JUDAISM-- Is not the Religion of Moses!
Part 11
THIS INSTALLMENT BRINGS US TO THE TIME OF CHRIST AND HOW THE JEWS ATTEMPTED TO JUSTIFY THEIR TRADITIONS!
As we continue with the story of Judaism and how its traditions have been accepted by most people as the religion of Moses, we see the Pharisees as the predominate leaders of Judaism in the days Jesus, the Christ. The others sects had less effect on the religion of the people during the time of Jesus and after the destruction of Jerusalem, the other sects virtually disappeared from Judaism. The sect to study is the Pharisees, the heart and core of Judaism!
Originally the Jews were to use Scripture to interpret Scripture. This is the only true method to use for the proper understanding of God's Word. We, today are told to use this method if we are to understand the true doctrines of God! "Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little" (Isa. 28:9-10).
With the introduction of the so-called traditional laws of the elders by the Pharisees, a new method of teaching had to be used, in order to teach these new laws. The Scripture could no longer be used in order to teach these new traditional laws, because there were no indication of them in the Word of God. The Jews therefore adopted what has become known as the Mishnah-form.
The word Mishnah, in Hebrew, means literally "second." This Mishnah-form of interpretation means "the second form." The true Scriptural form was to the Jews the "first-form" or the one used by Moses and the prophets. But all the traditional laws of the Pharisees were accepted by appealing to the new Mishnah-form. When the Mishnah-form was used, it was not necessary to appeal to Scripture for proof; the authority of the teacher or teachers who issued new commandments independent of Scripture was assumed sufficient to consider them to be the Word of God.
The Mishnah-Form of interpretation was used sparingly--AT FIRST! The Pharisees were the first to accept the so-called traditional laws--the customs inherited from Hellenism. The Pharisaic leaders were forced to recognize these new customs as proper religious practices, for they knew the people would not give them up!
The Pharisees did not first invent the Mishnah-form and then use it to teach the traditional law, just the opposite occurred. The acceptance of the new customs from Hellenism, without scriptural proof, brought the Pharisees to realize they were teaching in a new form not previously used. The Pharisees recognized that they had begun to use a new method of teaching by accepting the traditional laws without Scriptural proof.
"Finding no convincing proofs for such laws in the Bible, they taught them independently of Scriptural proof. i.e. in Mishnah-form" (Lauterbach, Rabbinic Essays, pg.229). Though all the Pharisees agreed that the traditional laws had to be accepted, many of them were reluctant about perpetuating the new form of teaching. Many of the early Pharisees thought that the use of the Mishnah-form was proper in admitting the traditional laws into the religious requirements of the Jews, but they did not want to see its indiscriminate use in the future. It was obvious that the use of this new form could bring about multitudes of new traditions---all of them without Scripture proof.
Instead of discarding the Mishnah-form (traditional laws), it had been brought to the place of divine law. It use was increased! Remember that Joseph ben Joezer, called the "Permitter" issued three new laws which were completely devoid of Scripture proof. These three laws were enacted by using the Mishnah-form! His laws were the first ones to be enacted after the traditional law became a part of Pharisaic belief.
Lauterbach tells us that many of the Pharisees did not appear overly enthusiastic when Joseph ben Joezer introduced his teaching in the new Mishnah-form. "When he (Joseph ben Joezer) used new methods of interpretation for the first time, his colleagues hesitated to follow him...." (Rabbinic Essays, pg. 228).
The Pharisees knew full well that it was wrong to use the so-called Mishnah-form for making laws. Even though they had all accepted the customs of the heathen, by using this form, some of them balked at making further laws without any Scripture backing at all. However, this reluctance did not last long! The very fact that the Pharisees considered themselves as having the spirit of prophecy--having the power to teach the current will of God, gave them incentive to further utilize this new teaching occasionally, especially since they had the precedent of Joseph ben Joezer, we see this Mishnah-form being used more and more as time progressed.
These subsequent teaching of the Pharisees were termed "traditions of the elders." By the time of Christ, the Pharisees had developed the Mishnah- form so extensively that they were teaching for doctrines hundreds of commandments of men without the slightest backing of Scripture. "Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Mark 7:7). "They insisted that their decisions must be accepted as authoritative" (Rabbinic Essays, pg. 235).
If anyone would oppose them, such as the Sadducees or other groups, when the Pharisees taught their laws independently of Scripture proof, the Pharisees would haughtily maintain that they did not need the Scripture to back them up. They felt they could teach in the Mishnah-form any time they pleased and needed no Scripture proofs for their teaching.
It is hard to believe that men who claim to be the servants of God would resort to such deductions. But the Pharisees did! And today there are many church denominations claiming to be Christian which do the very same thing! There are millions of people calling themselves Christian, who feel they do not have to keep the Words of the Bible, but rather must obey the words of their religious leaders who teach many doctrines completely contrary to the Bible. There are millions of people in the world today who are no better than the Pharisees. Many church denominations today use the same Mishnah- form of interpretation (not using Scripture for their doctrines), just like the Pharisees did before and during the days of Christ. Christ condemned the Pharisees for teaching as true doctrines the commandments of men (Mark 7:7). "The Jews then--as many now---knowingly taught their new laws and commandment on the authority of their own reason and conscience and not by seeking their authority in the written text (the Bible)" (ibid., pg. 70).
If we, the Church of God, are the children of God, we had better be obeying every word of God as Christ commanded. "But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4).
The Pharisees had their chance to follow the Scripture before they accepted the customs of the people that had been inherited from Hellenism. But to please the populace as a whole, they adopted the new customs and rejected the Word of God which commanded them not to do such things. "Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them" (Jer. 10:1). THE Word of God was rejected and in its place was instituted the religion of Judaism!
Lauterbach tells us why the Pharisees had to practically abandon the older method of teaching that was used by Ezra, Nehemiah and the Sopherim- -termed the Midrash-form. "The exclusive use of the Midrash-form (first form) threatened to endanger the authority and teachings of the Pharisees. Their apprehensions caused the Pharisaic teachers to make more extensive use of the Mishnah-form and in some cases even to prefer the same to the Midrash- form. For to give all the halakic teaching (new laws) of the Pharisees in the Midrash-form as based on Scripture would have exposed these teachings to the attack of the Sadducees" (ibid., pg. 231). In other words the Sadducees, who were mainly priest and maintained that all teaching should be dependent upon Scripture, could easily counter the Pharisees, as long as they taught in the Midrash- form of trying to appeal to Scripture. So the Pharisees taught in the Mishnah-form which did not have to rely upon the Scripture for support.
The Pharisees used Scripture at time. They would at times it is true make reference to certain scriptures that might seemingly give support to their independent teaching. In doing so, they became notorious for their methods of forcing Scripture to teach what they wanted it to teach. When the Pharisees endeavored to use the Scripture, they would, in almost every case, have to stretch the plain meaning in order to make it mean something entirely different from the actual meaning. Using this forced method of appealing to Scripture opened them up to further attacks by their opponents, and it is not surprising appealing to Scripture became unpopular with the Pharisees.
"If the Pharisees arrived at a certain decision by means of a new interpretation, the Sadducees could always dispute that decision by refuting the scriptural proof offered for it. It was possible for them to argue that the Pharisaic interpretation was unwarranted and that the scriptural passage did not mean what the Pharisees tried to read into it....The Pharisees were well aware that some of their interpretations were rather forced, and that their opponent's arguments against these interpretations were sound" (ibid., pg 232).
In a book published by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, entitled "Hellenism in Jewish Palestine," by Dr. Saul Liberman, there are some startling information. Dr. Liberman states "That the Greek Law Colleges taught their students the art of twisting the law according to the required aim and purpose (ibid., pg. 63). During the religious anarchy, many Jews attended these schools. The Greeks took great pride in being able to make a law teach what in reality it did not teach. The Pharisees used this same method!
"They (the Jews) would certainly not hesitate to borrow from them (the Greeks) methods and systems which they could convert into a mechanism for the clarification and definition of THEIR OWN TEACHINGS" (ibid., pg. 63).
Liberman cites an example from the Talmud that illustrates how forced interpretations of the Scripture were used. An example is recorded in Sanhedrin 17a. " It states that one prominent Rabbi insisted that no individual could be admitted to the Sanhedrin unless he was able to prove from the Scripture that reptiles were clean." Of course the scripture plainly states that all reptiles are unclean.
"And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten. Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination" (Lev. 11:31-42).
The reason that such fallacious interpretations were required of the Rabbis was to see if members of the Sanhedrin were skilled enough in the Law, so they could, if necessary, twist the plain meaning of the law to meet any requirement of a particular case.
"Another Rabbi, using the same illustration, thought that a man was not qualified to sit in the Sanhedrin unless he could give a hundred arguments for declaring a reptile clean or unclean. The Rabbis reasoned that a person who could accomplish such a task was qualified to sit in judgment over other, because if necessary, adequate grounds for acquittal could be given in any case" (ibid., pg. 63). This deceptive skill enable the Pharisees to effectively give false grounds for condemning the innocent, as they did in the case of Jesus Christ!
Pharisees admit they left the teachings of Moses! The Pharisees were well aware that they were leaving the religious teaching delivered by Moses and the Prophets. Records are found in the Jewish Talmud which register many statements of the early pre-Christian Pharisees. Notice that their own words are a witness to the fact that they were well aware that they were leaving the ways of Moses.
In a book of the Talmud called "Temurah, in section 15b, we have the statement of one eminent Pharisee. "All the teachers who arose in Israel from the days of Moses until the death of (last days of) Joseph ben Joezer studied the Torah as Moses did, but AFTERWARD they did not study the Torah as Moses did." This is a clear admission that the Pharisees, beginning with the days of Joseph ben Joezer did not study and teach after the manner of Moses. The Pharisees, from this time (B.C. 160) stopped teaching the Word of God as Moses did!
Another example from the Talmud-- Yebamoth 72b, concerns one Eleazar, the son of Pedat, who happened to use a Scripture text to refute the personal opinion of his opponent, another Pharisee, on a particular question. The opponent, endeavoring to repudiate the son of Pedat in front of the other Pharisees, answered with these words: "I see that the son of Pedat studies in the manner of Moses." Notice the plain implication here. If a person used the Scripture to prove or to disprove a particular point of doctrine, he was accused of teaching in the manner of Moses-- as Moses did!
The Pharisees were fully conscious of the seriousness of the actions they were taking. They actually knew better!! But they went ahead with their designs to teach without any Scriptural support. "The teachers who introduced the conception of the Unwritten Torah (the traditional law and commandments of men)...were quite aware of the extreme gravity of the steps they were taking" (Herford, Talmud and Apocrypha, pg. 113).
No wonder Christ rebuked the Pharisees so strongly. "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in" (Matt. 23:13 ). "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Matt. 23:15).
PHARISEES ENACT MULTITUDES OF COMMANDMENTS WITHOUT SCRIPTURE SUPPORT!!
By the time of Christ, the Pharisees had made new commandments numbering into the thousands. They dealt with every phase of religious life among the Jews. Christ said that these commandments of men were so burdensome that they were extremely difficult to bear, and in fact, many of there were impossible to fulfill. "For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers" (Matt. 23:4).
To see how many laws they created, we need only to look to the Jewish Talmud. The English translation of the Talmud, which contains the major part of the independent teaching of the Pharisees, is a huge work numbering 34 volumes. Some of the laws recorded in the Talmud were enacted after the time of Christ, but the majority were in existence during the New Testament period. Even the Judaism of modern times is based upon these Pharisaic laws. The modern orthodox section of Judaism adheres almost completely to these laws recorded in the Talmud.
Later Judaism---the Rabbis, one to four- hundred years after Christ, did not dare discuss the origin of the traditional laws nor how the Pharisees came to teach without using Scripture. These later Rabbis knew quite well where the traditional laws had come from, but they did not want the lay people to know that these laws, which had been falsely taught to the lay people as coming from Moses, were not originally from Moses at all. It would have been disastrous to Judaism to teach that the traditional laws were really not from Moses and that the commandments of the Pharisees were nothing more than the commandments of men, because the whole foundation of Judaism rests on these fallacious laws!! Among these 34 volumes of the English translation of the Talmud wherein are recorded these traditional laws, there is no mention whatever of how these traditional laws came to be accepted.
"The history of the development of the Mishnah-form reflects unfavorably upon the traditional character of the Pharisaic teachings. This is the reason for the Talmudic silence about the origin of the Mishnah-form" (Lauterbach, Rabbinic Essays, pg. 248).
We can see why thousands of Jews were brought to the truth of Christianity in the First Century. They were told the truth about the laws of the Pharisees by the true ministers of Christ. Once a Jew came to a knowledge of the truth in this matter, many of them abandoned the commandments of men for the truth of God. This is one of the main reasons the Pharisees, and the later Jews, had such an abhorrence for Christianity. The acceptance of Christianity meant the rejection of the teachings of the Pharisees in Judaism, and a return to God and His commandments.
Now we can see why the "Postponement rules" added to the Hebrew Jewish calendar by Rabbi Hillel II in A.D. 358-59 (and others later) are wrong. The Pharisees have never been given the right to change the day of God's Feast of Trumpets and thereby postponing (changing) all the other Holy Days!!! (Church of God, In Truth).
(To be continued in the next Prove All Things. Information for this article was taken from the November 1961 Good News Magazine, published by Ambassador College. We encourage you to read the original article titled "Is Judaism the Law of Moses?" Part 11).
IT IS NOT THE CHURCH OF GOD, IN TRUTH'S INTENTION TO DEGRADE THE JEWISH PEOPLE. IT IS OUR INTENTION TO SHOW AND PROVE THAT JUDAISM IS NOT THE RELIGION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, JUST LIKE THE CATHOLICISM IS NOT THE TRUE RELIGION OF JESUS CHRIST!
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