Jesus (Yeshua) was a Jew that kept Jewish laws and worshiped YHVH, the "Hebrew" God. Was the "founder" of Christianity actually a Christian in practice? Would he recognize the religion today? A closer look at a BAR article.
Commentary that follows is based in part on the article posted by the BAR, “Was Jesus a Jew?” Bible Archaeological Society, and various other sources as quoted below.
An article by the Bible Archaeological Society (BAR) raised the question of whether Jesus (Yeshua) was a Jew or a Christian. They made some very valid points. But it is in many ways hard to fathom that the question posed is even valid or holds merit. Yeshua’s beliefs expounded on the Jewish beliefs of the day and magnified the law. Christianity teaches the law is done away with thanks to the sacrifice. Yeshua would not recognize the teaching of modern Christianity.
What do we find in the earliest Christian annals about the establishment of the church and Christianity? There are some very damning and interesting facts that we will delve into in the near future on this site. We find hate for the Hebrew ways of life and the law that the Creator established, all the while denying Him worship and reverence. Somehow claiming God is three and the Father is god too, but we deal with Jesus now the nicer one–the same god but different. ?? Yet, we read in both the Old and New Testament that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Malachi 3:6 “For I am YHVH, I change not;”
We plainly read that Yeshua was called Rabbi or teacher, he went inside and taught in the temple and/or synagogues (There were strong requirements and prerequisites before teaching the law in the synagogues.), he kept the Sabbath, attended the Sacred Assemblies or feast days in Jerusalem, etc. He lived prior to any label or notion of being “Christian” in today’s definition or interpretation.
Very few modern Christianity practices in doctrine replicate or shadow what Yeshua himself knew or taught about the law, his observances, etc. Matthew 5:17,18 (KJV) “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled” Romans 7:12 (KJV) “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Matthew 19:17 (KJV) “And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” 1 John 5:3 (KJV) “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” Rev.12:17 (KJV) “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 14:12 (KJV) “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Yeshua taught and thought as a Jew but did not agree with the establishment of the day. He was a Nazarene— the name of those in the early assembly according to Gibbon. The member was characterized as both keeping the Jewish law yet non-Pharisaical. Many modern Rabbis have continued the Pharisee way of thinking to the extreme so that it is almost impossible to “not sin” because of the extracurricular interpretations not scriptural. Yeshua himself never did away with the law. Christianity has interpreted that Christ fulfilled the law by his sacrifice, yet he did not say that.
What is there separately to convince us that he was anything else but a Jew? Nothing! To recognize the fact is a difficult truth to accept for many people. His parables dealt with Jewish topics, he spoke of doing good on the Sabbath day. From most every source the Jews were the only religion that kept a day sacred or holy each week from that period or prior till the early Roman Church (not Jesus) consecrated the first day of the week as the Lord’s day or Sunday, thereby annulling Saturday, the sacred day blessed and set apart by our Creator Almighty above. “Remember the Sabbath-seventh day” was thrown out. It was at first a slow removal but it gained momentum as we share some history like this quote, "The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which they presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ." ~Edward Gibbons, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
The first ten years after the death of Yeshua known as the “disciples mission” phase of the early church fathers was an absolute failure. There was no “Church.” The name church wasn’t a thing nor did it exist… there were pagan worship places and synagogues for Jewish worship.
It was after Paul tried and failed to join the apostles the first time that he eased his way in after his “vision”. The apostles thought Yeshua would be back quickly! Yeshua and/or the writers of the NT state plainly that the events Yeshua spoke of would occur in that present generation—and “all would be fulfilled.” What happened? Either he lied, was misquoted, or translators are the culprit. The kingdom of Israel subsequently was labeled or by default became the "kingdom of God" or of Heaven. Yeshua preached the good news to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” not to “the world.”
Now, approximately 2000 years later the wait continues for Yeshua to return. Many ignore the promise made. Can we trust his “recorded” word(s)? The disciples or students were in a holding pattern unsure and confused as to what did and would happen. The change from having a leader to becoming leaderless eventually started taking shape as the Gentiles or non Jews started taking control of the new eventual Gentile movement as anti-Jewish attitudes prevailed and anything to do with the “Hebrews” was severely frowned upon and was to be squashed. Yet, the new leaders loved the Jesus resurrection story and embellished it and saw it as a means for pagan converts to join in the movement as sun worship was in decline. Egyptian, Greek, and Roman theology had a human to god element via resurrection that would fit right in. They could see an easy conversion from paganism to a new religion known as Christianity via the proclaimed Messiah or Greek Christos or Christ story.
The original Judaeo Rabbi evolved into the Latin or Greek “Jesus” over the next several centuries and into a totally different entity know as the “Son of God.” An entity that he, himself would NOT recognize nor agree with. Writings of the original apostles were either recreated or changed to fit the story. The original “Jewish” believers in the laws which were given to Moses, were being persecuted and eventually fled to Pella.They were to be forced out of the assembly and out of the area all together, but immediately if they did not drop the law of Moses or anything affiliated with Hebrew beliefs. Can you say anti-Semitic? It was during this time that the Latin or Greek name Jesus was adopted and used as his given name– replacing Joshua (English) or Yehoshua (Hebrew).
Virgil, the Roman playwright in his writings and plays used common knowledge of pagan history to create his own hero– a half man/god entity some 80 years prior to Yeshua in which the hero died and rose from the dead to save the people and become god as well… sound familiar? We will share more of this in another post.
What is unbelievable is that this public play to honor the pagan Roman god(s) in particular Apollo/Jupiter was turned around by the early church fathers and embellished and “confirmed” that it foretold Jesus. It was an easy stretch to claim and blend the Jupiter and Yahweh god stories together with the Jesus story. You can’t make this stuff up! It was the perfect fit.
The first two commands of the ten clearly states that YHVH is the only god that we are to worship, and honoring or serving other gods or even using an image or likeness of a god is breaking the law and more specifically constitutes idolatry, which He hates. Scripture states that one reason He hid Himself at Sinai was to not give the Children of Israel a sight to draw or make an image of Him to worship it instead of Him personally.
Did the Almighty inspire the pagans and associate with them and their god worship in any way? No! But, it was an opportunity and an idea for the early Gentile church followers to use the popular cultural and religious leanings and teachings of the day. This is clearly evident in the adoption of pagan festivals, and practices and implementing them into the Roman church. It provided a means to adopt the pagan idea to create immediate followers. Here is a quote from Virgil/Vergil writings. Notice his god Apollo is the true god and reigns: "Yet do thou at that boy’s birth, in whom the iron race shall begin to cease, and the golden to arise over all the world, holy Lucina, be gracious; now thine own Apollo reigns." (2. 8-11.)
“We necessarily interpret as we read, but not all interpretations are created equal, despite the claims of some postmodern thinkers. A Christian Jesus is a parochial, self-serving myth and an Aryan Jesus a perverse one. But why then have Christians so persistently thought of Jesus as a Christian and resisted admitting the obvious, that Jesus was a Jew? Answer: the pervasive problem of uniqueness.” ~ BAR: Was Jesus a Jew?
The turn of the 19th Century led to the scientific method which was applied to philosophy and religion and critical theology ensued. Critical theory made its way into Christianity and Jesus. We find more background in the BAR article as follows:
As is often the case, contemporary historical and theological conflicts have their roots in the fertile scholarship of 19th-century Germany. The names Ferdinand Baur (1792–1860) and Albrecht Ritschl (1822–1889) may not immediately leap to mind, but a brief sketch of their activities will help illuminate Christian biases then and today. Baur argued successfully that early Christianity had originated historically within Judaism and, less convincingly, that all of early Christian history reflected a struggle between a Jewish wing (led by Peter) and a gentile wing (led by Paul) until a synthesis was achieved. Subsequent scholarship has established that Paul was much more Jewish, and the conflicts among the early followers of Jesus much more complex, than Baur thought. But his fundamental point, the Jewish matrix of Christianity, endures. A Jesus who taught like a Jew and an early Christian community that looked like a Jewish sect troubled many 19th-century German Lutheran scholars, who preferred to envision a Jesus who taught a new and unique doctrine that overthrew the established tradition. In reaction to Baur, Albrecht Ritschl “solved” the problem by attacking the Jews. For him, Jesus did not reform or transform Judaism, he condemned it. Jesus the Jew, in Ritschl’s view, transcended Judaism by purifying Christianity of its Jewish elements. From the middle of the 19th century until World War II, numerous German scholars, including Adolf Harnack and Rudolf Bultmann, followed Ritschl’s lead in one way or another. None were Nazis, but reading them after the Holocaust leaves us with an eerie sensation. Ritschl protected the uniqueness of Jesus and extricated him from his Jewish setting by replacing the Jewish Jesus with a Romantic Jesus who had a supernatural, ineffable relationship with God, a relationship that superseded all historical influences. Deep personal relationships are the stuff of modern theology and spirituality, but separated from the weave and grit of historical reality, the personal Jesus quickly devolves into a personal projection disconnected from community and culture. So we must face the crucial question: Does Jesus the Jew—as a Jew—have any impact on Christian theology… ~BAR. Was Jesus a Jew?
Everything that the current Roman church (and most of Christianity) teaches are outside the bounds of what Jesus actually lived, taught, and believed. What does that mean for you and me and the Christian theological teachings? It means one must go back to the roots of it all.
Pharisees are the subject of repeated criticism and complaints by Yeshua. So, if he wasn’t a Pharisee then what was he? An original thinker? Yes, he had some very valid points and some additional truths that one can confirm in the Law and the Prophets. He wasn’t upper class or in line with the beliefs of the Sadducees either which died out shortly after the fall of the Temple in 70 AD. There were also in existence at the time—the Essenes and various Gnostic sects. If Jesus truly was a Galilean, then he was not in Judah or near Jerusalem most of the time; but north of Judah in Israel or Ephraim–the northern tribes area. We read that his parents moved to the Jerusalem area. (?) From his original home to Jerusalem as portrayed in scripture would have been a three day journey if he were to walk back and forth as necessary.
As alluded to earlier, there was an early remnant that fled into the mountains of or near Pella, as described by Gibbons in his series of books, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, where he states:
The enfranchisement of the church from the bonds of the synagogue was a work, however, of some time and of some difficulty. The Jewish converts, who acknowledged Jesus in the character of the Messiah foretold by their ancient oracles, respected him as a prophetic teacher of virtue and religion; but they obstinately adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors, and were desirous of imposing them on the Gentiles, who continually augmented the number of believers. These “Judaising” Christians seem to have argued with some degree of plausibility from the Divine origin of the Mosaic law, and from the immutable perfections of its great Author. They affirmed, that, if the Being who is the same through all eternity had designed to abolish those sacred rites which had served to distinguish his chosen people, the repeal of them would have been no less clear and solemn than their first promulgation: that, instead of those frequent declarations which either suppose or assert the perpetuity of the Mosaic religion, it would have been represented as a [provisional] scheme intended to last only till the coming of the Messiah, who should instruct mankind in a more perfect mode of faith and of worship: that the Messiah himself, and his disciples who conversed with him on earth, instead of authorizing by their example the most minute observances of the Mosaic law, (16) would have published to the world the abolition of those useless and obsolete ceremonies, without suffering Christianity to remain during so many years obscurely confounded among the sects of the Jewish church. Arguments like these appear to have been used in the defense of the expiring cause of the Mosaic law; but the industry of our learned divines has abundantly explained the ambiguous language of the Old Testament, and the ambiguous conduct of the apostolic teachers. It was proper gradually to unfold the system of the Gospel, and to pronounce with the utmost caution and tenderness a sentence of condemnation so repugnant to the inclination and prejudices of the believing Jews. ~Edward Gibbons, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.
THE POST JESUS ORIGINAL FLEDGLING CHURCH FLEES
We will conclude this article with another quote from Chapter 15 of Gibbon’s work. He speaks of the early converts heading to Pella as shared with you earlier.
The history of the church of Jerusalem affords a lively proof of the necessity of those precautions (Jewish beliefs), and of the deep impression which the Jewish religion had made on the minds of its (Gentile) sectaries. The first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were all circumcised Jews; and the congregation over which they presided united the law of Moses with the doctrine of Christ.
(17) It was natural that the primitive tradition of a church which was founded only forty days after the death of Christ, and was governed almost as many years under the immediate inspection of his apostle, should be received as the standard of orthodoxy.
(18) The distant churches very frequently appealed to the authority of their venerable Parent, and relieved her distresses by a liberal contribution of alms. But when numerous and opulent societies were established in the great cities of the empire, in Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Corinth, and Rome, the reverence which Jerusalem had inspired to all the Christian colonies insensibly diminished. The Jewish converts, or, as they were afterwards called, the Nazarenes, who had laid the foundations of the church, soon found themselves overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes that from all the various religions of polytheism enlisted under the banner of Christ: and the Gentiles, who, with the approbation of their peculiar apostle, had rejected the intolerable weight of Mosaic ceremonies, at length refused to their more scrupulous brethren the same toleration which at first they had humbly solicited for their own practice. The ruin of the temple, of the city, and of the public religion of the Jews, was severely felt by the Nazarenes; as in their manners, though not in their faith, they maintained so intimate a connection with their impious countrymen, whose misfortunes were attributed by the Pagans to the contempt, and more justly ascribed by the Christians to the wrath, of the Supreme Deity. The Nazarenes retired from the ruins of Jerusalem to the little town of Pella beyond the Jordan, where that ancient church languished above sixty years in solitude and obscurity.
(19) They still enjoyed the comfort of making frequent and devout visits to the Holy City, and the hope of being one day restored to those seats which both nature and religion taught them to love as well as to revere. But at length, under the reign of Hadrian, the desperate fanaticism of the Jews filled up the measure of their calamities; and the Romans, exasperated by their repeated rebellions, exercised the rights of victory with unusual rigour. The emperor founded, under the name of Alia Capitolina, a new city on Mount Sion,
(20) to which he gave the privileges of a colony; and denouncing the severest penalties against any of the Jewish people who should dare to approach its precincts, he fixed a vigilant garrison of a Roman cohort to enforce the execution of his orders. The Nazarenes had only one way left to escape the common proscription, and the force of truth was on this occasion assisted by the influence of temporal advantages. They elected Marcus for their bishop, a prelate of the race of the Gentiles, and most probably a native either of Italy or of some of the Latin provinces. At his persuasion the most considerable part of the congregation renounced the Mosaic law, in the practice of which they had persevered above a century. By this sacrifice of their habits and prejudices they purchased a free admission into the colony of Hadrian, and more firmly cemented their union with the Catholic church. ~Edward Gibbons, (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.)