Character in Context

So did you know that, according to the Pharisees' oath rules, you could swear not to eat anything, but eat a tarantula without having broken your oath?

This week we are going to delve into Mishnah Tractates Shevuot and Nedarim in order to figure out why Yeshua/Jesus was forbidding oaths, as were other Jewish factions in the first century, when they are commanded and used throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. What was going on here? And why did Yeshua label them as blind not once, but three times in this particular rebuke?

A shorter kid-friendlier video version of part of this teaching is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu8vzXb5uUw

Why weren't the Pharisees entering into the Kingdom of Heaven, and how were they shutting out others? Of all the woes, this charge was the most surprising. And how were they making their converts into "sons of hell"? We're going to look at a few possibilities for what Yeshua/Jesus was talking about with that accusation and explore some more of the world of the first century Jews and particularly the Pharisees.

I apologize in advance because I stuffed this broadcast with so much historical data from Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Bible and the Talmud that you might end up feeling like you get hit by a Mack truck by the end. And the amount of stuff I left out is staggering, but we will cover a lot of the rest of it as we continue on next week with our journey through the "woes" of Matthew 23.

My shorter kid-friendly version in video form is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqe8VBEqLts

Hopefully you caught last week's episode on polemic in the ancient world and if you didn't go back and listen because it will be important to understanding this teaching. I will only barely review that material here. This week I am going to tip some popular sacred cows within the Hebrew Roots movement as to the identification of Moses's seat, whether or not Yeshua/Jesus was wearing a tallit, and if Rabbis existed then as we know them today. And most importantly, was Yeshua really outlawing titles or was there something else going on in the first century? You have to listen in order to find out.

My shorter kid-friendly video version is here https://youtu.be/k_-vrLYQiT4

You won't want to miss this episode! This is the beginning of a teaching series on one of the most uncomfortable sections of the Gospels--the seven woes of Matthew 23. Uncomfortable because we either like to box in Yeshua/Jesus as entirely meek and gentle or, conversely, because some people use this one section of Scripture--which served a unique cultural function that is no longer appreciated--as an excuse to behave boorishly toward anyone who disagrees. But polemic was well understood in the Hellenistic world and was widely used in verbal battles not only between Jews and Gentiles, but between Jews and Jews! We're going to look at examples from Gentile philosophers, as well as Jewish writers like Josephus, Philo, and the authors of the Qumran scrolls (commonly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls). How did Yeshua's polemic measure up to the standards of the day? Let's take a look.