Jesus was a Jew.
This fact may escape the casual reader of the New Testament. Unhappily, in twenty-first-century America, we are far removed from the land of Israel and the ancient culture of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and his Apostles. But it is crucial to understanding Jesus and the book written about him—the Bible.
Let me ask you a few questions. Were you born and raised in Israel? Did you study the Torah with the rabbis from an early age? Have you traversed the rocky hills and dusty paths to celebrate the mandatory feasts in Jerusalem? Do you speak Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic? Without this background, we are at a great disadvantage when studying the Bible and its central character.
When we open the pages of our English Bibles, we find a Jewish book! St. Paul wrote, “The Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God” (Rom. 3:2). Israel, the Jews, and the worship of YHWH are the backdrop of Scripture. Over forty authors, who wrote seventy-three books, make up the sacred pages. With one exception, they were all Jewish. (Do you know who the only non-Jewish author in the Bible was? I’ll give you a few hints: he was a physician and one of Paul’s co-workers, and he wrote the first history of the Church.) The point is, how can we understand the Bible and the teaching surrounding our Lord Jesus, salvation, and the Church without understanding his people, history, culture, and his Jewish identity?
David H. Stern, a Messianic Jew, writes,
The Messiah’s vicarious atonement is rooted in the Jewish sacrificial system; the Lord’s Supper is rooted in the Jewish Passover traditions; baptism is a Jewish practice; and indeed the entire New Testament is built on the Hebrew Bible, with its prophecies and its promise of a New Covenant, so that the New Testament without the Old is as impossible as the second floor of a house without the first.
Moreover, much of what is written in the New Testament is incomprehensible apart from Judaism (62).
Christianity sprouts from Jewish roots. Studying the Bible comes alive when the fresh breeze of Jewish understanding wafts over the pages.
It’s difficult to reap the full benefits of a story without immersing ourselves in its world and “spirit.” For example, how can we truly appreciate the historical novel Gone with the Wind without understanding the Civil War and the Southern lifestyle? No one starts a novel in the middle, or he would be deprived of the background, making it impossible to fully appreciate the setting, plot, mood, and characters.
Let’s take an example dear to the heart of any Catholic. St. Matthew records profound words between Jesus and Simon the fisherman. He actually changes the disciple’s name, from “Simon” to “Rock,” which in Jewish tradition signifies a change of office or status. For us Westerners, two thousand years removed and without understanding the Semitic significance of a name, this means little. But to Jesus’ cadre of disciples from the stock of Abraham, the name change was profound—a game-changer. Abraham himself had received a name change from God, which corresponded to the Old Testament covenant. Abram’s name (meaning “father”) was changed to Abraham (meaning “father of nations”), signifying Abraham’s new status before God. A covenant people was established.
Similarly, Simon’s name change was significant. A first-century hearer would instantly notice what most English readers miss. The name Peter is an English rendering of the Greek word Petros (Rock). But in Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, the Aramaic word for “Rock” was Kēphas. This is why we find Simon referred to as Peter and Cephas throughout the New Testament (e.g., John 1:42, 1 Cor. 15:5, Gal. 1:18). No one but God (and Abraham) had previously been referred to as “Rock.” Abraham was the rock from which the Jews had been hewn (Isa. 51:1). But God was the only one with the name of Rock (Deut. 32:4). Peter now shares that title and name. What would a Jew think about such a name for a mere man?
Another striking example of the necessity of understanding the Bible’s Jewish setting comes from the same passage. Consider Matthew 16:19, which mentions the “keys of the kingdom.” Due in part to an ignorance of Jewish culture, this passage is frequently diminished, reducing the “keys of the kingdom” merely to Peter’s preaching on Pentecost, which proverbially “unlocked the gates of heaven.” Many Protestants make this mistake, trying to understand this passage without grasping the Jewish background. What did “keys of the kingdom” represent to the Semitic peoples who actually heard Jesus? What would this delegation of the keys mean, given by King Jesus to the newly named Peter?
The average Hebrew was intimately familiar with the scriptures. Pharisees had large portions of the Old Testament memorized, if not the whole Tanakh. When Jesus told Peter he would receive the “keys of the kingdom of heaven,” the Jews would immediately be drawn back to their governmental structure when it was a kingdom. Isaiah 22 described the monarchical office of the royal steward, who ruled “over the house” of the king. Read Isaiah 22:22, and consider the royal office of the steward, and discover the governmental backdrop to Jesus’ words.
This was a profound announcement to Simon and the rest of the Twelve who first believed in Yeshua the Messiah. He was soon to be seated on the throne of his Father David and be given an eternal kingdom (Dan. 7:13-14, Luke 1:26-33, Acts 7:56). When the new king is enthroned, wouldn’t he be expected to appoint his royal steward? Hallelujah! Simon is renamed Rock and invested with authority over the kingdom by the delegation of the keys to govern the domain of King Jesus. Ah, the Jews understood!
During the Nazi holocaust, to demonstrate solidarity with the Jewish people, Pope Pius XII connected our Catholic faith with the faith of our father Abraham. He stated, “Spiritually, we are Semites.” Following that, the Second Vatican Council stated in Nostra Aetate that “God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their fathers; he does not repent of the gifts he makes or of the calls he issues.” We Gentiles are wild olive branches grafted onto the olive tree of Israel (Rom. 11:17-24). Paul says one is “a Jew who is one inwardly” (v. 29) and that the Church is the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). According to Paul, we are all Semites, all Jews.
As Pope John Paul II said in the Chief Synagogue in Rome, “with Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers and, in a certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brothers.”
This unique relationship should inspire us to excel in our knowledge of Scripture, its background, and the world of the Jewish people. The Church is rooted in Judaism; the scriptures and the Church are organically Jewish.
May the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob enlighten us and give us appreciation for our elder brothers, for our Jewish heritage, our Jewish Messiah, and the word of God as contained in Sacred Scripture.