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Messianic Torah Apologetics. Messianic Rabbi Bruce R. Booker. Apologetics. Doesn’t mean that we “apologize” for what we believe!. 1 Peter 3:15.
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Messianic Torah Apologetics Messianic Rabbi Bruce R. Booker
Apologetics • Doesn’t mean that we “apologize” for what we believe!
1 Peter 3:15 • “…but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always {being} ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence…”
ἀπολογία - Strong's Number: 627 Transliterated Word Phonetic Spelling • apologia ap-ol-og-ee'-ah Definition • verbal defense, speech in defense • a reasoned statement or argument
We need to be able to make an “Apologia” for the Hope that lies within us! With gentleness and reverence
We Need to be Able to Answer the Question: “Why do we believe what we believe?”
What we believe and why we believe must be based upon what the Scriptures say:
That’s the Rub… The reason why there is such diversity of understanding is that most often we read into the Scriptures what we want the Scriptures to say. When, in reality, we should study out the Scriptures from its own perspective!
2 Timothy 2:15 • “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”
Rules of Scripture Interpretation • How we interpret Scripture is known as Biblical Hermeneutics.
Hermeneutics “Hermeneutics is a science and art of interpreting the text of scripture.” [Dr. Milton Terry- Biblical Hermeneutics 1890]
Hermeneutics • Hermeneutics (Hermeneutic means interpretive), is a branch of philosophy concerned with human understanding and the interpretation of texts.
Difference between Translation vs. interpretation
Name Derivation Name derived from a Greek word connected with the name of the god “Hermes,” (Mercury) the reputed messenger and interpreter of the gods.
Acts 14:11-13 • When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!“ • Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. • The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
Biblical Hermeneutics • Determines how we interpret what the Bible is saying to us - Interpret: make clear – understandable • Gives tools to ask intelligent questions about what the Biblical text says, rather than be deceived by what TV, a book, article, or person may say. • To seek the Message that God intended: • One Meaning; One Mind.
Principles of Interpretation • It is not a hit or miss proposition. It is detailed, carefully spelled out. • Both Jewish and Christian scholars have come to basic agreement on principles of interpretation – as far as methodology. • The purpose of this course of study today is not to go through the principles of Hermeneutics. Not enough time.
Principles of Interpretation • God’s Word was written by and to a people in another time and place in history, people with a different culture, customs, environment, language. • So those people could understand • God’s Word contains stories, poetry, literal and figurative language. • God’s Word was written by “one mind”.
Hebraic Hermeneutics • Studying the Scripture from a Hebraic perspective. • In our previous Conference last year, I had gone through the differences between the Greek worldview and understanding of Scripture and the Hebraic (Biblical) worldview and understanding of Scripture.
Saw the Differences They are Significant!
Need to Realize: The Bible is a Hebraic Work • To best understand the Bible, we need to approach it from the Hebraic perspective, since it IS a Hebraic book!
Exegesis… Theological Positions; Ideas Reading “out” (exe) of the Scriptures…
Like Prospecting… • Taking gold out of the earth!
…Not Eisegesis Preconceived Theology; Ideas • Reading “Into” (eise) the Scriptures!
Careful Study… • The process of careful study of a biblical passage in relation to its historical setting; its setting in the overall collection that makes up the scriptures, specific questions of language and literary form, and how it has been understood by past interpreters, in order to provide a foundation for hearing what the passage may have to say to us today.
With Eisegesis We Can Make the Bible say ANYTHING We Want! • And Judas went out and hanged himself… (Matthew 27:5) • And Jesus said, “Go, do thou likewise.” (Luke 10:37) • “And what thou doest, do thou quickly!” (John 13:27)
As Torah Submissive Believers in Yeshua, our Messiah and Lord • We believe that the Torah IS applicable and pertinent to ALL Messianic believers: both Jewish and Non-Jewish!
Need to be able to make a “defense” to our brethren who believe otherwise!
We Need to Understand Where Others Are Coming From and Relate to them from the Biblical (Hebraic) Perspective! • We need to be able to “cross the bridge” to reach out to them. • Sha’ul did this with the Athenians at Mar’s Hill in Acts 17:16-31.
Sha’ul did not use a SINGLE Verse of Scripture to Them • Because Scripture did not yet hold authority over them and their lives. • He used their poets, philosophers and world-view to reach them!
Likewise, we must KNOW and RELATE • To those who do not yet grasp our understanding from their OWN world-view and perspective. • Then we bring them over the bridge to see ours. • This DOESN’T mean that they will come across to our perspective!
That’s the Job of the RuachhaKodesh! • Holy Spirit convicts of sin:
John 16:5-15 5 "But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, `Where are You going?' 6 "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
John 16:5-15 12 "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 "He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.
Our Job is to Bear Witness • His Job is to reveal it to those who see and hear our witness!
Having Said that • Let’s take the MAJOR difference in Perspective between those of us who believe in the perpetuity of Torah and its application in the lives of believers.
That is the Torah Itself! • Many Christians say that the Law was done away with by Jesus on the Cross and… • …That Christians follow what is called the “law of Christ” and NOT the “Old Testament” Laws!
Important to Realize that the word “Torah” does NOT Mean “Law.” • “Torah” literally means “teachings” or “instructions.” • From the root word “Yawrah” meaning to throw or shoot, as an arrow. • Teacher “shoots” or “throws” the instruction to the student.
Septuagint (LXX) – 70 rabbis – translated Torah into “nomos” which in the Greek means “law.” The Septuagint: is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd and 2nd century BCE in Alexandria. It was begun by the 3rd century BCE and completed before 132 BCE.
According to the record in the Talmud: • 'King Ptolemy once gathered 72 Elders. He placed them in 72 chambers, each of them in a separate one, without revealing to them why they were summoned. He entered each one's room and said: "Write for me the Torah of Moshe, your teacher." God put it in the heart of each one to translate identically as all the others did.’
New Testament Writings • Cite from the Septuagint! • So when we read passages in the “New Testament” it often seems as though the “New Testament” is anti-Law (anti-Torah)! • Especially the writings of the Apostle Sha’ul!
Is Sha’ul/Paul “Anti-Law”? • “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:4 • “But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:6
Is Sha’ul/Paul “Anti-Law”? • “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” Romans 8:2 • “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4 • “"For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.” Galatians 2:19
Is Sha’ul/Paul “Anti-Law”? • “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” Galatians 5:18
We Must Understand this: • There was NO word group in the First Century Koine Greek (or for that matter First Century Hebrew) for the concepts of: • Legalism • Legalistic • Or Legalist
Sha’ul did NOT have a way to express these concepts in the Greek or Hebrew languages of the First Century!
The Greek of Paul's day lacked any term corresponding to the distinct position of "legalism", "legalist", or "legalistic", leading C.E.B. Cranfield to commend "the possibility that Pauline statements which at first sight seem to disparage the law, were really directed not against the law itself but against that misunderstanding and misuse of it for which we now have a convenient terminology" (legalism). Cranfield, C.E.B., The International Critical Commentary, Romans, 1979, p. 853.
Sha’ul Coined a Phrase • “Hupo nomos” – “Under the Law”
David H. Stern • Messianic Jewish Bible translator David H. Stern cited these two scholars to support the translation framework that often "'nomos' means 'legalism' and not God's Torah", especially in Paul's constructs erganomou(literally "works of law", rendered by Stern "legalistic observance of Torah commands") and uponomon(literally "under law", rendered by Stern by 13 words, "in subjection to the system which results from perverting the Torah into legalism").
