This first class isn't really "going anywhere", except mostly to introduce the series. The class originated from the six weeks of intensive study in the Bible Lands of Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Turkey that we experienced in 2012. We were taught by scholarly men who have studied the land, the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman languages and cultures, and most importantly, are students of the Biblical Text.
We started this journey several years ago when our small group was watching some of Ray VanderLaan's DVD series That the World may Know. These were on-site Biblical studies. It fascinated us to be able to receive that kind of teaching from the Word in the locations where the stories took place. We we were "going to do that someday", and 2012 was our opportunity. We took three 2-week tours:
- A study in Egypt, Jordan, and Israel, tracing the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt into the Promised Land
- A study in Turkey visiting the sites of the seven churches of Revelation and tracing most of Paul's first missionary journey
- An in-depth study in Israel
We learned a lot. It forever changed our view of the Scriptures, our relationships with God, and our desire to serve Him. It was a major investment on our part, but we also learned that God was investing in us in the process. We are responsible to live out what we learned and to pass it on to others, as best we can. And that's why we're teaching the class. The Bible is so much better than we've ever imagined, and we assume that's probably the case for everyone else as well. If you're like us, you'll want to keep knowing more. But it can't just be head knowledge, which only leads to pride. What we learn needs to change us. We haven't really learned it if it doesn't. We have a few objectives we'd like to see this class accomplish:
- To help you move "a few steps to the right" from wherever you are on the spectrum regarding how much you revere and treasure the Bible.
- To give you clarity about your role in our church's mission statement of "Restoring our Broken World".
- To encourage you to pursue further teaching along these lines by watching some of Ray VanderLaan's DVDs.
- To encourage you to take trips to the Bible lands, perhaps the same sorts of trips we took. There is nothing that brings the Text more to life than being able to see it all for yourself.
- We are not Hebrew or Greek or Roman scholars. We cannot "defend" the information we are sharing with you. However, we believe it is true, and we trust the men who taught us.
- We have not fully processed all of the teachings ourselves. It has changed us, but we're not done owning all of it yet. We're still a work in progress, and in some cases may feel a bit hypocritical in teaching it to others. However, that doesn't detract from the truth and value of what we were taught.
- It will be hard to communicate the lessons well. We're not good communicators, and besides that, the Scriptures are written from an Eastern mindset. We Westerners think linearly, but the Scriptures are written more circularly and they present pictures of truths in ways that we don't pick up on very readily. So sometimes, the best we're going to be able to do is to uncover a picture in the Scriptures so you can see it, and then you'll have to sort out how to articulate that in your own mind and life.
Here is an example that shows some of the richness of the Hebrew language that is "hidden" below the surface. The letter aleph pictures an ox and captures the idea of strength. The letter beth is also the word for house. (So when you see the word Bethel you can see "house" in there, and the Hebrew word El is the generic word for God, so Bethel means "house of God". Similarly Bethlehem means "house of bread".) But back to the letters aleph and beth... The Hebrew word for "father" is something like av, which is spelled with an aleph and a beth, and together they carry the picture of "strong in the house" for the word "father".
Okay, so hopefully you can see that there is a lot more there than meets the eye, and how so much meaning is lost when translated.
The Hebrew language is also very action-oriented. The language is actually based around its verbs (whereas English is based around its nouns). In Hebrew, the nouns are derived from verbs. One verb I want to call your attention to is the verb shma. We see this in Genesis 16:11 where God tells Hagar that she will have a son and is to call him Ishmael because the Lord has heard of her misery. If you look at the word Ishmael, you can see the word El in there, and it is preceded by the verb shma, which is translated "to hear", so the word means "God hears". But the Hebrew means more than just hearing. The Hebrew verbs don't simply mean mental activity; they require an action. The verb shma means to hear and to act or to respond or to obey. God didn't just "hear" Hagar; he heard and he took action.
Sh'ma
The Sh'ma is a litergy that every Hebrew male recited daily, morning and evening. Orthodox Jews still do it today. Jesus would have done it. It is taken from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37-41. We have a shortened version of it given from what Jesus responded with when he was asked what the greatest commandment was. He responded with the start of the Sh'ma, starting from Deuteronomy 6:4: Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God; the Lord alone. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Then Jesus tied another command directly to it, as though they were related, and love your neighbor as yourself. We will recite this together at the start of each class, sort of as a call to worship, but recognizing the meaning of the command to hear and to obey by loving God and loving others. This will be at the heart of everything we do in Restoring our Broken World.
And now to the lesson
Here are some of the main points of the lesson. This is just a bunch of unrelated information to help get you oriented to the world of Jesus day, and to help uncover some of the pictures that are hidden in the Text.
- Nothing in God's word is accidental or random. It is all there for a reason. We can understand the text better when we try to understand why something was said the way it was, or where something happened, or why it was even mentioned at all.
- The Hebrew language is verb-oriented, and it is expressed actively, not passively or cerebrally. You don't actually believe something unless it changes your behavior.
- God placed Israel in the most trafficked area of the world so they could represent him and influence the world. The International Coastal Highway ran right through their coast. But Israel failed and instead of changing the culture around them, they became assimilated into it. They failed to displace the people living there, and as a result, Israel lived mostly up in the hills and mountains, while the original inhabitants lived in the best areas, where the farmland was, along the coast, where the influence was. Israel's wars were mostly fought over the Shephelah, which was the foothills between mountains and the coast. The Shephelah is actually a good metaphor for the intersection of our Christian culture with the pagan culture around us.
- The Dead Sea only takes water in and it has no exit other than evaporation. It is toxic because its salt concentration is so high. It's a picture of our lives when we only take in blessings without using them to bless others.
- The Essenes were of the priestly line, and preserved the Scriptures as the "Dead Sea Scrolls", but they themselves were isolationists. They took their mission statement from Isaiah 40:3-5, but rather than preparing other people for the Lord, they thought only of themselves. They thought by living pure lives in isolation they could live as God wanted, but they missed the point about being a light to the nations and preparing Israel.
- John the Baptist may have been one of the Essenes, but he left because of his higher calling. His mission was to prepare the people. He was of the priestly line, he had the same mission statement as the Essenes, he ate honey which comes from the date palm which grows there at Qumran where the Essenes lived, and he baptized in the Jordan river just north of the Dead Sea, right near Qumran.
- There are many statements in the Scriptures about how Jesus fulfilled something from the Old Testament, but those Old Testament statements don't really seem like prophecies. A better way of thinking of it is that Jesus is reliving Israel's history. God's purpose for Israel will not be thwarted, even though Israel as a nation did not carry it out. Jesus, as a representative of Israel accomplished God's purpose perfectly, and it appears that he is "reliving" Israel's history in his own life as he starts his ministry. Note some of these parallels between his life and the nation of Israel: (1) Went to Egypt and then returned to Israel; (2) 40 days in the wilderness before beginning his ministry/40 years in the wilderness before entering the Promised Land; (3) baptized in the Jordan River as he began his ministry/Israel birthed as a nation when crossing the Red (or Reed) Sea (or compare to crossing the Jordan to enter the Promised Land); (4) Jesus began his ministry when John, representing the last of the prophets, was put in prison. At this point the "reliving" is done, and Jesus begins bringing the Kingdom of God and being the light to the nations.
- Jesus deliberately identified himself with the prophets. There are many places in the gospels where it says that the people all thought he was one of the prophets (of old). Jesus certainly would have done this because the people would recognize that God was at work though him. One example that is hidden in the Text was when Jesus raised the Widow of Nain's dead boy back to life. All the people said "A great prophet has appeared among us; God has come to help his people". They are referring to the prophet Elisha. Go back to the story of Elisha and the Shunemite woman. Her son died, and Elisha brought him back to life. Why would the people connect these two stories? Because the town of Nain in Jesus' day was built on the same hill as the town of Shunem in Elisha's day. We don't connect these stories at all, but that's because we don't know the geography; you can bet that the people that lived in Nain knew that this was where Elisha had raised the boy, and then it happened right there again with Jesus!
- After Jesus' resurrection, he told his disciples that he would meet them at the mountain in Galilee. It is not mentioned by name which mountain it was, but it most likely was Mount Arbel on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, which is not mentioned in the Text at all. However, it was probably the place, because from there you can see all of the area where Jesus concentrated his ministry in and around Galilee.
- The Religious Triangle was the area on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee comprised of the cities of Korazin, Capernaum, and Bethsaida. This was the "Bible Belt" of Israel. It is where Jesus recruited many of his disciples and spent much of his ministry.
- The village of Capernaum, where Jesus lived, consisted of insular family dwellings. A son would add on to his father's house, around a common courtyard, and move in with his bride. It gives a good visual image of what Jesus is talking about when he says there are many rooms in his Father's house and he will come take us to be with him there.
- The town of Bethsaida was where Peter, Andrew, and Phillip came from, and (by tradition) also where James and John came from. (The gospels only indicate they came from close by). This was a town of 800 people, 5 of whom were Jesus' disciples and with whom he changed the world.
- The Decapolis was the area on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. It was the pagan Gentile world. The Decapolis was 10 independent Greek city-states (though there were 16-18 of them in Jesus' time). One of them was the city of Susita which was easily visible from places like Capernaum and Bethsaida. In Mark 5, it was in the Decapolis, and right near the town of Susita where Jesus healed the demon-possessed man and the demons went out of him, into the pigs, and the pigs ran down the steep slope into the sea and were drown. (Gotta take time-out here because there is too much going on here to just gloss over. Of course this is Gentile territory, because they are raising pigs; Jews would not do that because pigs were unclean animals. There were two Roman Legions stationed there, and guess what their symbol was.... The Boar. That's right; Jesus kind of messed with the Romans a bit here when all the pigs drowned. And before the demons went into the pigs, they begged Jesus not to send them into the Abyss. To the Hebrew mind, deep water (like the Sea of Galilee) represented the Abyss; that's part of why they were terrified of storms on the sea; that's part of why they thought Jesus was a ghost when he was walking on the water. So Jesus didn't order the demons into the Abyss; he just let the pigs take them there. Gotta love it!) Okay, back to the story. Jesus casts the demons out of the man, and he begged to go with Jesus. Jesus told him to stay home and tell everyone what great things God had done for him. It says that the people were amazed at what he said. So come to the end of Mark 7 and into chapter 8, and you have the feeding of the 4000. This takes place in the Decapolis. The people had been with Jesus for 3 days and had nothing to eat. Who are these people? They're the pagans of the Decapolis, probably from Susita. Why are 4000 pagans listening to Jesus for 3 days with nothing to eat? It could only be because of the testimony of the man from whom Jesus cast out the demons. Don't underestimate your story, or begrudge the situation you might be in, because God probably has great plans for what to do with it.
When Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son, and it says he went to a far country and squandered his wealth in wild living, you can bet that his hearers all thought "he went to Susita", because they can see it right there over the lake. And when Jesus tells them that a city on a hill cannot be hidden, you can imagine that the people see that city behind him as he's teaching. And when he says to let your light shine before men so that they see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven, you can see how that contrasts so starkly with the pagan activities that occur in that city, whose light they can see at night. - The Galilean Education System
- Ages 1-5, kids are taught at home. Among the things they learn is the Sh'ma.
- Ages 5-12 boys and girls attend the synagogue school (Beth Sefer - house of the book). There they study and memorize the Torah. Tbey learn their letters and numbers. And like was mentioned earlier, numbers have meanings. To the Hebrew mind, this is what some of the numbers meant:
- God
- Tablets (the 10 commandments)
- Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob)
- Matriarchs (Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah)
- Books of Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)
- After Beth Sefer, the girls are done, and they marry around age 12-13 (boys marry around 18-19). The best of the boys would go on to the next level of schooling known as Beth Midrash - house of study/interpretation, where they would study with a rabbi. They studied the Prophets and the Writings, so when they were done, they had studied/memorized the entire Old Testament as well as the oral traditions. And while they were doing it, they were also learning their fathers' trade. Not all of them made it to graduation. Those that didn't simply dropped out and went into their fathers' trade. There was no shame in it; this school was tough. It ended at age 15.
- The best of Beth Midrash would then seek out a traveling rabbi who took disciples. If he would take them on, they would become his talmidim - disciples or apprentices. A talmid would walk as closely as he could to his rabbi. He wanted to get the dust from the rabbi's feet on his feet. He wanted to do what his rabbi does, know what his rabbi knows, be who his rabbi is. How badly do you want to be like your Rabbi? Is that how I want to follow Jesus?
- After all this schooling you could become a rabbi yourself at about age 30.
- Consider who Jesus called as disciples. They were in their fathers' trade (fishing, for example). They were the dropouts. They were probably very young; maybe that's why they were always arguing about who was the greatest and even enlisting their mother's help for that. Peter was the only one who was married. He was probably the oldest, which was probably why he spoke the most; you wouldn't speak above your elder.
- The Sermon on the Mount: Jesus said he had not come to abolish the Law and Prophets, but to fulfill them. The words abolish and fulfill are technical rabbinical terms. If a rabbi had misinterpreted Torah in his teaching, other rabbis would say he had "abolished" Torah. If he had interpreted it correctly, they would say he had "fulfilled" it. Jesus says he is there to interpret it correctly, and right after that we have the series of teachings where he would say, "You have heard it said ..., but I say ...". He's giving the correct interpretation of the commandments. He's explaining God's heart and intent in them. The Hebrews revered the Scriptures. They did not see them as arbitrary rules. They saw them as the key to life. Jesus said that all who came before him were thieves and robbers, but that he had come to bring life (John 10:8-10). Jesus is again affirming his role to correctly interpret the Torah and to bring life to those who would listen.
- The feeding of the 5000: Does it matter that there are 5 loaves and 2 fish? What if it were 4 and 3, or whatever? The point for us is that a lot of people were fed from very little food, and that's the miracle. But what's in the Scripture is there intentionally, and someone who was there at the time or who heard about it would understand it as Jesus feeding them with the Torah and the Tablets (because of the meanings of the numbers). This also brings to mind Jesus' saying that "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of God.
Handouts
Introduction
Sh’ma
Genesis 16:11, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21, Numbers 15:37-41
Geography
The Dead Sea, Qumran, Essenes, John the Baptist
Isaiah 40:3-5
Matthew 3:3
Luke 1:8-17
Matthew 3:4-6
Jesus relives Israel’s history
Matthew 2:13-15
Hosea 11:1
Exodus 4:22-23
Matthew 3:13-15
Matthew 4:1-2
Matthew 4:12-17
Matthew 11:13
Jesus identifies himself with the prophets
Luke 7:11-17
II Kings 4:8-37
Galilee, Mount Arbel, Religious Triangle (Korazin, Capernaum, Bethsaida)
Matthew 28:16
Matthew 4:13
John 14:2-3
Matthew 17:24-25, Matthew 8:14-15
John 1:44
Decapolis (Susita)
Mark 5:1-20
Mark 7:31, 8:1-2, 8-9
Luke 15:13
Matthew 5:14
Galilean Educational System
Luke 2:46-47
Luke 3:23
Matthew 4:18-22
Acts 4:13
Luke 9:46
Matthew 20:20-21
Matthew 11:28-30
Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5:17
Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-44
John 10:8-10
Feeding the 5000
Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-13
Matthew 4:4
