Romans 11 and Old Covenant Israel Now As Talmudic Judaism, From the Religion of the Pharisees
The Christian Zionists say that Israel in scripture must always be physical Israel, and there cannot be an Israel of God (Galatians 6: 16), which is Israel remade (Jeremiah 18: 1-6) and that remade Israel began from the remnant of Old Covenant Israel in Romans 11: 5.
A key point in the defense and promotion of Christian Zionism is the interpretation of Romans 11: 25-26 that "...and so all Israel shall be saved" means that all Old Covenant Israel, defined by the physical bloodline from Abraham, will be saved.
But Romans 9: 6-8 says "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."
"Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the alter?" I Corinthians 10: 18
The question then becomes which Israel is to be saved in Romans 11: 26? Is it the children of the flesh, those of the bloodline, or is it the children of the promise? The children of the promise as remade Israel (Jeremiah 18: 1-6) would be the Israel of God in Galatians 6: 16 and in I Peter 2: 5 it would be the Israel which, as lively stones are built up, a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.
Christian Zionism does not acknowledge that there can be any Israel other than Israel of the flesh, determined by the bloodline.
Then, it has to be asked, is there in existence after the First Century A.D. an Israel of the Old Covenant which is Israel of the flesh, that is. of the physical bloodline.
Romans 11: 15-18 says ""For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? 16. For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. 17. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18. Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."
Christian Zionists say the firstfruits and the root is Israel, by which they mean Old Covenant Israel, and that believing Gentiles are grafted into Old Covenant Israel. Sometimes though, when this is pointed out to them, they will deny that Christian Zionism teaches that the firstfruits and root are Old Covenant Israel. The root has to be Jesus Christ.
But Old Covenant Israel as it existed in the time of Christ no longer exists now. If Gentile believers are grafted into Old Covenant Israel, then are they not grafted into Talmudic Judaism, which derives from the religion of the Pharisees?
The important question is which group of Jews are the Christian Zionists referring to as Israel in being the firstfruits and the root. Is
it now the Talmudic Jews who follow the Pharisees, or is it that very small Remnant of Jews who were faithful to God during the period Christ was on earth? Or is the root the remnant of Old Covenant Israel who accepted Christ in the First Century and began the New Covenant? Yet the root must be Jesus Christ. Apparently the Christian Zionists do not make these distinctions, and just talk about Israel, by which they mean Old Covenant Israel.
Talmudic Judaism claims to be that Israel of the flesh. But is Talmudic Judaism not derived from the religion of the Pharisees of Christ's time?
On http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/chapt01.html
they say "the missing link in Christian understanding on the subject of "Pharisees" is best supplied by the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943): The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent, without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single piece of that literature … and the study of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism.
Concerning the Pharisees, the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia says: With the destruction of the Temple (70 A.D.) the Sadducees disappeared altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition (Abot 1:1). Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future."
"Rabbi Louis Finklestein was chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas (Jewish communities) of the World as one of the top 120 Jews best representing "a lamp of Judaism" to the World...In his two-volume work "The Pharisees." Rabbi Finklestein writes: Pharasaism became Talmudism … But the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered. When the Jew … studies the Talmud, he is actually repeating the arguments used in the Palestinian academies. From Palestine to Babylonia; from Babylonia to North Africa, Italy. Spain, France and Germany; from these to Poland. Russia and Eastern Europe generally, ancient Pharasaism has wandered."
"In Rabbi Finklestein's history of the Jews, he states: The Talmud derives its authority from the position held by the ancient academies. (i.e. Pharisee) The teachers of those academies, both of Babylonia and of Palestine. were considered the rightful successors of the older Sanhedrin . . . At the present time, the Jewish people have no living central authority comparable in status to the ancient Sanhedrins or the later academies. Therefore, any decision regarding the Jewish religion must be based on the Talmud as the final resumé of the teaching of those authorities when they existed. [page 2] (The Jews — Their History, Culture, and Religion , Vol. 4, p. 1332, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1949). "
"Note the Foreword to the first English translation of the Babylonian Talmud by the late Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, J.H. Hertz, who, like Rabbi Finklestein, was one of the 120 Jews chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas of the World as best holding up the "lamp of Judaism:" The beginnings of Talmudic literature date back to the time of the Babylonian Exile in the Sixth pre-Christian Century … When a thousand years later, the Babylonian Talmud assumed final codified form in the year 500 after the Christian era, the Roman Western Empire had ceased to be."
In Christ's time the Pharisees were the leaders of most of the Jews. At that time there were a small number of Jews who were faithful to the Lord, such as the two mentioned in Luke 2: 25 and 2: 36, Simeon and Anna, and others. These were Jews faithful to God under the Old Covenant. A different remnant of Old Covenant Israel - who might have included some of these people - came out of the Old Covenant in accepting Christ. In modern times, as the sources quoted above say, Talmudic Judaism is derived from
the religion of the Pharisees of the First Century.
The Christian Zionists say that Israel in scripture must always be physical Israel, and there cannot be an Israel of God (Galatians 6: 16), which is Israel remade (Jeremiah 18: 1-6) and that remade Israel began from the remnant of Old Covenant Israel in Romans 11: 5.
A key point in the defense and promotion of Christian Zionism is the interpretation of Romans 11: 25-26 that "...and so all Israel shall be saved" means that all Old Covenant Israel, defined by the physical bloodline from Abraham, will be saved.
But Romans 9: 6-8 says "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."
"Behold Israel after the flesh: are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the alter?" I Corinthians 10: 18
The question then becomes which Israel is to be saved in Romans 11: 26? Is it the children of the flesh, those of the bloodline, or is it the children of the promise? The children of the promise as remade Israel (Jeremiah 18: 1-6) would be the Israel of God in Galatians 6: 16 and in I Peter 2: 5 it would be the Israel which, as lively stones are built up, a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.
Christian Zionism does not acknowledge that there can be any Israel other than Israel of the flesh, determined by the bloodline.
Then, it has to be asked, is there in existence after the First Century A.D. an Israel of the Old Covenant which is Israel of the flesh, that is. of the physical bloodline.
Romans 11: 15-18 says ""For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? 16. For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. 17. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;
18. Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."
Christian Zionists say the firstfruits and the root is Israel, by which they mean Old Covenant Israel, and that believing Gentiles are grafted into Old Covenant Israel. Sometimes though, when this is pointed out to them, they will deny that Christian Zionism teaches that the firstfruits and root are Old Covenant Israel. The root has to be Jesus Christ.
But Old Covenant Israel as it existed in the time of Christ no longer exists now. If Gentile believers are grafted into Old Covenant Israel, then are they not grafted into Talmudic Judaism, which derives from the religion of the Pharisees?
The important question is which group of Jews are the Christian Zionists referring to as Israel in being the firstfruits and the root. Is
it now the Talmudic Jews who follow the Pharisees, or is it that very small Remnant of Jews who were faithful to God during the period Christ was on earth? Or is the root the remnant of Old Covenant Israel who accepted Christ in the First Century and began the New Covenant? Yet the root must be Jesus Christ. Apparently the Christian Zionists do not make these distinctions, and just talk about Israel, by which they mean Old Covenant Israel.
Talmudic Judaism claims to be that Israel of the flesh. But is Talmudic Judaism not derived from the religion of the Pharisees of Christ's time?
On http://www.come-and-hear.com/dilling/chapt01.html
they say "the missing link in Christian understanding on the subject of "Pharisees" is best supplied by the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1943): The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent, without a break, through all the centuries, from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single piece of that literature … and the study of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism.
Concerning the Pharisees, the 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia says: With the destruction of the Temple (70 A.D.) the Sadducees disappeared altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition (Abot 1:1). Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future."
"Rabbi Louis Finklestein was chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas (Jewish communities) of the World as one of the top 120 Jews best representing "a lamp of Judaism" to the World...In his two-volume work "The Pharisees." Rabbi Finklestein writes: Pharasaism became Talmudism … But the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered. When the Jew … studies the Talmud, he is actually repeating the arguments used in the Palestinian academies. From Palestine to Babylonia; from Babylonia to North Africa, Italy. Spain, France and Germany; from these to Poland. Russia and Eastern Europe generally, ancient Pharasaism has wandered."
"In Rabbi Finklestein's history of the Jews, he states: The Talmud derives its authority from the position held by the ancient academies. (i.e. Pharisee) The teachers of those academies, both of Babylonia and of Palestine. were considered the rightful successors of the older Sanhedrin . . . At the present time, the Jewish people have no living central authority comparable in status to the ancient Sanhedrins or the later academies. Therefore, any decision regarding the Jewish religion must be based on the Talmud as the final resumé of the teaching of those authorities when they existed. [page 2] (The Jews — Their History, Culture, and Religion , Vol. 4, p. 1332, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1949). "
"Note the Foreword to the first English translation of the Babylonian Talmud by the late Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, J.H. Hertz, who, like Rabbi Finklestein, was one of the 120 Jews chosen in 1937 by the Kehillas of the World as best holding up the "lamp of Judaism:" The beginnings of Talmudic literature date back to the time of the Babylonian Exile in the Sixth pre-Christian Century … When a thousand years later, the Babylonian Talmud assumed final codified form in the year 500 after the Christian era, the Roman Western Empire had ceased to be."
In Christ's time the Pharisees were the leaders of most of the Jews. At that time there were a small number of Jews who were faithful to the Lord, such as the two mentioned in Luke 2: 25 and 2: 36, Simeon and Anna, and others. These were Jews faithful to God under the Old Covenant. A different remnant of Old Covenant Israel - who might have included some of these people - came out of the Old Covenant in accepting Christ. In modern times, as the sources quoted above say, Talmudic Judaism is derived from
the religion of the Pharisees of the First Century.
