In our earlier post: Gentile Torah Observance: Common Objections, we formulated the following argument as the first objection against Torah observance by Gentile believers in Messiah:
1. Blurring the Jew-Gentile distinction
The distinction Jew-Gentile is blurred out by Gentile Torah observance. Full Torah observance by Gentiles threatens the distinctiveness of the Jewish people. The Jewish people is a distinct nation that should keep its caracteristic features even within the context of the Messianic Community. When Yeshua the Messiah reconciled the two (Jew and Gentile) in one Body (Eph. 2:15-16), this presupposes that the two are and remain distinct. Their harmonious unity in Messiah does not make them the same.
The proper reply to this often heard objection can perhaps be found in an attempt to analyze accurately what is said here. It is said that the Jewish nation should keep its distinct features. When we ask what these distinct features are, the answer given by those who argue in favour of the objection is: the Torah, or more precisely, the ceremonial distinctives of the Torah, which are often described by them as “identity markers of the Jewish people”. Under these distinctives are counted: kashrut, Shabbat, tefillin, &c.
If we accept the reasoning found in this answer, then our conclusion must be that the main objective and goal of the ceremonial commandments is to keep the Jewish nation distinct from the other nations. This answer has two obvious inconveniences. The first inconvenience is that there is no direct connection at all between these two things, i.e. between keeping the Jewish nation distinct and the actual ceremonial commandments of the Torah. If the sole object of the ceremonial Torah were to keep the Jewish people distinct from the other nations by a set of commandments, then there were many ways available to do so. Almost any elaborate set of ritual rules would have sufficed. It is obvious, however, that we cannot reduce the ritual Torah to an arbitrary set of rules intended to keep the Jewish nation distinct from the other nations. The proposed answer thus can give no account of the inherent holiness and righteousness of the Torah commandments. And this leads to the second inconvenience. If, as the objection seems to imply, the distinctiveness of the Jewish nation is the object and goal of the (ceremonial part of) the Torah, then Jewish distinctiveness is made the goal and the Torah the means of obtaining it. But this raises the very serious question: Was the Torah created for the sake of Israel, or was Israel created for the sake of the Torah? What is the means and what is the end in the interrelatedness of Torah and Israel?
Although it is certainly true that the Jewish nation has kept its identity by means of the Torah, this is due to the fact that the Jewish nation finds its destination and goal in upholding and proclaiming the Torah. In other words: Israel is the means and the Torah is the goal. Of course Israel is greatly blessed by having received the Torah, as also the Apostle says (Rom. 3:1-2) when he asks himself: “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?”. And he gives the answer: “Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of G-d”. But clearly this advantage and blessedness is founded in the fact that the Torah is G-d’s revelation of justice, mercy and holiness to Israel — and to mankind by means of Israel.
The basic problem of the reasoning from the concept of the ceremonial aspects of the Torah as “identity markers” is thus that it necessarily leads to the false conclusion that Jewish distinctiveness is an end in itself, instead of being only a necessary means for being a holy nation dedicated to HaShem.
It is possible to subtilize the objection a bit, however, by taking into account the internal distinctions within Israel. For, as is well known, one of the basic distinctions within the Jewish nation is the threefold order of Israelites, Levites and Priests, which is so beautifully symbolized by the three matzot in the Matzah Tasch of the Pesach Seder. Each of these orders has its own laws, and the orders are structured as levels on a hierarchical scale of sanctity. The order a person belongs to is determined by birth, and the number of laws one has to observe corresponds with the position one has on the scale. Now, according to the reasoning style of the objection above, it is a serious transgression for a Gentile to take upon him the obligations and prerogatives of the Israelite, in the same manner as it is a no less serious transgression for an Israelite from the non-priestly tribes to take upon him the obligations and prerogatives of the priesthood. And albeit it should be conceded that the special laws for the priests are no less laws of sanctification than the laws given to all Israel, yet the Israelite of the non-priestly tribes is excluded from observing them. The priestly laws are thus not meant for the sanctification of the average Israelite, but are for the priests only. In other words: The fact that the ceremonial laws of the Torah were not primarily given to separate Israel from the Gentiles but were for the sanctification of Israel does not permit the conclusion that these laws can be universalized and followed by believers from the Gentiles. To derive such a conclusion would require additional arguments. Could it not be, then, one may ask, that believing Gentiles are simply a fourth level or order according to the hierarchical scale mentioned above, constituting the order of the non-Israelites, and that they are called to observe only those laws that were given to Noach after the Flood (Gen. 9)?
It may at first seem that this solution adequately deals with the position of Gentiles and at the same time preserves the distinct position of Israel. But in fact there are great difficulties implied in this scheme of things. One of its consequences is that Gentile believers are now completely outside the Matzah Tasch of Israel! This so-called fourth order is not an additional hierarchical level within the covenant people, but is wholly outside it. It is not a fourth level within the covenant community of Israel, it is of a different covenant community altogether. The Noachide status — whether it be conceived according to its biblical origins in Gen. 9 or according to its later halachic development by the Rabbis — is the status of mankind in general and this status is outside Israels covenants of promise. The Noachide covenant is a covenant about maintaining a basic framework of justice in this world, but it is not related to the World to Come. Therefore it doesn’t adequately reflect the position of believers in Messiah, who, as Paul says in Gal. 3:29 are sons of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise. The covenant of Noach is not based on saving faith, or a walk of life expressive of it.
The only adequate solution for determining the Gentile believers’ position is the recognition that this position has to be within the realm of the covenants of promise, and thus within the covenant community of Israel. By their faith in Messiah Yeshua, Gentile believers are elevated to a position of fellow heirs with Israel, and of being of the same body, a position of being partakers of G-d’s promise in Messiah by the Gospel (Eph. 3:6). This position naturally includes the prerogative and the obligation of Torah observance.
Does this position blur the distinction between Jew and Gentile, and does it impair the distinct position of the Jews as G-d’s chosen people? In a way it does indeed, at least within the community of the believers in Messiah. Within this community Jew and non-Jew alike have Abraham as their father. Nevertheless, this does not mean that Israel loses its special status or its distinctiveness. The believing Gentiles are included in Israel and its special covenants. Their inclusion is made tangible and visible by their Torah observance, that separates them from the unbelieving Gentile world. Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles are thus made equal “in Messiah” on a practical level by their adherence to the Torah. The influx of Gentile believers does not compromise with the distinction between Israel and the world, for the believing Gentiles belong to Israel. Israel is expanded and enriched by them
It is sometimes said that the equality between Jew and Gentile “in Messiah” doesn’t take away their different status, and that for this reason Gentiles should not seek to be Torah observant. But it can hardly be said that there is any real equality maintained in relegating the Gentile to a Noachide status. In fact, doing so is destructive of the practical unity of the Body of Messiah. It reduces this unity to a so called “spiritual” or doctrinal unity — one could perhaps say an ethereal “Platonic” unity — that has no real impact on daily life and that in fact divides the Body of Messiah into two separate communities.
By the addition of the Gentiles it is made abundantly clear that Jewish distinctiveness per se is not the goal of Jewish existence but rather that this distinctiveness finds its destination and purpose in being a holy people for HaShem.
There is still another aspect to be considered. The Messianic Community is only a part of Israel, for it comprises only a part of the Jewish nation, with believing Gentiles added. It is not yet “all Israel”. Outside it, the traditional distinction between Jew and non-Jew is maintained by the unbelieving part of Israel. This is a fact not without significance. At present only a part of the Jewish nation is used by HaShem to bring in the Gentiles and to teach them Torah. The other part keeps aloof and stays away from embracing faith in Messiah. The Body of Messiah thereby shows its forward pointing character, anticipatory of the new creation of the World to Come.
There may perhaps be a deeper reason for the just mentioned internal division of the Jewish nation. This division seems to be similar to the division made by Jacob when he was to meet Esau. It is said (Gen. 32:7-8): “Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: and he divided the people that was with him, and the flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; And said, If Esau come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape”. The messianic part of the Jewish nation is involved in the dangerous operation of conquering the Gentiles by the Gospel and bringing them into subjection to King Messiah. In the early centuries this part of Israel was almost completely defeated and assimilated by the enormous Gentile resistance to the Torah. When the Roman Empire succeeded in its strategy to vindicate itself against the Jewish influence of the Gospel message, and found a way of having Messiah without Torah, the Messianic Jews were almost made irrelevant. The Roman Empire transformed itself to what would become the “Catholic Church” and it accepted Messiah on its own conditions. It developed Replacement Theology as a means to retain its Roman characteristics and culture and as a defensive weapon against the influence of “Jewishness” and Torah.[1]
The other part of Israel stood aside from this, as if saying to itself: “If Esau (= Rome) come to the one company, and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape”. They stood, and still stay, on the back-scene of the Jewish wrestling to bring in the Gentiles. The division of Israel may thus be an aspect of the mystery Paul is hinting at in his letter to the Roman congregation (Rom. 11:25): “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so (= in this manner) all Israel shall be saved”.
If this is true, then the best manner for the Gentile believers to show their inclusion in Israel and its covenants is to adopt a lifestyle of faithful allegiance to the Torah. This will greatly help to diminish the influence of the Roman Church and its anti-Torah culture in the Messianic Community, it will strenghten the messianic part of Israel, and will hasten the time when “all Israel shall be saved”.
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[1] Esau and Edom are associated with Rome in Jewish tradition. Rashi’s Commentary on the Chumash connects Prince Magdiel, one of Esau’s descendents, with Rome (cf. Rashi on Gen. 36:43). View e.g.: http://www.tachash.org/metsudah/b08r.html#ch36
References:
Eby, Aaron, “Gentiles and Torah”. Available at: http://ffoz.org/blogs/2009/01/gentiles_and_torah.html
Graaff, F. de, Het geheim van de wereldgeschiedenis: Zeven overdenkingen van woorden uit de Heilige Schrift, J.H. Kok — Kampen 1982 (pp. 63-136).
Hegg, Tim, ““Do the Seven, Go to Heaven?” An Investigation into the History of the Noachide Laws”. Available at: http://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/NoachideETS2.pdf
Hegg, Tim, “The Unity of the Torah”. Available at: http://www.torahresource.com/EnglishArticles/UnityOfTorah.pdf
Onderwijzer, Rab. A.S., Nederlandsche Vertaling van den Pentateuch, benevens eene Nederlandsche verklarende vertaling van Rashie’s Pentateuch-Commentaar. Van Creveld & Co. — Amsterdam 1895; Opnieuw uitgegeven door het Nederlands-Israëlietisch Kerkgenootschap — Amsterdam 1975.
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