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Mt. 9:14-17 is a very misunderstood passage.

Here I will take issue with David Stern’s Jewish New Testament Commentary on Mt. 9:16 and 9:17.

On this material David Stern is dead wrong!

His identification of “old coat” = “Judaism” and “unshrunk cloth” as “messianic faith” is completely unfounded and has absolutely no basis in the text. It is merely an echo of the wildly inaccurate eisogesis of the text made by replacement theology Christians.

The same is true of his identification of “new wine” = “messianic fath” and “old wineskins” = “traditional Judaism” in verse 17.

Stern has done the best to adapt the EISOGESIS of Replacement Theology
Christian commentators to somehow be fitted into his theology (and it does not work).

There is no need. The text here has NOTHING to do with this EISOGESIS.

Let us apply the seventh rule of Hillel and read the text in context:

I will use a modified KJV reading:

Then came to him the talmidim of Yochanan, saying,
Why do we and the Pharisees fast often,
but your talmidim fast not?
(9:14)

That establishes the subject. The topic is not Judaism vs. Messianic faith
or Judaism vs, Christianity. The subject is why Yeshua’s talmidim are not
fasting.

And Yeshua said to them,

Can the children of the bridechamber mourn,
as long as the bride groom is with them?
but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them,
and then they shall fast.

No man puts a piece of new cloth onto an old garment,
for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment,
and the rent is made worse.

Neither do men put new wine into old wineskins;
else the wineskins burst, and the wine runs out,
and the wineskins perish
but they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

Notice the poetic parallelism.

Notice that their are three sets of lines and that each begins with a
parallel statement:

Can the children of the bride chamber mourn,
as long as the bride groom is with them?…

No man puts a piece of new cloth onto an old garment,…

Neither do men put new wine into old wineskins;…

Yeshua is answering the question posed to him “why do not your talmidim fast?”

He replies that they do not because the bridegroom is still with them, but that they will fast later when he is gone.

Yeshua does not say that fasting (an observance of the Torah) has been abolished, to the contrary he indicates that it will be time to fast when he is gone.

Then he gives two illustrations of things that are inappropriate but become appropriate later.

Thus the identification is:

new piece of cloth = new wine = fasting

old garment = old wineskin = Messiah present with us

The identification of the Messiah with the wineskin is also in keeping with a similar allegory found in the Mishnah (m.Avot 4:20) in which a teacher of Torah is likened to a wineskin:

…He who learns from children– what is he like?
he who eats sour grapes and drinks new wine.

And he who learns from old men– what is he like?
he who eats ripe grapes and drinks old wine.

You can have a new wineskin full of old wine,
and an old wineskin which has not even new wine in it.

Now Yeshua claimed that his teaching was older than himself (Yochanan 7:16) This ties into the traditional understanding of a teacher as a wineskin and his teaching as wine. Yeshua’s teaching was here with us while he was here and thus it was not a time to fast but to drink the wine and rejoice.

In fact the teaching here indicates that his talmidim would be fasting (an observance of Jewish Law) after he left.

We must raise at least $375 by the end of the day today (5/15/23) to prevent our account from plunging into the negative tonight and starting a cascade of returned items and fees!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org

Or click HERE to donate

Chapter 9 Handouts

We must still raise at least $300 by the end of the day today or our account will go into the negative tonight (and that would be very bad)!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

or click here

As many of you may know, there are five fragments of an ancient Nazarene commentary which survive only in Latin as quoted by the fourth Century Latin “Church Father” Jerome, in his own Commentary on Isaiah. Jerome was also famously the translator of the Latin Vulgate, the standardized Latin version of the Bible.

The commentary itself takes the form of a combination of a Targum and a Qumran-style Pesherim Commentary.

The Targums were Aramaic paraphrases of the books of the Tanak, often so paraphrased as to contain interpretations that would rise to the level of commentary.

The Qumran style “Pesherim Commentaries“. There are well described in The Dead Sea Scrolls, a New Translation by Wise, Abegg and Cook:

Very characteristic of the Dead Sea sect was the view that the Bible was a puzzle to be solved or an enigma to be unraveled. Its characteristic word for the activity of interpretation was pesher, which as a rule refers to the interpretation of dreams. The biblical Daniel serves as the ideal interpreter of this type: he interprets dreams (Dan. 2,4) and visions (the “handwriting on the wall,” Dan. 5) not through native ability, but because God has revealed the secrets to him. The Qumran scribes understood their task in the same way: to penetrate the secrets of Scripture not through reflection on the text itself, but through openness to the revelation of God.
(The Dead Sea Scrolls; A New Translation; Wise, Abegg and Cook, First Edition, 1996, p. 114)

Since the Isaiah Commentary only exists as excerpts quoted in Jerome’s Commentary on Isaiah, it is impossible to know whether its original form was a flowing text parallel to that of Isaiah (like the format of a Targum), or like that of the “Continuous Pesherim“, in which a book of Scripture is interrupted at intervals with a phrase like “The Pesher (interpretation) is:”

English versions of the fragments of the Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah have circulated for years, even decades. However these translations are fraught with error and inaccuracies. The modern restoration of Nazarene Judaism requires a restoration of this ancient Nazarene Commentary, into its original Hebrew or Aramaic. Hebrew was more likely if it was a Pesher Commentary and Aramaic was the likely language of it was a Targum. All things being considered, I believe the Commentary is best preserved as a Continuous Pesher Commentary in Hebrew with an English translation. However restoring the original Hebrew cannot adequately be done from an English translation of a Jerome’s Latin translation of whatever source Jerome had. Fortunately I have obtained Jerome’s Latin for each of these five fragments, and have reconstructed the underlying Hebrew behind the Latin. There are several surprises that this process has uncovered. Suffice it to say, that the English translations of the Latin we have been using, are woefully inadequate.

Not only do I feel this reconstruction is a necessarily part of the restoration of Nazarene Judaism, but I also wanted to have this restored material available for use in my own online commentary on Isaiah which I will be filling in here a little and there a little in my own online commentary on the Scriptures.

The restored commentary also allows us insight into portions of Isaiah not directly covered in what remains of the commentary. The commentary often defines, within the scope of its pesher interpretation, key terms that appear throughout Isaiah, such as “the terrible one” and “the Assyrian”, which may shed light on other passages as well, and I will be incorporating these insights into my own commentary as well (for example in my recent added comments to Isaiah 52:1-6 which references “the Assyrian.”)

I will be creating a permanent page for them in the future, but in the meantime they are here:

Pesher to Isaiah 8:14

Pesher to Isaiah 8:19-22

Pesher to Isaiah 9:1-4

Pesher to Isaiah 29:20-21

Pesher to Isaiah 31:6-9

And you can view my own online Scripture Commentaries by clicking here. (I recently completed extensive commentary to Isaiah 52 and 53.

Now that the Ancient Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah has been restored, I can return to the work of restoring the Four Gospels and the all important Fifth Gospel which is “According to the Hebrews” (more on that soon)

The rent just barely cleared our account lst night, leaving us with just over $10! More bills will be hitting our account in coming days (even tomorrow) and we are virtually broke, so please donate if you can!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

or click here

In a recent blog I told you I was working on a project to restore five fragments of an ancient Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah, from five Latin fragments preserved in quotations in Jerome’s Commentary on Isaiah.

Here is the fifth and final of the five fragments (On Isaiah 31:6-9) restored to Hebrew with an English translation:

6 Turn you unto Him against whom you have deeply rebelled,
O children of Yisra’el.
7 For in that day they shall cast away every man,
his idols of silver, and his idols of gold,
which your own hands have made unto you for a sin.
8 Then shall Assyria fall with the sword–not of man–
and the sword not of men, shall devour him:
and he shall flee from the sword,
and his young men shall become tributary.
9 And his rock shall pass away by reason of terror,
and his princes shall be dismayed at the ensign, says YHWH,
whose fire is in Tziyon,
and His furnace in Yerushalayim.
(Isaiah 31:6-9 HRV)

פשרו שובו אליו ולשליחיו את בני ישראל אשר ביד עצה רעה מכחישים בן אלהים כי אם תשובו אז ימאסון בל האלילים אשר קדם החטיא אתכם ונפל לפניך את השטן לא בגברכם כי אם בחסד של אלהים ובחוריו אשר קדם בעדו ויהיו עבדי קהילה וגברו וסלעו יעבור ויחזור אחורה הפילוסופים של כל התועים את הנס הצליבה כי זה חק יהוה יעשה אשר אור לו בציון ותנור לו בירושלם

Its interpretation: Sons of Israel, which through bad council deny the Son of Elohim, turn to Him and His Emissaries. For if you will repent then you will cast away all idols which before caused you to sin, and HaSatan will fall before you, not because of your power, but because of the mercy of Elohim.  And his young men, who before fought for him, will become servants of the Assembly and his power and stone will pass.  And the Philosophers of every error will turn their backs to the miracle of the crucifixion.  Because this decree of YHWH shall be done, whose fire [or light] is in Tzion and his furnace in Yerushalayim.

Some have translated crucis signum as “sign of the cross” however the underlying Hebrew may be better understood as “miracle of the circumcision”.

The rent must clear our account tonight! We need your support!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

or click here

A misunderstanding common in the church today is the concept that Torah and Grace are mutually exclusive ideas. For example one author writes:

A believer can not be under law and
under grace at the same time.
(God’s Plan of the Ages; Louis T. Tallbot; 1970; p. 83)

Now let us be noble Bereans to see if this is true. Let us ask ourselves: “How were people saved in ‘Old Testament’ times? Were they saved by works or by grace?

The fact is that often when Paul speaks of how we are saved by grace through faith he often cites the Tanak to prove his point. Two of his favorite proof texts for this concept are from the Tanak:

And he believed in YHWH;
and he counted it to him as righteousness.
(Gen. 15:6 = Rom. 4:3, 22; Gal. 3:6)

…the just shall live by his faith.
(Hab. 2:4 = Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11)

So Paul is arguing from the Tanak that one is saved by faith alone apart from works. In fact the real truth is that men of the “Old Testament” times were just as under grace as we are today:

But Noah found grace in the eyes of YHWH.
(Gen. 6:8)

…you have also found grace in my sight….
…for you have found grace in my sight…
(Ex. 33:12, 17)

…and now I have found grace in your sight…
(Judges 6:17)

The people… found grace in the wilderness…
(Jer. 31:2)

Thus as noble Bereans we learn from the Tanak that people in “Old Testament” times were saved by grace through faith. They could not have earned their salvation any more than we could today, as Paul writes:

Knowing that a man is not justified by works
of the law, but by the faith of Yeshua the Nessiah,
even we have believed in Yeshua the Messiah,
that we might be justified by the faith of Messiah,
and not by works of the law; and by the works
of the law shall no flesh be saved.
(Gal. 2:16)

In fact the “New Testament” contains more commandments than the “Old Testament”. The New Testament contains 1050 commandments as delineated in Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible; By Finnis Jennings Dake; N.T. pp.313-316] while the “Old Testament” Mosaic Law contains only 613 (b.Makkot 23b). Thus faith and grace are in the “Old Testament” and law and works can be found in the New Testament. People in Old Testament times were saved by grace through faith just like people in New Testament times. Now many anomians will agree to this fact on the surface, but lets follow this thought through to its fullest conclusion. Lets go beyond the surface and really think this through. If what we have shown to be true is true, then the people in the wilderness in the days of Moses were saved by grace through faith. Now lets look at the full impact of that statement. That means that people were under grace, and saved by faith alone and not by works, when Moses was stoning people to death for violating the Torah! Obviously then being saved by grace through faith in no way affects Torah observance.

So if grace and faith do not negate the observance of Torah, then what is the true nature of faith and grace? What is faith? What is grace? Let us once again turn to the scriptures for answers.

Now part of the reason that many people have come to think that there is more “grace” in the New Testament than in the Old Testament is a translation bias in the KJV and many other English versions.

There are two words for “grace” in the Hebrew Tanak. The first word is CHEN (Strong’s 2580/2581) which means “grace or charm”. The other word is CHESED (Strong’s 2616/2617 ) which carries the meaning of “grace, mercy or undue favor.”

These two words closely parallel the meanings of the two Greek words used for grace in the Greek Bible. These are CHARIS (Strong’s 5485/5463) which means “grace or charm” and ELEOS (Strong’s 1651/1653) meaning “grace, mercy or undue favor.”

Obviously Hebrew CHEN = Greek CHARIS and Hebrew CHESED = Greek ELEOS. Now the KJV tends to translate CHEN/CHARIS as “grace” but tends to translate CHESED/ELEOS as “mercy”. Now when we think of “grace” in biblical terms we are usually thinking of the concept of CHESED/ELEOS “undue favor”.

Now if we follow with the KJV translation scheme then it appears that there is much more grace in the New Testament than the Tanak, since CHEN only appears 70 times in the Tanak while CHARIS appears 233 times in the New Testament. But remember, the concept of “undue favor” is actually CHESED/ELEOS. CHESED appears 251 times in the Tanak, while ELEOS appears only 50 times in the New Testament. If anything there is far more “grace” in the Tanak than in the New Testament.

Now let us turn to the Tanak to get a better understanding of what grace really is. According to the Scriptures there is a close connection between “grace” and the “fear of YHWH”:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his grace (CHESED)
toward those who fear him.
(Psalm 103:11)

Oh let those who fear YHWH say,
“His grace (CHESED) is everlasting.
(Psalm 118:4)

By grace (CHESED) and truth
iniquity is atoned for,
and by the fear of YHWH
one keeps away from evil.
(Proverbs 16:6)

And the fear of YHWH, according to the Tanak, includes Torah observance:

…that he may learn the fear of YHWH his God,
to keep all the words of this Torah
and these statutes, to do them:
(Deut. 17:19)

…that they may hear, and that they may learn,
and fear YHWH your God,
and observe to do all the words of this Torah.
(Deut. 31:12)

Therefore there is clealy no conflict between grace and Torah. In fact the Torah is closely connected to grace.

The next word we need to examine is “faith”. The Hebrew word is EMUNAH. EMUNAH can mean “belief, faith or trust” and is best translated “trusting faithfulness”. When we speak of “faith” in YHWH we are not merely speaking about “belief” but “trusting faithfulness”. If someone were to ask you if you are faithful to your spouse, you would not reply by saying “Yes, I believe my spouse exists.” That is because it is cleanly not an issue of what you believe but in whether you are faithful. Imagine a man who stays out late at night every night committing adultery with various women. Each night he comes home to his wife and tells her how much he loves her, and insists that since he believes in her existence that he therefore is faithful to her. Is this man faithful to his wife? Absolutely not! This understanding is confirmed to us in the Scriptures as follows:

Remove the false way from me,
and graciously grant me your Torah.
I have chosen the way of faith;
I have placed your ordinances before me.
(Psalm 119:29-30)

Now I want to make it clear that we are not saying that one earns ones
salvation by keeping Torah. At times I have been asked “Do I have to keep Torah to be saved?”. I reply by saying “Of course not…. do you have to get cleaned up to take a bath?”

You may ask, “Well if we don’t keep the Torah for salvation, then why do we keep the Torah?” First of all, keeping the Torah SHOWS our faith (Titus 3:5-8; 1Jn. 2:3-7; James 2:14-26). Secondly there are rewards for keeping the Torah (Titus 3:8). The Psalms tell us that it “restores the soul” (Ps. 19:7). Yeshua promises that those who keep the Torah and teach others to do so will be called first in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt. 5:19). Additionally, Jews who keep the Mosaic Torah are given a long list of other promises (Deut. 28).

Now if the Torah is good and everlasting then it stands to reason that it should be observed. Paul tells us that we should not use grace as an excuse to sin (Rom. 6:1-2, 15) and that the only way to know sin is through the Torah (Rom. 7:7). Yeshua tells us that if we love him we will keep his commandments (Jn. 14:15, 21, 23-25; 15:10). The fact that we are saved by faith is all the more reason that we should keep the Torah, as the Scriptures tell us:

..not by works of righteousness which we have done,
but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom
he poured out on us abundantly through Yeshua the Messiah
our Savior, that having been justified by his grace we should
become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a
faithful saying, and I want you to affirm constantly, that
those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain
good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
(Titus 3:5-8)

And by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says, “I know him,” and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in him ought himself to walk just as he

walked. Brothers, I write no new commandment to you,
but an old commandment which you have had from the
beginning. The old commandment is the word which you
heard from the beginning.
(1Jn. 2:3-7)

Funds are running low and we need your help today. Our hot Texas August electric bill ($530) is due, and we do not have it!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or Zelle or Go Fund Me.

Click HERE to donate

Shalom Chaverim,

First of all, I want to let you know how much you all mean to me. Your engorgement keeps me going in this world of darkness. I am so honored to have associated with me, so many truth seekers. I am so honored that so many of you have joined me on my lifetime journey, and especially for those of you who make all of this possible with your gifts of support for this work.

As you know, I am writing out my commentaries on the Scriptures and posting them online. This is an effort on my part to upload this data out of my brain, so that I may leave it behind for you all. I hope to live to a ripe old age, but I am also keenly aware of my mortality, and I have a responsibility to future generations, to leave behind what I have learned for others, so that the information I have gathered over several decades, does not die with me. It may take me the rest of my life to get it all written down, but I will do my best to leave a copy of it behind for you.

Today I put finishing touches on my first draft of my commentary on Isaiah 52 and 53. I have also posted some material on Isaiah chapters 7, 8, 9, 49 and 66. I will continue, over time, to fill in and populate my commentary on Isaiah (and other books).

I have also recently posted commentary on Genesis chapter 1 and Matthew Chapter 1

Have a look by clicking here

The rent was due on the first, and right now we do not have it. We need your support!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

or click here

What do You Mean… “Judaize”?
By
James Scott Trimm

Many Christians have come to use the term “Judaizers” to describe Paul’s oponants in the book of Galatians, who by their interpretation were wrongly teaching Gentiles to keep the Jewish Law.

Sadly many in the Messianic Jewish movement have brought this term into the movement with them as part of their “baggage” left over from Christianity.

I have talked to many in the movement who used this term and when I asked them they were CERTAIN the word “Judaizers” came right out of the Bible. When I have challenged them to find this word in the Bible they eventually come back and admit that this word is not there and are shocked because they were so sure that it was. This illustrates how completely this word and the thought behind it have been infused into people. In fact just recently I heard a speaker at a Messianic event use this word to attack those who would teach things Jewish to Ephraimites.

The truth is that the term “Judaizer” as it is used by Christians today is a HIGHLY anti-semitic term which I personally find offensive. The way in which this term is used today implies that that which is Jewish is bad.
To Christianize is ok, to gentilize is fine, but to Judaize is bad. Why should “Judaizing” be bad? Why should it be thought of as evil to teach Judaism?

The truth is that these persons are not even using the terms “Judaize” and “Judaizer” according to their proper meaning.

The term “Judaize”(ioudaizo) comes from Gal. 2:14 (which we will examine later). Let us examine the ancient usage of the words “Judaize” and “Judaizer”.

The earliest usage of the word “Judaize” is to be found in the Greek LXX translation of the Book of Ester. In Ester 8:17 we are told that in the wake of the Jewish victory and the institution of Purim, many of the people in Persia “became Jews” (yahad) (Strong’s Hebrew# 3054) The Greek translator of the Greek LXX version of Ester 8:17 renders this with the statement that they “were circumcised and Judaized (ioudaizo) (Strong’s Greek# 2450)”.

Josephus writes of the Roman Commander Metilius who was commander of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. Josephus writes that he “saved his life by entreaties and promises to Judaize (ioudaizo) and even to be circumcised”
(Jewish War, 2.17.10).

Elsewhere Josephus tells us that when the Syrians thought they had brought the Jews to ruin, they “had the judaizers (ioudaizontas) in suspicion also”.

In all of these contexts it appears that “to Judaize” means to convert to Judaism and a “Judaizer” is a person who has “Judaized” (i.e. has converted to Judaism).

Now lets look at Gal. 2:14 from the Greek:

“I [Paul] said to Kefa before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a
Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to Judaize
(ioudaizo).”

Where the Greek has “Judaize” the Aramaic of Galatians has “live as the Jews”.

It appears here also that to “Judaize” is to convert to Judaism. Here it is not Kefa that Judaizes but those he teaches. It is important to note that Paul is not accusing Kefa of causing Gentiles to Judaize, but of wrongly acting like an Aramaean rather than a Jew should because he was only associating with Jews and giving Gentiles the cold shoulder. He was judging people racially. Paul was not accusing Kefa of teaching Judaism of of racial prejudice.

Next we see the term “Judaize” used by Ignatious of Antioch (c. 98 C.E.). Ignatious was the founder of the Anti-nomian Christian religion. His clearest statement of his split of what he termed “Christianity” from
Judaism is to be found in his letter to the Magnesians:

Be not deceived with strange doctrines;
nor with old fables which are unprofitable.
For if we still continue to live according to the Jewish Law,
we do confess ourselves not to have received grace…

let us learn to live according to the rules of Christianity,
for whosoever is called by any other name
besides this, he is not of God….

It is absurd to name Jesus Christ, and to Judaize (ioudaizo).
For the Christian religion did not embrace the Jewish.
But the Jewish the Christian…
(Mag. 3:1, 8, 11)

“Judaizers” are not persons who teach Judaism, they are persons who have chosen to convert to Judaism. To “Judaize” is not to teach Judaism, but to convert to Judaism. Ignatious, the founder of the new anti-nomian
Christian religion, was the first to characterize it as wrong to “Judaize”.

The words “Judaize” and “Judaizer” as they are used by most Christians (and sadly even Messianic Jews) today to characterize the teaching of Judaism as evil are highly offensive and should not be used in that manner.

In closing, Judaism is the one true faith that was once and for all time given. Therefore I hope that any of you who are not already Judaizers will eventually make the choice to Judaize.

We are about $50 short in the bank tonight,  and our $530 August electric bill (very hot month in Texas) is due tomorrow. We need your support today!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or Go Fund Me.

Click HERE to donate

Lesson 8 Handouts

The rent was due on the first, and right now we do not have it. We need your support!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

or click here

In a recent blog I told you I was working on a project to restore five fragments of an ancient Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah, from five Latin fragments preserved in quotations in Jerome’s Commentary on Isaiah.

Here is the fourth of the five fragments (On Isaiah 29:20-21) restored to Hebrew with an English translation:

פשרו על הסופרים והפרושים כי עבד התנאים אשר קדם הונה את העם ביד גזרות רע מאוד והם שקדו ביום ובלילה כדי להונות את הפשוטים אשר מחטיאי אדם בדבר אלוהים ומכחישים שמשיח הוא הבן

20 For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner ceases, and all they that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21 That make a man an offender by words, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing of nought.
(Isaiah 29:20-21 HRV)

The interpretation is concerning the Scribes and Pharisees, for the  tanna’im passed away, who earlier deceived the people with very bad decrees (and they watched day and night to deceive the simple ones), who made men sin against the Word of Elohim and that they should deny that Messiah was the Son.

Jerome has transliterated the Greek word δευτερωται into his Latin. In the Commentary to 8:14 a similar Greek word was used which we showed was the equivalent to the Hebrew word Mishna. This related Greek word might be translated “Mishnaists” or “repeaters” however the related Aramaic root is the source for the Talmudic term “tanna’im” which is the clear meaning here. The taanna’im “passed away” with the completion of the Mishna, to be replaced with the next age of Rabbinic sages, known as the Amora’im.

The word for “simple ones” is derived from the word “pashat” and might be understood as “Pashatists”. The Pashat is the plain simple meaning of the text.

Let us look at how this Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah 29:20-21 fits with what both Yeshua as well as the Talmud and Targum says about this portion of Isaiah.

We read in Isaiah:

11 And the vision of all this is become unto you as the words of a writing that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray you. And he says, I cannot, for it is sealed.
12 And the writing is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray you. And he says, I am not learned.
13 And YHWH said: Forasmuch as this people draw near, and with their mouth and with their lips do honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me, is a commandment of men learned by rote,
(Isaiah 29:11-13 HRV)

Yeshua quotes Isaiah 29:13 in a debate he had with a certain group of Pharisees in Matthew 15.  Many who attack Jewish tradition and the Oral Law cite Yeshua’s words in Matthew 15:1-9 (and paralleled in Mark 7:1-13) concerning the “traditions of men.”  These commentators argue that the “traditions of men” which Yeshua speaks of in this passage are either the traditions of the Talmud, Oral Law, or Jewish traditions in general.

But lets examine these verses to see if they can accurately be applied to the Jewish traditions of the Talmud.

1 Then came near to Him scribes and P’rushim from Yerushalayim, saying,
2 Why do your talmidim transgress the decrees of the elders? For they clean not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But He answered them and said: And why do you transgress the commandments of Elohim–by means of your decrees?
4 Is it not written in your Torah from the mouth of Elohim, Honor your father and your mother?(Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16) And moreover written, And he that curses his father and his mother will surely die? (Ex. 21:17; Lev. 20:9)
5 But you say, Whoever says to father and mother, It is all an offering–[KORBAN] whatever of mine might profit you,
6 And he honors not his father and his mother. Thus have you made void the commandments of Elohim, on account of your judgments.
7 You hypocrites! Yesha’yahu did well indeed to prophesy concerning you, saying,
8 This people honors Me with their mouth and with their lips, but have removed their heart far from Me.
9 And their fear of Me, is a commandment learned of men.(Isa. 29:13)
(Matt. 15:1-9 HRV)

Now there are some important things we can immediately clean from these verses:

1. Yeshua is addressing a specific group of Pharisees whom he has encountered here, and not Phariseeism in general.
2. Yeshua is not criticizing “tradition” in general, but only “traditions of men” and specifically only “traditions of men” which conflict with the written Torah.

Now Yeshua gives us a very specific example of one of these “traditions of men,” a tradition that says that a man who makes a vow that his father or mother might not benefit from anything of his, even though this dishonors their mother or father.

Now interestingly exactly this question is dealt with in one of the many debates recorded in the Talmud.  We read in the Mishna Nedarim 9:1:

R. Elieazar says: they open a vow for a man by reference to the honor of his father or mother. and the sages prohibit.
said R. Tzadok: before they open a vow for him by reference to his father or mother let them open his vow by reference to the honor of HaMakom.  
If so there will be no vow.
But the sages concede to R. Elieazar, that in a matter that is between him and his mother or father they loose his vow by reference to his father or mother.”
(m.Nedarim 9:1)

Here the exact same question is here debated.  (It is interesting to note that both Matthew 15 and the Talmud (m.Nedarim 9:1 and b.Nedarim 64a-64b) debate this same issue, but it is only the Talmud which gets criticized.)

The question is which commandment is weightier: the commandment to keep all of your vows (Num. 30:3(2)) or the commandment to honor your mother and father (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16).  What happens when there is a conflict between these two commandments and one must break one to keep the other?

Now for a complete understanding of this section of Talmud (m.Nedarim 9:1 and the Gemara at b.Nedarim 64a-64b) see my video “Talmud For Beginners Lesson One”.

It is sufficient here to show that the sages of the Talmud agreed that the type of vow that Yeshua discusses (one which involves “a matter that is between him and his mother or father”) is loosed (and therefore should not be kept) if it dishonors ones mother on one’s father.

So Yeshua and the Talmud agree with each other against the “traditions of men”.  For anyone to try to identify the “traditions of men” of Matthew 15 (and Mark 7) with the traditions of the Talmud, the Oral Law, or Jewish tradition in general, is either dishonest or very shoddy scholarship.

Yeshua’s point here is that a tradition that conflicts with the written Torah should not be kept, a point with which any Orthodox Rabbi would agree.

The “Traditions of Men” spoken of in Matthew 15 (and Mark 7) are not the Oral Law, the Talmud or Jewish traditions in general.  In this case the Sages of the Talmud stand with Yeshua in opposing “Traditions of Men” that conflict with the written Torah, even in the specific example Yeshua gives in these verses.

So returning to Isaiah 29:13  which reads:

13 And YHWH said: Forasmuch as this people draw near, and with their mouth and with their lips do honor Me, but have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear of Me, is a commandment of men learned by rote,
(Isaiah 29:13 HRV)

Yeshua understands the “commandment of men” not to be tradition or oral law in general, but false traditions which run contrary to the written Torah.  He refers not to halachich rulings, but to bad halachic rulings.

Isaiah continues:

14 Therefore behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder. And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the prudence of their prudent men shall be hid.
(Isaiah 29:14 HRV)

The Talmud relates an understanding of this verse taught by Rab (Abba Arikha (175–247 CE)) who taught:

…for Rab said: The Torah is destined to be forgotten in Israel, because it is said, Then the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful: (Dt. 28:59) now, I do not know what this wonder is, but when it is said, Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder [and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish],(Is. 29:14) it follows that this wonder refers to Torah.
(b.Shabb. 138b)

Rab taught that this portion of Isaiah speaks of an apostasy from the Torah.  The Talmud goes on to comment upon Rab’s teaching:

Our Rabbis taught: When our Masters entered the vineyard at Yabneh, they said, The Torah is destined to be forgotten in Israel, as it is said, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. And it is said, And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. (Amos 8:11f) ‘The word of the Lord’ means halachah,’ ‘the word of the Lord’ means ‘The End’; ‘the word of the Lord’ means prophecy. And what does ‘they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord’ mean? Said they, A woman is destined  to take a loaf of terumah and go about in the synagogues and academies to know whether it is unclean or clean, and none will know whether it is clean or unclean. But that is explicitly stated, All food which may be eaten […shall be unclean]? (Lev. 11:34) Rather to know whether it is a first degree or a second degree [of uncleanness], and none will know. But that too is a Mishnah. For we learnt: If a [dead] creeping thing is found in an oven, the bread within it is a second, because the oven is a first? — They will be in doubt over what R. Adda b. Ahabah asked Raba: Let us regard this oven as though it were filled with uncleanness, and let the bread be a first? He replied, We do not say. Let us regard this oven as though it were filled with uncleanness. For it was taught: You might think that all utensils become unclean in the air space of an earthen vessel: therefore it is stated, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean… all food therein which may be eaten: food and liquids become unclean in the air space of an earthen vessel. It was taught. R. Simeon b. Yohai said: Heaven forfend that the Torah be forgotten in Israel, for it is said, for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed. Then how do I interpret, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it? They will not find a clear halachah or a clear Mishnah in any place.
(b.Shabb. 138b)

So the Rabbis understood the apostasy of Isaiah 29 to be that mentioned in Amos 8:11-12 which reads:

11 Behold, the days come, says the Adonai YHWH, that I will send a famine in the land: not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of YHWH.
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east: they shall run to and fro to seek the word of YHWH, and shall not find it.
(Amos 8:11-12 HRV)

And the Rabbis understood this not to refer to the written Torah but to the halachah derived from the written Torah. And this is exactly the way Yeshua understood Isaiah 29:13-14 as well!

The Talmud goes on to present a related teaching from Rabbi Jose ben Elisha:

It was taught. R. Jose b. Elisha said: If you see a generation overwhelmed by many troubles, go forth and examine the judges of Israel, for all retribution that comes to the world comes only on account of the Judges of Israel, as it is said, Hear this, I pray you ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, etc. (Mic. 3:9-11) They are wicked, but they place their confidence in Him Who decreed, and the world came into existence. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, will bring three punishments upon them answering to the three sins which they cultivate, as it is said, Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. (Mic. 3:12) And the Holy One, blessed be He, will not cause His Divine presence to rest upon Israel until the wicked judges and officers cease out of Israel, for it is said, And I will turn my hand upon thee, and thoroughly purge away thy dross, and will take away all thy tin. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning, etc. (Is. 1:25f)
(Shabbat 139a)

So Rabbi Jose sees this apostasy of Isaiah 29:13-14 likewise as manifesting itself through apostate judges (members of the Sanhedrin) who give apostate rulings (and therefore apostate halacha).

There is much more written in this portion of Talmud on this subject which is worthy of study, but the key point I want to make here is that the sages of the Talmud and Yeshua both understood this portion of Isaiah to refer to an apostasy from true and correct halacha, that the Rabbinic authorities themselves would apostatize from a true and proper understanding of the Torah.

One key difference is that Yeshua saw this apostasy from sound halacha as already taking root by his day.  It was not Pharisaic traditions and oral law in general that he opposed, as his halacha in Matthew 15 concerning oaths (as shown above) agrees with the ruling we find in the Talmud.  However he also saw and criticized bad halacha that certain Pharisees were teaching in his days.  However the Rabbis that re-established the Pharisaic Sanhedrin at Yavneh (90 CE) saw it as yet future (b.Shabbat 138b).  It is also interesting to note that even the Talmud sees an eventual apostasy of Rabbinic Judaism.

Returning to Isaiah, the prophet continues saying:

15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from YHWH, and their works are in the dark. And they say, Who sees us, and who knows us?
16 O your perversity! Shall the potter be esteemed as clay, that the thing made should say of him that made it, He made me not: or the thing framed say of him that framed it, He has no understanding?
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and the L’vanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of a book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
19 The humble also shall increase their joy in YHWH, and the neediest among men shall exult in HaKadesh of Yisra’el.
(Isaiah 29:15-19 HRV)

The Targum of Jonathan ben Uziel has in verse 19:

19 And those that have suffered affliction on account of the Word of YHWH shall increase their joy, and the poor of the sons of men shall rejoice in the Word of the Holy One of Israel.
(Targum Jonathan Isaiah 29:29)

So the Targum sees this apostasy as causing affliction to those who follow the “Word of YHWH” (the Memra) and that its end will mean a rejoicing for those who follow the “Word” (Memra).  .

Isaiah continues:

20 For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner ceases, and all they that watch for iniquity are cut off:
21 That make a man an offender by words, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just with a thing of nought.
(Isaiah 29:20-21 HRV)

To which the ancient Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah says:

The interpretation is concerning the Scribes and Pharisees, for the  tanna’im passed away, who earlier deceived the people with very bad decrees (and they watched day and night to deceive the simple ones), who made men sin against the Word of Elohim and that they should deny that Messiah was the Son.

The Nazarene Commentary on Isaiah fits exactly with, not only what Yeshua says about this chapter of Isaiah, but also with what the Talmud and Targum says about this chapter of Isaiah!

The rent is due tomorrow, and right now we do not have it. We need your support!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I work at a desk less than six feet from her bed. So I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org.

or click here

The Essenes Studied Talmud at Qumran
By
James Scott Trimm

Obviously the Essenes did not study the Talmud as we know it because it had not been written yet.  However they certainly studied their own body of halachic legal findings that parallel the very type of material found in the Talmud, but from an Essene rather than a Pharisee body of legal findings.

The clue is to be found in the “Manual of Discipline” also known as the “Community Rule” document found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. (The copy found dates from 100 to 75 BCE).  In this document we read concerning the “Instructor”:

“He is to do the will of El in all the revelations from time to time and learn (ולמוד) all the wisdom of the findings (הנמצא) of previous times.”
(Col. 9 line 13)

“And he shall teach them all the findings (הנמצא) that they should do in that time.”
(Col. 9 line 20)

(The above is my literal translation from the original Hebrew.)

This word נמצא (nim’tza) is used in the Rabbinic literature to refer to halachic legal findings, especially when used in connection with the root (למד) which is also the root for the word “Talmud” (that which is learned/studied).

This meaning is lost in many translations of the document, however The Dead Sea Scrolls, a New Translation by Wise, Abegg and Cook gets this word correct, paraphrasing it “legal finding(s).”

The following are a couple of uses of the word in the Talmud:

“The finding (נמצא) is that what is valid for slaughtering is invalid for wringing the neck, what is valid for wringing the neck is invalid for slaughtering.”
(m.Hullin 1:4)

“Now, what connection has a murderer with a betrothed maiden? This comes to be learned and the finding is learned  (זה בה ללמד ונמצא למד).  The murderer is compared to a betrothed maiden: just as a betrothed maiden must be saved [from dishonor] at the cost of his [her ravisher’s] life, so [in the case of] a murderer, he [the victim] must be saved at the cost of his [the attacker’s] life.”
(b.Pessahim 25b)

This statement in the “Manual of Discipline” is telling us that the Instructor among the Essenes had the obligation to study the halachic legal findings of times past and to teach these legal findings to the Assembly of the Yahad passing them from generation to generation.  This means the Essenes were very much like Pharisees, but with their own body of halachic legal findings which were generally much stricter than those of the Pharisees.

Better understanding the Essenes in relation to the Pharisees is helpful in better understanding the ancient Nazarenes who had roots in both groups.

August in Texas was scorching hot, and that $530 electric bill is now due in in September. Moreover ou rent is due in less than a week (10/1/24), and right now we are dead broke! We need your support!

I want to thank all of you supporting this work. I literally could not do it without you!

This work takes hours of my time. As many of you know, my wife is very ill, and I spend most of my time at home as her caretaker. I am in a position to dedicate many hours to this important work that I have been directed to do.

But I also realize that it is not the activity of James Trimm alone who is responsible to do this work, it is all of us together who are charged with the responsibility of accomplishing this work. I very much look on the efforts of this restoration work as a cooperative one with each one of you. We are all joint heirs with Messiah and should always be about our Father’s business. I am honored to be able to be partnered with truth seekers as this restoration of Scripture moves forward in fulfillment of prophecy.

Donations can be sent by Paypal to donations@wnae.org or by Zelle or Go Fund Me!

Click HERE to donate