Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Jewish professor of Christianity noahidises Christians


SIGN THE PETITION 

Many Jews and Jewish organizations such as The Center for Jewish-Christain Understanding & Cooperation (CJCUC) are taking the liberty of speaking for Christians by telling them that their religion is Noahidism (here) and that Paul demanded non-Jews follow the Noahide code (here). According to his Wikipedia page "David Flusser (Hebrew: דוד פלוסר; born 1917; died 2000) was an Israeli professor of Early Christianity and Judaism of the Second Temple Period at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem." Flusser has also said the early Christians were Noahides, so we can see how this deception is being perpetrated upon Christian even by academia, which also includes the University of South Africa which was affiliated with a paper that said Apostle James promoted Noahide Law (here).

V The Law 

The first adherents to the new faith among the Gentiles were recruited from among non-Jews who were already close to Judaism. These were the “Godfearers”,16 who accepted certain basic Jewish obligations, at least the so-called Noachide precepts; I hope to show elsewhere that the western text of Acts 15:29, giving the decree of the Apostles, is the original one. According to this, idolatry, shedding of blood, and grave sexual sins were forbidden to Gentile believers. These were originally the Noachide precepts accepted also by the Synagogue on which the Gentiles were obliged.17 It is logical that the Apostolic Church of Jerusalem should accept the view of the Synagogue on the conditions which Gentiles needed to fulfill in order to be saved. It can easily be shown that, according to Jewish opinion, the fulfilment of other commandments of Judaism was not prohibited to Gentiles. On the contrary, the Noachide precepts were only seen as the minimal condition for Gentiles to be recognized as God-fearers. They were so understood by the God-fearers themselves, who were attracted to the Jewish way of life and accepted many Jewish commandments without becoming full proselytes. This was also the attitude of Christian God-fearers, as may be seen from the Epistle to the Galatians;18 many of them wished to observe as many Jewish precepts as they could. It is evident that, while the leadership of the Mother Church decided to lay no burden upon the Gentile believers beyond the Noachide precepts (Acts 10:28-29; see Gal. 2:6), it did not object to their voluntarily observing more. Among the figures of the primitive Church who instructed Gentile Christians to observe more precepts than these essential ones was Peter, as we know from Paul’s criticism of him for demanding that Gentiles live like Jews (Gal. 2:14). Rather than interpreting the apostolic decree as a minimum, Paul evidently saw in the Noachide precepts the maximal obligations of Gentile Christians,19 even if he always strongly recommended a sympathetic understanding of individual Christians who observed personal restrictions. But at the same time, speaking about the incident with Peter at Antioch, he says (Gal. 2:15-21), among other things, that “no man is ever justified by doing what the law demands, but only through faith in Christ Jesus: so we too have put our faith in Jesus Christ, in order that we might be justified through this faith, and not through deeds dictated by law; for by such deeds, Scripture says, no mortal man shall be justified... If righteousness comes by law, than Christ died for nothing.” If this was what Paul thought about the Jewish way of life and of worship, we can easily understand why he did not accept the view that Gentile Christians should or could accept Jewish ritual obligations.

SOURCE: David Flusser. "THE JEWISH CHRISTIAN SCHISM (PART I)". NEW TESTAMENT AND FIRST CENTURIES JUDAISM. Retrieved 08/12/2020 from: http://www.etrfi.info/immanuel/16/Immanuel_16_032.pdf

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