To Believe in Jesus – Part 83

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 7:45-52

45དེ་ནས་སྲུང་དམག་རྣམས་མཆོད་དཔོན་ཆེན་པོ་དག་དང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་གམ་དུ་ཕྱིར་ལོག་པ༌ན། དེ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་མི་དེ་བཙན་ཁྲིད་མ་བྱས་སམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌ལ། 46སྲུང་དམག་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁོང་གིས་གསུངས་པ་དེ་ལྟ་བུ་མི་སུས་ཀྱང་གསུངས་མ་མྱོང་ཞེས་ཞུས་སོ།། 47ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁོས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བསླུ་བྲིད་བྱས༌སམ། 48ཆོས་དཔོན་ནམ་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་ལས་སུ་ཞིག་དེ་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར༌རམ། 49འོན་ཀྱང་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་མི་ཤེས་པའི་མི་ཚོགས་འདི་ལ་སྡིགས་དམོད་ཆེན་པོ་ཕོག་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 50དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ནེ་ཀོ་དེམ་ཟེར་བ་སྔོན་ཆད་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུར་མཇལ་མྱོང་བ་དེས་ཆོས་དཔོན་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་ལྟར་སྨྲས་ཏེ། 51བདག་ཅག་གི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ལྟར་ངེད་ཅག་གིས་མི་དེའི་ངག་ལས་ཉེས་པ་ཅི་བྱས་པ་ལ་མ་བརྟག་མ་ཤེས་པར་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་གཅོད་པར་བྱེད་དམ་ཞེས་པ༌ལ། 52ཆོས་དཔོན་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁྱོད་རང་ཡང་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་ནས་འོངས་པའི་མི་ཞིག་ཡིན༌ནམ། ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་རྟོག་དཔྱོད་བྱོས༌དང༌། ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་ནས་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་ཞིག་འབྱུང་མི་སྲིད་ཅེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

John 7:45-52

45 The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why did you not bring him?” 46 The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!” 47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.” 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” 52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”

 

The gospel writer John noted that even those enforcement officers sent by the Sanhedrin to arrest Jesus were convinced by what Jesus said that they did not arrest Him as instructed! They defiled orders of the religious establishment because of what Jesus said and for what purpose? Jesus was speaking about the way to true redemption and eternal life and obviously these officers knew at that moment what Jesus had to offer was what they actually wanted.

 

Does that mean they came to a realization or some sort of spiritual awakening that their own religious leaders had been deceiving them with empty promises?  

 

The chief priests and Pharisees were furious how Jesus could even convince their officers to defile orders! How the Pharisees responded and recorded here in John 7 exposed another bigger problem –

 

47ཡང་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་རྣམས་ན༌རེ། ཁོས་ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱང་བསླུ་བྲིད་བྱས༌སམ། 48ཆོས་དཔོན་ནམ་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་ལས་སུ་ཞིག་དེ་ལ་དད་པར་གྱུར༌རམ། 49འོན་ཀྱང་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་མི་ཤེས་པའི་མི་ཚོགས་འདི་ལ་སྡིགས་དམོད་ཆེན་པོ་ཕོག་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།།

47 The Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? 48 Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd that does not know the law is accursed.”

 

The Pharisees here made a bold statement about the people being accursed for not knowing the law.

However, what I need to point out is, the “law” mentioned here by the Pharisees may not be referring strictly to Moses’ written laws but something else the common folks in Jerusalem would be familiar with, especially those who were brought up and educated through the synagogue system operated by the Pharisees.

 

Halakha הֲלָכָה

 

Referring to a set of Jewish laws covering every aspect of daily lives and identity of men and women born into Jewish family or claimed Jewishness and these laws were based on how their religious leaders interpreted the written laws of Moses.

The development of Halakha הֲלָכָה and the synagogue system can be tracked back as far as the Babylonian Exile after the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem the Jewish diaspora were determined to keep faith and traditions without the Temple service and living away from the Promised Land.

With reference to Moses’ written law namely the five books of Moses and with specific instructions for the children of Israel who left Egypt and went to live in the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua – there were a long list of instructions how they should conduct their lives within the boundaries of Promised Land, and what exactly they should or should not do about sacrifices and offerings to God and how their priest should mediate between God and men doing their services within the one and only chosen place of sacrifice which eventually became the Temple build by Solomon.

The very fact these Jews were exiled from Jerusalem was due to their sin and disobedience against God’s teachings and warnings. It came a point they – especially their priests and kings and tribal leaders – were deliberately breaking God’s rule and doing things against God’s teachings that eventually judgement fell on them and they went into exile and Jerusalem was under Gentile rule even till the days of Jesus.

So those Jewish diaspora who were deported from Jerusalem and living in foreign lands without the Temple – there were endless questions and debates how should they keep covenant with God if there was any hope of restoration?

The development of the synagogue system was first started to help Jewish diaspora gather together to encourage each other to remember the teachings of God with hope of restoration for the nation of Israel and the rebuilding of the one and only Temple approved by God. The synagogue leaderships eventually had to interpret and re-interpret, define and re-define, either to resist assimilation into foreign culture or to contextualize certain laws so that Jewish people living in exiles could continue to keep faith and traditions till the promised Messiah should appear and the full restoration of the nation of Israel.

Interestingly why did they continue upholding their re-defined customs and traditions with the Second Temple reconstructed and modified by Herod? In previous post No: 81, I pointed out that although the Temple structure was restored but the most important piece of furniture – the Ark of the Covenant – was not there! Apparently the religious establishments already knew there was some sort of religious scam going on at the Temple and they knew they were still waiting for the Messiah for the full restoration of the nation with the return of the Ark of the Covenant.

Furthermore, Jerusalem at that time of Jesus was under Rome, Israel was under foreign rule. An important reason for their observation of Halakha הֲלָכָה was based on their interpretation of how to be prepared for the coming Messiah and the full restoration of Israel with the Temple service.

 

Question – were they doing the right thing?

 

Jesus actually spoken against these kinds of laws and exposed them as man-made doctrines and traditions which goes against the righteous teachings of God

 

མད་ཐཱ། 15:1-3

1དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དང་མཁན་པོ་རྣམས་ཡེ་རུ་སཱ་ལེམ་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་དྲུང་དུ་ཡོང༌སྟེ། 2ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་གནའ་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་དང་འགལ་བར་བྱེད༌དམ། ཁོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལག་པ་མ་བཀྲུས་པར་བག་ལེབ་ཟའོ་ཞེས་པ༌ལ། 3སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་བསྲུང་ཕྱིར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་དང་འགལ་བར་བྱེད་པ༌ཅི།

Matthew 15:1-3

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” 3 He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

 

མཱཪ་ཀུ 7:5-9

5དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པ་དང་མཁན་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུ༌ལ། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཐུགས་སྲས་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་གནའ་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་བཞིན་མི་བྱེད༌པར། ལག་པ་མི་གཙང་ནའང་བག་ལེབ་ཟའམ་ཞེས་དྲིས་པ༌དང༌། 6སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུས་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཚུལ་འཆོས་པ་ཁྱོད་ཅག་གི་སྐོར་ལ་ཡེ་ཤ་ཡཱ་ཡིས་ལེགས་པར་གསུངས་པ་འདི་ལྟ༌སྟེ།

མི་སྡེ་འདི་ཡིས་ངག་ནས་ང་རང་བཀུར་ན༌ཡང༌།།

ཁོ་ཚོའི་སེམས་ནི་ང་དང་ཡོངས་སུ་བྲལ་བ༌ཡིན།།

7འཇིག་རྟེན་མི་ཡིས་བརྩམས་པའི་བསླབ་བྱ་སྣ་ཚོགས༌པ།།

བདེན་པའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་གཞུང་ལུགས་ཡིན་ཁུལ་སྟོན་བྱེད༌པས།།

བསྙེན་བཀུར་དེ་འདྲ་བདག་ལ་བྱས་ཀྱང་སྙིང་པོ༌མེད།།

ཅེས་བཀོད་པ༌ལྟར། 8ཁྱོད་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་སྤངས་ནས་མིའི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་སྲུང་བཞིན་འདུག་ཅེས་གསུངས་པ༌དང༌། 9ཡང་འདི་སྐད༌དུ། ཁྱོད་ཅག་གིས་རང་གི་ལུགས་སྲོལ་སྲུང༌ཕྱིར། དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་རིང་དུ༌སྤངས།

Mark 7:5-9

5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

9 And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

 

Very strong words of criticism Jesus used against the religious establishment of His days!

Jesus was speaking the truth and exposing the misleading teachings of these religious leaders who were definitely not helping the people to find true redemption and eternal life in God!

In our modern time, what we know about Jews and Judaism is about Halakha הֲלָכָה and why does such laws have binding powers on the Jewish people is due to rabbinic authority. And it is a fundamental issue about how they interpret the written laws of Moses revealed by God on Mount Sinai.

Back to John 7, Nicodemus defended Jesus!

 

50དེ་ནས་ཕ་རུ་ཤི་པའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ནེ་ཀོ་དེམ་ཟེར་བ་སྔོན་ཆད་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུར་མཇལ་མྱོང་བ་དེས་ཆོས་དཔོན་རྣམས་ལ་འདི་ལྟར་སྨྲས་ཏེ། 51བདག་ཅག་གི་བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་ལྟར་ངེད་ཅག་གིས་མི་དེའི་ངག་ལས་ཉེས་པ་ཅི་བྱས་པ་ལ་མ་བརྟག་མ་ཤེས་པར་ཁྲིམས་ཐག་གཅོད་པར་བྱེད་དམ་ཞེས་པ༌ལ།

50 Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one of them, said to them, 51 “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?”

 

Remember Nicodemus who came to see Jesus in John 3. After that encounter with Jesus, he could have known something about Jesus that he was bold enough to speak up for Jesus!

In the days of John the Baptist and Jesus, those Jewish folk who had been waiting for the Messiah with hope of redemption and eternal life, they would had been convinced and convicted this Jesus is the Messiah they had been waiting for.

However, many of these Jewish folks who met Jesus continue to struggles with their belief due to pressure and coercion from the Sanhedrin and the distress of being excommunicated from their synagogues.

If we know Jesus is our true redemption and the only way to eternal life, what would we do in their position?

 

To be continue …

 

David Z

To Believe in Jesus – Part 82

 

ཡོ་ཧ་ནན། 7:40-44

40མི་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་གཏམ་དེ་ཐོས་པ་དང་ཁ་ཅིག་ན༌རེ། མི་འདི་ནི་དངོས་གནས་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་དེ་ཉིད་ཡིན་ཞེས༌དང༌། 41ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་མི་འདི་ནི་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཞེས་སྨྲས་པ༌དང༌། ཡང་ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ནི་ག་ལིལ་ཡུལ་ནས་འབྱུང་མི་སྲིད་དོ།། 42གསུང་རབ་ལས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ནི་དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་གདུང་རྒྱུད་དང༌། དཱ་བིད་ཀྱི་ཕ་ཡུལ་ཏེ་པེད་ལེ་ཧེམ་གྲོང་རྡལ་ནས་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར་ཞེས་གསུངས་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་ནམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས་སོ།། 43དེའི༌ཕྱིར། མི་ཚོགས་ཁྲོད་ནས་སྐྱབས་མགོན་ཡེ་ཤུའི་སྐོར་ལ་ལྟ་ཚུལ་མི་མཐུན་པ་བྱུང༌། 44དེ་རྣམས་ལས་ཁ་ཅིག་གིས་ཁོང་ཉིད་འཛིན་འདོད་ནའང་མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁོང་ལ་ལག་པས་རེག་མ་ཐུབ་བོ།།

John 7:40-44

40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

 

Previous post I pointed out how Jesus interrupted the Temple service and the Sadducees who were in charge of the Temple would had been agitated and furious but here the gospel writer noted a different response from those Jews who heard what Jesus said and apparently they were convinced and convicted Jesus had spoken the truth!

 

Some of the Jews were convinced this is the Christ!

 

It should be interesting to note that the local folks knew that the Messiah is to be of the line of David and would appear in Bethlehem! These people did have prior knowledge of the coming Messiah! They were waiting in anticipation for the appearance of the Messiah especially after John the Baptist started his public ministry.

 

But, why would they be confused about Jesus from Galilee?

 

Today we are looking at gospel records with benefits of hindsight and we know from the records of The Gospel of Matthew མད་ཐཱ། that Jesus is indeed of the line of David and His birth place was at Bethlehem!

However the extensive volume of information and historical records we have today, those Jews at the time of Jesus in John 7 may not had it.

First let’s focus in on Matthew 2 / མད་ཐཱ། 2 with the following key points

1) Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea

2) Herod was ruling over Judea

3) Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem because that was the capital and inquired of the birth of a Jewish King.

4) Herod with assistance from the Sanhedrin represented by chief priests and scribes ascertained the birth of Christ in Bethlehem of Judea

5) The same group of wise men from the East did actually find the child Jesus in Bethlehem of Judea

6) Joseph being warned in a dream about Herod’s death threat brought both Mary and Jesus together to Egypt.

*why Egypt? At that time there was a prominent Jewish community in Alexandria Egypt. The Septuagint (LXX), a Koine Greek translation of the Hebrew Torah was produced in Alexandria of Egypt about 250 years before the birth of Jesus.  It was after Rome took control of Egypt that the Jewish community in Alexandria was beginning to be affected and later throughout the Jewish-Roman wars that stretched from AD 66 to about AD 135, they moved and relocated elsewhere although some did return much later.

7) After the death of Herod, Joseph intended to return to Judea with Mary and Jesus but diverted to Galilee and settled in a city called Nazareth because Herod’s son Archelaus took over control of Judea.

Joseph would had knew Herod wanted to kill Jesus because those wise men from the East identified Jesus as being born King of the Jews. It was a known fact Herod was not Jewish and the Jewish community in Jerusalem was not happy with Rome arrangement for Herod to rule Judea and Herod went to the extent of spending lots of money and resources to reconstruct the Second Temple in order to please the Jews.

Herod due to his blood-thirsty habits of securing power and position ordered the killing of infants and young children as recorded in Matthew 2 / མད་ཐཱ། 2. Herod felt threaten with the birth a legitimate Jewish King. And later with Herod’s son Archelaus ruling over Judea, he may do what his father Herod did to put down anyone who would have legitimate claim to rule Jerusalem.

I believe Joseph with good intention to avoid known danger will prefer to settle his family in a place of safety. Most likely Joseph and Mary do have next-of-kin, family relatives, in Galilee whom they can trust with their lives.

Therefore Jesus was known among the locals as coming from Galilee but He was born in Bethlehem and of the line of David.

Today, we have all these information and knowledge as historical facts but for those Jews who were living at that time of Jesus they may not have all these knowledge except for few who had close links.

I expected most likely Herod and his descendants who continued to rule Judea would had used their power to censor and control information especially those that exposed their evil wicked deeds. Those in power and in government positions have had the habits and practices of using their authorities to silence their critiques and white-wash. Remember for what reason Herod Antipas beheaded John the Baptist!

Today, bible students would be familiar with Flavius Josephus, a Roman–Jewish historian who lived during the times of the Apostles and his documentations have been regarded by bible academics as creditable and accurate. Josephus provided us much needed information with regards to the historical background, culture, and social-political situations throughout the times of the Four Gospel and Acts.

Back to the situation in John 7, few important points to note are

A) Those Jews who heard Jesus speaks in John 7, they had prior knowledge about the coming Messiah

B) They know the Messiah is of the line of David and to appear in Bethlehem

C) They were confused about Jesus background from Galilee most likely due to lack of information not provided or deliberately censored by the ruling class during their times

So here in John 7, there were Jews who heard Jesus and were convinced this is the Messiah!

However what they believed about Jesus contradict what the religious establishment of their times – the Pharisees and Sadducees – were teaching and endorsing as doctrines and traditions.

To be continue …

 

David Z