The Jewish Background of the Scriptures

by John B. Metzger

This is an article on the Jewish background of the Scriptures. Is this an important component that we need to interact with in our personal study and teaching of the Scriptures? The answer is yes, and here are some important points to understand:

• First point is that God is the author of Scripture; it is not a man-made document.
• Second the Bible was written by Jewish men over the span of 1500 years.
• Third the Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 12 is a Jewish covenant. The ramifications of this covenant echoes off of every page of Scripture.
• Fourth Israel is at the hub of everything that God in doing as He reveals Himself to the Jewish people as well as to all the peoples of the earth.
• Fifth the promise of the Seed, the redeemer of mankind is focused on a Jewish Messiah.
• Sixth the history that is intricately inter-twain throughout the Bible is Jewish history.
• Seventh the Bible is written from a Jewish cultural perspective.
• Eighth the central focus of the whole Bible is wrapped up in one person, Jesus Christ who is Jewish.

Did you notice a common word in these points; yes the word Jewish. Now let me lay out several things that the Bible in not!

• It is not written by Gentile believers from Europe, or America.
• It is not written from a Gentile background.
• It is not written from a western thought pattern, but a Jewish thought pattern.
• It is not God setting aside plan A – Israel, to go with an alternate plan B – Church.

What the Church has done historically to the Bible is removed the Jewish background and replaced it with a Gentile perspective. The church has made itself the focus rather than understanding the Scriptures with the themes and emphasis’s that God expresses as the author. Here are a couple of problems:

• The Church became anti-Jewish and began to interpret the Scriptures by removing the Jewish context from the Bible – they have gentilized the Bible.
• It has divided it into two dominate sections, one is the primary document, the New Testament, and one is of lesser value, the Old Testament. However, that is not what church doctrine says, but that is what it practices.

What does all this mean? Let me explain some of these points so that all can understand what I am desires to express to you. Because of the actions of the church to cover up the Jewishness of Scripture we have been the losers in understanding the depths of the riches of His grace that He has desired us to know. The following paragraphs hopefully will wet our spiritual appetites.

Abrahamic Covenant: In Genesis 12:3 God makes three promises to Abraham and his descendants, the promise of the Land, Seed and blessing. These three aspects of the covenant God will later develop into three other eternal covenants. God takes that land aspect of the covenant and develops it into the Land Covenant of Deuteronomy 29-30. He takes the seed aspect of the covenant and develops it into the Davidic Covenant in 2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17. Lastly God takes the blessing aspect of the covenant and develops it into the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31. These four covenants must be understood or we will misinterpret much of what God is doing through Abraham. This is foundational in helping us grasp what Moses and the prophets said and their inter-relationship throughout Scripture as God unveils in progressive revelation His plan. These four covenants all come together in one people, the Jewish Messiah, and our saviour Jesus Christ.

Israel: Through the covenants to Israel and the promises of a Jewish Saviour, God was, is now and will in the future work through the Jewish people as His instrument to bless the world.

Our Jewish Bible! The Old Testament [Hebrew Scriptures] are all written by Jewish authors containing Jewish history, culture and customs. Next we come to the Gospels all written by Jewish authors giving the life and ministry of Jesus while the Law was still in effect. The Church or the age of Grace did not begin until Acts 2. The remaining books of Acts and the Epistle also have large sections that have a strong Jewish context. Actually the Old Testament has laid the foundation that Luke, Paul, James, John and Peter build off of to teach the great doctrinal truths that we in the Body of Christ hold too. I wish space was to available to demonstrate this truth. The point that I want to make is that the Bible is a Jewish book, written by Jewish authors in a Jewish context, why does the church teach it as a Greek western book ignoring all the Jewish content. We should be studying the Bible in light of the Jewish context that God wrote it in and not Gentilize it.

Seed, King and Prophet: As the Seed theme is developed by Moses which will be confirmed by the Davidic Covenant God systematically presents His Son to mankind, a Jewish Saviour. The theme of the Seed is introduced in Genesis 3:15 then revealed more to Abraham. Later as Moses recorded the life of Jacob he introduces the King aspect of the seed in Genesis 49:9-10 and later connects it with Numbers 24:9, 17. Moses continues to develop the Seed theme, to the King, then in Deuteronomy 18:15-19 he presents the Prophet like Moses. Following Moses the prophets including David literally exploded with passages that relate to the Seed, the King, the Prophet who will be the Messiah, a Jewish Messiah, a Jewish Saviour, our Lord.

Feasts of Israel: In Leviticus 23 Moses gives a descriptive list of the feasts. What becomes so interesting is that these agricultural feasts are and will be fulfilled by the life and ministry of Jesus in the New Testament. The first four feasts called the spring feasts were all fulfilled on the day of these Jewish feasts! To illustrate, Christ [Messiah] died on Passover when He became the Passover Lamb. Then we have the last three feasts called the fall feasts which are yet to be fulfilled. Interestingly the last feast is the Feast of Tabernacles which has always been recognized as the future Messianic Kingdom when Jesus fulfills all the Jewish Covenants made with Israel, the Abrahamic, Land, Davidic, and New Covenants. Again they are connected to Israel, the Jewish people.

I Am’s: We are all familiar with the I Am statements in the Gospel of John. But is the Jewish background understood? First, the I Am statements of Jesus are a statement of deity. We see the Pharisees reaction in John 8:58-59. These I Am statements have a context from Exodus 3:14 when Moses asked God’s name and He responded with I AM THAT I AM, I Am the eternal present God. Each I Am statement is pointing to the Hebrew Scriptures where God is described by these metaphors.
Thou art the Rock: Jesus made that statement to Peter that has been totally misapplied because the Jewishness of the Scriptures was not consulted. The term Rock had a predefined definition from the Hebrew Scriptures, if you look at places like Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 18; 1 Samuel 2:2; 2 Samuel 23:3 and many other passages in the Psalms you will find that the term Rock was another name to describe God. Peter was an apostle, he is not God.

Jesus was God in the Old Testament: Jesus was the God who became visible in the Hebrew Scriptures. Once again the church has been teaching that the Father revealed Himself in the Hebrew Scriptures and Jesus is the God of the New Testament. Yet when the testimony of Scripture is consulted we find that whether it is the Old or New Testament Jesus is the one who reveals the Father. In other words Jesus did not begin His ministry is Bethlehem, but at creation and He interacted with the patriarchs and the prophets. When you look at the testimony of John the Baptist is John 1:18, or the testimony of Jesus Himself in John 5:37, 39 and 46 or Luke 24:25-27, 44 and compare that with Matthew 23:37 where Jesus presents Himself as the God of Israel in the Old Testament that wanted to protect and provide for Israel. Couple all that with the plural references of God in the Old Testament we begin to see that the Jewish perspective of the Scriptures become more potent, real and alive.

Jesus is the Word of the LORD in the Old Testament: Jesus is called the Logos in John 1, but John was stating a whole lot more by that statement. When comparing scripture with scripture it was the Word of the LORD that confirmed the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15 that reviewed Himself in Samuel in 1 Samuel chapter 3. It was the Word of the LORD with the breath of His mouth created the earth. It was the Word of the LORD who spoke to the prophets. If you look at Revelation 19:13 it clearly states that His name is the Word of God.

The New Covenant: Most people know little of the New Covenant except that Jesus mentions it at the last Passover and that it is called New Covenant by the prophet Jeremiah. Beyond that we know little, yet when is it studied in the light of the Jewish background a whole tidal wave of refreshment comes. Jesus at the Passover said this is the New Covenant in my blood then connected that with Isaiah 42:6 when the Father says to the Servant of the LORD that He would make Him a covenant for the people. Jesus is tying together teaching not just from Jeremiah, but Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah as well as other prophets who are all connecting the New Covenant with the regeneration of the heart. This promise of regeneration would be through the blood of Messiah. Blood atonement was pictured through the whole sacrificial system at the Temple. It was to illustrate a future sacrifice of the Lamb of God who would bring salvation through His blood. This is so rich and yet because the Jewish background has been ignored, the church does not understand that all that we possess as believers in Jesus Christ is a direct result of the New Covenant and the blood of the Messiah.

Conclusion: I apologize that I have to skim over these subject so lightly. But I could go on and on and showing the Jewishness of the Scripture and the extreme importance of understanding the Jewishness of the Scriptures. I help this has been enlightening and challenging to read and that it will encourage you to look to the Scriptures from the Jewish background as God Himself presented it to us.