Messianic Traditions:
Fundamentals of Messianic Judaism

Exploring Salvation

Contents

Messianic Judaism

The Rabbinical Structure

Messianic Judaism

Defining a Believer

The one central theme of salvation within the Scriptures is the acceptance of the Messiah as the Savior of a persons life. Those who have accepted Messiah become companions with their names written in the book of life. When we examine who is included within this broad definition we find there are many types of believers in Messiah, each with their own set of beliefs and traditions. The two most prominent types are probably Christianity and Messianic Judaism. Each type of believer contains at it's core doctrines that come from Scripture and doctrines that come from the traditions of man. The doctrines that come from Scripture are what unite and bond believers into the body of Messiah. The doctrines from the traditions of man are what scatter and divide the flock.

Defining Messianic Judaism

Traditions are the man-made rules and regulations that change or add to the commandments of Scripture. The traditions in Messianic Judaism come from the traditions of Rabbinical Judaism which formed over the last two thousand years. A large portion of them were made in the early centuries AD through the writings, interpretations, and commentaries by those known originally as the Pharisees and later as the Rabbis. Since that time, the commandments of Scripture have been modified or replaced with either man-made rules and traditions or with an inclusion of some secular forms of worship. Although to widely varying extents, the Messianic Jewish groups remain rabbinical in command and observance.

The Rabbinical Structure

Rabbinical Priesthood

The foremost element of the traditions of Messianic Judaism come from when the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. This event caused the Sadducees to lose authority and leadership while the Pharisees gained that leadership as worship moved away from the Temple in Jerusalem and into the local Synagogue. The Pharisees were not priests of the line of Aaron, but they now claimed the power to decide how the people would worship.

The Oral Torah

The Pharisees believed in the authority of the Oral Torah, which is another set of commandments that they claim had been given to Moses and orally handed down through the centuries. This would be written down in the third century AD and is known as the Mishna, or first part of the Talmud. Commentaries about what these laws mean were written down and became known as the Gemera, which is the latter part of the Talmud. This new book of law is the primary focus of Orthodox Judaism and it is heavily copied within Messianic Judaism.

Orthodox Interpretation of Scripture

The Rabbis say that the written Torah (the Tanakh or Old Testament) cannot be understood without knowing the Oral Torah. Under this idea, the Rabbis become the only ones who are able to correctly interpret Scripture and, therefore, are the only ones who have authority. They further claim that Scripture is written in a 'code' that must then be interpreted. The midrashic form of interpreting the Scriptures often uses filters which ignore the wording or context of the passage and enables the making of new traditions.

Sanctified Tradition

The customs and actions of the Rabbis are often made into commandments that must be kept by everyone. Further, some traditions are made simply because a Rabbi said it must be so without any basis from Scripture whatsoever. This takes the customs and the commandments of men and calls them the commandments of the Almighty. These are the very things from the teaching of the Pharisees that the Messiah warned the people not to follow.

Todd Elder is a believer in the Messiah who wants to help people understand Scripture and know the message of Salvation. For more information from the Messianic Traditions series, please visit the
website http://www.exploringsalvation.info and look under 'Scripture'.

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