It encompasses two religions truly enough, the first was Biblical Judaism, created by God, which began with Moses ca 1450 B.C., described in the Jewish Tanakh [Old Testament] and was still in force when Hillel and Gamaliel both featured the Afikomen in their Pasech Seders in the first century.
The 2nd religion is modern Rabbinical Judaism [alternative title: Talmudic Judaism], the manmade form of Judaism that developed after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.. Originating in the work of the Pharisaic rabbis, the tannaim (teachers) (135–c. 200), it was based on the legal and commentative literature in the manmade Talmud, a collection of writings that covers the full gamut of Jewish law and tradition, compiled and edited between the third and sixth centuries. Talmud is Hebrew for "learning," appropriate for a text that people devote their lives to studying and mastering, and it set up a mode of worship and a life discipline that were to be practiced by Jews worldwide down to modern times, BUT it is not Scripture.
During the lifetime of Jesus, the holy temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish religious life. The temple was the place where animal sacrifices were carried out and worship according to the Law of Moses was followed faithfully.
Hebrews 9:1-9 tells us that in the temple a veil separated the Holy of Holies—the earthly dwelling place of God’s presence—from the rest of the temple where men dwelt. This signified that man was separated from God by sin (Isaiah 59:1-2).
Only the high priest was permitted to pass beyond this veil once each year (Exodus 30:10; Hebrews 9:7) to enter into God’s presence for all of Israel and make atonement for their sins (Leviticus 16).
God signaled the end of Biblical Judaism the night of the crucifixion, when, after Jesus' death on the cross of Calvary, the heavy Temple veil separating the Holy of Holies (where the Ruach HaKodesh, the Holy Spirit dwelt), from the Sanctuary, was split in two, and God, the Holy Spirit (3rd personality within the Triune Godhead, possessing all of the attributes of Deity, infinite, eternal, unchangeable, indivisible, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, personal, and perfect in wisdom, power, holiness) departed from the Jerusalem Temple...
Biblical Judaism was based on the continual sacrificial slaughter of animals to atone for sin, so, after Jesus' sacrificial death and resurrection, there was no longer any sacrifice required, ever, in God's eyes, because Jesus' sacrifice, unlike the blood of sheep and goats, would stand forever.
If we have come by faith believing in the all sufficient sacrifice for sin made by Jesus Christ it is great comfort to know God remembers them no more. He is a God who "remembers" and "forgets" our sins based on the atoning sacrifice of Christ. "For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4).
Hebrews 10-26: For such "there remaineth no longer a sacrifice for sins:" that offering of Jesus which they deliberately reject has abolished all the earlier sacrifices. The observances and ceremonies of Biblical Judaism, which had been full of meaning while they pointed to Him that was to come, have now lost all their virtue through His coming.
Hebrews 10:8-9:
"First, Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings or burnt offerings or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them" [although they are required by the law of Moses].
Then he said, "Look, I have come to do your will."
Hebrews 10:1-18: Jesus Christ, the Final Sacrifice
Hebrews is a word of exhortation, centering on Jesus Christ our high priest. it is laid out in 10:1-18. He is upheld as the final sacrifice.
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do."
Jesus' Sacrifice "a Ransom for Many"- Matthew 20:28
Jesus' sacrifice is "a corresponding ransom for all" those who take the steps necessary to benefit from it. —1 Timothy 2: 5, 6. par. 7 In the Bible, the original words translated "ransom" convey the idea of a price, or thing of value, that is paid.
The sacrifice of Jesus Christ eliminates the old and provides the new. The old is done away with there in verse 8 and the new comes in verse 9. The law was given by Moses, says John 1:17, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. God planned a better sacrifice and shows here that the old must be put away.
Jesus died for our sins ...
The Temple sacrifices were only temporary, needing continual renewal, and were really a foreshadowing of the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross (Hebrews 10:10).
This is why Jesus came and why He died, to become the ultimate and final sacrifice, the perfect (without blemish) sacrifice for our sins (Colossians 1:22; 1 Peter 1:19).
However, because the Jewish religious leaders refused to accept Jesus as their promised Messiah, seeking a worldly ruler instead, they instituted their own form of Judaism, which, today is split between different branches including Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and the Ultra Orthodox, comprised of the Chabad, the Lubivitchers and the Chasidim.
lindajoy wrote:
Amen!!!Masterful and full of knowledge that needs be remembered...
Thank You for posting this, especially since it the ways and understanding of another story of another religion..