“When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly. The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the elders were present. Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.” (Acts 15) Acts 21:17-25
The Apostle Paul’s arrival in Rome is without question, yet this makes him out to be a subversive founder of a new religion. Perhaps he made it to Spain as some traditions believe, a place where Sepharidim perhaps emerged from the Romaniote Minhag (Jewish Culture). Rashi says the Apostles: “who purposely infected their culture in order to sway the Notzri faith away from Judaism (into Messianic Noahides) ; they themselves were not heretics and did so for the benefit of the Jewish people.” Paul’s impact in the Western Empire perhaps over-shadows his acceptance in Judea after the controversy and vindication of the mission he launched as being from the school of Hillel and Gamaliel. He went on to where he was most needed Rome, and not just to defend himself, but use those Romans roads from those he encountered under his lengthy house arrest near the area of where St. Paul’s Basilica stands today. Our Lord’s strategy, through Paul the Doulos (bond servant) to reach the ‘ends of the earth.’
So it seems appropriate at this point to mention even more sources from Orthodox Judaism which are relevant to The Way of the Messianic Hebrews. As originating among the Chazal (Jewish sages) from the Shimon ben Shetach Yeshiva following the majoity opinon of both Talmuds and the Teliya of Yochanan ben Zakkai (c.20-c.100) from whom it is claimed, the New Testament books were affirmed within his school of Pharisees at Yavneh (after the fall of Jerusalem) and then sent for the salvation of the nations, among them were Paul’s letters that made there way around and read throughout the empire. His major proclamation Jesus Christ is Lord!
Moreover, that Jesus of Nazareth is Yeshua Sar HaPanim and as the Apostle Paul calls Him continually; as Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. This is notable for Paul’s proximity to the historical Jesus from Nazareth, as the Apostle does not elaborate on his earthly ministry but His exaltation as revelational significance. Something much more cosmic is transpiring in Paul’s mind.
Such exaltation provides his apocalypticism and it’s scope, including the eschatology of death, as it results through Jesus’s cross and resurrection and must stand as a fact of its unity within Judaism. Paul put together Jesus as the slain lamb (1 Corithians 5:7) with the 2nd day of the Passover feast as it was always for the other nations or pilgrims as from the beginning of the revelation at Mout Sinai. The nation’s get the best part ‘as none of his bones were broken.’ Thus, Roman’s 9-11 is basically telling Gentiles to not ‘become full of themselves.’ They are just branches not the ‘Cultivated Olive Tree’ that Paul transmits.
Further along into the 2nd century, we should also consider the Christology of Aqiba (c.50-c.135), significant for his later rejection of the ‘failed so-called messiah Bar Kohkba for the Sar HaPanim (the Prince of the Presence), yet Aqiba affirmed the spiritual lineage presented here and at the end of his life rejected the force of resistance. He is the watershed thinker and authority of Judaism and its rabbinical direction.
Rabbi Aquiba’s student, Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai is also significant in carrying on the teaching, for he said “There is a perfect man, who is an messenger, this messenger is Metatron, the keeper of Israel; he is a man in the image of the Holy One, blessed be He, who is an emanation from Him; yea, He is HaShem; of him cannot be said, He is created, formed or made; but he is the emanation from G-d. This agrees with what was written in Jeremiah 23:5-6 of the sprout from David, that though he shall be a perfect man, yet he is ‘the Lord our Righteousness’ “ in Propositions of the Zohar chap 38, Amsterdam Edition.
We should also consider the Piyyutim of Eleazer ben Kalir (570 – c. 640) and his writings which mention Sar HaPanim and the preexistence of our righteous Messiah. He continues the long succession into the Middle Ages for the tradition of Jesus divinity and His role in Christianity and remnants in early Islamic thought.
So, the Scribes and Pharisees who made comments relevant to Messianic Noahides was what Paul was actually establishing beyond bringing the lost sheep back and fighting Sadduccean and Shammaite Pharisee opposition that aligned and against his mission.
Therefore, Acts 21-26 and its narrative of understanding within ‘Pharisee thought’ carried on down through the last two millennia and forms a shellshelit (spiritual geneology) of rabbis who saw the unique Jewish mission to the nations of Jesus from Nazareth while affirming the righteous Yeshua SarHapanim found in Machzorim (prayer books) who represents the theophanies of the Tanakh (OT).
Finally, the attack on Rabinical Judaism is not the majority report for minority opinion existed and were persecuted. This can be corraborated by the Trail of Blood.
The Pirqoi ben Baboi (8th–9thC.).
Rabbeinu Bahiya (1050–1120)
Rashi (1040 – 13 July 1105)
the Tosafists
{like Simhah ben Samuel of Vitry (d. 1105)
Rabbeinu Tam (1100 – 9 June 1171)
Yechiel of Paris (died c. 1268)
Moses ben Jacob of Coucy (fl.1240s)
Judah of Melun (fl.1240s)
Samuel ben Solomon of Falaise (fl.1240s)
the Hassidei Ashkenaz
{such as Judah ben Samuel of Regensburg (1150 – 1217)
and other Rishonim
{like Nachmanides (1194 –1270)
the Meiri (1249 –1316)
Rabbeinu Yerucham (1290 –1350)
and Ibn Shaprut (born c.1350)
the Litvak Perushim
{like the Rema (1530 —1572);
Elijah Baal Shem of Chelm (1520 – 1583)
Moses Rivkis (17thC.) who said: “the gentiles in whose shadow Jews live and among whom Jews are disbursed are not idolaters. Rather they believe in creatio ex nihilo and the Exodus from Egypt and the main principles of faith. Their intention is to the Creator of Heaven and Earth and we are obligated to pray for their welfare.”
Jacob Emden (1697 – 1776)
Moses David Valle (d.1777)
Baruch Fränkel-Teomim (1760 –1828)
Nachman MeUman (1772 —1810)
Elijah Tsvi Soloveitchik (1805 – 1881)
Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808 – 1888) who said “although disparaged because of its alleged particularism, Judaism….has been at pains to stress that, while in other respects their views and ways of life may differ from those of Judaism, the peoples in whose midst the Jews are now living [i.e. Christians] have accepted the Jewish Bible of the Old Testament as a book of Divine revelation. They profess their belief in the God of heaven and earth as proclaimed in the Bible and they acknowledge the sovereignty of Divine Providence in both this life and the next. Israel produced an offshoot [i.e., Christianity] that had to become estranged from it in great measure, in order to bring to the world—sunk in idol worship, violence, immorality and the degradation of man—at least the tidings of the One Alone, of the brotherhood of all men, and of man’s superiority over the beast. It was to teach the renunciation of the worship of wealth and pleasures, albeit it not their use in the service of the One Alone. Together with a later offshoot [Islam] it represented a major step in bringing the world closer to the goal of all history.”
Moses David Valle (d.1777)
Baruch Fränkel-Teomim (1760 –1828)
Nachman MeUman (1772 —1810)
Elijah Tsvi Soloveitchik (1805 – 1881)
Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808 – 1888) who said “although disparaged because of its alleged particularism, Judaism….has been at pains to stress that, while in other respects their views and ways of life may differ from those of Judaism, the peoples in whose midst the Jews are now living [i.e. Christians] have accepted the Jewish Bible of the Old Testament as a book of Divine revelation. They profess their belief in the God of heaven and earth as proclaimed in the Bible and they acknowledge the sovereignty of Divine Providence in both this life and the next. Israel produced an offshoot [i.e., Christianity] that had to become estranged from it in great measure, in order to bring to the world—sunk in idol worship, violence, immorality and the degradation of man—at least the tidings of the One Alone, of the brotherhood of all men, and of man’s superiority over the beast. It was to teach the renunciation of the worship of wealth and pleasures, albeit it not their use in the service of the One Alone. Together with a later offshoot [Islam] it represented a major step in bringing the world closer to the goal of all history.”
Isaac Lichtenstein (1824 —1908)
Chaim Yedidiah Pollak (1854 —1916)
Judah David Eisenstein (1854 —1956)
Pinchas Lapide (1922 – 1997)
Harvey Oscar Falk (1932 – 2006)
Chaim Yedidiah Pollak (1854 —1916)
Judah David Eisenstein (1854 —1956)
Pinchas Lapide (1922 – 1997)
Harvey Oscar Falk (1932 – 2006)
The Rabbonim of the CJCUC; and this project has also been supported by Rav Dov Meir Stein (d.2020) of blessed memory and other members of his Nascent Sanhedrin Project currently under Nasi Meir Hakak HaLevi a Chardali with the Mizrachi and Sepharidim who have little understanding of Yeshua Sar Haphanim and are under the spell of the Zionists.
👉 YouTube Playlist The Origins of the New Testament
