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Is JUDAISM the Religion of Moses? 43

IS JUDAISM the Religion of

Moses?

This elev enth in stall ment brings us to time of Yeshua
the Messiah -- and ex plains how the Jews at tempted
to jus tify their hu man tra di tions.

Ernest Martin
Part Eleven

W E CONTINUE with the story of the Phar i saic doc trines. Their teach ings rep re sent by far the
ma jor part of Ju da ism and its be liefs in Je sus' day. The other sects were of much less prom i -
nence dur ing the time of Christ, and af ter the de struc tion of Je ru sa lem in 70 A.D. the other
sects vir tu ally dis ap pear from Ju da ism. The most im por tant de nom i na tion to study is Pharisaicism
-- the heart and core of Ju da ism.

We found in pre vi ous chap ters that the Jews orig i nally used Scrip ture to in ter pret Scrip ture.
This was and is the only method to use for a proper un der stand ing of God's Word. We to day are told
to use this very method if we are to un der stand the true doc trines of God. See Isa iah 28:9, 10.

With the in tro duc tion of the so-called tra di tional laws of the el ders by the Phar i sees, a NEW
method of teach ing had to be used in or der to teach these new laws. The Scrip ture could no lon ger
be used to teach the new tra di tional laws for there was no in di ca tion of them in the Word of God.
The Jews there fore adopted what has be come known as the "Mish nah-form."

The Mishnah-Form of Teaching

The word "Mish nah," in He brew, means lit er ally "sec ond!" The Mish nah-form of in ter pre -
ta tion means "the sec ond-form." The true Scrip tural form was to the Jews the "first-form" or the
one used by Mo ses and the proph ets. But all of the tra di tional laws of the Phar i sees were ac cepted
by ap peal ing to the new Mish nah-form. When the Mish nah-form was used, it was not nec es sary to
ap peal to Scrip ture for proof; the au thor ity of the teacher or teach ers who is sued new com mand -
ments in de pend ent of Scrip ture was as sumed suf fi cient to con sider them to be the Word of God.

Mishnah-Form of Interpretation Used Sparingly -- At First!

The first use of the Mish nah-form by the Phar i sees was in their ac cep tance of the so-called
tra di tional laws the cus toms in her ited from Hel le nism. The Phar i saic lead ers were forced to rec og -
nize these new cus toms as proper re li gious prac tices, for they knew the peo ple would not give them
up.

The Berean Voice