Acts242

(Note: I originally wrote a lesson on this in April of 2010, but after this weekend’s seminar, realized there was another piece to this story that I hadn’t seen. So, here is the updated version.)

In Matthew 18:21-22, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how many time shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times”? Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.”

Why did Jesus pick seventy times seven? Why not just 490 or 78? Was that just an arbitrary number or by using double sevens was he trying to say, infinitely? Or, what about this possibility – was Jesus quoting from an Old Testament text and hinting at something that Peter would have recognized?

The number seven in the Bible and Jewish thought is an important number, and is the number that signifies completeness, as in the seven days of creation. If you read the Genesis story, after Adam and Eve’s fall, starting in chapter four, God begins two bloodlines (Cain and Abel) from this first couple. Out of Adam and Eve these two bloodlines slowly become spiritual bloodlines, one the father of good (Seth through Abel), and the other, the father or evil (Cain). If you count down seven generations in each bloodline, here is what you discover:

Now, remembering that the seven is the number for completeness, look at the person who is the seventh person in the bloodline of each side. In Genesis 5:23-24, it says that Enoch, on Abel’s side, walked with God and was such a man pleasing to God (Hebrew 11:5) that he didn’t die, but God took him to heaven (Enoch and Elijah were the only two men in the Bible to do this). In the Hebrew mind, Enoch was the personification of a truly righteous man. Conversely, the seventh person in the bloodline of Cain (who killed Abel), was Lamech. Lamech was evil personified and boasted in Genesis 4:24, “If Cain is avenged seven times (Genesis 4:15), then Lamech seventy times seven”. Lamech, the most evil man there was, vowed to get even by repaying evil for evil seventy times seven.

If we knew our Hebrew Testament background, suddenly Jesus answer to Peter’s question makes sense. Lamech’s vicious announcement of personal revenge finds its counterpart in Jesus response. Jesus, by hinting at this story that Peter would have been very familiar with, told Peter that you can’t fight evil with evil (Cain’s side) because evil will always win. You need to take the path of Abel’s line and forgive seventy times seven. You have to fight evil, every time it surfaces, with good. There is no limit (seventy times seven) to the times that you should forgive.

There are so many examples in the New Testament where we think Jesus is coming up with these new sayings, when in reality he was just quoting from his Hebrew text. Our problem is that we don’t know the Old Testament well enough to realize that that is what Jesus is doing. He was the greatest teacher who ever lived, not only in the spiritual sense, but as a man like us who studied and memorized the Text. Everything in Jesus’ life and ministry was taken out of the scriptures that he knew so well. We need to start reading our New Testament through a different window and realize how brilliantly the Old Testament is woven through the stories of the New. It is all one story, we just have to find the connections!

We don’t normally think about there being sporting events or Olympic style games during Bible times, but in fact this was the time period when the Olympics began and actually were flourishing. The Olympic Games themselves can be traced back to 776 B.C. in ancient Greece. These ancient games, which pitted Greek city-states against each other, consisted of running events, jumping, discus, javelin, boxing, wrestling, and equestrian (horse) events. The sporting aspect of the games tied closely into the Greek’s religious beliefs. There were always ritual sacrifices to Zeus and the other Greek gods that were associated with the events that took place. The games were held every four years and this time period was know as the Olympiad. Winners of the events were given a garland wreath as a crown. Well-known Olympians were immortalized in poems and statues.

The Olympic Games were still very important during the time that Jesus lived. King Herod the Great was himself an Olympian that excelled in fighting, the javelin throw, and in bow and arrow marksmanship. Herod built Olympic stadiums in Jerusalem and in Caesarea Maritima. In fact, Caesarea, Herod’s magnificent seaport city, was dedicated to Caesar Augustus in 12 B.C. by the holding of Olympic Games there.

The apostle Paul evidently enjoyed and was familiar with the Olympic Games. Many of his illustrations and examples involve running, boxing or wrestling. Consider these verses:

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me —the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.
– Acts 20:24

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
– 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
– 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

…as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.
– Philippians 2:16

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
– Philippians3:14

I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain.
– Galatians 2:2

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?
– Galatians 5:7

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come
– 1 Timothy 4:7-8

Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.
– 2 Timothy 2:5

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
– 2 Timothy 4:7

In these verses Paul talks about being pressed but not pinned, knocked down, but not knocked out, fighting the fight, finishing the race, running for the prize, pressing towards the goal, and finally receiving the prize. Paul knew that these images would be familiar to his readers and he used them to describe what the pursuit of the Christian life was like.

The writer of Hebrews seems to sum up this imagery of life perfectly. The writer spends all of Chapter 11 telling about the men and women who have run the race before us, men and women who finished the race and ran it well, with patience and endurance. Then he sets up the imagery in Chapter 12:1 of a great amphitheater or coliseum, with this great crowd of people who have gone before us, cheering for us, saying, “Come on! You can do it! Hang in there! Keep working at it! Don’t quit!” This crowd is not a crowd of spectators, but inspiring examples of the people that have gone before us. The crowd is made up of our aunts and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers, and mothers and fathers who have gone before us and run the Christian life well. They are cheering us on, telling us that we can make it, also!

The Christian life is a marathon, not a short sprint. It calls for training and discipline in order not to come up short and quit or have to stop and take a break. The picture is of someone training for an Olympic event, every day, giving it all they have. Do we know anyone who is training and disciplining themselves in this way for God’s Olympics? Are we holding back, or are we training our body to make it a slave, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27? Or, are we saving some back for the finish line? Are we treating life more like a walk in the park? Are we running with perseverance the race marked out for us? Will we have to tell God that we still had some left in the tank when we crossed the finish line? Will we have to tell him that we walked or set on a bench for part of the race? Training is not that pleasant. It involves hard work and pain. You have to discipline your body so that it will perform. We are not willing to pay the price as a general rule, to run the race like it should be run.

Our forefathers are crying out to us, “Don’t Quit! Don’t give in! You can do it! Keep trying, you can go a little farther!” We must hear what the great crowd of witnesses are saying. They are encouraging us on to our own finish line. Run with passion the race marked our for you! You can do it!

The two lowest classes of Roman citizens consisted of “freeborn” and specific types of slaves. “Freeborn” were people of lower economic status, but were born free men and Roman citizens. This class of people was termed, ”Plebians”. There was also a group of freed men, who had been slaves, but had either earned or bought their freedom. They were not entirely free, since their former masters still had some hand on them. Most “freeborn” and “freedmen” were fairly poor, but it was possible for them to achieve some status and wealth in business and trade. There was a synagogue of “freedmen” in Acts 6:9-12. Paul was born a Roman citizen (Acts 22:28), probably from the Plebian class – although there is no way of knowing for certain how Paul’s family became Roman citizens. Certain rights and rewards went along with this citizenship. Among these rights was the right to a fair trial before any punishment could be handed out. This fact enters the Acts story several times. A perfect example of these two classes, freeborn and freedmen, is found in Acts 22:22-29 and is really worth reading.

The lowest class in the Roman world was that of a slave. Slaves were property of their owners and were either born or sold into it, often through piracy. A huge trade developed that raised abandoned babies to be sold as slaves. Roman slavery was not racially based and slaves did not have to dress in a certain way. Slaves were a huge benefit to the Roman rulers because they bore the brunt of their industrious building projects.

The last group of people that made up Roman society was the soldier. A soldier could come from any of the people groups but were mainly from the poorer classes. A Roman soldier received 225 denari a year, (4 denari a week) and was supplemented in his income by booty taken from captives or people that they had rule over. After completing twenty-five years of service in the military, soldiers were granted full citizenship status and were given 3,000 denari and a good plot of farm land on which to retire. Because of this law, land was soon in short supply around Rome and many of the new countries that were subdued were given to the retiring soldiers. With such a large fighting force, there was a constant need for new lands and this fueled the need to continue to conquer new territories.

The soldiers were formed into groups called legions. A legion consisted of five to six thousand men, (depending on the time period in history). Fifty different legions have been documented by historians, and approximately twenty-eight legions were assembled and ready and stationed around the Roman world. A centurion was a commander of one hundred of these men; thus there were sixty centurions in a legion. Centurions wore a colored, plumed crest on their helmets so that they could be seen and followed during battle. There are several centurions mentioned in the Bible. Jesus had an encounter with a centurion in Matthew 8:5-13 and healed his paralyzed servant. In Acts 10:1, a centurion named Cornelius, who was in the Italian regiment, had a dream and called for Peter to come visit him. There are also centurions mentioned in Acts 22:25 and Acts 23:23.

A Roman soldier was well equipped and well trained for his job (Ephesians 6:10-20). His issue of equipment was very interesting. They were given crossed sticks that served as a back pack frame to carry all their equipment, which could weigh up to ninety pounds. It had a tool kit, dish and pan and personal belongings. Roman law permitted them to require subjects to carry their pack for them a mile, even if the person was originally going in the opposite direction (Matthew 5:41). They could also force residents to feed and house them for up to three days. They had three weapons: a long wooden javelin with a metal point called “pilum”, a short sword called ”gladius”, and a small dagger called a ”pugio”, for the close-in work. They also carried a curved shield called a “scutum”. They would lock their shields together and advance on the enemy and were protected from any weapons coming in from above. They wore a metal helmet during battle that covered a good portion of their head.

Hopefully, these two short lessons will give us a better idea of the layers of the Roman Society that were present during the time of the Bible. Having this information as we read the Text will help us understand and imagine what life would have been like when Rome ruled the world; the world of Jesus and his disciples.

Representation of a sitting of the Roman Senate

The Roman Empire was at its height during the time of the New Testament. The influence of Rome on its territories was vast and all-encompassing. From architecture and art to language and education, Rome had a tremendous impact on all of life. In order to better understand how the nation functioned and had such a powerful grip on their citizenry, it is helpful to do a short study of the hierarchy of the different social classes of people that made up the Roman Empire.

There were three broad categories of people in the Roman Empire that everyone fell into: 1.) Citizens, 2.) Provincials (people they defeated), and 3.) Slaves.

It is estimated that one-third of the population of this time period were slaves. Slaves were vital to the Roman class system and most citizens owned slaves. Provincials were also a large portion of the population because of Rome’s constant military campaigns to conquer the world. Provincials were often granted citizenship in exchange for their loyalty to Rome. The actual citizens of the Roman Empire were the fortunate ones. To be a citizen of Rome carried many rights and privileges. There were three ways to obtain Roman citizenship:

1. Receive it as a reward for some outstanding service to Rome
2. Buy it at a considerable price
3. Be born into a family of Roman citizens.

According to Roman law, all Roman Citizens were assured exclusion from all degrading forms of punishment. This law plays out often in the Paul stories in Acts.

Next, let’s take a look at the classes of people that made up the citizenry of the Roman Empire. At the top of the hierarchy was of course, the emperor. However, there was only one of those, so actually the highest class was the rank of Senator. The word, “Senatus”, means old man or elder, so the Roman Senate was literally a council of elders. The Senate was made up of wealthy aristocrats that were either appointed by the emperor or they inherited their position. Although the Senate did not have lawmaking powers, they wielded considerable authority. They received and sent ambassadors and appointed provincial governors and Proconsuls to their posts. Pilate was appointed governor of Judea by the Roman Senate in 26 A.D. Other biblical examples of governors include Quirinius in Luke 2:2, Sergius Paulus in Acts 13:7, and Gallio in Acts 18:17. The Senate also sent recommendations to other branches of government and these recommendations were seldom ignored. To be a Senator you had to prove that you had property and money worth at least one million sesterces (a typical yearly income for the family was approximately 1,000 sestertii). There was no salary for the senatorial position and while a senator you could not engage personally in any trade, business or anything else that was non-agricultural.

The next class below Senator was equestrian, originally a horse soldier. The basis for this class was strictly economic. You could be an equestrian if you could show that you had property worth at least 400,000 sesterces. By extension, your family members could also be equestrian if sufficient wealth could be shown. It has been recorded that families would choose to kill one of their newborns if they were afraid that by dividing the family inheritance, everyone might slip below the equestrian or senatorial rank. Equestrian could be involved in business, even the types that were off limits to the senators.

Public display of status was very important in Roman Society. The clothing of the upper class had distinctive features which made them visible to all. You could tell what class you were in by the clothing that you wore. Only men of the upper senatorial rank could wear purple, usually robes with purple stripes. Some scholars suggest that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, would have been the only person at the Pratoreum in Jerusalem who would have had a robe with purple coloring that the Bible says was put on Jesus before his crucifixion.

This finishes our brief look at the upper classes of the Roman hierarchy. In our next post, we will look at the lower classes and also look at the Roman soldier.

As we learned in our study of the Shema, the Hebrew words, “b’khol” and “uve’khol”, are translated as “with all” and “and with all”, as in, Love the Lord your God, ”with all” your heart, “and with all” your soul, “and with all” your might. However the Hebrew word, ”uve’khol” packs an even bigger punch than its English translation. The following adaptation of an old Indian fable was given to me as a parable of sorts to explain what it means to do something with “uve’khol”. The story reminds me of how Jesus would explain something by saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like” and then tell a parable to explain God’s personality and His Kingdom. Listen and have ears to hear what the story has to say about loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, and might.

In rural India, in the late nineteenth century, there lived a young man who was born into a poverty class and because of this was forced to beg for a living. The countryside was poor and the living meager for even those in the higher classes of people. Due to his position in life, the young man owned no land and had no means of support. His parents had died and left him alone and he was forced to live off the generosity of others. There was no currency to speak of, so the man carried a large cup with him and held it out to beg, hoping to receive grains of rice from his fellow villagers. He would station himself on the crossroads of the village tracks, hoping to catch the farmers as they came to and from the fields. On his best days, he might fill the cup half to three fourths full of rice to give him a meager meal for his supper.

One day as the man sat in his customary position on the dirt tracks leading to town, he noticed some activity at the far end of the road that came towards the village. As he strained to look, a huge procession of people and animals began to take shape in the distance. He could see soldiers and flag bearers in their bright uniforms leading the way, and what came behind the soldiers caused his heart to leap in his chest! A procession of elephants was coming and that could only mean one thing! The Maharaja was coming to their village! The title, “Maharaja”, means, “ great king” and there was only one in the province! All the villagers had heard rumors about him, but no one had ever seen him in person. It was almost unbelievable that their great king was actually here and coming to their town!

Quickly the beggar moved to a place in the road where they could not miss seeing him when the procession passed by. This was his once in a lifetime chance to actually receive something of value in his beggar’s cup. His quick actions put him at the front of the large crowd of people that had also spotted the procession and were gathering to witness the spectacle. Finally, the formation of soldiers reached the edge of the village and began passing by the beggar. Just as the lead elephant was approaching the man’s position, a command was shouted out for the elephants to stop. The man couldn’t believe his fortune! He was in the perfect spot! With another command the elephant went to his knees and the Maharaja dismounted. Surrounded by soldiers, the King moved toward the crowd. The beggar began to shout and frantically wave his cup, hoping to be noticed. The King spotted the beggar and walked directly toward him. Looking at the man’s cup, the Maharaja asked, “How much rice do you have?” This question was not at all what the man had expected and it caught him completely off guard. Why would the King want to know how much rice he had? He owned all the rice in the world!

“Only half a cup, your Majesty!”, the man replied.

Then the King asked another startling question, “May I have all of it?”

“What?”, the beggar thought, “I was hoping to get a huge reward from him and now he wants all that I have?”

“Well, your highness, this is all the rice I have to my name. I suppose you could have half of it”, the man dejectedly said.

The Maharaja then took the cup, turned his back and poured out half the rice into a servant’s pouch. He then handed the cup back to the beggar and without another word, got back on his elephant and the command was given to leave. As quickly as it happened, it was just as quickly over.

Utterly dejected, the man sat beside the road with his head in his hands. It had all happened so fast! His one chance for riches had come and gone so quickly! “What did I do wrong?”, he chastised himself. Finally, he forced himself to look into his cup to see how much rice was left and how much the King had actually taken. When he looked in the cup, his jaw dropped to his chest! For very grain of rice that the Maharajah had taken, he had left a golden nugget! In anguish, the beggar cried out,”If only I had given him everything!

If we love the Lord with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might, we can’t hold anything back! He wants it all, but promises so rich a reward in the process. We are the beggar without much to offer, but our King says, “Give me everything you’ve got!” Like the beggar, we are hesitant to let go! It seems too great a sacrifice and we want to hang on to what little pittance we have! Let’s give him everything we have and not look back-that is the definition of uve’khol! Shema!

“And you shall love your neighbor as yourself”
“Ve’ahvta Reacha Kamocha”
Leviticus 19:18 (English & Hebrew)

Most of us are familiar with the story in Matthew 22:34-40, where the expert in the law asked Jesus the question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” Jesus answered his question by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 (the Shema). He then added what most of us would have thought was a new twist to their thinking when he continued, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself”. Jesus seemed to be adding a New Testament requirement of love to the legalistic framework of the law. But, was this the case? Where did Jesus come up with his addition to the Shema, ”to love your neighbor as yourself”? Was this a new idea from our rabbi? What was Jesus really trying to say in answer to the expert’s question? Let’s take a closer look.

It is a surprise to find that Jesus’ command to love your neighbor as yourself comes from Leviticus 19:18 in the Old Testament! To confuse matters further, when asked for the greatest commandment, Jesus gave two! How many great commandments were there, one or two? By looking at the Hebrew meaning of the words, ”and you shall love your neighbor as yourself” and by situating them in their original Jewish context we will be able to better clarify what Jesus was really saying and draw attention to a vital point that Jesus was making in his reply. This point is not obvious to a western thinking person only reading the passage in English.

Ve’ahvta – As we learned in our recent study of Deuteronomy 6:5, this means, ”and you shall love”. In fact, this phrase only occurs three times in the Torah, two of them in Leviticus 19 (verse 18 and 34), and the other in Deuteronomy 6:5. This will become an important point later in the study. You can re-read our post on Shema – Part 2 for a more detailed explanation of ve’ahvata.

Reahka – “Your neighbor” – typically means companion, fellow, kinsman, or friend. But, from the Good Samaritan story, we know Jesus expanded the concept of neighbor far beyond kinsman or friend. You can read the post on “The Good Samaritan” for a more in depth look at who our neighbor really is.

Kamokha – “As / like yourself” – literally means, “like yourself”. To love your neighbor as you love yourself is obviously a worthwhile goal. However, this phrase can also read in a different way, “love your neighbor who is like or similar to yourself”. Supporting this interpretation, just a few lines later in Leviticus 19:34, this verse has exactly that sense. To paraphrase this verse, “Show love to foreigners because they are like yourselves – you also were once slaves in Egypt”. This idea of comparing ourselves to our neighbor makes sense when you re-read Leviticus 19:18; don’t seek revenge or bear a grudge, but love your neighbor who is like yourself. When you get angry with your neighbor, don’t forget that you are the same way. We are all flawed and sinful and we all suffer from the same problems. We are all in need of God’s mercy. This brings to mind the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors”. This interpretation takes loving our neighbor to a deeper level and puts our love for the people around us in the proper perspective. We are all flawed and hurting, so try to have compassion and a good word for those around you.

When you examine Jesus’ answer from a Jewish historical perspective, another fascinating interpretation is revealed. The expert in the law was not asking Jesus which commandment was above all the others, but which one best summarized or encompassed all the others. Before and after the time of Jesus, the sages of Israel debated and attempted to formulate a condensed set of principles that would represent the whole Torah. What few verses best summed up the foundational principles that the whole Torah espoused? They debated and some chose Micah 6:8, others Habakkuk 2:4, among others. Jesus’ response to the experts questions was his brilliant answer to this summary principle that the rabbis had so long discussed. Jesus did it by employing a foundational method of teaching in Hebrew known as “gezara shava”, which means a comparison of equals. This method used scripture to interpret scripture. Two texts could be united to one another for mutual interpretation by a word or words that they had in common. To understand the meaning of a verse, you would look in the Torah and see where else that same key word or phrase was used and then use one to interpret the other. In Jesus’ answer, he connects (ve’ahvta) – and you shall love the Lord your God of Deuteronomy 6:5 with the (ve’ahvta) – and you shall love your neighbor as yourself of Leviticus 19:18. Leviticus 19:18 is not a secondary command, but is the equivalent of Deuteronomy 6:5 and each may be used to explain and understand what the other means. Jesus brilliantly links the two scriptures together, so that the two become one! The Shema is fulfilled by the doing of Leviticus 19:18, loving your neighbor as yourself!

Did they catch this brilliant interpretation? Listen to the apostle Paul in Galatians 5:14 as he states what he learned from his Rabbi Jesus. “The entire law is summed up in a single command, “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Paul got it! Doesn’t this also sound just like the golden rule of Matthew 7:12? “So in everything do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and Prophets”. Also, take the time to read Romans 13:8-10 which contains the same message. From the master teacher himself we now know that our command to love God with all our heart and soul and might is fulfilled in the act of loving your neighbor as yourself. Everything else is “just commentary”!

You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Ve’ahavta et adonai eloeikah, b’khol levavkah,uve’khol naphshekah, uve’khol me’odekah
–Deuteronomy 6:5 (English & Hebrew)

After being commanded by God in Deuteronomy 6:4 to Hear! (to pay close attention to what I’m about to say), in the next verse we now hear what we are supposed to do in response. Let’s explore what God meant when he said to love him with all our heart, soul and might.

First, we should point out that the reason the Shema has such a depth and breadth of meaning is the Hebrew language itself. Hebrew is what is known as a “poor” language because the whole language only contains about 8,000 words. In contrast, English has over 400,000 words! Because this ancient language has so few words, each word must necessarily have much more than one meaning. One writer described this phenomenon by saying that each word in the Hebrew language is like an overstuffed suitcase, bulging with extra meanings and when unpacked many delightful new interpretations pop out.

Many verbs that we read in the text that we think of as only mental activity in English, in Hebrew are also calls to action. For example in Genesis 4:1 it says that Adam “knew” Eve. In English, we thinks of “to know” as only to understand. But, in the Hebrew, “to know” was to have a close relationship, to care for that person and even be sexually intimate. What was only a mental activity in English, was a whole set of actions in Hebrew. You can see from this example (and there are many others in scripture) that one word in Hebrew packs a much bigger punch. We’ll see this play out as we begin to look at the first word in chapter 6 verse 5, Ve’ahavta.

Ve’ahavta – literally, “And you shall love”. At first glance it seems as if God is commanding us to have, what we think of in English, as an emotional feeling towards him. This is where the Hebrew word, ve’ahavta, again has a much fuller meaning. Love in the Hebraic definition is much more than the emotional high and feelings a person gets from worshiping God to praise music. Love of God in Deuteronomy is not only an emotional attachment or inward mental state, but something that expresses itself in action. Love, in the Hebrew, in addition to affection, also refers to loyalty, as in the loyalty of subjects to their kings or slaves to their masters. The command “to love” is here understood as requiring us to act and live in a certain way, a way that sets God’s people apart from all others. The book of Deuteronomy is very clear, you love God by keeping his commandments. We can’t love God just by mental feelings towards him, we must put them in action, just as we love our neighbor by the same process.

B’khol and uve’khol – means “with all” , “and with all” and emphasizes undivided devotion, with everything that you have; total commitment.

Levav - literally, “heart”. This refers to the center of your inner life. In Hebrew, heart doesn’t just describe your emotions, but your mind and thoughts as well. In Western culture, we locate our emotions in the heart and the mind and thoughts in our head. In general, Western culture tends to separate the mind from the emotions and in our Christian experience we often lean much heavier to the emotional side. We believe that worship and prayer are essential to our relationship with God, but take a much more casual approach to filling our minds with His word. Studying and memorizing scripture plays a much smaller role than prayer and worship. In Jesus’ time, to study and memorize God’s word was the highest form of worship. Great emphasis was put on memorization and education in the scriptures. To love God with all your heart does not only mean to worship him and pray to him, but to fill our minds with his words to us and dedicate all our mental abilities to him. Paul says it best in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ”.

Naphshekah – “nephesh” means “soul” or “ life and soul”. We are to love God with all of our lives. The opposite of this would be to love God with only a few hours out of our time on Sunday when we are in church. Often, the rest of our life is spent with the distractions of work, hobbies, sporting events and television, in which God has little place. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these activities, but if we just put God in as an afterthought or just set aside a few hours of time a week for him, we are not loving him with our life and soul.

M’odekah – A Hebrew teacher once said that there are some word that no one should attempt to translate In Hebrew because the meanings is so rich that to translate it into one or two specific terms greatly diminishes its meaning. M’odekah is one of those words. Literally, it means, “with all your very” or “with all your muchness”, and also means “exceedingly”, “with much force or abundance”, and even “oomph”! Translators, faced with reducing it to a singe word use strength or might. It is almost always used as an adverb, like we would use, “very, very”, but in the Shema it is a noun. “With all your very” can also mean, “with all your increase”, and applies to our money, finances and possessions. We are to love God enthusiastically, earnestly, and with a zeal to please him in every area of our lives.

By looking closely at the Hebrew meanings of the words that make up the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, we have greatly increased our understanding of what God is requiring of those who want to serve him. The last piece of the puzzle is the phrase that Jesus added to the Shema in the gospels. Next week we will look at the phrase, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself”!

”Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord Alone”
“Shema Yisra’el,YHVH Eloheinu, YHVH Ehad”
– Deuteronomy 6:4 (English & Hebrew)

The words of Deuteronomy 6:4 and the instructions that follow in verses 5-9 are perhaps the most crucial Old Testament texts for the foundational teachings of both Jesus and Judaism. These verses were so important to the lives of the early Jewish people that they became the centerpiece for Jewish daily worship since well before the time of Jesus. In fact, early sources confirm that Deuteronomy 6:4 would have been the very first portions of the Hebrew Bible that Jesus would have committed to memory. Jewish boys were taught this biblical passage as soon as they were old enough to speak. This early teaching was always done by the father, so Joseph would have taught his son the these verses on his knee as a very young boy. It is also important to note that this pivotal set of verses was located as an introduction to the first paragraph of the instructions that God gave to Moses in the book of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy was by far the most popular text during the time of Jesus. More copies of the book of Deuteronomy were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls than any other book. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy more than any other book and in the beginning of his ministry, when he was tempted three times by the devil in the wilderness, he quoted three separate verses from Deuteronomy in response (Read Matthew 4:1-11).

These powerful verses from Deuteronomy 6 are referred to by the Jewish people as “Shema”, which literally means “hear” or “listen”. Most Western Christians have never even heard of the Shema. However, these verses were so central to Jesus’ faith that when a teacher of the law asked Jesus what he believed was the most important of all the commandments, his answer was the Shema from Deuteronomy 6 (see Mark 12:28-31). If these verses were the most important commandments in the Bible that Jesus knew, we probably should be more aware of what they say and mean. Let’s take a closer look at each of the six Hebrew words and try to determine what God is saying.

Shema – Literally, “to hear” as a verbal imperative to start the verse. It is much more than just to perceive sound. It means, “listen!” “Focus your attention and heed the following!”

The Mesha Stele bears the earliest known reference (840 BCE) to the sacred Hebrew name of God – YHWH.

YHVH (or YHWH) – Also called the Tetragrammaton (Greek τετραγράμματον), meaning having four letters. These four letters are the unspeakable name of God and occur over 6,000 times in the Hebrew Bible. As the pronunciation of God’s name was supposed to remain a mystery, his name is written without vowels between the letters. The Mishna states, “He who pronounces the Name with it’s own letters has no part in the world to come” (Sanh. xi. 1). The Jewish people had such a reverence for the name of God that they would not pronounce his name out loud. Instead, they substituted, “Adonai (the Lord) or “Hashem” (the Name). This paints an amazing picture! Our God is invisible, immortal, indescribable and his name is unspeakable! This is why many writers in English, when writing about the Lord, leave out the vowel and write, G-d, to show reverence for His unspeakable name. Although the Bible doesn’t specifically prohibit us from saying His Name, it does warn against using His Name in the wrong way or casually. This knowledge certainly gives us more of an awe when we recite the Shema! Instead of saying His unspeakable name we substitute Adonai and say, “The Lord (Adonai) is our God, the Lord alone”.

Eloheinu – First person possessive and means, ”our God” and puts the proper relationship between Israel and YHVH. He alone is Israel’s God.

Ehad – Means, “one” or “only”. There is not enough space to cover it here but the JPS Torah Commentary Series (Deuteronomy, pp. 76-77) translate “ehad” as, “alone” and explains why that is the best translation.. The Lord alone is the God of Israel and not the myriad of gods that were worshiped by the Egyptians and other cultures. YHVH was a jealous God and was to be their only deity. Israel was to recognize YHVH alone.

To summarize, the Shema is much more than just a creed that we recite to define our faith or a prayer to be repeated. It is an oath of loyalty to the King of the Universe and call to action on his behalf! When we recite the Shema, we are committing ourselves to the Lord alone and to the way of life that He commands. Now that we have been called to attention and proclaimed that the Lord is our God, the Lord alone, let’s see what the Lord asks us to do. We’ll tackle verses 5-9 of Deuteronomy in our next lesson.

A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ –Matthew 1:1

“She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” – Matthew 1:21

We are so familiar with and say the name Jesus Christ so often that it almost sounds as if Jesus is his first name and Christ is his surname. You can almost picture his name in the Nazareth phone book as: Christ, Jesus; 77 Cana Rd., Nazareth! However, neither name was actually his name in his Hebrew language! What was his name in Hebrew and was there really something about his name that was different than the other names in his culture? This makes for an interesting study.

“Yeshua” is Jesus’ name in Hebrew and Aramaic, the language that he spoke. The thirty three years he lived on earth, everyone called him by his Hebrew name. According to David Bivin, a well respected Jewish scholar, Yeshua was one of the five most common names given to Jewish males in the first century, along with Shimon (Simon), Yosef (Joseph), Yehudah (Judah), and Yochanan (John). In accordance with Jewish custom, he was given his Hebrew name at his circumcision on the eight day after his birth (Luke 2:21). His name was a common Jewish name, but did it have some uncommon significance when it came to identifying who Yeshua was and what his mission on earth was to be?

In the Bible, Hebrew names are often a play on words. When God told Abraham that he was finally going to have a son at 100 years of age (Genesis 17:17-19), he fell face down and he laughed (Hebrew – va’yitzchak). God told him to name this son of the promise Yitzchak (Isaac) which means, “he laughed”. In the story of the birth of Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25:19-26), Jacob grabbed his twin brother by the heel (Hebrew ba’ akev), so he was called Ya’akov (Jacob), which means, “he grasps by the heel or he deceives”. There are many other examples like these in the Hebrew scriptures. This same type of word play is present with the naming of Yeshua. When the angel appeared to Joesph announcing the divinely ordained birth of a son to Mary, he said to her, “give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins”. This significant word play is lost in English, but is very clear in Hebrew. “You shall call his name Yeshua (he saves or delivers) for he will “Yoshia” (will save) his people from their sins. The Hebrew word for, ”he will save” is Yoshia, which has the same Hebrew root as the name,”Yeshua”. The Messiah’s name is explained on the basis of what He will do. Also, the name Yeshua is a contraction of the word, Y’hoshua (Joshua in English), which means, “YHVH saves”, and also the masculine form of the Hebrew word, Yeshu’ah, which means salvation. You can see that this is what the Bible writer in Hebrew wanted to portray because he says, call him the name Yeshua for he will Yoshia his people. In English, saving people from their sins is no more a reason for calling someone Jesus than for calling him Bill or Jim. Only in Hebrew does it make sense.

How then did we get the name Jesus from Yeshua? The word,”Jesus”, represents the efforts of English speakers to pronounce the name as it appears in the Greek. “Iesous” (yee-soos or yay-soos) was the word that Greek translators used to say Yeshua. The iota (I) was replaced by the letter J in Old English and thus came the name Jesus. Our current pronunciation of the English name, Jesus, seems far removed from the original Hebrew sounding Yeshua.

What about the Christ in Jesus Christ? Christ is the Greek translation (Christos) of the meaning of the Hebrew title, “Mashiach, which means, the anointed one. Christ is a title, not a second or last name. The significance in Hebrew of being known as the “anointed one”, is that both Kings and Priests were given their authority in a ceremony that required anointing with oil. Therefore, inherit in the concept of Messiah (Mashiach) is the idea of being given God’s priestly and kingly authority. To use the title, Maschiah, the promised one in the scriptures, who would be a prophet, priest, and king that would save and lead the Jewish people, is much more revealing than just, ”Christ”.

Jesus Christ’s real name in Hebrew then is, “Yeshua Ha Maschiah”. His name is not a magic word or some magical formula, that if we say it long enough or loud enough, miracles will happen. But, his name is extraordinarily powerful to us in light of its Hebrew meaning. How we say it is not nearly as important as how we carry it. To know that Yeshua is our salvation and that he is our promised and anointed King and Savior is huge. The way to honor his name is to walk in obedience to his commands and to conduct ourselves in a manner that would lift up and honor everything his name stands for.

For further reading:
Listening to the Language of the Bible (Tverberg & Okkema)
Jewish New Testament Commentary (Stern)
A Continuing Quest (Pryor)

As Christians, many of us have grown up with a negative attitude toward the word, “law”. We have been taught that the word “law” refers to excessive and burdensome regulations. The word “law” is always used in the context of the law vs. grace, or the law vs. the spirit. But the word that we translate “law” actually has a very different meaning in Hebrew. Let’s look at what the Hebrews thought when they heard the word that is translated in our Bible as law. That word in Hebrew is Torah.

The Hebrew word Torah is derived from the root word Yarah, (see “The Task of Teaching” lesson for more information) and means to point out, teach, instruct, or give direction toward a goal. It is that which aims you, (like a bow) so that you can hit the mark. Torah could best be described in English as instruction, God’s instruction to man. When God teaches us something we must obey. When the Bible was translated from Hebrew to Greek, the translators used the word “nomos” for Torah. “Nomos” was then translated into English as “law”. Obviously the word “law” is part of the definition of Torah, but it is not the main emphasis. The word law has a very negative connotation and makes us only think of harsh rules that we are required to obey. It is much more life-giving to God’s word to insert the word instruction or teaching for law. This makes the Text read in a much more positive light.

The Jewish Bible (also called Tanakh) translates the word Torah as “teaching” in almost every case. Look at the difference it makes in the following verses where the Jewish Bible translation is compared to the NIV.

Psalm 1:2 (NIV) “ His delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night…”

Psalm 1:2 (JPS) “The teaching of the Lord is his delight and he studies that teaching day and night..”

Joshua 1:7-8 (NIV) “ Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you…Do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth, meditate on it day and night”.

Joshua 1:7-8 (JPS) “But you must be very strong and resolute to observe faithfully all the teaching that my servant Moses enjoined upon you… Let not this book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it”.

What a difference it makes to think of God’s words to us as loving guidance and instructions for life instead of oppressive laws to buckle under. Obviously, there are many laws in the Bible, but these are given to us in a positive way to make us into the people God intended us to be. (See also, “10 Commandments: Marriage Contract“)

The first five books of the Bible are usually referred to as the Torah or Law, but they contain much more than just laws. In the Torah there is the story of creation, the fall of Adam and Eve, the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in the Exodus. The actual laws take up a very small portion of the Torah. The reason the first five books of the Bible were given the name, “Torah”, was to emphasize that they were God’s teachings given to Moses, not that it was the law.

In the future, when you read God’s Word, when the word, “law”, appears, say, “teaching” instead as the Hebrews did. This emphasis will help you see God in a more positive light, not as a judge ready to punish, but as a loving Father teaching and instructing us how to live.

This knowledge also leads us to take a different look at the law vs. the Spirit. When Timothy wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture was inspired by God, which Scripture was he talking about? The only Scripture he knew was the Torah! The word inspired at it’s root means, “in spirited”. The Torah was a gift of the Holy Spirit, written by the finger of God, (Exodus 31:18). “Finger of God” is a Hebrew idiom for the “Spirit of God”. Also, look at these verse in Romans; Romans 7:14 ,”We know that the law (Torah or His Teaching) is spiritual” and Romans 7:22, ”For in my inner being (inner spirit), I delight in God’s law (teaching, Torah)”. Also, think of this point: The law was given to Israel after they had been saved out of Egypt. The law was not the basis or means by which He saved them; He saved them by His grace. The Torah was given to the Hebrew people to guide and teach them and to bring them to the appointed place of promise. These verses and many others show that the “law” and the “Spirit” are really one and the same and are not in contradiction to each other. Hopefully, the next time you hear some negative words about the law vs. the Spirit or the law vs grace, you will be able to call this lesson to mind and turn it into a positive message.