Bible Backgrounds/Church History 2012
Vern Peterman · May 6, 2012
Bible Bkgds/Church History, No. 19
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492631323569

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

This week, we're looking at Jewish culture. But I want to preface it with some things in the way of archaeological discoveries reported recently. So before we go to the Jewish culture, we will go to this particular site here. Reported at the end of last month, matter of fact, about nine days ago, reported was a study by anthropologists.

They had the question, how did farming develop and spread in Europe? about 8,000 BC, according to the conventional dating, is when farming began. So they started looking at, you know, where were different sites developed and actually studying DNA and doing age dating and things of that sort. And what they found is that farming started, and this is very interesting, farming started right around here in eastern Turkey. Hmm, I wonder why.

Oh, does this fit with what the Bible says after the flood? Well, it turns out yes. But the date they gave it was about 8000 BC, which there may be some point of discussion on that. But then they found it developed so that by the time you get up to Sweden, In that area, and there was an excavation, this is a female, they said was 5000 BC, and so it took about 3000 years according to conventional dating systems for farming to start from the area around Mount Ararat up to Sweden. So, real interesting. That was one thing that was announced. Announced just this last week was a discovery.

This is a seal of Matanyahu, gift of God is what that name means, from over 2700 years ago. This is the time of Solomon's temple and the prophet Isaiah. It was found in Jerusalem right near the Temple Mount. And so an interesting discovery. Seals, of course, were used on things like documents and things of that sort. So this is an interesting discovery from the time of Solomon's temple and the prophet Isaiah. Additionally, here's another one.

There have been a number of seasons of excavation at a place called Kirbet Qeiyafa. It's about 20 miles south and west of Jerusalem in Israel. And Kirbet Qeiyafa is a fortress that was built and occupied during the time of David. And it appears to be in an Israeli fort, which says that David was not just some tribal chieftain, but rather this was a military outpost that actually had administrative center and things of that sort. And so and this is very well matched to the time of David to be even explicitly enough to say it was not built during the time of Solomon. So they've narrowed the date down well enough.

This was what's called an astraka, which is a writing on a piece of pottery that was found there at the site with some ancient Hebrew script. And here's some pottery from the site, different kinds. And notice what they've got there, even something to pour from with holes there so you can kind of hold back whatever was inside. So anyway, interesting discoveries. If you're wanting to go to Kiribati Keafa, they've got the excavation starting on the 20th of next month, next season. So anyway, real interesting.

Now, this corresponds to your handout. This is the first slide on the first page. And this is the general outline that we've been following. And what we've tried to leave you with is round numbers for, here's Abraham around 2000 BC, and David about 1000 BC. And of course, that Qirbet Qeiyafa that I showed would be from the time of David. And Moses about halfway in between, right? We have the time of the exile here, and then here's the period of the New Testament.

So with that general outline, Jewish culture, of course, starts with Abraham. Why would it start with Abraham? Yeah, basically, was Abraham a Jew or a Gentile? He was ultimately a Gentile that God chose as the founding person of the Jewish people, right? So here's the time of Abraham, and so it makes sense that that's the time when it would start. And then it proceeds, excuse me, it proceeds then on into the current time where we have Jewish people now.

The philosophy of empire that we've been going through here the last half dozen times we've met shows Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. And each of those had a slightly different to significantly different philosophy of empire. And the summary that we have here is though the people of Israel had aspects of their culture that were distinctive they were also impacted and influenced by each of the empires to which they were subject or with which they had some kind of contact. As I've read some of the things that archaeologists have written, one of the things that they look for, it's not the only thing, but one of the things they look for is when they're excavating someplace, do they find pig bones? Right? Because if they find pig bones, it means either these are non-Jews or these are Jews that are way off track in terms of anything that they believe or hold to.

So we find each of these empires had some kind of impact and influence at different stages. Even to the point, here's Assyria that instituted Aramaic and in doing so Aramaic continued to be spoken all the way into New Testament times and there are even a few hundred thousand people now who still speak Aramaic in the Middle East after all that time. So there was lots of influence.

We've talked about some of those influences Then, one of the things that we have here as a principle, and this also on page one of your handout, match the right background to the text. Notice when we're reading the text, what background fits, right? What background fits and it fits to the geography and fits to time. We don't, for example, expect to have influence from the Roman Empire during the time of David.

Yeah? What I'm saying is that this is, Oh, this is, oh, that's papyrus. Papyrus. Which, by the way, when I was over in Uganda, I was surprised. They had vast fields of papyrus. I have no idea what they do with it, but lots of papyrus. I mean, there were stretches, as far as the eye could see, there was papyrus on each side of the road. But that's what it is.

However factual, the historical and cultural background information must also fit the text so as to illuminate the meaning, not eliminate the meaning. Sometimes people will see some passage in the Bible and say, oh that's just all cultural, and then they just dismiss it. No. The cultural background should help us understand it better, not erase the meaning. The next thing is matching the right background of the text requires we respect the inspiration and authority of scripture, take each text in its normal literal sense. What do we mean by that? When we look at it, we interpret it literally unless the context tells us that it should be interpreted otherwise. Now, what does that mean?

We'll look at it in more detail later, but an example would be Here is the Apostle John. He describes Jesus as having this five foot long battle sword coming out of his mouth. Is that to be taken literally? Alright. It's not to be taken literally, but the meaning of it is intended to be taken literally.

What does he mean by having a five foot long battle sword, a ramphaya, coming out of his mouth? Yeah, he's serious, you got that right. He says effectively here is judgment, because the last time it's used is at the end of the tribulation period, right? So it's judgment And it says, having great power in judgment.

So it's what it means, not what it literally looks like. So there are places where we have to look for that. But nonetheless, we should start off with the literal understanding and only go to something else when it's clear that that's what it means. Now, for the sake of focus here, there's Jewish background that goes all the way to Abraham. and from Israel to the far corners of the planet. But what we're going to do here today, for the sake of focus, we're going to center most of our attention on the New Testament era. And we'll focus on that. One should keep in mind that the Old Testament has Jewish background and history, which will vary by both time and place.

The Jews who lived in Israel would go to the temple regularly, right? Even if they lived some distance away from the temple, they'd still go to the temple regularly. When they went to Babylon and there wasn't any temple, did they go to the temple regularly? No, they couldn't, right? So obviously there's going to be a change in what they do and their habits and that kind of thing. Yeah, Tom?

There are accounts, and we can't get too far off on that, but there are accounts in various places, Egypt was another one, of actually attempting to set up an operating temple. The problem with it is that, of course, the only valid one is going to be in Jerusalem. And so while you hear accounts of that kind, to have that be substantially carried out would not be something acceptable. And that's a part of the struggle with the Jews outside of their land and outside of having a temple, right? How do I live out the law when I don't have a temple and I'm outside the land? that the law was actually written to be lived in the land with an operating temple. And so you have to end up kind of scratching out good portions of the law if you don't have it. But you're right. There is some evidence of, and not at a major scale, but people attempting sacrifices in other places.

By the first century AD, the Jews were centered in Of course, Judea, but that was actually the minority of Jews. At least two-thirds of the Jews by New Testament times lived outside of Israel. There were a number centered around Ephesus, down in Alexandria because of Alexander the Great asking the Jews to move down there, and also still many in Babylon. And many remained in Babylon, in fact, for centuries.

So those are primary areas. There were other areas as well. For example, under Claudius, it's reported in the Book of Acts, under Claudius, the Jews were kicked out of Rome, right? So there were Jews there too. We find in Acts 2, here are all the places where the Jews came from as listed in the book of Acts chapter 2. All the places from Rome on the far western end to Babylon over on the eastern end. So you had Jews scattered from all over the Roman Empire and even to the east of the Roman Empire.

Now, you have the development of Pharisees, Sadducees, and New Testament-era Jewish groups. You notice, when you read the Old Testament, there's not a Pharisee mentioned anywhere, right? Not a Sadducee mentioned anywhere. You don't see it. These were things that, though they started in Ezra's time, developed during the time between the New Testaments, or the Two Testaments, rather. From the time of Ezra, the group of Jews known as the Hasidim, okay?

I-M at the end of Hebrew word means plural, right? So we put an S on the end of things and they put an I-M, right? Held to the Old Testament scriptures. And these were the roots of several groups which began to develop in the third and second centuries. So the New Testament reveals several of these groups. Pharisees, and of course we've encountered those a lot as we've gone through the book of Matthew. Sadducees, also mentioned in Matthew.

Zealots, and I give the reference there, Acts 1.13, there's actually four places in the New Testament where zealots are mentioned. Each time it has to do with saying Simon, one of Jesus' disciples, was a zealot. And what are the zealots for? What are the zealots zealous for? Or zealous about? What's that?

Yeah, we really want to have Israel be its own independent nation and that means Rome's got to get out of here, right? And so you had that. The Essenes, not named in the New Testament, there's one evidence that I can find, I'd be glad to hear about any others, Matthew 5.43, hate your enemy. Only the Essenes taught that. The Pharisees and the Sadducees, they might be nasty people and want Jesus crucified, but they still didn't say, hate your enemy. But the Essenes did.

And then finally the Sicarii, Acts 21.38, the Sicarii are basically Jewish terrorists.

They get violent. That was their mode of operation. Kind of like the Zealots, only about two clicks farther over. The Zealots and the Sicarii, as time went on, they got greater in number and more intense, farther and farther towards the extreme, until finally in 66 A.D. they rebelled against the Romans.

They went into the Antonia Fortress, just to the north of the temple area, and slaughtered the Romans. It's overwhelmed them. And actually, for a time there, had the Romans out of Jerusalem, but didn't stay that way, right? And so then the Romans came back, they brought in 12 legions of troops from as far away as Britain. And they said, we are going to stomp, right? So they came in and attacked Jerusalem. And in late summer, they broke in and there was not entirely by Roman hand, but over a million Jews killed in that invasion of Jerusalem.

Here is an artist's depiction of that. Now, these groups would not be stopped there. There were also subsequent failed revolts in 73 AD, Masada, And then again in 133, it was like a generation or two later, right? Bar Kokhba rebellion. Here at Masada, this was the one just a few years after the 70 AD event, a number of Jews fought and then collected on top of this mountaintop fortress.

And what you see right here is the Roman siege ramp. The Romans, that pile of dirt there, they put there. And that way they could go up there and take out the Jews. Until they did so, until they got the siege ramp in place, what the Romans did is catapult. Catapult things up over onto the top.

Then there were even those Jews who favored the Roman occupation, if you can imagine that, and that by support of the Herod family. So you find the Herodians mentioned a few times in the New Testament, even by collecting taxes for the Romans. And of course last week we talked about that, the tax collectors, the Jews would have tax collectors for the Romans, Jews such as Zacchaeus, Jews such as Matthew, okay? And then here is a model of the upgraded temple, which began under Herod the Great, the not so great, in 20 BC.

Here is a more close-up view. So they had this courtyard area, all totaled, that courtyard area was about six football fields in size. And then inside of that would be the inner temple area into which only qualified Jews could go, right, into that inner temple area. And so this front part here, that would be where, you know, the widow would give her mites, you know, the widow's mites, the coins. That would be that area where the one Pharisee says, thank you, Lord, that I'm not evil and wicked like that tax collector over there. That would take place in this front area. This would be the place where the qualified Jewish men could go into the sacrifice area just for dealing with, you know, here's my sacrifice and, you know, then coming back out.

There was a semicircular set of stairs here that was used for a choir and the Levites had a choir that they would go out several times a day on schedule and gather together and sing. And they had harps that they played. And there was even, in order to announce certain things, they had a trumpeter's place. And in fact, the inscription, the trumpeter's place, was found among the rubble. Yeah, Tom? Hello?

What was a qualified Jew? What I mean by qualified Jew is that the Jew could not be illegitimate for up to 10 generations. The illegitimate birth. Which is when Jesus said, you know, whoever does this, you know, if you divorce your wife and, you know, remarry another, you commit adultery, that was like eyes open because that means, you know, I've got not only Jews who have gotten remarried under this, you know, illegal system, but Levites, guys who are doing the sacrifices that are foul and polluted. So when Jesus said that, that just Whoa, we're in trouble, right? Laws of inheritance got messed up.

Another one, for example, when I say qualified Jew, you know, Jesus tells the account of the Good Samaritan, and remember the first two guys who walked by the injured man that they thought might be dead, right? The first two guys that walked by were guys of official capacity, and if they touched a dead body, they were disqualified from doing their job for some period of time. So that meant that they didn't want to risk it because then they were disqualified from carrying out their job. So when you say disqualified, there's several different things that...

You couldn't be a woman. Yeah, well, you could be a woman and be in the front area. As a matter of fact, it's sometimes called the woman's court. So the front area, but only males could come back there. But again, only qualified. So you could be a Jewish male and not be qualified and you're not supposed to go past those doors.

One of the things we mentioned in the service a week or two ago is on the top of this, and this doesn't show it so much, On the top of there they had gold spikes, gold so that it looked really nice because it was on the temple, spikes because that kept the nasty birds that were unclean from landing on top of the temple, right? And the gold spikes were put there by Levites because nobody else was allowed to be in that holy area, right?

By arrangement of the Roman government, the minority Sadducees, in other words, there was a smaller number of Sadducees, and the majority Pharisees were permitted to maintain a tradition of self-rule in the areas impacting their religion. So here's, for example, an artist's depiction of the meeting of the Sanhedrin. Then here's the summary on the Sadducees. They held only the first five books of Moses and didn't believe in a resurrection, angels, or miracles. They were the skeptics and the minimalists, right? and that they were very temple-centered, and though a minority, they often held the position of chief priest. So what would happen is, in order to make some kind of a balance, you'd have a minority of Sadducees in the Sanhedrin. In order to balance out that minority status, they would make a Sadducee the chief priest. So he would be the chief out of a smaller group and then you have the Pharisees be the larger group there on the Sanhedrin.

Here's Caiaphas' ossuary box that appears by all archaeological evidence to be the box of the bones that held Caiaphas. It says Caiaphas on the side, that's part one. It dates from the right time and the age of the bones inside even match what would have been Caiaphas' age. So, and one more thing, you see how fancy the box is on the carving? People who were not of such high status did not have fancy carvings on the side. They would just be plain side boxes.

Yes? In view of that background that you just mentioned about the Achaicus being a Sadducee, it seems completely ironic that the Holy Spirit spoke through it when he said it is. It's also ironic because Caiaphas asked Jesus, are you the Christ? And did they believe in a Messiah? No. They didn't believe in a Messiah because that was in other books as they saw it. And so they didn't believe in a Messiah. So for him to ask Jesus, are you the Christ, that was just tongue-in-cheek all around.

So then here are the Pharisees. They held to the entire Old Testament as scripture, which is why, by the way, they would side with the scribes. Scribes and Pharisees, you see those names together because the scribes would do the copying of the Old Testament books. And of course, the Sadducees thought, well, what are you copying all those books for? There's only five that we ever respect, right? So the scribes would align themselves with the Pharisees and frequently are mentioned together.

They did believe in a resurrection and angels. The people in general regard the Pharisees as they're the culture heroes. I mean, everybody would think that, with rare exception, the Pharisees are just the best. It's as good as you get, right? They're the heroes.

The Pharisees also had a concern with temple activities, but they were also concerned with matters of daily life and the establishment of synagogues out away from Jerusalem and outside of Israel. They were actually missionary about what they did, which is why you'd have synagogues in all these different places. Here is the Mount of Olives, and one of the things that you'll note, because the Pharisees taught a resurrection, and they also, reading Zechariah, said that the Messiah is going to come back, Zechariah chapter 14, verses 3 and 4, the Messiah is going to come to the Mount of Olives. When his foot lands on the Mount of Olives, that, the Pharisees understood, would be the time when the Messiah would resurrect people. And so, what do all the Jews want to do? They want to be buried on the Mount of Olives, to be right there. It's like having a front row seat at the Resurrection. Right? Right? Yeah, Tom? One last thing.

I thought to myself, all those office buildings, These are religious buildings of different groups that are on the top and then on the sides there is almost nothing but graves and there are even places under the ground that you can't see where there's more graves because boy The rocks last a little longer, right?

So we see both cooperation and disagreement. On the one hand, the Sadducees and Pharisees would agree together to challenge Jesus. This was a real tricky relationship here. And Jesus also warned about the teachings of both of these groups at once. So, they're together, but here's the one where they really did something. Paul came in being a Pharisee, and he walks in and he's on trial, and of course the way to have this whole thing blow up is he comes in here, I'm here because I'm a Pharisee and I believe in the resurrection! And all of a sudden the Sadducees and the Pharisees are squabbling with each other and Paul just won. Because the Sadducees are saying, no, no, and the Pharisees are saying, yes, yes, you know, right? So, the reaction was volcanic.

Here is the Temple Mount. Here is the Kidron Valley and the Mount of Olives across from the Kidron Valley. Here is Jerusalem here. This is called the Essene Quarter, and it's believed right in here, and you can still apparently go to the place where the Last Supper was held. So it'd be real interesting.

Here you have this place where you get the Sadducees and the Pharisees, you know, having a lot of power and that kind of thing. And then here's Jesus meeting with the disciples, likely in this area. While all these groups had a place in the culture of Israel, of these, the Pharisees were the ones who are most influential and geographically widespread.

And they are the ones out of all the different groups that continued Sadducees, by 70 AD, were all gone. Why? They centered around Jerusalem. That's where the Romans attacked and slaughtered. So 70 AD was the end of the Sadducees, no more. And of course, 70 AD was the end of the Zealots, almost, and the Sicarii, almost. Just enough rebellion left to have a couple more rebellions that weren't amounting to much, right?

The Pharisees were the ones that continued on, not just because they were more widespread, but because, remember, two-thirds of the Jews were outside of Israel, where the Romans weren't attacking, right? And in those places there were no Sadducees, there were no Essenes, There were no zealots even. In those places, it was Pharisees. Pharisees had their influence. The Pharisees held a majority in the Sanhedrin, were more focused on practical matters, and they ruled in the synagogues. Outside of Israel, at least half the Jews in the New Testament times lived outside of Israel, probably more like two-thirds.

Though almost always a minority, their contact with the Gentile culture was a substantial influence. Gentiles, many of whom didn't care for the Jews at all, would hear the Jews tell Old Testament, what we would call Old Testament Bible stories. So when Paul would write about, well, Abraham did this, or Moses did that, Many of the Gentiles knew what they were talking about, what Paul was talking about, right? Every single New Testament book reveals some level of interaction between Jews and Gentiles. At times, such in the book of Galatians, it's the primary focus of the book.

The core of the division, the Jews followed the Mosaic Law and the Gentiles had no place in it. Think about if you're a Gentile and you're interacting with a Jew, The Gentiles ate the wrong things, went to the wrong places at the wrong times, and did and wore the wrong things, right? And were uncircumcised and were descended not from Abraham, right? The Jews, on the other hand, had the law and everything described in it. It made them distinct. But you can imagine the irritation.

Here you are, a Gentile trying to sell your clothing. and the Jew comes up and says, I can't wear that, you mix fabrics. Well, is that going to make you inclined or disinclined towards the Jews? Disinclined, right? And then, what's the matter, you don't like my pig meat? So you have that, or here you go into, here's Ephesus with idols of Artemis. Is a Jew going to buy those? Not too likely, right?

So you can see it made the Jews distinctive, sometimes irritatingly so. Here, for example, is the Agora, the marketplace, which is likely where Demetrius and the other silversmiths sold statues of Artemis. Right nearby the Agora is the amphitheater where they had the riot, Acts chapter 19, where they shouted for two hours, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians, right? Here is the Temple of Artemis, which now is barely in existence. It's just a cow field and even a wetland. There's worship of Artemis.

There was temple prostitutes, according to some accounts, and a safety box, safety deposit box system. So, Now if you're a Jew, are you going to go there to keep your money safe? No. So the Jews, you're going to keep their distance from that thing. In a pig's eye, you'll go. Yeah, in a pig's eye, yeah.

So here in the marketplace, they also sold some other curious things. Here is a document, here's a magic text from the Roman Empire, and interestingly enough, this papyrus document contains a combination of pagan and Jewish magic spells. Jewish magic spells, well, you think about it, Acts 8, and this is Simon, the magician, right? And in 19 are examples of Jewish magic. that were being practiced at the time. So an interesting thing that Jews ventured into this realm of magic and that was something that both Jews and Gentiles both participated in, Jewish magic.

Ephesians 1.21 says far above every name that is named and what they would do is they would have names of different angels or powers that you could call upon and that would help protect you or help accomplish something and so that you would name as many powerful names as you could in order to get the greatest influence in the pagan and magic realms and so Jesus says Christ is the name above all those names that can be named. You don't need to list all the others because Christ is above all those. You don't need to add anything to them.

Here was Timothy from a forbidden marriage. 2 Timothy 1.5 For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure it is in you as well.

So here on his mother's side he had a lineage in fact a Jewish lineage, but Paul wanted this man to go with him. This is Acts 16 where this man is Timothy and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts, for they all knew his father was a Greek. So his mother was Jewish, father was a Greek. Was that a legal marriage? Not according to Jewish law. The mixed marriage was not allowed. But here's Timothy, he's kind of stuck between two worlds, right? And so he's half-Jewish, right? And then, now we have Old and New Testament patterns. The Jews often used distinctly Jewish patterns of language.

One was to rhyme ideas and meanings rather than sounds in poetry and in song. You know, in our songs, we rhyme the words as they end the line, right? And that's the way we do it. As a matter of fact, if it doesn't rhyme, we kind of go, hey, wait a minute, right? It kind of grabs us.

For the Jews, they didn't care about rhyming the sound. They wanted to rhyme the meanings. And to think about that, that's perfect when you go and translate into other languages, you're still rhyming the meaning, right? So in terms of that pattern, it's almost like this is what God had in mind, because you rhyme the meaning just the same, even if you translate it, but certainly not the sound after you translate it, right? An example of this, their Hebrew poetry is in Psalm 6. 1 through 6 has a lot of rhyming meanings. We won't take a look at that. We will take a look at Ephesians 2, 21 and 22.

The Jews would describe the whole of something with both halves or both ends. Instead of saying God created the world, was to say God created the heavens and the earth. So there was a tendency to describe things with two halves or both ends. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The rabbis would say, you know, the Aleph and the Toph, the first and last letters in the Hebrew alphabet. So those were Jewish patterns of speech and you find them from the very beginning verses of the Bible all the way to the very end of the Bible.

The Jewish pattern. Yes, Marilyn? Yes, yes, and we get that out of the Jewish tradition. But what's interesting is that we have in our culture combinations of Greek and more Jewish influence. And in different things you'll find one and then the other. Our songs, for example, we went with the Greek pattern where we rhyme the sounds. So that would be an instance there.

But we also, if somebody says heaven and earth, we understand, okay, that means, you know, everything physically. So the, and something else was the image of someone was both important. Don't, you know, don't do this because you need to respect the image of God, right? So the image was important, but also something not to be represented physically. So let's make man in our image, that image matters. But just don't make a graven image, right? Though the New Testament is written in Greek, one can recognize Jewish patterns of speech in the New Testament. Look for the Old Testament words, phrases, and themes.

Some of the things that you will see, when did God make the world? When did God create the world? in the beginning. And you'll find that phrase in the beginning or from the beginning or at the beginning. You'll find that in both the Old and New Testaments as a pattern of how things are described. Jesus in answering a question about divorce says, from the beginning it was not so, right?

So you look for those phrases and themes. The Greek Old Testament is often a place to find those connections. One of the questions that's come up is when Isaiah wrote, Behold, a virgin, as it's translated, will bear a son. I've heard people say, well, that doesn't really mean virgin. It just means young woman. Well, what does the Greek Old Testament say? Parthenos. What did Luke say? How will I be pregnant? I'm a virgin. I'm a Parthenos, right? So what it says is, yeah, it definitely means virgin, right? That's the understanding. That's how the Jews understood it, because they translated that as Parthenos before Christianity even came along, right?

As a starting place, try using the Bible itself to reveal Jewish words, phrases, cultural patterns, and history. For example, you want to know how the Bible uses the word mystery. Colossians chapter one. Paul defines the word mystery the way the Bible uses it every time.

Here is Ephesians 2, 21 and 22. It's in the Hebrew poetry pattern. Verse 21, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. The next verse, in whom you also, the whole building, right? are being built together, which is similar to being fitted together, is growing into, and now we just have that as into in the next verse, a holy temple, which is a temple, a dwelling of God. Yeah. And then finally, in the Lord and in the Spirit.

So you find those two verses are written in a Hebrew poetry pattern. See that? Hebrew poetry rhymes ideas rather than sounds, as we're accustomed to in our poetry and songs. Walk is another one. Walk is a distinctly Jewish expression, and I'm not talking about the physical walking, I'm talking about walking with spiritual implications.

From the earlier chapters of Genesis, Enoch was taken up. Why was Enoch taken up? Because it says before then, Enoch walked with God. The same is said of Noah, and it doesn't mean just physical walking, it means this is their spiritual pattern, right?

It talks about how one lives out their lives or lives in relationship to God. That's the Jewish expression of walking. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2, first couple of verses, you were dead in your trespasses and sins when you walked, right? He starts talking about the walking, which is not in relationship to God, right? Gentiles understood the word walk. It's clear that the Gentiles understood it. They just knew that the Jews were the ones that used it in this way. Genesis and Job, the earliest Bible books, both use walk.

And it's long-standing, and it continues on into Revelation, that pattern. After these things is a phrase that starts in Genesis and continues in Revelation, with one exception in Leviticus where it says, if after these things you do not obey, right? So that's a conditional statement. But with that one exception, everywhere from the Old Testament into the New, it implies two things, historical reality and historical sequence. And it's used in Revelation, that ends up being a guide to interpretation, right?

Because it tells you, is this just kind of foggy, you know, wishful thinking? Or is this real? Should I take it for real? After these things, says it's real. It also says, when it mentions that, from the very beginning to right near the end, that it's to be taken in sequence.

Here's another one. I observed this, it's funny, I never saw this in any book, but I just thought, that's a curious thing. With hands, without hands. So I looked at it. From the Old Testament to the New Testament, there are multiple references to things made with hands and not made with hands. There is variation in the general pattern of words and phrases, different things made with or without hands.

The work of God in the physical realm, such as creation, is often spoken of as being done by God's hands, or is called the work of his hands. So you have various things that God made, or the work of his hands. So here's all these passages from the Old Testament, Job, one of the oldest books And on into Hebrews, things done by God's hands or by the work of his hands are things done in the physical realm. But here's the interesting one, the works of man are spoken of as being done by man's hands. That's positive when it's done as something God appointed man to do, but it's negative when it's making idols, right? So here are the places from Deuteronomy into Revelation where that the work of man's hands is used either in a negative or positive sense.

But here's the one I found interesting. When God does something in the spiritual realm it's spoken of as not made with hands or done without hands. So interestingly, if you want to ask the question, did God do it in the spiritual realm or the physical realm? In the physical realm, God did it with hands. In the spiritual realm, God accomplished it without hands. Isn't that interesting? So that's the Jewish expression and the way they distinguish between God's accomplishment in the physical realm and in the spiritual realm.

And you find that from the Old Testament into the New Testament. We've talked about things in Jewish culture. Next time we're going to go into kind of other biblical cultures and there are other smaller cultural influences we'll talk about. Have we talked about everything in Jewish culture? No, we have not. One of them, for example, we have not touched upon at all is Jewish marriage practices. We will talk about that briefly, and there's a handout in the hallway on the cabinet there that talks about Jewish marriage practices. And it is a big issue. It's an important one. It's even going to be something that has a part in the main service message, which is why I have it.

But, for example, When Jesus said to the disciples, John 14, I go to prepare a place for you, you know what the bridegroom would say to the bride when they'd just gotten engaged? I go to prepare a place for you, right? I'll come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. Can you imagine the disciples saying, ooh, these are wedding words, what's he doing? This may even have kind of freaked them out. What's he talking about? I don't know. Be quiet. Don't ask any questions. So statements like that, those would be wedding kinds of words.

Farther on, where Jesus says, the Father calls the time when The rapture takes place when the tribulation starts, etc. He's the one who establishes the time, Acts chapter 1. So in the Jewish wedding traditions, one of the things that would happen is when the groom was ready to go get the bride, the father would tell the groom the time, go get your bride. Go get your bride. And so this is the way it'll be. The father will tell the son, go get your bride. Now's the time. Because the father is the one who calls the shots on that.

So what we find as we go throughout the New Testament, from the latter part of the Gospels into the very last chapters of the book of Revelation, we find scattered throughout there multiple references to Christ and the Church. as bride and bridegroom. And it's all based on an understanding of Jewish culture. So anyway, we will take a look at that somewhat here in the next service. So that's an example of other things about Jewish culture we've hardly touched on.

But the buzzer's going off. Any questions, comments? Inspirations, yeah. Craig? Going back to being illegitimate and not being able to enter the inner courts. Yes. What did it take to become illegitimate? Frankly, any law? Oh, no. An illegitimate birth would be a birth out of wedlock. A birth, for example, it may well have been called into question whether Jesus was a legitimate birth.

Well, it wasn't just that. Other qualifications were in their law, it says if a man was damaged in the testicles, he could not come in. And of course, that that was, you know, something that basically you couldn't fix, at least not with the technology of the day. So that was one of the things that disqualified.

For the illegitimacy issue, 10 generations you had to stand aside before that was resolved. 10 generations of legitimate birth after that, before you're qualified, which may also explain why David was not assigned Because it's actually, he's the 10th generation. David was not assigned to build the temple, but Solomon was. He was the 11th and would have been the first one qualified. Right? Yes. Yes. Yes.

The explicit reason had to do with him shedding blood. The unstated reason may also have been his illegitimate status. That's why I put it as a maybe, because it's not explicitly stated. But yeah, there are different things that might disqualify someone. And it could even be that a Levite would become disqualified. And so they were fearful of circumstances that might cause them to be disqualified. Well, it wouldn't necessarily mean that.

I think that's an example where they caught the woman in adultery. That's an example, and that's not the only one, where things shifted towards being, like I said in church a few weeks ago, I call them male chauvinist pigs, because what they did is they shifted the law So that, like, here's adultery and the law said you must bring both the man and the woman. And they had changed it by New Testament times where it's only the woman. And the other thing that they had done is they had said if a woman has a bare arm, that's constructive adultery. And she's committed adultery by bearing her arm.

But a man didn't have the same problem. So this is where they've interpreted the law in favor of males. Matter of fact, by New Testament times, they actually had a prayer that the men would say, thank you that I was not born a woman. So there were several respects, and the woman caught in adultery was just one of them, where they shifted the law in the direction of being male favored.

A woman, for example, contrary to the law of Moses, a woman was not allowed to testify. in legal matters. Not permitted. Well, where's the law of Moses say that? It doesn't. So it's just an example of shifting things towards a male favored culture and making it more and more difficult for the woman. She had to toe the line, but she never got great respect.

Okay, that's the second buzzer. We've got to pray. Lord, we do thank you. As we look at this, we have a greater understanding of your word. Even this morning as we go into studying Matthew chapter 25, there will be a better understanding because of the Bible background. And Lord, we just thank you that you've given your word because you love us, because you care for us immensely and deeply, and you desire a relationship with us eternally. and fellowship. And Lord, we give you thanks for all this in Jesus' name. Amen.