From: harwood@umiacs.umd.edu (David Harwood)
Newsgroups: alt.messianic
Subject: Re: The Messiah In The Old Testament
Date: 10 Jan 93 18:50:11 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: UMIACS, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

In article <LJMORLY.93Jan10175420@polaris.utu.fi| ljmorly@polaris.utu.fi (Laura Johanna Manninen) writes:
|I wrote:
|
|| If there's only one book you can have about the earliest Rabbinic
|| ideas about the Messiah, get yourselves THE MESSIAH IN THE OLD 
|| TESTAMENT written by Risto Santala. You can order it from 
|
||     Keren Ahvah Meshihit
||     P.O.Box 10382
||     Jerusalem, Israel
|
|Just forgot to mention that one Rabbi kept that book three years in 
|his library and didn't dare to open it, and when he finally opened 
|it and read it, he became a Messianic.
|
|And furthermore, it's not only the earlist Rabbinic ideas that are
|presented in this book, but Jewish teaching all the way to our days.
|
|Here's a quote for you as an example:
|----------------------------------------------------------------------
|3. The Messiah, the Mimra or 'Word' of God
|
|When looking at the Proto-Evangel we saw how the serpent of bronze
|which Moses raised up in the wilderness was, according to the Wisdom
|of Solomon, a "sign of salvation". The Targum Jonathan Ben Uzziel
|says here that "He who turns his heart to the LORD's Mimra will be
|spared". Professor Gottlieb Klein identified Metatron, used as an
|epithet for the Messiah, with Yahweh's Mimra or 'Word'. In Klein's
|opinion it was precisely this Aramaic word which gave the grounds 
|to the belief that Christ is "the Word or Logos of God become flesh".
|
|The Jewish philosopher Philo, who lived about the same time as Jesus,
|considered the Logos to be God's delegate, his emissary and angel
|who "prays as High Priest before God on behalf of the world". [1]
|The Mimra concept associated with God and his manifestations appear
|596 times in the Targums -- but not once in the Talmud. [2] Targum
|Onqelos uses the word 179 times, Targum Yerushalmi 99 times, and 
|Targum Jonathan 321 times. Over half of these references to the Mimra
|approach it as if it were "personified". [3] The absence of 'Mimra'
|from the Talmud may be a reaction to the first Christians' interpre-
|tation of it as indicating Jesus. But are there really grounds for
|understanding 'Mimra' to mean the same as the New Testament's 'Logos' ?
|
|In answering this question there is good reason to appeal to the Rabbis'
|way of grading the old writings according to their source value: "The
|Old Testament leads to the Targums, the Targums lead to the Mishna, 
|the Mishna to the Talmud, and so on." [4] Proceeding in this way the 
|Targums give earlier information on the Rabbis' exegesis than even the
|Mishna, the oldest part of the Talmud. Therefore, from the point of
|view of our subject, it is worthwhile familiarizing ourselves with these
|roots of our Christian faith which are concealed in the Targums.
| 
|The Mimra appears in the Targums in the following contexts, among others:
|On the creation of man in Gen. 1:27 the Targum says: "And the LORD's 
|Mimra created man" (Targum Yerushalmi); in Gen. 16:13 Hagar speaks with
|the "angel of the LORD" and "calls him the LORD's Mimra" (Yer.); in 
|Gen. 22, where Abraham speaks with the angel of the LORD, who is given 
|the name "the LORD's Mimra", and in v.8 "the LORD's Mimra himself will 
|provide the lamb for the burnt offering" (Yer.); in Gen. 28:20 Jacob 
|makes a vow and says, "If the LORD's Mimra will be with me... then the
|LORD's Mimra will be my God" (Onqelos); Gen. 15:6 in interpreted by the
|Targum as follows: "Abraham believed in the LORD's Mimra, and it was 
|credited to him as righteousness" (Onq.); Along with the giving of the 
|Law in Ex. 20:1 the Targum reads, "And the LORD's Mimra spoke all these
|words" (Yer.).....
|
|
|[1] Gottlieb Klein's Sex foeredrag, p88
|[2] Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah I,
|    pp46-48
|[3] Ibid vol II pp659-664
|[4] Sifrei Shoftim, piska 160a
|------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|- Laura
|
|--
|"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government 
|will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Councellor,
|Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  - Yeshaya 9:5 (9:6)
| 
|"To the Jews who had believed him, Yeshua said, "If you hold to my
|teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth,
|and the truth will set you free.""   - Yochanan 8:32-33

\\\\\\\\\

Laura has cited some important evidence of ancient Jewish 'theology'
which is relevant for understanding the New Testament.

You might also want to read studies by Jean Danielou on early Christian
doctrine among Jewish Christians. (orig. French, but some Eng. trans.;
by the way, J.D. was appointed Cardinal of the R. Catholic Church).

Also, I would note that the greatest Rabbi, Maimonides, explicitly
identifies "the angel of the Lord" and His "word" and "Name" and "glory"
and related Biblical expressions) with the divine self-revelation -
a powerful manifestation of God's presence (often likened to formless
light or lightning (sometimes the appearance is distinguished as
"hashmal" (dazzling; = electric in modern Hebrew), according to its
use in Ezekiel 1 - referring to the appearance of the human-like
divine being, traditionally called the mysterious "Rider" of the
Chariot). This was controversial esoteric subject, before Jesus'
time; even Maimonides got in trouble for writing about it. Possibly,
in part, because it is clear that the New Testament implies that
Christ is the "son of man" envisioned by Daniel, who is obviously
interpreting the vision of Ezekiel's "Chariot." Other Jewish tradition
identifies this figure with "Metatron" or equivalently (in the 
ideological history) "the angel of the Lord." Which Laura discusses.
(You might want to read Maimonides' _Guide (of the Perplexed)_, Book 3
and all of it.)

The Gospel of John identifies Christ with the "Logos" - the creative
expression (or utterance) of God, by which everything was created. As
Paul reminds us, God said, in the Beginning, "Let there be light ..."
So God illuminates our hearts, creating us in the image of Christ, a
new Man. Elsewhere, John says that Jesus has "the Name" of God as his
own, which he reveals to us. And he identifies himself with the apparition
of God's glory which was manifest to Isaiah in the Temple, calling him
to be a prophet. So Isaiah and all the prophets foresaw Christ, when they
saw "the glory" of God (like an angelic presence - it is called an "angel"
because it communicates a specific "intention" of God - it has "agency"
- again, see Maimondes' _Guide_ for his views.)

In John, Jesus also says that, so, Abraham envisioned the glorious 
manifestation (of God and the Messiah) long ago - Abraham saw "the Day"
of the Lord (of the Messiah as well). This expression, "the Day" is
derived from Biblical expression of "the Day of the Lord" when God would
be revealed to all the world, in glory and power (to bring judgment as
well as salvation). As Danielou notes (above), this expression "the Day"
(referring to the light of Christ) was used by some early Jewish Christians
to refer to (divine revelation of) God's Messiah.

D.H.
Newsgroups: alt.messianic,alt.atheism