Antiseptic Reasoning (Acoustic, Samantha Crain)

Hello Grafted In Readers,

The month of April is just about "in the books" as they say, and it began with myself and my youngest brother and his son returning from a four-day visit with our dad in another state. We had a fun time and made some memories for sure.

I have titled this post, Antiseptic Greeting, for a good reason. In the Bible there is a book titled The Gospel of John, which records much of the activity occurring during the earthly life of Yeshua, or Jesus if you prefer. One such encounter is following his resurrection, which is why Christians celebrate what is known as Easter.

In this encounter, John chapter 20, the disciples of Jesus are meeting together behind locked doors. This verse is perhaps translated more accurately than standard Christian translations. Read as follows:
19 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Judeans, Yeshua came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord.

This is excerpted from the Hebrew Names Version of the 1997, World English Bible.
Most translations use the term (for fear of the Jews) rather than, (for fear of the Judeans).
Wes Howard, Jewish scholar, has an interesting article about this on the blog called, Tikkun Daily. It is titled< Jews, Judeans, and the Gospel Of John

He makes two major points:
The Greek word, "ioudaioi", is the one in question. He cites in this gospel the word refers to Judeans, those that were sympathetic to the Roman empire. The second point by Wes Howard is that the Jews of the first century are not the lineage of the predecessors of today's Jews.

This author refers to his 1994 book, "Becoming Children of God: Radical Discipleship" Orbis the publisher.

Some are reconsidering the use of transliterated Greek texts today, but many still turn a deaf ear to considering a varied understanding of formerly interpreted meanings. It's easy to include "all" when stating reasons for extraordinary events in history:
The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Communists, The Russians, the Muslims, The Roman soldiers, the Pharisees. It was sects within each of these people groups that influenced history, and not the whole ethnic. May the "smug arrogant western church" look in its own eye before considering the log jam in the other's eye. If Jesus is your head, act like it!

Mellow Rock
David C. Russell

Welcome to Life, It's For Us!

Hello Grafted In Readers,

A considerable amount of life events have passed since last posting on March 04. The Festival of Pesach (Passover) is a week from Saturday, and many celebrate Holy Week, beginning this Sunday with what is known as the Catholic ceremony of Palms Sunday. I say Catholic, because the occasion of this coming week is man-made. Here is an excerpt from an article that if you are a professing believer in Messiah Jesus, you are welcomed to consider.
It is in full at
https://www.jewishvoice.org
I will highlight the past month after the excerpt:
Should Non-Jewish Believers Celebrate the Passover?
Jewish man and boy
Jewish and Christian leaders, both in history and in the present day, offer considerable objection to Christian observance of the Passover. It seems that neither official Judaism nor official Christianity is very tolerant of Christians who confuse and confound the clear delineation between these two faiths by attempting to observe the traditional Passover, with or without including the Calvary experience.
Christian Concerns
Most Christian objection to Passover observance is based on ecclesiastical anti-Judaism that developed after the Church’s first century. Before the Church fully opened the door to the Gentiles at the Jerusalem Council, the vast majority of its communicants were Jews; therefore, there was no question as to whether Christians should observe Passover. Its celebration was a significant part of the biblical heritage upon which the early Jewish leaders of the Church had founded a faith and polity that recognized Yeshua (Jesus) as the fulfillment of the Messianic expectations of His people and as the Savior of the world.
As Gentiles came to prominence in the Church, they were influenced by traditions which they had brought with them and by pressures from the political powers of the day to disassociate themselves from the Jews and things “Jewish.” At the same time a controversy raged in the Church over whether complete obedience to the Law of Moses was essential to salvation in addition to faith in Jesus. Of particular concern was the practice of circumcision, whether it should be physically enforced on new converts to this Judeo-Christianity or whether the circumcision of the heart that God had described to Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul was sufficient without the physical procedure.

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In some of Paul’s writings, he openly attacked that part of the Jewish community (both in traditional Judaism and in the Church) that believed salvation resulted from submission to and ritual observance of God’s law. This social criticism, an intramural exercise among fellow Jews, was misunderstood and generalized by later Gentile Church leaders.
Rather than maintain Paul’s balanced position on the interrelationship of Christian faith and the Law, subsequent Church leaders adopted an increasingly antinomian posture, ultimately insisting that Christians have nothing in common with Jews and Judaism. This was particularly true in relationship to ecclesiastical holy days which had been changed from their original First-Century construct to accommodate the various societies into which the Christian faith had expanded. Passages such as Colossians 2:16-17 were enlisted to assure Christians that all “Jewish” holy days and Sabbaths had been abandoned by the Church.
Additionally, virtually all of the Christian Church, including the reform movements that began in the sixteenth century and afterward, maintained a supercessionist view toward Jews and Judaism, which asserted that Christianity had forever replaced Judaism in God’s economy of salvation and that Christians had forever replaced the Jewish people, who had been cursed because of their rejection of Jesus.
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I personally observe a modified quiet Pesach at home on the evening of Passover. Perhaps this will change in time..

Writing and Reading
The Spring Issue of New Authors Journal, by Mario Farina, available at
https://www.amazon.com features two of my stories along with those by other authors:
-- Little Man No Big Ham, is about a family making do though they are impoverished in Iowa.

-- As Time Goes By, tells of an evening at the fictitious Rivertown Cafe. Patrons support a customer who is losing his son to cancer.

I hope you might consider securing a copy of the New Authors Journal and treat yourself to some short stories. It is priced reasonably.

I would like to know if you are interested in further blog posts by me?

Could you either leave a comment saying yes or no, or email me at:

david son of hashem at gmail.com.

david.sonofhashem@gmail.com

Unless I hear from you, posts will be phased out and appear once a month through summer 2019.

Thank you for your time, reading and pondering.

Kevod Yeheveh, His presence be with us day and night.

Mellow Rock
David C. Russell