JWs and blood, page-209

The Unbelief of the Jews…
32But Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?” 33“ We are not stoning You for any good work,” said the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because You, who are a man, declare Yourself to be God.”

The Pharisees knew quite well that Jesus was claiming divinity that he was claiming to be God so they wanted to stone him, the punishment set out for blasphemy in second temple Judaism. Jesus did not try to defend himself and respond by saying whoa there partner you got this all wrong.

The religious establishment rejected the notion that God in the person of Jesus became incarnated but other Jews did not and they joined the way and they shared the synagogues with other non believing Jews.

So when someone makes the claim well the Jews knew nothing of God coming to earth cloaked in flesh you sort of make an appeal to authority that the Jews recognised what is right and what is wrong in their religion they were the arbiters.

If we look at Judaism today what are the two pillars of the faith they are the Tanakh and the Talmud. Within just thirty years of the death and resurrection of Lord Jesus there was no Temple, over half the ordinance of the faith were obsolete, there was no High priest to officiate and give blood sacrifice for the Jews and the priesthood class was shortly to be eliminated.

Today Rabbinical Judaism which is a liturgical faith is the reality, the Jews during biblical times would have had no concept of such a faith. The Talmud itself was compiled centuries after the death of Jesus so they had no concept of what their religion could contain and what it would become.

Even looking back into biblical times if we are to appeal to authority the Jews themselves had major differences in the understanding of their religion, sects believed in an afterlife while others totally rejected this very fundamental doctrine.

Interesting concerning the messiah during biblical times, the Jews were torn over the matter on one hand there as a messiah who was a suffering servant one that rode on a humble donkey and another who would arrive on a horse of war and rule with an iron rod. This brought up much controversy as some Jews believed there would have be two different messiahs to explain the discrepancy yet most understood there would only be one. The Jews wrote about this eschatological dilemma some even debating was there multiple powers in heaven because of these two contrasting messianic figures.

Obviously the Jews of the day were looking for a military type messiah the one who wielded an iron rod to throw off the oppression by the Roman empire but it was Jesus who came as a servant and will later return to rule with an iron rod. After Jesus and the rise of Christianity the talk of these multiple powers in heaven not so surprisingly ended amongst the Jews.

It might seem a slam dunk point to say the Jews never knew God becoming incarnate but what did the arbiters who one may appeal to as authority know about the rudimentary facets of their faith especially one so entwined in an Temple and priesthood and one where the messiah was critical to their religion.

Jesus came to fulfilled the Law he qualified for all the prerequisites to be our eternal High priest. He was and is a male, he was over 30 years old, he was of the blood line and received an anointing by none other than the person of the Ruach Elohim.

Christianity has the religion Judaism today is Rabbinical not Biblical appealing to what the Jews knew about their scriptures not so much a slam dunk.

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