INTRODUCTION
For Jews adhering to traditional Judaism the Torah is God’s words revealed directly to Moses. Subsequent additions to the Jewish canon are God inspired works often recording God’s interaction with the prophets of Israel.
The Old Testament
The Jewish Bible in its original language is the clearest expression of God’s written word to His people. This despite copyist errors and lost knowledge of certain word meanings and the like that have interfered with a clear transmission of the biblical text. Christians maintain that the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) are a continuation and clarifying fulfillment of the Jewish Bible, what they call the “Old Testament.” In connection with this assertion, it should be noted that through incorrect translations, misinterpretations and reliance on the Greek Septuagint for certain renderings the Christian “Old Testament” is not the same Bible as used by Jews. On investigation, we find that the New Testament and the subsequent theological developments derived from interpretations of its contents are greatly at odds with biblical teachings. For example, the author of Mark’s parenthetical expression (7:19) that by Jesus’ teaching, all foods were declared clean, that is, biblical dietary laws were abrogated in their entirety.
The Gospel of John
In the Gospel of John the Christian community replaces Judaism. This theme of replacement is expressed most especially in its attitude toward the Temple and the biblical feasts. The Temple has been replaced by the body of Jesus (John 2:19-21). The Sabbath and feasts are reinterpreted or replaced by Jesus (chapter 5, the Sabbath; chapter 6, the Passover; chapter 7, the Feast of Tabernacles; chapter 10, the feast of the dedication of Temple). In effect, according to the Gospel of John, Christianity has become a new religion separate f om Judaism. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus (and by extension Christianity) has become the fulfillment of Judaism (Matthew 5:17). The first part of the Letter to the Hebrews (1:1-4:13) claims that God’s definitive word has been spoken in the Son and that his word has a priority over any communication made through angels or through Moses. The second part of the letter (4:14-10:31) teaches that Jesus is the eternal high priest whose supposed sacrifice on the cross has atoned for sin once and for all, establishing a so-called new covenant between God and humanity. Accordingly, the first (Mosaic) dispensation has been abolished, the author announces, and the second one has been established (10:9): there is only one tabernacle and that is in heaven (8:1-2, 9:24); the law and the priesthood have been changed (7:12); and the new covenant has made the old one obsolete (8:13). Though in its first decades the church could profess its faith in Jesus as messiah and still remain within Judaism, the author of Hebrews no longer sees that as a possibility. In this, he adopts a position similar to that found in the Gospel of John.
By the second century C.E. Jewish Christians who adhered to the Torah and resisted the introduction of pagan influenced doctrines (e.g., virgin birth, divine/dual nature) were marginalized and declared heretical by the Gentile dominated church and eventually disappeared. All expressions of Christianity today descend from Gentile Christianity including those who call themselves Hebrew Christians or Messianic. They are followers of Gentile Christianity no matter how much of Jewish ritual they try to incorporate into their belief system. The proper genre for the Gospels is historic fiction. The setting is often historical: topography, cities and towns, mention of the high priest, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, the Sabbath and Jewish holy days, and so on. But the story line itself is froth with fiction, in many cases culled from biblical verses now applied to Jesus as if he was their fulfillment. Matthew, in particular, is infamous in his use of Scripture to enhance his fictional rendition of the life of Jesus. For example, his newly born Jesus is taken to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod (Matthew 2:15 cf., Hosea 11:1), while Luke’s Jesus is tranquilly taken back to Nazareth. Needless to say, Matthew’s use of Isaiah 7:14 (cf. Matthew 1:23) has to appeal to a Greek rendering to support his proclaiming of a virgin conception. The list is long of hristian scriptural abuse through taking passages out of context and mistranslations of the Jewish Scriptures: Isaiah 9:6, Isaiah 53, Daniel 9, Psalms 22 and 110, and so on. Christians have a right to their opinions, but they do not have a right to manufacture fallacious facts.
Christian missionaries have been known to taunt their Jewish opposition saying: “If Christians want Jews to believe in Jesus, why is the Jewish community so afraid? Is the Christian faith so powerful and that of the Jews so frail that the mere mention of belief in Jesus is seen as a danger to the Jewish community?” But, you see, many Jews do not know the essential truth of the fallacious nature of Christianity. And they do not know that what the missionary offers is like a drink of water that looks pure but contains cholera; like the pig that stretches forth its cloven hoof to show it is kosher while keeping its mouth closed to hide that it does not chew the cud. They do not know that missionaries follow the dictum of Paul who boasted that he would “become all things to all men” (1 Corinthians 9:22) in order to convert them ̶ ̶ “whether in pretense or in truth” (Philippians 1:18). Against such enemies of Jews and Judaism, against such distorters of the Jewish Bible, against the false teachings of the New Testament and subsequent Christian doctrines one must be prepared not only to personally respond but to teach others why this misinformation must be rejected. The missionary seeks out those who are vulnerable in one way or another. Jews must be prepared to show why the missionary and would would-be missionary should be rebuffed.
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