Jesus, before he became a Gentile

The following is an excerpt from the book titled Does God Play Favorites?, by Jim Gerrish, a former pastor and in his later years a Christian worker who lived in Israel for 16 years, welcoming and caring for new immigrants. I have followed the writings of this man for many years and his love for our Jewish people never ceases to amaze me.

---

Jesus was a Jew. He was born of a Jewish mother, and for that reason alone he could qualify for aliya (immigration in Israel) by present standards. He was born in a Jewish town, circumcised according to Jewish law, worshiped in a Jewish synagogue, and read the Jewish Bible as was customary. He undoubtedly spoke the Hebrew language. The scholar Joachim Jeremias has remarked that Jesus remained completely within the limits of Judaism.

Jesus has been pictured in the garb and with the skin coloration of virtually every Gentile people on earth. However, only in recent years has he been pictured to any degree as a Jew. Modern scholarship has, of course, fully supported this presentation of the arts and media. The theologian Charlesworth states, “…if two facts are unassailable today, they are Jesus’ deep Jewishness –he was a Jew- and his paradigmatic effect on Jews and Gentiles.” *

It would shock many Christians today to see Jesus wearing a tallit (Jewish prayer shawl). Yet, we can be assured that he wore one. Had he not done so, he would have broken the very law that he came to uphold. The law concerning the wearing of such garments is found in Numbers 15:37-49. These garments were certainly still worn in Jesus time, because along with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a tallit was found almost intact. It can be seen on display today at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.

On one occasion a sick woman came and touched what must have been the fringes (tzitzit) of this garment, and in so doing, she was healed (Mk. 6:53-56). Traditionally the four corners of the tallit are called “the four wings.” Perhaps she had in mind that phrase in Malachi 4:2, which speaks of the Messiah as one with “healing in its wings.”

EVIDENCE OF HIS JEWISHNESS FROM SCRIPTURE

There is much evidence of Jesus’ Jewishness in scripture if we take time to search it out and consider it. Jesus was born of Jewish parents and into a devout Jewish home. He was circumcised on the eighth day (Lk 2:21). After Jesus’ birth, his mother performed the required purification rites by presenting him at the Temple in Jerusalem and by making the necessary sacrifice (Lk. 2:22-24).

Jesus’ parents were faithful in journeying to Jerusalem every year for the feast of Passover (Lk. 2:41). When we remember the distance between Galilee and Jerusalem, and when we consider most people traveled on foot, this was in itself a considerable demonstration of their devotion.

Even as a child, Jesus was deeply attracted to the Temple. He was also interested in the theological discussions carried on in its precincts. On one of his many trips to Jerusalem, he talked at length with the teachers (Lk. 2:42-49), both answering their questions and asking questions of them. The teachers were astounded at his wisdom since he was only a child of twelve years. His parents were also astounded when they discovered he was not on their caravan headed home. They made a panicky trip back to Jerusalem and were amazed to find him in the Temple.

We learn also from scripture that Jesus was no stranger to synagogue, for in Luke 4:16 we see him standing to read as was his custom. As an adult, Jesus himself kept the various Jewish holidays and festivals. He ate the Passover meal with his disciples (Matt. 26:17, cf. John 2:23). In John 5:1, Jesus attends some unnamed feast in Jerusalem. We also read in John’s gospel that Jesus went up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2, 14). He even made one of his truly beautiful teachings at this event, claiming himself to be the water of life.

It seems that Jesus, being a devout Jew, also kept the lesser festivals. We see him in Jerusalem in winter at the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22). Today we know this winter festival as Hanukkah. Although it was a non-biblical festival, and it was in winter, with its cold, rain and discomfort, Jesus showed up in Jerusalem for the festival.

We can be sure that Jesus honored the Law. He says of it in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Sometimes we get the idea that Christ brought an end of the Law. We probably get that idea by not reading far enough in Romans 10:4. In that verse Paul says, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (NKJV).” He was the end of the law for righteousness, but definitely not the end of the Law.

He no doubt honored the Sabbath. Had he not done so he would have broken the Law. Jesus did have a running battle with the Pharisees concerning what could and could not be done on the Sabbath. It seems that Jesus made a special effort to heal people on the Sabbath, and that was strictly forbidden by the Pharisees and other religious leaders.

Jesus seemed to have no argument with most Jewish customs. His argument was with the failure of some Jewish leaders to practice what they themselves taught. Jesus also attacked their prideful abuse concerning these customs. In. Matthew 23:2-3, Jesus instructs his followers to heed what the religious leaders were teaching, but not to do as they were doing.

In Jesus’ early ministry we see him instructing his twelve disciples not to enter into the way of the Gentiles or go even into the cities of the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel (Matt. 10:5-6). This is a surprising statement when we realize that much of the area around the Sea of Galilee was in Gentile hands. Virtually the whole eastern and southern shores of the lake were a part of the Decapolis, a Gentile-Greek area. Jesus seems to have confined his ministry to the northern and northwestern shores of the lake, primarily to three Jewish cities, Capernaum, Bethsaida and Korazin.

On one occasion Jesus traveled to the area of today’s Lebanon, in the region of Tyre and Sidon. There he encountered a Syro-Phoenician woman who asked him to heal her child. The disciples roughly requested that she be sent away. Jesus replied to her bluntly in Matt. 15:26, “…It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” The woman persisted and finally Jesus granted her petition. Although we read the Bible, we Gentiles still often picture Jesus as being totally Gentile. How mistaken we are.

HIS FAMILIARITY WITH JEWISH LEARNING

It appears that Jesus had a good understanding of rabbinic learning and methodology. David Flusser, Professor Emeritus of Hebrew University, remarks, “Jesus was part and parcel of the world of the Jewish Sages. He was no ignorant peasant, and his acquaintance with the Written and the Oral Law was considerable” In another place Flusser points out that Jesus had a “…profound Jewish education…” **

In the Mishna, a saying of the great Hillel is repeated. Hillel lived before and slightly contemporary with Jesus. His words were, “What is distasteful to yourself, do not do to your neighbor; that is the whole law, the rest is but deduction.”(Talmud, Shabbat, 31a) How similar is this statement with the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

In Luke 20:18 Jesus says, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” Brad Young points out how the rabbis have a similar story about a pot and a stone: “If a stone falls on a pot, woe to the pot! If a pot falls on a stone, woe to the pot! In either case woe to the pot!” Young also comments on the connection with Jesus and the teaching of the Jews in the episode of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness. The devil transports Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple and tempts him to cast himself off that God may deliver him (Matt. 4:5). Young comments how in a later Jewish midrash, the Messiah is pictured as standing on the roof of the temple and proclaiming redemption to the humble.*** Apparently the Jews expected this type of demonstration from their Messiah and therefore Jesus was tempted along these lines.

Flusser in another of his books entitled Jesus, mentions how the Lord certainly followed in the tradition of the Hassidim, or the pious ones in the realm of miracle working. His miracles greatly exceeded all who had gone before him. However, he was a miracle worker in the tradition of Honi the Circle-Drawer and Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa and Abba Hilkia. These men either preceded Jesus or were of the same general period in history. The last two of these miracle workers were also from the Galilee.

JESUS AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Since their discovery by a Bedouin boy in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have fascinated the minds of Bible scholars. As more of these scrolls have been translated, scholars have realized that they provide us with unusual insights on Jesus and his times.

The members of the Essene group who produced and preserved these scrolls were Jews. They were a very zealous sect of Jews for sure, but they believed some things that Jesus believed. The main body of this sect lived and worked at Qumran, in fairly close proximity to the highway between Jericho to Jerusalem. Thousands of other Essenes were scattered in various communities throughout Israel. It seems very likely that Jesus was acquainted with them and with their teaching.

Many of Jesus’ teachings were similar to those of the Essenes. Flusser points out that they shared the same adversaries, Romans, Sadduccees, Pharisees, and Zealots. They emphasized the sinfulness of humanity, the need for God’s grace, the approaching end of the age, and even the establishment of a new covenant. Jesus was much like the Esssenes in that he considered humility, purity and simplicity of heart as supreme religious virtues. He regarded all possessions as a threat to the holy life. He believed that evil could be overcome with good (Matt. 5:39-41), just as the Essenes before him had believed.

Jesus, along with John the Baptist and the Essenes, also practiced baptism. In the Mishnah, living water (water from rivers or seas) was believed to have the highest grade of cleansing for ritual immersion. It is interesting that John the Baptist baptized in the Jordan River. Jesus and his disciples did the same. The Dead Sea sect required repentance before baptism, likewise the early Christians. There seem to be other teachings that Jesus and his disciples had virtually in common with the Essenes. Charlesworth shows how Essenes spoke of themselves as “poor in spirit” and “poor.” Jesus also admonished his disciples to be “poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3). The Essenes prohibited divorce. Jesus’ teaching did the same (Mark 10:2-9).

A JEWISH MESSIAH

Jesus, or Yeshua as he is called in Hebrew, came to this earth as God’s promised Servant to the Jewish people. As a part of his great mission to Israel, he also came to bring judgment or deliverance to the Gentiles (Isa. 42:1). As Matthew says: “In his name the nations will put their hope” (Mat. 12:21).

Thus, Jesus came first and foremost to the house of Israel (Matt. 10:6). The New Covenant was made with them and not with Gentile people (Jer. 31:31). Gentiles by the grace and mercy of God were to be “grafted” into God’s covenant with Israel.

We Gentiles in our pride and arrogance have done great violence to the scripture and to its proper understandings. We are guilty of greatly distorting the person of Jesus. We have robbed him of his Judaism. In doing so we have made him contemptible to the Jewish people. We have made him a Gentile like ourselves.

This article is a condensed portion of the Jim Gerrish’s book, Does God Play Favorites. Book publication date 2000
* James H. Charlesworth, Jesus Within Judaism, (New York: Doubleday, 1988) p. 167.
** David Flusser, Jewish Sources in Early Christianity (New York: Adama Books, 1987) pp. 19, 62, 25
*** Brad H. Young, Jesus The Jewish Theologian (Peabody, MS: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 1995) pp. 221, 167 & 31.

Advertisement