Hebrew Roots of Christianity

Photo by Andy Babandy

I have been looking into the Hebrew Roots of Christianity over the last few years. It has been pointed out to me that:

• Most Christians have lost the knowledge and understanding of the Jewish society and culture which formed the context within which Jesus taught; and
• This knowledge and understanding is necessary to rightly interpret Jesus' teaching

In every culture and society there are norms and conventions that are often considered so obvious that most of the time they are not discussed and assumed to be axiomatic.Unfortunately because of the temporal distance between Jesus' society and today's world the axioms of life that applied then cannot be taken for granted now.

Some of the axioms that I have discovered along the way, but not widely known today, include:

• Observing the 613 Commandments contained in the first five books of the Bible was paramount to the Jewish understanding of religion; and
• The first and foremost commandment to love God with all one's heart, mind and strength provided the motivation and guide for all the other 612 Commandments; and
• Observing the Commandments was considered to be an act of righteousness and faithfulness; so to be called righteous meant that one was acknowledged for obeying the Commandments; and
• The Bible says that in addition to the written Commandments there were a number of spoken Commandments, which were taught to Moses, and the elders of Israel at Mount Sinai. These teachings have been handed down in the form of the Talmud; and
• God uses Jethro to inspire Moses to establish a multitiered hierarchical judicial system that would adjudicate over society based on both the written and oral Commandments. At the top of this hierarchical system stood a group of judges which came to be called the Sanhedrin; and
• The Sanhedrin was given the power to "bind and loose" that is, decide what acts are prohibited and permitted under both the written and oral Commandments. These decisions, much like common law in the British legal system, form precedents, which add to the corpus of oral law.Consequently,Any doctrine that might teach that observing these Commandments would be wrong should be rejected out of hand; andThe apostles, including Paul, showed that they were commandment-observant believers even in the latter chapters of the book of Acts.Yet many of Paul's writings suggest quite strongly that the salvation of mankind must be based on faith rather than legal compliance. This appears to contradict his behaviour.

Perhaps our lack of understanding of Hebrew traditions, values and axioms may have led us to draw the wrong conclusion from his teachings. If we have, then a major revision of some widely held Christian doctrines may be required.