{"id":161983,"date":"2025-12-01T14:39:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/?p=161983"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T12:39:32","slug":"walking-in-the-dust-of-rabbi-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/walking-in-the-dust-of-rabbi-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZONDERVAN
\nWalking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus
\nCopyright \u00a9 2012 by Lois Tverberg
\nThis title is also available as a Zondervan ebook. Visit www.zondervan.com\/ebooks.
\nThis title is also available in a Zondervan audio edition. Visit www.zondervan.fm.
\nRequests for information should be addressed to:
\nZondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
\nLibrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
\nTverberg, Lois.
\nWalking in the dust of Rabbi Jesus : how the Jewish words of Jesus can change
\nyour life\/ Lois Tverberg.
\np. cm.
\nIncludes bibliographical references and index [if applicable].
\nISBN 978-0-310-28420-8 (hardcover)
\n1. Jesus Christ \u2014 Jewishness. 2. Jesus Christ \u2014 Words. I. Title.
\nBT590.J8T84 2011
\n232.9’06 \u2014 dc23 2011035954
\nAll Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New
\nInternational Version\u00ae, NIV\u00ae. Copyright \u00a9 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.\u2122 Used by
\npermission. All rights reserved worldwide.
\nScripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible.
\nCopyright \u00a9 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.
\nUsed by permission.
\nAny Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are
\noffered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement
\nby Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for
\nthe life of this book.
\nAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
\nsystem, or transmitted in any form or by any means \u2014 electronic, mechanical, photocopy,
\nrecording, or any other \u2014 except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior
\npermission of the publisher.
\nPublished in association with the literary agency of Ann Spangler and Company, 1420
\nPontiac Road SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49506.
\nCover photography: iStockphoto\u00ae
\nInterior illustration: iStockphoto\u00ae
\nInterior design: Beth Shagene
\nPrinted in the United States of America
\n11 12 13 14 15 16 17 \/DCI\/ 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
\nContents
\nForeword by Ray Vander Laan 9
\nI Hearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words
\nwith New Ears | 13
\n1 Brushing Away the Dust of the Ages 15
\n2 Shema: Living Out What You Hear 31
\n3 Loving God with Everything You\u2019ve Got 42
\n4 Meeting Myself Next Door 55
\nII Living Out the Words
\nof Rabbi Jesus | 67
\n5 Gaining a Good Eye 69
\n6 The Mystery of the Name 81
\n7 How to Have a Kosher Mouth 92
\n8 Taking My Thumb Off the Scale 104
\n9 Praying with Chutzpah 117
\n10 Thinking with Both Hands 130
\nIII Studying the Word
\nwith Rabbi Jesus | 143
\n11 The Treasure of the Text 145
\n12 The Secrets That God Keeps 154
\n13 Our Longing Father 165
\n14 God\u2019s Image Stamped in Dust 180
\nAfterword by Ann Spangler 192
\nAppendix: The Shema 195
\nAcknowledgments 197
\nNotes 199
\nGlossary 217
\nRecommended Resources 223
\nScripture Index 227
\nGeneral Index 230
\n9
\nForeword
\nAs an author, Bible teacher, and study tour leader, I have had the
\nprivilege of walking the lands of the Bible with thousands of
\nJesus\u2019 followers who came to see where Abraham, Ruth, David, and
\nJesus lived. I enjoyed watching group after group slowly come to realize
\nthat the Bible\u2019s stories are set in real times and real places. As they
\nlearned more about the land, the people, and the culture of the Bible,
\nthese believers saw that the context God chose for his redemptive
\nplan could help them apply the Word to their own lives. At the end
\nof their travels, I often heard people say, \u201cI will never read the Bible
\nthe same way again.\u201d
\nMany returned home from Israel or Turkey or Greece with their
\nfaith in Jesus deepened but hungry for more \u2014 much more. The pilgrim
\nexcitement of \u201cwalking where Jesus walked\u201d became a growing
\nthirst for a deeper understanding of God\u2019s story \u2014 a thirst as palpable
\nas their need for bottled water in the hot, dry climate of Israel.
\nI know their experience well \u2014 that was my journey too. I began
\nto explore the Jewish world of Jesus with a desire to deepen my faith
\nin Jesus. I was familiar with the accounts of his life and believed them
\nto be true. I accepted his claims to be the Messiah and believed in
\nhis redemptive death. But as I entered the world of Jewish thought,
\nI began to wonder about the faith of Jesus. I struggled to understand
\nwhat I should learn from the accounts of how he lived. Was it simply to
\nexplain why he must die? Or was his life a pattern to be understood and
\nemulated? And what did it mean to imitate him in my walk with God?
\nAs I explored the lands and cultures of the Bible, I realized that
\nI did indeed need to have not only faith in Jesus, but also to develop
\nthe faith of Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus I needed to know why and
\nhow he lived out his faith, so that I could follow him more closely.
\nThis insight seems so obvious now that I cannot imagine that I
\nForeword
\n10
\nhad not considered it before. I grew up in a Chris tian community,
\nlived in a Chris tian home where the Bible was often read, attended
\nChris tian schools through college, and received an advanced degree
\nat an outstanding seminary. I believed the Bible to be the inspired
\nWord of God and from my childhood was committed to Jesus as Savior
\nand Lord. Yet I had not even considered the implications of the
\nfact that Jesus lived among us as a Jewish man in a first-century Jewish
\nculture. Jesus was Jewish! What a radical thought!
\nFrom the beginning, God chose to speak and act within the context
\nof human culture, so it is no surprise that his Son would do the
\nsame. Jesus lived like a Jew, talked like a Jew, and worshiped like a
\nJew. His words, actions, and teaching methods were in keeping with
\nthe customs, traditions, and practices of the Semitic culture into
\nwhich he was born. He wasn\u2019t born in northwestern Iowa among
\nnineteenth-century Dutch immigrants. He was born in Judea, a land
\nthat was a hotbed of political and religious turmoil, a country that
\nhad been the crossroads of the ancient world for centuries. He grew
\nup among the Jews, a people chosen by God to bear his name to the
\nworld. And he ministered under the mighty empire of Rome. While
\nGod\u2019s message was and is timeless, it was first revealed to a real people
\nin a real place and at a real time. Understanding this ancient world
\nis critical to interpreting and applying the biblical story to our own
\nlives.
\nIn a sense, as we study the Bible, we must temporarily leave our
\ntwenty-first-century culture and our Western attitudes and go back
\nto another time and place . . . to the land of Israel, the birthplace
\nand home of Jesus. We must enter an Eastern culture that was passionately
\nreligious and that longed for God\u2019s great redemption. The
\nJews of Jesus\u2019 time knew their story and fiercely debated how God
\nwanted them to live it out. The Hebrew Bible was their daily bread,
\nand discussion of it dominated their lives, as it would Jesus\u2019 life. Paradoxically,
\nstepping back into that setting makes the Bible even more
\nrelevant to our own culture and time.
\nThat was my journey from faith in Jesus to learning to live out
\nthe faith of Jesus. What I had been taught from the Bible was not
\nwrong. Few, if any, doctrines changed for me as I studied the Bible\u2019s
\nForeword
\n11
\nancient Jewish context. And after thirty-six years of intensive cultural
\nstudy, I still believe God is our Creator, Jesus is our Savior, and the
\nBible is his inspired Word. But there are more riches in the Word
\nthan I had ever imagined. To view Scripture through the perspective
\nof an ancient Near Eastern culture is to gain additional insights, as
\ncertainly as reading the Bible in the original languages deepens one\u2019s
\ngrasp of the text.
\nSomewhere on the journey of studying the context and culture of
\nthe Bible, I met Lois Tverberg. Just like so many others I had known,
\nher first experience of the ancient world of the Bible produced an
\never-growing thirst for greater understanding of its story in context.
\nShe was as intense and intentional in her search as any student I had
\never met, bringing her training and skill as a scientist to her pursuit
\nof deeper understanding of the biblical text. Her tenacity in learning
\nthe ancient languages, in studying the land of Israel, in exploring Jewish
\nthought, and in investigating archaeological discoveries provide
\nher with a unique set of tools to explore the text in context. Soon I
\nwas learning from her, as her insights gave me a new understanding
\nof the Bible and particularly the life of Jesus \u2014 the One we both knew
\nas Savior and Lord, for we share a faith in Jesus. Through her insights
\nLois has deepened my understanding of the faith of Jesus and encouraged
\nme to \u201cwalk . . . as [ Jesus] walked\u201d (1 John 2:6<\/a> NASB).
\nLois\u2019s earlier work (with Ann Spangler), Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi
\nJesus, was an entry step into Jesus\u2019 world. The Jewish context into
\nwhich Jesus came and the implications of that setting for understanding
\nhim better are powerfully presented and have guided many
\nbelievers as they seek a greater understanding of the Teacher from
\nNazareth. I believe the present work will have even greater impact
\non those who desire to be disciples of Jesus. Readers will be deeply
\nchallenged as they discover the implications of Jesus\u2019 teaching for
\ntheir daily walk.
\nWhile each chapter is supported with careful analysis of contemporary
\nscholarship, ancient sources, and recent archaeological discovery,
\nas you read you will feel as if you are on a journey back to the
\nworld of Jesus. You will see the beauty of the silvery green olive trees
\non the Galilean hills, feel the rocky path under your feet, and smell
\nForeword
\n12
\nthe dust as you follow the Rabbi. You will hear the sages discussing
\nthe Torah as their disciples listen and will discover the greatest interpreter
\nof all . . . Jesus the Messiah. For he is not only God incarnate,
\nbut also the Word incarnate. His life is in a real sense the Word \u2014 the
\nBible \u2014 in living flesh. And you will be challenged to become ever
\nmore passionate about being his disciple \u2014 having the faith of Jesus.
\nSo come along with us and follow in the dust of Jesus \u2014 the Jewish
\nRabbi \u2014 of Scripture.
\nRay Vander Laan
\nPART I
\nHearing
\nOur Rabbi\u2019s Words
\nwith New Ears
\nWhat would it be like to listen to Jesus\u2019 earth- shattering
\nwords through the ears of a first-century disciple? The
\nfirst thing you\u2019d notice is how Jewish they are. His greatest
\ncommandments begin with the Shema, the core statement
\nof Jewish faith. For over two millennia, each morning and
\nevening, Jews have committed themselves to loving their
\none and only God with all of their heart, soul, and strength.
\nLearning more about Jesus\u2019 language, his Scriptures, and his
\npeople will deepen our understanding of his most important
\nwords.
\n15
\nCHAPTER 1
\nBrushing Away the Dust
\nof the Ages
\nJust as rain water comes down in drops and forms rivers,
\nso with the Scriptures: one studies a bit today
\nand some more tomorrow, until in time the understanding
\nbecomes like a flowing stream.
\n\u2014 Song of Songs Midrash Rabbah 2:8
\nIn 1977, Pinin Barcilon won the assignment of a lifetime when she
\nwas asked to lead the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s Last Supper,
\none of the most well-known images of all time. But the renowned
\nItalian art conservator could hardly imagine how nerve-wracking the
\nnext twenty-three years would be.
\nThe centuries hadn\u2019t been kind to the mural that da Vinci completed
\non a monastery wall in Milan, Italy, in 1498. Always the experimenter,
\nLeonardo had reformulated his paints in a way that proved to
\nbe unstable, so that the paint began flaking off even before his death.
\nAnd even though his mural was immediately hailed as a masterpiece,
\nit was left unprotected from pollution and humidity. When Barcilon
\nbegan her restoration, five hundred years of dust, mold, and candle
\nsoot had darkened the iconic work almost to the point of invisibility.
\nThe real challenge for her team, however, was to undo the disastrous
\nattempts at restoration that had begun back in the 1700s. Heavy
\ncoats of varnish, glue, and wax had been brushed on, each of them
\nhastening the darkening process. Worst of all, hack amateurs had
\npainted over da Vinci\u2019s work time and again, rendering its images
\ndistorted, brushing out details they didn\u2019t understand, and filling in
\ngaps with their own interpretations.
\nAfter months of photographing every square centimeter of the
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n16
\npainting\u2019s surface and analyzing it using state-of-the-art technology,
\nBarcilon\u2019s team members finally began their work. Then, for over
\ntwenty years they hunched over microscopes, painstakingly scraping
\naway five hundred years of grime and overpainting. On a good
\nday, one postage stamp\u2019s worth of the image would emerge. In 1999,
\nwhen da Vinci\u2019s brushstrokes were finally revealed, her team\u2019s meticulous,
\nmind-numbing labor found its reward. Barcilon called it a \u201cslow,
\nsevere conquest, which, flake after flake, day after day, millimeter
\nafter millimeter, fragment after fragment, gave back a reading of
\nthe dimensions, of the expressive and chromatic intensity that we
\nthought was lost forever.\u201d1
\nGloomy shadows banished; a well-lit banquet hall emerged. Peter\u2019s
\nbeard and nose were free of the clumsy weight that later retouchings
\nhad given them. Matthew sported blond hair, not black. Thomas
\ngained a left hand. Andrew\u2019s expression was transformed \u2014 he was no
\nlonger sullen, but astonished. And Jesus\u2019 face glowed with new light
\nafter the dingy repaintings had been removed.
\nThe essence of the scene remained unchanged. Da Vinci had
\ndepicted the fateful scene at the moment Jesus revealed one of his
\ndisciples would soon betray him. But after centuries of murky obscurity,
\nrestoration had brought to light the original beauty of the artist\u2019s
\nmasterful portrayal of the facial expressions and body language of
\nChrist and his disciples.2
\nUnearthing Jesus\u2019 World
\nJust as modern technology enabled Barcilon to reveal da Vinci\u2019s
\noriginal strokes, in recent decades scholars have gained new tools to
\nrestore the picture of Jesus that the gospel writers first gave us. In just
\nthe past fifty years, we have seen more advances in biblical archaeology
\nand in the discovery of ancient texts than in all the centuries
\nsince the time of Jesus. As dingy accretions of history are cleared
\naway, vivid details of Jesus\u2019 life and culture are emerging.
\nThe same year that the Last Supper was newly unveiled, I took my
\nfirst study trip to Israel. One of the scarier highlights of our tour was
\nexploring the water tunnel that King Hezekiah built under Jerusalem
\nBrushing Away the Dust of the Ages
\n17
\nin 701 BC. Half terrified, our group peered into the dark, stone-hewn
\nshaft before us and stepped down into the icy, rushing waters of the
\nGihon spring. After groping our way through the cramped blackness
\nby flashlight for a third of a mile, waist-high water sweeping us along,
\nwe heaved a sigh of relief when we finally glimpsed the exit.
\nAdding to the thrill, we were emerging at the site of the famous
\nPool of Siloam, where a blind man miraculously recovered his vision
\nafter Jesus sent him there to wash (John 9:7<\/a>). The puddle-deep pool
\nwas, admittedly, unimpressive \u2014 only a few feet wide and a few more
\nyards long. But this was the famous site, according to Chris tian tradition
\nthat went back to the fourth century AD.
\nOr so we thought.
\nIn 2004, five years after our visit, a sewage pipe broke underneath
\na nearby Jerusalem street. Massive earth-moving equipment rumbled
\nin to make the repair. Pushing into the soil, a bulldozer blade collided
\nwith a submerged object and came to a grinding halt. An ancient
\nplastered step emerged as the dirt was brushed away. Within minutes
\nprominent archaeologists had rushed over, the word \u201cbulldozer\u201d
\nhurrying them to the scene. Excavation revealed several more steps
\ndown one side of an enormous rectangular pool. Within weeks this
\nmonumental reservoir (about 160 feet wide by 200 feet long) was
\nidentified as the real Pool of Siloam, the main source of fresh water
\nwithin Jerusalem\u2019s walls. Coins embedded in the plaster confirmed
\nthat it was in use during Jesus\u2019 time.3
\nAs they excavated the Pool of Siloam archaeologists also discovered
\na wide, stepped first-century street that leads from the pool up
\nto the Temple. This was one of the main Jerusalem thoroughfares in
\nthe first century, and it would have been the final steps of ascent for
\npilgrims after days or weeks of journeying to celebrate the feasts. The
\nPool of Siloam was one of the places where they could have stopped
\nto purify themselves before entering the Temple.
\nAnd reading John\u2019s gospel again, we discover that the Pool of
\nSiloam played a part in another scene in Jesus\u2019 ministry. Each night
\nof the joyous weeklong Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot), the high priest
\nwould parade down this street amid great fanfare and fill a golden
\npitcher with living water from the Pool of Siloam for the water libation
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n18
\non the Temple\u2019s altar. On the last day of the feast, the high priest
\nwould process around the altar seven times as the crowds chanted
\nfervent prayers for living water, rain for the next year\u2019s crops. The
\nroar grew ever more thunderous until the priest finally approached
\nthe altar. A hush would descend as he filled a silver bowl and then
\nceremoniously poured the living water onto the sacrificial pyre. It was
\nthen when Jesus stood up and shouted, \u201cLet anyone who is thirsty
\ncome to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has
\nsaid, rivers of living water will flow from within them\u201d (John 7:37<\/a> \u2013 38,
\nitalics added).
\nDetails That Connect the Dots
\nMy first exposure to this field of study was about fifteen years ago
\nwhen I signed up for a class at my church called \u201cThe Land, the Culture,
\nand the Book.\u201d Having grown up in a devout Lutheran family,
\nI figured that learning some historical background would be good
\nfor my Bible study. My grandparents had been missionaries in Madagascar,
\nand several uncles and cousins were pastors. My own world
\nwas the sciences, so I was more used to facts and lectures. My graduate
\ndegree was in biology, and I was teaching human physiology and
\nmolecular biology at a nearby college.
\nI admit that I cringed a little before starting the class, bracing
\nmyself for what I thought would be a weekly dose of dusty, dry archaeological
\ninformation. I didn\u2019t know much about the presenter except
\nthat he had taught high school for twenty-five years and had been
\nleading study trips to Israel for twenty-five years \u2014 mentally I calculated
\nhis age at about eighty-seven. How appropriate to learn about
\nthe Old Testament from an octogenarian, I thought.4 (Not catching
\nthat the presenter, Ray Vander Laan, had being doing these things
\nconcurrently, I was off by about forty years.)
\nBut from the first session the class was like drinking from a fire
\nhose. Everywhere the Bible started greening up, sprouting with new
\nlife. It was there that I first heard of the biblical idea of living water
\nand learned about its association with the Feast of Tabernacles and
\nBrushing Away the Dust of the Ages
\n19
\nwith the outpouring of the Spirit during the messianic age (Ezekiel
\n47; Joel 2:23<\/a> \u2013 29; Zechariah 14:8<\/a> \u2013 18).
\nAs I started to see how important history, geography, language,
\nand culture were for unlocking the biblical text, my curiosity led me
\nto study in the land of Israel, to learn from scholars there about firstcentury
\nJewish culture, and to study Hebrew and Greek.5 A few years
\nlater I left the world of teaching biology to write and teach about this
\nsubject full-time.
\nYou might think that you need to master whole textbooks before
\nthis kind of study starts to enrich your Bible reading, but I\u2019ve been
\namazed at how the smallest details can help connect the dots. It\u2019s like
\nwhen you\u2019re stumped doing a crossword puzzle but then finally decipher
\none word. Suddenly an adjoining word falls into place, which
\nyields clues to unlock yet more words, and then the rest of the grid
\nstarts to fill in.
\nThe simplest cultural details can unravel knotty mysteries, sometimes
\nwith powerful theological implications. For instance, how much
\nwould the firewood weigh for an average burnt offering? You might
\nthink that minutiae like this isn\u2019t worth studying, but this obscure
\ndetail casts light on one of the Bible\u2019s most difficult chapters.
\nAfter reading the account in Genesis 22<\/a> about God\u2019s asking Abraham
\nto sacrifice Isaac, many people ask, \u201cHow old was Isaac?\u201d Was he
\na toddler, a teen, or an adult? Most paintings picture Isaac as a child
\ntoting a bundle of sticks under his arm as he walks beside his elderly
\nfather. This is because Genesis 22:6<\/a> says that Abraham carried the
\nknife while Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice.
\nBut a sacrifice was offered by roasting an animal as a whole burnt
\noffering, which took several hours over a full fire.6 The large logs
\nneeded for fuel would require the strength of a full-grown man to
\ncarry them. There was no way the elderly Abraham could lift them
\n(remember, he was one hundred already when Isaac was born), so he
\ncarried the knife while Isaac carried the wood. In fact, for most of the
\njourney, two donkeys bore the massive burden (verse 3).
\nOnce you envision an adult Isaac bearing the heavy wood, the
\nstory takes on an entirely different tone. Now we see that the story is
\nnot just about Abraham\u2019s unshakeable faith in God; it\u2019s about Isaac\u2019s
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n20
\nwilling, heroic obedience to submit to his father\u2019s will. And suddenly
\nthe scene of Christ carrying his cross comes starkly into view.
\nHearing Jesus through a Disciple\u2019s Ears
\nWhat does it mean that Jesus lived as a Jewish rabbi who called and
\ntrained disciples? And how does learning about his teachings in their
\noriginal context enable us to better live out our calling? Jesus\u2019 first
\nfollowers responded to his words with actions that astound us. They
\nleft home, family, and comfort behind to follow him, risking their
\nlives to change the world. As life-changing as his teachings were in
\ntheir original context, modern readers often struggle to see what provoked
\nsuch a radical response. More than twenty centuries separate
\nus. Could it be that the debris of time and cultural change have taken
\nthe edge off Jesus\u2019 earth-shattering words?
\nWhat if we could scrub off the dust and dirt of the ages to see the
\noriginal Jesus in the Gospels? What if we allowed the scenery around
\nhim to come to life, so that we could visualize him once again in his
\nnative context? Jesus\u2019 words would not change,
\nbut they would burst with new meaning when
\nunderstood in their original setting. We would
\nsee Jesus with new clarity as we bring into
\nfocus the fuzzy backdrop around him that is so
\nforeign to our modern world \u2014 a place of rabbis
\nand synagogues, nomads, farmers, kings, and
\nshepherds.
\nIt\u2019s hard not to wonder if the early Jerusalem church might have
\nhad a few advantages in understanding Jesus that can help us as disciples
\ntoday. In the first chapters in Acts we read of their amazing
\npassion \u2014 their Spirit-filled prayers, their joyful gatherings, their loving
\ngenerosity, and their dynamic witness to their neighbors.
\nUntil a few years ago, it never occurred to me that the first believers
\nof the infant Jerusalem church in Acts were all observant Jews,
\nmen and women who continued to study the Torah and worship in
\nthe Temple, even after they came to faith in Christ. In fact, for the
\nfirst half of Acts, the rapidly expanding church was almost entirely
\nThe world stands
\non three things:
\non Torah, worship,
\nand loving deeds
\nof kindness.
\n\u2014 Mishnah, Avot 1:2
\nBrushing Away the Dust of the Ages
\n21
\nJewish. It was only after God pushed Peter out of his comfort zone to
\nwitness to the Gentile centurion Cornelius that the church considered
\nthe possibility that the gospel was for Gentiles too (Acts 10<\/a>).
\nWe Chris tians often neglect this as we retell the stories of the
\nearly believers\u2019 joyful fellowship. We assume that the remarkable
\nsuccess of the Jerusalem church came from the fact that believers
\nwere freshly filled with the Holy Spirit. But Paul\u2019s Gentile church at
\nCorinth had experienced the same outpouring, yet it struggled with
\nimmaturity, division, and sexual immorality. Why the difference? As
\nwonderful as it was that the Corinthians found Christ, most had
\ncome out of a pagan reality, and their lives had not been saturated by
\nthe Scriptures that Jesus read, our Old Testament. They lacked the
\nTorah\u2019s training in moral laws that Christ built upon. They had a lot
\nof catching up to do.
\nMoreover, while the Gentiles worshiped Jesus as their Savior and
\nGod, the Jewish believers also knew him as their rabbi. As Jesus\u2019 disciples,
\nthey knew their obligation was to memorize his words and live
\naccording his halakhah, his interpretation of how God\u2019s Word teaches
\nus to live.
\nWhy Haven\u2019t We Known?
\nNowadays, it seems only natural to wonder about Jesus\u2019 Jewish cultural
\nsetting. Why haven\u2019t we asked those questions in the past? A
\nstroll through the aisles of my local grocery store suggests one answer:
\nSushi. Gyros. Kimchi. Tahini. Fifty years ago my mother had never
\neven heard of these ethnic specialties; it wasn\u2019t until the late sixties
\nthat she even tried making a new-fangled dish called \u201cpizza.\u201d
\nUntil only a few decades ago, a startlingly short list of bland foods
\ncomprised my family\u2019s entire culinary world. Creamed beef on toast.
\nMacaroni and Spam. Ground beef over rice. In my white-bread world,
\nI simply never thought to ask.
\nOn my kitchen table is a little clay sculpture of Jesus healing a
\nblind man, with a sticker on the bottom that says it was handcrafted
\nin Peru. But you hardly need the label to guess where it came from
\nwhen you see the dark braids, the ponchos, the Peruvian faces. Of
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n22
\ncourse its creator imagined Jesus within his or her own reality, just
\nas white Americans have cast Jesus as a blue-eyed Caucasian. As the
\ngospel has gone out around the world, people have, by default, pictured
\nJesus through their own cultural lenses.
\nYou might be surprised that Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s Last Supper does
\nthe same thing. This masterpiece has influenced the Chris tian imagination
\nof Jesus\u2019 fateful last evening more than any other, yet it is
\nculturally wrong in every detail. In the background are windows looking
\nout on a sunny mid-afternoon scene, whereas the Passover meal
\nalways took place at night. And of course the faces of Jesus and the
\ndisciples are pale-faced Europeans, not Semitic. Most telling is what
\nis on the table. Lacking are the essential elements of the Passover
\ncelebration, including the lamb and unleavened bread. In their place
\nis a puffy loaf of bread, when leavening is strictly forbidden during
\nthe week of Passover, and a shockingly unkosher plate of grilled eels
\ngarnished with orange slices!8
\nOf course da Vinci\u2019s goal was to portray the disciples\u2019 reactions
\nat that critical moment, and he does so with brilliant technique and
\nemotive depth. But by not including the elements of Passover, a feast
\nthat celebrated God\u2019s redemption and brimmed over with messianic
\nexpectations, we miss the fact that Jesus was powerfully proclaiming
\nhimself as the fulfillment of God\u2019s ancient promises. Jesus uses the
\nsymbols of Passover to point toward his coming atonement to redeem
\nthose who believed in him and to inaugurate a \u201cnew covenant\u201d for
\nthe forgiveness of sin.9
\nCertainly much of the reason that we Chris tians have missed
\nthese details is simply out of ignorance. But it also comes out of how
\nwe\u2019ve read our Bibles. As I was growing up, what I usually heard about
\nJesus\u2019 Jewish context was how much he opposed it and was bringing
\nit to an end. Unfortunately, that attitude is not just a relic of the
\npast. Just a few months ago I happened to tune my car radio to hear
\na popular pastor put it this way:
\nWhen Jesus came, everything changed, everything
\nchanged. . . . He didn\u2019t just want to clean up the people\u2019s attitudes
\nas they gave their sacrifices, He obliterated the sacrificial system
\nBrushing Away the Dust of the Ages
\n23
\nbecause He brought an end to Judaism with all its ceremonies,
\nall its rituals, all its sacrifices, all of its external trappings, the
\nTemple, the Holy of Holies, all of it.10
\nIf this were what Jesus taught, his first passionate followers in
\nActs certainly didn\u2019t catch his drift. Peter and the other early Christians
\ncontinued to participate daily in Temple worship (Acts 3:1<\/a>;
\n21:23 \u2013 26). Jesus did, of course, speak against corruption within the
\npriesthood and prophesy the Temple\u2019s destruction forty years later.
\nOther Jewish groups, like the Essenes, also denounced its corruption
\nand sought to purify their worship. But while the Essenes abandoned
\nthe Temple,11 Jesus\u2019 disciples never did, implying that Jesus did not
\npreach against the Temple\u2019s ceremonies. And even though the Jerusalem
\nchurch ruled that Gentiles did not need to observe Jewish law,
\nJewish believers in Jesus continued to carefully observe the Torah
\nand were even known for their avid observance (see Acts 21:20<\/a>, 25).12
\nWhen I used to read the passages in the New Testament about
\n\u201cthe Jews\u201d as those who opposed the church and rejected Jesus, I
\ndidn\u2019t realize that the people writing those words were also Jews.
\nOften they used the phrase \u201cthe Jews\u201d to refer to the Jewish leadership
\nwho opposed them. Acts tells us that thousands of Jews actually did
\nbelieve in Christ (Acts 2:41<\/a>; 5:14; 6:7; 21:20). So the issue to Paul in
\nRomans 9<\/a> \u2013 11 was not that none of the Jews had believed in Christ,
\nbut that not all of them did. (Have all of us Gentiles, for that matter,
\nembraced him?)
\nScholar Luke Timothy Johnson notes that many first-century
\ndocuments show a cultural habit of referring to one\u2019s opponents with
\nharsh epithets such as \u201chypocrites,\u201d \u201cblind,\u201d or \u201cdemon-possessed.\u201d By
\nour standards, every debate sounds overcharged and full of slander.
\nWhen you hear John the Baptist calling his listeners a \u201cbrood of
\nvipers\u201d (Matthew 3:7<\/a>), and Paul wishing that his opponents would
\nemasculate themselves (Galatians 5:12<\/a>), their comments should be
\nheard in this light. Within its wider cultural setting, the New Testament\u2019s
\nrebukes don\u2019t sound quite so harsh.13
\nThe Jews were strongly divided over Jesus in the New Testament,
\nand this within-the-family debate became heated. But it wasn\u2019t until
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n24
\ncenturies later when the church became overwhelmingly Gentile that
\nthe New Testament was understood as being hostile toward Jews as a
\nwhole. This has strongly contributed to anti-Semitism over the ages,
\nand for many Chris tians has led to a disinterest in the Jewish setting
\nof the Bible and our faith.
\nI was hardly aware of this attitude myself until a stunning encounter
\nI had before my first study trip in Israel. I was chatting with a
\nneighbor down the block and mentioned my upcoming travels. Since
\nhe was active in his church, I thought he might be interested. But
\nhe grimaced and blurted out, \u201cWhy on earth would you want to go
\nthere? Those Jews never did nothing good, except give us Jesus.\u201d14
\nWouldn\u2019t that be enough?
\nNew Tools to Know
\nNever before have we been more profoundly aware of the diverse
\nmosaic of peoples that blanket our planet. With such heightened
\nsensitivity, it seems only natural to ask about Jesus\u2019 Jewish setting.
\nBut ironically, as our world has become more sensitive to embracing
\nethnic differences, some have done exactly the opposite with Jesus.
\nIn 1999 the National Catholic Reporter magazine sponsored a \u201c Jesus
\n2000\u201d competition, searching for a new \u201cimage\u201d of Jesus for the next
\nmillennium. The prize-winning painting, called \u201cThe Jesus of the
\nPeople,\u201d portrayed Jesus as dark-skinned, thick-lipped, and feminine.15
\nIt\u2019s understandable that this Jesus is not white. But what about the
\nfact that he\u2019s also not in any way Jewish?
\nThis was the approach that the Last Supper caretakers took in
\nformer centuries. Each time da Vinci\u2019s scene grew dingy, the faces
\nwere \u201cbrightened\u201d by repainting right over the top of them, touching
\nthem up in whatever way the current painter saw fit. In a similar way,
\nthe Christ we often encounter has been \u201crepainted\u201d to blend into
\neveryone else\u2019s culture rather than his own. Each artist adds another
\nlayer to suit their tastes.
\nIt\u2019s hard not to wonder if this is why each new book of the \u201c Jesus
\nreimagined\u201d genre wildly disagrees with the previous one. In one Jesus
\nis a wandering guru, in the next a subversive rebel, in the next a busi-
\nBrushing Away the Dust of the Ages
\n25
\nness CEO, in the next a dreamy mystic.16 Instead of photoshopping
\nJesus into yet another improbable reality, a helpful corrective would
\nbe to restore Jesus to his original setting. And now we are gaining
\nmore and more tools to do so, with the discovery of ancient texts and
\narchaeological remains of his day.
\nWhat would it look like to peel back the layers of time and to see
\nthe real Jesus? Obviously, it would be a mistake to project on him
\nJewish realities of later centuries. If we picture him with a bagel in
\none hand and a dreidel in the other, we\u2019d be guilty of distorting his
\nreality too, because both things are from later centuries and practices.
\nBut Jesus did eat matzah (unleavened bread) and celebrate Hanukkah,
\ntraditions that go back to before his time.17
\nHow much can we know about the world of Jesus anyhow? A
\nwealth of literature actually exists that preserves Jewish thought from
\nthe centuries before and after Christ. Best known are the Mishnah
\nand the Talmud, two compendiums of discussion on the laws of the
\nTorah, which contain teachings preserved orally from about 200
\nBC until AD 200 (Mishnah) or AD 400 \u2013 500 (Talmud, in two editions).
\n18 Orthodox Jews still study these writings today. Of course
\nChris tians don\u2019t read these texts as authoritative, but they reveal an
\nancient river of thought that flowed through Jesus\u2019 world, which can
\nfill in gaps in our understanding. Other first-century documents like
\nthe writings of Josephus and the Dead Sea Scrolls shed light on Jesus\u2019
\nworld too.
\nYou might be surprised to learn that some of Judaism\u2019s most
\ninfluential thinkers, including Hillel and Shammai (30 BC to AD
\n10), lived in the decades right around Jesus\u2019 time. Hillel\u2019s grandson,
\nGamaliel, was Paul\u2019s teacher, who came to the defense of the early
\nchurch in Acts 5:33<\/a> \u2013 39. The words of these and other early rabbis
\nallow us to reconstruct the conversations going on around Jesus. They
\nused the same kind of logic to answer questions, interpret Scriptures,
\nand weave parables, which yields fascinating clues to Jesus\u2019 words.
\nOf course, scholars disagree about the exact details of Jesus\u2019 reality,
\nand Judaism is known for its wide diversity of opinion. My thoughts
\nwill hardly provide the last and best word. But as a Chris tian, I grew
\nup without knowing the most basic details of Jesus\u2019 Jewish world,
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n26
\naspects of his reality that have persisted in Judaism from the first century
\nuntil today. What I\u2019ve chosen to share in this book are a few core
\nconcepts that Chris tians have hardly known about, yet shed light
\non Jesus\u2019 teachings. Often this Hebraic perspective unlocks biblical
\nwisdom that our culture has forgotten over time.
\nKen Bailey has spent decades traveling in the Middle East to study
\nArab peoples, showing how traditional societies there preserve the
\nBible\u2019s cultural perspective in ways that Western societies have not.
\nHe comments, \u201cFor us as Westerners the cultural distance \u2018over\u2019 to
\nthe Middle East is greater than the distance \u2018back\u2019 to the first century.
\nThe cultural gulf between the West and the East is deeper and wider
\nthan the gulf between the first century (in the Middle East) and the
\ncontemporary conservative Middle Eastern village.\u201d19
\nChris tians may also be surprised at how Jewish traditions have
\npreserved biblical attitudes. To catch the emotional power of Jesus\u2019
\nclaim to be the source of \u201cliving water\u201d in John 7<\/a>, you can go to the
\nparched Middle East and ask an Arab about how precious rain is to
\nhim. Or, go to the synagogue in your own hometown, where you\u2019ll
\nhear passionate prayers for \u201cliving water\u201d each day during the weeklong
\nfeast of Sukkot. (In one Jewish prayer book, these go on for over
\nfifty pages.) Some liturgies preserve cultural memories that go back
\nthousands of years.20
\nWhy is God allowing us to discover these insights now? Perhaps
\nit\u2019s because we need them now more than ever. Indeed, for much of
\nthe world, the culture of the Bible makes more sense than it does to
\nus. Eugene Nida, a pioneer in Bible translation, has commented:
\nIn a sense, the Bible is the most translatable religious book
\nthat has ever been written. . . . If one were to make a comparison
\nof the culture traits of the Bible with those of all the existing
\ncultures of today, one would find that in certain respects the
\nBible is surprisingly closer to many of them than to the technological
\nculture of the Western world. It is this \u201cWestern\u201d culture
\nthat is the aberrant one in the world. And it is precisely in the
\nWestern world . . . that the Scriptures have seemingly the least
\nacceptance.21
\nBrushing Away the Dust of the Ages
\n27
\nThroughout history people have lived in extended families, practiced
\nsubsistence farming, and lived under the shadow of slavery and
\nwar. And around the world, many traditional cultures focus their children\u2019s
\ntraining on sacred stories and order their lives around religious
\npractices. With our individualism, secularism, materialism, and biblical
\nilliteracy, we in the Western world are the ones who have moved
\nfarthest away from Jesus\u2019 world. Could it be that we\u2019re the ones who
\nhave the most to learn?
\nNot Just a Rabbi
\nOne thing I don\u2019t want you to misunderstand. You might think that
\nby calling Jesus \u201crabbi\u201d I\u2019m implying that he was just an innovative
\nteacher trying to promote a new idea, like Edison with a light bulb
\nor Bill Gates with a new operating system. We\u2019re so used to thinking
\nthis way that we assume that Jesus\u2019 goal was to compete in the realm
\nof thought. We mistakenly hear Jesus\u2019 message about the \u201ckingdom
\nof God\u201d as if he\u2019s trying to sell an exciting new plan for establishing
\nworld peace. But to Jesus\u2019 Jewish audience, to proclaim the kingdom
\nof God was to make a shocking announcement that God\u2019s promised
\nMessiah had arrived, because the task of the Messiah was to establish
\nGod\u2019s kingdom on earth. Jesus was making an earth-shattering claim
\nthat he was the Christ, and that God\u2019s redemption of the world would
\ncome through him.22
\nThe reason I point this out is because it allows us to release Jesus
\nfrom the age-old competitive game of \u201c Jesus vs. Judaism,\u201d where his
\nideas can only be right if everyone else\u2019s are wrong, and vice versa.
\nIf, as a Chris tian, you start out by assuming that Jesus is the Messiah
\nand the Son of God, he simply doesn\u2019t need to compete. He speaks
\nwith divine authority whether he disagrees with the Jewish thought
\nof his day or affirms it. We can grow as his disciples when we hear his
\nwords in their Jewish context and learn how to better live them out.
\nBearing this in mind, it is still appropriate to speak of Jesus as
\n\u201crabbi,\u201d because part of his mission was to teach his redeemed people
\nhow God wanted them to live.23 He did so by using the methods
\nthat other early Jewish sages used for teaching and raising disciples.
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n28
\nThroughout the Gospels Jesus was called \u201cteacher\u201d and \u201crabbi\u201d by
\nthose around him, and members of the early church universally called
\nthemselves \u201cdisciples.\u201d They were mathetai (Greek for \u201cstudents\u201d), followers
\nof the \u201cWay\u201d that Jesus had taught them for living.
\nWalking in His Dust
\nThe way Jesus taught his first disciples was not unique but part of a
\nwider tradition in Judaism that began a few centuries before his time.
\nJesus didn\u2019t hand his disciples a textbook or give them a course syllabus.
\nHe asked each one of them to follow him \u2014 literally, to \u201cwalk
\nafter\u201d him. He invited them to trek the byways at his side, living life
\nbeside him to learn from him as they journeyed. His disciples would
\nengage in life\u2019s activities along with him, observing his responses and
\nimitating how he lived by God\u2019s Word.
\nOut of this unusual teaching method arose a well-known saying:
\nyou should learn from a rabbi by \u201ccovering yourself in his dust.\u201d You
\nshould follow so closely behind him as he
\ntraveled from town to town teaching that
\nbillows of sandy granules would cling to your
\nclothes.24 As you walked after your rabbi,
\nyour heart would change. This will be our
\ntask in this book, to stroll through Jesus\u2019
\nancient world at his side, listening to his
\nwords with the ears of a disciple.
\nBut in Hebrew, the word for halakh,
\n\u201cwalk,\u201d encompasses so much more. Your
\n\u201cwalk\u201d in life refers to your overall lifestyle,
\nhow you conduct yourself morally. A rabbi\u2019s
\ninterpretation of the Torah was called halakhah,
\nhow to \u201cwalk\u201d by God\u2019s Word. When
\nJesus called his disciples to \u201cwalk after\u201d him,
\nhe meant the word in both ways. First they
\nwould follow in his literal footsteps; later they would follow in his
\nteachings, taking his message out to the world.
\nClosely related was the word derekh, meaning \u201croad,\u201d \u201cpath,\u201d or
\nI did not go to
\nthe rabbi to learn
\ninterpretations of the
\nTorah from him but
\nto note his way of
\ntying his shoelaces
\nand taking off his
\nshoes. . . . In his
\nactions, in his speech,
\nin his bearing, and
\nhis faithfulness to the
\nLord, man must make
\nthe Torah manifest.
\n\u2014 Aryeh Leib Sarahs
\nBrushing Away the Dust of the Ages
\n29
\n\u201cway.\u201d The imagery was not of four-laned freeways that are paved for
\npermanence, but the track left behind by people\u2019s footprints. Some
\npaths led to good places, and some to dangerous, evil places. Your
\n\u201cway\u201d was a spiritual metaphor for how you lived. This is still true
\ntoday, as Jesus lovingly walks before us in the way we ought to live.
\nAnd then he bids us to put our feet in his own footprints to follow
\nafter him, to become part of his \u201cWay,\u201d as his early followers once did.
\nIn Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, my coauthor Ann Spangler
\nand I began by looking at another first-century idiom, that to \u201csit
\nat the feet\u201d of a rabbi meant to study with him. We pondered what
\nJesus\u2019 words might have sounded like if we had gathered in Martha\u2019s
\nhouse and sat alongside Mary at Jesus\u2019 feet, enjoying an after-dinner
\ndiscussion with his disciples. Ann and I examined basic aspects of
\nJesus\u2019 Jewish reality like the yearly feasts, the daily prayers, and the
\nway rabbis trained disciples. Through them we discovered many new
\ninsights on Jesus\u2019 life and mission.
\nIn this book, I will be looking more closely at Jesus\u2019 words and
\nteachings in their Jewish context. We\u2019ll push beyond externals to
\nexplore the world of Jewish thought. We\u2019ll contemplate some of the
\ncultural ideas and biblical images that gave meaning and depth to
\nJesus\u2019 words. And, we\u2019ll discover some of the wisdom that Jewish culture
\nhas preserved over the ages that reveals ways we can become
\nmore like Rabbi Jesus.
\nWe\u2019ll look at some key Hebrew words that Jesus knew from his
\nScriptures and discover how their deeper meanings cast light on our
\nfaith. We will listen with new ears to Jesus\u2019 interpretation of how
\nto live out the Shema \u2014 the daily pledge to love God with all your
\nheart that formed the very center of Jewish commitment from ancient
\ntimes until today. As we do, we\u2019ll hear our Savior\u2019s calling in ways
\nthat will transform our lives today.
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n30
\nWisdom for the Walk
\n1. Reflect on your own cultural and spiritual heritage. How may it
\nhave distorted your view of Jesus and his teachings? In what ways
\ndo you feel it portrays Jesus accurately?
\n2. Why have we lost an understanding of the Hebrew culture and
\ncontext of Jesus? How might those things still affect our thinking
\ntoday?
\n3. Read John 7<\/a>, keeping in mind that Jesus\u2019 followers as well as his
\nopponents were all Jews, and often the words \u201cthe Jews\u201d refers
\nto Jewish leaders who opposed him. How does that cast light on
\nyour reading?
\n4. The chapter points out the contrast between the maturity of the
\nJewish believers in Acts and the Gentile believers of Corinth,
\nwho were plagued with sins and scandals. Consider your own life
\nand the life of your church. Do you exhibit signs of maturity, or
\ndo you have a long way to go, like the Corinthians? How can you
\nand your church pursue spiritual maturity?
\n5. How does understanding Jesus\u2019 culture help us to better interpret
\nand live out his words?
\n31
\nCHAPTER 2
\nShema:
\nLiving Out What You Hear
\nThe word Shema itself means \u201clisten,\u201d
\nand the recital of the Shema is a supreme act of faith-as-listening:
\nto the voice that brought the universe into being,
\ncreated us in love and guides us through our lives.
\n\u2014 Rabbi Jonathan Sacks1
\nIn 1945, Rabbi Eliezer Silver headed up the search for thousands of
\ndisplaced Jewish children across Europe. They had been hidden
\nfrom the clutches of the Nazis on farms and in convents and monasteries,
\nand now he sought to return them to their families if at all
\npossible.
\nThe rabbi had a promising lead with a report that a monastery
\nin southern France had taken in Jewish children. But the priest in
\ncharge was of little help, declaring that to his knowledge, all of their
\nchildren were Chris tians. And Rabbi Silver could produce no records.
\nSchwartz . . . Kaufmann . . . Schneider. These family names were
\nobviously German, but they could be either Jewish or Gentile. He
\nscanned their small faces \u2014 many had lived there since they were toddlers.
\nHow could he know if any of them were from Jewish families?
\nHe asked if he could visit the wards. In front of the children he
\nbegan singing in Hebrew, \u201cShema Israel, Adonai elohenu, Adonai
\nechad.\u201d (\u201cHear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.\u201d) A
\nhandful of faces lit up, and tiny voices from around the room joined
\nin. They recognized these ancient words from their bedtime prayers
\nand from their earliest memories of their mothers and fathers reciting
\nthem each morning and evening during their own prayers.2
\nThese six words begin the Shema (pronounced \u201cshmah\u201d), three sec-
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n32
\ntions of Scripture repeated twice daily to remind each Jewish person of
\nhis or her commitment to God (Deuteronomy 6:4<\/a> \u2013 9; 11:13 \u2013 21; Numbers
\n15:37 \u2013 41; see pages 195 \u2013 96 for the text). For thousands of years,
\nobservant Jewish parents have taught their children the words of the
\nShema as soon as they could speak. Jesus likely learned it on Joseph\u2019s
\nknee when he was a youngster too. These same lines have been central
\nto Jewish prayer life since centuries before Jesus was born.3
\nBefore I started learning about Jesus\u2019 Jewish context, I, like most
\nChris tians, had never even heard of the Shema. But it was so central
\nto Jesus\u2019 own faith that when a lawyer asked him what he believed
\nwas the greatest commandment, his answer began by quoting from
\nthe Shema:
\nOne of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.
\nNoticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked
\nhim, \u201cOf all the commandments, which is the most important?\u201d
\n\u201cThe most important one,\u201d answered Jesus, \u201cis this: \u2018Hear, O
\nIsrael; the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God
\nwith all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind
\nand with all your strength.\u2019 The second is this: \u2018Love your neighbor
\nas yourself.\u2019 There is no commandment greater than these.\u201d
\n(Mark 12:28<\/a> \u2013 31)
\nLike many Chris tians, if you asked me to summarize this famous
\nstory, I\u2019d rattle off Jesus\u2019 words about loving God and neighbor. But I\u2019d
\nskip over this mysterious preamble about God being \u201cone,\u201d the very
\nwords that those Jewish children knew by heart. The line I had never
\nheard of was the cornerstone of their faith.
\nWhy did Jesus quote this line about the Lord being one? Because
\nit is the opening line of the Shema. Immediately following it is the
\ngreat command: \u201cLove the Lord your God with all of your heart and
\nwith all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.\u201d
\nEvery morning and evening for thousands of years, the Jewish people
\nhave promised to love God wholeheartedly when they\u2019ve said the
\nShema.
\nBelieve it or not, Jesus\u2019 next command, \u201clove your neighbor as
\nyourself,\u201d comes straight from Leviticus 19:18<\/a>. I used to think that the
\nShema: Living Out What You Hear
\n33
\nscribe\u2019s question was a legalistic quiz and that Jesus\u2019 talk of love rather
\nthan law would have shocked and scandalized his audience. Imagine
\nmy surprise to discover that every word of Jesus\u2019 answer came straight
\nout of the Torah \u2014 from Leviticus and Deuteronomy \u2014 the Old Testament
\ntwo books I had read the least.
\nThe lawyer\u2019s query was not foolish either. Rather, it was an invitation
\nto participate in a fascinating debate among the rabbinic teachers
\nof his day. Most likely his words were: Mah klal gadol ba\u2019torah?
\nWhat is the great essence of God\u2019s Law? What overriding principle
\nencapsulates all of God\u2019s instruction? (Torah, which we translate
\n\u201claw,\u201d actually means \u201cteaching.\u201d Technically, the term \u201cTorah\u201d only
\nrefers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, what Chris tians call
\nthe Pentateuch. But often the word is used to refer to the Scriptures as
\na whole.) The goal of answering this classic question was not to summarize
\nthe Bible in one\u2019s own words, but to choose one key verse that
\ndistilled all the rest, focusing its light down to a single brilliant point.
\nJesus was being asked to give his opinion on an intriguing discussion
\nthat sought to get at the very heart of God\u2019s will.4
\nWhen we hear the lawyer\u2019s question in light of its Jewish context,
\nwe can see how profound it was. And Jesus\u2019 answer is all the more
\npenetrating when we meditate on it in its original setting too. Let\u2019s
\nbegin to uncover some of the richness of God\u2019s greatest command by
\nexamining this first line of the Shema, which has been so central in
\nJewish thought for many centuries. In later chapters, we\u2019ll examine
\nthe rest of Jesus\u2019 words.
\nShema \u2014 Hear and Obey
\nThe Hebrew words that Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy overflow
\nwith great wisdom. Looking more closely, this is how the first line of
\nthe Shema is translated:
\nShema (Hear)
\nIsrael,
\nAdonai (the Lord)
\nelohenu (our God)
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n34
\nAdonai (the Lord)
\nechad! (one\/alone)
\nThe first word, shema, we usually translate \u201chear.\u201d But the word
\nshema has a much wider, deeper meaning than \u201cto perceive sound.\u201d It
\nencompasses a whole spectrum of ideas that includes listening, taking
\nheed, and responding with action to what one has heard.
\nI discovered the wideness of the word shema in my first Hebrew
\nclass. One classmate had a smattering of Hebrew knowledge gleaned
\nfrom other places, and he let us all know it. He\u2019d come late, leave
\nearly, and goof around during class. The teacher would pose a question
\nto someone else, and he\u2019d blurt out the answer before they could
\nrespond. Annoyed, one classmate pointedly inquired, \u201cHow do you
\ntell someone to obey?\u201d
\n\u201cShema,\u201d responded my instructor.
\nLater that afternoon, curiosity prodded me to search for verses
\nthat contained \u201cobey\u201d in my computer Bible program. In almost every
\ncase, the Hebrew behind \u201cobey\u201d was shema!
\nFor instance, in English we read Deuteronomy 11:13<\/a> as, \u201cSo if you
\nfaithfully obey the commands I am giving you today. . . .\u201d Literally,
\nthough, this verse reads, \u201cAnd it will be if hearing, you will hear. . . .\u201d
\nAnd after Moses recited the covenant to the people of Israel, they
\nresponded, \u201cWe will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey\u201d
\n(Exodus 24:7<\/a>). But the Hebrew here actually reads, \u201cAll that God
\nhad said we will do and we will hear.\u201d The two verbs here are really
\nsynonymous \u2014 to hear is to do, to be obedient.
\nThis became even clearer one sticky summer evening when I was
\nvisiting an old college friend. As we chatted together in her front
\nyard, we could hear squealing and laughter coming from behind her
\nhouse. Her kids were drenching each other in a water fight, a duel
\nbetween the garden hose and a big squirt gun. As the sun sank below
\nthe horizon, it was getting past their bedtimes, so we paused our conversation
\nso that she could call them inside. \u201cIt\u2019s getting late \u2014 time
\nto go in,\u201d she announced. But the giggling and chasing didn\u2019t even
\nslow down. She repeated her command, louder and louder. No effect.
\nShema: Living Out What You Hear
\n35
\n\u201cMy kids seem to have a hearing problem, Lois,\u201d she sighed,
\nwearily.
\nSince I knew that she had studied some Hebrew, I commented,
\n\u201cYou know, actually, what I think your kids have is a shema-ing problem.\u201d
\nHer words were vibrating their eardrums, but not actually moving
\ntheir bodies toward the door to her house. She could have been
\ntalking in Klingon for all their response. She knew as well as I did
\nthat the natural outcome of listening should be response.
\nGrasping the wider meaning of shema yields insights to other biblical
\nmysteries. In the psalms, David pleads, \u201cO Lord, please hear my
\nprayer.\u201d But he wasn\u2019t accusing God of being deaf or disinterested.
\nRather, he was calling on God to take action, not just listen to his
\nwords. When the angel appeared to Zechariah to announce that his
\nwife Elizabeth was pregnant with John, he declared that their prayer
\nhad been heard \u2014 that God was answering the barren couple\u2019s prayerful
\nlongings to have a child (Luke 1:13<\/a>).
\nHow does this help us unlock the words of the Shema? In this
\nline, it is saying in effect, \u201cHearken, take heed, Israel \u2014 the Lord is
\nyour God.\u201d Often God uses shema to call the Israelites to obey him,
\nto trust him, and to follow in his ways. You can hear God saying this
\nvery thing in Psalm 81<\/a>. Listen to it in light of the wider meaning of
\nthe word shema:
\nHear me, my people, and I will warn you \u2014
\nif you would only listen to me, Israel! . . .
\nBut my people would not listen to me;
\nIsrael would not submit to me.
\nSo I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
\nto follow their own devices.
\nIf my people would only listen to me,
\nif Israel would only follow my ways,
\nhow quickly would I subdue their enemies
\nand turn my hand against their foes! . . .
\nYou would be fed with the finest of wheat;
\nwith honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
\n(Psalm 81:8<\/a>, 11 \u2013 14, 16, italics added)
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n36
\nHaving Ears to Hear
\nUnderstanding the word shema also helps us see why Jesus often concluded
\nhis teaching with the words, \u201cWhoever has ears to hear, let
\nthem hear\u201d (e.g., Mark 4:9<\/a>). What he really meant was, \u201cYou have
\nheard my teaching, now take it to heart and obey it!\u201d He wants us to
\nbe doers of his words, not hearers only (James 1:22<\/a>).
\nYou see this especially in Jesus\u2019 parable of the sower, which concludes
\nwith his saying about having \u201cears to hear.\u201d He tells about a
\nfarmer who sows seed all over his land. But much of the ground is
\npoor, so the seed bounces off the hardened pathway, withers in the
\nrocks, and is choked by weeds (Mark 4:3<\/a> \u2013 20). Only what lands in
\nthe good soil really grows.
\nIn Jesus\u2019 parable, our hearts are the soil, and we \u201chear\u201d by receiving
\nhis words with faith and obedience. His words are a call to examine
\nourselves as to which type of listener we are. Are our hearts hard
\nto God\u2019s Word? Or are we shallow, distracted by wealth or daily living?
\n5 It\u2019s easy to insult Jesus\u2019 original audience by assuming that they
\nwere especially unwilling to respond. But are we so different than
\nthem? Who of us isn\u2019t choked by weeds in our lives? How many of us
\ntruly follow wherever Christ leads?
\nAs tough as this parable is to hear, it makes a potent promise.
\nGod is like a farmer who sows a field, knowing that much of the land
\nis poor. But the seed he is sowing is supercharged. When Christ\u2019s
\nkingdom takes hold of the few who will shema,6 hear and obey, what
\nan amazing impact it will have \u2014 a huge, hundredfold yield, the very
\nlimits of ancient productivity. Through an obedient disciple God can
\ndo truly miraculous things to expand his kingdom, far beyond human
\nimagination.
\nWise Hebrew Words
\nThe reason that shema has such a breadth of meaning is because
\nHebrew is a \u201cword-poor\u201d language. Biblical Hebrew includes only
\nabout 8,000 words, far fewer than the 400,000 or more we have in
\nEnglish.7 Paradoxically, the richness of Hebrew comes from its pov-
\nShema: Living Out What You Hear
\n37
\nerty. Because this ancient language has so few words, each one is
\nlike an overstuffed suitcase, bulging with extra meanings that it must
\ncarry in order for the language to fully describe reality. Unpacking
\neach word is a delightful exercise in seeing how the ancient authors
\norganized ideas, sometimes grouping concepts together in very different
\nways than we do.
\nMany verbs in Hebrew that we think of as only mental activities
\noften encompass their expected physical result. For instance, to
\n\u201cremember\u201d can mean \u201cto act on someone\u2019s behalf.\u201d In Genesis 8:1<\/a>
\nit says that \u201cGod remembered Noah . . . and he sent a wind over the
\nearth, and the waters receded.\u201d But God didn\u2019t
\njust wake up one morning and suddenly recall
\nthat an ark was out bobbing around somewhere.
\nHe \u201cremembered\u201d Noah by coming to his rescue.
\nAnd to \u201cknow\u201d another person is to have
\na relationship with them, to care about them,
\neven to be intimate with them. When Adam
\n\u201cknew\u201d Eve, she conceived Cain (Genesis 4:1<\/a>).
\nHebrew verbs stress action and effect rather
\nthan just mental activity. This isn\u2019t unique
\nto Hebrew. Lorrie Anderson, a New Testament
\ntranslator in Peru, searched for months
\nto find a word for \u201cbelieve\u201d in the Candoshi
\nlanguage. No direct equivalent existed for that
\nall- important term in Bible translation. What she finally discovered
\nwas that \u201chear\u201d in that language also can mean \u201cbelieve\u201d and also
\n\u201cobey.\u201d Anderson writes:
\nThe question, \u201cDon\u2019t you hear His Word?\u201d in Candoshi
\nmeans \u201cDon\u2019t you believe-obey His Word?\u201d In their way of thinking,
\nif you \u201chear\u201d you believe what you hear, and if you believe,
\nyou obey. These are not separate ideas as in English.
\nShe and other Bible translators share the same observation. They often
\nstruggle to find words for mental activities we see as all- important, but
\nsimply don\u2019t exist in indigenous languages where thought is tied to its
\nexpected outcome.8
\nThe Hebrew
\ntongue, above
\nother languages,
\nis very plain, but
\nwithal it is majestic
\nand glorious:
\nit contains much
\nin few and simple
\nwords, and therein
\nsurpasses all other
\nlanguages.
\n\u2014 Martin Luther
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n38
\nPart of why this seems strange to us is because of our Western
\nperspective. Many of our Greek cultural ancestors, including Plato,
\nconsidered the mental world all-important and physical reality worthless.
\nAs a result, our culture tends to exalt our intellect as critical and
\ndiscount our actions. Some of us Chris tians even see actions as \u201cdead
\nworks\u201d that are irrelevant, even opposed to faith.
\nYou often see this unhappy disconnect online, when Chris tians
\nrespond to what they consider theological error with rude, ugly
\ninsults, feeling innocent of wrongdoing as long as they are outing a
\n\u201cheretic.\u201d Knowing the right thing is paramount; obeying Christ\u2019s command
\nto \u201clove your neighbor\u201d is irrelevant. But Jesus said that we\u2019ll be
\nheld accountable on judgment day for every careless word we speak
\n(Matthew 12:36<\/a>). Just imagine what he\u2019ll read off from his heavenly
\ncomputer monitor as he scrolls through our online comments.
\nThe logic of Hebrew (and other languages) realizes that an action
\nshould result from what is in our minds. If you \u201cremember\u201d someone,
\nyou will act on their behalf. If you \u201chear\u201d someone, you will obey
\ntheir words. If you \u201cknow\u201d someone, you will have a close relationship
\nwith them. Hebrew realizes that the longest twelve inches that your
\nfaith has to move is from your head to your heart. And once your
\nfaith makes that move, it naturally comes out through your hands
\nand feet.
\nEchad \u2014 The One and Only
\nThe other key word in the first line of the Shema is echad (ech-
\nHAHD). Its most common meaning is simply \u201cone,\u201d but it can also
\nencompass related ideas, like being single, alone, unique, or unified.
\nThe multiple shades of meaning of echad and the difficult wording
\nof the rest of the line have made the Shema a topic of debate for
\nmillennia.
\nPart of the problem is that Deuteronomy 6:4<\/a> doesn\u2019t even have
\nverbs. It literally reads: \u201cYHWH . . . our God . . . YHWH . . . one.\u201d9
\nThe verse can be read either as saying \u201cThe Lord is our God, the
\nLord alone,\u201d or \u201cThe Lord our God, the Lord is one.\u201d Of these two
\nreadings, the more common reading is the second, that \u201cthe Lord is
\nShema: Living Out What You Hear
\n39
\none\u201d in the sense that God is unique. There is only one God, the God
\nof Israel. So this line is usually understood as a statement of belief in
\nmonotheism.
\nThe word echad has been a sticking point between Jews and
\nChris tians. Often Jews point to the fact that it means \u201cone\u201d as a reason
\nthat they cannot believe in the Trinity or in the deity of Christ.
\nAnd Chris tians respond that echad can refer to a compound unity,
\nas when God created morning and evening, and together they made
\nyom echad (\u201cone day\u201d) (cf. Genesis 1:5<\/a>). Or when Adam and Eve,
\nthrough marriage, became basar echad (\u201cone flesh\u201d) (Genesis 2:24<\/a>).
\nThis whole debate hinges on interpreting the Shema as a creed;
\nthat is, \u201cthe Lord is one\u201d is a statement about what kind of being
\nGod is. But, interestingly, one of the most widely-read Jewish Bible
\ntranslations now renders Deuteronomy 6:4<\/a> as \u201cThe Lord is our God,
\nthe Lord alone\u201d rather than \u201cThe Lord our God, the Lord is one.\u201d10
\nIt does so because in recent decades, scholars have come to believe
\nthat the original, ancient sense of echad in this verse was more likely
\nto be \u201calone\u201d than \u201cone.\u201d In Zechariah 14:9<\/a>, for instance, echad has
\nthis sense: \u201cThe Lord will be king over all the earth; on that day the
\nLord will be echad and his name echad\u201d (pers. trans.). This is a vision
\nof the messianic age, when all of humanity will cease to worship idols
\nand revere only God and call on his name alone.
\nJewish scholar Jeffrey Tigay asserts that even though the Scriptures
\nclearly preach monotheism, the Shema itself is not a statement
\nof belief. It\u2019s an oath of loyalty. He calls the first line of the Shema \u201ca
\ndescription of the proper relationship between YHVH and Israel: He
\nalone is Israel\u2019s God. This is not a declaration of monotheism, meaning
\nthat there is only one God. . . . Though other peoples worship
\nvarious beings and things they consider divine, Israel is to recognize
\nYHVH alone.\u201d11
\nWhy is this important? Because it changes the sense of what the
\nShema communicates. Rather than merely being a command to a
\nparticular belief about God, it is actually a call for a person\u2019s absolute
\nallegiance to God. God alone is the one we should worship; him only
\nshall we serve. As often as the Shema is called a creed or a prayer, it
\nHearing Our Rabbi\u2019s Words with New Ears
\n40
\nis better understood as an oath of allegiance, a twice-daily recommitment
\nto the covenant with the God of Israel.
\nAs Western Chris tians we are used to reciting creeds and statements
\nof belief in order to define our faith. We expect to find one
\nhere too. So we easily could misunderstand that Jesus was saying that
\nit is extremely critical that we believe in God\u2019s \u201coneness.\u201d But when
\nproperly understood, this line shows that the greatest commandment
\nis actually a call to commit ourselves to the one true God.
\nReading the line this way solves another mystery about what Jesus
\nwas saying. If he was asked what the greatest commandment was, why
\ndoes he begin by quoting a line about God being \u201cone\u201d? Because if
\nyou read this line as about committing oneself to God as one\u2019s Lord,
\nit flows directly into the next line in the Shema, explaining why we
\nshould love God with every fiber of our being. If the Lord alone is our
\nGod, and we worship no other gods, we can love him with all of our
\nheart and soul and strength. The two sentences together become one
\ncommandment, the greatest in fact \u2014 to love the Lord your God.12
\nOnce again, in the light of their Hebrew context, we find that
\nJesus\u2019 words call us beyond what is going on in our brains. We are not
\njust to \u201chear\u201d but to take heed, to respond, to obey. And we are not
\njust called to believe in the oneness of God, but to place him at the
\ncenter of our lives.
\nTo do that, we are to love God with all of our heart and soul and
\nstrength and mind. Each of these words, in their Hebrew context, can
\nexpand our understanding of our calling and the very essence of the
\nScriptures, as Jesus understood it. We\u2019ll consider that next.
\nShema: Living Out What You Hear
\n41
\nWisdom for the Walk
\n1. Read the three passages of the Shema on pages 195 \u2013 96 at the
\nend of this book. Why do you think these passages were chosen
\nfor repetition every morning and evening? What questions do
\nthey raise in your mind?
\n2. Read 2 Chron icles 6:19 \u2013 27, which is Solomon\u2019s prayer at the
\ndedication of the first temple. How does knowing the wider
\nHebraic meaning of \u201chear,\u201d shema, enrich your understanding?
\n3. In what ways may you have heard (intellectually understood
\nsomething) but not obeyed (acted on your knowledge)? Why does
\nthis happen? What can you do about it?
\n4. The Shema is often interpreted as a statement of monotheism,
\nthat God is one. But it can also be translated as \u201cthe Lord alone
\nis our God.\u201d How does this translation change or deepen your
\nunderstanding of God and how to relate to him?
\n5. Paul also quotes the Shema in 1 Co rin thi ans 8:4. How does he
\nuse it in his teaching?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ZONDERVAN Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus Copyright \u00a9 2012 by Lois Tverberg This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook. Visit www.zondervan.com\/ebooks.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1245,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161983"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161984,"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161983\/revisions\/161984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifechangingtruth.org\/lctc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}