Month: October 2019

Jesus and the Pharisees

In the gospels and Acts we run into a group of people called Pharisees. The accounts of them are mixed. Jesus had interactions, both positive and negative with them, and had some harsh things to say about some of them. But many of us tend to form our opinions based on the negative things, and disregard the positive things.

In the gospels we see Jesus accepting the hospitality of the Pharisees on more than one occasion. In Luke 7 a Pharisee named Simon invited Jesus to eat with him, and they had a fruitful discussion. Again in Luke 14 Jesus was invited for a Sabbath dinner in the house of a prominant Pharisee.

Jesus does have some harsh things to say about some of the Pharisees. But we need to notice that the Pharisees are mostly absent from the accounts of Jesus’ final days. His opponents at that time were mostly the scribes and priests, the temple authorities.

In the book of Acts, Pharisees are mostly the good guys. In Acts 5 the disciples were being persecuted by the Sadducees and priests, and a Pharisee named Gamaliel stands up to defend them and persuades the priests not to jail them.

In Acts 15 many of the believers in Jerusalem were said to be Pharisees. They do try to make a point that Gentile believers should convert to Judaism, which Paul and the apostles refute.

Later in Acts Paul visits Jerusalem again, and is arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin. Here he makes the statement that he is a Pharisee (present tense), and is being accused for defending things that the Pharisees support. (23:6)

In another place in Acts he is talking to Agrippa about the Jews accusing him, and says, “They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.” (26:5) Paul here not only claims a background as a Pharisee, but describes Pharisaism as a “sect of our religion”. Clearly the “our religion” that he is talking about is Judaism.

But the main point that I want to make is how Jesus talks about the Pharisees. We often get the impression that the Pharisees were pushing for people to follow the law strictly, while Jesus was more lenient. That, however, is not what the text tells us. In fact, if we look closely, we see almost the opposite.

In Matthew 23, where Jesus gives a lengthy speech calling some of the Pharisees hypocrites, we often pass over what Jesus says at the beginning of this portion. “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” (23:2-3)

Most Christian readers tend not to take this statement of Jesus seriously. But as Jesus calls them hypocrites, we need to remember what a hypocrite is. It is commonly accepted to be someone who claims to uphold a certain standard, but doesn’t live by it. And that was exactly what Jesus was accusing the Pharisees of doing, claiming to live according to God’s law, but falling short of that in practice.

In Matthew 23:23 Jesus says that they tithe their spices, which they ought to do. But they neglect the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. Yes, Jesus is accusing these Pharisees of not following the law closely enough.

The same thing happens in Mark 7 when some Pharisees accuse the disciples of not doing a ceremonial hand-washing before they ate. Jesus points out that these were traditions, not scripture. But he accuses the Pharisees of avoiding the commands of God in the law. The example he gives is that instead of supporting aging parents, they claim to be piously giving that money to the temple. Jesus calls this nullifying the word of God.

This image of Jesus pushing for closer obedience to the Torah than the Pharisees did runs contrary to the picture of Jesus that many of us hold. But that is how the gospels portray him. In Matthew 5, after commending the law and those who practice and teach it, he says, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees…, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (5:20)

It’s certainly true that one point he’s making is that nobody is good enough to earn his way to heaven. But Jesus is also clearly holding up the law of God as a model for how his followers ought to live.

Fiscus Judaicus

We’ve seen that by early in the second century, many believers in Jesus, especially Gentiles, no longer considered their faith to be a branch of Judaism, as Paul had considered it. What would account for such a drastic change in perspective in so short a time?

One of the main causes of this about-face seems to be the Fiscus Judaicus, a tax that Rome imposed on Jews. Shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E., Rome, under emperor Vespasian, enacted this tax, which amounted to two days wages per year for everyone between three and sixty years of age. For a family, this would have been the equivalent of thousands of dollars in our currency.

The important thing to consider is, “Who was a Jew?” The collectors of the tax had every incentive to collect the tax from as many as possible. It was purposely targeted toward those who lived Jewishly, even if they claimed not to be Jews.

Many believers in Jesus who were ethnically Jews would have seen no option but to pay the tax, since they would have been considered traitors to their people if they refused. The big issue is how Gentile believers would have responded. They had been living Jewishly, biblically, but they didn’t consider themselves Jews. The temptation would have been great to distance themselves from Judaism in order to save a lot of money.

It’s almost inevitable that under these circumstances the trend would be toward developing non-Jewish, even anti-Jewish traditions. They would need to leave the synagogues and find a justification for worshiping on a different day of the week than the biblical (Jewish) Sabbath. They would need to develop different holy days than the biblical festivals. They would even need to define their religion as something different from, even opposed to, Judaism.

All of these things occurred within a remarkably short span of time. Some of the writings of Paul were ambiguous enough that they could be taken as teaching against Torah obedience. These were embraced and made the core of anti-Torah theology.

One of the evidences for this quick change in lifestyles of Gentile believers was a letter written to the Emperor Trajan by Pliny the Younger, a provincial governor, about 110 C.E. This letter describes Christians without any references to Jews or Jewish practices. It’s clear that by this time they were considered a totally separate religion from Judaism.

There is a really helpful in-depth treatment of the Fiscus Judaicus and its effects. It is by Christopher O’Quin and it can be found at https://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/Fiscus%20Judaicus.pdf .

It is really sad that so many believers in Jesus were willing to deny such a large part of their spiritual identity, and doom centuries of their descendents into doing the same. But economic pressures are powerful incentives.

It is up to each one of us to study the New Testament to determine what Jesus and the apostles taught, rather than relying on centuries of Christian tradition.

Christianity’s Wrong Turn

We’ve seen how the New Testament, as well as the Hebrew scripture, views the Jewish people as God’s chosen people. Jesus was seen as the culmination of the prophetic expectations of the Jewish people and God’s covenants with them. Non-Jews could, like Ruth of old, become identified with the covenant community by embracing its God and its people.

This was the view that was held during apostolic times. Paul warned the Gentile believers in Rome not to be arrogant in regard to the Jews, because they were metaphorically grafted into the Jewish olive tree. They did not support the root, but the root supported them. (Romans 11:18-20)

Unfortunately, as the number of Gentile believers grew in the first few centuries, the bulk of believers began to identify their faith as “Christianity”, a faith separate from, and even opposed to, Judaism. The people with whom they were made fellow citizens through Christ’s death (Eph. 2:19) were now considered to be hated enemies. There were several reasons for this turn of events that we will consider in later posts. But we need to realize that nascent Christianity embraced an anti-Jewish, anti-Torah theology within the first few centuries of its life, in contrast to the New Testament viewpoint.

In 325 C.E. the emperor Constantine called a council at Nicea. One of the purposes of this council was to establish a way of calculating the date for Easter that had nothing to do with Passover. In his letter to the churches after the council, Constantine writes, “Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews… Let us withdraw ourselves… from that most odious fellowship… that we may have nothing in common with the usage of these parracides and murderers of our Lord.” In this letter Constantine essentially ordered the churches to ignore the biblical dating of the 14th of the lunar month of Nisan for the basic reason that it was Jewish, and therefore evil.

These anti-Jewish views appeared even earlier in the history of the church, including in the Epistle of Barnabas and the writings of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Marcion in the second century.

During much of its history, the church was one of the foremost persecutors of the Jews, which was no doubt responsible for the fact that few Jews acknowledged Jesus as the promised Messiah. This persecution was especially strong during the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition.

The Reformation, though it brought some positive results, did not significantly affect the view within Christianity regarding Jews. Martin Luther was one of the strongest Jew-haters. Toward the end of his life, he published a pamphlet titled, “Concerning the Jews and Their Lies”, in which he urged people to burn synagogues and destroy Jewish dwellings. His writings in many ways anticipate the actions taken during the Nazi Holocost in the 20th century.

Much of current Christianity does not hold such negative views of Jews, but these views are not hard to find. It’s a far cry from a Jesus and Paul who lived and taught entirely within 1st century Judaism and thought of their faith as a branch of Judaism. (Acts 24:14) It is so ironic that God’s people, who received the covenants that believing Gentiles were invited to share, came to be regarded as a hated enemy. May God forgive us.

New Testament View of Jews

It should go without saying that the Jews are God’s chosen people. Both the Hebrew scriptures and the New Testament attest to that.

In Genesis 12 God spoke to Abram, told him to go to Canaan, and promised to make him into a great nation, bless him, and bless all peoples through him. After he separated from Lot in chapter 13, God promised him the eternal possession of all the land he could see. Similar promises were made to Isaac and Jacob (Israel).

In speaking to Moses, God introduced himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex. 3:15). He said he would take Israel as his own people and be their God (Ex. 6:7). He promised not to reject them in spite of their sin (Lev. 26:44).

Fast forward to the prophets. Virtually all of the prophets envision the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom through Israel in Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

Perhaps the most specific is the prophet Jeremiah. Immediately after sharing God’s plan for a new covenant, he assures Israel of God’s faithfulness to them. “‘Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,’ declares the Lord.” (Jer. 31:37)

He goes on to repeat this promise several times in chapter 33. “This is what the Lord says, ‘If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.'” (Jer. 33:25-26)

It is perhaps no surprise that the Hebrew scriptures portray the Jews as God’s covenant people. But many people are surprised to find that the New Testament conveys the same message.

From his birth, Jesus is portrayed as a Jew, as the King of the Jews. (Luke 1:32-33) In his visit with the Samaritan woman, Jesus told her that salvation is from the Jews. (Jn. 4:22) Before his ascension, the disciples, who had listened to his teaching for years, asked him if he was now going to restore the kingdom to Israel. He had proclaimed himself as the son of David. His answer basically amounted to, “Not yet, but later.”

The apostle Paul was very affirming of the Jewish people and their culture. His religious self-identification was as a Jew (Acts 24:14) and even a Pharisee (Acts 23:6)

In his epistle to the Romans, Paul starts out by declaring that the gospel is first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. In chapter 3 he affirms that there is much value in being a Jew, because they were entrusted with the very words of God.

In chapter 11 of Romans he devotes an extended passage to the position of the Jews. First, he denies in the strongest possible terms that God has rejected Israel as his people. Certainly, not all of Israel was embracing Jesus as Messiah, but Paul pointed out that that was God’s doing in order to give the Gentiles a chance to come to him. In fact, Paul predicts that in the future all Israel will turn to Jesus. God’s calling of Israel is irrevocable.

Paul portrays Israel as an olive tree. Those Jews who don’t acknowledge the Messiah are like branches that are broken off. Gentiles who believe in Jesus are like wild olive branches that are grafted into the tree. They are still wild branches, but they become a part of the tree. Paul specifically warns the Gentiles not to boast or be arrogant in relation to Jews. They are beloved of God on account of the patriarchs.

In his epistle to the Ephesians Paul strikes the same chord. He explains that Gentiles were without citizenship in Israel, and thus without God. (Eph. 2:12) But in Jesus they are brought near to Israel and to God. They are combined with Israel into one people of God, here represented as a building. He describes this idea of Gentile believers being co-heirs with Israel as the mystery of the gospel, which had not been previously revealed.

It should be clear from the entirety of scripture that the Jewish people are God’s special people, selected by his mercy, and promised that they as a nation would never be otherwise. Followers of Jesus have not always held that view, but it’s clearly the teaching of the New Testament.