Post by alon on Feb 1, 2019 14:15:27 GMT -8
This week’s readings:
Date of reading: 2 February 2019/ 27 Shevat 5779
Name of Par’shah: 18. Mishpatim
Par’shah: Ex 21:1 – 24:18
Haftara: Jeremiah 34:8-22, 33:25-36
Brit Chadashah: Mat 5:38-42, 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23; Act 23:1-11; Heb 9:15-22, 10:28-29
D’rash: I want to zero in on part of our B’rith Chadashah reading this week.
Mark 7:14-23 (ESV)
What Defiles a Person
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
[Some manuscripts add verse 16: If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear]
17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.
18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,
19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[Greek goes out into the latrine] (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Dr. Stern shows his Two
bent by taking the translation of vs. 19 a step further:
Mark 7:19 (CJB) For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine.” (Thus he declared all foods “ritually” clean.)
However let’s look at a few other translations, which put this in a whole different light:
Mark 7:19 (YLT) because it doth not enter into his heart, but into the belly, and into the drain it doth go out, purifying all the meats.’
Mark 7:19 (KJV) Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
Mark 7:19 (NKJV) because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”
In the Interlinear, that last phrase is rendered:
kaqarizon panta ta brwmata
G2511 katharizon G395 panta G3588 ta G1033 brOmata
cleansING ALL THE FOODS
This backs up the idea that the passage is about the process of bodily elimination, comparing that to what comes from he heart; not about Yeshua declaring all foods ṭumah טומאה or ṭaharah טהרה, being ritually "impure"or “pure.” Emphasis should be on “foods,” not “all,” giving a wholly different (and correct) reading.
This confrontation with some Pharisees centers around the halachic rulings concerning netilat yadayim, ritual hand washing. The Pharisees held you should do this ‘tevilah for the hands’ just prior to eating so as to remove any uncleanness from touching something common and prevent you from transferring that tumah status to otherwise tahara food. This tradition had gotten so ridiculous that if your school did netilat different from another, they would say you had not done it. So it is probable that, though accused of not doing netilat in vs. 2, Yeshua’s talmidim actually had done it. However Yeshua quotes:
Isaiah 29:13 (CJB) Then Adonai said: “Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their ‘fear of me’ is just a mitzvah of human origin —
Yeshua accuses these P’rushim of holding to traditions and neglecting (vs 8). He states: “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him” (vs. 15). This is not something “new” or unfamiliar to the Jews. It’s a reference to Leviticus 15 where talks about bodily discharges (waste, pus, a discharge for men and menstrual blood for women, etc.) being what defiles a person. does not teach the necessity of ritual hand washing before eating, it says only that which goes out of the body defiles it. Here Yeshua fulfills part of the role of the Messiah and explains better, giving the ‘sod’ (deeper, hidden) meaning of all this:
Evil comes from a man’s heart. Like pus from a sore, it comes from inside out, manifesting in harmful words and/or actions.
There are two common ways to look at vs. 19: one is that “Thus he declared all foods ritually clean” is an editorial addition to the text and does not belong there. The other is that it means all foods which are halachically tahara. I would suggest a third way, sort of a combination of the two common ones. “Thus Yeshua declared” is clearly an addition. It makes nonsense of the entire passage. However when tahara food goes in, whether you had a Neti Cup at your disposal or not, that it is still tahara definitely is in line with. That waste comes out is like what issues from the hearts of all men, and that this is what defiles us is also in keeping with . It is the deeper meaning that is revealed in Moshiach Yeshua’s teaching.
Christian doctrine emphasizes the word “all,” however this should be read “all food,” thus Yeshua is speaking of all tahara food- all edible food. He is not changing anything in. He is affirming , which never said that tahara food can defile, even when hands are not ritually purified. Note Yeshua never said Netilat Yadayim was wrong to do either. Being a P’rush Himself, it is likely He practiced it as halacha. There is a difference in not being in and in being proscribed in . And there is nothing wrong in following your sect’s halacha. But we should do it with proper understanding. The outward should instruct the inward. It’s about our heart condition.
Yeshua is saying these P’rushim are so focused on the outward actions they neglect the inward, the heart. And what flows from an evil heart defiles the man.
Dan C
Date of reading: 2 February 2019/ 27 Shevat 5779
Name of Par’shah: 18. Mishpatim
Par’shah: Ex 21:1 – 24:18
Haftara: Jeremiah 34:8-22, 33:25-36
Brit Chadashah: Mat 5:38-42, 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23; Act 23:1-11; Heb 9:15-22, 10:28-29
D’rash: I want to zero in on part of our B’rith Chadashah reading this week.
Mark 7:14-23 (ESV)
What Defiles a Person
14 And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand:
15 There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”
[Some manuscripts add verse 16: If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear]
17 And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.
18 And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,
19 since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?”[Greek goes out into the latrine] (Thus he declared all foods clean.)
20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Dr. Stern shows his Two
bent by taking the translation of vs. 19 a step further:Mark 7:19 (CJB) For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and it passes out into the latrine.” (Thus he declared all foods “ritually” clean.)
However let’s look at a few other translations, which put this in a whole different light:
Mark 7:19 (YLT) because it doth not enter into his heart, but into the belly, and into the drain it doth go out, purifying all the meats.’
Mark 7:19 (KJV) Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?
Mark 7:19 (NKJV) because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?”
In the Interlinear, that last phrase is rendered:
kaqarizon panta ta brwmata
G2511 katharizon G395 panta G3588 ta G1033 brOmata
cleansING ALL THE FOODS
This backs up the idea that the passage is about the process of bodily elimination, comparing that to what comes from he heart; not about Yeshua declaring all foods ṭumah טומאה or ṭaharah טהרה, being ritually "impure"or “pure.” Emphasis should be on “foods,” not “all,” giving a wholly different (and correct) reading.
This confrontation with some Pharisees centers around the halachic rulings concerning netilat yadayim, ritual hand washing. The Pharisees held you should do this ‘tevilah for the hands’ just prior to eating so as to remove any uncleanness from touching something common and prevent you from transferring that tumah status to otherwise tahara food. This tradition had gotten so ridiculous that if your school did netilat different from another, they would say you had not done it. So it is probable that, though accused of not doing netilat in vs. 2, Yeshua’s talmidim actually had done it. However Yeshua quotes:
Isaiah 29:13 (CJB) Then Adonai said: “Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their ‘fear of me’ is just a mitzvah of human origin —
Yeshua accuses these P’rushim of holding to traditions and neglecting
(vs 8). He states: “There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him” (vs. 15). This is not something “new” or unfamiliar to the Jews. It’s a reference to Leviticus 15 where talks about bodily discharges (waste, pus, a discharge for men and menstrual blood for women, etc.) being what defiles a person. does not teach the necessity of ritual hand washing before eating, it says only that which goes out of the body defiles it. Here Yeshua fulfills part of the role of the Messiah and explains better, giving the ‘sod’ (deeper, hidden) meaning of all this:Evil comes from a man’s heart. Like pus from a sore, it comes from inside out, manifesting in harmful words and/or actions.
There are two common ways to look at vs. 19: one is that “Thus he declared all foods ritually clean” is an editorial addition to the text and does not belong there. The other is that it means all foods which are halachically tahara. I would suggest a third way, sort of a combination of the two common ones. “Thus Yeshua declared” is clearly an addition. It makes nonsense of the entire passage. However when tahara food goes in, whether you had a Neti Cup at your disposal or not, that it is still tahara definitely is in line with
. That waste comes out is like what issues from the hearts of all men, and that this is what defiles us is also in keeping with . It is the deeper meaning that is revealed in Moshiach Yeshua’s teaching.Christian doctrine emphasizes the word “all,” however this should be read “all food,” thus Yeshua is speaking of all tahara food- all edible food. He is not changing anything in
. He is affirming , which never said that tahara food can defile, even when hands are not ritually purified. Note Yeshua never said Netilat Yadayim was wrong to do either. Being a P’rush Himself, it is likely He practiced it as halacha. There is a difference in not being in and in being proscribed in . And there is nothing wrong in following your sect’s halacha. But we should do it with proper understanding. The outward should instruct the inward. It’s about our heart condition.Yeshua is saying these P’rushim are so focused on the outward actions they neglect the inward, the heart. And what flows from an evil heart defiles the man.
Dan C
But each time I try to think about the words I am saying and why I do it at all. It's not just a ritual, it is instruction for the heart, mind, and soul. Because as a ritual alone, it is meaningless. He commands us to "lift up clean hands," the work of which flows from a clean heart and mind. Therefore I get the message each time I do it; "Clean up your act, now!
