Two Encounters of the Jewish-Christian Study Group in January and February 2008:

The Jewish-Christian group for in-depth critical and respectful study of the New Testament met again on 17 January to study chapter 3 of the Gospel of Mathew.

We pointed out that the theme of baptism is especially suitable as the next day is the day of baptism of the Orthodox Church that occurs tomorrow.

We set to study the text in all parallel Gospels and as the text of Mathew is based on the text of Marc (that is believed by commentators to be the first of the four Gospels) we started there.

The new term "gospel" is based on Isaiah 40, 9: Jerusalem waits for the Nation of Israel that came back from the dead across the desert, in Babylon, after Koresh was anointed to open their grave, and returns home.

The first quote is NOT from Isaiah – but partly from Malachi and partly from Exodus. Indeed Mathew and Luce omit it.

The cloths of John remind us the clothing of Elijah. Also: John appears on the bank of the Jordan River, where Elijah disappeared until he returns to prepare the way for the kingdom of the Messiah.

Marc, who read the Bible in Greek, identified Joshua with Jesus as in Greek they are both called Yesus. All along the Gospel of Marc the characters of Joshua and Elijah appear.

In the Hebrew Bible, baptism is meant to purify from impurity but not from sin. The source for water purifying from sins is in Ezekiel.

John the Baptist is known as a historical figure from Josephus and probably was baptizing people near the Jordan as it was near the main road where people were passing through. However, for the narrative it is important that Jesus will come from Nazareth to baptize particularly there in order to link to the characters of Joshua and Elijah.

The ripping of the sky reminds the ripping of the curtain when Jesus was crucified. In both cases the meaning is the same: breaking the distinctions between the Divine and the earthly and between the holy and the secular, as they both unite in Jesus – who is replacing the Temple in that.

The term "son of God" is not alien to the Bible. It usually refers to the Nation of Israel.

Mathew adds to Marc's text the polemic with the Pharisees and Sedukites, which is a regular characteristics of Mathew. This is usually explained by the fact that he was living in a small community of Jews who believed in Jesus and whose relations with the larger Jewish community were very difficult, which is reflected in the text. Unfortunately Christians throughout the ages read the text without this context and mistakenly learned to hate Jews.

For Mathew – Jesus does not need the Divine declaration to know who he is, and it is made for the rest of the world.

In Luke the version is shorter and there are a few changes:

- Jesus is baptized because all the people are being baptized. He is pure and does not need it but strongly identifies with the people.
- Jesus prays – as Luce always emphasizes.

In the Gospel of John: John says that he is not Elijah.

Jesus as a lamb is typical to John. The lamb reminds us the Pesach sacrifice and similarly John says that on the cross the Romans did not break the legs of Jesus, as it is forbidden to break a bone in the sacrifice.

For John the mention of the Pharisees is completely casual. For John the rival are not the Pharisees but the "Jews". It is a question what does he mean by that, as he himself, as well as Jesus and all the apostles were all Jews… Some interpret it as the tension between the people of the Galilee and the people of Judea and there are other interpretations, that all share the nature of an inner tension in the Jewish society.

Reported by Yehuda Stolov


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