Page 10 - Attractive Deception - The False Hope of the Hebrew Roots Movement

rather than from authentic apostolic Christian faith. The Talmud and the Midrash, hold significant
responsibility for leading astray the Jews. The same result is often met by the Christian believer who
embraces Hebrew Roots.

Most Christians today, even those with considerable knowledge of the Bible, are unfamiliar with
many of the basic concepts relating to Judaism. This is NOT because Christians are Dummies, or
Idiots. Rather, it is due to an absence of focus on Judaic practice among the majority of churches
which comprise the body of Christ. My parents took me to church faithfully from the time I was a
small child. When I was old enough I continued the practice on my own. Yet, in all the churches I
attended, I do not recall a single sermon or Sunday School lesson teaching us about the Talmud or
Midrash. I am not suggesting that churches should teach from the Talmud and Midrash. What would
be profitable is to teach the body of Christ about them.

My problem was not that I was a shirker. I knew the Bible. I read the Old Testament as well as the
New Testament. From childhood I could cite the names of all 66 books of the Bible, and quote a
large number of Scripture verses. I was familiar with the content of the Bible, but I never
encountered the words Talmud or Midrash in all of my Scripture reading. There is good reason for
this. These words do not appear in the Bible, at least not in the English translations from which I was
reading. The absence of these words, however, does not infer that the Talmud and Midrash are not
spoken of in the Bible. Christ was speaking of the precursor to the Talmud (the Oral Torah) when
He uttered the following words.

Mark 7:6-9
“Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors Me with their
lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the
precepts of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” He was
also saying to them, “You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.”

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The Son of God was citing the prophet Isaiah who wrote in the 8 century B.C.. The Jewish people
spent a large portion of their history in an apostate condition. The years in which they walked in truth
are few and far between. The Hebrews quickly developed traditions and interpretations of Yahweh’s
word which led them into apostasy and kept them there. At the root of this apostate teaching is the
claim that, in addition to the Law which Yahweh delivered to Moses which was inscribed on tablets
of stone at Mount Sinai, Yahweh delivered a second body of teachings to Moses consisting of
interpretations of the Law. The Jewish rabbis refer to the Law written on tablets as the Torah
Schebichtav (Written Law), while they call the unwritten interpretations of the Law that Yahweh
delivered to Moses as the Torah Shebeal Peh (Oral Law). The rabbis postulate that Yahweh could
have inscribed the written Law on tablets of stone in a single day, but that it required the rest of the
forty days Moses was on Mount Sinai to teach him the interpretations of the Law.

A Christian believer may quickly dismiss the claim of Yahweh delivering to Moses a second Law
as nothing more than Jewish myth. Yet to the religiously observant Jew this story is taken very
seriously, and the Oral Law is assigned a higher honor and authority than the Written Law.
According to Jewish tradition, Moses taught the Oral Law to Joshua; Joshua taught it to the seventy
elders of Israel; These seventy elders taught it to the Prophets, and the Prophets in turn passed it on