01-13-2008, 06:54 PM
Shlama,
Dave, I hope you don't mind me butting in on my own thread, but I wanted to ask a few questions just for clarification. What or who defines what Judaism is and who or what a Jew is? Is this left up to Christians to define it? or to a modern council of Orthodox rabbis?
My mother was Jewish. This makes me Jewish. My father was Assyrian. This makes me Assyrian. I practice both the faith of the CoE and the Judaism that my family practiced which had faith in Meshikha. Does this make me Christian or Jew? Does this mean that I practice Christianity or Judaism? If I believe in the Jewish Messiah and practice the Jewish faith that He taught from, does this make me a practitioner of Judaism or Greek Christianity?
I'm not trying to be rude with my questions.
I love this quote from Leo Trepp:
"It must be remembered that the new sect of Nazarenes, (the term Christians came later), standing under the leadership of Peter, strictly obeyed and practiced Jewish law and expected converts to do the same as a condition of their admission. They were distinguished only by their belief in Christ as the Messiah; this conviction did not place them out of the bounds of Judaism." (Judaism - Development and Life, second edition, by Leo Trepp; Duxbury Press, 1974).
And here's another interesting quote on the same subject:
"We should remember that the term 'Christian' is absent both from the Gospels and from the Pauline epistles, and that the disciples of Christ were first designated as Nazarenes...which remains their normal appellation in the Jewish circles of semitic tongue (the Christians applied this term exclusively to a Jewish-Christian sect).... The pre-Christian [Nazarenes] were conspicuous for their very characteristic peculiarities. They were Jews by race. According to Epiphanius, they dwelt in Galtides, Basanitides, and the other regions along the Jordan. They practiced circumcision, observed the sabbath and the other feasts of the Jews, and recognized the fathers mentioned in the Pentateuch as representatives of true religion... Finally, while keeping all the observances of the Jews, they refused to offer sacrifices or to eat the flesh of animals... Christianity at [the end of the first century] was no longer identical, in its doctrinal affirmations, with the faith of the first disciples." (Jewish Sects at the Time of Jesus, by Marcel Simon; Fortress Press, 1967).
Dave, I hope you don't mind me butting in on my own thread, but I wanted to ask a few questions just for clarification. What or who defines what Judaism is and who or what a Jew is? Is this left up to Christians to define it? or to a modern council of Orthodox rabbis?
My mother was Jewish. This makes me Jewish. My father was Assyrian. This makes me Assyrian. I practice both the faith of the CoE and the Judaism that my family practiced which had faith in Meshikha. Does this make me Christian or Jew? Does this mean that I practice Christianity or Judaism? If I believe in the Jewish Messiah and practice the Jewish faith that He taught from, does this make me a practitioner of Judaism or Greek Christianity?
I'm not trying to be rude with my questions.
I love this quote from Leo Trepp:
"It must be remembered that the new sect of Nazarenes, (the term Christians came later), standing under the leadership of Peter, strictly obeyed and practiced Jewish law and expected converts to do the same as a condition of their admission. They were distinguished only by their belief in Christ as the Messiah; this conviction did not place them out of the bounds of Judaism." (Judaism - Development and Life, second edition, by Leo Trepp; Duxbury Press, 1974).
And here's another interesting quote on the same subject:
"We should remember that the term 'Christian' is absent both from the Gospels and from the Pauline epistles, and that the disciples of Christ were first designated as Nazarenes...which remains their normal appellation in the Jewish circles of semitic tongue (the Christians applied this term exclusively to a Jewish-Christian sect).... The pre-Christian [Nazarenes] were conspicuous for their very characteristic peculiarities. They were Jews by race. According to Epiphanius, they dwelt in Galtides, Basanitides, and the other regions along the Jordan. They practiced circumcision, observed the sabbath and the other feasts of the Jews, and recognized the fathers mentioned in the Pentateuch as representatives of true religion... Finally, while keeping all the observances of the Jews, they refused to offer sacrifices or to eat the flesh of animals... Christianity at [the end of the first century] was no longer identical, in its doctrinal affirmations, with the faith of the first disciples." (Jewish Sects at the Time of Jesus, by Marcel Simon; Fortress Press, 1967).