Tuesday, January 22, 2019

REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY - FACT OR FICTION?

http://www.kkcj.org/teaching/article/replacement-theology

A widely distributed Christian magazine published an article concerning Israel a number of years ago. The following are quotes from that article:
“It is a mistake for Christians to exalt Israelis to the position of being ‘God’s chosen people.’”
“The progressive revelation of Scripture makes it clear that, today, God has only one people, and it is the church.”
“We must not apply Old Testament prophecies to the State of Israel when Jesus, Peter and Paul have radically redirected our thinking concerning the covenants of promise. They are now directly to the Church.”
“The Israeli claim to Palestine as a Jewish State by divine right is incorrect, and their continued enforcement of this claim by military oppression is unjust.”
These statements are typical of what is taught in “replacement theology.” Replacement theology teaches, “The Church is Israel”. How is this substitution possible? Covenant theologians claim that because the nation of Israel did not accept Jesus as Messiah, she has been cast off and has forfeited her pre-eminent position in the purposes of God. The Church has become the rightful heir to the blessings once promised to Israel. From God’s perspective the Jewish people today are no more significant than any other racial group, whether it be Italian, Indian or Chinese. Unless the Jews repent, come to faith in Jesus and join the Church, they have no future.
The term “replacement theology” isn’t found in most theological textbooks, although the idea that “the Church is Israel” is a foundation stone in what is commonly known as “covenant theology”. This teaching has dominated the history of Christian theology as well as the present day.
Replacement theology isn’t new; it can be traced as far back as the 3rd century. How did it enter Christian thought and come to dominate a significant portion of Church teaching? We will explore this in the following points:
  1. First, replacement theology is the natural by-product of allegorization, a of method scriptural interpretation employed by the Church for much of its history.
  2. Second, replacement theology appears backed by history.
  3. Third, replacement theology appears logical and consistent with God’s character of justice.
Replacement theology teaches that “the Church is Israel” How is this belief able to receive acceptance? Easily, if the scriptures are studied according to the method of interpretation known as allegorization.
What do I mean by allegorization? A person who “allegorizes” a passage of scripture is less concerned with what the words mean literally, than he is concerned with what is the hidden meaning behind those words. To allegorize is to interpret a scripture analyzing every detail as symbolic of underlying, deeper “spiritual” meanings.
For a historic example of an allegorical interpretation of a Bible passage, let’s look at Matthew 21, Yeshua’s triumphal entry from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem upon a donkey and a colt. At the beginning of the 3rd century, one of the most famous Church fathers, Origen, looked at this passage of scripture and came up with an interesting interpretation. Origen taught that the donkey in the story symbolized the harshness of the Old Testament, while the colt or foal of a donkey (a more gentle animal) was symbolic of the New Testament. In addition to this interpretation, he added that the two apostles who brought the animals to Yeshua symbolized the moral senses of humanity.
As questionable as this method of interpretation may be considered today, by the 3rd century, allegorization of the Scriptures was a dominant method of interpretation by Christian teachers. This method prevailed throughout the Middle Ages.
If through allegorization one can determine that a donkey is the Old Testament, then it is possible to come to the conclusion that the “Church is Israel”. The allegorical method suspends literal interpretation of the Bible, allowing the theologian to make the Bible say nearly anything he wants it to say.
Eventually the allegorical method of interpretation was shown for what it is – dangerous and deceptive. By the 16th century, Martin Luther and other Protestant reformers began to question the validity of allegorization. They argued that the general rule is to interpret the Bible according to its literal meaning, with few exceptions. Literal interpretation of scripture requires that rules of grammar, speech, syntax and context are followed, to regard historical accounts and prophecies as literal even if expressed in poetic or figurative language.
How can we be sure that interpreting the Bible literally is the best method? One argument is that hundreds of Bible prophecies have already been fulfilled literally, even to minute detail.
Consider a few predictions regarding the Messiah:
  • Isaiah 7:14 predicted the Messiah would be born of a virgin.
  • Micah 5:2 predicted that He would be born in Bethlehem.
  • Psalm 22:7-8 and Isaiah 53:1 predicted He would face the ridicule and unbelief of the people.
  • Psalm 22:16-18 predicted that His hands and feet would be pierced and that His clothing would be divided and lots cast for them.
  • Isaiah 53:9-10 predicted He would be put to death with wicked men yet buried with the rich, and that He would prolong His days (resurrection) afterward.
If prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Yeshua were fulfilled literally, shouldn’t the logical expectation be that Bible prophecy concerning Israel and the Jewish people will also be literally fulfilled? Those who teach replacement theology stubbornly insist that prophecy concerning Israel is fulfilled “symbolically” and “spiritually” by the Church. The result is the annulment of all prophetic scripture that pertains to Israel.
A pertinent question arises, “Has the Church in her history ever been scattered and exiled among the nations as the prophets foretold?”
Did the prophet Ezekiel really have the Church in mind when he stated “... they will live in their own land, which I gave to My servant Jacob.”?Ezekiel 28:25
The conclusion that “the Church is Israel” is to interpret scripture allegorically, not literally. In answer to the first question, “How did replacement theology ever come to dominate the teaching of the Church?” – it is the natural outcome of allegorization.
The reader may ask, “If, since the Protestant Reformation, allegorization is no longer regarded as a valid method of interpretation of scripture, and evangelical scholars follow the Bible more literally, why hasn’t replacement theology been permanently rejected?” It is true that while many in these circles have rejected replacement theology, the belief continues to persist. How is this possible? Church doctrines that have originated with some of her most respected past theologians and leaders, and which have been accepted beliefs over many centuries, rarely disappear overnight.
Replacement Theology is not merely the by-product of allegorization. This view was able to dominate the teaching of the Church for a second principal reason: replacement theology seems to be backed up by history.
I will explain. A fundamental assumption of replacement theology is that because Israel rejected Jesus as Messiah, God has cast off the Jewish people as a chosen nation. Consequently, in judgment, God has dispersed the Jews into the nations. The land of Canaan, promised to Abraham and his seed has been forfeited and the Jews no longer have a legal claim to it.
When we look at what has happened to the Jews since the first century, replacement theology would certainly appear to have history on its side – at least until recently. On the surface the evidence is substantial.
Within a generation of the crucifixion of Yeshua, the Roman army ransacked the city of Jerusalem, totally destroyed the temple and with it the sacrificial system of worship. They uprooted the Jews from the land and carried them off to various parts of the empire. To the early Church Fathers, these events were convincing proofs that God was finished with Israel and that the Church had assumed Israel’s former role in the purposes of God.
The suffering of the Jewish people did not end with the cruelty of the Roman legions. Jewish history since that time has been filled with tragedy. For replacement theologians, this tragic history only confirms their belief that God is finished with Israel.
This is really a circular argument. The horrible suffering of the Jews has been a direct result of replacement theology, rather than a cause. If replacement theology had never been taught in the Church, the atrocities inflicted upon the Jewish people in the last 2,000 years would never have happened.
To demonstrate, let’s look at just a few examples from Jewish history:
In the wake of the Church’s greatest acceptance in the 4th century with Emperor Constantine’s declaration of Christianity as a legal and accepted religion, the most prominent leaders turned to express the worst prejudice and contempt toward the Jew. Justifying their anti-semitism, Christian theologians began to teach that the Jews held sole responsibility for the death of Christ. The Jews were declared “guilty” of the crime of “deicide” – the murder of God. Christians came to believe that a way of showing their loyalty to Jesus was to express their hatred toward the Lord’s “murderers”.
The most famous of early church theologians, Augustine (354-407) declared Jewish existence an act of Providence – a divine demonstration of the truth of Christianity – their humiliation a triumph of Church over synagogue. John Chrysostrom (354-407), the Greek theologian and archbishop of Constantinople, whose liturgy and prayers are still read today in the Orthodox Church, preached eight scathing sermons to the Church in Antioch. He states in Sermon VII:11‘I hate the Jews’ he exclaims roundly, ‘for they have the Law and they insult it’. Other excerpts from these sermons declare Jews “... murderers, destroyers, men possessed by the devil … They know only one thing, to satisfy their gullets, to get drunk, to kill and maim one another … ” And to think he was canonized a saint! Chrysostrom and other Church theologians would have a deep and powerful influence upon the attitudes of Christians for hundreds of years to come.
Six centuries later this kind of preaching bore the fruit of an ever-mounting psychological hatred. The Crusaders are often remembered in Christendom for their chivalry, faith and zeal. In reality, many of the Crusaders were cruel men who hated Jews with a passion. According to historian Paul Johnson2, the Crusades started an “assembling of a mass of armed men … produced a breakdown in normal order”. Crusaders borrowed money from Jews with working capital in their own neighborhoods, “but once on the march they readily turned on the Jews of other cities. Then Christian townspeople, caught up in the frenzy and lust for loot, would sometimes join in.”
Innumerable atrocities were committed against Jews by the Crusaders. From Rouen in France, through Germany, the Balkans to and including Jerusalem, Crusader mobs burned Jews alive in their houses and temples, and forced conversions. In Prague alone they murdered several thousand Jews [Poliakov I, 42-45]. The cry “Hep! Hep!”, an abbreviation of the Latin phrase: Hierosalyma est perdita, “Jerusalem is lost” originated with the Crusaders as they pillaged, and continued as a pogrom chant into the 20th century.
In 1000 AD, when the Crusaders first arrived in the Holy Land, there were 300,000 Jewish residents. When the Crusaders left the scene 200 years later only 1,000 Jewish families remained.
A shocking discovery of Church history is that anti-semitism was not confined merely to the Roman Church, which had lost touch with Biblical Christianity. Anti-semitism is also in the writings of Protestant Reformers – men who had supposedly cleansed the Roman Church of its corruption and theological error.
Initially, the reformer Martin Luther was sympathetic to the Jews and believed that they would be converted by the truth of his message of justification by faith. When they didn’t convert, he became deeply embittered against the Jewish people. In consequence, Luther became as severe as the Roman Church in his contempt. Luther advocated the expulsion of Jews from Germany as well as the destruction of their synagogues and religious books. In his pamphletOn the Jews and Their Lies, published in Wittenberg, 1543, he wrote3:
“First their synagogues should be set on fire and whatever is left be buried in the dirt so that no one may be able to see a stone or cinder from it … Jewish prayer books should be destroyed … then the Jewish people should be dealt with, their homes smashed and destroyed. Jews should be banned from the roads and markets, should be drafted into forced labor and made to earn their bread ‘by the sweat of their noses’...”
“They live by evil and plunder; they are wicked beasts that ought to be driven out like mad dogs.”
“In the last resort they should be kicked out ‘for all time4’.
Logically, when the Nazis came to power in Germany, they used the writings of Luther and other theologians to justify their anti-semitism. The infamous Nazi death camp, Dachau, greeted Jews arriving there with a sign that read, “You are here because you killed our God”.
The question asked by those who defend replacement theology is this, “Considering the suffering the Jews have experienced over the centuries, doesn’t this indicate that God has rejected them?” But this argument inverts the reality that replacement theology was actually more of a cause of this tragic history than an effect.
It is this writer’s contention that the history of the Jewish people provides a stronger argument againstreplacement theology than for replacement theology. As horrible as the history of the Jews has been, I believe it is a sign of God’s absolute faithfulness, rather than a sign of His rejection.
The continued existence of the Jewish race in spite of numerous persecutions and threats and attempts at genocide throughout Jewish history is evidence of Divine intervention. Despite being stripped of their homeland, scattered to the four corners of the earth; despite repeated attempts at forced conversions and their own attempts of assimilation, the Jews have survived as a distinct nation. No other ethnic group in the history of mankind has been dispersed, faced such odds and yet endured. What explains this apparent invincibility? The God of Israel. In the words of Malachi:
“I the Lord do not change. So you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.”Malachi 3:6
The fact that the Jews have not disappeared despite numerous attempts to annihilate them is one of the strongest arguments against replacement theology.
Another fact of Jewish history that exposes the flaws of replacement theology is found in the last century; the return of the dispersed Jewish nation to their historic homeland, and the establishment of the State of Israel. If God has cast off the Jews and no longer has any interest in Israel’s continued existence how could the Jewish people have arisen from the ashes of the holocaust to establish a sovereign state on the very same piece of real estate they lost 2000 years ago.
Is this an accident? Absolutely not. It is a miracle of the first order, and a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The following are a few examples of many fulfilled prophecies literally fulfilled:
“When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob, and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.”Isaiah 14:1
“Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, “As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but, “As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the North and from all the countries where He banished them.” For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.”Jeremiah 16:14-15
Until the return of the Jews to the land and the establishment of the State of Israel, replacement theology appeared to have history on its side. This dramatic new chapter in Israel’s history is still unfolding and renders the argument of history null and void.
We’ve seen that the history of the Jews, rather than proving that God has cast them off, actually proves the opposite – that God still holds His chosen people in the palm of His hand. He has preserved her as a nation in spite of every imaginable threat to her existence.
Why hasn’t replacement theology died once and for all? How can it be that in recent years replacement theology seems to actually gain an even wider following? The answer: Replacement theology appears to be logical and consistent with God’s character.
Replacement theology asks a logical question: “How could a just God contradict His nature by bringing the Jews back to their land?” After their banishment into exile the vast majority still haven’t changed their “stiff-necked” ways and accepted Jesus as Messiah. In addition, agnostic, even atheistic, secular Zionists, not the redeemed of the Lord, established the State of Israel. A popular view of modern Israel sees the state as cheating Palestinians of their property and denying their rights – how could God be a party to such injustice?”
It appears logical to conclude that a just God could not bring the Jews back to the land and re-establish a political state under these circumstances and remain true to His justice.
I admit, as sympathetic to the Jewish people as I am, one would have to be blind to not recognize that the Jewish Nation is far from perfect. I do not condone every policy of the Israeli government, nor every action of the Israeli Defense Forces. Yet, we must not forget one important fact: while God is a God of justice, He is also a God of mercy.
Paul answers those who asked similar questions concerning Israel’s election, a matter that seemed to defy God’s justice. InRomans he asks:
“What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”Romans 9:14-15
A question I would like to ask every Christian who believes in replacement theology: “Did God save you and restore you because you deserved it – because you earned it?” We need to be reminded ofEphesians 2:8 which says, “For by grace you have been saved, through faith – and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” If the Lord saved only “good people” none of us would be saved. Likewise, if Israel does not deserve to be restored to her ancient homeland, then neither do we deserve to inherit the kingdom of heaven.
God has chosen Israel in spite of Israel, just as He has chosen me in spite of me, and chosen you in spite of you. The Jewish people are the “apple of His eye” (Zech 2:8). They are uniquely called. InRomans 11:28-31 Paul addresses those in the church of his day that believed God was finished with Israel. Speaking of those still unredeemed, Paul says:
“From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, in order that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.”Romans 11:28-31
God is just – He must punish the unrighteous. But the Bible tells me that justice has already been meted out. God Himself provided the atoning sacrifice to take the punishment that each of us deserves, Jew or Gentile. Paul says inRomans 5:8“While we were yet sinners, Messiah died for us,” not after we’ve gotten our act together or after we’ve started living a righteous and holy life. No, God, in His grace and mercy, and as a result of His sovereign election, took the initiative and saved us in spite of ourselves. Halleluiah!
Why should we imagine that God would treat His chosen people Israel any differently then He treats you and me? We should be praying on behalf of Israel to our Righteous Judge, with the prophet Habakkuk:
“O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.”Hab 3:2
The implications of replacement theology are frightening. If God has changed His mind concerning His promises to Israel, then how can we be sure He hasn’t changed his mind concerning His promises to us? Praise God, He is the same yesterday, today and forever. God never changes; His gifts and callings are irrevocable.
The following passage fromJeremiah 33:25-26 should be sufficient to demonstrate replacement theology as fiction, not fact:
Thus says the LORD, “If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and I will have mercy on them.”Jeremiah 33:25-26
We still have day and night and the “fixed patterns” of heaven and earth. Therefore, God has not replaced His covenant people; He is restoring Israel in faithfulness to His eternal covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Fellow Christian, as we observe the enduring existence of Israel we have reason to rejoice. Just as God continues to be faithful to His covenant people Israel, He will also be faithful to those who are grafted into Israel by faith in Israel’s Messiah, Yeshua. Amen!
1 James Parkes, The Conflict of Church and Synagogue: A Study in the Origins of Anti-Semitism (New York: JPS, 1934)
2 Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews (New York, Harper & Rowe, 1988) p.207-208
3 Cf. W. Linden (ed), Luther’s Kampfschriften gegen das Judentum (Berlin, 1936)
4 Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, (New York, Harper & Rowe 1988) p.241

King of Kings Community Jerusalem

http://app.kehilanews.com/king-of-kings-community-jerusalem


Logo
General Information
Website
www.kkcj.org
Leaders
Pastor Chad Holland
Category
Congregation
Language
English speaking
City
Jerusalem, Israel
Founded
1983
Meeting Details



Where
97 Jaffa street, Pavilion, Clal Building, Jerusalem
When
Sunday 17.00
Language
English
Contact Details
Phone
+972 (0) 625-18-99
Email
kkcj@kkcj.org
Office Address
Clal Building, Suite #905,
Mailing Address
P.O. Box 427, 91003

Get Directions

Contact Us

King of Kings Community Jerusalem

King of Kings Community is called to be a compelling, Messiah-centered, Spirit-empowered, disciple-making community that reveals the true face of Yeshua (Jesus) to Israel and to the nations.
Our Core Values
Upward:
  1. Centrality of Yeshua the Messiah
    • We are committed to making Yeshua the Lord of our life, faith and ministry.
  2. Worship
    • We are committed to worship in Spirit and truth for God’s pleasure. We believe worship is a testimony of our passion for God, an instrument of spiritual warfare (2 Chron 20:17-22) and provokes unbelievers to jealousy.
  3. Prayer
    • We are committed to praying together for God’s leading, enabling and blessing in all our endeavors. We also encourage the Church around the world to pray for Israel’s physical and spiritual restoration.
Inward:
  1. Teaching
    • We are committed to making disciples by teaching “the whole counsel of God”. We strengthen the connection to our Biblical Hebrew roots which nourish our faith and enable us to communicate the truth more effectively.
  2. Community
    • We are committed to love and serve one another, looking to the first Jerusalem congregation as our primary model (Acts 2:42-27).
    • We gather as a community in various ways, including large weekly celebrations, medium-size fellowship gatherings, as well as in small groups.
    • We believe in the blessing of giving tithes and offerings to God for the support of our congregation.
  3. Accountability
    • We are committed to walking together according to the biblical standard of holiness and righteousness.
    • We believe in being accountable to God, to others in the congregation and are open to godly counsel from the wider Body of Messiah.
  4. Empowerment of the Holy Spirit
    • We are committed to Spirit-empowered ministry, recognizing that we are inadequate in ourselves to fulfill our awesome calling. We encourage one another to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to be filled daily with His power. We encourage the operation of the gifts of the Spirit for mutual edification and producing lasting fruit.
Outward:
  1. Proclaiming the Good News
    • We are committed to the task of proclaiming with our lips and our lives that Yeshua the Messiah is the only Savior of Israel and the world.
    • Because much of the Church is cut off from her Hebrew roots, Jewish people have often seen a distorted picture of Yeshua. Consequently we strive to reveal His true face in a loving, culturally relevant and sensitive manner. We also believe that our testimony is made real and compelling when Jewish and non-Jewish disciples serve together as “one new man”.(Ephesians 2:15)
    • We believe that God is restoring the Jewish people physically to their land and spiritually to Himself. When this restoration is made complete Israel will again be a light to all nations.
    • Although our calling is primarily to Jewish people (Galatians 2:9), we also support those who are called primarily to Arabs.
  2. Mercy Ministry
    • We are committed to expressing the heart of the Messiah toward hurting people through deeds of compassion. We give to those in need what is already placed in our hands and also trust God’s Spirit to flow through us with healing and deliverance.
  3. Apostolic Ministry
    • We are committed to inspiring and equipping people for pioneering new congregations and ministries that identify with our vision and core values.

http://www.kkcj.org/about/vision-and-core-values

Our Vision

King of Kings Community is called to be a compelling, Messiah-centered, Spirit-empowered, disciple-making community that reveals the true face of Yeshua (Jesus) to Israel and to the nations.

Our Core Values

Upward:

  1. Centrality of Yeshua the Messiah
    • We are committed to making Yeshua the Lord of our life, faith and ministry.
  2. Worship
    • We are committed to worship in Spirit and truth for God’s pleasure. We believe worship is a testimony of our passion for God, an instrument of spiritual warfare (2 Chron 20:17-22) and provokes unbelievers to jealousy.
  3. Prayer
    • We are committed to praying together for God’s leading, enabling and blessing in all our endeavors. We also encourage the Church around the world to pray for Israel’s physical and spiritual restoration.

Inward:

  1. Teaching
    • We are committed to making disciples by teaching “the whole counsel of God”. We strengthen the connection to our Biblical Hebrew roots which nourish our faith and enable us to communicate the truth more effectively.
  2. Community
    • We are committed to love and serve one another, looking to the first Jerusalem congregation as our primary model (Acts 2:42-27).
    • We gather as a community in various ways, including large weekly celebrations, medium-size fellowship gatherings, as well as in small groups.
    • We believe in the blessing of giving tithes and offerings to God for the support of our congregation.
  3. Accountability
    • We are committed to walking together according to the biblical standard of holiness and righteousness.
    • We believe in being accountable to God, to others in the congregation and are open to godly counsel from the wider Body of Messiah.
  4. Empowerment of the Holy Spirit
    • We are committed to Spirit-empowered ministry, recognizing that we are inadequate in ourselves to fulfill our awesome calling. We encourage one another to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and to be filled daily with His power. We encourage the operation of the gifts of the Spirit for mutual edification and producing lasting fruit.

Outward:


  1. Proclaiming the Good News
    • We are committed to the task of proclaiming with our lips and our lives that Yeshua the Messiah is the only Savior of Israel and the world.
    • Because much of the Church is cut off from her Hebrew roots, Jewish people have often seen a distorted picture of Yeshua. Consequently we strive to reveal His true face in a loving, culturally relevant and sensitive manner. We also believe that our testimony is made real and compelling when Jewish and non-Jewish disciples serve together as “one new man”.(Ephesians 2:15)
    • We believe that God is restoring the Jewish people physically to their land and spiritually to Himself. When this restoration is made complete Israel will again be a light to all nations.
    • Although our calling is primarily to Jewish people (Galatians 2:9), we also support those who are called primarily to Arabs.
  2. Mercy Ministry
    • We are committed to expressing the heart of the Messiah toward hurting people through deeds of compassion. We give to those in need what is already placed in our hands and also trust God’s Spirit to flow through us with healing and deliverance.
  3. Apostolic Ministry
    • We are committed to inspiring and equipping people for pioneering new congregations and ministries that identify with our vision and core values.

Monday, January 21, 2019

Judaism: Oral Law-Talmud & Mishna

Judaism: The Oral Law -Talmud & Mishna TABLE OF CONTENTS THE WRITTEN LAW TALMUD The Oral Law is a legal commentary on the Torah, explaining how its commandments are to be carried out. Common sense suggests that some sort of oral tradition was always needed to accompany the Written Law, because the Torah alone, even with its 613 commandments, is an insufficient guide to Jewish life. For example, the fourth of the Ten Commandments, ordains, "Remember the Sabbath day to make it holy" (Exodus 20:8). From the Sabbath's inclusion in the Ten Commandments, it is clear that the Torah regards it as an important holiday. Yet when one looks for the specific biblical laws regulating how to observe the day, one finds only injunctions against lighting a fire, going away from one's dwelling, cutting down a tree, plowing and harvesting. Would merely refraining from these few activities fulfill the biblical command to make the Sabbath holy? Indeed, the Sabbath rituals that are most commonly associated with holiness-lighting of candles, reciting the kiddush, and the reading of the weekly Torah portion are found not in the Torah, but in the Oral Law. Without an oral tradition, some of the Torah's laws would be incomprehensible. In the Shema's first paragraph, the Bible instructs: "And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise up. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes." "Bind them for a sign upon your hand," the last verse instructs. Bind what? The Torah doesn't say. "And they shall be for frontlets between your eyes." What are frontlets? The Hebrew word for frontlets, totafot is used three times in the Torah — always in this context (Exodus 13:16; Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18) — and is as obscure as is the English. Only in the Oral Law do we learn that what a Jewish male should bind upon his hand and between his eyes are tefillin (phylacteries). Finally, an Oral Law was needed to mitigate certain categorical Torah laws that would have caused grave problems if carried out literally. The Written Law, for example, demands an "eye for an eye" (Exodus 21:24). Did this imply that if one person accidentally blinded another, he should be blinded in return? That seems to be the Torah's wish. But the Oral Law explains that the verse must be understood as requiring monetary compensation: the value of an eye is what must be paid. The Jewish community of Palestine suffered horrendous losses during the Great Revolt and the Bar-Kokhba rebellion. Well over a million Jews were killed in the two ill-fated uprisings, and the leading yeshivot, along with thousands of their rabbinical scholars and students, were devastated. This decline in the number of knowledgeable Jews seems to have been a decisive factor in Rabbi Judah the Prince's decision around the year 200 C.E. to record in writing the Oral Law. For centuries, Judaism's leading rabbis had resisted writing down the Oral Law. Teaching the law orally, the rabbis knew, compelled students to maintain close relationships with teachers, and they considered teachers, not books, to be the best conveyors of the Jewish tradition. But with the deaths of so many teachers in the failed revolts, Rabbi Judah apparently feared that the Oral Law would be forgotten unless it were written down. In the Mishna, the name for the sixty-three tractates in which Rabbi Judah set down the Oral Law, Jewish law is systematically codified, unlike in the Torah. For example, if a person wanted to find every law in the Torah about the Sabbath, he would have to locate scattered references in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Indeed, in order to know everything the Torah said on a given subject, one either had to read through all of it or know its contents by heart. Rabbi Judah avoided this problem by arranging the Mishna topically. All laws pertaining to the Sabbath were put into one tractate called Shabbat (Hebrew for "Sabbath"). The laws contained in Shabbat's twenty-four chapters are far more extensive than those contained in the Torah, for the Mishna summarizes the Oral Law's extensive Sabbath legislation. The tractate Shabbat is part of a larger "order" called Mo'ed (Hebrew for "holiday"), which is one of six orders that comprise the Mishna. Some of the other tractates in Mo'ed specify the Oral Laws of Passover (Pesachim); Purim (Megillah); Rosh ha­Shana; Yom Kippur (Yoma); and Sukkot. The first of the six orders is called Zera'im (Seeds), and deals with the agricultural rules of ancient Palestine, particularly with the details of the produce that were to be presented as offerings at the Temple in Jerusalem. The most famous tractate in Zera'im, however, Brakhot (Blessings) has little to do with agriculture. It records laws concerning different blessings and when they are to be recited. Another order, called Nezikin (Damages), contains ten tractates summarizing Jewish civil and criminal law. Another order, Nashim (Women), deals with issues between the sexes, including both laws of marriage, Kiddushin, and of divorce, Gittin. A fifth order, Kodashim, outlines the laws of sacrifices and ritual slaughter. The sixth order, Taharot, contains the laws of purity and impurity. Although parts of the Mishna read as dry legal recitations, Rabbi Judah frequently enlivened the text by presenting minority views, which it was also hoped might serve to guide scholars in later generations (Mishna Eduyot 1:6). In one famous instance, the legal code turned almost poetic, as Rabbi Judah cited the lengthy warning the rabbinic judges delivered to witnesses testifying in capital cases: "How are witnesses inspired with awe in capital cases?" the Mishna begins. "They are brought in and admonished as follows: In case you may want to offer testimony that is only conjecture or hearsay or secondhand evidence, even from a person you consider trustworthy; or in the event you do not know that we shall test you by cross-examination and inquiry, then know that capital cases are not like monetary cases. In monetary cases, a man can make monetary restitution and be forgiven, but in capital cases both the blood of the man put to death and the blood of his [potential] descendants are on the witness's head until the end of time. For thus we find in the case of Cain, who killed his brother, that it is written: 'The bloods of your brother cry unto Me' (Genesis 4:10) — that is, his blood and the blood of his potential descendants.... Therefore was the first man, Adam, created alone, to teach us that whoever destroys a single life, the Bible considers it as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a single life, the Bible considers it as if he saved an entire world. Furthermore, only one man, Adam, was created for the sake of peace among men, so that no one should say to his fellow, 'My father was greater than yours.... Also, man [was created singly] to show the greatness of the Holy One, Blessed be He, for if a man strikes many coins from one mold, they all resemble one another, but the King of Kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He, made each man in the image of Adam, and yet not one of them resembles his fellow. Therefore every single person is obligated to say, 'The world was created for my sake"' (Mishna Sanhedrin 4:5). (One commentary notes, "How grave the responsibility, therefore, of corrupting myself by giving false evidence, and thus bringing [upon myself the moral guilt of [murdering] a whole world.") One of the Mishna's sixty­three tractates contains no laws at all. It is called Pirkei Avot (usually translated as Ethics of the Fathers), and it is the "Bartlett's" of the rabbis, in which their most famous sayings and proverbs are recorded. During the centuries following Rabbi Judah's editing of the Mishna, it was studied exhaustively by generation after generation of rabbis. Eventually, some of these rabbis wrote down their discussions and commentaries on the Mishna's laws in a series of books known as the Talmud. The rabbis of Palestine edited their discussions of the Mishna about the year 400: Their work became known as the Palestinian Talmud (in Hebrew, Talmud Yerushalmi, which literally means "Jerusalem Talmud"). More than a century later, some of the leading Babylonian rabbis compiled another editing of the discussions on the Mishna. By then, these deliberations had been going on some three hundred years. The Babylon edition was far more extensive than its Palestinian counterpart, so that the Babylonian Talmud (Talmud Bavli) became the most authoritative compilation of the Oral Law. When people speak of studying "the Talmud," they almost invariably mean the Bavli rather than the Yerushalmi. The Talmud's discussions are recorded in a consistent format. A law from the Mishna is cited, which is followed by rabbinic deliberations on its meaning. The Mishna and the rabbinic discussions (known as the Gemara) comprise the Talmud, although in Jewish life the terms Gemara and Talmud usually are used interchangeably. The rabbis whose views are cited in the Mishna are known as Tanna'im (Aramaic for "teachers"), while the rabbis quoted in the Gemara are known as Amora'im ("explainers" or "interpreters"). Because the Tanna'im lived earlier than the Amora'im, and thus were in closer proximity to Moses and the revelation at Sinai, their teachings are considered more authoritative than those of the Amora'im. For the same reason, Jewish tradition generally regards the teachings of the Amora'im, insofar as they are expounding the Oral Law, as more authoritative than contemporary rabbinic teachings. In addition to extensive legal discussions (in Hebrew, halakha), the rabbis incorporated into the Talmud guidance on ethical matters, medical advice, historical information, and folklore, which together are known as aggadata. As a rule, the Gemara's text starts with a close reading of the Mishna. For example, Mishna Bava Mezia 7:1 teaches the following: "If a man hired laborers and ordered them to work early in the morning and late at night, he cannot compel them to work early and late if it is not the custom to do so in that place." On this, the Gemara (Bava Mezia 83a) comments: "Is it not obvious [that an employer cannot demand that they change from the local custom]? The case in question is where the employer gave them a higher wage than was normal. In that case, it might be argued that he could then say to them, 'The reason I gave you a higher wage than is normal is so that you will work early in the morning and late at night.' So the law tells us that the laborers can reply: 'The reason that you gave us a higher wage than is normal is for better work [not longer hours].'" Among religious Jews, talmudic scholars are regarded with the same awe and respect with which secular society regards Nobel laureates. Yet throughout Jewish history, study of the Mishna and Talmud was hardly restricted to an intellectual elite. An old book saved from the millions burned by the Nazis, and now housed at the YIVO library in New York, bears the stamp THE SOCIETY OF WOODCHOPPERS FOR THE STUDY OF MISHNA IN BERDITCHEV. That the men who chopped wood in Berditchev, an arduous job that required no literacy, met regularly to study Jewish law demonstrates the ongoing pervasiveness of study of the Oral Law in the Jewish community. Sources: Joseph Telushkin. Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History. NY: William Morrow and Co., 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Judaism: The Written Law-Torah

Judaism: The Written Law - Torah TABLE OF CONTENTS THE ORAL LAW TORAH The Torah, or Jewish Written Law, consists of the five books of the Hebrew Bible - known more commonly to non-Jews as the "Old Testament" - that were given by G-d to Moses on Mount Sinai and include within them all of the biblical laws of Judaism. The Torah is also known as the Chumash, Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses. The word "Torah" has multiple meanings including: A scroll made from kosher animal parchment, with the entire text of the Five Books of Moses written on it; the text of the Five Books of Moses, written in any format; and, the term "Torah" can mean the entire corpus of Jewish law. This includes the Written and the Oral Law. Origin & Preexistence Jewish tradition holds that "Moses received the Torah from Sinai," yet there is also an ancient tradition that the Torah existed in heaven not only before God revealed it to Moses, but even before the world was created. In rabbinic literature, it was taught that the Torah was one of the six or seven things created prior to the creation of the world. According to Eliezer ben Yose the Galilean, for 974 generations before the creation of the world the Torah lay in God's bosom and joined the ministering angels in song. Simeon ben Lakish taught that the Torah preceded the world by 2,000 years and was written in black fire upon white fire. Akiva called the Torah "the precious instrument by which the world was created". Rav said that God created the world by looking into the Torah as an architect builds a palace by looking into blueprints. It was also taught that God took council with the Torah before He created the world. Other Jewish sages, however, disregard the literal belief that the Torah existed before all else. Saadiah Gaon rejected this belief on the grounds that it contradicts the principle of creation ex nihilo. Judah Barzillai of Barcelona raised the problem of place. Where could God have kept a preexistent Torah? While allowing that God could conceivably have provided an ante-mundane place for a corporeal Torah, he preferred the interpretation that the Torah preexisted only as a thought in the divine mind. Similarly, the Ibn Ezra raised the problem of time. He wrote that it is impossible for the Torah to have preceded the world by 2,000 years or even by one moment, since time is an accident of motion, and there was no motion before God created the celestial spheres; rather, he concluded, the teaching about the Torah's preexistence must be a metaphoric riddle. Judah Halevi attempts to alleviate the argument by explaining that the Torah precedes the world in terms of teleology; God created the world for the purpose of revealing the Torah; therefore, since, as the philosophers say, "the first of thought is the end of the work," the Torah is said to have existed before the world. Nature, Message & Purpose In the Bible, the Torah is referred to both as the "Torah of the Lord" and as the "Torah of Moses," and is said to be given as an inheritance to the congregation of Jacob- the Jewish people. Its purpose seems to be to make Israel "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." The Septuagint rendered the Hebrew torah by the Greek nomos ("law"), probably in the sense of a living network of traditions and customs of a people. The designation of the Torah by nomos, and by its Latin successor lex (whence, "the Law"), has historically given rise to the misunderstanding that Torah means legalism. It was one of the very few real dogmas of rabbinic theology that the Torah is from heaven; i.e., the Torah in its entirety was revealed by God. According to biblical stories, Moses ascended into heaven to capture the Torah from the angels. In one of the oldest mishnaic statements it is taught that Torah is one of the three things by which the world is sustained. Eleazar ben Shammua said: "Were it not for the Torah, heaven and earth would not continue to exist". The Torah was often compared to fire, water, wine, oil, milk, honey, drugs, manna, the tree of life, and many other things; it was considered the source of freedom, goodness, and life; it was identified both with wisdom and with love. Hillel summarized the entire Torah in one sentence: "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow". Akiva said: "The fundamental principle of the Torah is the commandment, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself '". The message of the Torah is for all mankind. Before giving the Torah to Israel, God offered it to the other nations, but they refused it; and when He did give the Torah to Israel, He revealed it in the extraterritorial desert and simultaneously in all the 70 languages, so that men of all nations would have a right to it. Alongside this universalism, the rabbis taught the inseparability of Israel and the Torah. One rabbi held that the concept of Israel existed in God's mind even before He created the Torah. Yet, were it not for its accepting the Torah, Israel would not be "chosen," nor would it be different from all the idolatrous nations. Saadiah Gaon expounded a rationalist theory according to which the ethical and religious-intellectual beliefs imparted by the Torah are all attainable by human reason. He held that the Torah is divisible into two parts: (1) commandments which, in addition to being revealed, are demanded by reason (e.g., prohibitions of murder, fornication, theft, lying); and (2) commandments whose authority is revelation alone (e.g., Sabbath and dietary laws), but which generally are understandable in terms of some personal or social benefit attained by their performance. In the period between Saadiah and Maimonides, most Jewish writers who speculated on the nature of the Torah continued in this rationalist tradition. Judah Halevi, however, opposed the rationalist interpretation. He allowed that the Torah contains rational and political laws, but considered them preliminary to the specifically divine laws and teachings which cannot be comprehended by reason, e.g., the laws of the Sabbath which teach the omnipotence of God and the creation of the world. The Torah makes it possible to approach God by awe, love, and joy. It is the essence of wisdom, and the outcome of the will of God to reveal His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. While Judah Halevi held that Israel was created to fulfill the Torah, he wrote that there would be no Torah were there no Israel. Maimonides emphasized that the Torah is the product of the unique prophecy of Moses. He maintained that the Torah has two purposes: (1) The welfare of the body, which is a prerequisite of the ultimate purpose, is political, and "consists in the governance of the city and the well-being of the state of all its people according to their capacity. (2) The welfare of the soul (intellect), which consists in the true perfection of man, his acquisition of immortality through intellection of the highest things. Maimonides held that the Torah is similar to other laws in its concern with the welfare of the body; but its divine nature is reflected in its concern for the welfare of the soul. Maimonides saw the Torah as a rationalizing force, warring against superstition, imagination, appetite, and idolatry. He cited the rabbinic dictum, "Everyone who disbelieves in idolatry professes the Torah in its entirety", and taught that the foundation of the Torah and the pivot around which it turns consists in the effacement of idolatry. He held that the Torah must be interpreted in the light of reason. While Maimonides generally restricted analysis of the nature of the Torah to questions of its educational, moral, or political value, the Spanish kabbalists engaged in bold metaphysical speculation concerning its essence. The kabbalists taught that the Torah is a living organism. Some said the entire Torah consists of the names of God set in succession or interwoven into a fabric. Ultimately, it was said that the Torah is God. This identification of the Torah and God was understood to refer to the Torah in its true primordial essence, and not to its manifestation in the world of creation. Influenced by Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza took the position that the Torah is an exclusively political law, however he broke radically with all rabbinic tradition by denying its divine nature, by making it an object of historical-critical investigation, and by maintaining that it was not written by Moses alone but by various authors living at different times. Moreover, he considered the Torah primitive, unscientific, and particularistic, and thus subversive to progress, reason, and universal morality. By portraying the Torah as a product of the Jewish people, he reversed the traditional opinion according to which the Jewish people are a product of the Torah. Moses Mendelssohn considered the Torah a political law, but he affirmed its divine nature. He explained that the Torah does not intend to reveal new ideas about deism and morality, but rather, through its laws and institutions, to arouse men to be mindful of the true ideas attainable by all men through reason. By identifying the beliefs of the Torah with the truths of reason, Mendelssohn affirmed both its scientific respectability and its universalistic nature. By defining the Torah as a political law given to Israel by God, he preserved the traditional view that Israel is a product of the Torah, and not, as Spinoza claimed, vice versa. With the rise of the science of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentums) in the 19th century, and the advance of the historical-critical approach to the Torah, many Jewish intellectuals, including ideologists of Reform like Abraham Geiger, followed Spinoza in seeing the Torah, at least in part, as a product of the primitive history of the Jewish nation. The increasing intellectualization of the Torah was opposed by Samuel David Luzzatto. He contended that the belief that God revealed the Torah is the starting point of Judaism, and that this belief, with its momentous implications concerning the nature of God and His relation to man, cannot be attained by philosophy. Luzzatto held that the foundation of the whole Torah is compassion. In their German translation of the Bible, Martin Buber translated torah as Weisung or Unterweisung ("Instruction") and not as Gesetz ("Law"). In general, he agreed on the purpose of the Torah - to convert the universe and God from It to Thou - yet differed on several points concerning its nature. Buber saw the Torah as the past dialogue between Israel and God, and the present dialogue between the individual reader, the I, and God, the Thou. He concluded that while one must open himself to the entire teaching of the Torah, he need only accept a particular law of the Torah if he feels that it is being spoken now to him. The secular Zionism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries gave religious thinkers new cause to define the relationship between the Torah and the Jewish nation. Some defined the Torah in terms of the nation. Thus, Mordecai Kaplan translated Ahad Ha-Am's sociological theory of the evolution of Jewish civilization into a religious, though naturalistic, theory of the Torah as the "religious civilization of the Jews." Other thinkers defined the nation in terms of the Torah. Thus, Abraham Isaac Kook taught that the purpose of the Torah is to reveal the living light of the universe, the suprarational spiritual, to Israel and, through Israel, to all mankind. While the Written Torah, which reveals the light in the highest channel of our soul, is the product of God alone, the Oral Torah, which is inseparable from the Written Torah, and which reveals the light in a second channel of our soul, proximate to the life of deeds, derives its personality from the spirit of the nation. The Oral Torah can live in its fullness only when Israel lives in its fullness – in peace and independence in the Land of Israel. Thus, according to Kook, modern Zionism, whatever the intent of its secular ideologists, has universal religious significance, for it is acting in service of the Torah. In the State of Israel, most writers and educators have maintained the secularist position of the early Zionists, namely, that the Torah was not revealed by God, in the traditional sense, but is the product of the national life of ancient Israel. Those who have discussed the Torah and its relation to the state from a religious point of view have mostly followed Kook or Buber. However, a radically rationalist approach to the nature of the Torah has been taught by Yeshayahu Leibowitz who emphasizes that the Torah is a law for the worship of God and for the consequent obliteration of the worship of men and things; in this connection, he condemns the subordination of the Torah to nationalism or to religious sentimentalism or to any ideology or institution. Eternality (Non-Abrogability) In the Bible there is no text unanimously understood to affirm explicitly the eternity or nonabrogability of the Torah; however, many laws of the Torah are accompanied by phrases such as, "an everlasting injunction through your generations." Whereas the rabbis understood the preexistence of the Torah in terms of its prerevelation existence in heaven, they understood the eternity or nonabrogability of the Torah in terms of its postrevelation existence, not in heaven; i.e., the whole Torah was given to Moses and no part of it remained in heaven. When Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and Joshua ben Hananiah were debating a point of Torah and a voice from heaven dramatically announced that Eliezer's position was correct, Joshua refused to recognize its testimony, for the Torah "is not in heaven", and must be interpreted by men, unaided by the supernatural. It was a principle that "a prophet is henceforth not permitted to innovate a thing." The rabbis taught that the Torah would continue to exist in the world to come, although some of them were of the opinion that innovations would be made in the messianic era. With the rise to political power of Christianity and Islam, two religions which sought to convert Jews and which argued that particular injunctions of the Torah had been abrogated, the question of the eternity or "nonabrogability" of the Torah became urgent. Saadiah Gaon stated that the children of Israel have a clear tradition from the prophets that the laws of the Torah are not subject to abrogation. Presenting scriptural corroboration for this tradition, he appealed to phrases appended to certain commandments, e.g., "throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." According to one novel argument of his, the Jewish nation is a nation only by virtue of its laws, namely, the Torah; God has stated that the Jewish nation will endure as long as the heaven and earth; therefore, the Torah will last as long as heaven and earth. He interpreted the verses, "Remember ye the Torah of Moses… Behold, I will send you Elijah…" , as teaching that the Torah will hold valid until the prophet Elijah returns to herald the resurrection. Maimonides listed the belief in the eternity of the Torah as the ninth of his 13 principles of Judaism, and connected it with the belief that no prophet will surpass Moses, the only man to give people laws through prophecy. He contended that the eternity of the Torah is stated clearly in the Bible, particularly in the passages "thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it" and "the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this Torah". He offered the following explanation of the Torah's eternity, based on its perfection and on the theory of the mean: "The Torah of the Lord is perfect" (Ps. 19:8) in that its statutes are just, i.e., that they are equibalanced between the burdensome and the indulgent; and "when a thing is perfect as it is possible to be within its species, it is impossible that within that species there should be found another thing that does not fall short of the perfection either because of excess or deficiency." Joseph Albo criticized Maimonides for listing the belief in the eternity of the Torah as an independent fundamental belief of Judaism. In a long discussion he contended that nonabrogation is not a fundamental principle of the Torah, and that moreover, no text can be found in the Bible to establish it. Ironically, his ultimate position turned out to be closer to Maimonides' for he concluded that the belief in the nonabrogation of the Torah is a branch of the doctrine that no prophet will surpass the excellence of Moses. After Albo, the question of the eternity of the Torah became routine in Jewish philosophical literature. However, in the Kabbalah it was never routine. In the 13th-century Sefer ha-Temunah a doctrine of cosmic cycles (or shemittot; cf. Deut. 15) was expounded, according to which creation is renewed every 7,000 years, at which times the letters of the Torah reassemble, and the Torah enters the new cycle bearing different words and meanings. Thus, while eternal in its unrevealed state, the Torah, in its manifestation in creation, is destined to be abrogated. This doctrine became popular in later kabbalistic and ḥasidic literature, and was exploited by the heretic Shabbetai Ẓevi and his followers, who claimed that a new cycle had begun, and in consequence he was able to teach that "the abrogation of the Torah is its fulfillment!" Jewish philosophers of modern times have not concentrated on the question of the eternity or nonabrogability of the Torah. Nevertheless, it is not entirely untenable that the main distinction between Orthodox Judaism and non-Orthodox Judaism is that the latter rejects the literal interpretation of the ninth principle of Maimonides' Creed that there will be no change in the Torah.

Islam: References to Jews in the Koran

Islam: References to Jews in the Koran TABLE OF CONTENTS ABOUT ISLAM THE KORAN The Koran is divided into 114 chapters called suras. The following are translations of passages found in these suras that are related to Jews. As in any translation, the original language is not always easy to render in English, and this particular translation uses more temperate language than some others. Sometimes the specific mention of Jews is not explanatory, so we then include the next relevant lines. Some of the more disparaging references are highlighted in bold. The Cow [2.40] O children of Israel! call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and be faithful to (your) covenant with Me, I will fulfill (My) covenant with you; and of Me, Me alone, should you be afraid. [2.47] O children of Israel! call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and that I made you excel the nations. [2.62] Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve. [2.83] And when We made a covenant with the children of Israel: You shall not serve any but Allah and (you shall do) good to (your) parents, and to the near of kin and to the orphans and the needy, and you shall speak to men good words and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate. Then you turned back except a few of you and (now too) you turn aside. [2.88] And they say: Our hearts are covered. Nay, Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief; so little it is that they believe. [2.98] Whoever is the enemy of Allah and His angels and His apostles and Jibreel and Meekaeel, so surely Allah is the enemy of the unbelievers. [2.111] And they say: None sh all enter the garden (or paradise) except he who is a Jew or a Christian. These are their vain desires. Say: Bring your proof if you are truthful. [2.113] And the Jews say: The Christians do not follow anything (good) and the Christians say: The Jews do not follow anything (good) while they recite the (same) Book. Even thus say those who have no knowledge, like to what they say; so Allah shall judge between them on the day of resurrection in what they differ. [2.120] And the Jews will not be pleased with you, nor the Christians until you follow their religion. Say: Surely Allah's guidance, that is the (true) guidance. And if you follow their desires after the knowledge that has come to you, you shall have no guardian from Allah, nor any helper. [2.121] Those to whom We have given the Book read it as it ought to be read. These believe in it; and whoever disbelieves in it, these it is that are the losers. [2.122] O children of Israel, call to mind My favor which I bestowed on you and that I made you excel the nations. [2.135] And they say: Be Jews or Christians, you will be on the right course. Say: Nay! (we follow) the religion of Ibrahim, the Hanif, and he was not one of the polytheists. [2.140] Nay! do you say that Ibrahim and Ismail and Yaqoub and the tribes were Jews or Christians? Say: Are you better knowing or Allah? And who is more unjust than he who conceals a testimony that he has from Allah? And Allah is not at all heedless of what you do. [2.211] Ask the Israelites how many a clear sign have We given them; and whoever changes the favor of Allah after it has come to him, then surely Allah is severe in requiting (evil). [2.246] Have you not considered the chiefs of the children of Israel after Musa, when they said to a prophet of theirs: Raise up for us a king, (that) we may fight in the way of Allah. He said: May it not be that you would not fight if fighting is ordained for you? They said: And what reason have we that we should not fight in the way of Allah, and we have indeed been compelled to abandon our homes and our children. But when fighting was ordained for them, they turned back, except a few of them, and Allah knows the unjust. The Family of Imran [3.23] Have you not considered those (Jews) who are given a portion of the Book? They are invited to the Book of Allah that it might decide between them, then a part of them turn back and they withdraw. [3.24] This is because they say: The fire shall not touch us but for a few days; and what they have forged deceives them in the matter of their religion. [3.49] And (make him) an apostle to the children of Israel: That I have come to you with a sign from your Lord, that I determine for you out of dust like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird with Allah's permission and I heal the blind and the leprous, and bring the dead to life with Allah's permission and I inform you of what you should eat and what you should store in your houses; most surely there is a sign in this for you, if you are believers. [3.67] Ibrahim was not a Jew nor a Christian but he was (an) upright (man), a Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists. [3.93] All food was lawful to the children of Israel except that which Israel had forbidden to himself, before the Taurat was revealed. Say: Bring then the Taurat and read it, if you are truthful. The Women [4.46] Of those who are Jews (there are those who) alter words from their places and say: We have heard and we disobey and: Hear, may you not be made to hear! and: Raina, distorting (the word) with their tongues and taunting about religion; and if they had said (instead): We have heard and we obey, and hearken, and unzurna it would have been better for them and more upright; but Allah has cursed them on account of their unbelief, so they do not believe but a little. [4.47] O you who have been given the Book! believe that which We have revealed, verifying what you have, before We alter faces then turn them on their backs, or curse them as We cursed the violaters of the Sabbath, and the command of Allah shall be executed. [4.50] See how they forge the lie against Allah, and this is sufficient as a manifest sin. [4.160] Wherefore for the iniquity of those who are Jews did We disallow to them the good things which had been made lawful for them and for their hindering many (people) from Allah's way. [4.161] And their taking usury though indeed they were forbidden it and their devouring the property of people falsely, and We have prepared for the unbelievers from among them a painful chastisement. The Dinner Table [5.12] And certainly Allah made a covenant with the children of Israel, and We raised up among them twelve chieftains; and Allah said: Surely I am with you; if you keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate and believe in My apostles and assist them and offer to Allah a goodly gift, I will most certainly cover your evil deeds, and I will most certainly cause you to enter into gardens beneath which rivers flow, but whoever disbelieves from among you after that, he indeed shall lose the right way. [5.13] But on account of their breaking their covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard; they altered the words from their places and they neglected a portion of what they were reminded of; and you shall always discover treachery in them excepting a few of them; so pardon them and turn away; surely Allah loves those who do good (to others). [5.18] And the Jews and the Christians say: We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones. Say: Why does He then chastise you for your faults? Nay, you are mortals from among those whom He has created, He forgives whom He pleases and chastises whom He pleases; and Allah's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, and to Him is the eventual coming. [5.32] For this reason did We prescribe to the children of Israel that whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men; and certainly Our apostles came to them with clear arguments, but even after that many of them certainly act extravagantly in the land. [5.33] The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement, [5.41] O Apostle! let not those grieve you who strive together in hastening to unbelief from among those who say with their mouths: We believe, and their hearts do not believe, and from among those who are Jews; they are listeners for the sake of a lie, listeners for another people who have not come to you; they alter the words from their places, saying: If you are given this, take it, and if you are not given this, be cautious; and as for him whose temptation Allah desires, you cannot control anything for him with Allah. Those are they for whom Allah does not desire that He should purify their hearts; they shall have disgrace in this world, and they shall have a grievous chastisement in the hereafter. [5.42] (They are) listeners of a lie, devourers of what is forbidden; therefore if they come to you, judge between them or turn aside from them, and if you turn aside from them, they shall not harm you in any way; and if you judge, judge between them with equity; surely Allah loves those who judge equitably. [5.43] And how do they make you a judge and they have the Taurat wherein is Allah's judgment? Yet they turn back after that, and these are not the believers. [5.44] Surely We revealed the Taurat in which was guidance and light; with it the prophets who submitted themselves (to Allah) judged (matters) for those who were Jews, and the masters of Divine knowledge and the doctors, because they were required to guard (part) of the Book of Allah, and they were witnesses thereof; therefore fear not the people and fear Me, and do not take a small price for My communications; and whoever did not judge by what Allah revealed, those are they that are the unbelievers. [5.51] O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. [5:57] O you who believe! do not take for guardians those who take your religion for a mockery and a joke, from among those who were given the Book before you and the unbelievers; and be careful of (your duty to) Allah if you are believers. [5.59] Say: O followers of the Book! do you find fault with us (for aught) except that we believe in Allah and in what has been revealed to us and what was revealed before, and that most of you are transgressors? [5.60] Say: Shall I inform you of (him who is) worse than this in retribution from Allah? (Worse is he) whom Allah has cursed and brought His wrath upon, and of whom He made apes and swine, and he who served the Shaitan; these are worse in place and more erring from the straight path. [5.63] Why do not the learned men [rabbis] and the doctors of law prohibit them from their speaking of what is sinful and their eating of what is unlawfully acquired? Certainly evil is that which they work. [5.64] And the Jews say: The hand of Allah is tied up! Their hands shall be shackled and they shall be cursed for what they say. Nay, both His hands are spread out, He expends as He pleases; and what has been revealed to you from your Lord will certainly make many of them increase in inordinacy and unbelief; and We have put enmity and hatred among them till the day of resurrection; whenever they kindle a fire for war Allah puts it out, and they strive to make mischief in the land; and Allah does not love the mischief-makers. [5.69] Surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians whoever believes in Allah and the last day and does good-- they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve. [5.70] Certainly We made a covenant with the children of Israel and We sent to them apostles; whenever there came to them an apostle with what that their souls did not desire, some (of them) did they call liars and some they slew. [5.72] Certainly they disbelieve who say: Surely Allah, He is the Messiah, son of Marium; and the Messiah said: O Children of Israel! serve Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Surely whoever associates (others) with Allah, then Allah has forbidden to him the garden, and his abode is the fire; and there shall be no helpers for the unjust. [5.73] Certainly they disbelieve who say: Surely Allah is the third (person) of the three; and there is no god but the one God, and if they desist not from what they say, a painful chastisement shall befall those among them who disbelieve. [5.78] Those who disbelieved from among the children of Israel were cursed by the tongue of Dawood and Isa, son of Marium; this was because they disobeyed and used to exceed the limit. [5.79] They used not to forbid each other the hateful things (which) they did; certainly evil was that which they did. [5.80] You will see many of them befriending those who disbelieve; certainly evil is that which their souls have sent before for them, that Allah became displeased with them and in chastisement shall they abide. [5.81] And had they believed in Allah and the prophet and what was revealed to him, they would not have taken them for friends but! most of them are transgressors. [5.82] Certainly you will find the most violent of people in enmity for those who believe (to be) the Jews and those who are polytheists, and you will certainly find the nearest in friendship to those who believe (to be) those who say: We are Christians; this is because there are priests and monks among them and because they do not behave proudly. [5.86] And (as for) those who disbelieve and reject Our communications, these are the companions of the flame. [5.110] When Allah will say: O Isa son of Marium! Remember My favor on you and on your mother, when I strengthened you I with the holy Spirit, you spoke to the people in the cradle and I when of old age, and when I taught you the Book and the wisdom and the Taurat and the Injeel; and when you determined out of clay a thing like the form of a bird by My permission, then you breathed into it and it became a bird by My permission, and you healed the blind and the leprous by My permission; and when you brought forth the dead by My permission; and when I withheld the children of Israel from you when you came to them with clear arguments, but those who disbelieved among them said: This is nothing but clear enchantment. The Cattle [6.146] And to those who were Jews We made unlawful every animal having claws, and of oxen and sheep We made unlawful to them the fat of both, except such as was on their backs or the entrails or what was mixed with bones: this was a punishment We gave them on account of their rebellion, and We are surely Truthful. The Elevated Places [7.105] (I am) worthy of not saying anything about Allah except the truth: I have come to you indeed with clear proof from your Lord, therefore send with me the children of Israel. [7.134] And when the plague fell upon them, they said: O Musa! pray for us to your Lord as He has promised with you, if you remove the plague from us, we will certainly believe in you and we will certainly send away with you the children of Israel. [7.137] And We made the people who were deemed weak to inherit the eastern lands and the western ones which We had blessed; and the good word of your Lord was fulfilled in the children of Israel because they bore up (sufferings) patiently; and We utterly destroyed what Firon and his people had wrought and what they built. [7.138] And We made the children of Israel to pass the sea; then they came upon a people who kept to the worship of their idols. They said: O Musa! make for us a god as they have (their) gods. He said: Surely you are a people acting ignorantly: The Immunity [9.30] And the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away! [9:34] O you who believe! most surely many of the doctors of law [rabbis] and the monks eat away the property of men falsely, and turn (them) from Allah's way; and (as for) those who hoard up gold and silver and do not spend it in Allah's way, announce to them a painful chastisement.... Jonah [10.90] And We made the children of Israel to pass through the sea, then Firon and his hosts followed them for oppression and tyranny; until when drowning overtook him, he said: I believe that there is no god but He in Whom the children of Israel believe and I am of those who submit. [10.93] And certainly We lodged the children of Israel in a goodly abode and We provided them with good things; but they did not disagree until the knowledge had come to them; surely your Lord will judge between them on the resurrection day concerning that in which they disagreed. The Bee [16.118] And for those who were Jews We prohibited what We have related to you already, and We did them no injustice, but they were unjust to themselves. The Children of Israel [17.2] And We gave Musa the Book and made it a guidance to the children of Israel, saying: Do not take a protector besides Me; [17.4] And We had made known to the children of Israel in the Book: Most certainly you will make mischief in the land twice, and most certainly you will behave insolently with great insolence. [17.101] And certainly We gave Musa nine clear signs; so ask the children of Israel. When he came to them, Firon said to him: Most surely I deem you, O Musa, to be a man deprived of reason. [17.104] And We said to the Israelites after him: Dwell in the land: and when the promise of the next life shall come to pass, we will bring you both together in judgment. Marium [19.58] These are they on whom Allah bestowed favors, from among the prophets of the seed of Adam, and of those whom We carried with Nuh, and of the seed of Ibrahim and Israel, and of those whom We guided and chose; when the communications of the Beneficent God were recited to them, they fell down making obeisance and weeping. Ta Ha [20.47] So go you both to him and say: Surely we are two apostles of your Lord; therefore send the children of Israel with us and do not torment them! Indeed we have brought to you a communication from your Lord, and peace is on him who follows the guidance; [20.48] Surely it has been revealed to us that the chastisement will surely come upon him who rejects and turns back. [20.80] O children of Israel! indeed We delivered you from your enemy, and We made a covenant with you on the blessed side of the mountain, and We sent to you the manna and the quails. [20.94] He said: O son of my mother! seize me not by my beard nor by my head; surely I was afraid lest you should say: You have caused a division among the children of Israel and not waited for my word. The Pilgrimage [22.17] Surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabeans and the Christians and the Magians and those who associate (others with Allah)-- surely Allah will decide between them on the day of resurrection; surely Allah is a witness over all things. [22.40] Those who have been expelled from their homes without a just cause except that they say: Our Lord is Allah. And had there not been Allah's repelling some people by others, certainly there would have been pulled down cloisters and churches and synagogues and mosques in which Allah's name is much remembered; and surely Allah will help him who helps His cause; most surely Allah is Strong, Mighty. The Poets [26.17] Then send with us the children of Israel. [26.22] And is it a favor of which you remind me that you have enslaved the children of Israel? [26.59] Even so. And We gave them as a heritage to the children of Israel. [26.197] Is it not a sign to them that the learned men of the Israelites know it? The Ant [27.76] Surely this Quran declares to the children of Israel most of what they differ in. The Adoration [32.23] And certainly We gave the Book to Musa, so be not in doubt concerning the receiving of it, and We made it a guide for the children of Israel. The Believer [40.53] And certainly We gave Musa the guidance, and We made the children of Israel inherit the Book, Ornaments of Gold [43.59] He was naught but a servant on whom We bestowed favor, and We made him an example for the children of Israel. The Smoke [44.30] And certainly We delivered the children of Israel from the abasing chastisement, The Kneeling [45.16] And certainly We gave the Book and the wisdom and the prophecy to the children of Israel, and We gave them of the goodly things, and We made them excel the nations. The Sandhills [46.10] Say: Have you considered if it is from Allah, and you disbelieve in it, and a witness from among the children of Israel has borne witness of one like it, so he believed, while you are big with pride; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. The Banishment [59.2] He it is Who caused those who disbelieved of the followers of the Book to go forth from their homes at the first banishment you did not think that they would go forth, while they were certain that their fortresses would defend them against Allah; but Allah came to them whence they did not expect, and cast terror into their hearts; they demolished their houses with their own hands and the hands of the believers; therefore take a lesson, O you who have eyes! [59.3] And had it not been that Allah had decreed for them the exile, He would certainly have punished them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have chastisement of the fire. The Ranks [61.6] And when Isa son of Marium said: O children of Israel! surely I am the apostle of Allah to you, verifying that which is before me of the Taurat and giving the good news of an Apostle who will come after me, his name being Ahmad, but when he came to them with clear arguments they said: This is clear magic. [61.7] And who is more unjust than he who forges a lie against Allah and he is invited to Islam, and Allah does not guide the unjust people. [61.14] O you who believe! be helpers (in the cause) of Allah, as~ Isa son of Marium said to (his) disciples: Who are my helpers in the cause of Allah? The disciples said: We are helpers (in the cause) of Allah. So a party of the children of Israel believed and another party disbelieved; then We aided those who believed against their enemy, and they became uppermost. The Congregation [62.6] Say: O you who are Jews, if you think that you are the favorites of Allah to the exclusion of other people, then invoke death If you are truthful. Sources: Humanities Text Initiative

jews and Luther

https://israelunwired.com/university-of-north-carolina-defiles-martin-luther-king-legacy-on-israel-the-jews/