Walking Among the Dead

Yesterday, I got to see my mother for the first time in two months by making a visit to her home.  She and I have been very careful with our covid-19 isolation.  So, we decided to take the risk of a visit.  We spent the day going for car rides around the countryside, enjoying the gorgeous North Georgia spring day.

One of mother’s “jobs” is to keep nice-looking, fake floral arrangements on the family grave plot, across the old highway from my family’s home church.  Because the four she had ordered arrived, one of our stops was at the church cemetery.  We put the retiring arrangements in the trunk of her car.  See, there is a “pecking order”, of sorts.  Our immediate family gets the newest “freshest” (an incongruent descriptor....) floral creations, while the more old, tired, faded ones are handed down to the graves of more distant relatives.  Accordingly, we next visited the graveyard where other relatives are buried, appropriating two of the arrangements there.  And finally, we visited a third cemetery, where we graced the graves of mother’s great-great-grandfather and also the graves of family friends with the remaining two.

Part of the adventure was mother remembering (or not...) where so-and-so was buried.  “I think it’s beside that large tree.”  “Well, maybe it’s the next one.”  She did the directing, as I did the searching out and placement.  All looked more “inviting” - - really?! - - than they had before our visits.

When I was a child of 5 years old, my mother worked full-time as a school guidance counselor.  She worked outside the home all my years there.  The kindergarten in those days was a private option, for those who wanted to pay tuition.  Also, it was only half-day.  Mother dropped me off in the empty garage, where the classes were held, on her way to school in the mornings.  The only other child to arrive so early was Tony, who terrorized me on a regular basis.  (That’s another story.)

At the half-day mark, another mother would retrieve me and her children, depositing me at the home of my great-grandparents, who lived right beside their home church and even closer to its cemetery.  In those days, grandparents just fed their young grandchildren and, on sunny days, let them roam.  Where did I roam?  To the cemetery, of course!  Most of the names I did not know, but I sharpened my imagination looking at their tombstones, inventing stories about their lives.  Walking among the dead.

I thought of these memories yesterday as, once again, I roamed where I had a half-century ago.

You may not have spent much time in a graveyard, but we all walk among the dead.  Some of us are “the walking dead.”

The apostle Paul stated quite frankly in Ephesians 2:4 that, before Christians were met by the Holy Spirit and brought to spiritual life, we “were dead in our trespasses and sins”.  Christians who believe so strongly in predestination to the exclusion of free will claim it is impossible for something or someone dead to make a response or to make a choice for or against Christ.  I won’t plunge off that theological precipice here.  The point is, before we meet and accept Jesus Christ as Savior, the Bible rightly claims we are dead and totally incapable of gaining our own eternal life, achieving our own salvation, no matter how “good” we try to be.

This is a deadness so much more pernicious than physical death because, whereas physical death is a one-time happening, spiritual death leads to torment for all of eternity.  A story in the book of Luke (16:23-24) tells of the man who went to Hell and proclaimed “for I am in torment”.  He also begged for a drop of water to assuage his thirst.  Though not stated, an additional dimension of this torment will be for all who enter a one-way ticket to unending separation from God.  Hell is a place God will not be.  The worst experiences endured in this earthly life would not even begin to compare.

Which is it for you?  Are you one of “the walking dead”, or are you spiritually alive, yet walking among the dead as you live here day to day?  Whatever your answer, there is an urgency.  For the non-Christian, obviously, the urgency is to make a decision for Jesus Christ, before it is too late.  For the Christian, the urgency involves seeing those whose souls are perishing.  Both graveyards and the rest of this world are places of concealment.  The physically dead are concealed in tombs.  The spiritually dead appear to the eyes like everyone else, for the most part.  Satan is famous for deception....and complacency.  He works on both groups, to spiritually damn the former and to spiritually incapacitate the latter.

I pray God will open the eyes of those who are dead, blind or sleeping, while we still walk above ground, while (as the Bible describes) “it is still day...  For the night is coming, when no man can work.”  (John 9:4)

The Role of Judaism in a Christian's Bible Study

Leviticus fragment, from https://www.templealiyah.com/Torah_Scroll_Images

In a few days, here in the blog, I am going to embark on a study of the Book of Esther.  But, before we "go there", it will be instructive to first take a look at the role of what we Christians call the Old Testament through the eyes of both ancient and modern-day Jews.  (This study has been a real eye-opener for me, someone who did not previously know a "midrash" from a radish.)

When Christians are asked, "What is the Torah?", answers will generally range from blank stares to "it is some part of the Old Testament" to "the first five books of the Old Testament, the law of Moses".  Jews refer to the 22, 24 or 29 (depending on how they are divided up) books of the Old Testament as the Tanakh (law, prophets, wisdom writings).  TaNaKh is a Hebrew acronym:

Ta = Torah = Law

Na = Nevi’im = Prophets

Kh = Ketuvim = Writings

The first five books of the Tanakh (Old Testament) are referred to as the written Torah.
It is generally accepted the Moses wrote down the first five books (Genesis-Deuteronomy), based on what God revealed to him during the days he was on Mt. Sinai.

There is also something Jews refer to as "the oral Torah".  Back in the days of Jesus, the Sadducees were a Jewish sect that adhered strictly to the written Torah as the authority for Jewish practice.  The Pharisees, by contrast, revered both the written Torah and also the oral Torah.3  Accordingly, by the time of Jesus, there existed a significant body of oral law, which was used to interpret and translate into practice the written law.  When Jews use the term "Torah" today, they are generally referring to both, and they use both in their theological practice.

The question arises: "why would the Jews, who were so obsessive about their scribes copying the holy scriptures with no errors, depend on an oral transmission of their religion?"  One compelling reason this was done was to preserve the transmission of Judaism to only Jews, and to keep holy information from falling into the hands of other people groups for whom it was believed the information was "unauthorized".  A second reason was that the Jews interpret Exodus 24:12 to give permission for an oral tradition to be established.  Here's that verse (King James 2000 version).

And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give you tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that you may teach them.

The "and commandments" referred to in this verse has been interpreted to mean "oral commandments", i.e. the oral Torah.  Another name for this oral Torah is the Talmud.
A third reason is that the ancient synagogues were not only places for the transmission of theology; they were also where civil and legal disputes were settled among the Jewish people of the community.  Much of the civil law for those communities was codified in the Talmud.  And, in ancient times, the Talmud was transmitted orally, from rabbi to student.  A student could make notes of his understandings of these oral transmissions, but there was no codified written "oral law" in those days.

All of this changed with the destruction of the Second Temple.  Remember that the first Temple was built by King Solomon.  It was destroyed by the Babylonians, yet rebuilt within approximately 100 years.  This rebuilt temple was the Second Temple.  It was enhanced a few years before Jesus' birth by one of the Herods, and being called one of the "wonders of the world", was quite magnificent in its heyday, when Jesus lived on earth.  At that time, the Talmud was "alive and well", happily being passed along orally.

However, when the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., two huge problems arose with the oral tradition.  The first problem was that Jews were dispersed, which made passing along a trustworthy oral tradition challenging.  The second problem was that the practice of Judaism, as revealed in Torah, centered in large part around a physical Temple.  Accordingly, the leading rabbis of the second century A.D. published something today called the Mishnah, which is "an edited {written}record of the oral Torah"1, and includes the legal decisions of the Sanhedrin.
Today's Talmud, then, is comprised of the Mishnah and the Gemara, which comments on and interprets the Mishnah.
In dealing with the teachings of the Mishnah, the Gemara has multiple functions. It explains unclear words or phrasing. It also provides precedents or examples to assist in application of the law and offers alternative opinions from sages of the Mishnah and their contemporaries (known as Tannaim). Whereas the Mishnah barely cites biblical verses, the Gemara for nearly every law discussed introduces these connections between the biblical text and the practices and legal opinions of its time. It also extends and restricts applications of various laws, and even adds laws on issues left out of the Mishnah entirely (for example, the key observances of Hanukkah). Multiple opinions of sages are weighed against one another, often without presenting a conclusion. 2
A curious thing about the Mishnah, however, is that it's not what I'd call "uniform", "definitive" or "thou shalt".  This is because it presents differing opinions of rabbis on a variety of issues.  Hence, the old Jewish joke, "two Jews, three opinions", I guess.  But, the Mishnah's dialogues, arguments, persuasions, give us a picture of the context in which Jesus debated the sages at the Temple.

One final term you might run across is "midrash".  A midrash is both a conclusion and a commentary on the Talmud.  A midrash is a rabbinical commentary, sort of analogous to a New Testament Bible commentary.  It attempts to connect the words of the ancient texts to contemporary Jewish life.

Now, most conservative Christians are going to find these religious practices somewhat frightening.  In fact, some of my usual readers won't even finish reading this post.  As Christians there are several things pounded into us from our infancy in the Christian faith.
1.  The Old and New Testaments are divinely inspired and are free from error.   Accordingly, we can take this revealed word of God "to the bank".  "God said it, and I believe it and that settles it."
(I still believe and teach this, by the way.)
2.  "Much of the Old Testament was rendered irrelevant by the teachings of Jesus Christ, and should therefore be ignored."  Well, either the Old Testament is the Word of God, or it isn't.  I deem this position to be heretical, even though it is commonly held by many Christians. At least 33% of the New Testament is from the Old.4  Every book of the Old Testament is either quoted or alluded to in the New, except for the books of Nahum, Obadiah, Esther and Zephaniah.5  Consider Paul's admonition in Romans 15:4

For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, 

that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures

might have hope.

Remember that the Old Testament scriptures, the Tanakh, were "the scriptures" referred to in the New Testament. Keep in mind, and this should go without saying, the New Testament had not yet been written, in Jesus' day!  I believe and teach that the gospel of Jesus Christ is concealed in the Old Testament and that the Old Testament is revealed in the New.

3.  All extraneous, "extra-biblical" ancient texts should be avoided as they were rejected and are therefore heretical.
Hmmm....well, in years past I never questioned this.  However, I began to look at the Old Testament deeply.  And, much of the time, I thought to myself, "Why do Christians avoid this teaching?" "I don't understand this."  Or, "What does this mean?"  The reason these questions arose was because of Jewish idioms and ancient practices, foreign to my current day, and just a general lack of understanding of ancient Jewish culture.  While I don't believe the Talmud, for example, rises to the level of the divinely inspired Word of God, I find that it can provide context and clues to understanding.

So, as we undertake a study of the book of Esther in the coming days, please keep all of this in mind.  I may make references to some of these terms.

Sources:

1    https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mishnah/
2    https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/gemara-the-essence-of-the-talmud/
3    https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-Torah-Tanakh-Talmud-Midrash-Mishnah-and-other-similar-terms
4   http://www.biblecharts.org/newtestaament/percentageoftheoldtestamentfoundinthenewtestament.pdf
5    https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/pnt/pnt08.cfm