Applying Messiah’s Kingdom Parables

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Derek Leman

To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables.
-Mark 4:11

“Kingdom” is not “afterlife” exactly and it is not “people of Israel” or “people of the Church.” The modern reader tends to inject meanings into Yeshua’s words that are not there. Looking in the words of Messiah for a message on how to qualify for a good afterlife, it is natural for many to see in the word “kingdom” a code word for “going to heaven.” This is a problem compounded by the fact that Matthew, the best-known gospel for many Bible readers, uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” instead of “kingdom of God.” But, as many will rightly point out, “heaven” here stands for “God.” It is a euphemism, like saying “in the eyes of heaven.”

Another temptation is to see “kingdom” as either “the nation of people known as Israel” or “the visible institution of the church.” Christian pastors sometimes ask people to “work for the kingdom” with the understanding that “church is the kingdom.” In Judaism, “kingship of God” is a more common notion than “kingdom.” This is because Judaism, like Yeshua, is immersed in the Hebrew Bible.

What does Messiah mean when he says “to you” (the inner circle, those who come to me after my teaching and ask questions) is given the “secret of the kingdom” but to everyone else (outsiders who sit on the hills and listen from afar, hoping to catch a glimpse of a miracle) there are only “parables”? Continue reading →

Posted in Gospel, Gospels, Yeshua In Context | Leave a comment

Reading Isaiah, the Servant Theme, Early Thoughts

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Derek Leman

Raphael's Prophet Isaiah

A simplistic and all-too-common argument goes like this. Jewish literalist with no imagination: the Servant is Israel. Christian/Messianic literalist with no imagination: the Servant is Jesus/Yeshua.

Please! It helps if we actually read Isaiah … consecutively and not a passage here, a passage there. But Isaiah is like calculus and many Bible readers don’t know algebra. Or we could say it is HTML 5 and most people don’t even know basic HTML tags. And Isaiah comes from a day when people would listen to messages and poems thoughtfully, repeatedly, and with an ear for irony and rhetoric. We live in an age where people want the information in the first paragraph in 8th grade English.

The first wine you like is Manischewitz. It is sweet and sweet is easy to like. Perhaps you want to learn about the powerful flavors of a more serious variety. You investigate Cabernet Sauvignon and learn to tell a cheap piney tasting Cabernet from one with dark flavors and with some spice in the aftertaste (at least that is how I, as a non-wine-critic see Cabernet). Isaiah is an acquired taste. Acquiring means spending time sipping and tasting and noting the powerful flavors as well as the subtle notes. “Israel does not know,” Isaiah says, “my people do not understand!” Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Commentaries on Bible, Derek's Writings, Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Language, Isaiah, Messiah, The Messiah | 15 Comments

COMING: Sept 2012, Yeshua Our Atonement

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Derek Leman

… In time for the High Holidays (Rosh HaShanah starts the evening of Sept 16, 2012). I plan to ship pre-orders before September 1. I will let everyone know when I have a pre-order page set up on amazon.

Leviticus isn’t what many people think it is: boring. And sacrifices and purity laws don’t work the way many think they do. I have been working through Leviticus for years and the commentaries of Jacob Milgrom have been my primary guide (the three-volume set from Anchor-Yale and also the more recent one-volume summary from Fortress).

The death of Messiah is also deeper than many think it is. Scot McKnight’s A Community Called Atonement started waking me up to that in 2007.

And I am getting advice right now from a few theologians about ways to correlate Hebrew Bible insight into Divine Emanations with Christian thought about the Differentiation in the Being of God (Trinity).

And to the best of my knowledge, no one has put together the kind of Leviticus theology represented broadly by Milgrom’s ground-breaking commentary and atonement theory centered on the death of Messiah.

In what follows, I share a brief excerpt from the end of chapter 1, the chapter titles, and I ask you, Musings reader, for ideas for the cover. Continue reading →

Posted in Apostolic Writings (New Testament), atonement, Bible, Hebrew Bible, Jacob Milgrom, Messiah, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism, Sacrifices and Purity, Scot McKnight, The Cross, Yeshua, Yeshua In Context | 11 Comments

The New Perspective on Paul, via Darrell Pursiful

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Derek Leman

This is the best summary I have seen on the matter. “The New Perspective on Paul in about 1,000 Words.”

If you want to read a simple explanation of Paul from this point of view and with Messianic Jewish issues kept in mind, you may want to check out my book, Paul Didn’t Eat Pork.

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The Disappointing Supersessionism of N.T. Wright

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Derek Leman

I have mentioned from time to time several things about N.T. Wright. One, that I am a massive fan and that two of his books, The New Testament and the People of God and Jesus and the Victory of God, were early mentors in my own growth in New Testament and Second Temple Judaism studies. Two, that he has a disappointing love affair with supersessionism (the idea that the Church supersedes Israel, also known as replacement theology). The bloggers at the Rosh Pina Project also have discussed at times the supersessionism of Wright.

I even asked N.T. Wright about it in front of an audience of scholars, about a thousand, at the Society of Biblical Literature a few years ago in New Orleans. I wrote up the story of that encounter here: “Paul, N.T. Wright, and What About the MJ’s?”

Why am I bringing all of this up now? There are two good reasons. First, Wright is famously working on the fourth volume in his magnum opus set of books on Christian Origins and the Question of God (of which the previously mentioned volumes are 1 and 2). It will be his big book on Paul. And it is bound to be the most discussed New Testament book of the year when it arrives. But it will have the taint of supersessionism ruining what is otherwise the freshest and most authoritative reading of Paul (in my opinion) ever. Second, Larry Hurtado has just written a blog about Wright’s supersessionist reading of Romans 9-11. See it here: “Paul and Israel’s Salvation.”

Posted in N.T. Wright, Paul | 5 Comments

REVIEW: The Real Kosher Jesus by Michael Brown

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Derek Leman

The Real Kosher Jesus: Revealing the Mysteries of the Hidden Messiah. Charisma House Book Group, 2012.

Michael Brown is a Jewish scholar of Near Eastern languages and literature who has for years been extensively active in Charismatic Christianity. He is also a radio personality and author. I have always regarded him as an enigma, a learned Jew and scholar who chooses for the most part to reject Judaism and work as a Christian missionary to his own people. He is from my point of view in Messianic Judaism a mixed bag of scholarly depth and disappointing assimilation.

The Real Kosher Jesus illustrates perfectly this ironic tension between Jewish and Christian identities. The publisher is Christian and the implied audience is Jewish.

It may seem from the beginning of this review as if I am quite negative on this book. In reality, I give the book a rather high rating and think many people would benefit from reading it. I do not think it is the best treatment on the subject by any means, but it is an easy read, cites numerous sources for further research (Brown’s sources are spotty though, with some glaring omissions of resources on Paul, for example, that would be helpful). The best part of the book, by far, is the third section on “The Hidden Messiah of Israel.” Many Christians and Jews are unaware of this information and perspective. Brown does a good service in summarizing it succinctly. Continue reading →

Posted in Apostolic Writings (New Testament), Gospel, Gospels, Messiah, Michael Brown, Paul, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, The Messiah, Yeshua | 28 Comments

Why I Believe in Messianic Judaism

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Derek Leman

As I have said many times on this blog, Messianic Judaism is not exactly the same thing as what passes for “Messianic” in many groups, websites, congregations, and in many flavors of “Messianic” and Hebrew Roots sub-movements. I have in the past broken down the various “Types of Messianic Congregations” (see it here).

On a superficial level, MJ looks a lot like various Yeshua-believing, Torah-keeping groups. People often assume we are made of the same basic stuff. After all, it looks pretty similar to have various groups keeping Sabbath, talking about Yeshua, listening to Paul Wilbur music, and so on. But with all the types of “Messianic” groups — some with rather unhelpful or even harmful beliefs — what counts to me as Messianic Judaism are congregations formed to serve the work of God amongst the Jewish people, bringing about faith in Messiah and lives of Torah faithfulness in Messiah.

There is nothing wrong with what I call Judeo-Christianity. There is nothing wrong with non-Jews being drawn (by invitation, not obligation) to Torah (with a respectful attitude to the Jewish people as the recipients of Torah). And while the internet could give you the idea that most “Messianics” are hostile to the Jewish people (yes, on the internet, the loudest “Messianic” voices are anti-Judaism), the truth is, in most congregations where there is real teaching, the non-Jews have a great love for the Jewish people. And there is nothing wrong with a non-Jewish group that loves keeping Sabbath and the holidays of Leviticus (as I said, as long as there is no “fake Jewish identity” issue going on and no anti-Judaism). Many people have longed for a holistic faith, one which reads the whole Bible and not the sad amputated Bible practiced by Christianity in general. I fully understand why Torah draws believers in the New Testament.

But we who have been committed to what Messianic Judaism was formed for (we originated in the 70′s), see Messianic Judaism as a movement oriented toward a renewal of Jewish people in community with Messiah Yeshua. I am reminded of this today because a dear friend at our congregation (Tikvat David in Atlanta) is hospitalized. I won’t use his story to make my point (he’s too important to me for that). I will just say that his near-death experience reminds me why I was drawn to this MJ thing. Continue reading →

Posted in Congregational Life, Gospel, Judaism, Judeo-Christian, Messiah, messianic, Messianic Jewish, Messianic Judaism, The Messiah, Yeshua | 47 Comments

Shavuot and Ruth #1

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Derek Leman

Shavuot is coming, May 27, 2012 (begins sundown May 26). The traditional text (the megillah, or scroll) for Shavuot is Ruth. Don’t know what Shavuot is? Check here.

I’ve been leading a class of Hebrew students through the book of Ruth, translating and interpreting as we go. Your can see notes for the class here.

We’ve been using the JPS Commentary on Ruth by Tikva Frymer-Kensky and Tamara Cohn Eskanazi. Their commentary is remarkable, standing out from nearly all biblical commentaries as combining in one short volume great inspiration and mastery of the information one needs to understand Ruth. This commentary is in the top 1% of commentaries for excellence, to be sure.

What are all the reasons why the book of Ruth is perfect reading for Shavuot? What are some of the early lessons of the book for us? Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Hebrew Bible, Hebrew Language, Holidays | Comments Off

Leper Messiah

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Derek Leman

You may hear, both from Jewish and Christian voices, that there does not exist in Judaism an idea of a suffering Messiah. This is simply not true. Just as in the case of the often repeated mistruth that the idea of a Divine Messiah (and a divine man) does not exist in Jewish thought has been thoroughly discredited (see, for example, Daniel Boyarin’s The Jewish Gospels), so it should be made known that Judaism has a number of suffering Messiah notions. One, perhaps best known for a song by the band Metallica, is the “leper Messiah” idea. While Metallica’s song seems to be about the abuses of religion, the leper Messiah theme in Judaism is something very different.

This week’s Torah portion is about biblical leprosy (scale disease, not the same as the modern disease called leprosy). It is a fitting week to explore the connection with Messiah. Where does the idea come from that Messiah might be a leper? What does this connection mean in Jewish thought? How does it relate to Isaiah’s prophecies and to Yeshua? Continue reading →

Posted in atonement, Bible, Daniel Boyarin, Death, Gospel, Judaism, Messiah, Messianic Prophecy, Resurrection, Sacrifices and Purity, Talmud and Tradition, The Messiah, Tsvi Sadan, Vine of David | 26 Comments

Comfort, Agitation, Breakthrough

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Derek Leman

I started quite the argument yesterday. As fellow blogger and friend James Pyles put it: I picked one heckuva topic to test out my blog policy of allowing comments before moderation! Some of you made some excellent, well-reasoned points from varying points of view (not just those who agree with me when it comes to conclusions about Jewish identity and Torah). A few punched below the belt (truth doesn’t matter as long as you can demean those who argue a differing opinion).

One thing I notice is that people have a habit of reading only the parts of the Bible that comfort and do not challenge. I want to suggest that we all should submit ourselves to the fulness of what prophets and sages and apostles had to say. That means we will find comfort, agitation, eventually breakthrough, and then restart the cycle over and over again. Every time we reach the agitation phase, we wonder if breakthrough will ever occur. In my experience it does.

Our goal is not to remain the same, or at least it should not be. I believe that God is Infinite Goodness and we are children scattered and returning to him. He has not left us alone, but neither is his method of teaching simple. One temptation we face is to so desire the simple solutions we ignore all difficulties and cling to anything that helps us feel whole and important. I do not exclude myself when I speak of this temptation. Why is the cycle of learning like this? Why does our Father put us through times of comfort, agitation, and breakthrough? Continue reading →

Posted in Discipleship, Faith, Mussar, Theology | 13 Comments