Hello Friends:
As promised, I am moving from ancient Jewish texts leading up to the New Testament to rabbinic literature written afterward. I restate my objective in these blogs by quoting myself from a final paper written during my graduate program:
Implications for reading the New Testament as the “statement of Judaism” highlights God’s self-disclosure and eschatological goal. Considering historical and literary structures, a continual search of the text fosters greater understanding and intimacy with God and, ultimately, His glorification in the world. Moreover, a cultural reading promotes the unity of Scripture and harmony between the Jewish and Gentile ecclesial branches. Knowledge of God through Sinai’s Torah meets the Torah of His incarnate life.
What follows is my final paper written for a theology course. It is a bit long for a Substack blog, so I may have to present it in two parts:
The disciples bent and bowed, thanking HaShem for the new day. Singing the Avot portion of the Amidah, they recall God’s kindness toward the faithful patriarchs, “sustaining the living with grace” and “faithful to those that sleep in the dust,” ever mindful of Ezekiel’s vision of resurrection. This opening portion, titled “Fathers,” and other significant portions of the Amidah—an ancient, eighteen-stanza Jewish prayer—likely formed the template for the Lord’s Prayer given by Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount. Indeed, the Amidah, like the Lord’s Prayer, addresses “Father-King” motifs, kingdom imminency, and deliverance themes predominating New Testament literature.
Consequently, a side-by-side comparison of each prayer’s central portions highlights the continuity of Judaism in the New Testament. It also serves as a starting point for further New Testament study, reading it as a “statement of Judaism." ”1 Accordingly, this topic begs the question, “How should reading the New Testament as a Judaism, one that regards itself as the next logical progression of the Sinaitic faith, impact Christian theology?” Since the New Testament writers and leaders within Temple Judaism regarded the nascent church as a Jewish sect, reading Christianity as a Judaism within a Judaic system provides a hermeneutical resource for first-century teachings and, further, an approach to contemporary theological applications (cf. Acts 24:14, NRSV).2
Early Christianity’s worldview and practices drew upon the Holy Writ’s kingdom principles inherent in the first-century Judaic system. Correspondingly, the Amidah and the Lord’s Prayer share thematic and linguistic similarities, providing a window into the variegated world of pre-rabbinic Judaism. To briefly illustrate, the opening of the Amidah begins, “Blessed are You, Lord our God, and God of our fathers." ”3 Similarly, the Lord’s Prayer reverently addresses God as “Our Father, Who art in heaven.” Each introduction acknowledges God’s sovereignty over human history in light of the consummation of the divine plan.4
Amidah’s opening phrase, “God of our fathers,” acclaims God’s eternal singularity—the One infinite Father and Most High God. Echoes of Amidah’s introduction, a phrase used repeatedly in rabbinic prayers, appear in Acts 24:14a (italics added). The passage describes Paul’s defense before Governor Felix, including Christianity’s identity within the larger Jewish community: “I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they [Jewish leaders] call a sect, so I worship the God of our ancestors (fathers).” Arguing on behalf of himself and the new sect, Paul continues his defense by describing all activities consistent with the Laws of Moses, thus innocent of creating dissension among the Jews and profaning the Temple (cf. vv. 5-6, 15-18).
Likewise, Jesus may allude to the Amidah, granting a historical correlation between early rabbinic concepts and emerging Christian literature, saying, “When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to pray as they stand in the synagogues and in the corners of the marketplaces in order that they may be seen by the sons of men” (Delitzsch, Matt. 6:5a). Since the Amidah is traditionally a silent standing prayer, Jesus may be addressing those who pray aloud for the sake of public praise. The referent appears in the Sermon on the Mount, following Jesus’ twice-used phrase “your Father who is in heaven,” the initial proclamation of God as Father and King of Heaven in the Lord’s Prayer (cf. Matt. 5:45, 48).
The Father-King theme throughout both prayers alternates God’s imminent fatherhood with His role as mighty King. As a faithful father, God’s loving-kindness far surpasses that of the patriarchs, extolled by worshippers as “great” and “hallowed.” Meanwhile, His kingship implores followers to worship Him in holiness as the source of life, sealed by His name for the coming kingdom; this Father-King dynamic was Jewry’s primary relationship to God (compare texts).5
Blessed are You, Lord our God and God of our fathers … the great, mighty, and awesome God … who remembers the loving-kindness of the fathers and will bring a Redeemer… for His name’s sake, in love (Avot).
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come; Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:9-10).
This is the end of part one’s comparison between the Avot (Fathers) portion of the ancient Jewish Amidah and the opening of the Lord’s Prayer. I’ll let you mull over this before moving on to the second portion of the Amidah, Gevurot (God’s Mighty Deeds). Gevurot is, as David Flusser—of blessed memory—once said of an early first-century Qumranite (Dead Sea Scroll) copy, “particularly meaningful for the second blessing of the Amidah … and is very similar, both in form and content, to the Beatitudes” (Matt. 5:3-12).6
Bruce Chilton and Jacob Neusner, "Introduction," in Judaism in the New Testament: Practices and Beliefs (London: Routledge, 1995), xvii.
Unless otherwise noted, all New Testament Scriptures are from The Jewish Annotated New Testament (NRSV). Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, eds., The Jewish Annotated New Testament, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Unless otherwise noted, the Amidah portions are from R. Jonathan Sacks, trans., The Koren Siddur, The Lobel Edition. (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2009), 108.
Stanley J. Grenz, Theology for the Community of God, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2000), 599.
Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, A Journey Through Jewish Prayer I: Amidah, n.d., accessed July 15, 2021, https://israelbiblecenter.com/courses/journey-through-jewish-prayer-amidah/.
David Flusser, Judaism of the Second Temple Period: Qumran and Apocalypticism, trans. Azzan Yadin, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, n.d.), 68.