Jesus of Bethlehem: Davidic King of the Jews

Copyright © 2019 Allan Russell Juriansz.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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LCCN: 2019942720

ISBN: 978-1-5320-7565-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-7566-7 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 07/25/2019

Contents

Frontispiece

Acknowledgements

Glossary

Preface

Introduction

Part One — Judeo-Christianity

Chapters

1. Judeo-Christianity

2. The Anatomy and Physiology of God

3. Messiah, The Functionality of God Planned in Eternity

4. The Loss of Primitive Redemptive Judaism

5. The Tanak and the B’rit Hadashah

6. The Abrahamic Covenant

7. God’s Plan Outlined in the Tanak

Part Two — The Humanity and Divinity of Jesus5

8. The Carpenter’s Son Proclaims His Divinity

9. The Son of Man

10. Behold the Lamb of God that Taketh Away the Sin of the World

11. The Woman at the Well

12. His Divine Lordship of the Sabbath

13. I and My Father are One

14. I Am that I Am

15. I Am the Good Shepherd

16. The Miracles of Jesus

17. Power to Forgive Sins

18. Gethsemane

19. The Trial

20. Calvary

21. Resurrection and Ascension

22. I Will Come Again

Part Three — Current Status of Judaism and Christianity

23. Concepts of Messiah in Christian Sects

24. The Messiahs of Modern Jewry

Epilogue

Bibliography of Authors

Bibliography of Talmudic and Jewish Paraliterature

Brief Biographical Sketches of Selected Authors

Other Books by Allan Russell Juriansz

1. The Fair Dinkum Jew – The Survival of Israel and the Abrahamic Covenant

2. King David’s Naked Dance – The Dreams, Doctrines, and Dilemmas of the Hebrews

3. The Hebrew Messiah – The Glory and Triumph of Israel

4. Colonial Mixed Blood – A Story of the Burghers of Sri Lanka

5. The Spousal Relationship – To Love and be Loved are the Deepest Human Needs

Dedication

To Our Children Peter, Andrew, John, and Frances Mae,

and

To all Hebrew sons and daughters

Frontispiece

Sacrifice by Abraham

(Rembrandt)

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the editors at iUniverse for their help in completing this book.

I wish to thank the late William T. Hyde, my theology professor at Avondale College in Australia, for awakening a thirst to know who indeed was Jesus Christ. And I thank the late Desmond Ford, my friend of sixty-two years, whose vision of our Lord has inspired me to search for myself the story of redemption. I acknowledge German scholar Peter Schafer, whose research in Ancient Judaism is extraordinary. I also acknowledge Alfred Edersheim, Gershom Scholem, and Daniel Boyarin as great modern Jewish scholars I have read extensively, whose messianic vision is the clearest messianic definition available among modern Hebrew scholars.

As a Judeo-Christian I acknowledge the calling of Israel by God as a Chosen People to make known His will to humanity. The Tanak and the B’rit Hadashah are the legacy they envisioned, and had written down, defining the Creation and Redemption of humanity. I therefore vigorously and enthusiastically support the State of Israel. Its existence and strength is a witness to the Call of Abraham by God to propagate the blessedness of all nations, a task that I expect them to continue to completion. Israel has every right to defend itself from its enemies. God bless Israel.

I use The Jewish Study Bible version of the Tanak exclusively, except on rare occasions when I draw attention to another more succinct translation. I also use the Authorized King James Version of the New Testament, exclusively, again with the rare occasion of another translation to emphasize a particular meaning. The KJV is great English literature in my opinion and reading it is sheer pleasure. I believe the Tanak & B’rit Hadashah are inspired in their delivery to us by Holy men of God who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. But I also emphasize that though they are indeed inspired, they are not inerrant.

Cover Photo Credit:

The Anointing of David by the prophet Samuel

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The Sacrifice by Abraham, the Akeda, is controversial as a symbol of messianic sacrifice. Painted by Rembrandt, it is one of the greatest masterpieces. As treated in my book The Hebrew Messiah – The Glory and Triumph of Israel, it is the embodied attestation to the messianic sacrifice for the cleansing of the multiverse.

Glossary

B’rit Hadashah: New Testament

Devekut: Close communion with God

Din: Justice

Gemara: Writings of Babylonian (Bavli) and Yerushalmi Theology Schools.

Guf: Talmudic concept of a reservoir of ‘souls’ beneath God’s throne waiting to be born on earth. Messiah also said to be hidden in the guf at some unspecified stage, presumably waiting to be incarnated.

Haggadah: Jewish texts that define the order of the Passover Seder which commemorates Israel’s escape from Egyptian slavery. It consists of a set form of benedictions, prayers, midrashic comments, and psalm recitations on the eve of Passover.

Halakah: The entire body of Jewish law affecting Jewish life. It encompasses the Decalogue, Pentateuchal ceremonial laws, oral traditions and rules derived from the Talmud.

Midrash: An ancient commentary (commonly made around the Second Century AD), on part of Hebrew Scripture attached to a Biblical text. Some define it as a response to a contemporary problem making connection between new Jewish realities and the Biblical texts. It often uses proof texting.

Mishnah: Collected Hebrew writings amalgamated by Rabbi Judah the Prince, Circa 200 AD

Parousia: Second Coming of Jesus

Rahamim: Mercy

Sabbath: The seventh day of the week as defined in the Decalogue. It is observed by Jews and some Christians

Talmud: Combined Mishnah and Gemara

Tanak: (or Tanakh) Old Testament, named the Hebrew Bible.

Targumim: (singular Targum): Paraphrases of Scripture

Tikkun: The re-establishment of harmonious condition of the world

Tzedaqah: Obligation to do what is right and just in daily living

Yishuv: The Jewish Nation in the Land of Israel

Preface

One of the greatest thrills of my life occurred when my wife and I were in Jerusalem. We visited the Garden Tomb where we met a vibrant young man, a Messianic Jew, who was our guide. His enthusiasm and sheer joyousness overflowed as he spoke to us of the divine Jesus, Son of David. He had embraced Jesus as his Lord and Messiah. This young Jew’s message titled He is not here for He is risen, in keeping with the sign on the wall, thundered out of the Garden Tomb. He spoke in mighty adoration of Jesus who he is expecting to return soon, to be King David’s successor on the throne of Israel and the whole world. He had discovered his Messiah in the Tanak.

I regard the Tanak as a significant historical document, painted with a theological and cultural brush. It is our mainstay for the history of the Chosen People of God and His plan for the planet. Similarly, I regard the B’rit Hadashah as primarily a historical document, enacting God’s saving plan for the planet. Archeology, rightly interpreted, can enhance both documents. The four Gospels are the basic history of the life and teachings of Jesus, and together with Paul’s writings and the Epistle to the Hebrews, significantly solidify the connection between the Tanak and the B’rit Hadashah. The two documents authenticate Judeo-Christianity. The books of the Psalms, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Gospel of John, and the Revelation, are the prophetic mainstay of our future.

The Scriptures were given to implement our redemption. It does the job. But the Bible is not verbally inerrant. Mistakes in the wording of the existing manuscripts have come about from copies being made from copies, ‘ad infinitum.’ The existing manuscripts are all we have. The originals in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek have all been lost. And even if we had the originals, they would not, in my opinion, be word inerrant.

A. Problems in the New Testament:

Bart D. Ehrman gives a good account of the errors in his textual analysis. It should be remembered that all the thousands of manuscripts gathered are likely peoples’ private copies produced by untutored copyists and/or copyists with ‘an axe to grind.’ A few of the earliest copyists probably remembered other authentic acts of Jesus and therefore felt justified in adding them. I believe this is the case with the story of the woman taken in adultery. The abrupt ending of the Gospel of Mark indicates the remaining part of the original has been lost. However, the four Gospels are the significant account of the life and teachings of Jesus that we have. I consider them of historical value. With regard to the two major problems Ehrman encounters, (the woman taken in adultery in John 7:53-8:12, and the last twelve verses of Mark) Ehrman states:

In both of the examples, we are dealing with additions

that scribes made to the text, additions of sizable length.

Though most of the changes are not of this magnitude,

there are lots of significant changes (and lots more

insignificant ones) in our surviving manuscripts of the

New Testament.

(Misquoting Jesus – The Story Behind Who Changed the

Bible and Why, pp.62-69, by Bart D. Ehrman).

B. Problems in the Old Testament:

The major one is the Pentateuchal addition/revision by the priestly scribes of the many laws composited as the ‘laws of Moses.’ Multiple other textual problems in the Old Testament, discussed by Jewish scholars, are outlined in my book The Spousal Relationship, pp.31-61. Emanuel Tov (J. L. Magnes Professor, Department of Bible, Hebrew University in Jerusalem), Harvey E. Goldberg, G. R. Driver, David Andrew Teeter, Max Weber, and others have written extensively about the vicissitudes of the Old Testament Scriptures. I am indebted to them.

I believe the Bible, though not inerrant, is inspired in its layout of the plan of redemption. The Apostle Peter said it best: Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost (1 Peter 1:21 KJV). And what does inspiration mean? God speaks to the human agent, and the human agent – with an organic brain, coping with all his preconceptions, expresses God’s message in an earthly language. The human agent is a finite human with a fallible mind, expressing the message in an inadequate language. So we cannot conclude inerrancy. Nor is there any indication that the perfect message was perfectly imparted to the brain of a finite being, in an inadequate language, and perfectly understood by that human brain, and perfectly given to the people, who then understood it perfectly. But such is the condition of frail humanity compared with the perfection of God. This realization should not destroy faith. So it is incumbent on us to use our intellect as best as possible to decipher God’s message. What is valuable about Scripture is that it is invested with direction, that God is One, and He is our Creator and Redeemer. And direction is where we are heading now – towards the total fulfillment of His redemption. Faith in God is necessary. That is what Judeo-Christianity is all about. We are imperfect mortal beings as a result of wrong choices, but God redeems us back to perfection and immortality. The Holy Scriptures outline the divinely designed future of the planet. Judeo-Christianity shines from the Scriptures as the superb Messianic religion, which teaches us that God has solved the enigma of the planet and restored perfection and immortality to the human race, by His great love for us. Nothing is more thrilling.

Jews and Christians look to the Tanak to define their Messiah. Therefore Judaism and Christianity can have only one Messiah. It would be incongruous for the two moieties to have separate Messiahs. Because primitive redemptive Christianity finds its Messiah in the Tanak, Christianity must be defined as a Hebrew religion. The vast majority of practicing Christians are ignorant of this. Christian scholars will admit to Hebrew roots by the use of the term ‘Judeo-Christian Heritage.’ But many scholars do not clearly perceive or admit to the deep intricate Tanakian roots which gave birth to and nourish Christianity, and to which roots it must be true.

In a book titled Early Christian Writings – The Apostolic Fathers, the writings of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and of the unknown authors of The Epistle to Diognetus, The Epistle of Barnabas, and The Didache have been published. The translator’s note ‘To A.L.M’ significantly states:

…the first few centuries of the Church’s life produced a great mass of Christian literature. A certain amount of it was apocryphal, or even heretical (which is not surprising, because when people are exploring all the implications of a brand new religion….)

(emphasis added).

I state emphatically that Christianity cannot be defined as a brand new religion. Primitive Christianity is purely Jewish and arises out of the Judaism of Moses. The New Testament was also composed entirely by Jews. To be untainted Christianity must be bound inseparably to the primitive redemptive Judaism of Moses. The Messiah proclaimed by Moses at Sinai, and endorsed by the entire Tanak, binds Christianity solidly to Sinai. To be valid, primitive Judeo-Christianity is one religion, but currently is in a state of catastrophic comminuted fracture.

In his book Jesus the Jew, Geza Vermes refers to Jesus as The Founder of Christianity. As a previous Roman Catholic priest he should know Christianity better. And having returned to his roots in Judaism he should have realized it even more, that Jesus did not found a new religion. Vermes even envisions a Gospel of Jesus the Jew. The four gospels, which became a part of the New Testament were written by Jews. These gospels distinctly portray Jesus within the milieu of primitive redemptive Judaism, the Judaism of Moses. Vermes grudgingly and subtly admits this in his varied writing. Jesus’ mission as the Jewish Messiah was totally immersed in the Judaism of Moses.

Daniel Boyarin spent a whole chapter in his book The Jewish Gospels proving that ‘Jesus Kept Kosher’ (pp. 102—128). He has given a great deal of thought and expression to the fact that Jesus incarnated into the intricacies of primitive redemptive Judaism – the Judaism of Moses, established at Sinai. Jack Miles, Distinguished Professor of English and Religious Studies at the University of California, Irvine, wrote the Foreword to Boyarin’s book, in which he quotes Boyarin’s own words:

Most (if not all) of the ideas and practice of the Jesus

Movement in the first century and the beginning of the

second – and even later – can be safely understood as

part of the ideas and practices that we understand to be

Judaism…. The ideas of Trinity and the incarnation,

or certainly the germs of those ideas, were already

present among Jewish believers, well before Jesus

came on the scene….

(see Foreword, p. xiii, The Jewish Gospels by Daniel Boyarin)

There is no doubt that Boyarin is besotted with the idea that Christianity is indeed a Jewish religion. I am too, and I am utterly convinced that Jesus is the completion of the story of messianic redemption in Judaism. Boyarin goes on to say:

The Messiah Christ existed as a Jewish idea long before

the baby Jesus was born…. That is, the idea of a second

God as viceroy to God the Father is one of the oldest

theological ideas in Israel. Daniel 7 brings into the present

a fragment of what is perhaps the most ancient of religious

visions we can find (Ibid. p.44).

Geza Vermes is utterly opposed to this.

Moses is perforce the authority for Judaism and Christianity, even if we consider them separately. At Sinai God’s giving of the Decalogue and the Temple Service was mediated by Moses. The story of the Creation, the Fall, and the mechanism for redemption instituted at Eden and defined at Sinai, were written down by Moses. There is good evidence that this was his entire contribution. Much of the Pentateuch, which took shape after the Sinai experience, is a complicated and contradictory document, significantly enlarged by the priestly scribes. This final document took shape over the pre-exilic, exilic and post exilic periods of Israel’s history. These priestly scribes presumptively credited their additions to Moses and indirectly to God. There is good evidence that the priestly scribes manufactured the final document named the Pentateuch. Harvey E Goldberg states this clearly in his essay Judaism as a Religious System (see The Cambridge Guide, p. 301; see also my book The Spousal Relationship pp. 7-10, 31-60).

The majority of the paintings of Jesus on the cross clothe Him with a loincloth. In an extensive search I have only found one artist who revealed His nakedness on the cross. The fact is that Jesus was crucified naked. The Tanak regards nakedness as a symbol both of purity and shame. This is fitting for two reasons. Firstly, He came as the second Adam, so in His purity He was naked and perfect. Secondly, as the sin bearer He condescended so low that His nakedness on the cross signified the low estate of fallen imperfect humans. In addition, nakedness signified the shame, pain, and death on the cross. King David understood this shameful condescension so well that he danced naked as he transferred the Tabernacle Temple from Shiloh to Jerusalem. David declared the Messiah to be a worm…the reproach of men, despised…. (Ps. 22:7,8 KJV). Isaiah painted Jesus as despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isa. 53: 3,4 KJV). The writer of the Lamentations of Jeremiah declared: Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow. (Lam.1:12 KJV). All these Tanakian utterances were accepted by the rabbinic sages as messianic (see Pesiqta Rabbati; Qumran Fragment 4Q491c).

The Aramaic Testament of Levi, Qumran Fragment 4Q541 says:

And he will atone (yekhapperr) for all….

In The Jewish Study Bible Benjamin D. Sommers, commenting on Messianic condescension in Isaiah 57:15 says, The highest of all beings desires to dwell among the lowest… the Lord… voluntarily accepting human roles out of love for the people (The Jewish Study Bible, p. 898). This is the description of the Judeo-Christian Messiah. The life Jesus lived on the earth was so pure and open that He laid bare the perfection of His atonement by His daily life, His death, and resurrection.

In this my book I wish to outline the majesty of the divinity and humanity of Jesus, Davidic King of the Jews.

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,

And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him.

(Isa. 11:1-2a KJV)

But a shoot shall grow out of the stump of Jesse,

A twig shall sprout from his stock.

The Spirit of the Lord shall alight upon Him.

(Isa. 11:1-2a The Jewish Study Bible)

Jesus declared: Ye search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life. And they are they that testify of Me. I will discuss the views of many Jewish and Christian scholars about Messianic redemption.

Allan Russell Juriansz

Introduction

Why have I chosen to title this book JESUS OF BETHLEHEM – DAVIDIC KING OF THE JEWS? Of all the characters in both Old & New Testaments, I admire Jesus the most. But after Him I greatly admire several Biblical men and women. David and his Gentile grandmother Ruth head the list. And why David? Because God loved him so much, and patterned His Son into the Davidic monarchy. In a sense, God has titled this book for me. In reading and thinking about Jesus I see His humanity and His