I recently did a case study for my seminary class. Below is the situation:
A Sunday School class has as its lesson Luke 2:41-52, Jesus in the Temple as a boy. The teacher, following the background and explanatory information in his teacher’s quarterly, is trying to help the class understand this story in its historical context and original setting and the fact that Luke (who alone among the Gospel writers tells this story) seems to want to underscore Jesus’ heritage and formation as a Jew. He discusses with the class the fact that the context, culture, and setting of the story was first-century Judaism, and that an understanding of that context is critical to a proper understanding of the story. The teacher spends considerable time with this background information, all of which is quite foreign and strange to those in the Sunday School class whose experience is that of 21st century Gentile Christians.
Finally, and with some exasperation, someone in the class challenges the teacher: “But you talk as though Jesus was a Jew. He wasn’t a Jew; he was a Christian! Oh, I know that he was born a Jew, but he rejected all that ‘law stuff’ along with the rest of Judaism as a false religion. Why are you trying to make Jesus out to be a Jew? Why do we need to know all this Jewish stuff to interpret the New Testament? This is a church, not a synagogue!
How would you answer the student? It is an important question to consider because of the context of the Scriptures and their basis. Here are some things to ponder and consider. Understanding Jewish culture within the time of Jesus’ is important to understanding the Gospels. Understanding Judaism not only brings greater clarity to what Jesus said but other parts of the New Testament as well.
Jesus was Jewish.
Matthew 1 and Luke 3 trace his Jewish lineage through Joseph and Mary all the way back to Abraham (and even Adam in Luke’s gospel) who was the beginning of the nation of Israel (Gen 12). Being Jewish is not quite the same as being a Christian. While both carry religious meaning, being Jewish actually describes a race of people similar to being Egyptian or German (though Jews are unique in that they are God’s covenant people). Jesus did not cease to be Jewish at any point after his birth. He was thus raised in the culture and spiritual teachings common with Jewish people. To be truthful, Jesus was not a Christian. The word, Christian, means to be a follower or belonging to Christ. That is not an accurate description of Jesus. And the term, Christian, did not come into existence until Acts 11:26. It is from this point on then that the church begins to make the separation from Judaism that is present today. Jesus did condemn many of the practices taking place in Judaism in his day. Most of this was because the people were not understanding the true heart of the law. Jesus never rejected the law though. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus said that he did not come to abolish or destroy the law. Rather he came to fulfill the law in himself which he did accomplish through his life and ultimately through his death.
The Early Church was Jewish.
In Acts 2, the church actually begins. So, during Jesus time on earth, the church was not in existence. In the gospels, the church was a mystery that Jesus spoke of that came after he departed the earth. Everything about the start of the church was Jewish. Pentecost (Acts 2:1; Lev 23:16) is actually a spring Jewish feast, not just when the church began. Pentecost was the reason there were crowds of Jews from various parts of the world in Jerusalem at the time. All the Jewish men had come to observe the feast. And in Acts 2, there are six references (v. 14, 22, 25, 29, 36, 37) indicating the crowd was Jewish (or mainly so) that Peter spoke to. In fact, it is not until Acts 10 that the gospel actually is purposefully shared with Gentiles (those outside the Jewish faith). We see from this that at its start the church was mainly Jewish.
The context is king.
This phrase is commonly used, but what does it mean? Tim McGraw released a song in 2004 called “Back When”. In the lyrics, he compares the differences in the meaning of words throughout his life time. Coke was the drink purchased at the store in a glass bottle. In 2004, while it still had that meaning, it also referred to the illegal drug cocaine. In Wisconsin, farmers call a particular piece of field equipment a digger. That same piece of equipment in Illinois is called a field cultivator. These contexts (one of time, the other of region) show differences in what various words mean. Since the time of Jesus is a different time and place (not 2018 or the United States), the gospels need to be understood in light of what the words meant in A.D. 30 and from a Jewish mindset. The culture was vastly different than ours.
Jesus never ceased to be Jewish. His disciples were all Jewish. The early church began as a group of Jews who believed that Jesus was the long-awaited and promised Messiah who provided spiritual salvation for them. The early church was steeped in Jewish culture as a result of most of its beginning believers being Jewish. The importance of looking at the Gospels and New Testament with a first century Jewish mindset is clear. A good student of the Word of God cannot read his present-day culture and vocabulary understanding into the text. If one does the latter, then they will not properly understand the truth of God’s Word as it was meant to be understood.