It has been my observation over the past ten years or so that today’s Messianic movement at times does not do very well when it comes to the subject of other societies and cultures, particularly those of the Biblical period. While we may sing songs that include praises to the God who saves “every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9), in practice what we can often find is a great deal of ungodly prejudice and assumption.
There is no more excellent example of this that I have witnessed then in the great amount of criticism issued against the Greek civilization. Greek people are still those created by God and loved by Him, and as the Apostolic Scriptures testify, many of them welcomed Yeshua the Messiah into their lives and were saved! Is this something to be frowned upon? I think not.
I would agree that there has been some negative influence on theology and spirituality caused by Hellenistic philosophy. No honest theologian today disagrees with this. Yet at the same time, there are often things that today’s Messianics too hastily classify as “Greek,” that they fail to provide documentation for. Who said or believed such-and-such a thing? Plato? Aristotle? Xenophon? Epictetus? I have no problem of not adopting a so-called Greek mindset on an issue, provided that a teacher can actually tell me and quote for me what a Greek philosopher taught.
Several months ago, as I completed the reworked edition of my article “To Be Absent From the Body,” now at 62 pages, I had to discuss what the Greeks actually believed about the afterlife. What we find for this issue is that there is too much variance to actually claim that “the Greeks believed…” Some believed in an afterlife in Hades, some believed in reincarnation, and some believed in nothingness. To claim that the ancient Jewish Pharisees picked up a theology about an afterlife from interactions with the Greeks is actually quite inaccurate and far too simplistic. Many of those who make this claim, unknowingly quoting liberal scholars, fail to realize that the same liberal scholars think that the Jews picked up the idea of resurrection from the Greeks! Furthermore, societies even predating the Israelites in the Ancient Near East believed in some kind of disembodied post-mortem state. One could just as easily argue that the Israelite slaves picked up this concept in Egypt.
And that is what I would like to comment about.
How was your Passover this year? I hope it was a blessed time, where you were able to once again understand the great depth of Yeshua’s salvation, and recommit yourselves to living out the message of the Exodus. To what extent did you really discuss the importance of the Exodus? Did you really take seriously God’s word to Pharaoh of how “I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth” (Exodus 9:14)?
I have always taken verses like Exodus 9:14 to be very serious claims of how the God of Israel, while having chosen a special people for His purposes, nonetheless has a wider and greater plan for the entire Earth. Israel’s chosenness is one where they must accomplish His mandate of being a conduit of His goodness and love to others. Deuteronomy 4:6 admonishes that Israel’s keeping of the Torah will serve as a testimony of His wisdom to others. As many of us believe that the Father is restoring the Torah to a place of prominence among His people today, then we need to learn how to be wise and how to properly live out such a message.
Since I returned on my vacation to the United Kingdom in July, I have been using a picture of myself taken in the Egyptian Gallery of the British Museum in London. Recently, a McHuey Blog reader—not knowing where the picture was taken—snidely commented,
Why does a “believer” have himself photographed with a pagan statute? Smiling, no less.
This is exactly the kind of attitude, prejudice, and immaturity that I have sadly and unfortunately come to expect from many of today’s Messianics. No attempt was made by the reader to ask where the photo was taken, or what was being communicated by me using it. No dialogue or discussion about it—just prejudicial remarks and attack. And, I do not recall showing my teeth in such a “smile,” so perhaps the criticizer forgot to put his glasses on?
Many of you have probably just scratched your heads when seeing this photo. Others of you know that this is an obvious picture taken in a museum, in a gallery of artifacts from the Biblical period. You expect educational ministries like ours to go to such museums, and interact directly with archaeological and cultural finds. We do this so we can teach the Scriptures with greater precision and accuracy, when a subject like “Egypt” comes up.
So what does the picture communicate? The relief is actually a representation of Ramses II, who many believe was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. What did Exodus 9:14 communicate to this Pharaoh? He was chosen by God to play a crucial role in the most important event of the Tanach Scriptures. For us as Believers today, when we see a statue of Ramses II, we are reminded of how our all-powerful God humiliated the Thirteenth Century B.C.E. superpower, and delivered His people from bondage. And yet, even though Egypt was humiliated, and Ancient Israel was delivered, it is still said “A mixed multitude also went up with them” (Exodus 12:38).
We need to remove ourselves from the ungodly prejudices we have allowed to fester in our midst for too long. If we do not learn to communicate better, empowered by God’s wisdom, then the Messianic movement will not make the kind of impact we should have on people of Greek ancestry, Egyptian ancestry, or any other kind of ancestry. We have to learn to not make snap judgments, but be well-informed and thoughtful before we open our mouths. Can any of us as Messianics actually communicate with the Epicureans and Stoics of our day, as Paul did at the Aeropagus in Athens in Acts 17? Perhaps we will have to leave that discussion for another time…
(If anyone is wondering, the current picture I am using was taken on the grounds of Club Continental, an old mansion, in Orange Park, FL.)
Yeah, I know a lot of folks like the one you describe. Everything is pagan, and you’re attacked for not being as purist as they are.
I guess I used to be like that sometimes, too.
I hope we can mature out of that.
By: judahgabriel on 29 April, 2009
at 3:04 am
What you say is very true. I have seen on certain forums some attack others because they actually are Greek. How sad is that? While it is true that we all want to worship and live the way God intended us to live, we cannot deny who we are or where we have come from.
*****
JKM: These words are very true! I am reminded of some remarks Jewish commentator Nahum Sarna makes on the Fifth Commandment that speak to this very issue:
“Some societies and religious movements teach that people can be truly themselves only if they reject their parents. In Judaism, to reject one’s parents is to reject all of one’s ancestors and pretend that one has no past. It verges on rejecting the ultimate parent, God, from whom all life flows. Thus, although a new convert to Judaism is technically considered a new person with no past…most authorities would direct the convert to continue to honor his or her parents” (in Etz Hayim, pp 446-447).
By: Peter Stone on 30 April, 2009
at 10:15 am
WELL SAID, couldn’t have expressed my thoughts any more clearly than you just did in this article. And, hey, at least the ‘writer’ is reading. Keep on with the balanced teachings. I’ll be continuing to learn.
By: Arizona Kathy on 30 April, 2009
at 4:32 pm
You are wise beyond your years. This article was again right on.
It also made my point I discussed last year during the political hoopla of the election. I could not believe the acid and virulent attacks by “Conservatives”. No doubt, the elected president is more on the liberal side and may cause more harm then good, but I can’t see in Scripture that we are to ridicule, falsely accuse, and wish ill on another person. We should stand up for the right things but not to denegrade others.
It seems to me that many people solely operate on “feelings” and do not think things thru. If we attack a brother without reason and don’t allow room for discussion, how can we reach out to others who are on a different plane altogether.
*****
JKM: Thank you! While people certainly have a right to express their grievances or their problems, there is an appropriate and civil way to do so. Unfortunately throughout the history of humanity, people have often preferred to do so in a way that is demeaning toward others. This can only exacerbate problems.
Thankfully, we are not the only people who see these kinds of problems to be remidied in our contemporary culture, but also our own Messianic community. Ironically enough, some of the issues (like what to do when ancient cultures in Scriptures are unfairly demeaned) I have been keeping my mouth shut about for 4-5 years. Having patience and learning to discern the kairos moment of when to speak is not at all something learned easily.
By: Dagmar on 1 May, 2009
at 3:34 pm
I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for voicing an unpopular perspective, yet one that I think some hold but are too intimidated to express.
Maybe we all need to take a good class in philosophy and cross-cultural missions.
Grace and peace
By: judeoxian on 11 May, 2009
at 4:35 pm
Happy to read about diversity in Greek vision of the afterlife. We recently reviewed the diversity of Jewish perspectives on the afterlife, which include reincarnation as well.
I’m not too familiar with the writings of Luria … but he seems to have pioneered Jewish support for the concept of reincarnation. I wonder how these ideas were formed and if they had roots in interaction with Greek thought.
*****
JKM: The article that I revisited was specifically written to refute the doctrine of psychopannychy (“soul sleep”), and as such needed to disspell the urban legend that the ancient Pharisees picked up the idea of a disembodied post-mortem state from the Greeks. There is too much ancient literature to make such a simplistic generalization. The belief in a disembodied post-mortem afterlife can be traced back even to ANE works that pre-date the Israelites, such as The Descent of Ishtar or the Egyptian Book of the Dead. As one can astutely observe, present Messianic engagement with the wider world of the Bible is in desperate need of improvement here.
I think that N.T. Wright has done us all a favor in coining the phrase “life after the afterlife.” While the Scriptures are clear that there is an intermediate, disembodied state awaiting the redeemed in the Lord’s presence–it is by no means permanent. The redeemed age that is promised to us for eternity should motivate people now–who live in the present evil age–to capture as much of that future age in the life of ministry service and mission.
By: yinonblog on 18 May, 2009
at 6:57 pm
“To claim that the ancient Jewish Pharisees picked up a theology about an afterlife from interactions with the Greeks is actually quite inaccurate and far too simplistic.”
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Accepting another spiritual practice, idea or belief other than what was specifically taught by God the Father in the Torah and Tanakh was always, always, always considered adultery, hence Jesus’ stern admonition in Luke 16:18.
The Pharisees had indeed adopted pagan beliefs about death and the afterlife from the Greeks, Babylonians and Egyptians and Jesus set about tearing down their beliefs in Luke 16:19-31.
*****
JKM: I would respectfully recommend you read my article before you start assuming things. A cursory reading of the Tanach is clear that the Ancient Israelites believed in a conscious post-mortem state in Sheol. If they did not believe that the dead existed in some kind of netherworld, there would be no Torah command against necromancy. The human being made in God’s image is not a one-dimensional creature.
Furthermore, regardless how one interprets the symbols seen in Luke 16, it still depicts a post-mortem, disembodied state.
By: David Moorman on 24 May, 2009
at 11:16 pm