Page 44 - BV20

44 Is JUDAISM the Religion of Moses?

The Phar i sees did not first in vent the Mish nah-form and then use it to teach the tra di tional
laws. Just the op po site oc curred. The ac cep tance of the new cus toms from Hel le nism, with out any
Scrip ture proof, brought the Phar i sees to re al ize they were teach ing IN A NEW FORM NOT
PREVIOUSLY USED. The Phar i sees rec og nized that they had be gun to use a new method of
teach ing by ac cept ing the tra di tional laws with out Scrip ture proof.

"FINDING NO CONVINCING PROOFS FOR SUCH LAWS IN THE BIBLE, THEY
TAUGHT THEM INDEPENDENTLY OF SCRIPTURAL PROOF i.e. IN THE
MISHNAH-FORM" (Lauterbach, Rab binic Es says, p. 229).

Though all the Phar i sees agreed that the tra di tional laws had to be ac cepted, many of them
were re luc tant about per pet u at ing the new form of teach ing. Many of the early Phar i sees thought
that the use of the Mish nah-form was proper in ad mit ting the tra di tional laws into the re li gious re -
quire ments of the Jews, but they did not want to see its in dis crim i nate use in the fu ture. It was ob vi -
ous that the use of this new form could bring about mul ti tudes of new tra di tions -- all of them
with out Scrip ture proof.

The inevitable happened!

In stead of the Mish nah-form be ing dis carded af ter the tra di tional laws had been brought to
the place of di vine law, its use was in creased. You will re mem ber that Jo seph ben Joezer, called
"the Permitter," is sued three new laws which were com pletely de void of Scrip ture proof. These
three laws were en acted by us ing the Mish nah-form! His laws were the first ones to be en acted af ter
the tra di tional law be came a part of Phar i saic be lief.

Lauterbach tells us that many of the Phar i sees did not ap pear overly en thu si as tic when Jo -
seph ben Joezer in tro duced his teach ing in the new Mish nah-form.

"When he [Jo seph ben Joezer] used new meth ods of in ter pre ta tion for the first time, his col -
leagues hes i tated to fol low him ..." (Rab binic Es says, p. 228).

The Phar i sees knew full well that it was wrong to use the so-called Mish nah-form for mak -
ing laws. Even though they had all ac cepted the cus toms of the hea then, by us ing this form, some of
them balked at mak ing fur ther laws with out any Scrip ture back ing at all. How ever, this re luc tance
did not last long! The very fact that the Phar i sees con sid ered them selves as hav ing the spirit of
proph ecy -- hav ing the power to teach the cur rent will of God, gave them in cen tive to fur ther uti lize
this new teach ing oc ca sion ally, es pe cially since they had the pre ce dent of Jo seph ben Joezer. Thus,
af ter the time of Jo seph ben Joezer, we find the Mish nah-form be ing used more and more as time
pro gressed.

These subsequent teachings of the Pharisees were termed "traditions of the elders."

By the time of Christ, the Phar i sees had de vel oped the Mish nah-form so ex ten sively that
they were teach ing for doc trines hun dreds of com mand ments of men with out the slight est back ing
of Scrip ture (Mark 7:7).

The Berean Voice