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Featured Article: (from Parables and Stories)
An Eye for an Eye?
by Lois Tverberg
But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. Exodus 21:23-25
Many people quote this line in the the Hebrew Bible about “eye for an eye” and “tooth for tooth” as showing the barbaric nature of the laws in the Bible. Grasping its context is important and sheds light.
The laws of the Torah were far more humane than in other ancient cultures, and even this law, in its context, actually was an effort at reasonable punishment at an offense rather than cruel vengeance. Without any laws, the typical response to a crime where one had injured another would be revenge by the victim’s clan, escalating into feuds. This law of “like for like” was actually intended to limit the punishment for an injury to no more than the injury itself.
In fact, most scholars think that in ancient Israel this law wasn’t followed literally, but was interpreted as allowing for monetary fines for injuries (1). Evidence for that is in Numbers 35:31 which says, “Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.” The existence of this law shows that usually a monetary fine was the penalty for a crime. Yet it was not allowed for murder.
Surprisingly, this seemingly harsh law is actually evidence of an ethical difference between the laws of Israel and surrounding nations. The reason for not allowing a life to be paid off by money was because of the precious nature of life itself — that a human life was so valuable, the only fitting punishment for taking a life was death to the offender.
This emphasis on the sacredness of life was a key difference between the laws of Israel and surrounding peoples. In other nations, minor crimes like stealing might be punished by death. In Israel, however, no property crime ever demanded the life of the offender.
On the other hand, in Israel, murder always called for capital punishment rather than monetary fines, as in other cultures. Other nations also demanded brutal punishments for people of lower classes for minor offenses against the rich. Israel, in contrast, treated all criminals alike. Their punishment was far more humane, usually demanding restitution to the victim rather than bodily damage to the offender.
When seen in the light of the Ancient Near Eastern world, you see God teaching his people the need to be fair and just to all levels of humanity, and we see the preciousness of life itself.
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To explore this topic more, see chapter 11, “Touching the Rabbi’s Fringe” in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, Zondervan, 2009, p. 145-162.
(1) N. Sarna, Exploring Exodus, Shocken Books, pp 182-189
Photo: Pbalson8204, Unsplash and Patrick Feller
If Your Eye…
by Lois Tverberg
If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell. Matthew 18:9
Some of the sayings of Jesus are so strong that we wonder if Jesus really wants us to take them literally. Should we really pluck out our eye, as this saying above says? Should we cut off our right hand if it causes us to sin? Is is really better to be drowned with a millstone than to lead a little one astray? Is it really harder for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? Jesus’ overstatements can make us uncomfortable when we aren’t sure how we should take them.
One thing that we should keep in mind is that the practice of exaggeration and giving commands that go far beyond expectations was very much a part of Jesus’ rabbinic culture. In order to underline the importance of what they taught, the rabbis often spoke this way. For instance,
When three eat at one table and words of Torah are not spoken there, it is as if they ate at the altars of the dead… But when three eat at one table and bring up words of Torah, it is as if they ate from the table of God, blessed be He! (Mishnah, Avot 3.2-3)1
The point of this teaching is to emphasize that people should try to always include discussion of the scriptures when they eat together. Likening a meal without Torah study to worshipping in an idolatrous temple is a strong overstatement that is intended for emphasis. Or, here is another example:
Let no one stand for prayer without bowing his head… Even if the king greets you, do not answer him. And even if a snake is coiled at your heel, do not break it off. (Mishnah, Berakot 5.1)
Once again this the importance of concentration in prayer is taught by saying that even in the most extreme circumstances, you should have single-minded attention on God. People took these teachings seriously, but knew they were overstatements for effect.
Knowing this aspect of Jesus’ culture should give us some sense of how Jesus’ words were heard by his audience when he said things like, “Unless you hate your mother and father… you cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). He sounded like many other rabbis who said extreme things to reinforce the importance of their teaching.
We must be careful never to minimize Jesus’ high calling away as exaggeration. But at the same time, we gain wisdom for how to understand Jesus’ words when we have a better idea of how they would have been heard in his time.
(1) The Mishnah is a compilation of sayings of rabbis from before Jesus’ time until about 200 AD, and often is very useful in seeing Jesus’ words in context.
Photo: Normann Copenhagen
The Bride and the Lamb
by Lois Tverberg
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write,`Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'” Revelation 19:7-9
Certainly there are many puzzling images in the book of Revelation. One that seems striking is the marriage of the Bride and the Lamb. Where is this image coming from?
It appears to come from an ancient understanding of a redeemer, and how that describes Christ’s relationship to his church. A redeemer was a relative who would “buy” a person or property that had been sold, usually because of debt. If a person became enslaved because of debt, the redeemer would “purchase” the person to obtain their freedom. As a result, the redeemer would “own” the person, but as a close family member, not as a slave. An example of this is when Boaz acted as kinsman-redeemer for Ruth. It says he “bought” her and she became his wife (Ruth 4:5, 13). God was using this image when he said to Israel,
`I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians… I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. `Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God. “ (Exodus 6:6–7)
God was saying that he would be their redeemer and take them as his people, as a man takes a woman as his wife, as Boaz did for Ruth. God did not just want to release to them from slavery, but he wanted an intimate relationship with this people, like that of a husband and wife. He redeemed them out of love for them and wanted them to be close to him forever. Often the Scriptures speak of God as the husband/redeemer of Israel:
For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth. (Isaiah 54:5)
Christ, who was our redeemer from sin, also “purchased us” as his people with his blood that was shed on the cross. As Peter says,
It was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Peter 1:18 – 19)
Peter points out that Jesus was the true lamb of Passover. The lamb’s blood protected the Israelites in Egypt and led to their redemption from slavery. In the same way, Jesus’ blood redeemed us from our debt of sin, and the death we deserve because of it. Through his death, Christ “bought” us as his people, but not just to set us free. Instead, like a husband taking a wife, he redeemed us out of his great love, so that we could have an intimate relationship with him. The scene in Revelation is the vision of the Lamb, Christ who had died and rose again, finally taking the bride, the people he loved, as his own to live together forever.
Photo: DaviPeixoto and Jan Van Eyck
Give to Him Who Asks
by Lois Tverberg
Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. Matthew 5:42
This saying of Jesus’ (above) can sound as if we should give without discernment. Is it saying that we should blindly donate to every charity, and we should lend to others indiscriminately too?
One scholar (1) suggests that it is helpful to see this saying as a Hebraic parallelism, where the second phrase is almost synonymous with the first. In Hebrew, the word “ask” is one of two alternative terms that is used when a person wants to borrow something. Sha’al, (ask) is used when a person wants to borrow something that will itself be returned, like a hoe or a donkey; and lavah (borrow) is used when the item is consumed and then replaced later, like a cup of flour or a quantity of money. So this saying of Jesus’ may be a parallelism that reinforces the need to loan to those who need things.
But why is loaning so important? In the Bible’s Eastern way of thinking, people were community-oriented and they depended on borrowing and lending between neighbors for survival. In fact, our wealthy, individualistic way of life is quite unusual in the world, where we always buy everything for ourselves and do not depend on borrowing from friends. In Eastern cultures, to not loan something is to not fulfill an expected kindness, and to show a callous disconcern for the needs of others.
More than that, in biblical times, loans were sought out of poverty and crisis, and not out of a desire to buy a luxury. Interest was not allowed because the poor who received loans could hardly pay back the principle, much less interest. Many times God tells people to be generous to the poor and lend to them:
If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs. Deuteronomy 15:7-8
A person who loaned to a poor man knew that he may actually be giving charity, because often the poor could not repay. In that case, lending to someone becomes a type of giving. Then the “giving” in the first phrase is also a parallel with the lending of the second phrase of Matthew 5:42, because the loan may become a gift. This teaching is similar to Jesus’ instructions to hold a banquet and invite the poor rather than one’s rich friends, because they were the ones who never could repay (Luke 14:12-14).
Jesus was once again reminding of us of our responsibility to love our neighbor and to share with others. We need to be especially sensitive to those who may look to us for help, whether we will be repaid now, or will have to wait for heaven.
(1) David Bivin, Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, Shippensburg, PA, Destiny Image Pub, 2001, pp 72 – 75.)
Photo: A. David Holloway
Keep Us From Evil
by Lois Tverberg
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil … (NASB) or – the evil one. (NIV) Matthew 6:13
This is a line from the Lord’s prayer that is confusing to many. Some translations say “deliver us from evil,” others say “deliver us from the evil one.” Does it mean evil in general, or Satan in particular? And why would we ask God not to tempt us? Since Jesus told us to pray this way, certainly it would benefit us to clarify his words.
A key to understanding is to look at how the phrase “deliver us from evil” is used in both the Bible and in other Jewish prayers. In Psalm 121 it says,
The LORD is your keeper; The LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. (Psalm 121:5-7)
Here, protection from evil means protection from harm in general. And indeed the Hebrew word “ra” (evil or bad) is broad, and can include injury and misfortune as well as moral evil. In Psalm 141, the prayer asks for protection against doing evil:
Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil, to take part in wicked deeds with men who are evildoers; let me not eat of their delicacies. (Psalm 141:3-4)
Other Jewish prayers include the words “protect us from evil,” and can give us some insight. In the Talmud* a prayer expands on the meanings of the Hebrew word ra, “evil,” by saying, “Deliver me…from a bad person, a bad companion, a bad injury, an evil inclination, and from Satan, the destroyer.” Four times the word for “evil” is used, and here it is a petition to ask God to deliver the person from harm, but also from sin and the company of those who would cause a person to sin as well, and even Satan.
What about the line before “keep us from evil,” which is “lead us not into temptation”? This phrase is a Jewish way of saying “Do not let us succumb to the temptation of sin.” It is a parallelism to the next line, meaning, “Do not let us succumb to the evil inside us, do not let us sin.” Once again it is asking God to protect us from the evil we ourselves can do.
We would not go wrong in understanding these two lines as meaning, “Oh Lord, help us to keep doing your will, and don’t let us be led away from your path. Keep us from the evil within us and from spiritual forces of evil, and keep us from all harm and calamity too.” It is an all-encompassing plea for God to protect us from what is outside us, but what is inside as well.
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To explore this topic more, see chapter 5, “Get Yourself Some Haverim” in Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, Zondervan, 2009, p. 66-77.
*The Talmud is a compendium of Jewish commentary written about 300 AD, containing oral traditions from Jesus’ time and before. This quote is from Berachot 16b.
A major source for this article is Deliver Us From Evil, by Dr. Randall Buth, in the online jounal www.JerusalemPerspective.com.
The Gentle Eyes of Leah
by Lois Tverberg
Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful. Genesis 29:17
Most of us have read the passage above about Jacob’s wives as describing Leah’s bad eyesight. We assume that she squinted because of her eyes, and perhaps was plain and homely too. If she lived today, we might imagine her as an awkward wallflower with thick glasses.
Looking at the Hebrew a little more closely suggests that the word translated as “weak,” rach, may have been a more positive description. It can mean “weak,” but elsewhere that the word is found we see other nuances:
Genesis 18:7 Then Abram ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender (rach) calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.
Isaiah 47:1 “Go down, sit in the dust, Virgin Daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, Daughter of the Babylonians. No more will you be called delicate (rach) or pampered.
Proverbs 15:1 A gentle (rach) answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
From these passages and others, we can see that the word rach can mean tender or gentle, and when used to describe a woman (as in Isaiah 47:1), it can connote delicateness or refinement. The passage seems to be a way of contrasting the lesser beauty of Leah with the greater physical attractiveness of her sister, which was why Jacob favored Rachel.
Could Leah’s tender eyes been God’s preference? Even though Jacob loved Rachel more, God consistently came to Leah’s aid by blessing her with children – six sons and one daughter to Rachel’s two sons. But nothing Leah did seemed to be able to win the love of her husband. Instead, Rachel’s sons Joseph and Benjamin were Jacob’s favorites, and she was the wife he truly loved.
It is interesting that God’s choice was not toward the beauty of Rachel, but of Leah, whose son Judah was the ancestor of the Messiah, Jesus. Perhaps he wanted Jesus to inherit Leah’s gentle eyes.
Note: This article is based on “Leah’s Tender Eyes,” by David Bivin, at jerusalemperspective.com.
Jesus, God’s Firstborn
by Lois Tverberg
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation… And he is the head of the body, the church;he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. Colossians 1:15-18
Since Jesus is co-eternal with the Father, to speak of him as firstborn suggests that he is a created thing, not fully God. This may make us scratch our heads, until hear the passage with Hebraic ears, and see that the word “firstborn” could be used metaphorically to mean something else than just the oldest child in a family.
The firstborn son of a family had great honor and status, and usually received a double portion of the inheritance, unless the father decided that another son would be given that honor. Then another would have the “firstborn” status and rights, no matter what order in which they were born. The other children of the family would treat the firstborn with special honor and respect, reflecting his status as the successor to the patriarch of the family. Because of this special favor that was given, the term “firstborn” could mean “most exalted” or “closest in relationship” or “preeminent in status” even if it wasn’t literally speaking about something that actually came first. For instance, in Psalm 98 God says,
I have found David my servant; with my sacred oil I have anointed him… He will call out to me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Savior.’ I will also appoint him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. Psalm 89:20,26-27
David was youngest of his family, and God passed his other brothers by to choose him as king. When God said the he would appoint him firstborn, he didn’t mean that he would be first before anything else in sequence, but that David would be preeminent in favor and status. Another instance of this is in Exodus when God spoke metaphorically of Israel as his “firstborn son.” God told Moses,
Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'” Exodus 4:22-23
Once again, the term “firstborn” means “closest in relationship.” Israel is God’s “treasured possession,” his nation especially set apart for relationship with him.
So now, when we read of Jesus as firstborn, we should think in terms of being of greatest honor and closest to God. But yet, he is firstborn from among the dead, a promise that all who are a part of his kingdom will rise too. And not only is he representative of all of his kingdom, he is also highly exalted of all of creation, worthy of honor and glory and praise.
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To explore this topic more, see chapter 6, “Why Jesus Needs Those Boring ‘Begats’” in Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, Baker Publishing, 2018, p 113-130.
(1) See also Tverberg, L. A. & Okkema, B. M. Listening to the Language of the Bible: Hearing it Through Jesus’ Ears (Holland, MI: En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004) pp 73-74.
Photo: Dura Europos synagogue painting : Yale Gilman collection
Why Carrying Wood?
by Lois Tverberg
Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” Numbers 15:32-35
Some scenes in the Old Testament leave us scratching our heads about why God was so harsh and the regulations so arbitrary. The case of the man who was caught carrying wood on the Sabbath is one of them. It seems like an innocuous thing, but it seems to be especially serious. How can this be?
Several cultural things may be helpful in understanding this. The prohibition that the man was clearly intending to break was to light a fire on the Sabbath, as it says in Exodus 35:3. Lighting a fire was not a minor task – a person searched far outside the camp until he or she had a large load of wood, and then carried the heavy bundle back home, and then took some time to get a flame going. It would be likely that he was planning to cook or do other work that required a fire, and that gathering the wood was just the first step toward having a day full of activity that would willfully ignore the commandment to honor the Sabbath day.
The Sabbath itself was an especially important commandment to the Israelites when the covenant was given. It was the sign of the covenant that God had made with them:
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, `You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Exodus 31:12-14
A sign of a covenant was a symbolic remembrance of the whole covenant. To break it was like breaking the whole thing. A modern analogy is the wedding ring, which is a kind of “sign,” a remembrance of the covenant of marriage. If a woman got rid of another piece of jewelry her husband gave her, it would not be very important. But if she threw away or sold her wedding ring, it would say something about her feelings about the marriage as a whole. Similarly, the man who was willfully ignoring the Sabbath was spurning the entire covenant, which he and all of Israel were accountable to keep as a people. If one person broke it, it affected all of them.
Even though our situation is much different than this, we can see that in its time, this sin was very serious, and indicated an attitude of rebellion that impacted all of Israel. Having its cultural setting helps us have the right lenses to grasp it the way was understood in its time, and why it resulted in such a strong reaction from Moses and from God.
Photo: WambuiMwangi and Eivind Barstad Waaler
Did Jesus Hide His Message?
by Lois Tverberg
He said, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.” Luke 8:10
Sometimes parables make us scratch our heads, and it can seem that Jesus was using them to deliberately confuse people. But even though they seem strange to us, they were a traditional teaching method that was always used to clarify rather than obscure. Many parables of Jesus’ that sound odd to us have very similar motifs than others of his time, and were probably less strange-sounding to his original listeners.
Still, we wonder why it sounds in the passage above like Jesus was deliberately trying to hide his message. A clue comes from the fact that Jesus was alluding to Isaiah 6:9-10, when God commissioned Isaiah as a prophet to Israel. God did not send Isaiah to confuse the people with obscure teachings, but to clearly proclaim God’s word to them. But God says with great irony to Isaiah at his commission,
Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed. Isaiah 6:10
Really, God is not telling Isaiah to confuse the people, but to proclaim the truth, even though God knows his teaching will be rejected by many. Jesus is saying the same thing – that like the prophets he speaks to clarify God’s word, but from hardness of heart, many will not hear or obey him.
The idea that it is hard-heartedness that keeps people from understanding his teaching is supported by the context of this saying – it is in the middle of the parable of the four soils and its explanation. The parable of the soils seems to actually be the explanation of why Jesus’ words are not having an impact on people. It is not because the words are deliberately confusing, but because they are falling on deaf ears.
The parable shows that the same seed that grows well in good soil does not take root on the path, and produces little in rocky or thorny ground. The seed is always good, but the soil of human hearts may or may not be receptive. The reason people don’t understand Jesus’ teachings is not because he is hiding anything, but is a problem with the hearer. The difficulty is in their ability to receive his teaching in order to obey it.
Photo: Chitrapa
Salvation with Fear
by Lois Tverberg
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13
The sentence above from Paul’s letter catches many Christians off guard. It appears to say that we should be in perpetual worry about our salvation, and that salvation is something to be earned. Yet, we are taught throughout scripture that salvation comes through faith in God. Two Hebraic concepts that Paul might have had in mind may shed some light on this verse:
First, in Hebraic understanding, salvation begins during our lives, it is not just something after death. Someone who is not saved is estranged from the family of God — wandering from the flock — “lost.” Salvation comes through restoring a relationship with God the Father by believing in the atoning work of his Son; it is to be rescued from a life separated from God.
It is true that there are many places where the scriptures speak of salvation in the future, in terms of being saved from judgment. But it began the moment we repented and believed in Christ. As Paul says, “By grace you have been saved…” (Ephesians 2:5, 8), using the past tense, not the future tense. In that sense, our salvation has already happened, and we are new creatures!
The second concept in the background of Paul’s saying is the concept of “the fear of the Lord” (yir’at adonai). This is an often-used phrase of the scriptures which means an awe and reverence of God that causes us to want to do his will. It does mean to respect God, who will discipline those whom he loves (Revelation 3:19). But the emphasis is on a positive, respectful relationship with God, not in terms of being terrified by him.
If having a “fear” of the Lord causes us to live with integrity and wisdom about God’s ways, it will ultimately transform us. Paul was using the word “fear” in this sense — having awe and respect for the Lord. He is exhorting us to live new (eternal) lives in obedient relationship with God, so that we can see him working out his plans to redeem every aspect of our lives. We may be looking forward to a future in heaven, but we should be enjoying the richness of our relationship with the Lord on this earth as well.
See also the Director’s Article, “Does God Want Us to Fear Him?”. Also useful is Listening to the Language of the Bible, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004, pp. 7-8. The book contains many other word & culture study articles like this one.
Photo: United States Coast Guard
We’re pleased to be able to share this difficult-to-find classic by Brad Young. Check it out!
The Jewish Background to the Lord’s Prayer
by Brad H. Young
© 1984, Gospel Research Foundation Inc.
Softcover, 46 pages, $8.99
- Explore the Jewish roots of the Lord’s Prayer
- Learn how the Dead Sea Scrolls, rabbinic literature, Jewish prayers, and worship breathe fresh meaning into the revered words of the Lord’s Prayer
- Understand Jesus’ powerful prayer better in the light of Jewish faith and practice
Dr. Brad H. Young (PhD Hebrew University, under David Flusser) is the founder and president of the Gospel Research Foundation in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is emeritus professor of Biblical Literature in Judaic-Christian Studies in the Graduate School of Theology at Oral Roberts University. Young has taught advanced language and translation courses as well as the Jewish foundations of early Christianity to graduate students for over thirty years.
Check out what else is available from the En-Gedi Resource Center bookstore too…
