What do we do that is radically Biblical?
We teach directly from the Hebrew & often Hebraic/Jewish Koine (“Common”) Greek text, not English.
Did anyone in the Bible ever – ever – actually think or speak a single word of English? No one in the Bible was a 19th-century American Gentile – and not a single event of the Bible happened in the American Bible Belt! Portraying things as though they were is no more accurate than portraying William Shakespeare as an Orthodox Jewish writer who lived in Jerusalem and wrote in Hebrew!
Radically Biblical means we teach directly from the original languages – the best, richest, deepest, and most accurate and authentic Text for you. Teaching from the original languages not only opens things up for you in the deepest & riches way, it also clears up a lot of misunderstanding – and misapplication – of Scripture. Authentic Hebrew & Jewish teaching is taken from a Hebrew text. While it certainly can be done with the very best of intentions, teaching from an English Christian translation is simply neither authentically Hebrew or Jewish! A website with a lot of Jewish pictures – or even Hebrew letters – that teaches from an English Christian translation, again, may mean the very best – but it’s not Hebrew/Jewish style, it’s Hebrew & Jewish substance that counts. Authentic Hebrew & Jewish teaching & learning is either directly from Hebrew or a Jewish translation based on a Hebrew text. Even the most liberal Reformed Jewish synagogue wouldn’t hire a rabbi or teacher who couldn’t teach fluently from Hebrew.
‘Hebrew word study’ or even the deeper meaning of Hebrew words is Christian-style teaching; but it’s simply not authentically Hebrew or Jewish! Authentic Hebrew & Jewish teaching isn’t ‘Hebrew word study’ – with the rest from an English bible text. Please allow us to reiterate again; authentically Hebrew & Jewish teaching is from a Hebrew text, not English. A knowledgeable Jewish follower of Yeshua now with the advent of the internet, could have a fulltime ministry just correcting things from our dear Christian brethren that are incorrect, wrong, or misunderstood from Hebrew and Judaism.
What We Do That is Different – Rom. 15:20
We do not – at all – utilize the perspective of those who draw from Reform or Conservative Judaism. They tend to focus on the Festivals; this is why followers of Yeshua from those backgrounds or no Jewish background emphasize the Festivals. Reformed & Conservative Judaism also very much emphasize something in Hebrew literally known as ‘arrangement of the World’ commonly thought of as ‘repair of the World’, i.e., social justice and reform. There is a whole other dynamic and emphasis of the Torah, the Herew Bible, and Jewish teaching, that they don’t emphasize, which Orthodox Judaism does. Rather, what Yeshua and Paul and the others actually emphasize is largely what Orthodox Judaism emphasizes when it comes to the Torah and the Hebrew Bible. We are not drawing from Orthodox religious practice for Christians. Those things will not make my dear Christian brethren, better followers of Yeshua. What will?
We wish to make it clear; we will not be teaching rabbinic texts, nor things such as “the meaning of the Hebrew months” etc., etc. Why? Simple. In now 31 years as a follower of Yeshua, 28 or so in ministry, speaking the truth in love, I have yet to see or experience where those things make anyone a better follower of Yeshua. I have yet to see or experience where they make anyone more like Yeshua!
There is still much – very much (!) – more from the Biblical text that needs to be opened up, opened up in-depth from the original languages – in context – and taught to be applied as intended!
We do draw from various rabbinical texts and other Hebrew or Jewish things – very much so – in our teaching. This of course is because so much of the Bible as a whole is rooted in things that are Hebrew or Jewish or both! The purpose of drawing from say a rabbinical text, is to either open up the Hebrew more deeply, or point out when something provides a background/source to something Yeshua or Paul or someone else drew from.
We also point out when a non-Biblical source has bearing or influence on Scripture, such as the Pseudepigrapha or the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, we will not teach those texts either. Again; there is still much much more than enough from the Biblical text that we need to first – first – learn and apply!
In short for here, a whole other dynamic Orthodox Judaism especially focuses on that other forms do not. What differentiates Orthodox Judaism from other forms are a focus not only on the Festivals; but on these key things also heavily emphasized and taught by Yeshua, Paul, and the others.
Those are what are known in Hebrew as:
– Godly character traits and integrity. Mt. 5-7:28, 12:36-37, Mk. 12:28-34, Yochanon (“God is gracious” “John’s” original Hebrew name) 13-16; cf. Phpns. 3:17, Col. 3:1-5 v. 2, 2 Tim. 2:21-22, 1 Pet. 2:12, v. 17, 2 Pet. 1:3-12 etc.
– Spiritual level. Mt. 5:48, 6:8-10, Mk. 14:36, Lk. 5:8, 9:57-62, 12:29-31, Yochanon 12:24-26, 15:12-14 “greater love”; cf. 1 Cor. 3:1-5, 12:31, 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1, 8:8, vss. 10-11, Gal. 5:22, Eph. 4:11-13, Phpns. 3:17, Col. 3:1-3, cf. 1 Pet. 2:9-12.
– Ethics, morals, discipline, commitment; a striving for personal perfection in serving God by serving others. Mt. 5:46-48, 6:31-33, 1 Cor. 6, Eph. 4:32-5:1, Col 3:8-12, 1 Yochanon 3:16-18
– Serving God out of the sheer joy of it, serving without any thought of Self or reward for serving (part of the deeper meaning of the Hebrew simply translated piety). Mk. 10:40-45, Yochanon 13:34-35, 2 Cor. 2:17, 5:13-16, 3 Yochanon v. 7, Rev. 12:11, 14:12-13
– Love. The words for love not in the physical sense are found almost 350 times – 350 – in the Renewed Covenant Scriptures. Yochanon 3:16, chpts. 13-16; cf. esp. 13:34-35, 1 Cor. 13:3-8 et al.
The last is what Mashiach particularly focuses on and demonstrates not just by his words, but his life and action!
What Orthodox Judaism emphasizes when it comes to what we listed above, Yeshua fills full by his teaching and life.
Orthodox Judaism also very very much emphasizes teaching and encourages the unity of the Jewish People and the Brotherhood that we have. These things are very very much emphasized by Yeshua and Paul. Cf. Yochanon 17:20-23, Eph. 4:3; vss. 32-5:1
My (Jacob) approach after spending a dozen years in Orthodox Jewish space, including following decades in a Conservative Jewish environment, and all together several months in Israel (you can access much more about my background & experience on the Home page), was to ask myself the following.
If three, in particular, of the greatest Orthodox Jewish Torah teachers and Hebrew scholars had embraced Yeshua, how would they have approached teaching about Yeshua, the Renewed Covenant Scriptures, and the Torah?
What would they have taught? What would they have emphasized? Would it be what is typically emphasized and taught in Messianic Judaism or today’s Hebrew or Jewish Roots movements?
Would the great Torah teachers, if they had embraced Yeshua and learned Koine Greek, have taught a de-Hebraicized, de-Judaized, Greco-Roman-English Western Tradition approach to Yeshua and the Bible? Would they see that as “we stand only on the Bible”, as Western Tradition claims?
My answer was a resounding no!
They would have very closely looked at what Yeshua taught more deeply – and actually emphasized.
They would teach and encourage what would make Yeshua’s followers more like him. They would not have taught “denominationalism” cf. 1 Cor. 3:1-5, or walking away from brethren over theological hair-splitting.
As Yeshua and Paul especially, they would urge and stress the unity of the Body!
Incidentally, they would recognize Paul’s use of Body, cf. 1 Cor. 12:12-27, as being a totally Hebrew & Jewish idea.
They would also instantly recognize Paul’s Hebraic use of a physical metaphor to illuminate great spiritual truth.
In short, they would teach the 5 things listed above; those are things both Yeshua and Paul and the others actually taught and actually emphasized. They now of course would teach from the perspective of Yeshua as the Mashiach of Israel and the World. They would now teach the Torah as Yeshua fully illuminated it.
They would not call him the “Jewish J”. Knowing what they know about “name” in Hebrew, they would not use a post-Biblical non-Jewish name to refer to the Jewish Mashiach, then call it “Jewish teaching”. They 1000% would not have taught from English; to them that would be ludicrous – and not Jewish!
They would not use Christian English translations and call it “Jewish”. They would speak of the Assembly; not the “Church”.
Their teaching in short would be in depth and substantively – and authentically – Hebrew and Jewish! They would, again, look to make more Mashiach-like followers of Yeshua.
Yeshua would not be the “reason” for Gentiles to pursue “Jewish” practices and things that do not apply to Gentiles.
These greats of Orthodox Judaism would seek to imitate Paul, in imitating Yeshua.
They would not begin in post-Biblical Western space and try to evolve towards what’s Hebrew and Jewish. They would have remained Orthodox Jews and embraced and taught Yeshua and Scripture accordingly; as did Paul.
So we take the same approach!
After the Bible, what had the greatest impact on me decades ago was using a Greek concordance. Why? It enabled me to compare what Western Tradition emphasized with how much was or was not actually referred to in Scripture.
Very quickly for here, Orthodox Judaism is the closest thing today and basically the descendant of one of the key first century forms of Judaism; that of the P’rushim “Separate Ones” ” Pharisees”. Please allow us to explain this so that you do not misunderstand what we mean!
You will no doubt be shocked to learn that though Paul is typically portrayed by Western Tradition as “an ex-Jew ex-Pharisee converted to Christianity” Paul – in fact – never uses any of those three terms about himself – period!
In fact, not only does Paul more than once speak of his current Jewish identity, but Acts 23:6 – in Luke’s Greek rendering not English – shows us the following about Paul identifying as – and remaining – a Pharisee.
“…ego Pharisaios eimi…” “I (a) Pharisee am”… Luke’s KG word order in Acts 23:6 we believe, by putting Pharisee before rather than after the present tense “eimi” ” am”, is deliberately done to put the emphasis on ” Pharisee”.
Further, we should note Luke’s use of the Greek form in which the subject puts emphasis on himself being involved, and in the present tense, “am”; not “was”. Thus, once again we see that by looking at the original language, we receive a more accurate and authentic picture of what is being written for us!
In short for here, both Yeshua cf .the end of Luke 2 and Paul in the above, actually shows us that their teaching methodology, their method of teaching, is very much that of the P’rushim “Separate Ones” “Pharisees”! As a quick but key note, Acts 23 also shows us the Pharisees championed resurrection – something the Greeks looked at sideways cf. Acts 17:32.
In short also, the issue and problem for both Yeshua and Paul with their fellow Jews the Pharisees, was that the latter emphasized their own tradition – which Yeshua said they could do – Mt. 23:23 – but too often failed to emphasize human needs.
This is little different than followers of Yeshua who split hairs over theological abstractions, and sadly walk away from their brethren at the drop of a hat.
Both Yeshua and Paul used the Pharisee and Jewish method of teaching of very much drawing from the Torah and the Hebrew Bible, using concrete metaphors to illuminate great spiritual truth, rather than abstract concepts, making their points the way the Pharisees did, etc. That includes anticipating an opponent’s objection and answering it ahead of time, (cf. Romans 11:17-24 etc.). As well as asking a lot of questions rather than just making declarative statements and asking leading questions to make a point cf. Lk. 6:39.
For those who might object to the above and feel that the Western Religious System approach is the only one that can say, “We stand only on the Bible”, please allow me to graciously point out the following:
The Western Religious System, and we say this with love, is very good at finding the speck in the eye of their brothers – but not the log in their own eye (cf. Lk. 6:41) – when it comes to the System’s history, its tragically splintered condition, and speaking the truth in love, its anti-Semitism and even its too often anti-Hebrew approach. For here, though an increasing number of books have been written in the past few decades about the problems with the Western Religious System, we will point out just a very few below.
Yeshua taught from the original and still Jewish order of the Hebrew Bible. Cf. Lk. 24:44. Western Tradition translations do not.
Yeshua never used the term “Old Testament”.
Yeshua nowhere taught the “Old Testament/New Testament” dichotomy that the Western Tradition System does.
Yeshua never called his mother “Mary”. He never called two of his brothers “James” and “Jude”. Yeshua would have referred to them by what in Hebrew would be Miriam, Jacob, and Judah (we explain all this in our teaching).
Whatever one might say about Paul, the following is a million percent true: Paul never read John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion. Paul never read Martin Luther’s A Treatise on Christian Liberty either….
Cf. Lk. 6:41
God willing and with His help we provide you with what would be called in Hebrew “essence/substance” rather than what is called in Hebrew “external, superficial”.
If we have provided you Hebrew & Jewish “style” rather than “substance”, speaking the truth in love we have failed you. We hope we honor God and serve you by providing what includes Hebrew & Jewish light, rather than “lite”.
We very warmly invite you and encourage you to please return to the Home page! From there you can easily access our eight teaching windows with hundreds of both audio & written teachings. Plus – you can access our innovative learning and conversation, podcasts & blogs, and our daily devotionals!
May our wonderful LORD bless your study and richly bless you and yours, in the name of Yeshua!
Jacob
Gen. 12:3 Lev. 19:18 Ps.133 Yochanon (“John”) 17:20-23 Phpns. 2:2-3, vss.17-19, 2 Tim. 2:15 1 Pet. 2:17