Yet James the Just was certainly a circumcised professing Jew. I think Paul confessed many times to being a Christian, but never denied being a Jew and was proud of have been a student of Gamaliel, the leader of the Pharisees. In fact Gamaliel, leader of the Pharisaic faction of the Sanhedrin saved Paul from condemnation by the high priest's faction. The fact that Paul was brought before the Sanhedrin (and did not at that time appeal to Rome) is clear enough evidence that everyone, including him, believed he was a circumcised Jew. (The Sanhedrin only had jurisdiction over the Jews in Judea and examination of the penis was the way the Romans determined if one was a Jew).
I think Jesus, even in his most agitated and disassociated state, never denied being an observant, Temple-going Jew. You will recall that the circumcision of Jesus (January 1) is a holy Christian day.
The inability of some self-professed Christians to admit that the leaders of early Christianity were all professing Jews (although clearly not of the high priestly or Sadducean factions) is extreme hypocrisy. Today, of course, Christianity is best characterized as a completely separated Jewish heresy, subverted by Greek and Roman dominance, after so many Jewish Christians were destroyed in C.E. 70.
I have no interest in shaking your faith in Jesus. I think your faith might be better grounded if you would not deny the historical truth (such as it is) inbedded in the Bible (loaded as it is with contradictions). If there is anything that cannot be denied, it is that Christians were almost to a person circumcised Jews, until Paul and Peter decided to franchise it internationally and found that circumcision would not be accepted by Greeks. The reason, of course, was that most Jews (who were in the best position to observe) saw that Christianity was not for them and many of them died fighting the Romans.
How to define a Jew? If one lives in a Jewish influenced community and is circumcized, then he will be counted as a Jew. Tell me, are you circumcized? In the flesh? In your heart?
Peace. |
