Commandments or Traditions - Understanding the New Testament

What does the Messiah speak against throughout the Gospels? I used to think he often went against instructions from the Old Testament. This is one of the core causes of the widespread disregard for the Biblical laws. This comes from not making a clear distinction between the commandments of the Bible and manmade Jewish laws.

By the time the Savior arrived on the scene much of the Biblical faith had evolved into what is known as Judaism. Many of us today have believed that Judaism is simply the faith that you get from observing the Old Testament, but that is not so.

The Torah/commandments/instructions of Scripture are not the same as the laws of Judaism (or any other manmade religious laws for that matter). Yes, the majority of Jewish laws are based on the Old Testament laws, but Judaism also invented thousands of laws that its followers keep. While it's not necessarily wrong to do many of the things it recommends, it is certainly wrong to teach that these things are commandments of YHWH or on par with what the Bible says. The Messiah addressed this very issue in Matthew 15:9 saying, "They worship me in vain, teaching traditions of men as if they were commandments."

Later in Matthew 22:29, the Messiah said that these religious leaders, "go astray, not knowing the Scripture, nor the power of YHWH." This was not a group of people who were unfamiliar with the Bible, mind you. They could have quoted it with the best of them. When he said they didn't know the Scriptures, he meant that they didn't correctly understand or apply them! Not understanding Scripture naturally leads to incorrect ideas. We see the Messiah address one of these wrong beliefs in Mark 7, when the issue of eating with unwashed hands comes up. The Bible never says you have to first wash your hands in order for your food to be clean, but that was being wrongly taught by religious leaders in his day.

We should also note that the words Jew and Jewish don't really make an appearance in Scripture until the New Testament. I remember being surprised while looking through a Jewish children's book. I was taken aback to see Abraham called Jewish and statements like, "Moses lead the Jews out of slavery," because Scripture does not say those things. Abraham was called a Hebrew, and the Israelites were the people enslaved in Egypt...to say that the Bible calls either of these Jews would be inaccurate. That there was a group calling themselves by a name Scripture does not give should tip us off that there is some departure there from the Bible. By the way, the term 'Jew' wasn't just slang for those from the tribe of Judah...Paul tells us that he was a Jew even though he was from the tribe of Benjamin.

Consistently throughout the Gospels we see the Messiah clashed with Jewish religious leaders. The conflict was caused by Yahusha's absolute refusal to honor the laws of Judaism the way he kept and honored the Torah. We see this when he drives the moneychangers from the Temple, when the Sadducees try to entrap him in the discussion on marriage in Heaven, when he is accused of violating the Sabbath, and in the discussion of eating with unwashed hands. In Matthew 15 he pointedly asked Jewish leaders, "Why do you transgress the commandments of YHWH by your tradition?"

I point this out so that we can realize the Messiah is not arguing against the validity of the Old Testament or the commandments of the Torah in these clashes with Jewish leaders. He is rather standing up for those things! Yahusha told his disciples to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." He wanted them to be leery of the things Judaism was teaching because they often went against Scripture. When the Messiah was clashing with religious leaders, it was always because he was honoring Scripture above manmade commandments. Seeing this is vital to accurately understanding the Bible.

This theme continued after the Messiah's ascension into heaven:

-Stephen was stoned by Jewish leaders for using YHWH's name...even though Scripture says to not bring it to nothing by not using it.

-Paul described Judaism as his former way of life. Former, meaning that now that he served Yahusha he was no longer participating in that religious system.

-Peter is given a vision about not upholding a Jewish law when YHWH has said the opposite of it. This is his Acts 10 vision where he saw the unclean animals and heard a voice say, "What YHWH calls clean, you do not call unclean." Peter explains this to mean that he shouldn't uphold Jewish law of not eating with Gentiles, when God has called those people clean and invited them into his family.

-Paul later confronts Peter when he reverts back to Jewish tradition in place of YHWH's instruction. He tells him, "You have discarded the Jewish laws, why are you trying to make these Gentiles follow Jewish tradition?" He was saying that believers in Messiah had no need for Jewish traditions, but he was not speaking against the Bible's commandments for us.

Seeing that the Messiah and all the New Testament writers placed a difference between the instructions of the Bible and the religious system of Judaism will help us to better understand the word! For a long time I thought the debates and confrontations in the New Testament were the Messiah and the disciples disregarding Scripture, but this is not so. The Messiah always supported and honored the Torah and commandments from the Old Testament! By making the distinction between Biblical instructions and manmade traditions of Jewish law we can correctly understand the words of the Messiah and the authors of the New Testament.

Related posts:
The Three Types of Laws in Scripture
Understanding Mark 7 and The Messiah Declaring All Foods Clean
Four Distinctions We Need to Make to Understand Scripture

(I want to clarify that I do not want to be disrespectful to Jewish people or stir up hate. I am not judging the sincerity of anyone's faith. Your salvation is between you and the Creator. I know Jews who are wonderful people, and my goal is not to pick on anyone here. I simply want to examine a significant theme of Scripture.)

Biblically Clean Soups

These recipes are for Biblically clean soups. When the weather is chilly, what's better than a comforting pot of soup simmering away on the stove? I especially love making a large batch of soup for dinner on Thursday or Friday and then enjoying the leftovers for Sabbath lunch. It's so simple but still delicious, plus most soups taste even better the next day. You could of course have these any day of the week. Enjoy these great soups!

Many Veggie Vegetable Soup from Love and Lemons

Slow Cooker Hearty Chicken Soup from Half Baked Harvest

Pasta e Fagioli from Cookie and Kate

Broccoli Cheese Soup from Pinch of Yum

Braised Short Rib Beef Stew from How Sweet Eats

Corn Chicken Chowder from This Healthy Table

Spicy Ancho Turkey Chili from Pinch of Yum

Thai Inspired Chicken Noodle Soup from Minimalist Baker

Classic Mexican Tortilla Soup from A Beautiful Plate

Spicy Black Bean Soup from Cookie and Kate

Garden Vegetable Soup from A Couple Cooks

Butternut White Chicken Chili from How Sweet Eats

Roasted Garlic White Bean Lasagna Soup from Pinch of Yum

Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup from Half Baked Harvest

Sun Dried Tomato Corn Chowder from How Sweet Eats

Best Lentil Soup from Cookie and Kate

Wild Rice Soup from Pinch of Yum

Chickpeas and Dumplings from from How Sweet Eats

Cabbage Soup from Love and Lemons

Smoked Salmon Chowder from Pinch of Yum

Classic Tomato Soup from A Couple Cooks

Sweet Potato Lentil Soup with Rice from Half Baked Harvest

Butternut Squash Soup from A Couple Cooks

Sweet Potato Tortilla Soup from Pinch of Yum

Easy Hamburger Soup from Salt and Lavender

More recipe ideas for the Biblically clean diet:
Biblically Clean Meal Ideas
Biblically Clean Tacos
Biblically Clean Cookout Dishes

Stoning in the Bible

If God is so loving and kind then why did people get stoned?

I hear this question a lot when I talk about my faith with others. I'll share about Sabbath keeping or the Biblical holidays, and then people will ask if I'm for stoning people. If we honor the instructions given in the Old Testament then doesn't that mean we would have to go around stoning people?

Stoning comes up in both the Old and New Testaments, and was a prescribed punishment for the following sins:

Idolatry (Deuteronomy 12:2-5)
Practicing necromancy and other occult practices (Leviticus 20:27)
Murder (Leviticus 24:17)
Saying evil against the name of YHWH (Leviticus 24:16)
Approaching Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:12-13)
Certain sexual sins (Deuteronomy 22:21)

(Other sins were punishable by death, but of a different means. In this post we are just going to look at stoning.)

In order for someone to be stoned for one of these sins there first needed to be a trial, and at least two witnesses needed to testify against the accused. Interestingly, those who witnessed against someone were required to be the first to throw stones (Deuteronomy 17:7).

Did you know that very few people were actually stoned in Scripture? The mainstream viewpoint nowadays tends to be that the God of the Old Testament was so cruel or demanding that people got stoned for any little thing, but that is seriously not the case. We see very few people get stoned in the Bible.

People stoned in Scripture:

-Stephen (Acts 7:58)
-Paul (Acts 14:19 - though he didn't die)
-Naboth (1 Kings 21:13)
-Adoniram - The man King Rehoboam put in charge of forced labor (1 Kings 12:18)
-Zechariah the priest for prophesying against those breaking the commandments (2 Chronicles 24:21)
-Achan - The man who took things from Jericho (Joshua 7
-Shelomith's son - A man who blasphemed the name of YHWH - (Leviticus 24:10-16)
-The man who picked up sticks on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36)

Stephen, Paul, Zechariah, and Naboth, and Adoniram were all wrongfully stoned. They had not committed the sins that lead to death by stoning, and they certainly weren't given fair trials. Stephen and Paul were stoned for sharing the Gospel; in Stephen's case he was likely stoned for using and speaking highly of the name YHWH - which of course is the opposite of speaking evil against the name of YHWH, a valid reason for stoning. The people were angry when Zechariah asked them why they weren't obeying Scripture's instructions, and they stoned him. Naboth was stoned by two of the Kingdom of Israel's most evil leaders - Ahab and Jezebel - for not selling his family inheritance to them. Adoniram was stoned as part of the Israelite revolt against forced labor under Solomon's son King Rehoboam. The stoning of these men were not ordained by YHWH.

But what about the others? We are left with only three people:

1. Shelomith's son was stoned for blaspheming and cursing the name of YHWH.

2. Achan was stoned for taking gold and silver from Jericho that was to be set apart for YHWH.

3. The man who gathered wood on the Sabbath day was stoned for not guarding the Sabbath.

What do these men have in common? They all intentionally despised the word of YHWH! It's crucial to understand they did these things on purpose. They were not in ignorance of the commands they violated. They didn't misunderstand or didn't hear an instruction. They willingly chose to be disobedient.

Let's take a look at what happened to each.

1. Shelomith, an Israelite woman, had a son with an Egyptian and this son blasphemed and cursed the name of YHWH. The Israelites put him under guard, and waited to hear directly from YHWH what was to be done with him (Leviticus 24:12). Please note that they were waiting to hear from YHWH because of the graveness of this offense. Blaspheming and cursing the name is something that Scripture warns against repeatedly, and it's even included in the ten commandments. The rest of the people took these commandments very seriously and knew that something needed to be done because of this. 

2. Achan was stoned for taking gold, silver, and garments from Jericho after the walls of Jericho came down. He took these things knowingly and intentionally, after repeated warnings such as,

"The city shall be put under the ban, and all that is in it belongs to YHWH...and by all means guard yourselves from that which is under the ban, lest you come under the ban when you take of that which is banned from you, and make the camp of Israel a curse and shall trouble it. The silver, gold, bronze, and iron are to be set apart to YHWH, and go into the treasury of YHWH." -Joshua 6:17-19

Did you catch the last part? Achan wasn't just taking things he was told not to, he was taking thing that he knew belonged to YHWH. No one else in Israel did this. The only things that came out of Jericho were Rahab and her family, and the silver, gold, bronze, and iron which were to go the treasury of YHWH. Everything else was burned (Joshua 6:24).

3. Lastly we have the Sabbath breaker, the man who was stoned for gathering wood on the Sabbath day. The people who found him were so dismayed to see him doing this on the Sabbath day that they brought him to Moses and Aaron, and then they waited to hear what YHWH wanted done to this man. YHWH told them to stone him to death (Numbers 15:35).

I think a lot of us read about the man who was stoned for picking up sticks on the Sabbath and kind of feel like we are treading on eggshells...if we do any little thing the slightest bit wrong then we are done for. 

Most people today genuinely don't know about the Sabbath. Maybe they've heard of it, but if they have chances are they don't know that it's the seventh day of the week or what it looks like to honor it. However in Biblical times absolutely everyone knew and was familiar with it. No businesses were open, no one was doing work, there was a culture of preparing extra food the day before to avoid having to gather food on the Sabbath. In this man's time, manna was provided for the Israelites six days a week. It was not provided on the Sabbath and there was no doubt whatsoever what day it was when he made the choice to gather firewood. Not resting on the Sabbath was simply not done. 

All of the people who were rightfully stoned in Scripture knew that what they were doing was wrong and chose to do it anyway, expressly going against the word of YHWH.

Just before this in Numbers 15 Scripture makes a distinction between sinning by mistake, and sinning defiantly. If someone sins on accident, whether through ignorance, or misunderstanding, the punishment for that is not stoning. Rather Numbers 15:25 says we are forgiven for sins we committed by mistake when we repent and bring an offering. We have all sinned by mistake...maybe we didn't realize what the instructions YHWH has for us were, maybe we had been taught poorly, or maybe we were confused. YHWH understands this and offers us mercy and forgiveness.

However when we sin defiantly that is a different story. This makes sense doesn't it? When a student, coworker, child, spouse, or friend does something we don't appreciate accidentally it is much different than if they do something intentionally to spite us. Numbers 15:31, "Because he has despised the word of YHWH and broken his command, he shall certainly be cut off, and his crookedness upon him."

We can't emphasize this enough. YHWH does not punish people for accidental slip ups the same as he does for those who defiantly go against him and despise his word! This sentiment is echoed in the New Testament, by the Messiah himself, "The servant who knew his master's desire, and did not prepare, nor did according to his desire, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet did what deserved flogging, shall be beaten with few." (Luke 12:48)

This examination of Scripture shows that the Living God was not about stoning people for any little thing they did wrong or accidental sin. His law called only for those who intentionally despised his commands to be put to death.

 More posts to help better understand Biblical law:

The Three Types of Law in Scripture
Why We No Longer Sacrifice Animals and How That's Permissible in Biblical Law
Biblical Instructions: Have to or Get To
Understanding Acts 15

Understanding 1 Corinthians 10:27

When I was first getting an understanding of Biblically clean eating and keeping other commandments in Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10:27 kept throwing a wrench in my understanding of the Bible.

This verse often gets translated like this:

"If any unbeliever invites you to a meal, and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience." -1 Corinthians 10:27 NIV

Isn't this giving permission for us to eat anything, including unclean animals? At least when someone serves it to us? And if I shouldn't raise questions of conscience, I guess that means I should disregard any concerns I have over the ethics and decisions of multi-national corporations that are largely in control of the food supply, and not worry about things like supporting local farmers, good growing practices, or fair trade.

While it's hard to understand the above passage as anything but a free pass to do whatever we want, that is incredibly confusing in light of so many other passages from Scripture about clean eating! Why does the Bible share the story of Daniel refusing to eat unclean meat? Why does Peter mention after his vision that he has never eaten anything unclean? Why were Adam and Eve kicked out of the garden because of eating something the Creator told them not to? Why does Leviticus succinctly enumerate which animals should not be eaten? What is the point of all this if we are ultimately allowed to eat anything?

We need to know that the ancient Greek did not have punctuation. It just had words. How you string them together will greatly impact the meaning of the words! Do you remember those illustrations from middle school English on the importance of commas? Words like, "I want to eat, Mother" can mean someone is telling their mom they want to have dinner. But if you remove the comma and are left with, "I want to eat Mother," then the same words take on a cannibalistic meaning! That's a silly example but it demonstrates how punctuation can dramatically change the meaning of a sentence.

When Scripture is translated into English, it's up to the translators to add the grammar and punctuation that make it a lot more readable for us. How could their personal beliefs and the religious tradition they are surrounded with not impact where they choose to put those punctuation marks? While I believe the word of YHWH is perfect, human translations of it are not.

The word for word Greek translation goes like this:

all - the - those being offered - to you - you eat - not any - thoroughly judging - through - the - knowledge

The first time I read this I stopped after, "All being offered to you you eat." But if you keep going you have, "All being offered to you you eat not any." What a difference! This gives us an entirely opposite meaning! In the Greek, there is no punctuation to indicate if the word for 'not any' should be paired with eating or with thoroughly judging. It's up to the reader to understand how these words fit with Scripture. We do that by looking at the context this statement is made in - what's going on in the rest of the chapter? what was being discussed before that? who is the audience? - and what the rest of the Bible says about this subject.

Which translation fits better with the context of this statement?

A few verses prior in 1 Corinthians 10:21, "You cannot drink from the cup of YHWH and the cup of demons." And just a few verses later, 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of YHWH," which illustrates that our decisions around food can glorify YHWH or not. From those verses it wouldn't make sense to say to not raise questions of conscience or use judgment when it comes to food matters.

Which translation fits better with the rest of the Bible?

We have instructions like, "you shall not eat what is unclean," lists explaining what can and cannot be eaten, examples of people like Daniel and Peter, and no indication whatsoever from the Messiah that they food instructions are no longer applicable. He even went out of his way to say, "I did not come to abolish the commandments." Translating the verse as, "Eat whatever is set before you without using your judgment," would be starkly opposed to other things the Bible says about eating.

There isn't anything in the context of this chapter or the rest of the Bible to support the common translation of, "Eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience." That translation is jarring and doesn't fit with the rest of Scripture. A few chapters prior Paul literally tells us not to eat something that would cause someone else to stumble, so it wouldn't make sense for him to say to eat anything now.

Are you a follower of church tradition or YHWH's word? If we call ourselves Bible believers, would it be more fitting to translate this verse in a way that lines up with the rest of Scripture or with church doctrine? For me, that's an easy choice.

I believe a better translation of this part of Scripture would be:

"Whatever is set before you eat nothing, ask questions for conscience's sake."

When we understand the verse this way it fits with the rest of Scripture, and the verse makes more sense itself. Otherwise, why would it throw the bit in there about the conscience or "thoroughly judging through knowledge"? Does that really sound like the Bible, "Go ahead and do whatever - don't worry about your conscience"? This book is filled with commandments on how to live and stories of examples we are to follow - including people literally dying to keep YHWH's instructions - and then suddenly, "Whatever situation you're in, don't worry about turning to Scripture to see what you're supposed to do." (Because 'the knowledge' would be knowledge of what the Bible says.) Not judging if something is acceptable according to Scripture or not would also be a direct contradiction from the Messiah's instruction in John 7:24 to judge righteously!

It's also interesting to look at why this might have been said. We know that many early believers who had been part of Judaism followed an unbiblical rule of not eating with unbelievers. This began to change following Peter's vision, so many former Jews were eating with people who were new to the faith, or unbelievers, for the very first time. Paul is giving practical advice on how you act when you are in that situation, since many people he knew hadn't experienced that before. Also happening at the time was a huge evangelism push, where believers travelled far and wide to share the good news of the Messiah. These people were intentionally going to the homes of unbelievers and needed to know how to conduct themselves in a godly way. Paul is reminding his audience that unbelievers or even new believers are typically not familiar with the Biblical instructions about food, so that they don't accidentally eat something the Bible says not to while dining in someone's home.

This verse is an admonishment to actively work to keep the Bible's instructions about what we eat. It is literally telling us to ask questions before diving into a meal that someone else has prepared. When we have dinner at a family reunion, brunch at a friend's, or go out for a meal it is appropriate to ask questions about the ingredients so that we can maintain a Biblically clean diet. Questions like, "What's in this salad?" or "Is the quiche vegetarian?" or "Is this sausage beef or pork?" are okay to ask so that you can be informed about the decisions you make! Since we are to glorify YHWH with what we eat, that effort is well worth it.

More on Biblically clean eating:
Understanding Peter's Vision
Understanding the Messiah Declaring All Foods Clean
Five Reasons Believers Should Keep the Bible's Dietary Commandments