Biblical Essays
RABBI YESHUA
This title will perhaps make some Christians and Jews upset. Yes, Yeshua is the Messiah, our Savior and Redeemer, the Son of God1, equal to the Father, divine and human at the same time. Yeshua is the suffering of Isaiah 53 who bears many other titles and honors but Yeshua is also a Rabbi! We had better get used to this idea because it is honorable to respect the Biblical and historical truth. It is better to know, love, and praise the real Yeshua, the One who lives and rules from the Right Hand of God, the One who is coming back to redeem the faithful, than to live in the fog of ignorance.
The term “Rabbi” really means “my teacher” or in archaic English, “my master.” The moment one admits that Yeshua had “disciples” or “students,” one has actually confessed that He is “Teacher” or “a Rabbi.” In fact, the Gospels show that the common people and even Yeshua’s disciples called Him “Rabbi” most of the time. In the Gospel of John alone, one sees that people called Yeshua “Rabbi” eight different times. There is recorded only one instance in which one of Yeshua’s disciples called Him “the Messiah, Son of the Living God.” In this case from Matthew 16, Yeshua told Peter, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you; you received this from My Father who is in Heaven.” In other words, the major title that is used for Yeshua today (“the Christ” or “the Messiah”) is something received only by revelation.
Here are three examples from the Gospel of John – there are many others: “And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, ‘What do you seek?’ They said to Him, ‘Rabbi, (which translated means Teacher), where are you staying?’” (1:38). “Nathanael answered Him, ‘Rabbi, You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel’” (1:49). “A man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’” (3:2).
The Gospels call Yeshua “Teacher” a total of 25 times. The epistles never refer to Yeshua as either “Rabbi” or “Teacher,” and after Acts 21:16, the word “disciples” is also not used. Why is this? Here is one possible explanation: the image of Yeshua that developed after the resurrection emphasized different aspects of His character. The memory of Yeshua as a Teacher of the Torah and as a rabbi faded as His disciples were dispersed and martyred. The people who knew Yeshua personally and sat under Him as their teacher and rabbi remembered Him and wrote their memories in documents that today we call the “Gospels.” The next generation who did not know Yeshua personally emphasized different aspects of His mission, diminished His role as a rabbi, and stopped using the word “disciples.” “Yeshua’s teaching was the first thing that impressed be about Him as a Jewish child raised in Jerusalem. Today so many of those who claim to follow Yeshua have forgotten this important aspect of His Messianic character. He was a great rabbi who gave the Word of God life and light that still shines brighter than all the rabbis and teachers who have ever touched the human mind and spirit. Yeshua will remain the Master Teacher as long as He has disciples that study and repeat the Good News as God’s eternal truth. We should be proud to be a disciple of Rabbi Yeshua, the Son of the Living God, the Messiah of Israel, and the Word of God Who because flesh and came to dwell among us as a man” (Shulam).
As a rabbi, Yeshua made profound use of one of the most common rabbinical teaching tools, the parable. In the first centuries b.c.e. through c.e., the rabbis taught a great deal using parables in the same way that Yeshua did, as He Himself said it best: “And the disciples came and said to Him, ‘Why do You speak to them in parables?’ He answered and said to them, ‘Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand’” (Matt. 13:20-13).
The Parables were tools for the rabbis that gave them the ability to address difficult religious subjects and political issues without total exposure to their enemies and critics. In fact, this is what Yeshua actually said to His disciples when He told them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
A full comparison between the use of parables by Yeshua and by the rabbis could easily require a book containing thousands of pages. So, in order to give a taste of Rabbi Yeshua in Israel in the 1st Century, let us open some of our Lord’s parables and some rabbinic parables to see how much common ground there was between the rabbis and the teaching of Yeshua. The deeper we go into His parables, the more we come to understand that all of Yeshua’s parables and exegetical methods from beginning to end take Torah teachings and give them a different twist – all of His teachings are very Jewish and rabbinic.
The Narrow Path
Rabbi Judah ben El’ai said: “One who makes the words of Torah primary (iqar, lit. ‘the root’) and other matters secondary will be made primary in the world (to come). (But one who makes) the way of the world primary and the words of Torah secondary will be made secondary in the world (to come).” He composed a parable [mashal]: “To what may this be likened? To a clearing that lies between two paths, the one of flame the other of frost. If one walks along the flame, one will be burned by the flame; and if one walks along the frost one will be stricken by the cold. What is one to do? Let him walk between them and watch out for himself, lest he be burned by the flame or struck by the cold” (Aboth de R. Nathan 28:10).
Similarly, Matthew 7:13 says, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”
Rewards of the Righteous
R. Judah ha-Nasi said, “To what may this be likened? To a king who made a banquet to which he invited guests. He said to them, ‘Go wash yourselves, brush up your clothes, anoint yourselves with oil, wash your garments, and prepare yourselves for the banquet,’ but he fixed no time when they were to come to it. The wise among them walked about by the entrance of the king’s palace saying, ‘Does the king’s palace lack anything?’ The foolish among them paid no regard or attention to the king’s command. They said, ‘We will in due course notice when the king’s banquet is to take place, because can there be a banquet without labor [to prepare it] and company?’ So the plasterer went to his plaster, the potter to his clay, the smith to his charcoal, the washer to his laundry. Suddenly the king ordered, ‘Let them all come to the banquet.’ They hurried the guests so that some came in their splendid attire, and others came in their dirty garments. The king was pleased with the wise ones who had obeyed his command and also because they had shown honor to the king’s palace. He was angry with the fools who had neglected his command and disgraced his palace. The king said, ‘Let those who have prepared themselves for the banquet come and eat of the king’s meat, but those who have not prepared themselves shall not partake of it.’ You might suppose that the latter were simply to depart, but the king continued, ‘No, [they are not to depart], but the former shall recline and eat and drink while these shall remain standing, be punished, and look on and be grieved’” (Ecclesiastes Rabbah 9:8).
Matthew 22-1-4 also contains a parable about a king who gave a great feast: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.’ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murders, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth! For many are called, but few are chosen.’”
What Did You Do?
“Open to me the gates of righteousness (Ps. 118:19). In the world to come a man will be asked: ‘What deed did you do?’ And if he says: ‘I fed the hungry’ [cf. Is. 58:7a], they will say to him: ‘This is the gate of the Lord’ (Ps. 118:20). You who fed the hungry may enter it.’ And if he says: ‘I gave drink to the thirsty,’ they will say to him: “This is the gate of the Lord” (Ps. 118:20). You who gave the thirsty drink may enter it.’ And if he says: ‘I clothed the naked’ (cf. Is. 58:7b], they will say to him: ‘This is the gate of the Lord’ (Ps. 118:20). You who clothed the naked may enter it.’ And thus too will they say to him who raised the fatherless and to those who gave alms or did gracious deeds” (Midrash Tehillim 118:17).
We find a slightly longer version of this parable in Matthew 25:31-46: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. . . . Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me . . .’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me . . .’”
Here we have just read three parables taken from rabbinic writings. Although the Midrashim were all written significantly later than the words of Yeshua and are different in their scope and level of ethics, it is not hard to see that they employ the same “raw-materials” with which Yeshua dealt. These parables were baked in the same oven as the parables that Yeshua used in order to teach His disciples and also the general public about tough subjects during the 1st Century.
Let us take a further look at one of Yeshua’s better known parables. “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater that the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches” (Matt. 13:30-31).
Yeshua also employs the motif of the mustard as a symbol in another parable. “So the Lord said, ‘If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you’” (Luke 17:6).
In the Matthew parable, Yeshua is not speaking of “faith,” and seems to totally ignore the plain botanical truth that the mustard seed is definitely not “least” or the “smallest” of all the seeds. “The mustard plant in our region (Jerusalem) of the world never grows into a ‘tree’ big enough or strong enough for the birds to nest in its branches” (Shulam).
So, the question arises that if the mustard seed in the parable in Matthew does not represent faith, what is He actually talking about? In answering this question, we offer the following assumptions for consideration:
1. Yeshua must have known that the mustard seed is not the smallest of all the seeds;
2. Yeshua must have known that the mustard plant does not grow big enough for birds to make nests in it;
3. Yeshua is saying something important about the Kingdom of God in this parable; and
4. Yeshua is hiding something that He does not want everyone to know when they hear the story because this is His reason for using parables.
Not only do we suggest approaching the parable in Matthew 13 with these presuppositions in mind, but Shulam further points out that we should: “Try to understand it as a 1st Century Israeli Jew would have. The first key to this parable is that the word ‘seed’ is the classic word used to describe the people of Israel in the Bible.”
Here are some examples: “But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend” (Is. 41:8). “In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory” (Is. 45:25). “Thus says the Lord, ‘If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done,’ says the Lord” (Jer. 31:37).
Israel is also known in the Scriptures as the “least of the smallest of all the nations.” Put together with the idiom of the “seed of Israel,” the inclusion of these two ideas together makes it easy to see that this parable is not speaking about a literal “mustard seed” but of the “seed of Israel,” which like a mustard seed, is not sweet. In truth, it can be sharp and unpleasant if eaten alone.
The prophet Ezekiel speaks about Israel’s future and calls her a branch that was broken by the Lord from the top of a high and lofty cedar tree and replanted. This broken branch then grows and bears fruit and becomes a majestic cedar, and birds of every kind come to dwell under its branches. “On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a majestic cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell. And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it” (Ezek. 17:23-24).
Yeshua makes this same point on many different occasions when He says that the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
Yeshua spoke the parable of the mustard seed to Israel and connected it with the Kingdom of Heaven during a time when Israel was under Roman occupation, Jerusalem was in bondage, the priesthood was corrupt, and the nation was losing hope of redemption. Consequently, the parable said to those who would understand it: “You, Israel, are a small and unpleasant nation, sharp, critical, and small, but you have a great future promised to you. In spite of your low estate, the nations of the world will finally come and dwell under your branches.”
Can there be any doubt that the Jews who heard these words of Yeshua understood exactly what He meant? This is a parable of hope for a people who dwell in darkness and cannot see when or how they will ever be delivered from the oppression of Roman occupation. Yeshua is reminding them that there is another Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, which operates according to the promises of God, the source of Israel’s hope, strength, and future.
Let us now consider “the Lump of Leaven” parable in Matthew 13:33: “Another parable He spoke to them: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of dough till it was all leavened.’”
Because of the oppressive political situation, much of the Jewish population in the Land was fomenting rebellion and liberation from the yoke of Rome and the corrupt leadership of Jerusalem and the Temple. Therefore, Yeshua told the people parables about the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God was an alternate Kingdom which the Romans and the corrupt leadership of Jerusalem and the Temple could not touch, conquer, stop, or even find. Yeshua told His followers that the Kingdom of Heaven would spread without people even noticing, seeing, or smelling it. It would be the victory of the small, the few, and the peaceful over the powerful. It would spread peacefully without visible violence, without major and sudden upheaval, like leaven in a lump of dough.
It is very important that we understand Yeshua’s teaching in light of the cultural and historical context in which He lived. In so doing, we too may understand His deeper meaning, as we seek to learn more and more from the Master Teacher, Yeshua our Lord.
The Angel of the Face
The concept of The Angel is the core of the Messianic idea of the New Testament – the heart of Christology. Nevertheless, it is hardly present in the New Testament text, just as it is esoterically manifested in the Hebrew Bible2. Even the term itself never appears in the New Testament. One has to work hard to put the pieces of this idea together and figure out how it relates to the Messiah. Yeshua could have saved us a lot of exegetical work by simply declaring: “I am the ‘Angel of the Face’ that the prophet Isaiah talks about (69:3) and that Moses talks about in Exodus 3:20; 33:14 and who makes several other dramatic appearance in the Biblical text, such as to Jacob (Gen. 32:31), to Gideon (Judg. 6:22), and to Samson’s parents” (Judg. 13:22)3.
All these angelic appearances share two common principles: the “angel” or “messenger” speaks in the first person as if he was God himself and acts as a revelation of God’s “face.” Jesus only relates to this matter indirectly saying, “He who sees me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), leaving us to figure out this radical saying by putting the picture together with the Hebrew Bible text. Once we make this effort, we will be amazed to find the many similarities between the paragraph that contains this statement (along with “I am the way, the truth and the life”), and the paragraph in Exodus 33:14 where Moses asks to know God’s “Ways” and is told about the “face” that will go before Him.
The Cornerstone
Another main issue in the Messianic idea of the New Testament is the Messiah’s identity as the rejected cornerstone of Psalm 118 – the last Biblical text recited by Yeshua and His disciples on the night of His arrest on the Mount of Olives. While this verse (and others) containing the word “stone” as a messianic hint appear only a few times in the New Testament, Yeshua only indirectly relates to the full meaning of this Hebrew Bible symbol in statements that do not mention that stone. In fact, all of Yeshua’s sayings referring to the idea of His unity with the Father are based on the symbol of the stone. Isaiah 28:16 says, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation.”
This particular English translation is not accurate because Isaiah is not talking about a tried or tested stone, but of a testing stone. In other words, this cornerstone, the same one the builders rejected in Psalm 118, is an “object” used by God for testing something – its purpose to test our faith in Him.4
The Son of Joseph
“Messiah Son of Joseph” is the title of a major concept in the later Jewish literature, especially in Hassidic traditions based on Kabbalah. The rare appearance of this Messianic type in the Talmud appears in connection to Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour on the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one is in bitterness for his firstborn.”
The New Testament quotes this verse twice in context of the crucifixion. Talmud sages say that this mourning is for “Messiah Son of Joseph who was killed.” The title “Son of Joseph” reflects the understanding that the Biblical figure of Joseph is an archetype, a foreshadowing of the Messiah5.
The Joseph narrative has many parallels to the Messiah’s life in the gospels. Some of these parallels are: (1) Joseph’s bold declarations of his rule over his brethren, followed by their hatred and rejection of him; (2) Their betrayal and attempt to get rid of him; (3) Joseph going into exile and becoming ruler of the greatest pagan superpower of his time; (4) His brethren following him into exile and not recognizing him until the very end of the story, etc.
However, it is not only the outline or framework of the narrative that fits. Every detail in Joseph’s story matches, including Jacob’s blessing to the tribe of Joseph6, containing a handful of Messianic hints, among them the very important symbols of the Vine and the stone.
Yeshua never teaches directly about the story of Joseph and never teaches His disciples about its relevance to the Messianic idea7. However, Yeshua did not skip such a major issue without leaving at least a hint, which He does in the parable of the vineyard8. The end of this parable says, “Then said the lord of the vineyard, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; it may be they will reverence him when they see him.’ But when the husbandmen saw him, reasoned among themselves, saying: ‘This is the heir, come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours.’ So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him” (Luke 20:13-15).
This is a clear allusion to Genesis 37:18-20, “And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, ‘Behold this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit . . .’”
Since the vine is a common symbol for both Joseph and Yeshua, it makes sense that He planted this hint in a vineyard. In short, Yeshua expects us to pay attention to the hidden presence of Joseph in His parable; to go back to the Hebrew Bible story and learn it well in the light of the Messianic context.
The Song of Songs
“Jewish mystical writings say that out of all the Biblical texts, Solomon’s ‘Song of Songs’ most intensely shows the theme of salvation. This sometimes romantic and even erotic piece of poetry was never taken at face value by the sages. Both ancient Jewish and Christian interpreters identified the “beloved” characters of the book as God the Redeemer and His redeemed people, characterized as bridegroom and bride. While the former identify the bride as “Knesset Israel,” (‘The Assembly of Israel’), the latter identify her as the ecclesia, the church in its wider sense. To the best of my memory, the New Testament does not have a single direct reference to this text which had such a vital influence on Messianic interpretation. However, it does contain some indirect hints to the Song of Songs, suggesting that Yeshua would certainly want us to look carefully into this ‘parable.’ To start with, more than once He describes Himself as the bridegroom, in addition to numerous times that the motif of bridegrooms or weddings appears in His parables and in Revelation, chapters18 and 19. All references to this picture of a wedding/bridegroom are obviously inspired by the symbolic infrastructure of the Song of Songs, but strangely the two direct allusions Yeshua makes to this book are not at all in the context of the wedding or bridegroom parables” (Dr. James E. Priest).
One of these allusions appears in John 14, within what could be described as Yeshua’s farewell speech to His disciples: “In the house of my Father there are many habitations. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am you may be also” (John 14:1-3).
This speech is based on an old custom (still practiced by some societies), where between engagement and wedding, the bridegroom prepares a place in his father’s house for his bride to live. After the wedding, the bridegroom takes his bride to the place he has prepared where they will live happily together. So, in this passage, without explicitly saying it, Yeshua again declares Himself to be the Bridegroom. However, it is more important that He explains the purpose of His “First Coming” – to become engaged to His future wife. His “Second Coming” will be the actual wedding.
Another interesting reference to the Song of Songs is hidden in these verses. When Yeshua talks about the many habitations that are in His Father’s house, we believe He is intentionally hinting at one of the first verses of this book, “The king hath brought me into his chambers” (Song of Songs 1:4).
Another important hint can be detected in Yeshua’s farewell speech from His words, “I am going to prepare a place for you.” This phrase references one of the jobs of the “Angel of the Face” described in Exodus 23:20 – to “Bring thee into the place which I have prepared."
When a group of crying women followed Him on His way to the cross, Yeshua turned and said to them: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children” (Luke 23:28).
Is it possible that some of these ladies were not Jerusalemites but Galileans? If so, why would He addressed them as “Daughters of Jerusalem?” Could it have something to do with Song of Songs? This book instructs them in a way that has much to do with the circumstances in which the Galileans of Yeshua’s day find themselves now: “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor awake love until it pleases” (Song of Songs 8:4).
Conclusion
It was said of King Solomon that he spoke 3,000 parables (1 Kings 5:12). Likewise, it can be said of Yeshua that He spoke thousands of parables, more than we have discussed herein which are contained in God’s Holy Word – even more than those we often recognize as the official literary genre of “parables.”
