Yonatan Adler, an Israeli professor of archeology, presents archeological evidence of Torah-observance in ancient Israel. His conclusion is there is copious evidence of observance from the first century AD, but there is no evidence of widespread observance of the laws of the Torah before about 150 BC.
Examples of archeologic evidence of Torah observance include:
Stone cups that are not subject to ritual impurity rules that apply to vessels of pottery or wood
Pools for ritual immersions
Synagogue buildings
Removal of images of humans and animals from coins
Absence of the bones for non-kosher meat
All these things are common in Israel in the first century AD but appear to be absent before the mid-second century BC. While the text of the Hebrew Bible may be far older, there is no evidence that the Jewish laws were actually implemented until much later. The period when Jewish observance first appears corresponds to the beginning of Hasmonean dynasty and times recorded in 1 and 2 Maccabees.
My observation is that the oldest evidence of a synagogue (from the Greek word for “assembly”) comes from inscriptions in Egypt from the 3rd century BC. That is also about the time of the translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek.
Did the introduction of synagogues from Greek-speaking communities actually drive the development of Judaism in Israel?
Moses was born 1500 BC. God chose him to lead the Hebrew children. Because of their lawlessness, God allowed them to wander in the wilderness of Judea 40 years with Moses as their leader to lead them to the promised land. Mt Sinai was on the way to the promised land where they were going. Mt Sinai was where God gave Moses the Jewish law - called the law of Moses. God spoke the 10 commandments but the other laws, - many of them, He wrote with His finger on tablets of stone … Moses didn’t get to go into the promised land because he disobeyed God. It was Moses’ brother Aaron that led the Hebrew children into the promised land.
After Moses died, they had judges to settle disputes - religious and civil. The Law of Moses governed the Jews, both religion - worship of God, and civil - dealing with each other in the community.
That law was only given for the Hebrew children - Jews. Judaism wasn’t meant to spread, it was not for Gentiles ----- everybody else on earth. They were allowed only to associate with their fellow Jews.
Jerusalem and the temple was destroyed and rebuilt twice, but the last time it was destroyed in the 1st century, the Jews were scattered and it was not rebuilt. I guess a lot of evidence of their observations was destroyed.
The synagogs were places were the law was discussed. They studied the law and kept that in their daily life, but their worship and sacrifice was only once a year at Jerusalem. Jews from every Jewish nation gathered there in Jerusalem every year to sacrifice animals and to worship God.
The Hebrew OT Scripture was translated into Greek because of the Greek speaking Jews scattered at that time.
I’m sure you already know a lot of what I wrote here, but maybe it will help another who happens to read it.
I have this book you might like, “The New complete works of Josephus” translated by William Whiston, commentary by Paul L. Maier.
He was Jew, that was captured by the Romans during the war, and they let him live because he was an historian. He was an eyewitness in the first century to some of the destruction of Jerusalem — AD 70 and he writes about what other eyewitnesses saw.
He writes about from the Creation to Jesus and the Apostles and the destruction of Jerusalem in the 1st Century. His writings are interesting, but Inspired of God? I can’t say they are.
Your video is 48 minutes long which is more time than I feel like investing right now. (Maybe later)
I can tell you that I am not an expert on any related topic but that a few years ago I took two pretty widely-accepted mini course (designed for educators) one on the history of Judaism and one on the history of Christianity.
Each was pretty consistent in certain ideas including that
the Torah, in its “modern” written form dates back to about 450 BC when the Jews were released from Babylon, and
while historians do not attempt to validate any of the supernatural claims in the Bible, many of its post 450 BC historical assertions are verifiable. (who was the governor of where, who was the head priest when, what were the political parties in 30 AD Israel, etc…)
So, since Jewish law lacked “modern” written form prior to 450 BC, “Did they follow it prior to then” is anyone’s guess.
Which leaves us with the following question:
Since Jewish law existed in its “modern” written form during the entire period post 450BC how plausible is it that the Jews ignored it for 300 years and then suddenly began observing it?
A possible explanation is that Torah observance was only found among a literate elite and temple priests. As Adler notes, the bible itself is filled with lamentations that people should follow the law, but they are not. Given that most of the population was illiterate and the great expense of hand-written scrolls, most of the population had no real access to the Torah until the development of synagogues.
The translation of the Hebrew scriptures into Greek and the building of the synagogues appear to have been big factors in spreading observance of the laws in Jewish communities outside of Israel. The Hasmonean dynasty (140 BC – 37 BC) built synagogues and made Torah-observant Judaism into a state religion in Israel.
In an historical context, Israel can be viewed as the little dog in a neighborhood filled with bigger badder dogs.
With or without believing in the Bible, it must be accepted that from time to time the Jewish people were attacked then colonized or even enslaved periodically by the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks the Romans etc. etc…
It is easily to imagine a person say, in 450 BC immediately after being freed from Babylonian slavery, trying to make sense of it all and saying “God does not punish us, but without his help we are lost. Each period when we were conquered or enslaved came immediately after a period in which we had been behaving badly and lost God’s protection.”
and “Heaven and Hell are not the point. God protects or removes his protection from entire nations based on the behavior they allow.”
Such an idea would, of course, be the foundation of the Old Covenant.
The Old Covenant was between God and the Jews. Period. We were never under that Old Covenant.
Law has no power to save, it can only define guilt.
No one was saved by keeping the Law of Moses even if they kept is perfectly. Grace is not a quality of law. As with Abraham, their father and our father, their faith was rewarded.
Killing/murdering was wrong before God gave that law to the children of Israel,in the 10 commandments. When Cain killed Abel, he knew that he had done wrong.
All of the laws that God gave to men was to lead them to this. Micah 6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what [is] good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Absolutely, and though I don’t “argue” about the Bible much, that topic has from time to time come up in discussion. When I feel it would be helpful to convince someone of that I point to Matthew 15.
Even Jesus, did not originally come for non-Jews.
21Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22And a Canaanite woman from that region came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.”
23But Jesus did not answer a word. So His disciples came and urged Him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”
24He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
25The woman came and knelt before Him. “Lord, help me!” she said.
26But Jesus replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
27“Yes, Lord,” she said, “even the dogsf eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”
28“O woman,” Jesus answered, “your faith is great! Let it be done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
To reclaim the lost sheep was the reason for the coming of Jesus and His apostles. — both houses of Israel. The house of Judah, and the house of Israel to make the two into one again. This preaching lasted about 40 years.
Gentiles , non-Israel people is sometimes translated heathen. The lost sheep were the Israelites that had been scattered among the heathen nations - -gentiles. They are represented as sitting in darkness, ignorance and sin.
Paul said he only preached “saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen.”
Acts 26:22 "Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:" Paul
So the Apostle Paul said he did not preach about things that would happen years down the road from that 1st century. IMO, that kills all of the continuous history rigmaroles people devise and teach to others.
I do get a great tickle everytime someone reaches into some Bible prophecy and declaes that because21st century American kids spend too much time on their phones or pick their noses too much or whatever, the “end of days” are here.
As if all the terrible things by all the terrible civilizatons in history (Mongol invasion, Aztecs cutting-out beating hearts etc.) were tiny little things overlooked by God, but whatever it is that bothers easily-bothered parents in the US 21st century implies the end of humanity. (rolleyes)
Just a few paragraphs earlier in that same chapter (Matt 15) we read one of several examples where Jesus was teaching “some Pharisees and teachers of the law” that their laws and traditions were wrong.
And a few chapters later, (Matt 19) we read “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts, but it was not what God had originally intended.", but
One of those passaes was about divorce and the other about helping one’s parents vs donating to the church, and it is of course helpful to try to figure out what God really wants, but it is equally important, perhaps more important to understand that Jesus is saying the law of church can be and often is wrong. Heck, even the law as proclaimed by Moses and written down in the Bible can sometimes be wrong.
I cannot think of any literal interpretation of the Bible that would allow a person to reject those obvious parts of Jesus’s message.
The Pharisees and Scribes were the “lawyers of the word.” They added to the law without authority from God. That’s why Jesus said “Woe unto you, lawyers.”
Matt 23:1 "Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, 2 Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: 3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, [that] observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. 4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay [them] on men’s shoulders; but they [themselves] will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, 6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. . . . . . . . . . "
They were lying on their wives saying that they had caught them in adultery and they were being stoned to death when they wanted to be rid of them. After God allowed Moses to let his people divorce their wives instead of having them stoned to death they would divorce them for silly reasons like, burning the bread. Hence “because of the hardening of their hearts,” he allowed divorce, but it was not so at the beginning when God gave Moses the law.
The law of Moses was a law that governed the total lives of the Jews. The tithes/taxes they paid was to keep the temple where they worshipped and to keep their government going. They had judges that settled disputes between the Jews, punished unruly children, etc. Tithes are taxes. They worshiped, sacrificed their offerings and paid their taxes once a year at the temple.
Gods laws were based on the Principle of what is good for man and just with God. The principle is broader and greater than the command. Man’s tendency is to emphasize the lawful demand and to minimize or fail to discern the principle…
The 10 commandments were not arbitrary, but based on principles.
In the first three, God says “I love you and want your full fellowship.”
In the 5th through the 10th, He is saying, – “Love and respect each other.” The 4th, Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." This points in both directions – to God, and man. God is saying “Remember your spiritual relationship with me and remember the dignity and purpose of man”
The lawyers of the word, failed to discern the principles it was designed to promote.
The religious leaders on earth in Jesus’ day, did not fair well with Him. He didn’t have anything good to say to them or about them, just the opposite. He hung around what the religious leaders would can the low-lifes. The tax collectors and the sinners. I believe that’s where he hangs today not with religious leaders.
Before I forget… In the OCS in Numbers, one man defied God and was put to death for gathering firewood on the Sabbath. Jesus put the law in true perspective. He considered mercy shown to a sheep to be more important than the Sabbath law. Matthew 12 He said "The Sabbath was made for the man, not man for the Sabbath. Matthew 2 Law was made for the benefit of man. Man was not made to comply with arbitrary law. Matthew 2
This is an excellent point, and was well made earlier when you posted:
The Law, as proclaimed by Moses, begins in Exodus 21.
Prior to that we have already seen, adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the destruction of the earth (Noah flood), the Tower of Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah, Joseph sold into slavery etc.etc… Clearly, in all these instances, no one broke any law because no law had been given.
A man hangs a barbed wite fence to keep his cattle in and trespassers out. He even hangs a sign. Later his bull gores him, he lies unconcious only meters inside the pasture and an ambulance crew arrives but sees the sign. Should the ambulance crew break the law and aid the man?
That law was only given to Israel. As I said before, we – non-Jews, (all of the other nations/people in the world), were never under the Law of Moses.
" …glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality. 12 All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 When Gentiles (non-Jews) who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them."
God Created us with a conscience. We can do evil, and we can do good. Our fight is against the evil within us – not to let it overcome our good.
It is nothing to be proud of when we are given laws. Laws are for the lawless, the unruly. Good people don’t need laws. Good children don’t need a curfew. If not for unlawful trespassers we wouldn’t need signs.
In the garden when God said “do not eat” he laid down a law right there.
