First, Larry Hurtado has made what is perhaps the best case that the worship of Yeshua (which itself implies divinity) was early, very early, during the predominantly-Jewish stage of the movement (see his book How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?). A huge piece of evidence? Philippians 2, which is a hymn Paul is quoting because he knows the Philippians give it credence. So this hymn has been around long enough to be considered authoritative. That means it could easily be from the 40′s or at latest the 50′s.

Second, and what this post is all about, in John 5, we see Yeshua making an argument related to his divinity, which is thoroughly Jewish in character and not something which would arise in a Greco-Roman type of thought. Raymond Brown, in his commentary on the Gospel of John, points out that Yeshua’s argument about why he does his work on the Sabbath (rather than waiting for the six working days) is a Jewish argument.

The controversy and Yeshua’s response are explained as follows:

THE CONTROVERSY: And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

YESHUA’S RESPONSE, PART 1: But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

REACTION: This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

YESHUA’S RESPONSE, PART 2: So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
(John 5:16-24 ESV)

What is the Jewish argument which Yeshua is making?

1. What we are to do on the Sabbath is to imitate God in his rest (Gen 2:2).
2. All life on earth is continually sustained by God, even on the Sabbath.
3. Therefore it is lawful to sustain life on the Sabbath as this is what God is doing (“my Father is working until now,” i.e., even on every Sabbath since creation).

God did not completely cease work on the Sabbath, men were born and died, and only God can give life. Yeshua has just healed a man so incapacitated he cannot even move on his own. In giving this man mobility, Yeshua is giving him fuller life. Thus, Yeshua fixes his redemptive work on the Sabbath in light of God’s work.

This style of argument is Jewish in nature. It is based on a text, an idea strongly rooted in Judaism. Yeshua does not cite Genesis 2:2, nor does he have to. The Sabbath principle is foundational. But it is not foundational in Greco-Roman thought. On the contrary, the Roman sources lampoon the Jewish people for laziness for needed a seventh day rest.

Brown alludes to other commentaries which list rabbinic arguments that God does not get tired or need to rest and that no child would be born and illness healed on the Sabbath if it was thought that God ceased all his labors on the Sabbath. It is not from life-giving but from creating that God rests on the Sabbath.

It is not the kind of argument that would suit later Christianity. This section in John 5 is profound, reflecting on Yeshua’s transcendent authority (vss. 20-24), at resurrection (vss. 25-29), the judgment according to works (vss. 22-23, 30, 45), the judgment given over to the Son (vs. 22), the Son as Life-Giver (vs. 21), the witnesses to Yeshua’s identity (vss. 30-44), and Yeshua as the ultimate subject Torah points to (vss.45-46). Yeshua’s teaching that he works as his Father works and does what his Father is doing is saying, in essence, “Life does not cease on the Sabbath and my Father works to sustain life as do I.” The implication is not that Yeshua, by virtue of his identity, is exempt from the Sabbath law. It is, rather, a halachic statement: doing whatever promotes life on the Sabbath is permitted and Sabbath restrictions should not promote death or suffering to continue.

John 5 is one more piece of evidence that the divinity of Yeshua is an early development, a Jewish one, and not a late, Greco-Roman-inspired doctrine.

Yeshua Affirming Messianic Identity

• Luke 19:40 The Stones Would Cry Out
• Matthew 21:16 Mouths of Babies
• Matthew 16:17 Flesh and Blood Has Not Revealed This
• Mark 14:62 I Am and You Will See the Son of Man

Yeshua Affirming Exalted Status
These claims go beyond the role of teacher or prophet.

• Matthew 11:27 All Things Have Been Handed over to Me by My Father
• Matthew 12:6 One Greater Than the Temple
• Luke 22:30 Eat and Drink at My Table in My Kingdom
• Mark 2:10 Son of Man has Authority on Earth to Forgive Sins
• Mark 8:38 Son of Man Comes in Glory of His Father
• Mark 10:40 To Sit at My Right or Left Is Not Mine to Give
• Luke 4:18 He Has Sent Me to Proclaim Release
• Luke 7:22 Tell John What You Have Seen
• Mark 10:45 To Give His Life as a Ransom
• Matthew 28:18 All Authority Has Been Given to Me

Yeshua as Prophet

• Mark 6:4 No Prophet Without Honor
• Mark 8:28 Some Say Prophet
• Luke 7:16 A Great Prophet Has Arisen
• Luke 7:39 If This Man Were a Prophet
• Mark 13:2 [Foretells Temple Destruction]

THE YESHUA STORY, HIGH VERSION
The story of Israel is not simply on earth, but in heaven. The Ancient One would give dominion to the Divine One who is like a man (the Son of Man). In Galilee a man became known for his miracles and kingdom teaching. His followers thought he was simply a human Messiah, but some things did not fit. He did not heal by prayer, but by his authority. He forgave sins. He said he was Lord of the Sabbath. He said the Son of Man would suffer Israel’s tribulation in himself. He rose and ascended and then they knew him to be the Divine Messiah and Redeemer, the Son of Man who received all authority from the Father. God himself, the Son and not the Father, had become a man. God himself took on humanity to raise humanity toward divinity. God himself experienced death to free us from death. The Radiance of God has been among us and will come again.

What difference does it make which version we believe?

So, it might surprise you to know that Boyarin thinks Judaism and Christianity are compatible. His goal, stated on pages 6-7 is to help Christians and Jews to stop vilifying each other. He doesn’t follow Jesus and isn’t asking fellow Jews to do so. But he demolishes all ideas that Christian devotion to Jesus is contrary to Judaism or that Christianity is anything other than a Judaism to which mostly non-Jews have been drawn. Jews in the time of Jesus were looking, he says, for a divine messiah. And Jesus’ earliest followers were kosher Jews. The sad separation and enmity of Judaism and Christianity is something to get beyond, not something to perpetuate.

Among the themes of the book are some startling claims which deep six the status quo that Judaism and Christianity are separate and incompatible ideas about God and faith:

• Jews in the time of Jesus were expecting a divine-man Messiah figure.
• Many Jews already believed in something very much like what Christians call the Son and Father.
• Some accepted Jesus as divine-man and some did not; both groups were Jews; one of these groups we now call Christianity and the other Judaism.
• Christianity is a Judaism.
• It is not just that Jesus is a Jew, but Christ, the exalted and divine figure, is also a Jew.
• The doctrinal police represented by some rabbis and church fathers are the ones who sought to make Judaism and Christianity incompatible (he gives the specific example of Jerome who rejected people with orthodox faith who wished to remain Jews, saying they had to renounce Jewishness to be true Christians).
• Early Messianic Jews (Christian Jews) called Nazarenes must have been a sizable group even in the fourth century.
• The false boundary between Judaism and Christianity needs to be blurred.
• “Son of God” originally meant the human Davidic ruler; “Son of Man” originally was a divine figure equal with God though submitted to him.
• The roots of the All-Transcendent God [Father] and the Immanent Agent God [Son] go back even to pre-Israelite days as Canaanites sought to understand deity as both.
• The Similitudes of Enoch (part of the book called 1 Enoch) give the lie to the notion that Judaism rejected a divine redeemer who is a God-man.
• The Similitudes, written about the same time as Mark, parallel the ideas of a divine man almost identically to Mark, but neither text was aware of the other.
• Yeshua (Jesus) and his early followers were kosher (he documents how Mark 7 and the “all foods clean” passage have been misunderstood).
• There was a history of faith in a suffering Messiah (Isaiah 53 style) before Jesus and the usual debate about whether Isaiah 53 concerns Israel or Messiah is a moot argument.
• The liberal Christian notion that the church developed the suffering Messiah idea by misinterpreting the Hebrew Bible is false.
• The Gospels are a conservative return to an earlier idea of a Second Divine Figure, who represents the Immanent Aspect of God.
• Jesus, or Mark, knew his way around a halakhic argument.

Boyarin also gives many intriguing solutions to long-held puzzles about Christology, the theology of the divinity of Jesus and his humanity, and how the Gospel texts are using the Hebrew scriptures and dealing with the seeming paradoxes of Yeshua (Jesus):

• The debate about “Son of Man” as “human one” or “divine redeemer” can be resolved if we understand “Son of Man” as a simile: one who is divine but it is like he is human.
• Contrary to much Christian scholarship, Yeshua (Jesus) saw himself as Son of Man from the beginning, not just at the Second Coming.
• Daniel 7 has two ideas in tension: Son of Man is divine redeemer but also Son of Man is Israel.
• The root of Jesus’ saying “the Son of Man” must suffer is Dan 7:25-27 where Son of Man is Israel and must suffer a time, times, and half a time. Jesus midrashically reads this as the Son of Man (himself) suffering for Israel as Ideal Israel.
• Christianity long ago deemed adoptionism a heresy (Jesus became divine at his baptism when filled with Spirit). This idea is called apotheosis (a man becomes divine by indwelling divine spirit). Yet the gospels contain this theme, especially Mark, argues Boyarin (though he becomes God at his ascension, not his baptism). However, see the next bullet point.
• The opposite of adoptionism (apotheosis) is theophany (incarnation, God becomes man) and the divine man is shown to have pre-existed and been divine before birth as a human. This theme is also in the Gospels and is emphasized over the apotheosis theme.
• Boyarin sees both theophany (God became man) and apotheosis (a man became God, Jesus became God as his ascension) in the Gospels. Are these two incompatible streams? See my thought below.

What about Boyarin’s notion that the Gospels have both apotheosis (Jesus becomes God at the ascension) and theophany (Jesus was already God who became man at his birth)? As he shows extensively, the same thing happens in the Similitudes of Enoch, which Enoch chapters 70-71 seemingly contradicting what had been said earlier about Enoch. While earlier it seems Enoch became the Son of Man when, as it says in Genesis, he “walked with God and was not,” in truth, he was already Son of Man before he was born, according to chapters 70-71. Are these ideas really a contradiction? Perhaps they are relative to whether Enoch is viewed from the earthy viewpoint or the divine. This is a way to take Boyarin’s notion that in the Gospels Yeshua (Jesus) both becomes God and already was God. In reality, he already was God, but in appearance his divinity was revealed at his ascension. This way of reading it is compatible with the creeds of Christianity and the strong divinity statements in Paul, Hebrews, and Johannine writings.

The Jewish Gospels is a short, approachable book. Even people who don’t read academic literature can enjoy it and understand most of it. Boyarin gos out of his way to define terms in simple language. The body of the book is only 160 pages.

I can’t honestly think of a sound reason to criticize the book, although it seems my review may be weak for lack of finding fault. I found the entire book engaging and finished it in about three hours. In my opinion, this is a great step forward in Jewish-Christian relations and is a mind-opener worthy of being read by many thoughtful Jewish and Christian thinkers.

These are symbolic actions, a kind of prophetic message in and of themselves. Yeshua also engaged in symbolic actions and what I call kingdom enactments.

Symbolic Actions Declaring High Authority

• The Triumphal Entry (Mk 11:1-11; Mt 21:1-11; Lk 19:29-44; Jn 12:12-19) – Riding deliberately into the city as per Zechariah 9 with crowds hailing him, Yeshua is making a claim of messianic identity.
• The Temple Cleansing (Mk 11:15-17; Mt 21:12-13; Lk 19:45-46; Jn 2:13-17) – Perhaps Malachi 3:1 is in the background (after the messenger — Elijah, John the Baptist) the Lord comes suddenly to his Temple. Yeshua quotes Isaiah 56 and Jeremiah 7. This action largely contributed to his arrest and execution.
• Forgiving Sins (Mk 2:5; Mt 9:2; Lk 5:20 and another incident in Lk 7:48) – In even the most skeptical interpretation, Yeshua is claiming to know when God forgives a sinner. Since he says in Mk 2:10; Mt 9:6; Lk 5:24 that the Son of Man has authority to forgive, evidence is strong Yeshua is claiming more. He is claiming to be the divine Son of Man with authority in such matters as per Daniel 7 and the dominion given him by the Ancient of Days.
• Sending the Twelve (Mk 6:7-13; Mt 10:5-42; Lk 9:1-6) and Sending the Seventy (Lk 10:1-16) – Even more so that Yeshua’s own mission of proclaiming the kingdom (Mk 1:15; Mt 4:17), sending disciples to proclaim it suggests starting a renewal movement (a prophetic or even messianic role).

Symbolic Actions as Identity Stories

• The Baptism of Yeshua (Mk 1:9-11; Mt 3:13-17; Lk 3:21-22) – Yeshua’s participation in John’s movement already connects him to the role of prophet. The heavenly voice affirms Yeshua’s identity.
• The Temptation of Yeshua (Mk 1:12-13; Mt 4:1-11; Lk 4:1-13) – Yeshua is tested for worthiness for a role of high authority (prophet, messiah). Satan affirms Yeshua’s identity in an ironic manner.
• The Transfiguration (Mk 9:2-10; Mt 17:1-9; Lk 9:28-36) – Yeshua ascends a mountain with three as witnesses and experiences a prefiguring of coming glory and a visit from Moses and Elijah. A heavenly voice affirms his identity.

Kingdom Enactments
In these Yeshua demonstrates that he has partially brought the kingdom with him (the rest to come later).

• Healings, for in the world to come there will be no illness, disability, or death.
• Exorcisms, for the forces of spiritual evil are due to be defeated by God.
• Banquets, which foreshadow the banquet to come, a messianic promise.

Divinity1

The following information is derived from a paper by Eric Ottenheijm of the University of Utrecht presented at the 2010 Society of Biblical Literature in the Matthew section.

In Matthew 5:1, Yeshua went up on “the mountain.” No one knows which mountain, although there is a lovely hill which is the traditional spot. More important than a physical location, though, is understanding the allusion of “the mountain.” There are a number of mountains of great significance in the Hebrew Bible. The echoes of Exodus and Isaiah in particular add depth and meaning to the Sermon on the Mount.

For a long time, it has been recognized that Yeshua’s ascending the mountain to deliver the Sermon on the Mount has echoes of Moses ascending Sinai to receive and then deliver the Torah. There is a long tradition of viewing the Beatitudes, for example, as a sort of new Ten Commandments.

Dale Allison, in The New Moses: A Matthean Typology, gives a few reinforcements to the Sinai imagery: (1) “went up the mountain” in the LXX (Greek or Septuagint version of the Bible) is used 18 times of Moses, (2) Yeshua sat on the mountain and Moses “dwelt” or “sat” forty days according to Deuteronomy 9:9, (3) other Jewish literature such as 4 Ezra 14 uses the “sat” motif to make a character echo Moses, and (4) Matthew 8:1 continues to echo language about Moses.

Eric Ottenheijm shows, however, that more than Moses is going in in the mount of the Sermon.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns,’” says Isaiah in 52:7.

“Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings,” is Isaiah’s word in 40:9.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted,” Isaiah says in 61:1.

The mountain of Isaiah is the mountain of good news. The one whose feet are on it delivers good news to the poor. “Blessed are the poor,” says Yeshua in the Sermon.

Ottenheijm points out a few things about Isaiah and Matthew:
(1) Matthew quotes and alludes to Isaiah more than any other book.
(2) Matthew 4:12 – 5:11 (the larger section surrounding 5:1) begins and ends with Isaiah references (see below).
(3) Matthew is not the only Jewish literature combining Isaiah 52:7 with 40:9 and 61:1 (see below).

Is this a denial of the Moses/Sinai theme in Matthew? Not at all. Ottenheijm says that first, Isaiah took the mountain theme from the story of Israel and gave it a new twist and then Matthew took up Isaiah’s mountain theme, which already had Moses overtones, and gave it still a new twist:

Moses/Sinai/Torah –> messenger/mountain/good news in Isaiah –> Yeshua brings good news on the mountain.

In the time of Yeshua and Matthew, people read the Torah looking for connection to God and an end to the exile. They also read Isaiah this way, finding Isaiah to be a sort of messianic handbook of the last days. It is not hard to imagine those who first heard Matthew’s version of the Sermon read aloud connecting Yeshua with the messenger of good news in Isaiah. God sends his Torah and his good news from “the mountain.”

APPENDIX A: Isaiah in Matthew 4:12 – 5:11 (derived from Ottenheijm’s paper):

Matt 4:12-17 Galilee of the gentiles, Isaiah 8:23 – 9:1.

Matt 4:23 Good news, allusion to Isaiah 52:7 and 40:9.

Matt 5:1 Yeshua ascends the mountain and sits down.

Matt 5:3-5 First two Beatitudes compare to Isaiah 61:1-3.

Matt 5:11 Echoes Isaiah 51:7.

APPENDIX B: Early Jewish Texts Combining Isaiah 52:7; 61:1-3; and 40:9 (abridged from Ottenheijm):

–11 QMelchizedek.

–Psalms of Solomon 11.

–Tanhuma Toledot 14 combines the idea of Messiah and Isaiah 52:7.

“Love has ever in view,” says George MacDonald, “the absolute loveliness of that which it beholds.” This, I think, is some of what is going on with Yeshua’s kingdom mission. “Where loveliness is incomplete, and love cannot love its fill of loving,” he goes on, “it spends itself to make more lovely, that it may love more.”

The disciples were constantly misunderstanding Yeshua. And even this was part of Yeshua’s method. He was willing to defer much of their learning to the moments after the great crisis of his death and the great revelation of his resurrection. Meanwhile he gave them perplexing lessons, exposed them to contradictions at every turn, and he was ambiguous. He refused to be defined in straightforward categories.

The kingdom of God is at hand, he said. To you, he told the disciples, has been given the secret of the kingdom.

Really? What is that secret? How is it given to the disciples? It seems they, rather, had to read between the lines. Or, better yet, they had to pursue a path which Mark 4 hints at.

For those outside, it’s all parables. What does this mean? What does that mean?

But those inside have come for a private explanation. They dig deeper. They ask questions. They hear the teaching repeatedly and through questioning and repetition begin to understand. They follow and see the teaching in action, so that they come to understand what he means by things like fruit and seed.

Yet Yeshua is a mystery. He often has to be read between the lines. Is he campaigning to be Israel’s king or not? Will he put the critics in their place and oppose power with power? Will he speak plainly and name the times and upcoming events clearly?

Not at all. Instead, he will sleep on the boat during the storm, unconcerned. When the disciples wake him he will ask, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” It is as if he is saying, “Are you not grasping yet who I am? Have you seen beyond the Elijah-figure, the prophet working wonders with fish and bread?”

“Are you without understanding?” Yeshua asks three times in Mark.

Important people from Judea come and say to him, “Show us a sign from heaven.” The same Yeshua who talked to a storm and stilled it says to them, “Your generation is looking for signs.” He refuses to give them one.

In Nazareth, the people said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” And Yeshua, Mark tells us, could do no miracle there.

Peter got a glimpse of the higher truth about who Yeshua was, a far better understanding than the wonder-worker idea. “You are the Messiah,” he said. But moments later he was rebuking Yeshua for talking about dying and being taken prisoner. That will never happen, Peter thought, not to the king of Israel.

James and John said, “Let us sit at your right and left in your glory.” After all, Yeshua said the kingdom was near. He said the disciples were the inner circle, the ones who had the secret. In another place he even said they would sit at his table and judge the tribes of Israel. James and John just wanted to claim the first spot in all this glory.

“Can you drink my cup? Can you be baptized the way I will?” Yeshua asks.

People come to him from all over Galilee, Judea, and even Samaria and Perea. He heals them and demons, who were hidden beforehand, start speaking and revealing their presence.

Yeshua takes people away to private places and heals them. He says, “Tell no one.” The demons call him the Holy One of God and he says, “Shut up.”

He is everything the disciples think he is and more. They barely begin to grasp his exalted identity. King of Israel hardly does it justice. “All things have been given over to me by my Father,” he says in one place. “I thank you, Father . . . that you have hidden these things from the wise and have revealed them to babes.”

He will do nothing the way the disciples think he will. There will be no power showdowns with the Judean leaders. There will be no public signs from heaven. There will be no taking command, leading the nation in a popular movement, making the Sadducees and chief priests bow. Pilate and the Roman garrison in Jerusalem will not see any movement of resistance or power to match power.

This powerlessness confuses disciples even today. The risen Yeshua did not appear to Caesar or even Pilate. The sign of messiahship is still lacking.

If we believe in Yeshua, we must admit the divine plan is not like the methods we are used to. Our distorted understanding of true goodness is bound to interfere with the right unfolding of the messianic age. If people planned the kingdom it would be a sad substitute for the infinitely wise outworking of pure love God has planned.

Our vision of the kingdom is corrupted by our violent nature. Our lack of depth in the understanding of love holds us back. Even those who claim to see the grace and suffering of Yeshua too easily become religious movements seeking personal gratification. He becomes merely “my savior” and “my afterlife” and “my blessing.”

The cross would never be our guess and the idea of it still makes little sense to disciples today. Is it more about God punishing sin or is it something else? Is it God sharing in the suffering of this world?

In the fourth gospel, Yeshua says, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” The way of Yeshua’s messianic mission is hidden in the mystery of something larger, a love that predates creation, that is the essence of our nature but is veiled by corruption. The way Yeshua loves us comes from the Father, from God in his Direct Being, the Infinite One and his ways.

It is no wonder, then, that mere disciples were in danger of misunderstanding and needed to be warned, “Tell no one that I am Messiah.” It is no wonder that we face the danger of misunderstanding the messianic mission.

So, as readers of the gospels, we, like the disciples, need to assume that our understanding is not yet deep enough. Like the disciples, we might be warned not to act too quickly, not to assume we fully understand, not to be dismayed when the thing we expect does not happen, not to dismiss the suffering, and not to desire retribution on God’s enemies and ours.

Yeshua is a mystery, not least, sometimes, to us, his own disciples. The secret to knowing the meaning of Yeshua is in the act of discipleship, of being in the inner circle, of remaining close, hearing the words of Yeshua again and again to allow them to penetrate, of watching him be Messiah in acts of healing and victory over powers of evil, of forgetting about domination and matching power with power, but being servants to all as he was.

“Love has ever in view the loveliness of that which it beholds.” Yeshua spent himself to make us more lovely. Yeshua sees the whole picture, of the world as it will be, of people as they will be. We who follow him should walk in his footsteps.

And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy him; for they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.
–Mark 11:18

The gospel did not just happen. The events which marked the onset of a new stage in the world’s redemption happened in a time and place with three main cultural backdrops. Parts 1 and 2 introduced Greek and Roman influences on these events, both in Yeshua’s time and the later time the gospels were written. What about conditions and social structures in Israel itself? What are some basics readers need to know about conditions and groups in Israel? What about Jewish concerns in the times of the evangelists?

First, it cannot be over-emphasized, and it rather has been under-emphasized, that Yeshua was Galilean and his movement was primarily a Galilean one at the beginning. For more about this, see “Yeshua the Galilean” by clicking here. In Galilee itself, Yeshua was safe unless he ran afoul of Herod Antipas. It was primarily in Judea and Jerusalem that there was danger for Yeshua. Galilee was rural and had no aristocracy. Judea had powerful people with statuses to protect so that prophets and upstart messianic brigands were quickly eliminated.

Second, we must locate Yeshua among the common Jews and not see him as part of any of the parties. In an overreaction to centuries of neglecting the Jewish context of Jesus, some studies in recent decades have aligned Yeshua with the Pharisees. This is a misunderstanding of what the Pharisees represented. Yeshua did not belong to any of the parties. Of the parties, the Pharisees may have been closest to Yeshua’s way of thinking, but he himself was not a Pharisee.

As one of the people of the land, Yeshua’s common belief with his countrymen centered on monotheism, covenant, the election of Israel as God’s people, the Temple, and the way of life laid out in the Torah. Readings of Yeshua overturning laws of the Torah are without basis and should be rejected. A more sophisticated reading of Mark 7 and Matthew 15 is called for, a reading based more in Jewish discussions about how to keep the food and purity laws, not whether to keep them.

Second, we can and should accept the picture of the gospels that there was some degree of literacy in Galilee and synagogues with some education. It is not difficult to believe that Yeshua could read the Hebrew text. But we should not imagine him as a scribe with the kind of training found in Judea in the small movement of Pharisees and scribes. Yeshua would have been a literate, but by Judean standards, poorly educated layman.

Third, we should understand the times of Yeshua in Judaism as formative. The last decades before the First Jewish Revolt in 66-70 CE were a time when Israel was looking for an identity, for a way to be Israel. The powerful chief priests and Sadducees held nearly all the power in Jerusalem. Galileans paid tithes to the chief priests out of duty to Torah in spite of corruption and the fact that the Temple-state in Judea was abusive of wealth and power. The Pharisees were seeking to bring their own kind of renewal, but it too was a movement defined by power and status, not righteousness in the mode of the prophets of Israel.

Israel was seeking to be Israel, to recover some sense of what Torah had expressed as the ideal. The common people were powerless. From time to time, groups of the common people would follow an upstart messianic or prophetic leader. None of the small revolts inspired a wide following.

It is in this sense that we should understand Yeshua, who worked wonders in Galilee and attracted crowds. People were ready for change. They wanted to see something from God. Some of the people were ready for a revolution. Otherwise the various brigands who led small revolts would have found no followers. Yeshua seemed to be a person who could make things happen at long last.

Yet nearly all of Yeshua’s teaching and his actions were calculated to overthrowing popular messianic notions. Yeshua found a people so out of touch with the vision of the prophets for the world to come, the kingdom of God, that he set about overturning sacred cows. He dined with sinners. He healed impure people. He praised the faith of non-Jews. He warned that being the Chosen People would not bring inheritance by itself in the kingdom. He denied the idea of power and status as a way for Messiah or Messiah’s followers. He spoke of a long delay in the coming of the kingdom. He established a renewal movement, a group within Israel to be True Israel. He claimed to be of very high and exalted status which people would only understand when he was glorified. He gave many hints and signs of his identity. He left a group of disciples to lead a movement after his death and glorification when these things would become clear. He spoke of coming in the future as the Son of Man.

Yeshua’s vision of Messiahship and kingdom is a Jewish vision, but different in many details from other Jewish ways of imagining the kingdom.

In the days of the evangelists, division with synagogues throughout the empire heightened the distance between the Yeshua-movement and Jewish communities. The evangelists emphasized the origins of their movement as Jewish but with a view to spread to the nations. Yeshua had other sheep. Yeshua called for his name to be proclaimed to the gentiles. The Abrahamic promise was at last being realized.

Yeshua is the Moses-like Prophet-to-Come, the New Moses, whose agency as the Voice of the Father reveals depths of God unknown or ambiguous in previous revelation.

I listed for readers the findings of Paul Anderson regarding the prophet-like-Moses theme in the fourth gospel, which is not a minor motif but a guiding principle of the entire Gospel of John (see my post “Moses-Like-Prophet in John” here).

In searching out examples of how Yeshua revealed greater depths of God than had previously been known, I first went down a path seeking in the teaching of Yeshua new revelation. I think to some degree I was on the wrong path. I came up with a list of nine existential questions about God and us that are addressed in Yeshua’s teaching and wrote a blog post about it (see “The Son Has Spoken” here).

Yet as I taught this material at our synagogue, a perceptive woman and friend said, “But, Derek, none of that is new. That’s all good interpretation of what’s already in the Hebrew Bible.”

I quickly realized she was right. In terms of Yeshua’s teaching about God’s nature, nearly all of it is accessible in the Hebrew Bible if you avoid certain pitfalls. Judaism has, like Christianity, fallen into a number of pitfalls in this area (e.g., the Saadian and Maimonidean ideas about God’s unity and transcendence in utter denial of real Presence).

Not long after realizing that I was searching in the wrong place — looking for Yeshua’s new revelation of the depths of God in his teaching — I came across some good thoughts on the New Moses theme in Matthew in a book by Darrell Bock (Jesus According to Scripture). His comments on Matthew 13:16-17, 52, made me realize that Yeshua’s purpose in teaching was often to clarify what was already in the old. The new wine was mostly new because the shepherds of Israel did not, in Yeshua’s time, understand the message of the prophets.

Those prophets, according to Matthew 13:16-17, desired to look into Yeshua’s time, to see in his identity and teaching the completion of what they envisioned. And the good scribe of the kingdom (the scribe who knows the King, Yeshua, and looks for his kingdom to come) brings forth both new and old. That is, the old (Hebrew Bible) is inextricably connected with the new, and the scribe brings forth the connections (but most writing about “messianic prophecy” has been terrible and has not followed scribal patterns at all).

Where I needed to be looking, to find the new revelation of the Sent-One, was not in Yeshua’s public teaching, per se. I needed to be looking more at his deeds (somewhat in combination with his teaching). It is more in the deeds and hints at the identity of Yeshua that we find the new things coming forth from the old.

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.
Matthew 11:25 (and Luke 10:21).

What are some of the things revealed to little children that may be referenced here?

The following list is subject to more evidence that I am planning to give here. I am not pretending that in listing these points I have demonstrated my case for them. This is an initial presentation of some themes and ideas presented in the gospels that cry out for closer scrutiny. Also, it is important to me not to simply draw from the fourth gospel, where the exalted identity of Yeshua is especially emphasized. Any meaningful portrait of what is new in Yeshua ought to draw from the synoptics as well as John.

• The Way of Surrender. I was struck by a phrase in an essay by Marianne Meye Thompson: the path that God designates . . . giving power up in surrender of one’s life and service to others (“Jesus and His God” in The Cambridge Companion to Jesus, 2001). Yeshua not only described his own messianic career as being about surrender of his life and service, but said repeatedly that disciples were to lose their life, that the last was greatest, and that his followers should be servants to all. This is not simply social justice (the message of the Israelite prophets). It is a radical step beyond. It is Messiah killed being the real glory of Messiah. It is kingdom subjects not only working for justice, but selling everything for a pearl of great value. This is not an incidental theme, but is central in all four gospels (the messianic secret, the Sermon on the Mount, the kingdom for the poor, the lifted up Son of Man, and many other themes).
• Ransom theology. This is an outgrowth of the first point. In surrendering all, Yeshua accomplishes a ransom. The famous ransom passage (Mk 10:45; Mt 20:28) is greeted with skepticism by many scholars (a late addition? it sounds too churchy, say some). Ransom theology goes beyond the way of surrender theme. Not only does Yeshua give up power in service to others, but his surrender to death, but this act of sacrifice is a necessary transaction for people to have life. This is cross theology. It grows out of the Exodus-Passover story.
• Faith as inclusion in the kingdom. I do not think Yeshua in any way denies the election of Israel, which is a carnal election (via birth, not faith). I think, rather, he introduces a concept of a second requirement beyond election. The renewal movement of Yeshua suggests it is not enough to be Israel. God has not yet sent the messianic age because Israel has to go beyond being the Elect. Israel must believe and act according to belief. And in making belief the requirement for renewal, Yeshua opens the door for those in the Nations as well. This is where Yeshua’s universalism (that the divine covenant promises cover the whole world and not only Israel) comes through the door. Paul’s “works of the Law” equal presumption of rightness with God via birth as Jews (or conversion). Paul’s “salvation by faith” equals Yeshua’s call to “believe in me.” This is where Matthew 13:16-17 is really explained: the prophets called for faith and action, but the object of that faith and action was waiting to be seen. Yeshua claims to be that object of faith. And the action required is belief in his identity and message. The irrevocable election of Israel remains important, for in the fulness of time, Israel will also come to the renewal of faith, as the prophets had already foretold. And now that Yeshua has come, that faith can only be in the Messiah himself.
• Word made flesh (incarnation). It is not only John, as some think, but all through the gospels, that we see Yeshua as the Exalted One, whose identity is more than a man. It is a mystery, because the nature of God as both transcendent (the Eternal, the Beyond-Knowing) and immanent (the Word-Glory-Presence) is mysterious. Yeshua is more than the Prophet-like-Moses, ultimately, but is the Prophetic-word incarnate. He is Living Torah. All things have been handed over to Yeshua by the Father. Even the wind and waves obey him. He comes in the Glory of his Father. He is greater than the Temple. He is before Abraham. Unless we know that he is, we will die in our sins.

Yeshua heals and those with faith are made well. Yeshua defeats evil powers and demons are drawn to oppose him, but they can only obey his greater authority. Yeshua criticizes the shepherds of Israel who have followed the pattern of domination and not surrender. Yeshua gathers disciples for his way of surrender. And Yeshua surrenders to the difficult will of the Father (“he will speak to them all that I command him,” “the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me”). And all these things are revealed not to the wise, the shepherds of Israel who deal in power, but to little children.

(1) The multiple meanings of an important scripture may become evident over time as events unfold.

(2) God at times may fulfill expectations (ones he approves of) regardless of the plain meaning of prophecies.

From Dale Allison, I learned of the New Moses theme in Matthew. From Raymond Brown’s commentary I first learned of the Prophet theme in John. But it is from Paul Anderson’s The Christology of the Fourth Gospel that I learned how much this theme really plays into the fourth gospel.

Statements and Concepts from Deuteronomy 18:15-22

• Like Moses: “God will raise up for you a prophet from among your own people, like myself.”
• To be obeyed: “him you shall heed.”
• God’s voice to terrible to hear: “Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my God any longer.”
• No one can bear the sight of God: “…or see this wondrous fire any more, lest I die.”
• God gives him words: “I will put My words in his mouth.”
• He says only what God shows him: “He will speak to them all that I command him.”
• God judges, not the prophet: “If anybody fails to heed the words he speaks in My name, I myself will call him to account.”
• Unauthorized prophets anathema: “any prophet who presumes to speak in My name…that prophet shall die”
• Signs will reveal the identity of the Prophet: “If the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the oracle does not come true, that oracle was not spoken by the Lord.”

Yeshua as the Prophet-Like-Moses in John

• Statements that explain Yeshua as the fulfiller of Mosaic roles: 1:17; 3:14; 6:32; 7:19.”Law was given through Moses; grace and truth through Yeshua.”
• Statements that Moses wrote concerning Yeshua: 1:45; 5:46. “Him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote.”
• Onlookers identify Yeshua as the Prophet: 6:14. “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!”
• Yeshua says what he has seen and heard from the Father: numerous references including 14:24, “the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.”
• Hearing Yeshua requires believing in him: numerous references including 5:24, “he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
• Rejecting Yeshua is rejecting the Father: 5:37-38; 8:47; 12:46-48. “You do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent.”
• Yeshua speaks only the words he receives: numerous references including 7:16, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me,” and 5:19, “The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.”
• Yeshua offers signs of his authenticity as the Sent Prophet: numerous references including 10:38, “Even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
• The name of Yeshua the Prophet carries great weight: numerous references including 15:16, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
• The Father judges for not heeding the Prophet: 3:16-18; 12:47, “If any one hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”
• Yeshua word as the Prophet is the standard of judgment: 12:28, “the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.”
• Yeshua accused of speaking presumptuously and being a false prophet: numerous references including 7:12, “He is leading the people astray.”
• Yeshua foretells his suffering accurately: 13:18-19, “I tell you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.”

Paul Anderson’s list in The Christology of the Fourth Gospel (lxxiv-lxxviii) is much more detailed and elaborate.

See “Why Yeshua? A Jewish Question,” for a prelude to this article.

Yeshua is the Moses-like Prophet-to-Come, the New Moses, whose agency as the Voice of the Father reveals depths of God unknown or ambiguous in previous revelation.

As you can see from the wording, I am using language from the gospels themselves to describe the benefits of knowing Yeshua. But this is not just theory or theology. Each one of these nine benefits concerns practical matters, things that weigh upon us and are of consequence to everyone on a daily basis. They concern the normal and universal questions and existential longings that require satisfaction.

This week, I will discuss, “What practical difference does it make that Yeshua reveals previously unknown depths of God’s nature and being?”

Universal Questions Addressed in Yeshua’s Teaching

(1) Does God see my pain? (2) Does God see my selfless deeds? (3) Is this present reign of death and meaninglessness the way God will leave things? (4) Do my interpersonal relationships matter to God? (5) Does God ever reward things done for him and for others out of pure love? (6) Does God care about the things I am lacking and desperately need? (7) Is God a stern judge or a hopeful parent? (8) Does God want me to know him? (9) Does God prefer the smart, the strong, the rich, the powerful, and/or the beautiful people? (10) Does God feel emotion or is that beneath him?

The Difference Between Yeshua’s Answers and Other Teachers’ Answers

Yeshua addresses the kind of questions I listed above and does s specifically in his teaching. Other teachers in Judaism and Christianity as well as a myriad of religious perspectives have addressed these and similar questions.

Why should Yeshua’s answers matter?

That is a question about Yeshua’s identity. It is a good question. It deserves more than a short answer. I have written a bit about reasons a Jewish person (or anyone else) might believe that Yeshua is more than a man, that his perspective is worthy of leaving behind other teachers and following him toward the world to come.

I am not primarily addressing the “why believe” question here, but one part of the “what does Yeshua add” to life and faith question. However the simple answer to the “why believe” question is what my book Yeshua in Context is all about. And here is the simple answer: if you encounter the story of Yeshua, which is in the four gospels, you will be able to confront reasons to doubt or believe based on things like internal and external consistency.

In Yeshua in Context, I explain for modern readers what Yeshua was all about, give guidance in understanding and encountering the stories, and suggest ways they give us evidence to believe that Yeshua is the Mystery revealed in human form.

Yeshua on the Existential God-Questions

(1) Does God see my pain?
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

(2) Does God see my selfless deeds?
Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. . . . your Father who sees in secret will reward you. . . . love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great.

(3) Is this present reign of death and meaninglessness the way God will leave things?
Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. . . . Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. . . . men will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God. . . . from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. . . . The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field . . . And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last. . . . You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. . . . in my Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. . . . Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.

(4) Do my interpersonal relationships matter to God?
Every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment . . . So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. . . . If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies. . . . So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.

(5) Does God ever reward things done for him and for others out of pure love?
Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. . . . your Father who sees in secret will reward you. . . . He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward. . . . I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. . . . Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

(6) Does God care about the things I am lacking and desperately need?
And why are you anxious about clothing? . . . But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

(7) Is God a stern judge or a hopeful parent?
Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. . . . Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. . . . there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. . . . But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’

(8) Does God want me to know him?
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. . . . I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us. . . . All that the Father gives me will come to me . . . No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. . . . It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

(9) Does God prefer the smart, the strong, the rich, the powerful, and/or the beautiful people?
Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame. . . . Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me. . . . unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. . . . I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that jyou have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. . . . If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. . . . Blessed are the meek.

(10) Does God feel emotion or is that beneath him?
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. . . . he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. . . . Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this. . . . the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry.’

A friend recently said to me, “Jews are better Christians than Christians.” He was referring first of all to the ethic of Jesus about healing and serving and making this world like the world to come. His claim was that the Jewish community does these things better than Christians. Second of all, he was referring to statistics about charitable giving and service work and those who engage in them. The Jewish community, far in excess of our smaller population, out-gives Christians in the work of feeding, clothing, providing medical aid, and so on all over the world.

He followed this up with a bigger point. Who needs Yeshua? That is, given Judaism — and the wealth of information and tradition about God, ethics, the world to come that Judaism provides — who needs Yeshua? What does Yeshua add to Jewish faith and life?

Instead of turning to an afterlife formula — a typical evangelical Christian idea that Jews need Yeshua or they will be judged eternally in the life to come — I wanted to discuss other reasons Yeshua is needed. I leave the question of final destinies, who is included and who is excluded in the life to come, for others to wrangle over. The question is far from settled in terms of biblical theology, in my opinion, and the evangelical certainty that all but those who explicitly declare faith in Jesus are doomed in the life to come is overblown.

But even if hopelessness in the afterlife without Yeshua is the truth, is that and should that be the only reason Yeshua is needed? Is Yeshua nothing more than “my personal savior,” or a savior who makes no difference in this life but only in the life to come?

The following is at least the beginning of a catalogue of the benefits of knowing Yeshua, assuming already a knowledge of the God of Israel and the ethics of Torah and prophets and rabbis. I will first list the general categories and then expound on them in some detail:

• Yeshua is the Moses-like Prophet-to-Come, the New Moses, whose agency as the Voice of the Father reveals depths of God unknown or ambiguous in previous revelation.
• Yeshua is the Beloved Son whose Union with the Father makes greater union with God possible for those who are in Yeshua (in kabbalistic terms, he makes union with the Ein Sof possible).
• Yeshua is the Dibbur (Word, Memra) made human, the Incarnate Shechinah, joining humanity and deity (note: those who say this is impossible for Judaism to accept must explain how any manifestation or dwelling of God is possible as taught in the Torah).
• Yeshua gives us a clearer picture of the world to come (kingdom of God), making more specific what was ambiguous and affirming bodily resurrection (not reincarnation) and giving a specific organization and working plan for living now as we wait for the kingdom to fully overtake the cosmos.
• Yeshua is, in his person, the completion of the future hope themes of the Torah, prophets, and writings: he is Messiah in the full sense of meaning captured by that term, the One who brings near to God, Ideal Israel, the Son of Abraham, and the Paragon of Prophetic hope.
• Yeshua’s atoning death makes possible what was impossible in the Temple sanctuary: for people to be in the Presence of God without the separation of barriers like the Veil (parochet) or incense or the mediation of prophets like Moses. This direct access is vital preparation for the world to come.
• Yeshua has broken through the problem of death in his resurrection, which is a sign of the coming resurrection at the end of the age. The kingdom or world to come has been inaugurated and our faith in it is made easier by the historical witness of those who saw the empty tomb and the appearances (note: it is inconsistent to believe Sinai is historical and doubt the resurrection).
• Yeshua is enthroned beside the Father, is the appointed Judge at the end of the age, is High Priest to all Israel and the nations, and to know him is to have greater union with and knowledge of God. Prayers to God, knowingly or unknowingly, involve Yeshua as well as the Eternal (the Father, the Ein Sof). Knowing the High Priest by name is an advantage in prayer and access.
• Yeshua is the sender of the Spirit who mediates the Living Presence of Yeshua in the community of disciples (note: the Spirit/comforter/paraclete in the fourth gospel is the vessel communicating Yeshua to his disciples after the ascension).

As a follow-up, see “Moses-Like Prophet in John.”

Luke 10:21-24 is material not found in Mark. It is found in Matthew, but Matthew has it separated into two separate sayings on two occasions: 11:25-27 and 13:16-17. Messianic fulfillment comes in unexpected ways and Yeshua’s identity peeks through the veil.

On that same occasion Yeshua rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. All things have been given to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.”

Then Yeshua turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

Yeshua rejoiced in the Holy Spirit
As was said of Mary in 1:47. For Luke, this is a mode of worship commended for disciples: seeing signs of God’s work in the world and rejoicing.

you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent
Yeshua did not come to the Temple leadership or the scribal circles.

revealed them to little children
But he chose disciples from the common people, those who had no power or dominance.

for this was your gracious will
A margin note in the NET translation says this could be rendered, “for [to do] thus was well pleasing before you.” Yeshua understands an aspect of God’s pleasure: to avoid the channels of ego and power and work through the forgotten and ignored.

All things have been given to me by my Father
The idea that Yeshua was the Radiance of the Being of God is not something that waited for John’s gospel. It is an idea already known to Matthew and Luke. Behind such a saying is a Jewish mystical concept: the Being of God does not directly enter the world, but his Word, Image, Spirit, Glory, Presence does. Yeshua has been given all things because he is the Word, Image, Spirit, Glory, and Presence of the direct Being of God (the Father). Philo and the Targums contain this sort of notion of the difference between God’s transcendent Being and immanent Word or Spirit in the world.

No one knows who the Son is except the Father
“Knows” here is a word easily misunderstood. Knowledge includes more than the intellectual. Knowledge is also experiential, emotional, and intuitive. Mystical ways of looking at knowledge even emphasize the experiential. To know God in his Direct Being is not simply to read scripture and deduce theology. To know the Son (Yeshua, Jesus) is not simply to deduce things about his life from the history or from scriptures about messianic figures. True knowledge comes from union with the Ein Sof (the Unending One, the Father, God in his Direct Being).

who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him
It is a catch-22 that we cannot know the Being of God except through his Emanation (Son, Yeshua, Jesus) while at the same time we cannot know Yeshua (Jesus, Son) except through the Being of God (Father). This conundrum means that something supernatural must happen, a divinely given intuition. John calls it being born from above. It is an experience that disciples require.

Blessed are the eyes that see what you see
For Luke it is very important that the Yeshua-community understand its blessings. In a time of hardship in the larger Greco-Roman world, the marginalized Yeshua-followers need to understand the glory of knowing the Father and Son.

many prophets and kings longed to see what you see
Such as David the psalmist and Isaiah the seer.

Both Matthew and Luke include these sayings, though in slightly different contexts. The realization of Yeshua’s identity as the mediated Presence of God in the world (the Divine Man) is not something invented by the Fourth Gospel. There is much here for disciples of Yeshua to ponder about God’s preference for channels that circumvent power and domination, about worship as rejoicing at seeing God in the world, about a sense of blessing at knowing Father and Son, about messianic happenings being fulfilled in unexpectedly hidden corners of the world, and about disciples seeking the inner meaning of it all.

The commentary that follows is about the specific emphases in Luke’s version on the filling with the Spirit, the different order from Matthew, and the overall meaning of the three temptations. See the other articles categorized under “Temptation” for a fuller view of this important scene in Yeshua’s life.

NOTES: It is often assumed that the Spirit is either present or not present, that the “filling” of the Spirit has only one meaning. But Luke’s use of the Spirit in both the gospel and in Acts shows that the Spirit’s filling comes at different levels and has different meanings in different contexts. It is not that Luke would deny the Pauline emphasis that all of Yeshua’s followers have the Spirit. Rather, Luke is aware of a more subtle and variegated view of the Spirit’s Presence. As is the case with the Glory in the Hebrew Bible, the Spirit manifests in different ways and levels. One evidence for this is that in Acts, the Spirit’s power is imparted specifically by the presence of one of the Twelve or Paul. Luke emphasizes the Spirit in the life of Yeshua more so than the other gospels (an emphasis somewhat similar to John’s mystical perspective on Yeshua). Mark’s “the Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness” becomes “Yeshua, full of the Holy Spirit . . . was led by the Spirit.” Yeshua will conquer Satan’s temptations with the Spirit’s power and will emerge on the other side with the power of the Spirit in vs. 14. The order of temptations in Luke is desert-bread/world-kingdoms/temple-pinnacle whereas Matthew has desert-bread/temple-pinnacle/world-kingdoms (from a high mountain, says Matthew). The order of Deuteronomy allusions in Luke is 8:3; 6:13; 6:16 (while Matthew’s order is descending: 8:3; 6:16; 6:13). Some argue Matthew’s order is original: the elevation moves up from desert to pinnacle to high mountain and the Deuteronomy verses are in simple descending order. If so, then Luke has moved the world kingdoms temptation earlier and ended with the Temple pinnacle. All three temptations concern false notions about the identity of the Messiah: cheap miracles and the stones-to-bread, messianism as ruling power and the world-kingdoms, and signs to prove messiahship and the temple-pinnacle. Yeshua doesn’t do cheap miracles, teaches a different idea of how power and kingdom work, and doesn’t give signs to prove his identity. The order in Luke probably suggests two things about his emphasis in the scene: (1) Jerusalem is last in Luke’s presentation because Jerusalem and the Temple will be the final test for Yeshua and (2) the Temple-pinnacle is the most potent temptation for Yeshua, to prove his identity by signs (Johnson).

With the various problems the birth narratives present to us, it is reassuring to consider the common elements in Matthew and Luke’s accounts, which suggest a tradition that pre-dated both of them. Fitzmeyer gives a suprisingly detailed list of the doubly attested traditions of Yeshua’s birth and some of these elements may surprise you:

SOURCE: Joseph A. Fitzmeyer, The Gospel According to Luke (Anchor Bible, 307).

(1) Yeshua’s birth is related to the reign of Herod (Luke 1:5; Matt 2:1).

(2) Mary is a virgin engaged to Joseph but they have not yet lived together (Luke 1:27, 34; 2:5; Matt 1:18).

(3) Joseph is of the house of David (Luke 1:27; 2:4; Matt 1:16, 20).

(4) An angel announces the birth of Yeshua (Luke 1:28-30; Matt 1:20-21).

(5) Yeshua is recognized as the Son of David (Luke 1:32; Matt 1:1).

(6) His conception takes place through the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35; Matt 1:18, 20).

(7) Joseph is not involved in the conception (Luke 1:34; Matt 1:18-25).

(8) The name Yeshua is imposed by heaven prior to the birth (Luke 1:31; Matt 1:21).

(9) The angel identifies Yeshua as Savior (Luke 2:11; Matt 1:21).

(10) Yeshua is born after Joseph and Mary come to live together (Luke 2:4-7; Matt 1:24-25).

(11) Yeshua is born in Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-7; Matt 2:1).

(12) Yeshua, Joseph, and Mary settle in Nazareth (Luke 2:39, 51; Matt 2:22-23).

But it is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the idea that Yeshua was a prophet of the kingdom from within the story, from within the experience the disciples and crowds had of Yeshua. For them Yeshua was a potential prophet, a healer, an exorcist. How does Yeshua come across as a prophet in Mark? What sorts of things do we learn from this?

Rather than go through a boring list of passages in which Yeshua plays a prophet role, I thought I’d look more deeply into one story and reflect on the others from within it.

The classical story is, of course, Mark 8:27-38. The disciples’ answer to Yeshua’s question is, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others one of the prophets.” Only one disciple goes further, Peter, and we wonder if all of the Twelve would have gotten this or if Peter had better insight than the others. (Yes, I know that in another gospel, John, we have Andrew telling Peter, “We have found the Messiah” (1:41)).

The popular notions of Yeshua’s identity all had to do with the role of prophet. John the Baptist and Elijah, of course, were prophets. If Yeshua wasn’t one of them returned to life, then who was he? He must be one of the other prophets (Malachi? Isaiah? It’s hard to know who else people might have imagined).

It’s curious that in Mark’s wording, it did not occur to anyone that he was simply “Yeshua the prophet,” but that he was “Yeshua with the spirit of one of the prophets upon him.” That is, we might wonder if people resisted the idea of a new prophet and thought that God might bring back one of the hallowed prophets in a kind of spiritual endowment on a contemporary person.

And what sort of prophet was Yeshua. What “prophetic” topics did he address? Leaving aside for the moment his healings and feedings, which put him in an Elijah-Elisha category, we would have to say that Yeshua was a prophet of the kingdom.

The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15).

I will make you fishers of men (1:17) said Yeshua, meaning either “catching people in kingdom faith” or “catching and judging those who prevent the kingdom” (Jeremiah 16 uses the image of fishing for people as judgment).

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (2:17), said Yeshua. He was calling them to a realization of the kingdom.

The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day (2:20), which is a futuristic pronouncement of coming sorrow (a very prophet-like thing to say).

In 3:13; 6:46; and 9:2 he goes up on “the mountain” or “a high mountain” and gives revelation. It is a very Moses-like thing to do. In one of these instances, he said he would show those standing with him the kingdom (9:1).

To you has been given the secret of the kingdom, but to those outside everything is in parables (4:11), says Yeshua and then cites Isaiah as a precedent of a prophet, like himself, called to preach in a way that will bring judgment to the many but reward to disciples who hear and follow.

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground (4:26). Yeshua’s parables, even when not put into a form of “the kingdom is like” were generally understood to be about the kingdom.

The Pharisees and scribes sought a sign (8:11-13) from the prophet, perhaps not satisfied for some reason with the signs they already saw.

Yeshua made many other prophet-like pronouncements, including enactments with a fig tree and a long discourse on signs and coming events in Mark 13.

No wonder Schweitzer long ago depicted Yeshua historically in the category of a apocalyptic prophet. Likewise, Maurice Casey in his new and monumental historical Jesus book, Jesus of Nazareth, sees apocalyptic prophet as the main category for Yeshua.

In an upcoming series (“Messianism and Yeshua in Mark”) we will consider the further claim that Yeshua is Messiah. But from within the story, few could see that. Such a realization came mainly after the resurrection.

Even stories in which it seems people either hoped or actively pushed for Yeshua to take on some revolutionary role (deliverer from Rome), they may still have had prophet in mind more so that “king” or “one like David” or “Messiah.”

Ched Myers in Binding the Strongman summarizes well the ideas of resistance to Rome with the involvement of a prophet as the leader. Theudas (see Acts 5:36) promised to lead a group to the Jordan and part the waters, like Moses, Joshua, and Elijah. An action like this had military overtones, with Rome being like Egypt. In Acts 21:38 we have a reference to the Egyptian, a prophet coming from Egypt (but Jewish) who called followers to gather in the desert and come with an unarmed attack on Jerusalem. He said they would stand on the Mount of Olives and the walls of Jerusalem would crumble. This calls to mind not only Joshua, but also Zechariah’s words (chapter 14) about the Mount of Olives and the last battle. John the Baptist repeatedly denied he would lead any resistance movement, but he drew many followers out into the desert. His movement was packed with revolutionary potential.

The idea that many people regarded Yeshua as a prophet who might lead a popular resistance movement against Rome is not far-fetched. But Yeshua kept putting down such expectations. And as a prophet he gave off mixed signals, saying things about suffering, a cross, and being raised after three days.

What are we, as Yeshua’s followers now, to make of Yeshua as the prophet and even apocalyptic prophet?

It is in forgetting Yeshua’s role as a prophet that much modern religion has missed the mark. Prophets brought change in the present as well as cryptic foretastes of the future. Yeshua’s kingdom talk mysteriously is about future and present. Is the kingdom here now or coming? Many of Yeshua’s sayings can be read either way.

But when we combine Yeshua’s sayings and his actions, we find a pattern. He based present actions on the future realities of the kingdom. So, the kingdom now of Yeshua the prophet looks like the things he did and taught (healing, defeating evil, teaching love and service). The kingdom future will look like a world where everyone is healed, evil defeated, and love and service will be the norm.

So, if we take Yeshua as Messiah-for-the-future-only, as does so much modern religion, we miss the prophetic movement of Yeshua. It is about literal things, not spiritual realities to be realized in the future. Yeshua the prophet has a lot to say about how you relate to people now, to possessions, and to life itself.

There are two interpretations of the paralytic story and the saying about “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” which would take Yeshua’s words in a lesser manner, not as a self-claim to such great authority.

There is also a profound wisdom lesson in Yeshua’s riddle. This is a story that carries more complexity and meaning than many realize.

As for two lesser interpretations of “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,” consider:

(1) the idea that a prophet might have divine knowledge that a person’s sins are forgiven.

(2) the idea that Son of Man here means humanity in general. The meaning would be, people can declare each other’s sins to be forgiven.

These are in contrast to the maximal interpretation:

(3) the idea that Yeshua is the Son of Man and has unique authority to forgive sins.

Mark’s account is shaped to strongly suggest (3), though some scholars will continue pointing to (1) and (2) because they prefer, or at least want people to realize the possibility of, a non-divine Yeshua in Mark. The reasoning for such a position goes like this: Yeshua was considered divine only by the later Church after much reflection on the mysteries of his sayings and deeds. Mark is long before the Church came to this realization and thus we should avoid seeing hints of it in his gospel.

But in answer to (1) consider: While true, this interpretation does not fit Yeshua’s words, “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.”

And in answer to (2): This interpretation is weak in light of the complicated, literary use of Son of Man in Mark, both for the eschatological and powerful figure of authority and, ironically, for the sufferer whose trials are a ransom for others. Yeshua’s saying is sufficiently ambiguous so that the opponents who hear him cannot pin him down and accuse him successfully in court of blasphemy. Yet Mark’s shaping of the story is clearly intended to remove all ambiguity for the reader.

And then there is the riddle. Yeshua’s way of demonstrating his authority is a wisdom tale. Forgiveness of sins is invisible and unprovable. Healing a visible disability is clear-cut. The riddle “which is harder?” is a doubly complex one. To the skeptic, the healing is harder because it requires demonstration. To the believer, granting forgiveness is harder, because broken union with God has consequences reaching farther than disability. In this first of five conflict stories, Yeshua visibly demonstrates his authority as the Son of God, though cloaking his identity in the more ambiguous Son of Man. Throughout Mark’s gospel there will be a growing realization that the Son of Man is the Son of God.

Zechariah’s prophecy of the king coming on a donkey is a critical view of kingship looking ahead to the messianic age when the ideas of dominion change into peace. In the early part of Zechariah 9, the warring peoples of the Mediterranean coast will become peaceful and submit to God’s authority in the messianic era. Then, in 9:9, Daughter Zion’s king (Jerusalem in the age when promises are fulfilled) comes not as a war-maker, but bringing peace, not on a warhorse, but a donkey like the Davidic kings of old.

Yeshua deliberately evokes this scene, so those who say this is about a prophecy fulfilled miss the point. Yeshua acts out the scene, proclaiming by his action that he is this different kind of king.

The scene creates excitement and tension in Jerusalem. Yeshua is not a Judean, so the people in Jerusalem thinking about the triumphal entry limit their understanding to the idea of a prophet from Galilee. They do not entertain the idea of a messiah from Galilee. But the crowds who are in the know, those who have followed Yeshua around, they proclaim him in clear messianic terms as Son of David. Yet the fact remains that not one in the crowd truly understood. Yeshua is not to be the vanquisher of Rome, but Rome’s redeemer. The theme of Zechariah 9 stands as a witness against revolutionary notions. Yeshua is the one who makes Philistines as if they are part of the people of Israel (Zech 9:7). Yeshua declares here exactly the sort of kingship he is bringing and until the resurrection, none comprehend it.

In Matthew 5:1, Yeshua went up on “the mountain.” No one knows which mountain, although there is a lovely hill which is the traditional spot. More important than a physical location, though, is understanding the allusion of “the mountain.” There are a number of mountains of great significance in the Hebrew Bible. The echoes of Exodus and Isaiah in particular add depth and meaning to the Sermon on the Mount.

For a long time, it has been recognized that Yeshua’s ascending the mountain to deliver the Sermon on the Mount has echoes of Moses ascending Sinai to receive and then deliver the Torah. There is a long tradition of viewing the Beatitudes, for example, as a sort of new Ten Commandments.

Dale Allison, in The New Moses: A Matthean Typology, gives a few reinforcements to the Sinai imagery: (1) “went up the mountain” in the LXX (Greek or Septuagint version of the Bible) is used 18 times of Moses, (2) Yeshua sat on the mountain and Moses “dwelt” or “sat” forty days according to Deuteronomy 9:9, (3) other Jewish literature such as 4 Ezra 14 uses the “sat” motif to make a character echo Moses, and (4) Matthew 8:1 continues to echo language about Moses.

Eric Ottenheijm shows, however, that more than Moses is going in in the mount of the Sermon.

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace, who brings good tidings of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns,’” says Isaiah in 52:7.

“Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings,” is Isaiah’s word in 40:9.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted,” Isaiah says in 61:1.

The mountain of Isaiah is the mountain of good news. The one whose feet are on it delivers good news to the poor. “Blessed are the poor,” says Yeshua in the Sermon.

Ottenheijm points out a few things about Isaiah and Matthew:
(1) Matthew quotes and alludes to Isaiah more than any other book.
(2) Matthew 4:12 – 5:11 (the larger section surrounding 5:1) begins and ends with Isaiah references (see below).
(3) Matthew is not the only Jewish literature combining Isaiah 52:7 with 40:9 and 61:1 (see below).

Is this a denial of the Moses/Sinai theme in Matthew? Not at all. Ottenheijm says that first, Isaiah took the mountain theme from the story of Israel and gave it a new twist and then Matthew took up Isaiah’s mountain theme, which already had Moses overtones, and gave it still a new twist:

Moses/Sinai/Torah –> messenger/mountain/good news in Isaiah –> Yeshua brings good news on the mountain.

In the time of Yeshua and Matthew, people read the Torah looking for connection to God and an end to the exile. They also read Isaiah this way, finding Isaiah to be a sort of messianic handbook of the last days. It is not hard to imagine those who first heard Matthew’s version of the Sermon read aloud connecting Yeshua with the messenger of good news in Isaiah. God sends his Torah and his good news from “the mountain.”

APPENDIX A: Isaiah in Matthew 4:12 – 5:11 (derived from Ottenheijm’s paper):

Matt 4:12-17 Galilee of the gentiles, Isaiah 8:23 – 9:1.

Matt 4:23 Good news, allusion to Isaiah 52:7 and 40:9.

Matt 5:1 Yeshua ascends the mountain and sits down.

Matt 5:3-5 First two Beatitudes compare to Isaiah 61:1-3.

Matt 5:11 Echoes Isaiah 51:7.

APPENDIX B: Early Jewish Texts Combining Isaiah 52:7; 61:1-3; and 40:9 (abridged from Ottenheijm):

–11 QMelchizedek.

–Psalms of Solomon 11.

–Tanhuma Toledot 14 combines the idea of Messiah and Isaiah 52:7.