To Believe in Jesus – Part 76
ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 7:14-24
14སྤྱིལ་བུའི་དུས་ཆེན་གྱི་དཀྱིལ་ཙམ་ལ་སླེབས་པའི་སྐབས༌སུ། སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཡར་མཆོད་ཁང་དུ་ཕེབས་ནས་ཆོས་གསུངས་སོ།། 15དེ་ནས་ཡ་ཧུ་དཱ་པ་རྣམས་ངོ་མཚར་བར་གྱུར་ཏེ་ན༌རེ། མི་འདིས་ཆོས་བསླབས་མ་མྱོང་ཡང་ཆོས་དེ་འདྲ་མང་པོ་ཤེས་པར་གྱུར་པ་ཅི་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། 16ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ངས་གསུངས་པའི་ཆོས་འདི་ནི་བདག་གི་ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་པར་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ལས་བྱུང་བ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 17སུ་ཞིག་གིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བསྒྲུབ་འདོད་ན། བདག་གི་ཆོས་འདི་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང༌བའམ། ཡང་ན་བདག་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་སྨྲས་པ་ཡིན་པའང་ཤེས་པར་འགྱུར། 18སུ་ཞིག་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་སྨྲ་བ་དེས་རང་གི་སྙན་གྲགས་འཚོལ་བ་ཡིན༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་རང་ཉིད་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་གཟི་བརྗིད་འཚོལ་བ་ནི་མི་དྲང་བདེན་ཅན་ཡིན་ཞིང་ཁོའི་སེམས་སུ་བཅོས་མ་ཅི་ཡང་མེད་དོ།། 19ཡང་མོ་ཤེ་ཡིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་གནང་བ་མ་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཁྲོད་དུ་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་སྒྲུབ་མཁན་གཅིག་ཀྱང་མི་འདུག ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ང་རང་དགྲོང་འདོད་པ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་གསུངས་པ༌ན། 20མི་ཚོགས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་ལ་གདོན་འདྲེ་ཞུགས་འདུག སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཁྱོད་རང་དགྲོང་འདོད་དམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས༌སོ།།
21ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། དེ་སྔོན་བདག་གིས་ལས་གཅིག་བསྒྲུབས་མྱོང་བས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་དོན་དེར་ཧ་ལས༌པ་རེད། 22མོ་ཤེ་ཡིས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ལ་མཚན་སྐྱི་གཅོད་པའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་གནང་ཡོད༌པས། ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་ལ་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་རང་གི་བུ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མཚན་སྐྱི་གཅོད་པར་བྱེད་དོ།། འོན་ཀྱང་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་དེ་ནི་མོ་ཤེ་ནས་བྱུང་བ་མ་ཡིན༌ཏེ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཕ་མེས་ཡང་མེས་ནས་བྱུང་བ་ཡིན། 23མི་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་མོ་ཤེའི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་དང་མི་འགལ་བའི་ཆེད༌དུ། ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་ལ་བུ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་མཚན་སྐྱི་བཅད་ཆོག༌ན། བདག་གིས་ངལ་གསོ་བའི་ཉིན་ལ་ནད་པ་ཞིག་ཡོངས་སུ་གསོས་པར་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་བདག་ལ་ཁྲོས་དོན༌ཅི། 24ཕྱི་ཚུལ་ཙམ་ལ་བལྟས་ནས་བདེན་རྫུན་གྱི་ཐ་ཚིག་མ་སྒྲོག༌ཅིག དྲང་བདེན་གྱི་སྒོ་ནས་བདེན་རྫུན་གྱི་ཤན་ཕྱེས་ཤིག་ཅེས་གསུངས༌སོ།།
John 7:14-24
14 About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. 15 The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” 16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
19 Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why do you seek to kill me?” 20 The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?” 21 Jesus answered them, “I did one work, and you all marvel at it. 22 Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23 If on the Sabbath a man receives circumcision, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well? 24 Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
The situation in John 7 was happening during the midst of the Jews’ Feast of Booths known as Sukkot. And Sukkot starts five days after Yom Kippur, known as Day of Atonement.
The author noted Jesus went into the Temple and was teaching there.
If you study the historical background of the Second Temple during the time of Herod, the same period of time when John the Baptist and Jesus were preaching and teaching the kingdom of God, you would notice that the Sadducees were in control of the Temple and how was it Jesus was allowed to teach there?
This Temple standing at the time of Herod was renovated and reconstructed to such a massive scale it became a tourist attraction for both Jews and Gentiles.
Extended and multiple different sections were added for social gatherings. Herod spent a lot of money and resources to reconstruct this Temple to please the Jews so that he could stay in power while serving Rome.
The reconstructed Temple, apart from those restricted area for sacrifices, did have other sections open to common folks to serve as public space for social gatherings. Especially during those appointed feast of the Lord when devout Jews are required to go to Jerusalem, these public space were useful for gatherings for discussion about the their faith and religious practice.
There was a Court of Gentiles opened for non-Jews.
In John 7, based on the conversation Jesus had with the people there, apparently He was among the Jews, and the context of their discussion and debate seems to centers around “teaching“, “authority“, and “Moses“.
Does it seem odd why would Jesus need to have any arguments with the Jews about what they should have known?
If we do a history check, during the time of John the Baptist and Jesus, the two prominent religious groups competing for their share of spiritual authority in Jerusalem were the Pharisees and the Sadducees and these two were constantly at odds with each other within the Sanhedrin.
The Pharisees and Sadducees advocated themselves as guide and authoritative teachers of Moses, but how they interpreted and apply the laws and teachings of Moses had become some sort of man-made traditions! To a certain extend these two religious groups had re-written the laws and teachings of God revealed to Moses to please their own agenda. Means to say what they were teachings were no longer purely from what God revealed to Moses!
Why would they do that?
The idea of redemption by race most likely came from among these two religious groups – Pharisees and the Sadducees – and therefore they were resistant to the baptism of John the Baptist and subsequently were antagonistic against Jesus. It was very unfortunate their doctrines and traditions had too much influence especially over those Jews who lived in Jerusalem.
John the Baptist was known to belong to another group – the Essene – who practice more strict purification rules and apparently more purely followed the spirit of Moses’ law, and this group was responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered between 1946 and 1956.
Back to the situation of John 7, the Jews remarked that Jesus had not studied, and that most likely had to do with the two prominent religious group – Pharisees and Sadducees – their established schooling system, their credits ratings, and man-made honor. Jesus was not officially recognized by these two prominent religious groups and therefore the Jewish folks in Jerusalem were surprised at His wisdom and teachings!
Let’s look at how Jesus replied them –
16ཡང་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ངས་གསུངས་པའི་ཆོས་འདི་ནི་བདག་གི་ཆོས་མ་ཡིན་པར་ང་རང་མངགས་མཁན་ལས་བྱུང་བ་ཡིན་ནོ།། 17སུ་ཞིག་གིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་དགོངས་པ་བཞིན་དུ་བསྒྲུབ་འདོད་ན། བདག་གི་ཆོས་འདི་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་ནས་བྱུང༌བའམ། ཡང་ན་བདག་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་སྨྲས་པ་ཡིན་པའང་ཤེས་པར་འགྱུར། 18སུ་ཞིག་གིས་རང་ཉིད་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་སྨྲ་བ་དེས་རང་གི་སྙན་གྲགས་འཚོལ་བ་ཡིན༌མོད། འོན་ཀྱང་རང་ཉིད་མངགས་མཁན་གྱི་གཟི་བརྗིད་འཚོལ་བ་ནི་མི་དྲང་བདེན་ཅན་ཡིན་ཞིང་ཁོའི་སེམས་སུ་བཅོས་མ་ཅི་ཡང་མེད་དོ།།
16 So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. 17 If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. 18 The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.
Jesus was comparing Himself to the Pharisees and Sadducees who were seeking their own glory and establishing their own spiritual authority through man-made doctrines and traditions.
Among the Jews who heard Jesus, there was a minority group who actually believed John the Baptist and Jesus were chosen and approved of God!
To be continue …
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 