Although the following is an article I wrote several years ago, it still has relevance in the light of a papyrus fragment found where Jesus reportedly introduces his wife. At first, this appeared as another sensational story. Shortly after the news release however, the Harvard Theological Review decided not to publish the paper as it was most likely a forgery. Even the author of the paper, Karen King, stated that it would not prove anything other than the possibility that some early disciples (4th CE) might have thought Jesus was married. That statement by Dr. King was before most experts pointed out the high probability that the fragment is a forgery.
My article takes the question seriously and I offer it for dialogue. I encourage you to read it in its entirety. And, to discourage you from jumping to the end, I do not believe that Jesus was married. There is a journey to be taken as the question is engaged.
Blessings,
Sam
Was Jesus married? What a sensational question! There are those for whom the Virgin birth, in their words, does not matter. Then they turn around and focus on questions like this one as if it matters most of all. Actually, I like the question “was Jesus married?" And, in defense of those who take it seriously, the Torah, the Law, the Pentateuch (the same by each name), compels us to take it seriously as well.
Why does it matter?
To the Adam, the human beings of creation, ... God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
As the earth belongs to God, this is a profound offer and a mitzvah or command. Was Jesus compelled by this command to marry?
Serious scholars ask the question. Those who look for the edgy issues and sometimes possess the “I know something that you don’t know” attitude, ask the question. For whatever reason, the question is legitimate. Jewish people married and they followed the Torah. That was the norm in the time of Jesus. And, among religious Jews, it is the norm today. Before exploring this question with Jesus specifically, let’s ask a more obvious question: Why? Why did Jewish people marry and then study Torah?
Genesis 2 sets forth an order of human creation in contrast to the order of Genesis 1. But, let us assume that both Genesis 1 and 2 are intentional. Rather than being two separate traditions as critical scholarship sometimes asserts, assume that the two chapters build upon each other. Chapter 1 declares that the Creator creates Adam (humanity) in the creators image, male and female. It is not the man or the woman that are created in God’s image. The man and woman together are created in God’s image.
In chapter 2, the Adam is created and placed alone in the garden. The Adam (human) in Genesis 2 remains this androgynous being (male and female) until the close of the chapter. When Adam falls into a deep sleep and is divided (literally a side is taken from him), the Hebrew changes and the word Adam is not used to finish the story. Now, instead of the word Adam, the word is the Hebrew vy™IaEm or Ish. Ish or the man, now calls the newly formed woman, Ishshah (h$DÚvIa). As the text explains, Ish says, She shall be called Ishshah (woman or wife) for she was taken out of Ish (man or husband). This is significant and reaffirms what is stated in chapter 1 and restated in Genesis 5:2. “He (God) created them male and female, and He (God) blessed them and named them ‹M∂dDaèDh (Adam) in the day when they were created.”
The first story of creation
Genesis 1 is about creation and the relationship of the creation to God. For this study, let us consider Genesis 1 as a theological statement first. In contrast, consider Genesis 2 as pragmatic first and theological second. Let me explain.
In the broad themes of Genesis chapter one, we are confronted with the Creator God who orders the chaos. The LXX characterizes the world as invisible. An invisible world where the Spirit of God moves across the void until the moment when God says: Let there be light.
What if we think of this first story of creation as two verses of one hymn. Genesis 1:1-19 and Genesis 1:20-2:3. Genesis one contains ten instances of the phrase “God said.” Five in the first nineteen verses and five in the subsequent verses. Like two movements in a great symphony, the non-living world and the living world are formed and given purpose. Let your imagination listen until you hear the climactic crescendo in the creation of human beings. Light created and ordered. Life created and ordered. The invisible is made visible in the creative acts of the invisible God.
There is another word, another use of the powerful phrase, God said; but it is not until chapter 2:18. In that word, the two stories are inexorably connected.
There is much more to Genesis chapter one. Again, I believe that this is a deeply theological chapter. To reduce the truth of this chapter to the mechanistic modality of creation is a mistake for it ignores the greater truth. God is and we only exist at the will and in the purpose of the Creator.
What is our relationship with God? Are we merely part of creation, just another of God’s creatures? Why did God create human beings? Are we merely to care for the earth as stewards as chapter one suggests? Is it our destiny to multiply and fill the earth as we subdue and care for it? Why are we here?
Applying the question, why, to chapter 2 gives balance, setting the stage for our relationship to God and to one another. In deeply theological terms (the third question of the triad), Genesis 2 forms the basis for humanities relationship with God in the human relationship of husband and wife. Yet, this relationship is first pragmatic. Here is the reality of our existence. Indeed, here is the image of the words: It is not good for man to be alone.
Marriage forms a metaphor to comprehend our relationship to God. The Lord your maker is your husband (Isa. 54:5; Hos. 2:16). If you want a child to understand God’s love, let the child see that love reflected in parents who love one another. Pragmatic, earthy. This is where we live.
In our triad of questions, this is question 2: What does the text mean? Certainly any attempt to leave out the very human reality is mistaken. For this reason, we cannot view the passage solely from the standpoint of our relationship to God for there are human ramifications of great significance in this narrative. Restating the question: What does it mean? How does this affect our halakhah, our way of walking, our corporate life?
In Genesis chapter 1 and 2, Adam, meaning human, is created male and female. In chapter 2, the Adam of chapter one appears first only to give way to the words for man and woman or husband and wife after the deep sleep (ish and ishshah). Clearly in the text, ishshah, the woman or wife, is taken from ish, the man or husband. Consider the reverse. Suppose that the story described woman as the first order of human creation in Genesis 2. What difference would it make in our human understanding?
The natural tendency is to load this question with age old cultural baggage. And, for most of us, it is impossible to clear the ‘dim lenses’ (1 Cor. 13:12) through which we view scripture. Out of our pain and brokenness, we speak to the scripture first without scripture so much as uttering a word. The Word becomes silent! As a result, we muddle along with our assumptions based on personal analysis of our cultural realities.
This being said, I invite you to enter a dialogical relationship with this passage. Speak to it. You cannot stop yourself anyway. Tell it everything that you adore or that you despise. Rant, rave or remain quietly dumbfounded why any 21st Century person would spend much time with such an ancient narrative. Whatever you do, after you are finished, listen! Listen for the Word in the midst of your words. Listen for the message that may speak life. Listen for words, given through human beings, yet given by God as a love letter to the adam in all of us.
First, this chapter presents a major theme of Torah: For human beings, life comes from God’s own being. Hear the poetry in the passage. God breathes life into the Adam (the human), giving the breath of life. God fashions the human from the dust of the earth, from death to life. Life is no mere biological function. It is not a protein molecule forming in some primordial soup. Life is not a sea creature crawling from the water to the ground. Nor is it an evolved primate reaching a higher level of intelligence. Not in this story.
While we do not know the amount of time between adam’s formation from dust until the breath (soul) enters – whether it is eons or an instant – that line of inquiry is entirely irrelevant for Genesis 2 and in this approach to the text. This chapter is not about science, nor fossils, nor time. It concerns a basic reality; human life is different from the rest of creation. In the narrative of Genesis, human life is more than a biological existence. Human life comes from God and exists because of God.
Michelangelo’s image in the Sistine Chapel as the hand of God touches the newly created human is powerful. It is the touch of lovers’ longings, as expressed in ballet. Watch the stage as the ballerina moves nearer to her partner. They touch in an image that feels ethereal, an image that is reflected in Michelangelo’s understanding as portrayed in his famous painting. Perhaps we can understand why Michelangelo choose the image of ballet for the ballerina image paints a picture of intimacy and intimacy is primary to the story.
Contrast Genesis 2. Genesis two is more earthy than Michelangelo’s painting. It is CPR. It is a kiss. It is intimate. God gets down and dirty with humanity, breathing into the nostrils of the human with the result that the creature becomes something more. Adam, the creature, becomes a ‘living being.’ There is nothing illusive about the story. God forms Adam from dust and breathes into Adam the breath of life. Figuratively, God is all over Adam from the loving hands caressing the clay or dust of the earth to the breath that is shared with the lifeless matter. Could this be what Jesus referred to when he said, I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly? (John 10:10)
EDEN
Although God places the human creation in an idyllic place, something is missing. This one creative act in Genesis 2 lacks the unqualified declaration of goodness. Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that Adam should be alone….
There is a certain humor about Genesis 2. Nothing in all creation fills the void in Adam’s life. “… but for [the Adam] there was not found a helper as his partner.”
Remember when you were a teenager and your mom or dad reminded you of your chores right after promising you that you could go be with your friends. Taking out the garbage, washing the dishes or cleaning your room took such an indeterminable amount of time that you felt it would never end. If you recall your emotions, then certainly you could relate to this story as God tells Adam it is not good to be alone and promises a power like his own, only to remind Adam of his job. “Ok Adam, let’s name all the animals.” Certainly there must have been a parental twinkle in God’s eye as the scene unfolds into disappointment. After Adam had surveyed the animals at God’s direction, the text simply states: but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.
If one tries to visualize that scene, the humor leaps out of the story. There he is, poor Adam, naming all the animals and looking for someone to help him overcome his loneliness. How about this one Adam? God might have said as the ostrich parades before him. No wonder Adam fell into such a deep sleep. If Adam had been as most of us, the entire experience possibly left him depressed at the prospects -- or lack there of.
Because Genesis 2 is not as much about creation as it is about relationships, it poses an interesting dilemma. For men and women to stand beside one another with equal respect and mutual value in a relationship, God takes the female from Adam leaving the man (ish) who exclaims that what was formed from him is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. From Adam, Ain Sof, the One, removed a side to form the woman.
I realize that this explanation must feel technical, intense or even unnecessary to many. Why not leave the story as we have always understood it? We could. Without question, the story speaks without any of this probing. And for those who are comfortable, there is the temptation to move on to another subject and leave this one. Let me encourage you to press on. Don’t stop. Give it a little more time. Let your mind and your heart open wider to hear the deeper echoes as the Word takes on flesh in your life.
Considering the text together, Adam is both male and female for the woman will be taken from his side. Woman was taken from man, bone of bones and flesh of flesh. It would never be so again. From that time forward, man would come from woman. Thus from the narrative you avoid the inevitable catch 22. If woman is created first and then gives birth to man, woman becomes the co-creator with God in a way that the male can never share. For men and women to clearly stand together in need of a relationship with the creator, each must receive their life from God. There is no argument. The male did not participate. There was no creative partnership. God created both and the narrative tells the story in such a way as to give both of these primary characters a way to understand their lives as having come from God and God alone.
Nature demonstrates the reality that women are the givers of life, an order determined by God. Yet, from the narrative of Genesis 2, the intricately interwoven lives of male and female and God emerge clearly.
Christian theology reverses the order from male to female to female to male, perhaps for similar reasons. God enters the world and lives as a man in our midst. Does this put men over women? Not when you consider the vessel through which God entered the world. Jesus was taken from no man’s side. Neither was he taken directly from the dust of the earth. The messiah is born of a woman, a chosen vessel, a co-creator of the new Adam. How interesting.
In the Genesis story, there is no mistake. God creates. In the Christian gospel, the good news comes through a partnership between God and a willing vessel, a highly favored one, a woman. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, God’s son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary….” As in the story of creation, a story that offers a balance between female and male, who, though different, achieve a unity, the gospels describe a similar unity. While salvation comes through a male human incarnation of God, that incarnation was first held within a female, without whom this story would not have taken place. Once again, the narrative of scripture teaches mutual respect and value for both men and women in God’s creation.
Is there anything more?
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. 1 John 3:1
This treasured image, written to Christians, whom John addresses as ‘my little children,’
forms the prevailing image in the church of human life in relation to God. Expressed in our liturgy and in our practice, we are the children of God.
In one of our local church preschool classes a four year old fretted all morning looking for the ‘dot.’ Over and over, he walked the room and asked, “Where is the dot?” The perplexed teacher quizzed his mother who expressed surprise, responding that she had no clue. Starting to walk away, a moment of dawning sprang into the mother’s mind. She hurried back to the preschool teacher and told her. “I have a dental appointment today at 11:30 a.m. I told Johnny to be ready at 11:00 o’clock on the dot.”
We understand the childish literalism – or do we? Many Christians never make the connection – children grow into adults. To limit our understanding by only defining ourselves as God’s children, restricts our relationship and prevents us from becoming co-creators with God. There are at least two other images defining our relationship to God. … and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ -- if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:17 Paul makes the connection with adulthood declaring us ‘joint heirs’ with Christ – sisters and brothers of Christ. While claiming Jesus as our elder brother feels good, it should be understood in the culture of the first century. While our elder brother has “gone to prepare a place for us,” he expects us to take care of family business until he returns. We do this as adults and not children. For those who grow in the grace of God, saying that we are children of God is a reassurance of family connections and not a disavowal of responsibility for becoming co-workers with God.
Take it a step further. Jesus prayer for disciples in John 17 asks God to make us one: … that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:21
Viewed through the lens of Genesis 2, we hear the declaration of marriage: For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. Isaiah declares (54:5): ‘the Lord your maker is your husband.’ Revelation 19:7 presents the church as the bride of Christ.
On the journey into adulthood, Jewish people married. God invites us to a wedding feast and the wedding is our own – we enter into union with God – metaphorically and actually.
The relationship between God and humanity is intimate!
At weddings, couples often light a marriage candle. They use two smaller candles, frequently lit by each of the couple’s mothers, signifying the individual lives of their children and acknowledging their connection to family. I used to tell couples: When you light the marriage or unity candle, leave the other two burning. I would say: The marriage relationship is something entirely different, larger than either of you. It has been compared to a tree growing in the middle of your home. You can build your life around it but you cannot ignore it. Even in unity, you are individual persons. By giving yourselves to one another, you allow for the relationship of marriage to develop. You are two whole persons who make up one whole marriage – you do not cease to exist when you marry. So, you may leave your individual candles burning and light the marriage candle.
That was in the days before the leave and cleave mother. Ignoring all other possibilities, this mother of the groom marched to the chancel at the end of the wedding when the wedding party gathered for pictures and blew out the individual candles. “It says, leave and cleave,” she announced loudly. “And I mean for them to do just that.”
She had a point. From her vantage, she was not blowing out the individual lives but rather severing the relationship that previously existed between parent and child. The couple would now find their comfort and love in one another first and the extended family second.
Not to belittle the role of the extended family for many people, this mother taught me a lesson. To marry, one relationship is severed and another is formed. And, while that other relationship still exists, it exists in an altered state. Although still biologically connected, there is a union between the wife and husband superseding the relationship of parent and child.
A country western song of the 1960’s announced the complex and confusing relationship of a man whose family had a tangle of marriages resulting in the title: “I’m my own grandpa.” The marriage relationship is complex. Whether it is romance, a feeling of joy or fulfillment, mutual satisfaction or just companionship, marriages ebb and flow like the tide. We build our sand castles; yet, they are transitory. Borrowing from a 70’s pop tune by the Moody Blues, The tide rushes in and washes our castles away. Or worse, the tide goes out and we walk away without giving it the opportunity to wash the shore again.
As a metaphor for our relationship with God, marriage speaks of the complexity and it witnesses to the reason most people abandon this relationship for the more accessible and less responsible one of parent/child. After all, aren’t parents supposed to forgive, forget and let us muddle about as we go on our way with growing freedom from their interference. While the previous sentence may be more a reflection of our actual parental experience and not a description of Levitical legalism which describes a harsher relationship, it aligns with the narrative stories of David and Absalom or Jesus parable of the Prodigal Son.
Once, as I asked my four year old grandson to do something he did not want to do, I attempted to encourage him by saying: “You’re a big boy now and big boys act differently.” Quickly, he responded, “I don’t want to be big. I want to stay small.” From an adult vantage, life appears easier for children and complex for adults. Such complexity compounds. Adult relationships require something from us that was not expected from children.
Let’s continue by describing the marriage relationship as a metaphor for our relationship with God. Starting from a negative point – we don’t want to be overly idealistic – observe the Biblical condemnations of adultery aimed at Israel as she goes ‘whoring after other gods.’ Israel is to keep herself for Yahweh just a husband and wife keep themselves for one another. Difficulties for the marriage relationship in contemporary times underline this complexity. We are torn between love of God and love of this world. How can we be in the world and remain faithful to a divine lover when the world feels so near to us? Paul declares: … I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27
There are those who experience mutual surrender to one another, grow in confidence in and commitment to one another. Perhaps we should rejoice over couples who find success and fulfillment in marriage and quit berating ourselves for the failures. Marriage is complex.
“We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities in high places….” said Paul in Ephesians 6:12. While the battle may feel physical for we are drawn to the passions of this life, the call to intimacy with God is spiritual. Paul alludes to the struggles we have in the physical world. Often, they hide the real issues – they blind us. When Jesus prays for us in John 17, he prays that we should be protected from the evil one – the god of this world. Thinking about this in terms of the relationship, many passages emerge to define and draw boundaries. Consider: The Lord your God is a jealous God; you shall have no other gods before me.
The creation narrative of Genesis 2 is intimate. It describes a relationship with God that can only be understood in the most intimate of terms. It is as marriage – a good marriage – a marriage where mutual love, mutual respect and loyalty rule. It is filled with the desire to unite, become one, to find a union that is beyond the physical connections. While sexual intimacy remains a pivotal metaphor for understanding the intimacy God desires with us, every husband and wife know that ‘good sex’ depends on many intangibles. Sex is a powerful emotion before it is a powerful physical act. Nurture the emotion and a couple’s touch is far more intimate. Focus on your partner rather than yourself and oneness is more achievable. In fact, good sex like good snow skiing depends upon surrender to forces that transcend our sense of self and unite us with something greater than ourselves. For snow skiers it is unity with the mountain – you stop fighting and move with it’s curves and motion. With a husband and wife, it is mutual surrender, mutual giving, and submission to one another. You may apply this analogy to many aspects of life. You can’t enjoy the sunset if your mind is somewhere else. If your friend’s presence is a nuisance because of other responsibilities, your conversations will be pained. We’ve all heard it. Learning to be ‘present’ in this very moment takes discipline and practice. It’s that way with relationships – especially with God.
Why would God want to be in a relationship with us? I don’t know the answer but I know it is the question of lovers. Why did you pick me from all the girls or guys? Why do you love me? they ask one another.
JÏ‹rgen Moltmann speaks of the ‘humiliation of God.’ Moltmann describes God’s willingness to enter time, to be with the people, to follow in a cloud and pillar of fire, to enter the world as a human being. For Moltmann, the human God is a God of love responding to the suffering of creation by suffering with us. Marriage becomes the perfect metaphor for our relationship with God. Even the words of the marriage covenant describe the reality: “For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish ….” More importantly, it is the metaphor God chose.
The Relationship is Not Equal
In reality, there is never an entirely equal relationship between the husband and wife. One is perhaps brighter, healthier, prettier or more handsome, wealthier, etc. Try to make them equal by describing what each one brings to the relationship and ‘equal’ fails the test. The two are only equal in their equal surrender. In our life with God, surrender is the only option. God surrenders to us and we surrender to God. What a gift! We lose our life to find it again – abundantly.
Martin Buber wrote: In the beginning was the relation….” Everything exists in relation to God and to creation. Consider, “In Christ [God] we live and move and have our being.” This is the image of Genesis 2. Men and women exist because God gives them life. No other living creature is given life by the breath of God. Such intimacy is reserved for humans alone.
If the analogy is appropriately applied, an interesting dilemma arises. “It is not good for adam to be alone.” Does this now apply to God’s own being? It is not good for God to be alone? In James Weldon Johnson’s book, God’s Trumbones, a good example of African American oral tradition, God says: I’m lonely. I’ll make me a man [human].
The passage begs the question. And while some might criticize by pointing out the anthropomorphism aimed at God (speaking of God as expressing human motivation), I would remind us that Genesis one declares we are created in God’s image. To further explain this, Jewish mystics suggest that Ain Sof, the One, created a personality for himself/herself for the purpose of being in relation with creation and then stamped that personality on humanity. In reality, the Biblical narratives are filled with anthropomorphisms. It is God who searches for us, who pursues us. God desires a relationship with us. “I will be your God and you will be my people.”
Was Jesus married?
Jewish people marry and then study Torah. I guess that you realize we have jumped back to the initial question. Jewish people are forbidden to study mysticism until they are married and are at least forty years old with a belly full of Torah. I know, it’s sounding more and more like an argument for Jesus being married. Just give me a moment.
Several years ago while staying at Hion, a Jewish kibbutz on the south eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, I walked alone near the lake in the early morning. Wanting to be alone and pray, I tried to ignore the Jewish man approaching me from the main group of buildings. I moved toward the water and walked along the edge, all the while hoping he would take the hint. He did not. Instead, he approached me directly and started talking, wanting to know what I felt about recent events. The recent events was the massacre precipitated by Baruch Goldstein, a resident of the Jewish settlement in Hebron, who walked into the mosque during morning prayers on the first day of Ramadan in 1994 and opened fire on the worshippers, killing many before his gun jammed. Tragedy followed tragedy. I had interviewed doctors and patients at the Arab hospital in Jerusalem a few days previously. My heart felt the weight of that sorrow and I expressed it to this stranger.
“Everything we need for peace is in the Mishnah,” he exclaimed.
In the oral tradition? My response held the aura of surprise.
You know about the Mishnah, he said. I told him that I did and in fact, I had recently purchased an entire set that was in the back seat of the car parked near the guest house where I was staying.
I knew a man who knew Mishnah here, he declared, pointing to his head. The entire Mishnah.
All eight volumes I said with some shock. He went on to say that once all Jewish people knew Mishnah in their heads but no longer.
As I reflected on his assertion, it dawned on me that it had the essence of truth. While not all Jews of Jesus’ day knew the tradition equally, they all knew some of the tradition and a few, like the scribes (lawyers) knew it well. Jesus ability to interact intelligently with the Scribes of his day strongly suggests that Jesus knew the Mishnah or oral tradition in his head and heart.
My anonymous friend made another declaration that shocked me. “I knew,” he said, “a man who knew Talmud here” – once again pointing to his head. “The entire Talmud. He was married to Talmud.” Without waiting for me to respond, he explained, “A few great Jewish sages never marry, they marry Talmud.”
The Talmud did not exist in the time of Jesus. Neither did the Mishnah. They both come into being as Jews are scattered from the land following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. While the Mishnah is based entirely on the oral tradition, the Talmud includes the oral tradition plus the Gemara, or commentary on the Mishnah. The most often used number for referring to the Mitzvot or commandments of Jewish law, is 613. They begin with the Ten Commandments. Number 14 states: You shall not add to the commandments of the Torah, whether in the Written Law or in its interpretation received by tradition (Deut. 13:1) Christians can mistakenly hear this as a requirement to stay away from the sages. This is an error. The Mitzvot reminds us that all tradition stands on the foundation of Torah; yet it recognizes the requirement of every generation to meditate on the law of God that we may know God. And, while the Torah stands unchanged, our understanding, which as Paul declares is in part, changes and grows as we apply the light of scripture to our lives.
To form a relationship to the Torah and the oral tradition where witnesses would declare of Jesus, He speaks as one who has authority within himself, would demand a life dedicated to Torah and the traditions of Torah. Jesus demonstrated knowledge of the Torah and the prophets and the writings. Some of his references, You have heard it said of them of old time, do not come from the Hebrew Scriptures as we have them but from the tradition (as verified in the writings of the Dead Sea Scrolls).
Although Jesus would die before reaching forty, there is little question that he demonstrates the power and presence of the great prophets, sages, priests and teachers. He was married. He was married to Torah.
What is the Jewish view of Torah?
Torah comes from God. It is the Word of God. Not many years ago, New Testament scholarship often spoke of John’s gospel as Hellenistic, or filled with Greek influence. After all, John is not written in classical Greek but in the koine, or Greek spoken in the common tongue of the day. The assumption, for this and other reasons, was that John’s thought process was not Jewish but a combination of Jewish, Hellenistic and Christian influence. The Logos or Word of John 1 (In the beginning was the Word…), was considered Greek thought. Since the release of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, have begun to declare that John is the most Jewish of all the gospels. While I suggest that we reserve judgment on that declaration, I believe that John is filled with Jewish imagery and, in particular, Jewish mystical imagery.
In the early 1990’s, I discovered a Hassidic art shop in Tiberias in the Galilee in Israel. This shop fascinated me for several reasons. First, contrary to many Jewish groups, this one was evangelistic, looking for converts to Judaism. And, their art was filled with the imagery of Jewish mysticism. One intriguing picture showed two great lights being let down from God out of heaven. They represented the two tablets which represented the law of Moses, the Torah. As the two great lights touched the Mountain of God, thousands of little lights, all a reflection of the great lights, began to take shape and form across the mountain, through the valley and to the world beyond. The picture shouted: Take the light. You are a light to the nations. You are the light of the world.
Reflecting on the possibility that John’s gospel is Jewish and not Hellenistic, I began to read it differently. “In the beginning was the Torah.” Jewish wisdom literature speaks of Torah as being with God in the beginning. With whom did God consult when God created the world. Like a master builder reviews plans, so God consulted Torah.
The possibility exists that John introduced no new idea in his gospel until chapter one verse 14: And the word [Torah?] became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.
To become the incarnation of the Word of God, Jesus lived Torah, became one with Torah, was Torah. This is not an argument against the divinity of Jesus; rather, it is an argument for Jesus’ humanity. As the One, who emptied himself to take on the veil of flesh, Jesus will ‘learn obedience through what he suffered.’ Once again, I believe that Jesus and the Word are One. …. And the two shall become one …. Jesus was married to Torah.
Pragmatically, it is important to pause and do a check up before proceeding. Let me suggest the following question: How is your relationship with God? Honestly, access your relationship. Are you living in the same house (the church) and don’t really talk or know one another? Remember, we are talking about God and not your sisters or brothers in church. Have you settled for a relationship of convenience? Or, do you have an intimate, loving relationship with your Creator?
You can. That’s what God wants.
The Seventh Day
The final act of creation in Genesis one hallows the seventh day and in the symphony of creation, there is a gentle word. The mighty wind that moved across the waters of chaos, comes to rest on the seventh day. No longer is God distant. As the scripture unfolds, we will observe that God is present with God’s people when God is at rest. “I will bring you into my rest.”
Sabbath defines the people of God. Proclaim Sabbath (Shabbot). Be a people of Sabbath. Make known the God who enters into the created order. As impossible as it sounds, as improbable as it appears, God with us can only be understand in relation to the seventh day of creation. In the New Testament, when Jesus, the Lord of Sabbath appears, we begin to understand the meaning of God with us.
One further word about Sabbath. Consider these words from Hebrews 4:
4 For he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,”6 5 but to repeat the text cited earlier:7 “They will never enter my rest!” 6 Therefore it remains for some to enter it, yet those to whom it was previously proclaimed did not enter because of disobedience. 7 So God8 again ordains a certain day, “Today,” speaking through David9 after so long a time, as in the words quoted before,10 “O, that today you would listen as he speaks!11 Do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God12 would not have spoken afterward about another day. 9 Consequently a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God. 10 For the one who enters God’s13 rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. 11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.
Hebrews 4 goes on to proclaim that God has given a new name to the day of rest -- the name: Today. We live in the seventh day of creation. Today.
The key to understanding is that the observance of Sabbath is just that -- an observance. It is a way of anticipating and remembering that “Today is the day of salvation.” This is indeed the day that the Lord has acted. If we consider that the first chapter of creation actually continues until Genesis 2:3, this becomes clear. The Creator rests on day seven and it is on the seventh day when we may know God and be known by God.
