September 2, 2012—SnyderTalk Editorial: Jesus’ Teaching Threatened the Priests

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Jesus’ Teaching Threatened the Priests

Jesus’ teachings exposed the flaws in many Jewish religious traditions.  That is why the priests wanted to kill Him.  According to John, the priests also believed the Jewish people’s enthusiastic response to Jesus’ message might compel the Romans to abolish their coveted positions.[i]  Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that the priests’ reactions to Jesus were normal human responses to perceived threats.

Even more threatening from the priests’ perspective, convincing miracles accompanied Jesus’ teaching.  He healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers, gave sight to the blind, caused the lame to walk, and cast out demons.  These supernatural miracles caused many people to believe in Jesus, and they turned to Him in ever increasing numbers.

By comparison, the message of the priests was embarrassingly weak.  It focused on ritualistic adherence to doctrines, laws, and traditions, many of which were man-made.  It must have been obvious to them and to the people that Jesus’ words had supernatural power, and their own message did not.  The priests were well-educated, intelligent men.  They must have known that their religious, social, and political standing were in jeopardy if Jesus continued teaching.

On top of everything else, Jesus empowered His disciples to perform healing miracles in His Name prior to and after His resurrection.  The Talmud speaks about this fact and offers insights into the priests’ attitudes toward Jesus and His disciples:

  • Abodah Zarah 27b: “A man shall have no dealings with the heretics [Christians], nor be cured by them, even for the sake of an hour of life.  There was the case of Ben Dama nephew of R. [Rabbi] Ishmael, whom a serpent bit.  There came Jacob [the apostle of Jesus referred to as James who wrote the book of James in the New Testament] the heretic of the village of Sechanya to cure him (in the name of Yeshu ben Pandera var. leg.); but R. Ishmael would not allow him.  Ben Dama said to him, R. Ishmael, my brother, do allow him, that I may be cured, and I will produce a text from the Law to prove that this is permitted.  But hardly had he finished his discourse when his soul departed, and he died.”[ii]

In this passage from the Talmud, the name “Yeshu” was used instead of Yeshua, the Name He was actually given at birth.  The name “Yeshu” is a curse because it means “may his name and memory be blotted out.”[iii]  Leading rabbis of Jesus’ day hated Him so much that they used a curse in lieu of His Name, and they refused to allow healing in His Name even in cases where the life of the person being healed was at stake.  In this passage, the “text” Ben Dama referred to is Exodus 15: 26:

“If you will give earnest heed to the Voice of Yahweh your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, Yahweh, am your healer (Yahweh Raphah or Yahweh your doctor).”[iv]

Ben Dama knew about Yahweh’s promise, and he must have been anxious to claim it for his own healing.  But Rabbi Ishmael would not allow James to heal him using the Name of Jesus so Ben Dama died.

  • Shabbath 14b: “The grandson of R. Joshua ben Levi had something stuck in his throat.  There came a man and whispered to him in the name of Jesus and he recovered.  When the healer came out, R. Joshua said to him, What was it you whispered to him?  He said to him, A certain word.  He said to him, It had been better for him that he had died rather than that.”[v]

Yahweh was the “Word” whispered to Rabbi Joshua’s grandson, and it is “the Name of Jesus.”  Rabbi Joshua was so incensed that the disciple equated Jesus and Yahweh that he would have preferred his grandson’s death to his healing under that condition.  The Talmud says Rabbi Joshua’s grandson recovered after the disciple prayed for him in “the Name of Jesus.”  This passage from the Talmud gives you a glimpse of the rabbis’ intense hatred of Jesus.

  • Sanhedrin X, 1: “R. Akiba said, He who reads in external books (the New Testament Gospels telling about Jesus), and he who whispers over a wound, and says, ‘None of the diseases which I sent on Egypt will I lay on thee, I am the Lord thy healer’ has any share in the world to come.”[vi]

In this passage from the Talmud, Rabbi Akiba is quoting Exodus 15: 26, and as I said before, it refers to Jesus as Yahweh Raphah.  The people who were seeking healing understood that it makes specific reference to Jesus and refers to Him as Yahweh.  They permitted His disciples to pray for them if they used this verse instead of His Name, thinking that they could obtain healing without offending the rabbis, but Rabbi Akiba would have none of that.  He said that people who committed this “offense” were destined to spend eternity in hell because it meant they believed Jesus is Yahweh.

This is an excerpt from His Name is Yahweh.  It explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important.  It’s a book that you need to read and share.  It’s available in eBook format and in paperback.

[i] John 11: 48.

[ii] The Talmud, Abodah Zarah 27b.  The brackets are mine.

[iii] For a complete discussion of this issue, you need to read Phillip Moore’s The End of History—Messiah Conspiracy, Vol. I, Atlanta: Ramshead Press International Corporation, 1996, chapter 8.  This quote is from p. 415 of the book.

[iv] Exodus 15: 26.  The parentheses are mine.

[v] The Talmud, Shabbath 14b.

[vi] The Talmud, Sanhedrin X, 1.  The parentheses are mine.

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Ezekiel 18: 10-13

“Then he may have a violent son who sheds blood and who does any of these things to a brother (though he himself did not do any of these things), that is, he even eats at the mountain shrines, and defiles his neighbor’s wife, oppresses the poor and needy, commits robbery, does not restore a pledge, but lifts up his eyes to the idols and commits abomination, he lends money on interest and takes increase; will he live? He will not live! He has committed all these abominations, he will surely be put to death; his blood will be on his own head.”

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His Name is Yahweh explains why the Name of God, Yahweh, is so important.  It’s available in eBook format and in paperback.

  • God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ This [Yahweh] is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.” (Exodus 3: 15)
  • “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—this time I will make them know My power and My might; and they shall know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jeremiah 16: 21)
  • “Behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; and He will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land.  In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; and this is His name by which He will be called, ‘Yahweh our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6)

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Hosea 4: 6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

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