by whereami 30 Replies latest watchtower bible
The New Testament is full of applications of Passover imagery to the execution of Jesus. However, Passover had nothing to do with atonement for sins. In this video, we'll see how Jesus' death failed to fulfill the actual Jewish ritual for atonement on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur)--this despite all the claims that Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law.
What say some of our in house theologians?
There is a lot of good information here on what the Jewish holy days meant, not only for Jews, but for the whole world.
This helped me so much in my spiritual quest.
Syl
The writers of the gospels were creative and constructed meaning out of old rituals without slavishly following them with precision. It is in the fourth gospel where paschal christology is especially overt. There Jesus is killed on noon of Passover eve (John 18:28, 39, 19:14), at the same time the paschal lamb is slaughtered, hyssop plays a role as in the Passover rite (19:29, cf. Exodus 12:42), Jesus pours out blood like the paschal lamb (19:34, cf. Exodus 12:22), and most obviously Exodus 12:46 is quoted in 19:33, 36 as having relevance to Jesus' unbroken legs. The paschal sacrifice is not expiatory and atoning, but it does within the exodus story guarantee salvation from death. The evangelist however does present the lamb as expiatory in referring to Jesus as "the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (1:29). Here we have an instance of cross-pollination of intertexts that is very common with the gospels. The motif of expiation comes not from paschal rites but from Deutero-Isaiah's Suffering Servant songs, wherein he compares the servant whose life is given as a guilt offering to cover for the sins of many to a "lamb" led to the slaughter (53:7). This text was explicitly applied to Jesus' passion by early Christians (cf. Jesus' silence before Pilate in Mark 15:3-5). So it is in association with Isaiah 53:7 that paschal imagery became colored with expiatory implications. Paul also referred to Jesus as the paschal lamb in 1 Corinthians 5:7 but no expiatory application is made here. Paul is instead concerned with the liturgical eucharistic meaning of Passover, which is very much in keeping with the paschal rite. It is through the eucharist that Christians partake the "body of Christ" and the "blood of Christ" (10:16-17). The eucharist bread (which corresponds to the body of Jesus) replaces the unleavened bread eaten with Passover, hence the injunction to put away the yeast of leavened bread for "Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrified" (5:7).
The scapegoat ritual as delineated in Leviticus 16, Barnabas, and the Mishnah was also utilized in gospel narratives about Jesus' passion. The abused goat was crowned with red wool on its head, put among thorns, spat upon, pierced, and nudged with a reed. The ritual is explicitly applied to the abuse of Jesus in Barnabas 7:6-11, and the gospels develop the allegory into detailed narratives relating the abuse. A third sacrifice ritual that became a narrative source for the gospel accounts of Jesus' passion is the heifer sacrifice from Deuteronomy 21:6-8. This became the source of Pilate's handwashing scene and the crowd's acceptance of Jesus' blood on them and on their children (cf. Matthew 27:24-25), in conjunction with Psalm 26:5-6.
Thank you for all that info Leolaia. It's making more sense why it took 18 months to hammer out the New Testament at Nicea. That's a lot of lining up they had to do with Jewish fables.
I'm wondering how Jesus could have been an atonement for ANYTHING when it was the Black Magician EZRA who made up all the animal sacrifice "requirements" from YHWH.
Ezra Creates His "Law of Moses"
http://www.essene.com/History&Essenes/ezlaw.htm
Perhaps that explains.... Psalms 40:6
Sacrifice and offering you did not delight in;
These ears of mine you opened up.
Burnt offering and sin offering you did not ask for.
~PS
It's making more sense why it took 18 months to hammer out the New Testament at Nicea.
Hammering out the NT was not on the agenda at Nicæa and the council met for only 2 months.
What say some of our in house theologians?
That's it, I'm off to the market to buy some goats to sacrifice for my sins and I shall call myself a Yom Kippurian from now on
Did the passover lamb, or its blood, save the Israelites, or did Yahweh ?
So, is Jesus Yahweh ?
Jesus is Yahweh - Yahweh is Jesus.
Fo' shizzle.
Syl
Sorry Snowbird, I still don't buy into the FULL TRINITY that YHWH is Jesus, and Jesus is YHWH. I can accept that Jesus is of divine ORIGIN, having been made of the same type of perfect cosmic spiritual essense of YHWH God, but that he is begotten of YHWH, not YHWH Himself.
The closest I can get to accepting the Trinity is that Jesus, YHWH, and the Holy Spirit are connected in some form we are not even capable of understanding as mere fleshly mortals. Tied closely together in some way we can't understand, yet being 2 completely seperate spiritual entities when need be. This to me anyway, explains how Jesus could say, before Abraham was, I AM, and also Him saying that if you saw His face, then you've seen the Father's, etc, etc, etc. I don't recall Jesus ever stating, "I am GOD", however I do recall him saying he was the Son of God, etc, etc.
The Irish Catholic Shamrock analogy applies here, all having the same stem, yet being 3 different leaves on the Shamrock.
Make sense?
- Wing Commander
I don't buy into the Trinity, either : -)
Some would call my view henotheistic.
Syl
