The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus

The Hebrew Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus

Nehemia: It was a few years ago that Michael Rood came to me, and he asked me about a verse in the Gospel of Matthew that we're about to look at. And there, Yeshua says, in Matthew, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do.” And what Yeshua seems to be saying here is that the scribes and the Pharisees, they sit in the seat of Moses. They have some type of Mosaic authority; whatever they bid you observe, whatever they command you to do, that you must do if you're a disciple of Yeshua.

And actually, I've dressed today as a modern-day Pharisee. I don't normally dress this way, but I've dressed in the garb of a modern-day Pharisee to illustrate to you what it would mean to obey the Pharisees. You would have to dress according to the traditional Pharisaical dress and follow Pharisaical practices. This is what it would mean to obey the Pharisees.

Now, what is this seat of Moses? What's a Moses’ seat? Well, this is a Moses’ seat from the ancient synagogue of Chorazin, in the Galilee, that was unearthed by archaeologists. And the idea of a Moses’ seat was that there was a special stone chair in the synagogue where the head of the synagogue would sit and teach with authority. And what Yeshua seems to be saying is that the Pharisees are the ones that teach with authority, so do whatever they tell you to do. You must obey them if you believe and obey what Yeshua says.

Here is a Moses’ seat from the ancient synagogue at Delos. This is from an island in Greece. This is actually the oldest synagogue that's ever been unearthed by archaeologists, and already in the first synagogue ever found by archaeologists is one of these seats of Moses, these Moses’ seats, where the head of the synagogue would sit and teach with authority. And what Yeshua seems to be saying very clearly is that the Pharisees are the ones that sit in the seat of Moses. Whatever they command you to do, if you are a disciple of Yeshua, you must do that.

Well, a few years back, Michael came to me and asked me what I thought of this verse. And I explained to Michael that as a… I'm a Karaite Jew. Karaite is a Hebrew word that refers to Jews who only believe in the Old Testament, and as a Karaite Jew, I don't actually look to Yeshua as the Messiah. So, my first reaction was, “Well, I see you have a problem, Michael, but it's not my problem, it's your problem.” But I agreed to look at this and research this as a textual problem. I have a background in academia; I have a degree in biblical studies and archaeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and I've worked in various research projects, such as, as a translator on the Dead Sea Scrolls Reader.

So, I said, “Okay, here's a 2,000-year-old text which doesn't make a lot of sense. There’s a problem here. Let's see if I can apply linguistic and textual tools on this like I would on a problem in the Dead Sea Scrolls or any ancient text.”

What really is the problem though? What’s the problem? What does it mean to obey the Pharisees? Well, I knew exactly what this meant, because I was actually raised as a Pharisee, as a modern Orthodox Jew, before I became a Karaite and Old Testament Jew. I was raised as a Pharisee, and one of the things I knew was that to obey the Pharisees would mean to follow rules and regulations that govern every aspect of life, literally from the moment you wake up in the morning until the moment you go to sleep at night.

Here's an example of one of these rules and regulations, something that I was taught growing up. I was taught from the Shulchan Aruch, which is a universally accepted guide to modern Pharisaical living, and there the Pharisees teach that when a person wakes up in the morning, first he must “put on his right shoe, but not tie it. Then he must put on his left shoe and tie it and go back and tie his right shoe.” Now, do you really think that Yeshua was commanding you to obey the Pharisees who tell you to do these things? But that's what it said. That's what it says in Matthew 23, “whatsoever they bid you observe,” whatsoever they command you to do, “that observe and do.” Do that.

And it really seems that he’s commanding his disciples to obey these rules and regulations that cover every aspect of life. By the way, it gets even better, because another rabbi came along and added some notes to this book, and he lived in a country where they didn't have shoelaces! Literally! He explains, “Even with our shoes, which do not have laces, a person must still put on his right shoe first.”