by J.K. McKee
About a week ago I finished a project that has been hanging over me for almost three years. When the controversy regarding the Epistle to the Hebrews came out in 2005, it became apparent to me that our collective, Messianic understanding of the Bible was significantly behind the curve. So the best thing to do when bad things happen is to make them opportunities to learn. Hebrews for the Practical Messianic was released in 2006, followed by A Survey of the Apostolic Scriptures for the Practical Messianic. I knew that it would not be enough for me to just have a survey textbook on the writings of the New Testament. After a long period of piecing together composition summaries and my own surveys of each Old Testament book, A Survey of the Tanach for the Practical Messianic is now almost ready to be released. Even though our understanding of the Apostolic Scriptures can still improve, few realize that our collective understanding of the Tanach may not be that much better.
In today’s Messianic movement, we hear a great deal about our Father “restoring Torah” and the need for “Torah study.” We commit ourselves to reading the weekly parashah, and seeing how it affects our lives as God’s people. I believe these are good things that have helped Messianic Believers grow in their faith. Yet with all of the eagerness out there about “Torah,” there is very little eagerness out there about the Tanach. Every cycle we end the story at the shores of the Jordan River, and begin again at the birth of the cosmos. Not only do we often not continue the story, but even among the story that we are reading we jump over significant parts of the text.
I remember when The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) was released five years ago in 2004. Messianics just had to buy it! While it was supposed to include a compendium of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish scholarship—it was pretty easy to see that its commentary leaned quite heavily on the Reform side. All people had to do was read the introduction to the Book of Genesis and see that there was a perspective on the composition of the text that they had never heard before. “I thought Moses wrote the Torah! Who are these J, E, D, and P guys? What is all this stuff about the Epic of Gilgamesh preceding Noah’s Flood?” Suffice it to say, Messianics who bought The Jewish Study Bible got a very flash presentation of a liberal theology that has been present in sectors of Judaism, and in sectors of Christianity, for a very long time. When this happened, The Jewish Study Bible got relegated to the bookshelf to start collecting dust, and Messianics simply returned to reading publications by the much more trusted venue of ArtScroll.
Whether you realize it or not, there have been controversies surrounding the reliability of the Tanach Scriptures for over two centuries, which have dominated a great deal of liberal Judaism and liberal Christianity. The Jewish Study Bible of 2004 simply put together some views of the Tanach Scriptures that are by no means new in the world of Biblical Studies. The Orthodox Jewish tradition, as best epitomized by the publications of ArtScroll, is completely oblivious to the liberal-conservative divide, as it often stays completely away from engaging with Ancient Near Eastern history or archaeology or textual criticism in its examination of the Tanach. Messianics often follow suit. Evangelical Christian Old Testament scholarship, believing in the reliability of the Tanach, engages with liberal scholarship in an effort to prove it wrong—and I believe it does so rather successfully.
During the next few weeks, our Messianic faith community will be examining the opening parashot of the Book of Exodus—one of the most controversial books of the Bible. I was already asked one question this year regarding the chronology of the Ancient Israelites slavery in Egypt. For the past three years (since I’ve been counting), almost every Messianic interpretation I have seen of “a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (Exodus 1:8) consistently fails to place this word within the context of Ancient Egypt and the dynasty of the pharaohs. Almost none are aware of the debate over the Exodus taking place in either the Fifteenth or Thirteenth Centuries B.C.E. (making the Torah either 3,500 or 3,300 years old). And, what if I were to say that there is also debate over the number of the people in the Exodus, and how to translate the Semitic term elef in Numbers 1—as either “thousand” or “squad”? The latter would probably make the total number of Israelites as less than 300,000 at the most, as opposed to 2-3 million.
I suppose I should be grateful that these kinds of questions are being asked about the Book of Exodus, and not the Book of Genesis!
Anything any of us believes to be sacred, wherever it appears in the Bible, has been ripped apart by someone at some time. I believe in the trustworthiness of the Scriptures. But what I do not believe in is being ignorant of those who have ripped apart the Bible. I believe that we have to be aware of issues, theological systems, and liberal views that attempt to tell us that the accounts of the Tanach are nothing more than mythology. I have been consciously aware of the fact that in putting together A Survey of the Tanach for the Practical Messianic, that I have had to piece together information on views regarding the composition of the Torah, and the overall trustworthiness of the Old Testament, which few Messianics are even aware of. Do you believe that the Messianic movement, when encountering debates over the reliability of the Tanach, can continue to just run to the Orthodox Jewish tradition—which often sits within an historical vacuum—or that it must consider a wider array of conservative responses? Are you aware that evangelical Christian Old Testament scholarship is often the best source for such an appropriate, conservative response to the claims of liberals?
A Survey of the Tanach for the Practical Messianic is a resource that is long, long overdue for a faith community that seeks to return to a foundation in the Tanach. We obviously need to know more about the role that the Tanach plays in telling us about the life and ministry of Messiah Yeshua. We need to begin to look at texts like Judges, the Psalms, and the Prophets for critical instruction regarding the human condition. We need to heed the Tanach’s call for greater justice and righteousness to prevail in our lives. It is my hope that as this resource is released soon, that new doors in not only our Biblical Studies, but also in our approach to ministry and God’s mission, will be opened!
