Archive for the ‘Biblical Reflections’ Category

Although there are examples of the Covenant God made with all Israel through Moses at Horeb/Sinai being “renewed” at various points (e.g. Deuteronomy 29:1; 2 Kings 23:1-3), the “New Covenant” of which Jeremiah speaks (31:31-34) seems to stand out in terms of how it is both described and placed in context.

If one reads carefully that historical context, namely chapters 30-31 of Jeremiah, it is abundantly clear, both by the descriptive content and the timing indicated (“At that time” “in that day” “the days are coming” etc.), that this is a singular, unique, event that has not come about or transpired as of yet but is to take place in a specific time when all the Tribes of Israel are gathered together back in the Land, with Judah and Israel becoming one, etc. This event is spoken of in all the prophets with a consistency and a specificity that rivals any other theme or subject in the Hebrew prophets, and is particularly evident in Ezekiel 37, that also mentions this “new” covenant, using different words. Although there is a sense that one might still refer to this as a “renewed” covenant, it seems to stand out as different from the various “renewals” in the previous history of Israel, so that it is understood, by analogy at least, like a divorce and a remarriage. That said, there is only ONE covenant with Israel, as the Psalmist says, commanded to a “thousand generations,” thus the abbreviation O.T. could perhaps more rightly refer to the Only Testament, rather than the “Old” Testament.

Given this historical context one must pause over Paul’s ideas that the “new covenant” spoken by Jeremiah has come through his ministry, in contrast to the ministry of death that Moses instituted, that those who read the “old covenant” are blinded until they turn to Christ, or that the glory Moses experienced at Sinai is or has faded (2 Corinthians 3). The “last” Prophetic word we have on the level of the Hebrew Prophets is to “Remember the Teachings of My Servant Moses,” and that appears to take us to final days, characterized by the appearance of Elijah (Malachi 3/4). Rather than fade, the “glory” Moses experienced, that was the very Kavod of HaShem, will be renewed and enhanced in the time of which Jeremiah speaks. If one just reads Jeremiah 30-31 one does not find Paul’s ideas, that is, including his “heavenly Christ” who brings eternal life to those who accept him (with the rest blinded and hard of heart), or anything he says in 2 Corinthains 3 (and one really needs to include chapters 4-5 to get his full views here) referred to or predicted. There seems to be zero correspondence, other than the catchword “new covenant.”

This is not to say that the images of putting the Torah in the heart, or having a “new heart,” that Paul makes use of, are not found in the prophetic passages that speak of the “new covenant” and its operation. They lie at the heart of things, but they are nothing new, in that these very possibilities and potentials are all at the center of the covenant Moses made with Israel. Moses constantly tells the ancient Israelites to circumcise the heart, to have hearts of flesh not stone, and to put the Torah within. This is repeated constantly in the Psalms and Prophets as well. This is nothing “new” that comes with Paul and his “heavenly Christ.” It is at the heart of the Sinai/Horeb revelation always, and people in so-called “Old Testmant” times always had access to the Holy Spirit, a truly spiritual conversion, the Law written in the heart, etc. Grace, forgiveness, and a bonded friendship with the Creator through the Holy Spirit has always been offered freely to human beings, and all the more so through Moses’s covenant with Israel. Paul’s view of a “fleshly” and “spiritual” dichotomy is well known to us in all the hellenistic dualistic systems of thought of the ancient Mediterranean world, particularly the Platonists, Pythagorians, and to some extent the Stoics. That is why he thinks what one “eats or drinks” or observing “days” has nothing to do with the “real” inner person, or that God does not care for “oxen” when he says not to muzzle an animal threshing grain, but really has in mind his “new covenant” ministers being supported financially (1 Corinthians 9:3-12). Another response to Paul’s question–Does God care for oxen? is a resounding “yes,” as the Torah addresses ALL aspects of human life on planet earth.

A central issue when it comes to Paul is not whether he was a good guy or a bad guy, sincere or insincere, or even whether the ethical principles of the Torah are abrogated or carried through into the “new covenant” as he understands it. I have no doubt that Paul thought he was living in the “end times” and would live to see all that Jeremiah spoke of come about, at least in some “spiritual” way, since he had given up the idea that what he calls “fleshly” Israel mattered anymore. The real issue is whether one, Jew or Gentile, can have a right relationship with God by grace through faith, as Abraham had, by turning directly in repentance and faith, without the requirements of “accepting Christ” and receiving “eternal life” through the blood of the cross, as the exclusive new “way of salvation.” This is where “Christianity,” at least as viewed by Paul, parts with Judaism, and for that matter, with a plain reading of the Hebrew Bible, both Torah, Prophets, and Writings. And yet for Paul, centering everything on God offering his divine Son as a sacrifice for sins is the heart of his “new covenant” ideas. If one then turns back and reads Jeremiah 30-31 there is little to no correspondence between what Jeremiah says and the ideas Paul expounds that he calls the “New Covenant.”

Jesus himself offers something dead center in terms of reflecting the Hebrew Bible and its “way of salvation.” His well known story of “justification” given by Jesus in Luke 15 and the lost son who comes home, requires only the father’s gracious acceptance of a son who is truly broken up over his past wrong behavior. Even more to the point, the tax collector of Luke 18 who bowed his head, struck his breast, and said “God be merciful to me a sinner.” This is the one Way of turning to God that has always held true through the ages, from Adam to our time, and it involves none of the major elements of Paul’s system of people receiving eternal life.

There are two verses from the Hebrew Bible that seem to put it most clearly:

Psalm 145:18: “The LORD is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.”

Isaiah 56:6-7: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

The Hebrew means to seek truly/sincerely, and it not referring to a set of “truth” in terms of religious dogmas and doctrines. These texts are bedrock and they cut through any theological or complex systems of religious dogma. They are relational not systematic. Many seminaries have courses called “Systematic Theology” and most all are complex expositions of Paul’s teachings, with all the ins and outs. These verses seem to skirt that whole arena, even though they are addressing a similar question–How can one come to know God, be forgiven, and walk with him?

One important characteristic of the Prophets is that they are on the whole relational and almost completely non-systematic, so even a fool, yea a wayfaring man, will not stumble on the path. They sketch out in fairly plain language the “vision” of things for the “days to come,” and along the way, with the Prophets commenting on their own day and time, they offer avenues toward repentance and return to their contemporary hearers, and thus by extension, to readers down through the ages.

Jews around the world observe the Passover according to a time-honored tradition preserved in the Seder, but increasingly multiple numbers of non-Jews, who identify themselves in various ways (Hebraic Christians, “Lost Tribes,” B’nai Noah, Righteous Gentiles) are also marking this day and week of Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. The following message was written by Ross Nichols of Roots of Faith. We post it with the hope it can serve as a study guide and inspiration to many who read this Blog.

I am certain that within our diverse group there will be multiple “versions” of the Passover.  I wanted to send this out tonight for those that have never “kept” this festival before.  Here are some basic things that you need to know.

Shalom and Chag Sameach!

Ross Nichols

The Torah readings this season, taken from the book of Genesis (chapters 12-50) focus on the generations of Abraham and his descendants. It has well been said that the “Bible is the story of one man’s family.” It is quite fascinating the follow the ways in Genesis in which the line/seed of Abraham “splits.” And yet, even before one gets to Genesis 12 with the story of Abram, there are already significant splits. The line of Noah is divided into Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and the children of Ham in particular include tyrants like Nimrod who built Babylon, Asshur who fathered the Assyrians, Mizraim, the father of the ancient Egyptians, and the various nations of the Canaanites. These Ancient Near Eastern peoples surrounded the family of Abraham throughout its history. In contrast, Abraham is descended from Shem, and beginning in Genesis 11:10, it is this smaller branch of the familes of humankind that upon which the Biblical narrative concentrates. Abram is born of Nahor, who is sixth in the lineage from Shem.

In terms of Abraham’s own direct family he first has two sons, Ishmael his firstborn and Isaac, but they are of different mothers and Abraham is told that the “covenant” will be through Isaac (Gen 17:21). Ishmael is to become a “great nation” and God tells Abraham that he will be with him, but he makes it clear the “seed” as it is called, passes through Isaac. Apparently this is because of Sarah, who is of the Nahor/Shem lineage, whereas Hagar, the mother of Ishmael, is likely of the line of Ham. It is the combination of the two descendants of Nahor, Abraham and Sarah, who become one in Isaac that sets the Abraham Plan into motion. Gen 17:5 says she will be a “mother of nations” just as Abram is the “father.” This is very important, and Sarah, the Princess, must not be left out or forgotten. After Sarah dies Abraham marries and has other children, quite a few. But none of them are to be part of this divine Plan, called the “covenant.” This involves, of course, the Gen 12 promises which are repeated to Isaac and Jacob…

Isaac of course has two sons, the twins, Esau and Jacob, who are rivals even in the womb. It is worth noting that he is 40 when he marries, he asks YHVH for children as Rebekah is barren, but it not until 20 later, when he is 60, that his prayers are answered (Gen 25). The two “nations” embody an eternal struggle. It seems the “line” of Abraham & Sarah, which offered the right combination in Isaac, still has “recessive” characteristics that can even yield an Esau. But the line of Rebekah is important, coming from the family of Terah through Nahor, some kind of combination was here needed. Even though the behavior of Jacob seems somewhat selfish and deceptive, the Torah makes clear that it is El Shaddai who has determined that the “covenant” is to go through Jacob, not Esau. Everything else is a playing out of that theme. Rebekah had the perception to know and see this. Jacob was her clear favorite. Isaac seems oblivious to it all, and in his old age at least, enjoys eating the meat that Esau brings in. Rebekah is quite vital here, in producing the lineage that can carry the covenant.

It is very interesting to note that Esau first marries two Hittite woman! Both Isaac and Rebekah are grieved! But notice, later, when he sees that Jacob is sent to marry in the family line he takes another wife–a daughter of Ishmael, thinking that will somehow redeem him.

The Beth-el experience of Jacob is thus crucial. He is singled out for the “covenant” promise and this incredible epiphany at the “gate of the skies” is fundamental for him. He commits his life to El Shaddai, God of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebecca and sets out alone–pledging a tenth or tithe of all that YHVH gives him, to YHVH.

So once again the “line” has split and Jacob is destined to have 12 sons with four woman…thus the “great nation” of Israel–but it is Joseph who is the focus of the next “split.” Though Reuben was the firstborn, in the end, the birthright passed to Joseph (1 Chronicles 5:2). Ultimately, based on Jacob’s prophecies in Genesis 49 the Shepherd/Stone of Israel will come from Joseph (v. 24), and the “septre” will depart from Judah (v. 10)–the tribe that had the rule from the time of King David.

The name Israel is YISRAEL in Hebrew and consists of the Hebrew letters: Yod, Shin, Resh, Alef, Lamed, that are the first letters of the names of the Fathers & Mothers who make up the nation of Israel, namely: Abraham (Alef), Sarah (Shin), Isaac (Yod), Rebekah (Resh), Jacob (Yod), Rachel (Resh) and Leah (Lamed). To readers of the Bible these names, this family, are as familiar as one’s own. They become the root of the nation and the focus of God’s plan to bless all nations.

“And I will bless those who bless you, and treat lightly those who treat you lightly, and in you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

Israel the 100th smallest country (size of San Bernadino County), with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population, can lay claim to the following:

• The Middle East has been growing date palms for millennia. The average tree is about 18-20 feet tall and yields about 38 pounds of dates a year. Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.
• The cell phone was developed in Israel by Israelis working in the Israeli branch of Motorola, which has its largest development center in Israel.
• Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.
• The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel at Intel. Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor were entirely designed, developed and produced in Israel.
• The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel. Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.
• Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the US in Israel.
• The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
• Israel has the fourth largest air force in the world (after the U.S, Russia and China). In addition to a large variety of other aircraft, Israel’s air force has an aerial arsenal of over 250 F-16’s. This is the largest fleet of F-16 aircraft outside of the U. S.
• Israel’s $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbors combined.
• Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita. According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry’s most impenetrable flight security. US officials now look (finally) to Israel for advice on how to handle airborne security threats.
• Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world. Israel produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin – 109 per 10,000 people — as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
• In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of startup companies than any other country in the world, except the U.S. (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech). With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups, Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies in the world — apart from the Silicon Valley, U.S.
• Israel is ranked #2 in the world for venture capital funds right behind the U.S. Outside the United States and Canada, Israel has the largest number of NASDAQ listed companies.
• Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK. On a per capita basis, Israel has the largest number of biotech startups.
• Twenty-four per cent of Israel’s workforce holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland and 12 per cent hold advanced degrees. Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
• Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship — and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 – in the world.
• When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world’s second elected female leader in modern times.
• In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews (Operation Solomon) at Risk in Ethiopia, to safety in Israel.
• When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day — and saved three victims from the rubble.
• Relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds of thousands from the former Soviet Union)
• Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as “conflict free.”
• Israel has the world’s second highest per capita of new books.
• Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.
• Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.
• Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.
• An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in U. S. hospitals 7,000 patients die from treatment mistakes.
• Israel’s Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill. Used to view the small intestine from the inside, cancer and digestive disorders.
• Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential to save lives among those with heart failure. The new device, synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose a heart’s mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.
• Israel leads the world in the number of scientists and technicians in the work force, with 145 per 10,000, as opposed to 85 in the U. S., over 70 in Japan, and less than 60 in Germany. With over 25% of its work force employed in technical professions. Israel places first in this category as well.
• A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device, produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that causes acne bacteria to self-destruct — all without damaging surrounding skin or tissue.
• An Israeli company was the first to develop and install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating plant, in southern California’s Mojave desert.
• All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth

One essential of the redemptive vision of the Hebrew Prophets is that all the tribes of Israel, not just those identified as Judah or the Jewish people, will return en mass to the Land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the borders of which are clearly laid out: “In that day YHVH made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto your seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates (Genesis 15:18). Beginning with the Christian apostle Paul, and echoed in other New Testament texts, such as the book of Hebrews, there is an attempt to interpret the “Land” promises as “heavenly.” Israel becomes the Church and the Land becomes a promise of Heaven. Even the city of Jerusalem is projected into “heaven.” Nothing could be more foreign to a simple reading of the texts of the Hebrew Bible where the language is unequivocal and crystal clear. Notice the following texts, clear without any commentary or interpretation:

Jeremiah 32:41 I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

THE VISION: Isaiah 2:2 It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of YHVH
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of YHVH,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go the Torah, and the word of YHVH from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.

The Plan: Jeremiah 30:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from YHVH: 2 “Thus says YHVH, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. 3 For behold, days are coming, declares YHVH, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says YHVH, and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”

Jeremiah 3:14 Return, O faithless children,
declares YHVH;
for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
and I will bring you to Zion 15 “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding [in Zion?]. 16 And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, declares YHVH, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of YHVH.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of YHVH, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of YHVH in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

Jeremiah 16:14 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares YHVH, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As YHVH lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but ‘As YHVH lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. 16 “Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares YHVH, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.

Jeremiah 23:3 Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4 I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares YHVH. 5 “Behold, the days are coming, declares YHVH, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6 In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘YHVH is our righteousness.’ 7 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares YHVH, when they shall no longer say, ‘As YHVH lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 8 but ‘As YHVH lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”

Jeremiah 31: 8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
the pregnant woman and she who is in labor, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
9 With weeping they shall come,
and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,
I will make them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn. 10 “Hear the word of YHVH, O nations,
and declare it in the coastlands far away;
say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him,
and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’

31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares YHVH, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares YHVH. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares YHVH: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know YHVH,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares YHVH. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

One of the strangest ceremonies of ancient Judaism was that carried out on Yom Kippur with the “two hairy goats.” The ritual is described in Leviticus 16 in full detail.

Two male goats were selected for Yom Kippur, one is “for YHVH” and the other “for Azazel.” Both are said to be “for a sin offering” (v. 5).

One is slain and the other is sent away into the wilderness. What has been confusing to many is that both goats are spoken of as somehow providing “atonement,” or better translated “covering.” So why the difference? Why two goats, essentially identical, rather than one?

One common interpretation makes the two goats positive and negative, and it is the case that Azazel in ancient Jewish texts (1 Enoch, etc.) is the name for an “angel” who opposes YHVH. But if one is negative and one positive, how can both provide “covering”?

In looking more closely at the text one notices that the first goat, the one that is “for YHVH,” that is slain, makes “covering for the Holy Place because of the uncleanness of the people and because of their transgressions, all their sins” (v. 16). In other word, the blood of that goat is to cleanse the Tabernacle that has become unclean because of the sins of the people, NOT to removed the sins of the people per se.

In contrast, the sins of the people themselves are put on the head of the live goat. That goat is not killed, yet that goat too is spoken as a “sin offering” (v.5), ,making atonement/covering (v. 10), and that goat “bears all their iniquities” into a remote area.

This distinction might be an important one in trying to understand the meanings intended in this ancient ceremony. Early Christians were able to find in the slain goat, given Paul’s interpretation of the death of Jesus by crucifixion, a symbol of “Christ” dying for the forgiveness of the sins of the people. The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews elaborates this point in great detail (Hebrews 9). But there seems to be no reference in the text to the blood of the slain goat related to the forgiveness of the sins of the people. The second goat, the one sent away into the desert, is not dealt with at all in the interpretation given in Hebrews, and yet in the biblical text of Leviticus that goat is clearly the “sin bearer.”

The Christian overlay to this text is perhaps an obstacle to reading it with new eyes. One often hears a quotation from the New Testament book of Hebrews that asserts: “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.” Clearly such is not the case as this example of the “live goat” makes clear.

The goat that really “bears the sins” is the one sent away, into the desert (v. 22). All the sins and iniquities and transgressions are put on the head of this live goat and he is send away to Azazel. The sending away of this living goat effects the removal of the sins of the people. What this implies then is that in this ancient ceremony the ultimate “covering” of sins that comes on Yom Kippur is not by shedding of blood but by casting far away, away from the camp of the living to the desert places where Azazel and the demons dwell.
This means that the main image of “atonement” or covering on this day is not that of an animal slain for the forgiveness of sins, but the removal of sins from the land of the living. The rabbis seem to pick up on this in arranging the Haftarah readings for Yom Kippur. There are the special supplementary readings from the Prophets. First, the story of Jonah is read, which is a story of an entire city being saved from destruction because of repentance from sin. Then Micah 7:18-20 is read, where sins are cast away into the depths of the sea.
Being “washed in the blood of the lamb” has become a more appealing cultural image to our minds than “washed in the blood of the hairy goat,” but it seems that neither image, in connection to the removal or “atonement” of sins, is related to the Day of Atonement or Covering.

Today’s Torah reading, on the Sabbath between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, is quite an amazing text with lots of interesting history. It is the entire chapter of Deuteronomy 32, called in Hebrew: Haazinu, literally, “Let Us Cause ourselves to Hear!” (it is a Hiphil Imperative Plural). The words are set in line-by-line poetic rhythm, as some translations show. The text is a Song, referred to subsequently as the “Song of Moses.” It was recited by Moses under inspiration to the entire nation and it reflects the prophetic future of the mission and historical fortunes of the Israelite people. One important thing to remember in reading this passage is that it is not merely about the Jewish people, whose history after the Babylonian Exile was shaped primarily around the tribe of Judah, but it is a “Song” for all the tribes of Israel. If it is read in that regard some of its stanzas and concepts are cast in a much different light. These are among the last recorded words of Moses.

The Song begins with expressions of the unique nature of YHVH as God of Israel. He is called the “Rock,” that “begot you,” the “father that has purchased you,” and the “Most High,” which is the ancient name El Elyon, used by the Abraham and those before him in speaking of the Creator (see Gen 14:18-19).

Beginning in 32:8 there are some important textual variations in our various copies of Deuteronomy. The basic text used and preserved by Jews for the past 1500 years, is called the Masoretic text (MT). There is also a translation of the Hebrew, dating back to 200 BCE, in Greek, that is called the Septuagint (LXX). And more recently, there are copies of sections of Deuteronomy that have survived as part of the library of the Dead Sea Scrolls. What is most interesting is Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts of Deuteronomy differ in some important ways from the Masoretic or traditional text, and its readings are paralleled by the Greek Septuagint. These variations have to do with the use of the term “sons of Elohim” or in Hebrew, the b’nai ‘Elohim.

These were not taken too seriously until the discovery of the DSS, since the LXX often has readings that differ from the MT (Masoretic) text, and in traditional Judaism the received Hebrew text is understood to be inviolate–letter for letter perfect. However, when it was discovered that the HEBREW text of Deuteronomy agreed with the Septuagint, against the MT, those readings have been given much more attention and weight. Slowly the scholars have begun to have more and more respect for the LXX. By and large it is a very literal translation, and there is now every indication that the translators were in fact translating a Hebrew original that is different from the MT–however, one values it. In other words, they were not just adding things and being sloppy with their translation work. Often the differences are not so important, when we compare the Qumran Hebrew Bible with the MT, but in this case these variants seem quite significant. Of course the Qumran copies are older than the MT by more than a thousand years, so the discovery of these most ancient of Hebrew texts raises all kinds of questions, both for the scholars and traditional Judaism (and even fundamentalist Christianity). Here are the differences:

MT (Masoretic text) reads:
Deuteronomy 32:8 When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the borders of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel.

LXX (Greek) reads:
Deuteronomy 32:8 When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.

Qumran/DSS reads:
Deuteronomy 32:8: When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he sest the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Elohim.

Now this is really fascinating, in the light of the “B’nai Elohim” passage in Genesis 6, and the separation of the nations after the Flood in Gen 10-11, as both the “sons of Elohim” and the “daughters of Adam” are mentioned.

But it gets even more interesting when we read v. 43, the climax of the Song. I have marked the key differences in italics.

MT reads:
Deuteronomy 32:43 Sing aloud, O ye nations, of His people; for He doth avenge the blood of His servants, and does render vengeance to His adversaries, and does make expiation for the land of His people.

LXX (Greek) reads:
Deuteronomy 32:43 Rejoice, ye heavens, with him, and let all the angels of God worship him; rejoice ye Gentiles, with his people, and let all the sons of God strengthen themselves in him; for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and he will render vengeance, and recompense justice to his enemies, and will reward them that hate him; and the Lord shall purge the land of his people.

Qumran/DSS reads:
Rejoice O heavens, together with him, and bow down to him all you sons of Elohim, for he will avenge the blood of his sons, and will render vengeance to his enemies, and will recompense those who hate him, and will atone for the land of his people.

As with v. 8, you can see that the Qumran text essentially agrees with the LXX, and in both cases the focus is on the “B’nai Elohim.”

The RSV and other modern translations have adopted the reading of the LXX/DSS and other translations at least note it in the margin.

The implications of these alternative readings, and the meaning of the phrase “sons of Elohim,” is uncertain. It seems to go back, one way or the other, to Genesis 6, where this term is first used. One interpretation makes these a group of “angelic” beings, while the other sees them as part of a lineage that is traced in Genesis 5, from Adam through Enoch, and finally down to Abraham. There is no doubt that other sections of the Hebrew Bible, such as Psalm 82, speak of certain “angelic” beings or “Messengers” as “sons of Elohim,” but even so, the English translation “angel” can be quite misleading, since the root meaning of the Hebrew word, Ma’lak, is simple “messenger,” that is one sent with a mission. In fact, the context in this “Song of Moses” seems to imply that the “sons of Elohim” are in fact a lineage of human beings, the descendants of whom are the “sons of Israel.” Thus we get the language of “Is not He your father that has bought you,” earlier the song, and the clear reference to “avenging the blood of his sons,” which hardly seems to be a reference to so-called “angels.”
If such be the case the DSS version would not necessarily be different in meaning from that of the MT–the “sons of Elohim” would in fact be the chosen “seed” of Abraham, that is the “sons of Israel” or Jacob, his grandson.

There is much more of interest in this “Song of Moses,” such as the mysterious references to “no-people,” in 32:21 and the whole concept of the “hiding of the Face” of God.

In the Torah reading last week, the last verse of Deut 28 (or in Christian Bibles the first verse of Deut 29), one finds following interesting statement:

“These are the words of the covenant that YHVH commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that He made with them in Horeb.”

Did you catch that? There was one covenant made at Mt Sinai, recorded clearly in Exodus 20-24, and now besides that one, a second covenant made in the land of Moab, on the other side of the Jordan, not long before the death of Moses. It was with the new generation that was to enter the Land.

What one has here, in my understanding, is a principle of the renewed covenant. Christians have been taught to think in terms of a “new” covenant, but really a more proper understanding, even of Jeremiah 31:31, is that the covenant is renewed or made new. It can be ratified in each generation, and indeed, it is taken on by each individual. It is a perpetual thing, that moves through time. In today’s Torah reading the people actually ENTER the covenant “this day,”–Deut 29:11 (Hebrew verses).

This concept of the renewed Covenant is a dynamic one, it involves a relationship with YHVH. Even the Covenant with the nation of Israel at Sinai is not a static concept, it is an ongoing relationship. The covenant is periodically renewed throughout history. Moses makes an initial covenant the year of the Exodus, but it is renewed 40 years later (Exodus 24:7-8; Deuteronomy 29:1). There is a further covenant made at the end of Joshua’s career (Joshua 24:14-25). Covenants are made under Josiah, and Nehemiah (2 Kings 23:1-3; Nehemiah 9:38). There will be a renewed covenant when Israel is restored to the Land (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

These various “covenants” are essentially one, they all refer to a special partnership with YHVH, which involves commitment to His Torah and dedication to the Kingdom of God. The heart and core of that relationship is: “I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” This key phrase is repeated often in the Hebrew Bible, so much so that it is formulaic and bedrock basic: Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 7:23; 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; 31:33; 32:38; Ezekiel 11:20; 14:11; 34:30; 36:28; 37:23,27; Zechariah 8:8. This intimate relationship is compared to marriage (Jeremiah 31:31-33). It is not primarily a legal, constitutional, or dispensational idea.

Essentially there is only one covenant, and Abraham himself participates in this same covenental relationship 400 years before Sinai. Note the language of Genesis 17:1-2: “I am El Shaddai, walk before Me and be blameless, and I will establish my covenant between Me and you.” Laying hold of the “covenant” essentially means becoming the “friend of God,” “walking with God,” intimately participating in the Plan of modeling justice and righteousness to the world. This is the true and original notion of Abrahamic Faith. Therefore, this idea of taking up the Covenant is not restricted to the national promises to Israel, which YHVH will fulfill regardless “for His own Name’s sake.” It can be a wholly individual choice. As noted above, Isaiah 56 addresses “the son of man,” that is, anyone, who turns to YHVH in this way, taking up the Covenant, observing the Sabbath, and becoming part of the people of God in this wider sense of the term. This is the essential meaning of the concept of the “House of Prayer for all nations.”

Psalm 25 puts this all together quite well:

“Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed . . . All the paths of YHVH are steadfast love and truth, to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies . . . Who is the man who fears YHVH, He will instruct him in the Way he should choose . . . The friendship (lit. “secret”) of YHVH is for those who fear him, and He will show them His Covenant”(vv 3, 10, 14).

This is a matter of the deepest and most intimate level of spiritual conversion. This way is open to anyone—certainly to Jews, and obviously to those scattered Israelites from the Lost Tribes, but also to Gentiles, who are willing to repent of sins and turn to YHVH. Truly, “YHVH is near to all those who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in faithfulness” (Psalm 145:18). YHVH is no respecter of persons, He looks on the heart rather than on external appearances (1 Samuel 16:7). His love is extended toward every human being who fears Him. David had this deeply personal, intimate, relationship with God, as reflected in Psalm 51. Indeed, this Psalm, perhaps more than any other Scripture text, is the model for individual spirituality in the Bible. It involves “getting a new heart,” having the Torah implanted deep within, and receiving God’s Holy Spirit.

Such a personal conversion does not require joining any religious organization or denomination. It cuts across all such cultic labels, which are usually more sociological than genuinely religious. YHVH looks on the heart. For Gentiles, or for those from the Lost Tribes of Israel, it does not necessitate, though it certainly can involve, formal conversion to “Judaism.” What counts is one’s relationship directly with YHVH, based on the inner heart of each individual. This is not to say that such people of the Covenant are devoid of all community. Certainly the Gentiles who turn to the God of Israel in this way, as well as those from the Lost Tribes of Israel, will live their lives in a new solidarity with the fortunes of the Jewish people.

They learn to love YHVH, to revere the Holy Scriptures, and to share the Messianic hope of Redemption, alongside the Jewish people. Others may choose conversion to Judaism as an expression of their solidarity and shared hopes with the Jewish people, including a loyalty to the State of Israel. Similarly Jews who are deeply converted to YHVH will enrich their own communities, helping to vindicate the plans and purposes of God for Israel. But most important, these “fearers of YHVH” as Malachi calls them, have a deep solidarity with one another.

The bond that comes from knowing the One God, living the Way of Torah, and longing for the Kingdom of God, runs deep and tends to obliterate the boundaries of religious “affiliation” or national, ethnic, or social background. As they “speak to one another” there is a strength of fellowship that comes only through the Spirit of YHVH (Malachi 3:16-18).

This year two of the shortest Torah readings of the year are combined into one, on this coming Sabbath before Rosh HaShanah: Nitzavim (Deut 29:9-30:20 and Vayelek (Deut 31:1-30), with the Haphtorah reading for Nitzavim: Isaiah 61:10-63:9.  These two readings are surely among the most stirring in all the Torah, containing as they do these ringing last words of the Prophet Moshe, but also the far reaching history of Israel in both Exile and Regathering–thus hooking to the Prophetic portion from Isaiah so appropriately.

A few random observations:

Deut 29:28 The secret things belong to YHVH…but the things revealed to us, that we may do all the words of THIS Torah.  This verse is usually quoted in isolation, out of context, to set some general principle, sometimes even applied to mystical matters, but in context it reads very differently, and maybe should be better translated “the hidden things,” clearly referring to the historic plan of Yehovah with his people, from Exile to Redemption.  All does not appear, and there are times of the “hiding of the Face” (see below), but what does appear, and is revealed, is the Way of Torah.  In other words, the verse, far from being a statement about heavenly or mystical things, is actually about the ways of YHVH in the earth, in carrying out far-reaching historical purposes.  In that regard the verses of Deut 30:11-14 are very very close in meaning.  The Torah is not in heaven, or beyond the sea, but very near, in our mouth and heart–that we may DO it…

Deut 30:3ff as in so many passages in the Prophets the return of the Tribes (all 12!) from Exile is something that YHVH does–it is HE who gathers them…and it is he who brings about the conversion of the heart (“circumcision”).

Deut 30:19-20 is certainly one of the most moving declarations in the entire Torah.  It is a complete summary of the whole Plan, the whole relationship, and it is a covenant or relationship of the heart, of listening and cleaving–much like marriage–with the two becoming one…

We have all read and heard of the Torah Codes.  One of the more fascinating and chilling is hidden within the verses of Deut 31:16-18.  If you take a Hebrew Bible and circle the letter Heh in the name Moses in v. 16, then count 50 letters you come to the letter Shin, then another 50 letters takes you to the letter Vav, another 50 to Alef, and a final 50 to the letter Heh again.  These letters spell the Hebrew word “HaShoah” or “the Shoah,” or Holocaust, a word that does not even appear in Biblical Hebrew.  If you read the content of these verses, the meaning becomes all the more striking.

Another interesting puzzle is found in Deut 31:22-23.  Moses is clearly the subject of v. 22, as he is the one who wrote the song and taught it…but then keep reading the next verse, 23–”And HE gave Joshua the son of Nun a charge…Who is the “he” here?  The natural way to read it would be that is continues to speak of MOSES–but the one speaking in the first person speaks of bringing the Israelites into the land that he promised them, and that he will be with them.  Could this possibly be Moses?  Most of the translators say no, and they put “the LORD” in here as the speaker, even though the Hebrew does not contain that term (see the NRSV).  One might just assume that there is some shift in the speaker here, and that YHVH nows speaks.  But there are other passages in the Torah like this, most of them highlighted by Moshe Guibbory in his Jerusalem Research, where Moses seems to speak not only for YHVH but as if he is indeed YHVH.  See Deuteronomy 29:1-5, from last week’s reading, for one of the best examples.  So there might be some very hidden mystery here.

The reading from Isaiah equally moving and comprehensive in its visionary scope.  One might want to also read Isaiah 61:1-9, for a wider context, but this reading (61:10-63:9) is really quite extraordinary on its own. One can not miss the strong affirmation in this text that YHVH himself who will be the Savior, no human is with him, no “saviors” or “redeemers” other than him (compare Isa 15-20).  In other words, the GO’EL or Redeemer appears to be YHVH himself.  The late David Horowitz, founder of UIWU, used to point out that the Prophets almost never speak of the coming of any Messiah, at least they never use that term, but they do talk about a MOSHIA’–a Savior (one letter different from Moshiach, the Hebrew term for Messiah)–namely YHVH himself (this is the word in Hebrew in Isaiah 63:8).  This seems in great contrast to both the traditional Christian and Jewish focus on Messiahs.  The chilling, wrenching, first person words of YHVH himself are so moving in this section of Isaiah.  And notice, he comes from the south–from Edom and the area of Bozrah–deep in the desert or Aravah.  Several times in the Hebrew Prophets YHVH speaks of “his place,” and of gong to it and coming forth from it–and there are surely indications it is in those Desert areas to the south, which is where Horeb or Mt. Sinai is located.

Staff

President Franklin Roosevelt’s moving and historic “Day of Infamy” speech on Monday, December 8th, 1941, the morning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, is still remembered by those born before 1935, and to millions of us of the Baby Boomer generation (born 1946 and thereafter) was recounted firsthand by our parents as we came of age after the horrors of World War II. My father, like so many, joined the military that Monday morning. It was the most decisive geopolitical event of the 20th century and changed everything for all of us even after nearly 66 years. It is wonderfully preserved on the Web, in sound, film, and even the typed transcript from which the President read.

I have devoted my academic career to the study of Jesus and early Christianity. The 1st century AD also witnessed such a Day of Infamy. It was commemorated just last week, on Tuesday, July 24th, known by Jews as Tisha b’Av, the 9th day of the fifth month of Av on the Jewish/Hebrew calendar. It is a day of complete fasting and abject mourning, remembering the destruction of Jerusalem, including both Temples, the First and the Second, in 586 BCE and 70 CE respectively, as well as countless other sad and tragic days in Jewish history.

Over the years I have come to realize that when it comes to understanding the 1st century Jesus movement, which developed into the new religion called “Christianity,” there is no greater factor or event than the horrific destruction of Jerusalem in August of 70 CE by the Roman emperor Vespasian. Indeed, the Romans called this period caniculares dies, the “dog days of summer,” a name that has stuck until our time, falling between July 15 and August 15, and characterized by oppressively hot and sultry temperatures when all creatures become languid and forlorn. I would urge all my readers to carefully read through the account of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in Josephus’ Jewish War, in a translation other than that of William Whiston, which is just too outdated (1793). The Penguin edition, though abridged, by Williamson, is one easily available alternative.

I think it would be hard to overemphasize the critical and vital importance of this watershed event in 1st century Jewish Palestine. After that date everything changed, for Jews living in the Roman empire, but most decidedly for the followers of Jesus, certainly in the Homeland, but also those scattered through the Mediterranean world. To put it succinctly–nothing was ever the same again. Jesus had died in 30 CE but his influential brother James (Jacob/Yaaqov) had taken over and offered new hope and direction for the movement. When he too was brutally murdered in 62 CE by the same family of High Priests connected to the “Godfather” Annas, the Jesus movement was absolutely devastated.

Ironically, none of our New Testament documents record the horrors of August, 70 CE, and everything we have was written either a decade before or a decade after that decisive Day of Infamy. Before that date we have the authentic letters of Paul and the Q source, dating to the 50s CE. These writings anticipate an apocalyptic climax of all things directly on the horizon. After 70 CE we get our four Gospels and other materials (later Pauline letters, Peter, John, Revelation, etc.), which are basically sketching out a vision of “post-War” existence with the “End of the Age” much delayed and postponed.

The New Testament scholar, John Dominic Crossan has called the period from 30-50 CE, before Paul’s letters, the “dark age” of Christianity, due to the lack of historical sources. In terms of the first followers of Jesus, that is, those Jewish messianists led by James the Just, brother of Jesus, the “black out” hardly ends with Paul, who had begun to propose a wholly alternative vision of the “faith” of Jesus. The double blow of the death of James and the destruction of Jerusalem, with the death and scattering of those Jerusalem witnesses who had known Jesus, effectively ended any possibility of our direct access to a non-Pauline version of things. When the “curtain” comes up after 70 CE, a modified version of Paul was clearly the “only game in town,” and hope of the “kingdom of God on earth,” with a restoration of the nation of Israel under its Davidic Messiah, was thoroughly dashed.

Jews find many historic reasons to fast on Tisha b’Av, but I am thinking it might not be such a bad idea for Christians as well, at least for those who are interested in recovering the original faith of Jesus. In some ironic way I think one can say that the “end of the age” did indeed come during those dog days of the summer of 70 CE, and whether the new age that dawned was a loss or a gain is something with which all of us have to grapple. Christian pilgrims in the time of the emperor Constantine began to travel to Jerusalem to see the holy places that had become associated with the life of Jesus. One high point of the typical pilgrimage was to stand on the Mount of Olives, gazing over the plaza where the Temple once stood. We have accounts where they joyfully celebrate the confirmation of faith they received in thinking of how the Jews who had rejected “Christ” had been justly punished by the destruction of Jerusalem and their subsequent Exile. Luke offers us such a triumphant version of things as he rewrites Mark’s “little Apocalypse,” and Matthew as he reworks Mark’s narrative of the trial of Jesus:

“For great distress will be upon the earth and upon this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:23-24)

“And all the people answered, ‘His blood be on us and on our children!’” (Matthew 27:25)

Such post-War language echoes the brutally triumphant words of Paul, written decades earlier, when he speaks of “the Jews” who killed the Lord Jesus and “displease God and oppose all men,” but “God’s wrath has come upon them at last!” (1 Thessalonians 2:15-16).

Remembering Tisha b’Av…

JDT