This is an interesting question, and one that often separates Jews and Christians. It is important to recognize that we have already turned to the points where Paul says that the Torah (Romans 3:31) should be followed, and how Yeshua (Matthew 5:17-20) says that not one letter from the Torah or the Prophets shall disappear from the text. We've also taken a look to see whether or not we are still under the Torah (per 1 John 3:4) and have come to the conclusion that yes, this has not changed with the New Testament (Brit Hadashah). So we must see if Peter and Paul are following suit with what Yeshua says, or if they are falsely parading the name of God. Lets see where the controversy starts. Mark 7 is a good place to start. The actual connection to be drawn here is a handwashing ceremony that the Pharisees utilized in order to declare foods clean. " 1(A)The Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered around Him when they had come (B)from Jerusalem,
2and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with (C)impure hands, that is, unwashed.
3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the (D)traditions of the elders;
4and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of (E)cups and pitchers and copper pots.)" Yeshua responds to them. Mark 7:18 is a good place to begin. This is where Yeshua states " 18And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him,
19because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared (R)all foods (S)clean.) " Its important to notate what qualifies as food. This list is given in Leviticus 11 of the Tanakh. So anything not mentioned there is not even considered to be food. This has nothing to do with kosher law whatsoever. Secondly, the reference of what this actually is in reference to can be found after verse 19. "20And He was saying, "(T)That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man.
21"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,
22deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, (U)envy, slander, pride and foolishness.
23"All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." So wait a minute. Right off the bat, we see Yeshua is talking about something besides food when he is talking about the heart. Acts 10:9-29 is a section of the Bible that begins with a section of Peter seeing a vision of nonkosher food. What is stated is that Peter hears a voice that tells him to get up and kill and eat. Peter states ""By no means, (F)Lord, for (G)I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean." Now its funny that right here, the Lord does not rebuke Peter. If you recall, when Peter doubted the purpose of what Yeshua came here on the Earth, it is recorded that Yeshua tells Peter "Get behind me Satan." Another possibility is that God could have responded, "Peter why do you deny or doubt my command?" Neither of these things occur here. How does the voice respond? ""(H)What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." So what is God telling Peter then? He never rebukes Peter for doubting his commandment. He is rebuking Peter for following one of the oral traditions. And its important when we read further down in Acts 10 what actually occurs. Again, this has to do with what Jews thought about Gentiles. Never does it declare in the Torah that Jews are not to associate with Gentiles. As a matter of fact, in Numbers 15:14-16, it states that Gentiles are to follow the same teaching as the Jews. So how does Peter understand this vision? In the proper way available. " 28And he said to them, "You yourselves know how (Y)unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet (Z)God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean." So Peter didn't understand this vision to actually be applied to food,l but rather to a foreigner (Goyim, Gentiles also the same term utilized in Numbers 15). Lets proceed further. What do the Jews get upset with Peter about in Acts 11? Peter is eating with the Gentiles. The Jews respond to him "2And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, (B)those who were circumcised took issue with him,
3saying, "(C)You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them." So we see it was not the food content that the Jews were upset about. It was that Peter actually associated with Gentiles in the first place. So in other words, we understand Acts to not be referring to food, but to going out and preaching to the Gentiles, completely in line with scripture. We have also seen what is taught in scripture about hedging the Torah (a.k.a. following the traditions of the elders).
Let us go now to Acts 15. Another controversial passage between the Jewish community and the Christians. Essentially, this is where Paul and Barnabas and others are deliberating as to how to break in the kosher law with the Gentiles. Its interesting that when Paul begins the letter, it is a direct quote from Amos 9:11. This has to do with the restoration of Israel, which has to do with the covenant of Jacob. So it also has to do with eating in a kosher manner. This is tied to Acts 15:16-18. We continue to Acts 15:19-20. "19"Therefore it is (AM)my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,
20but that we write to them that they abstain from (AN)things contaminated by idols and from (AO)fornication and from (AP)what is strangled and from blood. " Why does Paul state this then? Interesting question. Kosher law is tied to abstaining from anything that contains blood. It is for instance not kosher to eat a steak that is raw because it contains blood. It also follows that anything that eats blood and does not actually excreet the blood from its body should not be considered kosher because if we eat such things, we will essentially be partaking of blood. So Paul presents the Noachide law to the Gentiles for the purpose of introducing the kosher law without burdening them too much with deep understanding. The Gentiles were doing all of the things mentioned above because of their religious ceremonies. This can be seen today when we present kosher law to Christians. The first response that usually pops into their head is "why should I follow this stuff? Its silly." Well it seems silly to the Christian because they are not with understanding of the purpose for kosher law. And in the same way, neither were the Gentiles well equipped at the time for this understanding. Thus milk had to be presented to the Gentiles before the meat could be partaken of. This is a proper evangelistic technique that Christians should be able to follow. We continue to the next verse that is extremely important. " 21"For (AQ)Moses from ancient generations has in every city those who preach him, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath." And what does Moses teach? Back to Leviticus 11. He teaches kosher law. So they are not concerned about the Gentiles grasping this concept all at once. They must be broken into the mold before the proper understanding of kosher law can be obtained, and this is down in the synagogues. The Gentiles would gain this understanding from the synagogue in the future, but as we state, this is a start for understanding (Noachide law). The "church of Antioch" erego is therefore being taught kosher law and the Torah, much as it may be disappointing for both groups of Catholics and Protestants to hear.
One at this point may feel compelled to offer Romans 14 or Colossians 2:16 as an explanation for why we do not have to eat kosher. As we shall see from the following note from "The Refiners Fire" this is incorrect as well. Its again, out of context. We have to understand the society to which Paul is writing this message to. What is going on here has to do with something not 100% centered around kosher law. Romans 14:2 which states "2One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables." This in context has to do with the halakha, which when Jews were eating of Gentile food, they would only eat of vegetables because they thought the food was sacrificed to pagan idols. We proceed with asking does Romans 14:5-6 refute the need for kosher food? "Absolutely not. The context of this passage was a dispute over whether one may eat food that MAY or MAY NOT have been offered to idols. In those days food that was offered to idols was usually put out for sale to people on a certain day of the week. It could or could not have been offered to idols. Therefore, some believers would not buy food and eat it on those days just to make sure. However, some believers did, because they reasoned that since they didn't know for sure it was offered, it was not wrong. Paul's instruction did not address either Kosher or Sabbath day observance. It addressed the dispute over whether marketplace food, because of idolatry, should be purchased and eaten on a certain day of the week. It also shows how sensitive the believers were to the possibility of food offered to idols. How much more sensitive should we be to what we eat, as to whether or not it is approved by the Word of God." http://www.therefinersfire.org/book_of_romans1.htm We could also look at Romans 14:14 -"14 14I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that (A)nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who (B)thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean." Again, the context is of food. Jews do not consider anything that is not found in Leviticus 11 to be clean. And that is what is meant here. Anything found in Leviticus 11 is not unclean. But if say for instance, blood is not disposed of properly, then for him who eats of the food, it is unclean. This was an issue again that was founded between the Gentiles and the Jewish halakahs. Because the Jews of the synagogues that were practicing the halakah did not partake of Gentile food because they were afraid of it being unclean, in the same way here Jews should regard that which is unclean as unclean. But it should be inspected to see if kosher practices are being implemented. Also a pig is not unclean in itself, but it is unclean because God deems it so. We proceed to verse 17 which states "17for the kingdom of God (A)is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and (B)peace and (C)joy in the Holy Spirit. " Its interesting that the word "ekkelesia" is not used here. This is in fact referring to not seeking what we can have, but the higher things of what God wants us to have. In other words, the kingdom of God is said not to be free in eating and drinking. This is in accordance with verse 22. "22The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who (A)does not condemn himself in what he approves." One may also note the passage "20(AI)Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food (AJ)All things indeed are clean, but (AK)they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. " In other words, what is food? All things which are food are clean. Food = Leviticus 11. How does one give offense? By tearing down the work fo God and not following Leviticus 11.
Colossians 2:16 states "16Therefore no one is to (G)act as your judge in regard to (H)food or (I)drink or in respect to a (J)festival or a (K)new moon or a (L)Sabbath day-- " What is this in reference to? One may actually note that this does not cancel out the need for the festivals or a new moon or Sabbath day or kosher law. The one thing that changes here is that no one is to tell us how to celebrate these things, except for God. The translation from the KJV even states "no man." In other words, we have to go back to the Torah as the final word on how to celebrate these things. No man may judge us on how to celebrate these things. Similar to the hedge idea that the writers of the Talmud had. They are telling us unnecessary things to follow in relevance to the Torah. As Yeshua did away with the oral traditions, it is no longer necessary to follow any of them that do not coincide with the teachings of the Torah from the Bible. We've already covered some passages from the Talmud that demonstrated what the Rabbis wished to do with the word of God. You can find this in my comments section here - http://hamashiachagape.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-do-i-think-about-replacement.html#comments
The final section of the Bible that is often taken out of context is 1 Timothy 4:4. It is stated here - 4For (A)everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is (B)received with gratitude;" We have to back up one verse to understand this in context. This is ultimate proof that the New Testament actually preaches on kosher law. 1 Timothy 4:3 states " 3men who (A)forbid marriage and advocate (B)abstaining from foods which (C)God has created to be (D)gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth." This is in reference to people who do not preach the word of God. Foods which God has created to be gratefuly shared in by those who believe and know the truth again points directly to Leviticus 11 and the Biblical feast days (we shall touch base on this soon). The problem with not eating meat is that it is stated that once every year, we must eat of the passover lamb. Romans 14:1-2 even states " 1Now (A)accept the one who is (B)weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.
2(C)One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is (D)weak eats vegetables only. " Provisions from abstaining from this law from the Old Testament has repercussions. He who does not follow the custom of the Seder meal is weak in faith. So Kosher law my friends, my brethren and sistren has not been done away with. It is important that we follow these teachings of God, both Jew and Gentile, in the way that God has commanded us to do so. Let us not turn to the left or the right in the matter. I wish you all shalom.
hamashiachagape :)
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