The Times of Yeshua

Olive Tree Connection

Paul Herring
November 2010

Flusser:
“In the fullness of time the Christian religion sprang out of
Judaism; as a fact, indeed, of divine revelation, but also
inseparably joined by innumerable threads with the previous
thousand years of Israel’s history. No incident in the gospel story,
no word in the preaching of Jesus Christ, is intelligible apart from
its setting in Jewish history, and without a clear understanding of
that world of thought—distinction of the Jewish people.

Thus it becomes the bounden duty of Christian theologians to
examine into and describe that realm of thought and history in
which the universal religion of Christ grew up. Nor is it enough to
know simply that older literature which has been collected
together in the canon of the Old Testament.

On the contrary, the gospel of Jesus Christ is much more closely
connected with its immediately contemporary surroundings,
and the tendencies of thought prevailing in that particular
age.”

The Times of Yeshua - Presented by Paul Herring

 Hebrew was the primary spoken and written medium
of the majority of the Jews in Israel during the time of
Jesus;
 Jesus therefore did most, if not all, of his teaching in
Hebrew (not Greek or Aramaic).

The Times of Yeshua - Presented by Paul
Herring

 the original accounts of Jesus' life were composed in
Hebrew (as one might conclude anyway from early
church history) – have mentioned this in previous talks;
 the Greek gospels which have come down to us
represent a third or fourth stage in the written
transmission of accounts of the life of Jesus;
 Luke was the first gospel written, not Mark;

Herring

 Much of the day-to-day Second Temple literature
discovered at Qumran and Massada is in Hebrew.

 Whenever we can be sure that there is a Hebrew
phrase behind the Greek text of the Gospels, we
translate that, and not the literal Greek.

Herring

 Flusser was able to translate the synoptic gospels from
the earliest Greek versions back into Hebrew.
 Given how frequent and widespread the Hebraisms
appear within them, Flusser has been able to show
which portions read very well in Hebrew,
◦ which seems to indicate that they were originally penned in
Hebrew
 and which portions appear very awkward and
unsatisfactory
◦ which suggests later redaction

Herring

 "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he
who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery” - Lk 16:18
◦ Puts Jesus at odds with the Torah - provision for divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1;
◦ Seems alien to Yeshua's typical approach to halachaissues, which emphasizes the "spirit" rather than
the "letter" of the law. Indeed Luke 16:18 may be seen to contradict Matthew 19:9;
◦ No context – appears a corruption when translated into Greek (kai) from Hebrew (vav) which can
mean ‘in order to’.
 The evidence suggests that Jesus was saying, "The man who divorces his wife in
order to marry another commits adultery.” – i.e. consider the intent or the
attitude of the heart.

 Why?
◦ Herod Antipas& John the Baptist:
◦ An illicit romantic entanglement between Antipas and his half-brother's wife, Herodias, eventuated in
them both divorcing their spouses in order to marry each other.
◦ John, called out Antipas for this infidelity: "It is not lawful [i.e., permitted by the Torah] for you to have
her" (Mt 14:4)

Herring

 The followers of Yeshua were initially totally Jewish –
90%+ Hebrew in first 10-15 years i.e to 45 AD.

 As can be seen in Matt 10:16-18 they originally
attended the synagogue.

 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of
wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts
and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be
dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to
bear witness before them and the Gentiles.”
Herring

 “For the gentile converts to try to take on the Jewish
lifestyle without the godly and disciplined background
(upbringing), would have placed a burden that was neither
necessary nor desirable.

 Into this context, the Jerusalem Council decreed that
Gentile converts observe the 4 Noahide Laws (on top of the
Ten Commandments).

 Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles
who turn to God ut should write to them to abstain from the things
polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been
strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in
every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the
synagogues.

Herring

 For Flusser, Jesus was not a critic of Judaism, not even
a reformer, but the embodiment of what Flusser calls
the moral essence of ancient Judaism.

 Overall, Flusser sees in Jesus a moral exemplar for the
modern world, for Jews as well as Christians.

 Like the Pharisees, Jesus held himself apart from
non-Jews, referring to them variously as swine or
dogs.

 His manner of dress was consistent with that of the
Pharisees, as was his way of calling disciples

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 His devotion to the Torah exhibits a knowledge of both Written
and Oral Torah (a basic definition of Pharisaismas opposed to
Sadducism and Essenism), and

 he repeatedly affirmed the Pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection
of the body and the eternal life of the soul.

 Above all, we find normative Pharisaic teachings echoed again and
again in his words:
◦ Phrases such as "No one can serve two masters,"
◦ "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s," and
◦ "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you"
◦ are all directly traceable to Pharisaism in the Second Temple period.

Herring

 The Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer exhibit a typically Pharisaic
theology.

 For these and many other reasons, it would seem not unreasonable
to think of Jesus as a Pharisee calling for the renewal of that
movement which was itself already a movement of renewal within
Judaism.

 Thus, Flusser argues very powerfully that Jesus had little conflict
with the Pharisees of his day.

 Most with even a cursory knowledge of the gospel accounts of his
interactions with the Pharisees would think this blatantly false.

 However, we need to understand the mode and tenor and passion
of intra-Pharisaic debate, to better appreciate the community in
which Jesus operated.

Herring

Flusser in “Jesus”(p36)
“In the Pharisees, Jesus saw the contemporary heirs of
Moses, and said that men should model their lives
upon their teaching. This makes sense, for although
Jesus was apparently indirectly influenced by Essenism,
he was basically rooted in universal non-sectarian
Judaism. The philosophy and practice of this Judaism
was that of the Pharisees.

It would not be wrong to describe Jesus as a Pharisee
in the broad sense.”

Herring

In the early Rabbinic sources, until the end of the secondcentury,
nothing is said against the person of Jesus or against the faith he
hadelicited.

The lack of any criticism of thefaith of Jesus and of the principles of
Christian religion in rabbinic literature priorto the end of the
second century cannot be easily explained.

Christians are asstrongly rejected as other heretics, but no specific
arguments are adduced against them in that period, while at the
same time other, unknown groups are designatedheretical on the
ground of false doctrines of theirs which are specificallymentioned.

This may mean that the rabbis rejected Jewish Christians,
notbecause of the special content of their faith but perhaps
because of their issues with the Temple or their belief in the
resurrection?

Herring

One ofthe surprising findings of Flusser’s research is that those texts in
the Gospels expressingopposition to the Synagogue or to Jews, or
accusing the Jews of having causedJesus' death, or even those passages
which express enmity towards "normative”Judaism, cannot be
retranslated literally into Hebrew or Aramaic: they are styledin Greek.

This means that enmity of Palestinian Jewish Christians against other
Jews, while it may have existed, cannot be proven, and that those
passages werewritten by Gentiles or, so to speak, by Jewish "Gentile"
(i.e., Hellenistic)Christians.

We must conclude that the opposition to Jews and to Judaism is
primarily, or even exclusively, a function of the emergence of Gentile
Christianity, and that this tension, or even abhorrence, was a factor
whichfostered the birth of Christianity as an independent Gentile
religion.

Herring

John 11:17-27
So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four
days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away.
And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to
comfort them concerning their brother. Now Martha, as soon as she
heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in
the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my
brother would not have died.

But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at
the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.
And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe
this?”
She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Messiah, the Son of
God, who is to come into the world.”

Herring

Essene fragments - Melchizedek, "God has taken His place in the divine council; in
the midst of the gods He holds judgment" (Ps. 82:1).

Executor of the last judgment based upon Psalm 110.
”The LORD says to my Master, 'Sit at My right hand . . . You are a priest for ever after
the order of Melchizedek....'"

Jesus applied this psalm to himself.

On one occasion, reported in Luke 20:41-43, he quoted the beginning ofPsalm 110
with reference to the Messiah.

When handed over to the Romans, and asked if he were the Messiah.

He said, "But from now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the
power of God" (Luke 22:69).

Those present correctly understood this as Jesus' indirect admission of his
messianicdignity.

Herring

 175 BCE - a Jewish scribe bearing the Greek name Antigonos
of Socho said,
"Be not like slaves who serve their master for the sake of
reward, but like slaves who serve their master with no eye on
any reward; and may the fear of heaven be among you.”

 Yeshua came to give:
◦ a the radical interpretation of the commandment of mutual
love,
◦ a call for a new morality, and
◦ To promote the idea of the kingdom of God
 Luke 4:43; Mark 1:38, 1 John 3:8

Herring

Rabbi (20 BCE):
"On three pillars the world stands—on the Torah, on the
Temple service, and on acts of loving-kindness."

The spiritual pillars of Yeshua were:
◦ Righteousness,
◦ Prayer,
◦ Repentance.

Herring

 20 years without getting pregnant;
 A circumstance to led Isaac to seek a deeper
relationship with God through prayer;
 Unfortunately, most of us are not motivated enough to
pursue that relationship unless we have an incentive;
 Therefore, God set up the world so that man should
pray for his needs;
 However, sometimes He sees that this arrangement is
not enough to solicit sincere prayer, so God gives us
"special needs" and "special reasons" to motivate our
intense prayer.

Herring

Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach(165 BCE)

Wrath and anger are loathsome things
which the sinful person has for his own.
The vengeful will suffer the Lord's vengeance,
for He remembers their sins in detail.
Forgive your neighbor's injustice; then,
when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.
Should a person nourish anger against another,
and expect healing from the Lord?
Should a person refuse mercy to a man like himself,
yet seek pardon for his own sins?
If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath,
who will forgive his sins?
Remember your last day, set enmity aside;
remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor;
of the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.

Herring

 And what did Yeshua say:
 "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not and you will not be
condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you;
good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into
your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back" (Luke
6:37-38).

The Golden Rule:
 Jesus: "Whatever you wish that men should do to you, do so to them, for this
is the law and the prophets" (Matt. 7:12).

 Among theJews, even before the time of Jesus, it was regarded as the
summation of the entire Torah.
 Hillel had said, "What is distasteful to yourself, do not do to your neighbor;
that is the whole Torah, the rest is but deduction.”

 Both Jesus and Hillel before him saw the Golden Rule as a summary of the
Torah of Moses. This becomes intelligible when we consider that the biblical
saying, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," (Lev. 19:18) was esteemed
by Jesus and by the Jews in general as a chief commandment of the law.

Herring

From ancient Jewish writings we could easily construct a
whole Gospel without using a single word that originated with
Jesus.

There was a saying, "Flee from what is evil and from what
resembles evil."

If we apply this concept to the commandments, we discover
that the lesser commandments are as serious as the greater.

This implies a tightening up of the Torah, not regarding
ritual, but in respect to the relationships between people.

This attitude was also present in Judaism at that time, as the
following saying exemplifies: "Everyone who publicly shames
hisneighbor sheds his blood.”

Herring

 For both the Essenes and Yeshua,
◦ poverty,
◦ humility,
◦ purity, and
◦ unsophisticated simplicity of heart
were the essential religious virtues.

 According to Jesus, possessions are an obstacle to virtue.
"Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the
kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God"
◦ Mark 10:24-25

Herring

 He is the only Jew of ancient times known to us who
preached not only that people were on the threshold
of the end of time, but that the new age of salvation
had already begun…for Jesus, the kingdom of heaven is
not only the eschatological rule of God that has
dawned already, but a divinely willed movement that
spreads among people throughout the earth.

 Conversation with wealthy young man?
◦ Matthew 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23

Herring

 The kingdom of heaven is not simply a matter of God's
kingship, but also the domain of his rule, an expanding
realm embracing ever more and more people, a realm into
which one may enter and find one's inheritance, a realm
where there are both great and small.

 Jesus didn’t want to found a church or even a single
community, but he wanted to start a movement.

 It is in the message of the kingdom that God's
unconditional love for all becomes visible, and the barriers
between sinner and righteous are shattered.

 The poor, the hungry, the meek, the mourners, and the
persecuted inherit the kingdom of heaven.

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 “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the
kingdom of God before you" (Matt. 21:31-32).

 Jesus found resonance among the social outcasts and the
despised, just as John the Baptist had done before him.

 Even the non-eschatological ethical teaching of Jesus can
presumably be oriented towards his message of the kingdom.
Because Satan and his powers will be overthrown (1 Jn 3:8) and
the present world-order shattered, it is to be regarded almost
with indifference, and ought not to be strengthened by
opposition.

 Therefore, one should not resist evildoers; one should love one's
enemy and not provoke the Roman empire to attack. For when
the Kingdom of God is fully realized, all this will vanish.

Herring

 Jesus did not want his prospective disciples to have any false
expectations, and he frequently stressed the need to count the
cost before making a commitment to him:
 Which of you, if he wanted to build a tower, would not first sit
down and estimate the cost to see if he had enough money to
complete it? …likewise, any of you who is not ready to leave all
his possessions cannot be my disciple. - Luke 14:28-33

 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother,
wife, children, brothers, sisters, and himself as well, he cannot
be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his cross and follow me
cannot be my disciple.
◦ Luke14:26-27

 Deuteronomy 21:15: “If a man has two wives, one loved and the
other hated….”

Herring

Matt 16:19, "Whatsoever you shall bind (or loose) on earth
shall be bound (or loosed) in heaven,"

The Hebrew background of the saying would lead to the
translation "allow" and "disallow" for this very common
rabbinic phrase.

This authority was applied at the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15,
at which James both "loosed," i.e., allowed the believers not
to be circumcised and not to keep the whole law, and
"bound," i.e., disallowed idolatry, cult prostitutes, and eating
meat from which the blood had not been removed (Lev 7:26).

Jews living in the Second Temple Period thought the Torah was a grace-filled
gift for instruction and life.
- Solomon Schechter, “The Joy of the Law,” in Aspects of Rabbinic Theology
Herring

A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants, and went into another
country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the
tenants, that they should give him some of the fruit of the vineyard; but
the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.

And he sent another servant; him also they beat and treated shamefully,
and sent him away empty-handed. . . .

Then the owner of the vineyard said, "What shall I do? I will send my
beloved son; it may be they will respect him." But when the tenants saw
him they said to themselves, "This is the heir; let us kill him, that the
inheritance may be ours.". . .

What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and
destroy those tenants, and give the vineyard to others.

Herring

It is, of course, questionable whether this parable is original to
Jesus at all: it has been preached for so long as a story condemning
the Jews for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah that the possibility that
Luke had an anti-Jewish intent must be conceded.

The standard Christian homiletical interpretation has been that
the owner of the vineyard is God, the vineyard is the world, the
tenants are the Jews, the various messengers are the prophets
preaching the shortcomings of Judaism, and the beloved son is
Jesus.

In retribution for his murder by the wicked Jewish tenants, God
takes the world away from the Jews and gives it into the hands of
the Christians.

Herring

 But would Jesus’ Jewish listeners have heard the parable that
way? The answer is clearly negative. There is no precedent
anywhere in Judaism for the prediction that God would
replace Jew with Gentile; even all of Jeremiah’s new covenant
prophecies must be interpreted as affecting Jews only.

 More important is the interpretation of the vineyard symbol.

 Hosea 9:10 states, "Like grapes in the wilderness, I found
Israel;’’
 Isaiah 5:7 reads. "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the
house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant
planting.”

Herring

 Because Jesus’ listeners would have been familiar with the
vineyard as a symbol for the people Israel, not for creation,
they would have given an altogether different meaning to
the story than the one traditionally preached by Christians.

 They might instead have heard it this way:

 God chose Israel as the vineyard and entrusted it to various
tenants: Babylonians, Persians, Greeks. From time to time
God would send someone to collect the fruits of Israel’s
faithfulness -- that is, God would inspire some sort of
covenant renewal with Israel -- but each time, the
overlords’ oppression became stronger; they beat and
treated shamefully those in covenant relationship with
God.

Herring

 Finally God inspired the long-expected new covenant, an
incredible vitality in Judaism that produced the Pharisees’
wisdom and charity, the Sadducees’ liturgical enthusiasm, the
Zealots’ deep commitment to social action and the Essenes’
mystical purity.
 And of course, this age brought the Messiah, the Son of God,
who lived the ultimate life of devotion; a life without sin; a life
in which he declared and demonstrated the greatest love, in
that he lay down his life for his friends, his brothers and
sisters. He paid the ultimate price and was lifted to the
ultimate place!
 But this charismatic renewal was treated most harshly of all,
for the Roman overlords at the time of Jesus persecuted
Judaism with vehemence, putting to death anyone who
challenged the state’s control over Jewish expression.

Herring

In the face of this horrible Roman oppression, Jesus
held out and still holds out a message of hope to his
people Israel:

God will liberate Israel from oppression, placing the
vineyard into the hands of tenants who know how to
care for it lovingly, and who will enable it to fulfill its
mission; only non-Jews who are willing to protect
Israel and encourage it to bear fruit will be given any
control over it.
Herring

What is our response to a better understanding of Yeshua?

 We need stand up for Israel against the lies of the enemy;
"Everyone who publicly shames hisneighbor sheds his blood.”

 We need to seek Righteousness, Repentance and Prayer;

 We need to act with humility, live with purity, and seek to
love God and our neighbour with the unsophisticated
simplicity of the heart;

 We need to promote the Kingdom of God, both by living in it
now and by setting our heart and focus on the glory of it’s
inauguration and reign.

Herring

The Times of Yeshua