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Wednesday Study

"The Jewish Calendar"

The Jewish calendar is a type of lunisolar calendar, which is a lunar calendar with a solar adjustment. A lunar cycle—based on the synodic month, or complete cycle of phases of the moon as seen from the earth—is about 29.5 days, and that is calculated so the full moon always lands on the 15th of each month. To compensate for that extra half day, the different Hebrew months alternate between 29 and 30 days.

If you do the math, 12 lunar months only add up to 354 days, which is about 11 days less than a solar year (365.25 days). Without some type of adjustment, the holidays would be 11 days earlier every year. They would travel around the calendar and come back to the same spot only once every 33 years. Yet that doesn’t happen because the Torah (Deu 16:1) mandates that Passover has to be celebrated in the spring (similar to the original Passover as chronicled in the book of Exodus). In order for that to work out, a system was eventually adopted that adds seven leap months over the course of a 19-year cycle, which works out to about once every three years.

It is frequently assumed that the sun and the moon were created in order to shine their light on Earth. While this may be a secondary purpose of these celestial bodies and obviously essential for life on earth, Genesis describes their purpose as “signs” that serve to “to mark seasons and days and years” 1:14). In other words, to facilitate the celebration of the Sabbath and the “Feasts of the LORD.” In this study, we will talk about how these things work.

Thursday Night Study

"The Gospels" - As Jewish Literature

Contrary to what many believe, the word gospel ("good news") does not first appear in the Apostolic Writings. The idea of a gospel comes from the Hebrew Bible. When it is used in the Apostolic Writings, it refers to the good news that God, through the Messiah, has fulfilled his promises to Israel and that a way of salvation has been opened to all. Therefore, the gospel is not the foundation of a "new" faith - a "new" work that God is doing among the Gentiles - it is about the way God fulfills His promises to His people Israel. The "Gospels" that make up the first four books of the Apostolic Writings are a record of that process and how it works.

But make no mistake - this record is not the preliminary foundation-setting for a new faith - Christianity. Yeshua and his disciples ministered within a cultural milieu that was shaped almost entirely by an established and respected Jewish religious tradition. Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah. His disciples were Jewish. Their worldview was Jewish. They spoke Hebrew. They practiced Judaism. Writing in the middle of the second-century CE, Irenaeus (one of the early Church Fathers) observed; "They (the Jewish believers) practice circumcision, persevere in the observance of those customs which are enjoined by the Law, and are so Judaic in their style of life, that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the house of God" - over 100 years after Yeshua's earthly ministry was complete.

Christianity came about (or developed) as the result of the teaching of the early Church Fathers - it is not based on the teaching of Yeshua or the writing of his disciples. The Gospels must be appreciated as Jewish Literature - not Christian Literature. At the very least, if one is concerned with what the original authors actually said/wrote to their original audiences.

This study will explore the Gospels as Jewish Literature and come to understand it within the context of first-century Judaism.