISH
ROOTS? (See
the following)
à It is Finding the "Roots" of our Christian Faith. Why should we study Jewish roots?
à BECAUSE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND NEW TESTAMENT INCLUDING THE BOOK
OF ACTS unless we find out the JEWISH CONTEXT of the NEW TESTAMENT AND THE BOOK
OF ACTS .
Jesus was Jewish and spoke in Aramaic. The Twelve Disciples were all Jewish. The Twelve Disciples all spoke Hebrew and/or Aramaic. ALL of the New Testament was written by Jews except Luke and Acts (written by Luke a Greek).
What is Aramaic?
Aramaic is a Semitic language, related to Hebrew. It originated in the kingdom of Aram in modern Syria and was later adopted by the Persians as their unifying administrative language for the empire. After Alexander's defeat of the Persian Empire, the nations of the former Persian Empire adopted Greek as their common language. Judah was the sole exception, retaining Aramaic as its language.
Aramaic was the language of Persia (and at the time of Persia included Babylon). The Jews had been exiled into this land and began to speak its language. At the time of Jesus, almost nobody spoke true Hebrew in Israel except the Priests and Levites. All other Israelis at that time spoke nothing but Greek and/ or Hebrew.
The entire New Testament was written by Jews except for the books of Luke and Acts. These two books were written by Luke the Physician, a Greek. HOWEVER, Luke was the traveling companion of Paul the Apostle (who was a Jew trained by Gamaliel the Rabbi). Now because Paul refers to "my gospel" in Romans 2:16, 16:25, Galatians 2:6 and 6:17, therefore the book of Luke, even though "written" by a Greek, could have been "dictated" and/or "supervised" by Paul. This process is called "amanuensis". The definition of an "amanuensis" in the dictionary, is "a secretary", in other words,"a person who writes down what is dictated."
In 2 Thessalonians 3:17, Paul says, "The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle; so I write." (NKJV) This means that most likely every epistle that Paul wrote was by dictation, except the book of Galatians, in which Paul said that he wrote the whole letter (Gal 6:11). And if every letter that Paul wrote was by dictation (except Galatians), then it would be logical to say that Luke and Acts could have been dictated or supervised by Paul as well. At the very least, Paul probably "supervised" because he was the Apostle of Luke (Luke was the traveling companion of THIS APOSTLE), and also because Paul refers to "my gospel", which could very well be the Gospel of Luke (written down by Luke the Physician).
Also the Gospel of Luke, even though written by a Greek, was influenced by Hebrew thought and manner because of the influence of Paul and also because of the influence of the Hebrew version of Matthew. This Hebrew version of Matthew was referred to by Origen (who lived 185-253/254 AD). Also Jerome spoke of it when he did a commentary on Matthew with "comparisons" to the Hebrew version of Matthew in the Fourth Century AD. This Hebrew version of Matthew today is preserved in three manuscripts, "Shem Tov Matthew", DuTillet Matthew" and "Munster Matthew". Some scholars have argued that these medieval Hebrew manuscripts may have been descended (without any intervening translation) from ancient Hebrew manuscripts of Matthew, which were used by early Christians in the first or second century, but were nearly extinct by the time of Jerome, late in the fourth century.
(It is very probable that Jerome was the last to speak very much about this Hebrew version of Matthew because in 315-339 AD Constantine gradually outlawed EVERYTHING JEWISH in the church when he started the "state tolerance" of Christianity.)
(The following is from http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/jews-romanlaw.html , a Jewish History Sourcebook..)
(Two other good resources about Constantine are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I_and_Christianity)
"The laws of
Constantius (337-361 [Constantine]), the second selection, forbid intermarriage
between Jewish men and Christian women. A generation later, in 388, all
marriages between Jews and Christians were forbidden. Constantius also did away
with the right of Jews to possess slaves. This prohibition to trade in and to
keep slaves at a time when slave labor was common was not merely an attempt to
arrest conversion to Judaism; it was also a blow at the economic life of the
Jew. It put him at a disadvantage with his Christian competitor to whom this
economic privilege was assured."
I. Laws of Constantine the Great,
"We wish to make it known to the Jews and their elders and their patriarchs that if, after the enactment of this law, any one of them dares to attack with stones or some other manifestation of anger another who has fled their dangerous sect and attached himself to the worship of God [Christianity], he must speedily be given to the flames and burn(ed) together with all his accomplices."
"Moreover, if any one of the population should join their abominable sect and attend their meetings, he will bear with them the deserved penalties."
*Heaven-Worshippers were a sect closely allied to Judaism.
II. Laws of Constantius,
"This pertains to women, who live in our weaving factories and whom Jews, in their foulness, take in marriage. It is decreed that these women are to be restored to the weaving factories. [Marriages between Jews and Christian women of the imperial weaving factory are to be dissolved.]"
"This prohibition [of intermarriage] is to be preserved for the future lest the Jews induce Christian women to share their shameful lives. If they do this they will subject themselves to a sentence of death. [The Jewish husbands are to be punished with death.]" (end quote)
So we see that Constantine had a law that if anyone left
Judaism to join Christianity and was angry about it , they were to be burned in
flames. This law also stated that any Christian who joined Judaism would also
be killed. Constantine also changed the Jewish sabbath to the "venerable day of the sun", in other
words he established "Sun Day" as the weekly day to worship. This was
because when he dedicated Constantinople as a "Christian" capital of
the empire, he did so "wearing the Apollonian sun-rayed Diadem."
"Apollonian"
means "of Apollos". Apollos was the son of Zeus and Apollos was the
sun god and the god of divination. And the "sun-rayed diadem" would
be a crown that looked like rays of light were going out of it. (uses
information from en.wikipedia.org about Constantine I and Constantine I and
Christianity with references)
And here is another reason
to study Jewish roots of the New Testament.
(The following findings and
quote are from New Testament use of the
Old Testament by Roger Nicole)
Researchers'
Findings in New Testament
C. H. Toy lists 613 O.T. references. Wilhelm Dittmar lists O.T. 1640 reference.
Eugen Huehn indicates 4105 passages in New Testament
reminiscent of Old Testament Scripture.
(The following by Scott Ashley - http://www.gnmagazine.org/issues/gn15/otnt.htm )
How
many times do the New Testament writers quote the Old Testament?
An index in the Jewish New Testament catalogs 695 separate quotations from the books of the Old Testament in the New (Jewish New Testament Publications, Jerusalem, 1989).
There are many other passages where the Old Testament is referred to, as in cases where an Old Testament figure is mentioned, but no specific scripture is quoted.
Depending on which scholar's work you examine, the number of quotations and references in the New Testament to the Old may be as high as 4,105 (Roger Nicole, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, 1979, Vol. I, p. 617).
(This estimate of 4,105 quotes was from Eugene Huehn.)
Now there are 7,958 verses in the New Testament. If we use Eugene Huehn's estimate of 4,105 OT quotes or allusions in the NT, then 4,105 divided by 7,957 is 51% of the New Testament is from the Old Testament!
And ALL of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic. So here is yet another reason to study the Jewish Roots of the New Testament.
So we need to study the Jewish
Roots of the New Testament because:
1) Jesus was Jewish and spoke in Aramaic.
2) The Twelve Disciples were all Jewish.
3) The Twelve Disciples all spoke Hebrew and/or Aramaic.
4) ALL of the New Testament was written by Jews except Luke and Acts.
5) The books of Luke and Acts, even though written by a Greek, were influenced by a Greater or Lesser Degree by Paul who was a Jew (trained by a Rabbi).
6) The book of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew or Aramaic.
7) The early church (though populated by many Gentiles) was Jewish in form
and included the Hebrew Matthew and included worship on Sabbath (Saturday) and
Jewish Feasts until Constantine (about 325 AD).