• Mikva for the ladies after service
today at 2:30 at Jimmy and Ruthi’s
• Second group for shooting practice.
• My folks will be here on the 15th
so that Tuesday he’ll be teaching live
at our place, not via the internet but
actually there.
• We will have full time missionaries
in Israel this October!!!
• Larry and Dee Dee will be leaving for
Israel indefinitely in October. They will
be giving us live reports from Israel on
Shabbats via their webcam.
• This week Bob and I will be going to
Leavenworth to scout out a place for us to
start our satellite Synagogue in that area.
Keep us in prayer.
• Leadership meeting this week. If you’re
interested in being part of the leadership
team, please call me for a reservation.
• We’ll basically be going over what is expected
from those in leadership at Beit Aveinu. Only
call if you’re very serious about being on the
Leadership team. It doesn’t guarantee you’ll be
accepted as leadership but if you don’t go, it kinda
guarantees you wont be. If you can’t make it and you
want to we can make another time available
for you.
• If you are accepted onto the team, it doesn’t
guarantee that you’ll be put into service right away.
It’s on an individual basis depending many
various factors. It’s open to both men and women.
There’s many things women can do in leadership
they just can’t be Rabbis.
•We don’t do this very often, about once a year.
So if you don’t feel you’re ready this year, there’s
always next year. We’ll also be setting up a Beit Din
before too long. Beit Din means “House of Judgment”.
It’s basically a Jewish court.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A Beit Din is largely used for the following:
Validation of gittin (bills of divorce)
Biblical Kosher certification
Standards of observance
Conversion
Oversight of a Mikva
Determination of Jewish status
Judgments on disputes
• Concerning judgments of disputes, it’s always
better to handle things in-house if possible.
• These are the people that know and care about you.
• Most times better then some judge who’s never laid
eyes on you.
• Sometimes a secular judge is best but you should
always have an option. My dad will be sitting
on the Beit Din. It is also Biblical…
•1 Cor. 6
•1 How dare one of you with a complaint against
another go to court before pagan judges and not
before God's people? 2 Don't you know that God's
people are going to judge the universe? If you are
going to judge the universe, are you incompetent to
judge these minor matters?
•3 Don't you know that we will judge angels
(messengers), not to mention affairs of everyday life?
4 So if you require judgments about matters of
everyday life, why do you put them in front of men
who have no standing in the Messianic Community? 5
I say, shame on you!
Pretty straight forward.
• Next week “Messianic Pepper
Spray part 2”
• Also come and find out what the
Gospel is.
One Shabbat morning, a mother went in to
wake her son and tell him it was time to get
ready for Synagogue, to which he replied, "I'm
not going."
"Why not?" she asked.
I'll give you two good reasons," he said. "(1),
they don't like me, and (2), I don't like them."
His mother replied, "I'll give you two good
reasons why you SHOULD go to Synagogue:
1… You're 59 years old, and 2
you're the Chief Rabbi!"
“On the morning of the third
day there was thunder and lightning, with a
thick cloud over the mountain, and there was
the sounding of a very loud SHOFAR blast.
Everyone in the camp trembled.”
Please stand for the Shema
and face east towards Jerusalem.
Shema Israel Adoni
Elohaynu Adoni Echad.
Barukh shem k'vod
malkhuto l'olam va'ed.
Hear oh Israel the L-rd
our G-d is one L-rd.
Blessed be the Name of
His glorious kingdom for
ever and ever.
Because Messiah said it was the greatest
Commandment!
Mark 12:28-29
28
And one of the scribes came, and
having heard them reasoning together, and
perceiving that He had answered them well,
asked Him, “Which is the greatest
commandment of all?”
29
And Yeshua answered him, “The
first of all the commandments is, Hear,
O Israel; The Lord our God is One
Lord:”
Please stand for the
Israeli National Anthem!
Kol ‘od balleivav penimah
Nefesh yehudi homiyah
Ul(e)fa’atei mizrach kadimah,
‘Ayin letziyon tzofiyah;
‘Od lo avdah tikvateinu,
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim,
Lihyot‘am chofshi be’artzeinu,
Eretz-tziyon (v)'Y(e)rushalayim.
We’re only going to do three
songs today, we need to have
enough time to finish the DeJudaization of the Galilee
teaching.
O-seh Shalom Beem rue-mawv
Who yah-seh Shalom aw-lay nu
V'al kol Yees-raw-ale
B'-eem rue Eem rue Ah- main
Ya-a-seh sha-lom Ya-a-seh sha-lom
Shalom aw-lay-new V’al kol Yees-raw-ale
Sing twice 2X
May He who makes peace in
His heights make peace upon
us and upon all Israel…Amen.“
Thank you BJ we’ll do two
songs from the videos now.
Kadosh
Adonai Lee
Meet new people! Let them see that
Messianics truly understand community
and brotherly/sisterly love. Say hello to
old friends… show that you care!
•
•
Next week, change in prayer
structure.
We’ll be doing it like they do in
Synagogue. One prayer for the
sick, one for unsaved loved ones
then the governments of Israel
and the US. And other specific
needs.
•
Prayer for Salvation for loved
ones and the Jewish people
• Evi’s, Pam’s, Karin’s, Joann’s and
Amy/Kathy’s family as well as for
Jesse and Steve for Salvation and
healing needs.
• Joann Melcher’s upcoming
surgery.
• Sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim
Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem.
May His Shalom (Yeshua) come
quickly.
• Pray for G-d’s will in the Middle
East.
• Pray for our government and
pray for Obama for G-d to smite
him with true wisdom.
• Pray for Social Security needs.
• Pray for Holland that antisemitic laws will not continue to
pass
• Pastors in Wenatchee to see the
truth of HaShem’s Torah.
• For new Beit Aveinu
Congregation in Leavenworth.
•Teresa’s family for visas.
• Joann’s sister for financial help.
• For victims of crime. Pray the
victims will have courage to stand
up and be heard.
• Prayer over our tithes and
offerings.
• Messianic Evangelistic group in
Vancouver BC
• Pray for continued blessings on
Sandra’s son’s limousine service.
• Pray for Chuck’s family for
health
• Alla, from Russia for her house
matters to be taken care of for
the right people to give her the
right help.
Amy’s cousin for his foot for
healing and recovery and bone
infection.
Wayne’s young friend, Luis for
healing from stroke.
Karin’s daughter for recovery.
Pray for the men of this valley to
take their rightful place in the
L-rd and continued growth in our
Synagogue.
Wilbur for his eyes
Pray for our nation for finances.
Evi’s cousin Jerry for healing for
gout and wisdom for health and
Salvation.
Pam’s friend, Summer for her
new job
Family in Wenatchee house
burned for the family and burn
victims.
Mark for healing and recovery
and Salvation.
Joann’s mom for complete
restoration.
Helicopter down in Afghanistan
soldiers families
END
Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me.
But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?
In tithes and offerings. Malachi 3:8
Blessing Before The Reading
Of The Torah
Aug 13, 2011 Ve'etchanan
("And I besought")
Deuteronomy 3:23-7:11
Isaiah 40:1-26
Acts 3-5
Aug 6, 2011 Devarim ("Words")
Deuteronomy 1:1-3:22
Isaiah 1:1-27
Acts 1-2
We’ll read…
Deut 1 9-18
Isaiah 1:1-9
Acts 1:12-21
Deut 1:9-18
9 "At that time I told you, 'You are too heavy a
burden for me to carry alone. 10 ADONAI your
God has multiplied your numbers, so that there
are as many of you today as there are stars in
the sky. 11 May ADONAI, the God of your
ancestors, increase you yet a thousandfold and
bless you, as he has promised you!
Deut 1:9-18
12 But you are burdensome, bothersome and
quarrelsome! How can I bear it by myself
alone? 13 Pick for yourselves from each of your
tribes men who are wise, understanding and
knowledgeable; and I will make them heads
over you.' 14 "You answered me, 'What you
have said would be a good thing for us to do.'
Deut 1:9-18
15 So I took the heads of your tribes, men wise and
knowledgable, and made them heads over you leaders in charge of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties
and of tens, and officers, tribe by tribe. 16 At that time I
commissioned your judges, 'Hear the cases that arise
between your brothers; and judge fairly between a man
and his brother, and the foreigner who is with him.
Deut 1:9-18
17 You are not to show favoritism when judging, but
give equal attention to the small and to the great. No
matter how a person presents himself, don't be afraid
of him; because the decision is God's. The case that is
too hard for you, bring to me and I will hear it.' 18 I also
gave you orders at that time concerning all the things
you were to do. END (Baruch HaShem)
Isaiah 1: 1-9
1 This is the vision of Yesha'yahu the son of
Amotz, which he saw concerning Y'hudah and
Yerushalayim during the days of 'Uziyahu,
Yotam, Achaz and Y'chizkiyahu, kings of
Y'hudah: 2 "Hear, heaven! Listen, earth! For
ADONAI is speaking. "I raised and brought up
children, but they rebelled against me.
Isaiah 1: 1-9
3 An ox knows its owner and a donkey its
master's stall, but Isra'el does not know, my
people do not reflect. 4 "Oh, sinful nation, a
people weighed down by iniquity, descendants
of evildoers, immoral children! They have
abandoned ADONAI, spurned the Holy One of
Isra'el, turned their backs on him!
Isaiah 1: 1-9
5 "Where should I strike you next, as you
persist in rebelling? The whole head is sick, the
whole heart diseased. 6 From the sole of the
foot to the head there is nothing healthy, only
wounds, bruises and festering sores that
haven't been dressed or bandaged or softened
up with oil.
Isaiah 1: 1-9
7 "Your land is desolate, your cities are burned to the
ground; foreigners devour your land in your presence;
it's as desolate as if overwhelmed by floods. 8 The
daughter of Tziyon is left like a shack in a vineyard, like
a shed in a cucumber field, like a city under siege." 9 If
ADONAI-Tzva'ot had not left us a tiny, tiny remnant, we
would have become like S'dom, we would have
resembled 'Amora. END (Baruch HaShem)
Acts 1:12-21
12 Then they returned the Shabbat-walk distance from
the Mount of Olives to Yerushalayim. 13 After entering
the city, they went to the upstairs room where they
were staying. The names of the emissaries were Kefa,
Ya'akov, Yochanan, Andrew, Philip, T'oma, Bar-Talmai,
Mattityahu, Ya'akov Ben-Halfai, Shim'on "the Zealot,"
and Y'hudah Ben-Ya'akov.
Acts 1:12-21
14 These all devoted themselves singlemindedly to prayer, along with some women,
including Miryam (Yeshua's mother), and his
brothers. 15 During this period, when the
group of believers numbered about 120, Kefa
stood up and addressed his fellow-believers:
Acts 1:12-21
16 "Brothers, the Ruach HaKodesh spoke in
advance through David about Y'hudah, and
these words of the Tanakh had to be fulfilled.
He was guide for those who arrested Yeshua 17 he was one of us and had been assigned a
part in our work."
Acts 1:12-21
18 (With the money Y'hudah received for his
evil deed, he bought a field; and there he fell to
his death. His body swelled up and burst open,
and all his insides spilled out. 19 This became
known to everyone in Yerushalayim, so they
called that field Hakal-D'ma - which in their
language means "Field of Blood").
Acts 1:12-21
20 "Now," said Kefa, "it is written in the book of Psalms,
'Let his estate become desolate, let there be no one to
live in it'; and 'Let someone else take his place as a
supervisor.' 21 Therefore, one of the men who have
been with us continuously throughout the time the
Lord Yeshua traveled around among us, END (Baruch
HaShem)
Baruch atah Adonay Eloheynu melech
ha'olam, asher bachar-banu mikol
ha'amim, venatan-lanu et torah-to.
Baruch atah Adonay, noten hatorah.
Blessed are You, LORD our God, king
of the universe, who chose us from all the
peoples and gave to us His Torah.
Blessed are You, LORD, giver of the Torah.
TURN ON VIDEO
• Today we are going to talk again
about the de-Judaization of Galilee.
• I’m going to get this through if it kills
me.
• We’re going to do a quick review and
then continue the second part.
• To de-Judaize means to take the
Jewishness out of something.
• In this case it’s taking away any
Jewishness that is related to the area
of the Galilee.
• The de-Judaization of the Galil (Galilee)
is the second most anti-Semitic doctrine
in the Church today.
• It’s important to understand this doctrine
because if we take away the Jewishness of the
Galilee we can then take away the Jewishness of
Jesus Himself.
• It’s important to understand the
region of the Galilee in the first
century to both Jews and Christians.
• According to this false doctrine that the
“Jews in Galilee were sparse”, Galilee
was far removed from Jewish cultural
life, as well as from the Torah and the
observance of Biblical Law.
• Judea, they say, “was the only focus of real
Jewish learning.”
• This doctrine at it’s fundamental core pits
Yeshua and the “ignorant Disciples” against
the religious (Jewish) establishment of Judea.
• According to this doctrine, “Only in a Galilee with
a non-Jewish character could incipient
Christianity have found its divine expression”.
• In other words, if Galilee was Jewish, Jesus
couldn’t have come.
• These “scholars” have taken away the Jewishness of
the Galil, turned the people of that area into idiots
and made Jesus the leader of this region of idiots and
a rag tag band of…
• Galilean imbeciles who He made into “Princes
of His Kingdom”.
• Yeshua is made into a pauper (peasant), Peter always
looks like the bumbling buffoon of little faith,
“Doubting Thomas” is branded for eternity as an
incompetent and Mathew the tax collector is his own
brand of traitor and it’s all clinched with…
• “Can anything good come out of
Nazereth???” and “Isn’t this the Jesus from
Nazareth?”
• This is all spliced together to make a
Gentilized Galilee.
• This doctrine leaves the unsaid idea that Jesus
and the Disciples weren’t really all that Jewish in
the first place.
• Christian Scholars claim that “only one sage—
Rabbi Yose ha-Galili—came from Galilee; a few
living in Galilee were Jews, but not religious” .
• This is the major basis for their thesis.
• They contend…”Galilee was a focal point of
Hellenistic cities and centers of Hellenistic
culture, and the Jewish content of Galilee was
extremely sparse.”
• The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,
one of the most widely distributed and
influential Biblical reference works goes so
far as to say that Jews were but a minority
in the Galilee region.
• MOST Bible Dictionaries and Bible Encyclopedias
report a strong Gentile majority in the Galilee.
• By doing so, they have reduced the Jewish
context of Yeshua and many of the Disciples.
• One may say, “Well, I’ve never heard that at my
Church.” I’d bet 90% of you have heard this
doctrine but you simply didn’t recognize it.
• BTW Where else are you going to
hear false doctrine? At Church!
• That’s not a slam at Churches either.
• I can make my case simply by saying, “How many
denominations are there? They can’t all be right
can they.
• The de-Judaization of the Galilee is a clever tactic
of the Enemy to take away yet one more building
block of the Jewishness of the New Testament.
• They might as well come out and say it. Why
mince words?
• If you want to be like Jesus, stay away from the
Jews and their religion.
• Do you see where these roots lead?
• The de-Judaization of the Galilee is the beginning
root of taking away the Jewishness of Jesus.
• If Jesus was born in a Gentile region and if He
was raised in an area which was heavily
influenced by Gentiles and if Jesus went on to
fight against the Jews to establish a Gentile
religion called Christianity, then wasn’t Jesus
already basically a Gentile?
• We then went over who was really building the
middle wall of partition. It’s Gentile Believers who
are NOT secure in their lawlessness.
• It is they who become uncomfortable with our
observance of G-d’s Laws.
• They become un-nerved with our
being Jews.
• So, the de-Judaization of Galilee is the first
domino.
• If they can establish that, they can simply sit back
and watch the rest fall.
• Any serious discussion of the Jewishness of Yeshua
rests on this topic.
• The claim of a “strong Gentile presence in the
Galilee” has been an important component of the
argument that Galilee was thoroughly infused
with Greco-Roman culture an argument largely
based on purported archeological finds.
• Of which there are none.
• That doesn’t stop people like Robert W Funk
and other Biblical scholars from saying things
like this…
• “semi-pagan Galilee whose inhabitants, because
they were often of mixed blood and open to
foreign influence, were despised by the
ethnically pure Judeans to the south.”
• Or “Greek was widely used in semi-pagan
Galilee, in Hellenistic cities like Sepphoris”.
• Greek language huh? Remember…if you’re going
to de-Judaize something, better make sure you
get rid of Hebrew first.
Robert W. Funk
• Birger A. Pearson is an American scholar studying early
Christianity and Gnosticism. He currently holds the
positions of Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at
the University of California, Santa Barbara and Professor
and Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program at
the University of California, Berkeley….
Professor Birger A. Pearson holds a Ph.D. in New Testament
and Christian Origins from Harvard.
Pearson was one of the original translators of the
Nag Hammadi library. He writes…
• “Robert W. Funk projects a non-Jewish Jesus. To put it
metaphorically the Jesus Seminar has performed a
forcible epispasm on the historical Jesus, a surgical
procedure for removing the marks of circumcision.
• Remember these so called “scholars” have taken
their excelled education and they use it solely to
delegitimize the Jewishness of Yeshua, that’s evil!
• Why is it so evil?
• Because if you can take away the Jewishness
of the Galilee even before Jesus is born…
• Then you don’t have to prove anything else
from that point. If you have a virtually pagan
Jesus, then you’ve just made paganism a
good thing.
• That finishes the review.
• Now, I’ve thought of a way to start off this
second part so I can show you the
importance of this.
• We all know the mess the Church (in
general) is in because they’ve taken away
the Jewishness of Jesus and His culture
right?
• I think we’re all on the same page there.
• We understand that is a huge problem and
that there are many misunderstandings due
to the fact that if you take out His
Jewishness you have little left in the Bible to
deal with.
• So we understand the magnitude of that
problem.
• Most Messianics think the root of this
problem is the Christian belief that when
Jesus died on the cross, Judaism was done
away with and a new religion was started
(Christianity).
• What I’m saying is that is NOT the root of
the problem.
• What I’m saying is the root of this problem
goes to before Yeshua was even born.
• This is the root of this sneaky, surreptitious
(secret) , anti-Semitic doctrine that has
gone undetected for years.
• And G-d’s Holy Spirit has revealed it in this
day and age.
• So, if you can take away the Jewishness of
the Galilee area, taking away the Jewishness
of Jesus is easy.
• When dealing with non-Messianics first deal
with Galilee then after that’s established,
deal with Paul’s writings.
• False teacher, Bishop John Shelby Spong
says …
• In any event, if you wish to have some sense of the Jesus of
history, it is to Galilee, not Jerusalem or Bethlehem, that
you will go. Galilee is the province that shaped Jesus of
Nazareth. The story of Jesus is drawn into the Jerusalem
orbit by the power of that city and by the negativity of the
Jewish people toward Galilee in the first century. As the
Bible tells the Jesus story, his Galilean roots and
Christianity's Galilean origins become obvious.
• Did you get his 3 step message?
1. “Galilee shaped Jesus”
2. Jews were against Galilee
3. The roots of Christianity (that of Galilee)
are against the Jews
• Once your eyes are opened to this, you
begin to see the genius of The Enemy’s plan.
1. Take away the Jewishness of the Galil.
2. Take away the Jewishness of Jesus.
3. Take away the need for G-d’s (so called
“Jewish”) Laws.
4. Christians can sin openly via grace.
5. The World (including un-Saved Jews) can
mock all that Christianity is supposed to
stand for.
• I call it Satan’s 5-step
plan for deceiving
everyone!!!
• This deception doesn’t all
start at the cross.
• The root of it all is the deJudaization of the Galilee.
• One of the many key components of the deJudaization of the Galil is to pit Yeshua
against the Jewish establishment in Judea.
• You can NOT pit Yeshua against the Jews OR
the Jewish leadership or they against Him.
• “But what about the whole Jewish
Sanhedrin that condemned him at His trial.
It says so in Matt 26:59 The chief priests
and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for
false evidence against Jesus so that they
could put him to death.
• You gotta watch those Greek words! Whole,
All, Some, Few etc. Not trustworthy in
Greek.
• Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days,
that there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus, that all the world should be
taxed .
• I don’t think the American Indians got that
memo.
• It wasn’t talking about the known world
either because Caesar fought other
countries, didn’t conquer them, and they
didn’t pay him a dime ever!
• We know for a fact that the Sanhedrin
wouldn’t meet during Pasach or any other
holiday, it was forbidden! They also never
met at night and they also had to allow a 24
hour period before rendering a verdict of
death.
• The trial of Yeshua did not encompass the
whole Sanhedrin court, just a small, few
amount of it’s members.
• Which members?
• Only some Sadducees.
• Not one Pharisee was involved.
• You know the whole Sanhedrin included
Pharisees.
• I’ll have you notice, that after Yeshua’s
arrest, in the Greek New Testament there is
no further usage of the word “Pharisee” in
connection with Yeshua in any of the
Gospels.
• In other words, the Pharisees wouldn’t have
nothing to do with it. The Pharisees were in
bed with the Sicarii (Jewish Death Squads)
and it was considered treason to turn over
any Jew to the Roman Authorities. That was
a death sentence! Pharisees were NOT
involved.
• You also gotta remember that none of the
Jews had the power to put anyone to death
at that time.
• Only the Roman government had that
power. I joke around and say “If you wanna
blame someone for the death of Jesus,
blame the Italians”. The truth of it is, why do
you think it was the Roman (Italian) Catholic
Church that persecuted the Jews so much
early on?
• The Crusaders killed thousands upon
thousands of Jews, the Inquisition
(Catholics) killed thousands and thousands
more.
• Reason? If it wasn’t the Jews who were
responsible, who else was involved?
• They felt they had to get a jump on the gun.
• The Italian leaders didn’t want anyone
lookin at them.
• So how do we prove that the Galil was
Jewish?
• There’s various ways to do this.
• First, you have to disprove their idea that
there weren’t any Jewish sages in that area in
the First Century.
• How do we do that? We look at ancient
writings from that time.
• First person to note is Rabbi Johanan ben
Zakkai.
• We’ve talked about him before in the Talmud
101 course.
• He was a primary contributor to the core text
of the Mishna (Oral Codes) and the Rabbi to
Rabbi Eleazer a follower of Yeshua.
• He was a teacher in Arav, Israel. He grew up
there and then lived there for an additional 18
years.
• More then once in various Rabbinical writings
(Shabbat 16:7; 22:3) does it speak of him
teaching in the Galil.
x
x
• Do you remember Rabbi Hanina Ben Dosa?
We’ve also talked about him in Talmud 101
• Do you remember he was a healer who lived
at the time of Yeshua.
• I told you the story of the son of Johanan ben
Zakkai he was very sick, the father solicited the
prayers of Hanina. Hanina readily complied,
and the child recovered.
• The messenger who had asked Hanina to
pray, after Hanina had prayed… the messenger
wrote down the exact time of the prayer and
when he returned he discovered that the boy
had been healed at exactly that hour.
• Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa was from Arav too!
In fact he was one of Rabbi Yochanon Ben
Zakkai’s talmidim in Arav.
• Now, there are some people who don’t have a
problem saying Jesus was Jewish, but they’ll
still try to de-Judaize the Galilee.
• I don’t let them get away with it and neither
should you.
•I’m going to throw a lot of names at you in this
teaching, but if you take one name away from
this, remember Rabbi Yochanon Ben Zakkai.
• He’s known as one of the greatest Rabbis in all
of Judaism.
• Right along with Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Eleazer,
Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai.
• And just remember that Rabbi Zakkai is from
the Galilee and he had many students from
there.
• So, there are many other well known Rabbis
who came from or taught in that area…
• Rabbi Halafta
• Rabbi Hananiah (Hanina) ben Teradyon
• Rabbi Eleazer ben Azariah
• Rabbi Zadok and
• Rabbi Elisha ben Avuyah
• Rabbi Jose ben Kisma
• Rabbi Judah, one of the most frequently
mentioned sages in Tannaitic literature, was
from Usha (Galilee region).
• His Father Rabbi Ilai was also from there…
• Rabbi Ilai used to take walks on the shore of
the Galilee with Rabbi Gamaliel (Paul’s Rabbi)
whenever Gamaliel would visit that area.
• Rabbi Johanan ben Nuri was from the Galil.
• The list goes on and on!
• “Well, why doesn’t someone call out these so
called Scholars and show our Christian brothers
and sisters the truth?”
• Many have tried to teach the Church
concerning false doctrine. It hasn’t worked for
the last 2,000 years.
• People wont listen.
• We can’t even get people to understand that
we should keep G-d’s Holy Laws.
• Try talking to them about Jewish Rabbis.
• Their eyes start to gloss over then they
whisper about how you’re “under the Law.”
• The Scholars know this and not only that,
Orthodox Rabbis know there’s a lot of false
doctrine in the Church too.
• Orthodox Rabbis who have gone through
Yeshiva have read the New Testament many
times.
• They used to teach the New Testament in
High School in Israel as history minus the faith
aspects of it.
• No offense but I had buddies in High School
in Israel that knew the Bible better then most
Christians in the U.S.
• They know it doesn’t match up with what
Christians teach.
• OK, Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus was one of
the sages with numerous ties to Galilee.
Although he came from the South where his
property was located, we find him several times
in Galilee where he had disciples.
• He was suspected of being a Jewish Believer
in Yeshua and was arrested by the authorities
for that offense.
• He remembered that “Once he had been
walking in the public road of Sepphoris (in the
Galil near Nazareth) and began to talk with
Jacob of Kefar Sikhnin, who transmitted to me a
teaching in the name of Yeshua of Nazareth.”
• This incident dates from before the
destruction of the Temple because he speaks as
when tension with the Jewish Believers was not
great and a sage could have stopped to hear a
teaching in the name of Yeshua.
• This was probably Rabbi Eleazer’s point of
Belief. When he became a Believer in Yeshua.
• How would you like to have heard that
conversation between Rabbi Eleazer and Jacob
of Kefar Sikhnin ?
• Jacob of Kefar Sikhnin may have heard the
very words of Yeshua and was probably the son
of Jude, Yeshua’s brother.
• Rabbi Eleazer was one of the greatest Rabbis
of all time and he hears the truth from Yeshua’s
very own nephew and believes.
• Then as a Messianic, Rabbi Eleazer would
surely want to spend more time in the Galil
with other Messianics in that area.
• There’s other ways we know that the Galilee
was largely populated by Jews.
• There were Rabbinic Courts in the Galilee
• The court of Rabbi Hanina ben Teradyon in
Sikhnin, and of Elisha ben Avuyah were both in
the Galil.
• Contrary to what we’re taught in Church,
there were also many praise worthy things said
of the Galileans by both the Judeans and those
of Jerusalem.
• The Jews of Galilee were admired and looked
up to by the Jews of Judea.
• Not despised as the Church teaches.
• In Bible school they taught us that the
Galileans were crude and uneducated.
• Here’s what one commentator writes…
“Not only did the urban sophisticated of Jerusalem
look down upon the Galileans because of their social
status but the Galileans had a history of associating
with the pagan communities along their borders so
their piety was often questioned as well…
We hear this prejudice in the first chapter of the gospel
of John. Jesus calls Philip to be one of his twelve
disciples. Philip rushes over to tell his friend Nathanael
that he and Andrew and Peter had found the new
Messiah in Jesus, to which Nathanael replies, "Can
anything good come out of Nazareth?"
• Very little of that is true!
• Nathaniel was from the Galilee too!
• And notice he said can anything good come
from Nazareth, not Galilee!
• Why’d he even say that? Nathaniel
was from Cana, Cana was a more
well established town. Nazareth was
a new town, not as well known so
there was some rivalry there.
• But to take the leap that the Galilean Jews were
crude and uneducated… that is sinister. Most of them
quote Geza Vermes a Catholic Priest in England in the
early 1900’s on the issue. What does he know?
• The facts are clear, the Jews of the Galil were
educated and refined.
• Some will also point to Isaiah chapter 9:1 to drive it
home that Galilee was Gentile…
• It’s speaking about the birth of the Messiah…
•1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those
who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of
Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he
will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea,
along the Jordan.
• This runs back to the problem of NOT understanding
the Hebrew word “Goyim”! ‫גויים‬
• It can mean Gentiles OR it can mean NATIONS!
• Exodus 19:6
"'But you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy
‫גוי‬
nation (goy)
.' These are the words that you shall
speak to the children of Israel.“
• It’s not saying that Jews are a nation of Gentiles!
Nobody thinks that.
• There’s many examples of this word in Scripture.
• It’s used 558 times in the Tanach (Old Testament) and
only 30 of those times is it referencing specifically
Gentiles.
• In that passage in Isaiah it should’ve been translated
“Galilee of the nations”. Look at the context, it’s
speaking of the Redeemer of the world!
• That’s the thing with Hebrew, it’s all about context.
• We talked about this in Hebrew class last week didn’t
we?
• Every word in Hebrew is about context.
• If you take things out of context, you’re stuck with a
bunch of nonsense.
• Archeologically , there is NO basis for a
Gentile Galilee.
• We have found many houses in Sepphoris
(the town that the so called scholars said didn’t
have a Jewish population) and in these houses
we found Mikvas!
• A mikvah in someones house was a sign of
affluence.
• Only the very wealthy could afford a Mikva in
their home.
• They were wealthy and refined.
• The Jews of the Galil were also very strict in their
observance of Torah and Halacha (Jewish codes) and
that was even noted by the Jews of Jerusalem (Tosefta
3:18).
• Many well known Jews lived in that area.
• In tractate Sukkah it says… It once happened that
Rabbi Eliezer, who resided in Upper Galilee, was asked
thirty laws of the laws of the sukkah.
Where did he reside? In Galilee.
• If you wanted the strict answers, go to
the Galil.
•
• From Rabbinical and other writings
that date to the first century we see a
broad picture of commandments being
observed more scrupulously and strictly
there than in Judea.
There’s more… another way we know of
a flourishing Jewish life in that area is
that Synagogues are to be found in
Nazareth,
Capernaum and in all the cities of
Galilee, even the New Testament attests
to that fact… Mark 1:21 and 6:1; Luke
4:21; John 6:59.
Did you know we’ve found a synagogue
even in Nazereth?
This very synagogue is written of in Luke
4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he
had been brought up : and, as his custom
was, he went into the synagogue on the
sabbath day, and stood up for to read .
• So you can’t blame a lack of knowledge
of Jewish works here. “Pastor doesn’t
know all those Rabbinical references” It’s
in the New Testament! If you got
synagogues, you got Jews! Religious
Jews!
• In Conclusion, DO NOT let the deJudaization of the Galilee slip by.
• If it means “you’re causing division” or
“you’re rebuilding the middle wall of
partition” or that…
• “you think you know so much” You’re
arrogant” don’t let it get by you because
others are listening too and you may be
the only link they have to the truth.
• That doesn’t mean you’re supposed to
submerse yourself among the ignorant…
• Jesus didn’t.
• Let’s stand for the benediction.