Why did apostle Paul connect Hagar with Sinai and Jerusalem in Galatians 4? Was it to free believers in Yeshua (Jesus) as God’s Messiah from obedience to God’s Law?
Category: Apostolic Writings
These studies cover the writings by the closest shelakhim (apostles) of Yeshua haMashiakh (Jesus the Christ). Commonly called the “New Testament,” this standard canon includes the four Gospels, the letters and the Apocalypse (Revelation).
Early rabbinical literature echoed the imagery of Yeshua’s description of Herod as “that fox.” There may not be a coincidence that Yeshua then refers to the love of God for rebellious Israel as a hen caring for her chicks. Some have claimed the “house left to you desolate” in this passage refers to Israel in favor of “the church,” but similar parables related by prophet Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) suggest otherwise.
Why do the prophets, Yeshua the Messiah and His apostles repeatedly refer to Sodom and Gomorrah when talking about judgment and mercy?
There are parallels between the “punch lines” of the parables of the narrow door, narrow gate and 10 virgins. Some think the key to the oil in the 10 virgins parable is the Spirit, and some say it’s the Torah. Rather, it’s knowing God, which involves equal measures of both Torah and God’s Spirit.
Yeshua heals a woman with a back deformity, but the condition may have also been symbolic of the spiritually oppressed. Kingdom parables of the mustard seed and yeast in dough teach that God will build the kingdom from humble, oppressed beginnings to become greater than any superpower.
Yeshua gave an important message in the Temple on the Festival of Dedication — Chanukah — and the scribes and Pharisees asked Yeshua at that time an important question about His being the Messiah. What did He tell them, and why didn’t He directly answer their question? The lessons of Chanukah applied then and to the coming Day of the LORD.
The only winter celebration mentioned in the Gospels is the festival of Dedication, or Chanukah. Yeshua was at the Temple during that eight-day celebration and stated boldly, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). This caps a string of clashes between Yeshua and certain religious leaders — recorded in John 7-10 and covering a two-month period from Sukkot, or the festival of Tabernacles, to Chanukah — over whether Yeshua was the Messiah.