My readers know that I love showing how much our understanding of the New Testament can be enriched when we read it through the Tanach. I hope that this post will help you see the continuity between the Testaments – and maybe, also help you understand some details of the Gospels in a much fuller and complete way. I am convinced that understanding the scriptural and cultural background of the New Testament helps us not only better comprehend those words and deeds of Jesus that belong to this background, but also grasp the full meaning of those words and deeds that went far beyond the traditional ideas and customs.
Drash on the Mountain
Even among non-Christians, there is a consensus that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the greatest moral discourse ever given. Have you ever considered the possibility that the Sermon on the Mount could have been a Kedoshim sermon on a specific Torah Portion, probably read on the same Shabbat? Jesus’ audience would have been familiar with the Torah portions and therefore would have known exactly what he was referring to. But, do we know it?
The last verse of Matthew 5: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” makes this connection almost obvious. The Torah portion Kedoshim – “Holy People” (Lev. 19:1-20:27) – begins with similar words: “You shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy.” It is in this Portion that we find the famous words: “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Not only Jesus, but many Jewish sages before and after Him, considered these words to be the kernel of the entire Jewish teaching. However, these words were read and understood in different ways. by different groups. So, how did Jesus interpret them?
The interpretation depends, of course, on the understanding of the word “neighbor”. For instance, when Jesus says in Matthew 5:43, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’” – an educated reader might wonder, because nowhere in the Tanach does it say you are to “hate your enemy” – quite the contrary. So, where does this come from? Probably, Jesus refers here to the Dead Sea sect – or it may have been a common saying amongst some sects of Judaism, that he was refuting. We have to understand that the followers of Jesus were not alone on the Jewish scene before the destruction of the Temple: there were many different directions and teachings in Judaism at this time. All these streams differed significantly, both in theology and practice, – and even though their texts or teachings were built on the Torah and around the Torah, they had very different understandings and different interpretations of the Torah. Thus, in the opening paragraph of the Manual of Discipline, one reads: “… to hate all that He has rejected”. In the final paragraph of the Manual of Discipline, we read: “He is to bear unremitting hatred toward all men of ill repute.” Therefore, for the Dead Sea sectarians, “a neighbor” could mean only another sectarian.
For Jesus, however, these words spoke not only about loving fellow-believers, but also about loving enemies. Unfortunately, many Christian readers fail to see the continuity between this teaching of Jesus and Torah. To see it, one has to know that, in Hebrew, the words “neighbor” and “evil [one]” (or “enemy”) share the same consonants, reish and ayin, the difference is only in the vowels, which are not in the text.
Therefore, Jesus, in fact, says: “Can’t you see, in the Torah’s words, the command to love both neighbors and enemies?” Jesus said that he came to fulfil the Law, not to destroy it, and this example shows that even his most “radical” messages are still rooted in the Torah. Jesus’ teaching has to be read in its original, first-century context – and then we might understand that the immortal Sermon on the Mount, speaking not only about loving friends or fellow-believers, but also about loving enemies, is based on Torah portion Kedoshim.
“Turning the Other Cheek”
Loving one’s enemies is one of the most radical commandments of the Sermon on the Mount. Another example, equally famous for its radical newness, is “turning the other cheek”: But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. [1] However, is it a new statement indeed?
You would be surprised to learn that the idea of “turning the other cheek”, though it is most famously associated with Jesus’ teaching (Matthew 5:39), is not entirely foreign to Jewish thought, although it’s understood quite differently in Jewish tradition. Moreover, the very words, “turning a cheek”, come from the Hebrew Bible: in the book of Lamentations, we read, “Let him turn his cheek to the one who strikes him.”[2]. Could we therefore say that “turning a cheek” is also a Jewish value?
Unfortunately, we don’t find many comments on this verse in Jewish tradition. Rabbi Yosef Caspi says: “Let him not refuse to suffer the blows of the enemy, because it is what God has willed, and we have nothing to do, except the will of the Holy One, blessed be He”. Thus, we see here the same idea of avoiding vengeance, which was commanded first … in the same Torah portion Kedoshim: “Do not take revenge or bear a grudge” (Leviticus 19:18). And so, even though at first glance, it seems that Jesus here has completely abolished the principle of “measure for measure” that we find in the Torah, surprisingly, we find the same idea in Torah Portion Kedoshim. “Do not retaliate, do not avenge” – this is the message in both cases.
Vows
Another saying from the Sermon on the Mount that a lot of followers of Jesus have been perplexed about, concerns oaths: Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.[3] Jesus’ approach seems very radical—while oaths were permitted in the Torah, he seems to prohibit them completely. However, did Jesus really prohibit all vows?
Several New Testament texts call into question this absolutist approach to Jesus’ words. First of all, in Matthew 26:63-64, Jesus himself replies to the High Priest’s question “under oath”. Even more examples are connected to Paul. Not only does Paul invoke God’s name twice to assure the truth of his claims (Gal. 1:20; 2 Cor. 1:23), but he actually takes vows, probably Nazirite vows as described in Numbers 6. A Nazirite had to abstain from alcohol and from cutting his hair. At the end of the period of his vow, he shaved his hair and offered a sacrifice. In Acts, Paul both respected Nazirite vows (Acts 21:23-24) and took vows himself (Acts 18:18). Therefore, Jesus’ words should not be understood as a complete prohibition of vows. Rather, Jesus speaks about the goal for his followers: to be so trustworthy in keeping their words that oaths prove unnecessary.
Jesus is not unique in addressing this issue: different Jewish texts of this period speak of oaths. For example, although we don’t have a clear prohibition to swear from the Dead Sea texts themselves, Josephus writes that the Essenes avoid oaths and that what they say is stronger than an oath. Once again, there were many different streams in Judaism before the destruction of the Temple, – and all these streams, even though their texts or teachings were always built on the Torah and around the Torah, had very different understandings and interpretations of the Torah. Thus, when we read the words of Jesus against their historical background, we can see more clearly not only the continuity between the Tanach and the New Testament, but also the parallels between the New Testament and Second Temple literature, and the outstanding newness of His teaching.
[1] Matt. 5:39
[2] Lam. 3:30
[3] Matt. 5:34-35
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