brunson@usfbobo.UUCP (David Brunson) (08/28/84)
[] >From: yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (David) >Subject: Re: Which commandments? >Organization: UCF, Orlando, FL > >Having spent several years translating both the Tanakh and the >"New Testament" (more appropriately the writings of the N'tzarim >sect of Jews), I'm always amazed at how much confidence is placed >in the version ordered and supervised by an anti-semitic >Episcopalian king of England. Certainly it should not be >astonishing to find that this, and subsequent versions, are >sympathetic to the established Christian doctrines. ... > ... If one, rather, simply puts >the various passages in harmony, one learns that these early >followers of Yeshua were observant Jews some 40 years after >the execution of Yeshua - keeping the seventh day Sabbath >(while meeting on other days as well and collecting monies >on the first day - certainly not Shabbat - as Jews today >still do). They even continued to sacrifice in the Temple. Excellent!!! Of course, it is not necessary to know the original languages to come to these conclusions -- a discriminating reading of any reputable translation will reveal that Paul, for example, remained a Pharisee even after converting. >Christian doctrines of today originate in the paganism of >the Roman Empire. Specifically the Greek (originators of Western anti-semitism) influence. Early gentile believers such as Origen and Augustine had problems with the Semitic roots of their adopted faith. The "God of the Old Testament" syndrome: parts of the OT were abominable to these men because of their deeply ingrained Greek values. This led to many exercises in making belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob more palatable to the Greek world-view. There is a fundamentally irreconcilable difference between the Greek and Hebrew world-views. The invalid human activity known as *Theology* is a futile attempt to bridge an unbridgable gap. In the times of the early church fathers there was an attempt to describe belief with Platonic forms. Most of the resulting heresies are no longer in vogue. In modern times believers are suffering from the efforts of Thomas Aquinas et al to make faith palatable to those weakened by the Aristotelian disease (the, Ahem, "Faith vs Reason" foolishness). To Christians: Read Galatians again. Paul is saying that it is not necessary for a gentile to become a Jew to receive *salvation* (a word which has been nearly abused into oblivion). Insofar as one desires to *adopt* a World View, however, one is certainly wiser to adopt the Hebrew than the Greek (or Teutonic, or Japanese, or whatever). Observing Kashrut, celebrating the feasts, studying the Tenach, and meditating in the Torah is the way to start. --- David S Brunson (duke or decvax)!ucf-cs!usfbobo!brunson ... better understanding through higher education
yiri@ucf-cs.UUCP (David) (08/28/84)
One of the major problems with citing passages from modern versions is that there it is slanted by so many interpretations from the Roman Empire which were alien to the early N'tzarim sect - are are alien to Judaism today. Relying upon "Christianized" versions promulgates the muddying of the distinction between Christian and Jew - one cannot be both at the same time. (The notion that Jews are merely a race has, I hope, been recognized as falsehood.) Similarly, as the teachings espoused by the early N'tzarim sect are distorted in modern versions, so also is the picture presented of Y'shua. The two different versions present two different pictures: one of an observant and thoroughly Jewish Y'shua and another of a Christian Christ (Jesus). For clarity it is really necessary to distinguish whether one is speaking of Y'shua or Jesus - they are so diametrically different (Y'shua teaching Torah in synagogues to Jews while Jesus came and freed everyone from the Jewish law of sin, the observance of which causes one to lose one's salvation - one Torah- observant, the other antinomian.) Again, I recommend the reading of those texts to help relate to the crucial nature of these differences and their basis. Yirmiyahu Ben-David