The Jewish Roots of Christianity

By Anthony F. Buzzard

Some today suppose that there is a special virtue attached to being Jewish in their approach to the Christian faith. There is a danger here. There is a biblical Jewishness which the New Testament demands of all believers. That Jewishness means recognizing that Jesus is the Messiah — a Jewish Old Testament word for the expected King of Israel promised in the covenants made with Abraham and David. Biblical concern for Jewish roots means also recognizing that the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, contains the basis of New Testament faith. Paul said that the Gospel had been preached to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). He found the Gospel of God in the writings of the prophets of Israel (Rom. 1:1, 2). Paul knew that Jesus had come to reaffirm the promises made to the Old Testament fathers (Rom 15:8): "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the Truth of God [the Gospel] to confirm the promises made to the fathers." All these concerns fully justify a "Jewish" approach to the New Testament. Christians should be following the Jew Jesus. 

However, a warning is in order. It is all too easy to be carried away with the concept of "Jewish roots" and lose sight of the fact that Paul, as the agent of Jesus, taught a freedom from the Law of Moses. Christianity is not just a "repeat" of Judaism. Paul, for example, considers circumcision in the flesh to have no value for the Christian. In Romans 14:14, 20 Paul states categorically that "there is nothing unclean in itself," and "all things indeed are clean." He uses here the exact words found in the Old Testament passages which demand a careful distinction between "clean" and "unclean" foods. 

Mark 7:19 notes that Jesus revised the code forbidding certain foods under the Law. Jesus taught in Matthew 19:8 that Moses had allowed certain divorce practices in Israel which were not God’s absolute ideal, but which He had allowed because of their hardness of heart. Jesus then went on to revise the Law of Moses in this matter of divorce. He appealed to an earlier and more absolute standard for marriage — a standard which God had instituted in Genesis at the beginning (Matt. 19:8, 9). Jesus allowed only one exception in the right to divorce and remarriage: fornication, i.e. unrepented breaking of the marriage bond by sexual infidelity. 

Christianity therefore is not just a continuation of Judaism with the Messiah as its leader. The Gospel is rooted in the Old Testament, certainly. But the practice of the faith is revised under the terms of the New Covenant. Circumcision in the flesh falls away. The Ten Commandments and thus the covenant made with Moses and Israel are actually (and this point is seldom realized by Christians today) compared to bondage and likened to the offspring of Hagar. Hagar was the slave-girl. Sarah is the model of freedom and her children are the true Christians who are products not of the Sinai covenant but born of the spirit of the Promise. A careful reading of Galatians 4:21-31 is essential for a good grasp of this newness of the New Covenant. It is a dramatic and eye-opening revelation of what it means to be free in Christ. 

Note now the practical effects of this teaching. God spoke to the New Testament Christians in a variety of languages at Pentecost. There is absolutely no religious value in using only a Hebrew name for Jesus (Jeshua). If you are amongst Hebrew speakers Jeshua is perfectly reasonable but the Hebrew name carries no "magic" quality or sanctity. The inspired Apostles wrote in Greek, and they used the Greek word for the Lord (kurios) and the Greek form of the name Jesus. It is pointless and divisive to insist (sometimes as a matter of salvation!) on a special pronunciation of the Divine Name YHVH. The New Testament writers refer to God as "Lord" (again, kurios). It is bizarre to write G-d rather than "God" for fear of contamination. The sound of the word is unimportant. Christians should be most careful not to clothe the faith in strange practices which invite ridicule and obscure the real truth of Christianity. 

There is a grave danger of putting up a barrier between yourself and the world you hope to win for Jesus by insisting on certain Jewish, Old Testament practices which were shadows of the New Covenant. I have in mind obligatory Sabbath and Holy Day observance or keeping the New Moons. These collectively are "a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:17). Christ has replaced them. The New Testament Christians did not keep the Passover once a year. The old Passover became an ongoing (whenever the church met) celebration of the Lord’s Supper (see I Cor. 11:17ff.). John’s Gospel refers to the Old Testament festivals as "feasts of the Jews." How very improbable, then, that John thought of the very same festivals as Christian celebrations. "Let us therefore keep the feast" (I Cor. 5:8) means "Let us be permanently celebrating the Feast," with the unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth. A good commentary will point to the meaning of the continuous sense of the present tense Greek verb, "Let us be celebrating." 

The shadow of the Law has passed away and the substance found in Christ has taken its place. Thus no animal sacrifices, the heart of Jewish ritual, are necessary for the Christian. 

So the Jewish roots of our faith are fine as long as we do not fall back under the Law of Moses. This is a serious issue. Those who are trying to keep the Law of Moses as Christians risk being cut off entirely from the Messiah (Gal. 4:30; 5:4). The covenants cannot be mixed. Biblical Christianity is a new faith, though it is rooted in the promises made to Abraham which pre-dated the arrangements made with Moses (see the whole Book of Galatians and request our booklet "The Law, the Sabbath and New Testament Christianity").