The Jewish Testimonies

[Book of Jeremiah]

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Man it is tough to go through all the flooding going on here....it is almost like going into a one horse town where the resident nag is running the race post to post all by her lonesome.....just observing.. Not insulting...

No one is keeping you here. This is an outreach for Jews who would like to know more about Jesus Christ who is their Messiah. If you are not desiring to read the material, examine the many prophecies fulfilled by Jesus which I've posted, listen to the dozens of testimonies of Messianic Jews who have received Messiah then perhaps another thread is the best answer for you.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

If you are gonna break the forum rules calling people out personally and talk about lying you really shouldn't lie about it.
Jeremiah quote: "Another lie from the Kabbalist Rabbi, HaShev"

1) I'm not a Kabbalist, never even read or studied or known of any such literature or Rabbieith such leanings.
2)all historical records use the term Yeshu not Yeshua and not my name Yashu (pronounced HaShev) or Yashuva (Hasheva) that you have fallaciously used for Jesus many times. Being from 100bc is a fact not a hunch not a gimick=you are the liar who does not onow historical facts. Try reading a book instead of online missionary propaganda.

If you are not a Kabbalist then why do you give pre-eminence to the Talmud over the Torah? Perhaps you are practicing it in some form without even realizing it, HaShev. Certainly the fruit of what you are doing on this board is the same - is it not? The Blasphemy of the Messiah Jesus Christ - writing false things about Him that are not found at all in the Torah but rather the Talmud and it is also noteworthy that the same hatred those who practice Kabballah have for the Christians you appear to share.

Is it all just a coincidence or have you deceived your own heart? I believe you have deceived your own heart into believing you are doing the work of G-d not realizing that you are doing the work of Satan. Will that grant you a pardon from G-d when you face Him in the judgment? No. It won't. You are responsible for your own actions, HaShev. You'll have to live with the consequences if you are not willing to repent. Here is a link on Kabbalah and the Talmud and Zohar - how it all connects - perhaps you will find something that will bring you to the realization that you are on the wrong path. A path that will lead you to hell in the end if you do not repent and get off of it.

Kabbalah

Evil Teachings of Kabballah/The Zohar/The Talmud


First, I want to apologize for not writing this article sooner. It is long overdue, and I am grieved at the many Messianics and Hebrew-Christians who, upon entering into the Truth of Torah-keeping, are quickly overcome by the wicked one in falling into a deception as old as babylon.
In fact, it was in Ancient Babylon, while the Jews were captive during their 70 year exile, that the Kabballah was first introduced into Jewish culture.

Kabballah, Talmud and the Zohar continued to grow once the Jews returned to Israel and completely infested the Pharisees and Sadducees of the 1st century.

By the 13th century, Kabballah/Zohar and the Talmud had become so complicated and bloated, it threatened to destroy the Jewish people. Fortunately, even some Jews who had not yet come to Messiah, began to finally see how satanic the teachings first brought from ancient babylon were.

Avi Ben Mordechai and James Trimm, respected "elders" in the Messianic movement, both teach and support kabballah. Kabballah is a so called "way to interpret the Torah using mystic Jewish understanding" and its supporters claim they are led by the Ruach ha Kadosh.

In fact, as someone once commented to me, Kabballah is merely a replacement for the Ruach itself.

Kabballah teaches, among other things, that eventually you can become so godlike, so close to YHVH that you no longer need Torah. That you no longer need to obey YHVH. That you can basically be YHVH yourself. Utter blasphemy.

It is no coincidence that satanists, witches, warlocks and other pagans love kabballah and use its teachings and incantations often.

There was even a Messianic pastor in southern California, tutored and instructed by Avi Ben Mordechai, who became so wrapped up in Kabballah, Talmud and the Zohar, that he began using wands, casting spells and even erected a mirrored pentagram in the main sanctuary. YHVH struck this pastor with cancer and he perished, but Avi Ben Mordechai continues to peddle his black-magic teachings cloaked in the guise of Hebrew-roots and Torah teaching.

I suppose it is inevitable that Satan, desperate to stop the rising surge and tide of Truth, would pull out his darkest and most evil strategy -- reviving the kabballah.

The Talmud, which has now been codified, contains so many blasphemous instructions, so many rules AGAINST the written Torah -- NO ONE should ever study it. The kabballah is FAR WORSE than the Talmud. The Zohar is just as bad as the kabballah.

Many Messianics and Hebrew-Christians, along with other Israelites and other Torah-keeping movements, think it is beneficial to study the Talmud. Wrong. Talmud is wholly darkness and ought not to be learned.

While there are some Jewish traditions which are harmless -- such as observing Hanukkah or placing a seat for Elijah at Passover -- most of them are so steeped in satanism, witchcraft and darkness that no one should ever even read the Talmud.

If you have a Talmud, any books on kabballah (such as those written by Avi Ben Mordechai), or any reference to the Zohar -- you should BURN THEM. They will lead you into perdition.

The link below proves that the Talmud allows sex between adults and children as young as 3 years old. Utter wickedness. The Jews often refer to this wicked Talmud as the Torah.

The Jews did the SAME thing in the 1st century, referring to their man-made, wicked Talmud as the Torah. Torah has NOTHING to do with Talmud.

Go ahead, read for yourself:
............continued on link above.
___________________
As you can see by the article - it would not be a reach to assume you had gone that path as you have shown no regard for the Holy Scriptures nor keeping them - in light of the way you have treated people on this board - the filthy discussions - coarse sexual joke you / your friend Shimon made on another thread discussing missionaries - mocking the LORD and twisting Scriptures about Him, slandering Christian people, false accusations and outright lies. It's been nothing short of the behavior one would expect from a child of the devil. I have nothing further to say to you other than get off of my thread.

 

[HaShev]

To the evil presence in this forum,
you asked: If you are not a Kabbalist then why do you give pre-eminence to the Talmud over the Torah?

That is another lie instead if an apology when getting caught. I only use Talmud as historical reference to Rabbi's which are accurately recorded and a good resource in researching history. Talmud is not Kabbalist and by your logic All South Koreans are Kabbalist since it's a school required reading.
Sining to cover up a sin does not make you better, it makes you worse Your affiliation and need to validate makes you a bad person not a good one.
It is liken to a heavy set woman being overly permiscuous in order to feel desirable by men.
You are in essence whoring your religion on these forums while showing everybody just hiw bad an influence that
faith is on you.
Fact, none of the Jews ever watched your vids you left due to hurt pride by your failed arguments and need to cover up certain damaging posts.
Fact: None of us are ever gonna convert, so your point is?
Fact: your posts always backfire on you and you end up being one of the better COUNTER MISSIONARIES because of your exposing things and behavior.
Fact: none of those Jews converted. How can soneone convert away from Yhwh unless you finally admit Jesus is Baal's son?
Busted!

 

[shimon]

This isnt the jewish testimonies this is the jeremiah cutting and pasting testimonies from you tube...it is a one horse race where some people have fallen off jacobs ladder and failed the test but christians are basically after their "monies".. So it isnt the "test" that christianity wants it is the "monie" or the money they can sqeeze out of them betting on their one horse race that some of the nags think that he(jesus) ran post to post...unfortunately all the merry hearted are wrong and the dark horse coming up from behind will not only beat him at the wire but will eclipse him as well.... Wink...

 

[HaShev]

Talk about money her and zaang "might be" spaming the forums with youtube clips 'cause they have payout programs that pay people. Whoring her religion was an apporopriate term I used and accurate one as well.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Answering a few questions that some Jewish people may have about Jesus......

Did Jesus teach his disciples to hate their parents - Jesus - Answers - Jews for Jesus

Some claim that Jesus taught his disciples to hate their mother and father. If true, that would obviously make Jesus to be an immoral and unethical teacher, immoral, since one of the Commandments is to honor one's mother and father. Understanding the Jewish background to Jesus' teaching puts an entirely different light on his words.

Jesus' statements in question are:

Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 'a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.' Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Matthew 10:34-37

and

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

The Answer broken down into 4 parts. Here is Part One.

Did Jesus teach his disciples to hate their parents - Jesus - Answers - Jews for Jesus
1. These sayings of Jesus reflect a common Jewish understanding of the day.

Jewish understanding was that the messianic era would be preceded by a time of disharmony in family and social relationships. By these sayings, Jesus was announcing the messianic age and his own messiahship.

In fact, Jesus was quoting from the Jewish prophet Micah who spoke of the messianic age in these terms:

Do not trust a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Even with her who lies in your embrace be careful of your words. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--a man's enemies are the members of his own household.

Micah 7:5-6

Micah had been speaking of judgment that was to come upon Judah because of her corruption and moral failure. This judgment, Micah previously said, would take the form of a siege by an outside enemy. In this context, social relationships would fall apart and even close relatives would no longer trust one another. This social deterioration would be the end result of Judah's immorality and sin. In Second Temple and rabbinic Jewish literature, this same passage and similar descriptions characterize the final "day of the Lord." See Jewish Quotes below for citations.

Beth Moshe claims that in Micah, "the situation is seen properly as evil and not desirable....Jesus, in contrast, says a sword and dissension are his goals." (Judaism's Truth Answers the Missionaries (New York: Bloch Publishing, 1987), p. 203.) But this fails to recognize the background to Jesus' words in Jewish literature. Jesus is not encouraging hate. Rather, he is saying that social networks will be torn apart because of his words and actions--as the end results of the people's sin, not because his goal is dissension.

So then, in much Jewish literature of the Second Temple Period, the Kingdom of God is preceded by a time of dissension such as Micah portrays. The implication of Jesus' words is that he is about to bring in the Kingdom of God, accompanied by this breakup of personal relationships. This happens not because it was Jesus' goal, but because when the Kingdom comes, sin stands out in sharp relief.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

2. Jesus in fact reiterated the commandment to honor one's mother and father.
Jesus affirmed the commandment to honor parents in word and action:

For God said, "Honor your father and mother," and "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death."

But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever help you might otherwise have received form me is a gift devoted to God," he is not to "honor his father" with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition."

Matthew 15:4-6

"If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

"Which ones?" the man inquired." Jesus replied, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 19:17-19

For Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother," and "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death." But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: "Whatever help you might otherwise have received form me is Corban (that is, a gift devoted to God)," then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.

Mark 7:10-13

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to this mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

John 19:25-27

F. F. Bruce, late Rylands Professor of biblical criticism and exegesis, University of Manchester, England, remarked:

Jesus himself censured those theologians who argued that people who had vowed to give God a sum of money which they later discovered could have been used to help their parents in need were not free to divert the money from the religious purposes to which it had been vowed in order to meet a parental need. This, he said, was a violation of the commandment to honour one's father and mother (Mark 7:9-13).

The Hard Sayings of Jesus (Downers Grove IL: InterVarsity Press, 1983), pp. 119-20.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

3. Jesus' saying not only announced the messianic age but was a reminder that loyalty to God takes precedence over loyalty to family when the two come in conflict.
This principle is found in both the Hebrew Scriptures and in rabbinic writings.

In The Hebrew Scriptures we find the story of Moses and the tribe of Levi. Levi was the tribe from whom came the priests who taught the Law and led in worship. Moses praises this tribe using language that reminds us of Jesus' statements about family:

"He said of his father and mother, 'I have no regard for them.' He did not recognize his brothers or acknowledge his own children, but he watched over your word and guarded your covenant. He teaches your precepts to Jacob and your law to Israel. He offers incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. Bless all his skills, O LORD, and be pleased with the work of his hands. Smite the loins of those who rise up against him; strike his foes till they rise no more".

Deuteronomy 33:9-11

Moses is not saying that the Levites had no concern for their own parents, nor that they literally failed to recognize their siblings. Honor for parents was part of the Law. Yet family bonds did not take precedence over God's requirements. So Moses praises the tribe in hyperbolic terms. The truth is that it takes mature love rather than hatred to show honor to one's mother and father yet to give precedence to God's requirements.

Samuel Tobias Lachs, Professor of History of Religion at Bryn Mawr College, remarked concerning Matthew 10:37. Interestingly, here we see an example of a case from the Talmud where a teacher takes precedence over a father.

On the greater duty to serve the teacher over a parent, note: "If a man went to seek his own lost property and that of his father, his own has priority; if his own and that of his teacher, his own has priority; if that of his father and that of his teacher, his teacher's has priority, for his father brought him into this world, but his teacher, who has taught him wisdom, brings him into the world-to-come."

A Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Hoboken: Ktav; New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1987), p. 188, citing Mishnah Baba Metzia 2:11.

Did Jesus teach his disciples to hate their parents - Jesus - Answers - Jews for Jesus

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

4. The word "hate" in the Bible is often used to express priority and preference rather than emotional hatred.
For example, in Deuteronomy 21:15-17 the word refers to a preference rather than an emotional hatred. The same is true of Malachi 1:2-3.

If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love [literally, the hated wife], when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father's strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.

Deuteronomy 21:15-17

"I have loved you," says the LORD. "But you ask, 'How have you loved us?' "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" the LORD says. "Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

Malachi 1:2-3

In addition, the same sense of "hate" occurs in rabbinic literature such as Exodus Rabbah 51:8. See the supporting statements below.

Enoch 56:7 (in regard to Israel's enemies; ca. 2nd-1st c. BCE)

And they shall begin to fight among themselves; and (by) their own right hands they shall prevail against themselves. A man shall not recognize his brother, nor a son his mother, until there shall be a (significant) number of corpses from among them. Their punishment is (indeed) not in vain.

First Enoch 100:1-2 (in regard to unspecified "sinners"; ca 2nd c. BCE)

(1) In those days, the father will be beaten together with his sons, in one place; and brothers shall fall together with their friends, in death, until a stream shall flow with their blood. (2) For a man shall not be able to withhold his hands from his sons nor from (his) sons' sons in order to fill them. Nor is it possible for the sinner to withhold his hands from his honored brother. From dawn until the sun sets, they shall slay each other.

Jubilees 23:19 (in regard to a sinful generation among Jewish people; ca. 2nd c. BCE)

Some of these will strive with others, youths with old men and old men with youths, the poor with the rich, the lowly with the great, and the beggar with the judge concerning the Law and the Covenant because they have forgotten the commandments and covenant and festivals and months and sabbaths and jubilees and all of the judgments.

Fourth Ezra 6:24 (in regard to "the end of the age"; ca. 1st-2nd c. CE)

At that time friends shall make war on friends like enemies, and the earth and those who inhabit it shall be terrified, and the springs of the fountains shall stand still, so that for three hours they shall not flow.

Commentator Max Margolis on Micah 7:6 (20th c.)

In the Mishnah (Sotah ix.15) our verse is embodied in a passage descriptive of the conditions which are to obtain in the period immediately preceding the advent of the Messiah (comp. also Matthew x. 35f.; Luke xii.53). Similar thoughts and phraseology occur in the apocalyptic writings (Baruch lxx.3 ff.; IV Ezra v.9; vi.24; Enoch ii) and in the Midrashim (Sifre on Deut. xxxii.36; Pesikta rabbeti, p.4b: 75a, and elsewhere; Derek eres zutta, ch. x; Cant. rabba, ch. ii; comp. also Sanhedrin 97a ff.). The idea underlying these expectations is that evil must have run its course before the good can come. The hope in the triumphant advent of the Kingdom of God is intensified by the very contemplation of the evil as it exists. When the moral corruption is greatest, salvation is surest; or, as the rabbis says, "out of distress cometh relief" (Midrash Shoher Tob on Ps. xxii; Jer. xxx.7 is appositely quoted).

--Margolis, Max L. The Holy Scriptures with Commentary: Micah (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1908).

Samuel Tobias Lachs, Professor of History of Religion at Bryn Mawr College, on Matthew 10:21:

Family problems were to be characteristic of the Last Days. . . .It is a very common motif in the apocalyptic literature. E.g., "In that generation the sons will convict their fathers and their elders of sin and unrighteousness . . . and they will strive one with another, the young with the old, the old with the young." "And they shall hate one another, and provoke one another to fight, and the mean shall rule over the honorable, and those of low degree shall be extolled above the famous."

--A Rabbinic Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Hoboken: Ktav; New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1987), p. 183, citing Jubilees 23:19 and 2 Baruch 70:3.

Lachs on Matthew 10:34:

The spirit of this deterioration of family relationships is reflected in rabbinic treatment of Micah 7:6, where it is explained as prelude to the messianic coming: "With the footprints of the Messiah presumption shall increase and death reach its height . . . children shall shame the elders and the elders shall rise up before the children, for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man's enemies are the men of his own house. The face of this generation is as the face of a dog, and the son will not be put to shame by his father." Similarly, "And in that generation the sons will convict their fathers and their elders of sin and unrighteousness . . . and they will strive with one another, the young with the old and the old with the young."

--Ibid., p. 186

Did Jesus teach his disciples to hate their parents - Jesus - Answers - Jews for Jesus

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

How Jewish was the Apostle Paul?

How Jewish Was Paul - Jews for Jesus

A person is either Jewish or not Jewish, and few actually believe that Paul was not. Hyam Maccoby is virtually alone in his opinion that Paul was a gentile.

1

However, if we can speak of the extent to which one demonstrates Jewish identity as that person's Jewishness," perhaps it is Paul's Jewishness that people wish to call into question.

Perhaps most telling is what Paul himself had to say about being Jewish. Here is how he described himself: "Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the He-brews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless." (Philippians 3:5-6)

What did it mean to be "a Hebrew of the Hebrews"? Hebrews was a specialized term that referred to Jews who spoke Aramaic and worshiped at Hebrew-speaking congregations, as opposed to Hellenists who spoke and worshiped in Greek. A Hebrew of the Hebrews indicates an Aramaic-speaking, observant Jew whose parents were also Hebrews. Hebrews outside the land in places such as Tarsus-a city located in what today is Turkey-were immigrants who kept the more observant lifestyle of their place of origin.

2

Paul also wrote: "I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city [Jerusalem] at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers' law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today." (Acts 22:3)

Paul was educated at the feet of one of the most eminent Pharisaic rabbis of his time. In those days, leading rabbis headed schools in which they taught their perspectives and views to disciples. Gamaliel either succeeded the famous Hillel as head of the school of Hillel or headed his own school.

3

He sat on the Sanhedrin, the Supreme Court of ancient Israel, and had a reputation of great piety. The Mishnah 4 states: "When Rabban Gamaliel the Elder died, the glory of the Law ceased and purity and separateness died." The Pharisees were the separated ones. This accolade was tantamount to saying that Gamaliel was the last, and perhaps the best, exemplar of Pharisaism.

1. Hyam Maccoby, The Mythmaker: Paul and the Invention of Christianity (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1986).
2. See F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1977), pp. 42-43.
3. Ibid., p. 50 n. 30.
4. Mishnah Sotah 9:15.

This article originally appeared in The Y'shua Challenge booklet.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Questions about the Bible

Bible - Answers - Jews for Jesus

ANSWERS

THE BIBLE

ISN'T THE BIBLE ANTI-SEMITIC?

How can you believe in the New Testament? Isn't it full of anti-Semitism and lies?
The New Testament--which simply means New Covenant--needs to be accepted for what it is, a Jewish book written almost entirely by Jewish people. Most of the concepts in the New Testament cannot be understood apart from their background in the Hebrew Bible. It was fashionable a few years ago to claim that the New Testament contained a large proportion of ideas which were not Jewish but Greek. More recently, though, archaeology has vindicated the Jewish origins of practically everything within the New Testament.

A glance at even a few verses from the New Testament shows the Jewish background involved:

A record of the genealogy of Messiah Jesus the son of David, the son of Abraham."

Matthew 1:1

"On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child..."

Luke 1:59

"Then came Hanukkah at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon's Colonnade."

John 10:22-23

"Then Paul said, 'I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.'"

Acts 22:2-3

"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus the Messiah, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings."

James 1:1

That the New Testament is a Jewish book which stands alongside the Hebrew Scriptures is becoming increasingly recognized, even in Israel. The Israeli scholar Pinchas Lapide has reported an analysis of ten textbooks used in primary and secondary schools in Israel. He says that "six of the books quote a total of eighteen New Testament passages....Three books give detailed explanations of the historical, literary, and religious meaning of the four Gospels....In two books quotations from the Old Testament are juxtaposed with quotations from the New so as to point out similarities and affinities."1

As far as allegations of anti-Semitism go, remember that in the early days of Christianity, there were no Gentile believers. The whole question of whether Jesus was the Messiah was a family affair to be settled by the family of Jewish people. It is in this context that the tone of many passages depicting criticism of this or that segment of the Jewish people must be seen. The "harsh" passages in the New Testament resemble far more the moral exhortations of the prophets than they do the intolerant rhetoric of medieval sermons. Take this passage, for instance, referring to the Jewish people:

"Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord, they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him."

Did you think this passage came from the New Testament? Perhaps you didn't recognize it as a quotation from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.2 These kinds of words, recalling our people from sin, have always been a part of the prophetic tradition. The New Testament continues this tradition, alongside the tradition of elaborating on the positive side of Israel's relationship with God.

The real question to be dealt with is not, "Is the New Testament Jewish?" but rather, "Is it true?" When the same tests of historicity and validity are applied to the New Testament as to the Hebrew Scriptures, both will be seen to be equally true.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Theology - Answers - Jews for Jesus

Theology

• "We believe in one God - you believe in three gods!"
• "A man can't become God - that's idolatry!"
• "Atonement for sin? That happens through repentance, charity, and fasting."
• "We Jews don't need a middleman!"

These are some typical responses we Jewish people have given to what Christians believe. They are verbal walls meant to separate Jews and Christians: you have your room, and I have mine.

If we each have our own spaces, it's time for a home makeover. The Christian doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, atonement through the Messiah's self-sacrifice all turn out to be Jewish at root. In this section, we'll explore how and why.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

The Trinity Questions and Answers - Jews for Jesus

Note: Elaine the correspondent is fictional, but Karol Joseph is real and serves on the staff of Jews for Jesus. She can be reached by e-mail.

Dear Karol,

I wanted to write to you concerning an area that has been particularly troubling for me.

The area has to do with The Trinity. I know you and I have talked about this issue many times before, the notion that Jews believe in one God, not three, but my friend Jerry challenged me on some of the things you've said, and that's raised some questions that I hope you can answer. For example, he showed me how the word echad in the Hebrew Bible doesn't always mean a compound unity, so that its use in the Shema wouldn't necessarily be speaking of any kind of plurality of the Godhead. He showed me verses, such as Exodus 9:7 and 2 Samuel 7:23, that demonstrated the use of echad in the singular, and talked about how the rabbis have always thought of this as an absolute unity rather than a plural unity as the Christians have. He even showed me where Maimonides, in his Thirteen Articles of Faith, used the Hebrew yachid, rather than echad in speaking of the unity of God specifically to reinforce the Jewish belief in an absolute unity and to dismiss any notion of a plurality.

Similarly, Jerry also showed me that arguing that the use of the word Elohim in the Hebrew Scripture speaks of a plural god isn't exactly correct, since in Semitic languages elohim is also often used when referring to gods, kings, anyone in power to express their greatness or majesty. He said that it wouldn't be so unusual to use the word in that way, and showed me verses to demonstrate that when Elohim was used to speak of our God, it would be followed by a singular pronoun for God (e.g. Genesis 1:5). Anyway, I'd be curious to hear your response to these two specific issues, and what that means relative to your argument that God is Father, Son and Spirit. I guess what I'm saying is that this puts me back at square one with regard to understanding how the Trinity can be Jewish, especially after listening to Jerry repeat time and again that Christianity borrowed the whole idea of the God-man from the surrounding pagan religions!

I hope that you'll have time to respond to this letter in the midst of all your work.

Sincerely,
Elaine

Dear Elaine,

It was good to hear from you. I hope that the answers I can give you on this subject can convince you of the truth about Jesus. Let me assure you at the outset that there are answers to any and every argument that Jerry, or an anti-missionary, can throw out at you, so if you continue to have questions, we can talk about them.

When it comes to The Trinity, I hope that I can give you in this letter just a brief glimpse and insight into what is perhaps the most complex "mystery" of the entire Bible. As I've studied this matter some, I have come to be amazed at how utterly Jewish the New Testament is when it speaks of God, the Son of God and the Spirit of God. Hopefully I will be able to convey some of that in this letter; the rest we'll have to go into more detail when we're together.

At the outset I should say that Jerry was correct in what he told you about the use of the Hebrew word echad; it isn't always used as a compound unity, although it can be, and often is, used that way. The word echad, like the English word "one" can be used in either way, as a compound unity (e.g. one month) or as an absolute unity (e.g. one earth). He's also correct in what he told you about the word elohim; that it can be used as a term of majesty and grandeur when referring to a single person. You should note, however, that this doesn't exclude the notion of a plurality of the godhead; it only means that you can't rely on the use of that word alone to prove that God is a plurality.

In the same way, there isn't a single scripture in the Hebrew Bible that proves that God is an absolute unity. Some of the anti-missionaries might try and point you to Zechariah 14:9, "The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name" as a statement of the LORD's absolute unity, but if you look at the New Jewish Version of the Bible you'll see that this isn't what's meant. In that version the text reads, "The Lord alone shall be worshiped and shall be invoked by his true name." Rather than talking of His absolute unity, it's speaking of His exclusiveness, His aloneness.

It's the same with the Shema, Deut. 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one." It was really a statement that we shouldn't worship any other God, not a statement about his nature. Ibn Ezra, the great Jewish sage, translated the Shema, "...the Lord our God, the Lord alone," and it is translated that way also in the New Jewish Translation. It is interesting to me that the real issue in the Shema wasn't originally the unity of God at all; rather it was the "aloneness" of God, that He was the only God that we would worship. It is a declaration of exclusive allegiance to YHVH, the Lord alone. So, it was in the midst of peoples who worshiped many gods, that our God revealed Himself as the only God, the only one we should worship. That's why the ten commandments begin with the command... "you shall have no other gods before me."

The Shema only came to mean to the Jewish people that God was an absolute unity when it confronted Christianity claiming that God was a plurality. Maimonides did use the word yachid in his principles of faith, but he was doing that clearly in reaction to both Christianity and Islam, which were seen as threats to the Jewish faith and survival of the Jewish people.

We can also see from the New Testament that Jesus himself recited the Shema, Mark 12:28-30 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' something that he wouldn't likely do if it contradicted anything he believed about the nature of God. Jesus affirmed the "oneness" of God, that He was the only God to whom all of our allegiance is due.

I hope you can see from this that the Shema can't really be used to argue against Christianity's view of God. Both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament use the Shema in the exact same way; to pledge allegiance to the one true God of the universe, YHVH.

So, we all agree that God is one. Yet, in some way we all also, Jews and Christians alike, that in some mysterious way, God is greater than one. He's not someone that can be put in a box or dealt with in mathematical terms. God is certainly complex in his oneness, and it's easy to see this in the Hebrew Scriptures as well as the New Testament.

In the Hebrew Bible, we see this complexity in 1Kings 8:27, when Solomon builds the Temple for God: "But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!" Yet God does come and fill the Temple, without diminishing any of his Godness that is still filling the heavens. We also see, in Gen. 19:24, Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah--from the LORD out of the heavens and in both cases it is God, YHVH, the LORD who was talking to Abraham, and the Lord who was up in the heavens. At the same time we see in the Scriptures God's Spirit come upon the prophets, and on King Saul and David (who cries out in Psalm 51:11, Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.) What is clear is that God's oneness is not as simple a matter as some would like to believe. And we see God reveal Himself as a man, often called "The Angel of the LORD," who I'll discuss further below.

What I'd like to show you is that in the Hebrew Scriptures and tradition is that there are definite understandings of an "eternal Son of God," also called "the Word of the Lord" that in the New Testament is finally revealed as Jesus, the word made flesh that you and I have talked about before in John 1:14; and that the Holy Spirit, also called in the Hebrew Scriptures the Shekinah , is not only present in the Hebrew Bible, but serves exactly the same purpose as in the New Testament. My point is that although Christianity took these Biblical passages, and explained them in the doctrine of The Trinity (which might be better understood as God having a "tri-une" nature) it doesn't make the concept any less Jewish.

What we need to realize is that God has revealed Himself in a number of ways throughout the history of our people, and in the last days He has revealed Himself in His Son, Y'shua. That's what I'll show you in the Hebrew Bible, and that's exactly what the New Testament demonstrates as well.

The Hebrew Bible makes it very clear that no one can see God and live. Yet the Bible has examples of people seeing Him and do live. For example, Genesis 32:28-30 recounts the experience of Jacob and God, and saying, "So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." Perhaps the most significant account is of Abraham and the angels/men he encounters in Genesis 18. In verse 1 it says The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre. And it's totally clear that this is God, who we see in the account is one of the three men who approach Abraham. Even the rabbis have a difficult time with this account since it is so clear that it is YHVH who reveals Himself.

These kinds of theophanies in the Bible were a problem for the Jewish people, who were concerned about making God too human in a sense. So we see in the Targums (the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible that was commonly used in the first century), the substitution of the word memra introduced in every instance in the Bible in which God is represented as talking to a man, thus explaining away all the anthropomorphisms found in the text (Sidney S. Tedesche, "Logos" in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, [New York, 1942] p. 167). The Word partook of the nature of God but was also sort of an emanation from him, a messenger who carried out His commands. Let me give you just one example to show what I mean. In Genesis 3:8, where the Scriptures say "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden..." The Targum reads that they heard the sound of the word of God, the memra, walking in the garden.

This idea of the memra, went back to the biblical verse in Psalm 33:6, "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth." The word is spoken of in personal terms in Isaiah 55 as being on a mission, Isaiah 55:10-11: "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." The Bible also shows the word "running," Psalm 147:15 "He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly."

What is especially interesting and telling is that while the Targums are full of "the Word of the Lord" to refer to God's presence here on earth, the Talmud doesn't mention it at all! The Jewish Encyclopedia explains the most likely reason:

In the ancient Church liturgy, adopted from the Synagogue, it is especially interesting to notice how often the term Logos, (this is the Greek word for the memra) in the sense of 'the Word by which God made the world, or made His Law or Himself known to man,' was changed into 'Christ.' Possibly on account of the Christian dogma, rabbinic theology, outside of the Targum literature, made little use of the term 'Memra.'

The Jewish Encyclopedia, [New York and London, 1904] p. 465

We don't see any mention of the Memra in the Rabbinic literature today, but that's because it was suppressed in reaction to Christianity, not because it wasn't seen as part of Jewish understanding in the first century. In fact it was this exact concept that the New Testament Jewish writers were communicating in speaking of Jesus as the Word, the Memra.

It is also this word, memra, in the Aramaic that corresponds to the Greek word logos that Philo used in communicating the concept of the "Word of God" to the Greek community. It wasn't surprising for me to read in your letter that Jerry would raise the issue of Christianity borrowing this whole idea of the God-man from the surrounding pagan religions, for it's in this context (as well as some others that I won't go into right now) that he's thinking of that issue. Jerry, and anti-missionaries such as Gerald Sigal, like to harp on the idea that the God-man was pagan, saying that the New Testament borrowed a Greek notion to make their whole new religion more acceptable to the Greeks. But this was totally untrue, and I think you can see that the idea of the logos was simply derived out of the Aramaic concept of the memra.

In addition to communicating God's presence here on earth in His Word, we also see in the Hebrew Scriptures many verses that speak of "The Angel of the Lord," who interestingly enough is often called the LORD Himself. I mentioned earlier Genesis 18, where it is God Himself speaking to Abraham, but is there physically as the Angel of the Lord (by the way the Talmud even says that this was God, there's no way around it). This idea is also clear in the verses concerning Jacob and the angel he wrestles all night:

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

Gen. 32:28-30

Who was this angel? The angel was clearly God, but come in the form of a man. Could it be the pre-incarnate Jesus? I believe it is. This would certainly make sense of all that the Bible teaches; that no one can see God in His unmediated glory and live, but that you can see the mediated glory of God. That's exactly what the New Testament says, in John 1:18, "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."

Finally, with regard to the Son, let me simply say that the Hebrew Bible is filled with references to God's son, and even Jerry would have to agree. In the Hebrew Bible, Israel as a nation was called God's son (Exodus 4:22 Then say to Pharaoh, "This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son"); and the kings of Israel were called God's son (Psalm 2:6-7 "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill." I will proclaim the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.") Is it any wonder that the Messiah, the ultimate, ideal king of Israel, should also be called the Son of God in a unique way?

The New Testament says that Jesus was eternally "begotten" of the Father, he has always existed as the Son of God. I know this sounds a bit confusing; if it does then you're probably catching on to some of the complexity of this issue. Suffice it to say for now that the Jewish writers of the New Testament saw in Jesus, the unique Son of God, the preexistent one. He was the Word of God, the Angel of the Lord, the Son of God (the Messiah of God!).

Just to make it all even more confusing for you, let me just add here something interesting I learned about Isaiah 9:6. Remember that verse that speaks of the names of the special child who would be born:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

I'm sure that Jerry must have discussed this verse with you, trying to demonstrate that the names weren't the names of the child but rather of God. Well I learned that before the days of the medieval Jewish commentators and polemicists, a fully Messianic interpretation of these names was once again quite acceptable. It was only in reaction to Christianity that this needed to be rejected. In fact, Ibn Ezra wrote,

"There are some interpreters who say that 'wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father' are the names of God, and that only 'prince of peace' is the name of the child. But according to my view, the right interpretation is that they are all the names of the child." This is exactly the Christian understanding of the text as well.

Walter Riggans,Yeshua Ben David, [Crowborough, East Sussex: MARC, 1995] p. 370

Turning briefly now to the concept of the Shekinah, we also see in the Hebrew Scriptures that the shekinah was the presence of God here on earth. It was the Shekinah that filled the Temple (without diminishing God at all in the heavens or universe), and accompanied Israel into exile. There was even the notion in Judaism that the Shekinah in leaving with the people in exile was in a way God being disunified, and wouldn't be reunited until Israel returned to the land. The designation of the Shekinah was specifically chosen when reference was made to the Divine Presence not at a definite place but in the midst of the people (Ephraim E.Urbach, The Sages, [Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975] p. 43). The Shekinah expresses not only God's presence, but also God's nearness to His people. This Divine Presence brings God into the most intimate contact with human beings so that He even shares their sorrows. I think you'll find the following excerpt from Everyman's Talmud (p. 44-45) interesting. Read and see if this doesn't sound like the Holy Spirit of the New Testament:

"And whence is it that when ten assemble for prayer the Shechinah is in their midst?... and Whence is it that when three sit and judge, the Shechinah is in their midst... There is also the statement of R. Simeon b. Jochai: 'Wherever the righteous go, the Shechinah goes with them' (Gen R. lxxxvi. 6). Just as prayer and sacred study make a person more sensitive to the Shechinah, sin has the reverse effect of driving it away so that the Presence is not felt and, for all practical purposes, is not existent there....

Another Rabbinic concept to indicate the nearness of God and His direct influence on man is that of Ruach Hakodesh (the Holy Spirit.) Sometimes it seems to be identical with the Shechinah. More often it is employed to describe the endowment of a person with special gifts. Prophecy, in the sense of the ability to interpret the will of God, is the effect of which the Holy Spirit is the cause. Its possession also endows one with foreknowledge..."

So, we can see that the correct question, with regard to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, might not at all be whether or not He is the "third person of the Trinity" but rather, does the same Holy Spirit (the presence of God, who is both God Himself and yet somehow separate from Him) exist in the Hebrew Scriptures as in the New Testament. The answer is undoubtedly , yes. In fact, Jesus, in our view, can be seen as the walking Shekinah.

So, in a real sense, the Hebrew Bible is saying the same thing as the New Testament, that no one could see God, in His unmediated glory, and live. But we can see God, mediated in His Son, Jesus, and live... not just today, but forever! He is not only the memra, but He is also the walking Shekinah!

With this understanding, now you can read the words of Hebrews and understand how totally Jewish they are:

In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Hebrews 1:1-3

It is amazing how each of these concepts, of God revealing Himself in His Son, of the Son being the radiance of God's glory (the Shekinah glory), of the Son being the exact representation of God's being, and of sustaining things by his powerful Word, spoke to the Jewish people of the first century of the truth of Jesus. What I'd like to do with you when we see one another next, is to then show you how this whole concept connects to what the Messiah would do. As a preview, if you like, just take a look on your own at Malachi 3 and see if you can tell what the prophet was saying about the one who would come to purify for sins, who would come in judgment.

I hope I've addressed the issues you raised in your letter, at least enough to give you a sense of assurance that what the Bible is saying about Jesus is true. I'm looking forward to seeing you soon and to talking about these matters further. May God bless you.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Don t Christians Believe in Three Gods - Jews for Jesus

No! It's a very common misrepresentation that while Jews believe in one God, Christians believe in three. The fact is that Christianity is as firmly monotheistic as Judaism.

What Christians believe is that this one God exists, in a way finite man can never fully understand, in three persons or personalities. This belief is not based upon philosophical arguments, but on the Scriptures--both Old and New Testaments.

We affirm that the Hebrew Bible teaches the oneness of God.

The cardinal affirmation of the Jewish people has always been the Sh'ma: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One." But along with the emphasis on the oneness of God are a number of hints that He is at the same time somehow more than one.

One such hint is the number of times plural forms of names and words are used in reference to God. The common Hebrew word for God, Elohim, is itself plural in form. The singular counterpart of Elohim, namely Eloah, is used ten times less than is the plural form. Plural verbs are sometimes employed with the name Elohim, as in Genesis 20:13.1Plural pronouns are at times used by God when referring to Himself, as in Genesis 1:26.2 Other descriptions of God are sometimes found in the plural, which is not always evident in our English translations (for instance, Ecclesiastes 12:13 or Isaiah 54:54).

Even more striking is the very word used in the Sh'ma to proclaim the oneness of God, echad. This word allows for a plurality or diversity within unity. This can be seen especially clearly in several passages. In Genesis 1:55, 2:246,Ezra 2:647 and Ezekiel 37:178, the oneness is the result of combining evening and morning, man and wife, the individual members of an assembly, and two sticks, respectively. There is however, another word in Hebrew to describe an indivisible unity, namely yachid. It so happens that the scholar Maimonides9, when composing his famous Thirteen Articles of Faith, substituted yachid for echad in describing the nature of God. Ever since, the notion of an indivisible unity of God has been fostered in Judaism; nevertheless, the Bible gives ample instances to show that there is a diversity within God's unity.

The Zohar, the foundation book of Jewish mysticism, recognized that the idea of a plurality-in-unity is not foreign to Jewish thinking. While the medieval mystics' idea is different from the Christian idea of the Trinity, the basic idea of a plurality within the one God still holds. The passage from the Zohar, commenting on the Sh'ma, reads as follows:

"Hear, O Israel, YHVH Elohenu YHVH is one." These three are one. How can the three Names be one? Only through the perception of Faith: in the vision of the Holy Spirit, in the beholding of the hidden eyes alone. The mystery of the audible voice is similar to this, for though it is one yet it consists of three elements--fire, air, and water, which have, however, become one in the mystery of the voice. Even so it is with the mystery of the threefold Divine manifestations designated by YHVH Elohenu YHVH--three modes which yet form one unity.10

In fact, beside God Himself, there are two other personalities in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures who are portrayed as distinct from, yet somehow the same as God. These other two are the angel of the Lord, and the Spirit of God or Holy Spirit.

The angel of the Lord is mentioned a number of times but is also identified with God Himself. For instance, in Genesis 16:7 and 16:13 He is called respectively the angel of the Lord and then the Lord.11 Another example would beGenesis 22:11 and 22:12. This particular individual is both distinct from and identified with God Himself.12

Then there is the Spirit of God. God's Spirit is spoken of in the Scriptures as a personality of His own, yet identified as God. Such passages include Genesis 1:2, Psalm 51:13, or Isaiah 11:2.13

Because Israel was surrounded by polytheists in ancient times and tended to absorb the idolatry of those nations, the Hebrew Scriptures emphasized God's oneness more than His "tri-unity." But by the days of the New Testament, when idolatry was no longer a problem in Israel, the idea of God's "tri-unity" was more clearly articulated in the Scriptures. The three personalities just mentioned are portrayed in the New Testament as God the Father, God the Son (the Messiah, Jesus) and God the Spirit--yet all without compromising the fundamental affirmation of the Sh'ma: "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One," an affirmation which Jesus himself termed "the most important commandment."14

You might protest, "But don't Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God? But if Jesus is God, how can he be the Son of God? Look, you're making a man into God, and on top of that, God doesn't have a son!"

Again, not true! In Exodus 4:22-23, Israel is called God's "son."15 The King of Israel is referred to as God's "son" in I Chronicles 17:13.16 That the Messiah would also be God's son is stated in the Talmud:

Our Rabbis taught, The Holy One, blessed be He, will say to the Messiah, the son of David (May he reveal himself speedily in our days),'Ask of me anything and I will give it to thee, as it is said [Ps. 2:7,8]. I will tell of the decree: [The Lord hath said unto me, "Thou art my son;]l this day have I begotten thee, ask of me and I will give the nations for thy inheritance."17

The idea in the Scriptures is not that a man became God--God forbid--but that the Messiah would himself be God coming as a man. Isaiah 9:6 portrays the coming of the Messiah in these terms: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." But if God is indeed a "tri-unity," then it is possible for the Messiah both to be called God and also to exist in a relationship characterized as "son of God." This is the conclusion we Jews who believe in Jesus are driven to as we study the Scriptures. With our fellow Jews, we affirm that "the Lord our God, the Lord is one"--a oneness characterized by a "tri-unity."

1. "And when God had me wander from my father's household..." The verb "had me wander" is plural in the Hebrew.
2. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...."
3. "Remember your Creator in the days of your youth..." In the Hebrew, "Creator" is a plural form.
4. "For your Maker is your husband--the Lord Almighty is his name..." Again, "Maker" and "husband" are plural forms.
5. Genesis 1:5: "God called the light 'day' and the darkness he called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day."
6. Genesis 2:24: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
7. Ezra 2:64: "The whole company numbered 42,360...
8. Ezekiel 37:15-17: "...take a stick of wood...then take another stick of wood...Join them together into one stick so that they will become one in your hand."
9. Maimonides is one of the greatest figures in Jewish history. Born in Spain in 1135, he was known as a rabbinic scholar, a philosopher, and even a physician.Maimonides is known among rabbinic students as "Rambam," an acronym for his Hebrew name "Rabbi Moses ben Maimon." His Thirteen Articles of Faith are accepted by Orthodox Jews today as a binding statement of belief. Maimonides died in 1204.
10. Zohar, III: Exodus 43b, Soncino translation.
11. Genesis 16:7: "The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur."
12. Genesis 16:13: "She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: 'You are the God who sees me,' for she said, 'I have now seen the One who sees me.'"
13. Genesis 22:11-12: "But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!' 'Here I am.' he replied. 'Do not lay a hand on the boy,' he said. 'Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.'"
14. Genesis 1:2: "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water."
15. Psalm 51:13 (in the Hebrew Bible; verse 11 in the English versions): "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me."
16. Isaiah 11:2: "The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him--the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord..."
17. Mark 12:28-30: "One of the teachers of the law...asked him, 'Of all the commandments, which is the most important?' 'The most important one,' answered Jesus, 'is this: Hear. O Israel. the Lord our God, The Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'" Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
18. "Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the Lord says. Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, 'Let my son go, so he may worship me.' But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"
19. "I will be his father, and he will be my son. I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever."
20. Sukkah 52a, Soncino translation.