JU17-5: The True Origins Of The Religion Of Judaism

Yesterday I made the point that both modern Christianity and Judaism have cherry-picked parts of the Word they preferred and cast aside the rest.

I lambasted Christianity for adopting the false doctrine that the Law has been done away with or “nailed to the cross” as they like to put it.

However, today let’s shift our focus to Judaism. 

The first thing you need to know is that you’ll find absolutely ZERO mention of the Synagogue in the Tanakh or the “Old” Testament.

The synagogue was and is a purely manmade institution that was created by exiled Jews in response to their being hauled off to Babylon in the early 6th century B.C.

When that happened the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, the priesthood connected to the temple was destroyed and the Jews found themselves prisoners in a gentile world surrounded by pagan customs and their religious beliefs.

Imagine their predicament.

They had no way of ritually cleansing themselves…

They couldn’t eat any Kosher food…

They had been rendered totally incapable of properly observing the rituals of the Torah for Shabbat or its ordained festivals.

So what to do?

First, primarily for the purpose of separating themselves from the Babylonian gentiles they began meeting together for fellowship.

Then, over time, they acquired buildings, appointed leaders and teachers, and eventually developed what turned out to be quite a complex and comprehensive system of teachings and traditions that addressed their plight of how to live while stuck in a gentile world.

None of this was God-ordained.

But it was a practical solution to a sticky situation.

And it did serve the useful purpose of maintaining a common identity among the scattered Jewish communities.

Unlike the 10 “lost” tribes who were scattered all over the Assyrian landscape, they were able to avoid assimilation into the gentile world.

So this was how the Synagogue and Judaism were born.

Now let’s discuss the so-called Oral Law or as I like to call it the Oral “Tradition”.

In a nutshell, the Oral Torah are the interpretations of the Law of Moses

And I emphasize the word “interpretations”.

Consider them to be like the doctrines in Christianity.

Judaism uses the term “traditions”.

Christianity uses the term “doctrines”.

But they’re different words describing the same thing.

Among the over 20,000 Christian denominations in existence, each one of them has decided to interpret the Scriptures in their own way.

Then when these interpretations are made official by so-called Church authorities, they’re turned into doctrines that shouldn’t be questioned or else.

Probably the most common doctrine is the Trinity idea which I’m pretty sure you’re all familiar with.

One of the more aberrational doctrines out there is the idea of Transubstantiation adopted by the Catholic Church.

This doctrine says that during communion the wine literally, not symbolically or metaphorically, becomes blood.

And that the bread somehow literally turns into human flesh.

I’m serious.

Catholics really believe if you were to perform a chemical analysis of the wine they drink during communion, they’ll tell you you’ll find out its blood.

Another famous doctrine I’m sure you’re well familiar with is the idea of eternal security.

This doctrine was made official by the Southern Baptists and it states that after you’re saved, there is nothing you can do nor is there any circumstance that could cause you to lose your salvation.

Again I stress these are INTERPRETATIONS…

Certain scripture verses are cherry-picked and then passed through the subjective filter of men before they are “officialized” as doctrines.

However, if you were to tell a Southern Baptist or Catholic that their doctrines are just their own denomination’s interpretations, they would disagree with you.

They would say “No way homie. That’s what the Scripture plainly says”.

From their perspective, they are teaching the Bible when they teach their doctrines.

The same goes for the Trinitarian by the way.

They insist their doctrine clearly expresses what Scripture really says.

Now understand the same thing goes for how religious Jews feel about their Oral Law.

They believe that every interpretation of the Torah given by an established Jewish authority is just as divine as if it was given on Mount Sinai.

But let me be clear here.

Oral teachings are NOT believed to be received in the sense that Moses himself wrote down those interpretations.

Rather, the interpretations are somehow supernaturally embedded in the letters of the Torah themselves and were later discovered by the Jewish sages.

Think of how the fruit of a tree is originally contained in hidden form in its seed before it sprouts branches containing fruit.

That’s the Jewish mindset on the matter.

If the written Torah of Moses is the Tree, then the Oral Torah is its fruit…

Because it comes from the same tree…

In other words, they’re of the same substance…

That’s how the argument goes anyhow.

Again, I have to stress all of this came about because of the Babylonian conquest.

This resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple and any functioning Priesthood.

In other words, the pure religion based on the Torah of Moses was REPLACED with something else.

And that something else was a mixture of Torah and newly formed traditions (like wearing a Kippah for example).

Plus keep in mind that this new hybrid religion only applied to the Tribe of Judah.

Because the other 10 tribes represented by Ephraim were swallowed up by the gentile world.

Remember, around 700 years before Yeshua’s birth, 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel were exiled to foreign lands for disobedience.

What remained of the Hebrews in the Holy land was the tribe of Judah and remnants of the tribe of Benjamin.

However, Benjamin was quickly swallowed up by the Tribe of Judah.

Therefore, it was essentially the Tribe of Judah and its assimilated Benjamites who were exiled to Babylon.

Where do you think the term Judaism came from anyway?

Maybe if I spell it out as follows, it will become clearer to you:

JUDAH-ISM.

That’s right homies.

Judaism is the religion of the tribe of Judah whose roots began when this tribe was exiled to Babylon as I just explained.

And that’s why a majority of the inhabitants in Israel today are called “Jews”….

Again, because they originate from the tribe of Judah.

When we fast forward from Babylon to the time of Yeshua, we encounter two main religious factions competing against each other.

We have the Temple and the Priesthood (yes, the Temple and the Priesthood had been restored by this time and had been operating for centuries) represented by the Sadducees.

And then we have the leaders of the Synagogue (originated in Babylon as I just explained) represented by the Pharisees.

These Pharisees had set up their own religious schools of which one of the most famous was Gamaliel.

You’ve heard of that school, haven’t you?

That’s where the Apostle Paul was trained.

Now here’s the thing and this is critical to understand.

The synagogue had ZERO connection to the Priesthood and the Temple.

That’s right.

Let me say that it again so it sticks.

The Synagogue represented by the Pharisees stood in direct opposition to the Temple and the Priesthood run by the Sadducees.

That’s why the Sadducees did NOT accept the Oral Law or the “Traditions of the Elders” as Yeshua put it.

Of course and this should come as no surprise, the Sadducees ONLY accepted the written and original Torah of Moses and the Prophets as their Scriptural authority.

So trust me you’re not alone if you don’t accept the so-called “Oral Torah” as being some divine revelation originating directly from the hand of Moses.

The Sadducees were against the religion of the Tribe of Judah which originated in Babylon.

They were NOT against the Torah of Moses.

Are you grasping all of this?

So here’s the takeaway from all of this.

In the orthodox religion of the Tribe of Judah that originated in Babylon that today is known as Judah-ism (yeah, I know that’s a mouthful), the Rabbis are seen as the ultimate religious authority and are not to be questioned.

In fact, in Judaism, the Rabbis are seen as even having the right to to change, add, or subtract from the Law as they see fit.

Whoah!

This is my personal opinion but I think that’s dangerous.

My only response is to quote the original WRITTEN Torah of Moses that every religious denomination in the world accepts as having been handed down at Sinai.

Here goes:

“Now, Israel,
listen to the laws and rulings
I am teaching you,
in order to follow them,
so that you will live;
then you will go in and
take possession of the land
that ADONAI, the God of your fathers,
is giving you.
In order to obey the mitzvot
of ADONAI your God
which I am giving you,
do not add to what I am saying,
and do not subtract from it.”
-Deuteronomy 4:1-2

BOTH Christianity and Judaism have regularly added and subtracted from the original pure and WRITTEN commands of the Torah and the results have been utterly disastrous.

Done.