Hebrew idioms and customs. Introduction to The Zugote! More about the Tannaim. Meet “The Other” Hebrew idioms. For hundreds of years, Hebrew idioms have been literally translated into English.  When we read the scriptures, we read the work of translators.  These translators have transformed an ancient document, by substituting English words for the original Hebrew words.  The problem is, many times, the words are translated correctly, but the original Hebrew thought is lost.  The words are there, but the meaning is missing. Misunderstanding ancient Hebrew idioms results in a theology that often borders the absurd. Example #1 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I didn't come to destroy them, but to fulfill them, International Standard Version “Destroy” is the translation from the original Hebrew New Testament. I bet you’re wondering how I could possibly know that. Yeshua was using a familiar phrase easily understood during Biblical times. “Destroy" and "fulfill" are technical terms used in rabbinic argumentation including in the Talmud. When a sage felt that a colleague had misinterpreted a passage of Scripture, he would say, "You are destroying the Law!” If someone was interpreting it correctly they’d say, “You are fulfilling the Law.” This was a Hebrew idiom. Translating and interpreting it word for word this passage sounds much different then how it was meant. Yeshua was being accused of misinterpreting the Law and He was saying He was interpreting it correctly. To suggest that Yeshua was doing away with the Law in any sense is 100% incorrect and shows a real lack of knowledge concerning the principles of Scripture. Example 2 The light of the body is the eye; If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. The people who heard Yashua speak these words immediately recognized what Yashua meant when he talked of the evil eye. This idea was and still is common in the Hebraic culture Yet, if you pick up any different Bible translation there’s a quagmire of different words used to express this idiom.  Each translation seems to deal with the issue differently.  A few examples include, “eye be whole”, “eye be simple”, “eye be sound”, “eye be plain”, “eye be healthy”, “sincere”, “clear”, “honest”, or “eye be good”. They don’t seem to know what it means Erasing the Hebraic culture from the Scriptures leads to confusion This passage is about greed. If you read on you see that it says: “You cannot serve both Elohim and Money”. The Bible and the words of the Rabbis explain this issue further. "he that has a good eye shall be blessed; for he gives of his bread to the poor," Proverbs 22:9 The Talmud says… A good eye gave fortieth, the house of Shammai say, the thirtieth part; a middling one, the fiftieth; and an evil one, the sixtieth part," Mishnah Trumopt, 4:3. The Talmud tells of 'trading, dedicating' and 'giving with a good' or an evil eye. Now understand… And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee Matthew 18:9 Yeshua wasn’t saying we should mutilate ourselves. He was saying be generous! Here's another idiom (Gen 29:31) And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren. Seems clear, Jacob hated Leah. But here's the problem, the verse right before it says that he loved Leah. That's very confusing if you don't understand the idiom here. In Hebrew the word “hate” can sometimes mean "loves less", it depends on the context. So that piece of information comes in handy when we read in the New Testament in Luke (Luk 14:26) If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Jesus was only saying that you have to love him more then anyone else. You have to love him more then even yourself. He doesn’t want us to “hate” our families only love them less then we love Him. G-d did hate Esau, he considered him a profane man. Love as we understand it in English is not in the context. And remember there are different words for hate in Hebrew. Now lets look at an ancient Hebrew customs and see what we can find. Mat 8:21 And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Mat 8:22 But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. A Pastor friend of mine asked me one day about this verse he said, "Ya know. I understand that we're supposed to make Jesus number one in our lives, but every time I read this passage it makes me feel like Jesus was being too hard on this man. He lost his dad and all he wanted to do was bury him. Couldn't Jesus have allowed him that one courtesy?". I felt bad when he asked me because he had obviously struggled over this passage for some time and he couldn't reconcile it or make any sense of it. But if he had known about Jewish custom, this passage would've made better sense to him. Yeshua wasn't saying here, “Don't bury your dad!” Matter of fact, the Bible says we should honor our mother and our father. (Deu 5:16) Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. That's one of the Ten Commandments! If you left dad out to rot, is that honoring your father? But in first century Judaism when a person died they would put them in a tomb. Then after the body had decomposed, they would collect the bones and put them in an ossuary (burial box), this was called the “second burial”. It took a long time for the body to decompose, many, many months. So they would often leave the bones for 1 year or more all together. So this man was really saying, “Let me take a year off, I'll do the second burial then I'll follow you." This second burial was not Biblical, it had a PAGAN ORIGIN And Yeshua spoke against it here. Yeshua doesn't like things that are rooted in Paganism. So He wasn't saying, “don't bury your dad”. He was saying, “Don't take a whole year before you become one of My disciples AND don't practice this pagan ritual of a second burial.” One last item to look at today. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of heaven” I’m sure you’ve heard many different teachings on this one like: “One of the gates of the old city walls was called “The Needle Gate” and it was too small for a camel to go through” Variations on this theme include that of ancient inns having small entrances to thwart thieves, Or the story of an old mountain pass known as the "eye of the needle", so narrow that merchants would have to dismount from their camels and were thus easier prey for brigands lying in wait. Though these make for wonderful illustrations and Sunday morning sermons… There was no such gate or pass etc. We know each and every gate that was in the walls and none of them were called “The Needle Gate”. There is no evidence of a pass with such a name, it’s all a myth. Again the problem comes from not knowing Hebrew In Hebrew the word for “camel” is the same as it is for “rope”. It’s obvious that the Greek translator of the New Testament got the words mixed up from the original Hebrew and translated gamal to “camel” instead of to “rope”. Yet more evidence of an original Hebrew text. Which makes for the common Hebrew idiom, “It is easier for a rope to go through the eye of a needle then for (fill in the blank here with anything that would prove difficult ie a Preacher to get his facts straight). A typo destroys many a “God breathed sermon”. Why are so many “words from the Lord” incorrect? And why is it so often accompanied by “the annointing”? See Idoms page Before the Tannaim were the Zugot! The Zugot refers to the period between 300 BCE - 70 CE Zugot in Hebrew means “pairs” two of them always stood at the same time at the head of the Sanhedrin, one as president ("nasi") and the other as vice-president. There were 5 pairs of Zugot. The period of the Zugot begins with Yose b. Yoezer and Yose b. Yohanan and ends with Hillel and Shammai. (Hillel and Shamai were the last of the Zugote and the first of the Tannaim.) So lets look at the first of these Zugote Yose b. Yoezer and Yose b. Yohanan ruled during the Maccabean wars. This was the time of Chanukah. Yose belonged to the party of the Chasidim, and was a decided adversary of Hellenism. Not only Hellenism but any kind of assimilation. He was against Jews living outside of Israel He declared all other countries unclean! (Shab. 46a). He’s also the one responsible for declaring glass to be Levitically unclean (because it was generally made by pagans). The next pair of Zugot extended it to metal as well. On most other rulings he wasn’t very strict at all and was nicknamed “Sharaya” which means “one who permits” Yose ben Yoezer was distinguished for his piety, and is called “The pious of the priesthood“. He professed great veneration for scholars, one of his sayings being: "Let thy house be a meeting-place for the wise; powder thyself in the dust of their feet, and drink their words with eagerness" (Abot iv. 4). Yose didn’t meet with a good end. Yose was among the sixty pious men who, at the instigation of the evil high priest Alcimus (traitor), were crucified by a Syrian general (I Macc. vii. 16). On Yose’s way to being crucified the evil Alcimus said to Yose…. "See the profit and honors that have fallen to my lot in consequence of what I have done, whilst thou, for thy obstinacy, hast the misfortune to die as a criminal." Yose, quietly replied, “If such is the lot of those who anger God, what shall be the lot of those who accomplish His will?" Alcimus said to him "Is there any one who accomplished His will more than thou?" Yose said "If this is the end of those who accomplish His will, what awaits those who anger Him?" Yosi b. Yohanan President of the Sanhedrin in the second century B.C. and also a native of Jerusalem. Yosi taught on generosity. One of Yosi's sayings was: "Let thy house be opened wide; and let the needy be thy household (Abot i. 5). Even though Yosi B. Yochanan disagreed with Yosi b. Yoezer on many things, he did agree with him that countries other then Israel were “unclean”. The next set of Zugot were Joshua b. Perachyah and Nittai of Arbela. Joshua b. Perachyah was known for his teachings on gentleness in judgment and friendship and this comes across in one of his most famous sayings… Get thee a teacher; win thee a friend; and in judging incline toward the side of innocence When John Hyrcanus began persecuting the Pharisees, Joshua b. Perachyah fled to Alexandria; but he was recalled to Jerusalem when the persecutions ceased and the Pharisees again triumphed over the Sadducees (Sotah 47a, Nittai of Arbela (Mattai) He taught against being unequally yoked. Not only in marriage but in all one’s dealings and associations. He wrote… “Withdraw thyself from an evil neighbor and join not thyself unto the wicked.” He was a bit harsher then his counterpart, Joshua b. Perachyah, so we see a kind of Hillel/Shammai thing starting to take place in the Zugot at that time The next set of Zugot was Judah b. Tabbai and Simeon b. Shetah. Judah b. Tabbai made a mistake once and sentenced an innocent man to death. He then resolved to judge only according to Simeon b. Shetach. After this incident you could often find Judah at the gravesite weeping over the innocent man. Simeon b. Shetah had to flee as well from the Sadduceean persecutions but when he was able to return he became president of the Sanhedrin. Powers often shifted back and forth between the 2 parties. After Simeon took back control he discarded the penal code which the Sadducees had introduced as a supplement to the Biblical code. By restoring Pharisaic rules and regulations he was called “The Restorer of the Law” The last pair of Zugot before Hillel and Shammai were Shemaiah and Abtalion Shemaiah (“whom Yehovah heard”) was president of the Sanhedrin before and during part of the reign of Herod He and his colleague Abtalion are termed in Pes. 66a the "gedole ha-dor" (the great men of the age) Now you might recall my teaching on Herod the Great When I explained how in the beginning of Herod’s reign (before he was King), Herod was brought before the Sanhedrin because Herod on his own responsibility had put to death the leader of the national party in Galilee, Hyrcanus permitted the Sanhedrin to cite him before the tribunal. Herod appeared, but in royal purple robes, whereat the members of the Sanhedrin lost courage. But one of the Rabbis stood up and said ore: “He who is summoned here on a capital charge appears like one who would order us to execution straightway if we should pronounce him guilty. Yet I can blame him less than you and the king, since ye permit such a travesty of justice. Know then that he before whom ye now tremble will some day deliver you to the executioner." The Rabbi who said this was Rabbi Shemaiah. You can find this account in Sanh. 19 in the Talmud as well as in Josephus, "Ant.“ His favorite teaching was “Love handicraft, shun power, and make for thyself no friends of worldly might.“ It was because of Rabbi Shemaiah that Rabbi Hillel was appointed Nasi of the Sanhedrin. What happened was Rabbi Hillel was returning to Jerusalem for one of the Feasts. Shemaiah and Abtalion had passed away quite some time before and the sons of Bathyra had taken over as the leaders of the Sanhedrin. The problem with these sons was they weren’t good at leading, they didn’t know Scripture as well as the people thought they did and the Sanhedrin was looking to replace them. Hillel had been a disciple of Shemaiah and when he came to Jerusalem there was a discussion in the Temple concerning the Passover Lamb. It was basically a discussion concerning if one could do the work necessary to prepare the sacrificial lamb on the Sabbath. And they took this matter to the sons of Bathyra and they didn’t know and couldn’t remember what the ruling was. So they asked “Does anybody know the answer to this?” Well, someone in the crowd piped up and said “there is a man who has come from Babylonia he is called Hillel the Babylonian. He was a pupil of Shemaiah. He may remember and perhaps he can help us” So Hillel was brought before them and he recited all the necessary laws and rulings and even all the various arguments from each side of the issue and the Sanhedrin were highly highly impressed. Even the sons of Bathyra were amazed and they made Hillel Nasi right on the spot. His memory had paid off well here. But the story is kind of ironic because Hillel later became notorious for his terrible memory. Soon after he was appointed a question was brought to him they said “Master, what is the Law if a man brings a slaughtering knife on Shabbat, is he allowed to carry it?” Hillel’s reply was, “I know I have heard this ruling before but I’ve forgotten it. Leave this to the people of Israel, even though they are not prophets, they are the sons of prophets and surely in practice they’ll know what to do”. The Life and Teachings of Hillel  By Yitzhak Buxbaum Abtalion Abtalion and his colleague Shemaiah are the first to bear the title darshan (Pes. 70a — meaning "preacher"), It was probably by no mere chance that their pupil Hillel was the first to lay down hermeneutic rules for the interpretation of the Midrash; Although Shemaiah was an enemy of King Herod, Abtalion was a friend of the King. (He may have been a direct descendent of Sennacharib King of Syria.) Abtalion used his influence with the people in persuading the men of Jerusalem, in the year 37 BC, to open the gates of their city to Herod the Great. The king was not ungrateful and rewarded Abtalion with honors. Abtalion taught on the importance of proper doctrine. We see this reflected in his saying… Ye wise men, be careful of your words, lest ye draw upon yourselves the punishment of exile and be banished to a place of bad water (dangerous doctrine), and your disciples, who come after you, drink thereof and die, and the name of the Holy One thereby be profaned." So that’s a brief description of the Zugot. The Tannaim are divided into 6 different generations. The “First Generation” of Tannaim were Rabbis like Rabbi Hillel, Rabbi Shammai Second Generation: Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh, Rabbi Eliezer. Third Generation: The generation of Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues. Fourth Generation: The generation of Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda and their colleagues. Fifth Generation: Rabbi Judah haNasi's generation. Sixth Generation: Rabbis Shimon ben Judah HaNasi and Yehoshua ben Levi, etc. These generations of the Tannaim are the ones we as Believers want to focus on the most. These are the Rabbis of the second temple period who will give us a better perspective of the First Church. Our goal as Believers should be to get back to our New Testament roots in order to become more like Yeshua There was another Rabbi of the first generation of the Tannaim I’d like to introduce you to. Elisha Ben Abuyah Born before the destruction of the Temple and lived even into the second century He was the son of a rich and well-respected citizen of Jerusalem, and was trained for the career of a scholar. In his earlier days, the Pharisees were very proud of him but something happened later that angered them They wouldn’t even call him by name. From then on he is called “The Other”. Some historians think he became a Gnostic some think he became a follower of Philo. But there are others who think he became a Believer in Yeshua. We don’t know for sure but we do know he was caught having “forbidden writings in his coat” Which could’ve been writings from the Saducees or… writings from Messianic Jews. A teacher in the bet ha-midrash in the Temple and the famous Rabbi Meir was his student. They remained friends long after Elisha was labeled a heretic. One thing for sure though, if Elisha was a true heretic Rabbi Meir would never have been friends with him Many of the terrible things attributed to R. Elisha in the Talmud are unreliable due to the hatred towards him from the later Rabbis. And the reason most Jews today want to make him out to be a heretic rather then a Christian is because they don’t want to have to face the possibility that they may have lost yet another “once great rabbi” to the Messianics. The interesting thing to note is that as you study Talmud you begin to see just how widespread Messianic Judaism was in the first century. The Church has tried to make it into a small rebel/radical uprising. It’s like saying the Republican party is an isolated group in Georgia and not 50% of the country which often dictates federal policy!