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“JEWISH HISTORY AND THE DEITY OF YESHUA”
Elliot Klayman
A Response by Barry R. Leventhal, Ph.D.
Generally speaking, Elliot Klayman’s paper on “Jewish History and the Deity of Yeshua” is a fine historical survey of the subject at hand. Klayman’s basic outline is as follows:[1]
I.An Introduction: Defining the Questions
II. The Monotheistic Understanding and Adherence among First Century
Jews
III.The Origins of the Deity of Yeshua
- The Evidence That the Disciples Recognized Yeshua as Deity
V. The Pre-Conditioning Aspects Contributing to Acceptance of Yeshua’s Deity
VI.The Precipitating Cause of the “Turn”: The Resurrection and Post-Resurrection Appearances
VII.The Contributing Causes to the Widening Schism throughout the Ages Concerning the Deity of Yeshua
VIII.The Positive Recent Events That May Once Again Precondition Jewish People to the Deityship [sic] of Messiah
- A Tentative Conclusion to the Matter.
Having laid out Elliot Klayman’s outline of his essay on “Jewish History and the Deity of Yeshua,” I will first describe some opening points of support on his essay, then some concerns about his essay, and then finally, what I believe are the solutions at hand on this timely subject.
Opening Support
Klayman is to be supported in many of his points, including the following four matters dealing with Yeshua’s deity: The Historical Survey, The Disciples’ Recognition, The Pre-Conditioning Aspects, and The Precipitating Cause.
The Historical Survey
As mentioned above, Klayman’s historical survey of the Jewish people and the deity of Yeshua is basically accurate. For the most part, he draws from reputable scholarly sources to document his findings.[2] Further, Klayman’s outline of his subject is logical, balanced, and well argued.
The Disciples’ Recognition
Likewise, Klayman’s argument that the Lord Yeshua’s first disciples recognized Him as God from the beginningis to the point, especially in regard to their recognition of His divine honors, attributes, names, deeds, and seat (pp. 6-9).
Of course this is in contrast to the often heard liberal argument that it was not until the fourth century (and following) that the Gentilechurch councils formulated the doctrine of the deity of Jesus. Since the deity of Yeshua is defined by His very nature and not by some humanly devised council, it is better to affirm, as Hannah does, that “Christianity was a Christ-centered faith right from the start. ‘Jesus is Lord’ was the earliest, most basic confession. But that confession leaves unanswered some important questions, and so over time the church’s thinkers worked out a sophisticated understanding of the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ.”[3]
The Pre-Conditioning Aspects
Klayman also described four ancient Jewish concepts, eachpredating the first century, whichlaid the mental and theological framework for the deity of Yeshua, at least in the minds of His early Jewish disciples: hocham (wisdom), memra (logos), shekhina ([God’s] glory), and Malach Adonai (a theophany of the Angel of the Lord) [pp. 9-19]. In a certain sense, these four Jewish concepts prepared the way for the coming of the divine Messiah. In other words, the coming of the Lord Yeshua did not happen in a theological vacuum. God went ahead of His incarnated Son in partial, but nevertheless real, manifestations.
The Precipitating Cause
More specifically, Klayman is correct in recognizing that the precipitating cause of the disciples’ belief in Yeshua’s deity, what he calls “The Turn,” was Yeshua’s resurrection and post-resurrection appearances to His disciples (pp. 19-21).[4] Of course, the preaching of the Lord Yeshua’s resurrection was actually the first precipitating factor in the eventual split between the early messianic believers and the Jewish community. First, the apostles were merely warned not to preach the resurrection of Yeshua (Acts 4:1-22ff.). Next the apostles were flogged and once again ordered not to preach the resurrection of Yeshua (Acts 5:27-42). And finally, when the Jewish leadership was “unable to deal with Stephen’s wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (Acts 6:10), they ordered him to appear before the Sanhedrin Council, in a mock trial based on trumped-up charges, like the Lord Yeshua’s trial (Luke 23:2, 14; Acts 6:11—7:1).Stephen’s defense proved to be his first and last, for he was stoned to death as the first messianic martyr (Acts 7:2-60). Luke, the first messianic historian, described Stephen’s death in messianic terms. Like the Lord Yeshua, he preached his last messianic sermon to the same Jewish leadership (Luke 22:63—23:33 Acts 7:2-56). And like the Lord Yeshua, he died a messianic death, praying for himself and for his enemies (Luke 23:34, 46; Acts 7:59-60). From this point on, Jerusalem, with its Jewish leadership, will be left behind for its rightly deserved judgment, what we know in retrospect as A.D. 70 and the Roman destruction of the city and the temple (cf. Luke 13:34-35; 19:41-44; 21:20-24; 23:26-31; Acts 2:40; 3:23; etc.).
Some Concerns
Having described some opening points of support on Klayman’s essay, I will now lay out some of my concerns about his essay, actually three major concerns. I believe Klayman has sidestepped the major issue in Jewish unbelief in Yeshua’s deity, be it in the first century, throughout church history, or in our own day as well. In order to do this, I will let Scripture itself describe the heart of the matter in regard our Jewish people’s rejection of Yeshua’s deity. Indeed, the Holy Scriptures speak of a threefold reason for the Jewish rejection of the Lord Yeshua’s deity: Jewish unbelief, Jewish blindness, and Jewish hardening.
Jewish Unbelief
First, the problem of Yeshua’s deity and the unbelieving Jewish community is not related to the non-Jewish way(s) in which the historic Church has preached or “christianized” Yeshua’s uniqueness or, for that matter, some kind of Gentile or Greek
theological creedal statement(like the Nicene formula, etc.).[5] We could throw up other reasons why we think our Jewish people have rejected Yeshua’s deity, but the fact remains, it has been, as it is now, Jewish unbelief that has brought on our people God’s judgment, just as it is for all unbelievers:
(16) For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (17) For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (18) He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19) This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil (John 3:16-19, NASB).[6]
And it must be remembered that the Lord’s words here were not addressed to some pagan Gentile, but to one of the most theologically articulate Jews of his day, Nicodemus, “the teacher of Israel” (3:1, 10).I doubt we could find anyone today equal to this rabbi’s theological stature. And yet, even Nicodemus needed to believe and to therefore be born again (3:2-15)!
Further, Jewish unbelief is not bound up with theological ignorance, but with personal volition. Our Lord’s words went right to the heart of the matter. When Yeshua described the coming judgment on Jerusalem for Israel’s national rejection of His messiahship, His lament over the capital of our nation sounded forth down through the centuries with these verbal tears:
(37) “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How I often wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you werenotwilling. (38)Behold, your house [the temple]is being left to you desolate! (39) For I say to you, from now on you will not see[7] Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’” (Matt. 23:37-39; cf. Luke 13:34-35).
Our Lord in no uncertain terms, with a play-on-words of the verb “to want,”[8]laid the fault at the volitional choice of our people: He “wanted” to intimately gather us to Himself, but we “did not want” Him as our own (cf. John 1:10-13). Throughout the earliest preaching of the gospel to our people, the end result, for the most part, was, “We don’t want Him!” Stephan’s martyrdom was regularly played out, if not in act, certainly in attitude, both in the land of Israel (Acts 4—7; 9; 12; 21:15—25:11) and in the Diaspora (cf. Acts 9:19-25; 13:44-52; 14:1-7, 19-20; 17:1-17; 18:1-28; 28:16-31).
Jewish Blindness
Second, what the Bible describes as Jewish unbelief, is also described as Jewish
blindness. For example, Paul’s own blindness was prototypical of Israel’s blindness (Acts
9:1-22). Likewise, what is described of Paul’s blindness in a positive sense (that he became a believer), is also described in a negative sense of a Jewish magician, a false prophet named Bar-Jesus [a false “son of Jesus”], also named Elymas [“Sorcerer”] (Acts 13:4-12; cf. Rom. 2:19).
It was the apostle Paul himself who described this Jewish blindness with words full of insight and pathos:
(12) Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, (13) and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. (14) But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in the Messiah. (15) But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; (16) but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. (17) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (18) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.(1) Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, (2)but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. (3) And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, (4) in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (5) For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. (6) For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Messiah (2 Cor. 3:12—4:6).
In a certain sense, Jewish blindness is mirrored in Gentile blindness as well (compare the veil in 3:14-16 with the veiling in 4:3-4). For the blinded, unbelieving Jewish person the veil is removed when he “turns to the Lord” [the Messiah] (3:14-16).[9] For the blinded, unbelieving Gentile the veiling is removed when he hears and believes the gospel preached and commended to his conscience (4:2-5). In both cases, when the blinded Jew and the blinded Gentile turn to the Lord and believe the gospel, they begin a journey of personal liberty, messianic transformation, and spiritual intimacy with God—a journey into the very “Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Messiah.”
Jewish Hardening
And third, Jewish unbelief and Jewish blindness both yield to the more difficult judgment of “hardening.” Again, it was the apostle Paul who delineated this concept:
(5) In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. (6) But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. (7) What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; (8) just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day” [Deut. 29:4; Isa. 29:10]. (9) And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, and a stumbling block and a retribution to them. (10) Let their eyes be darkened to see not, and bend their backs forever” (Rom. 11:5-10).
The divine “hardening” Paul speaks about clearly merges with the divine judgment of blindness and deafness (Rom. 11:8, 10; cf. 2 Cor. 3:14). But, of course, while this was true of all of us in our unbelieving condition, the grace of God has triumphed over judgment, for there is a believing Jewish remnant (Rom. 11:5-6; cf. 9:27-29; also 5:20-21; James 2:12-13). As long as Israel continues to pursue a works-righteousness (a self-righteousness), rather than a faith-righteousness, she will stumble over the messianic stumbling stone and will continue to be condemned under the just judgment of a holy and righteous God (cf. Rom.9:30-33; 10:5-7, 21; Matt. 23:1-39ff.; 1 Thess. 2:13-16; etc.).
In sum, our Jewish people have not only wandered away from their own Scriptures that clearly predict both the divine and human natures of the Messiah (Isa. 9:6-7),[10] but also, through their continued unbelief, they have placed themselves under the just judgment of God, a judgment reserved for all who reject the good news of the gospel.In speaking of the Jewish Scriptures that our people have so distorted, the Lord Yeshua made it abundantly clear that they spoke of Him. He affirmed this when He concluded one of His most famous stories, “The Rich Man and Lazarus” (Luke 16:19-31). He closed with these haunting words, “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead’” (Luke 16:31; cf. 6:20-25). In the final analysis, the major problem with our Jewish people is not with the deity of Yeshua per se. Rather, their major problem is with Moses and the Prophets, for they both speak clearly and definitively about the Lord Yeshua (cf. Luke 24:44-48; John 5:39-47; etc.). That is why the Lord Yeshua could say to the Jewish leaders of His own day, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come. . . . Therefore I said to youthat you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:21, 24).
In fact, our Jewish people do not even worship the same God of the Scriptures, including their own Hebrew Bible. For the Messiah Himself made this startling claim, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (John 5:23b). That is why the Son also made this further staggering claim, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6; cf. Acts 4:12; 1 Tim. 2:3-6). Yeshua’s first followers were so convinced of these claims, that they could make similar claims, “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23). “Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of the Messiah, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son”(2 John 9). In other words, one’s relationship to the Son determines His relationship to the Father, the only true God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua (cf. Eph. 1:3; etc.).
Conclusion
So what is the ultimate solution for this total disconnect between the deity of Yeshua and the Jewish community? I am not convinced that Klayman’s naïve solutions are valid, especially his references to specific bibliographic texts.[11] I would rather see those of us who claim to be messianic believers (the current believing remnant of Israel), along with those in messianic missions and congregations pursue the following four steps.
First, since the problems described above[12] are confirmed by the Lord Yeshua’s words in John 16:7-11 (i.e., the problems of sin, righteousness, and judgment), we must trust the Holy Spirit to “convict the world” regarding these core human issues. The “convicting” work of the Spirit is vital to any kind of apologetic and evangelistic outreach to our Jewish friends and family members.[13] Whatever resources or strategies we use, we must rest assured that they will ultimately fail if the Holy Spirit is not at work in “convicting the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
Second, since any genuine witness concerning the deity of Yeshua and the Jewish community is dependent upon the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, we must devote ourselves to concerted prayer. The only time that the New Testament letters record that the apostle Paul prayed for unbelievers, it is for his Jewish brothers and sisters:
Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them [i.e., our Jewish people] is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with [full] knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For the Messiah is the end [i.e., goal] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Rom. 10:1-4; cf. Col. 4:2-6; Acts 4:23-31 [the only extended prayer in the Book of Acts]; etc.).