NICE JEWISH BOYS: Saul, Jacob, and Judah
(Today, we are continuing to look at the First Century Church and the first followers of Yeshua. Was it REALLY Paul and James or has there been a rewriting of history (or our understanding) that washed out the "Jewishness" of the first believers? To find out more, we are joining Ariel (the heavenly teacher) and David (a young Jewish man in search of the truth about Jesus) in my book, Identify Theft: Reloaded. We hope you enjoy this full chapter excerpt and if you would like to download the entire book, it is available for free in e-book format in our store. Enjoy!)
“David, you asked about Paul. He is the central author of the New Covenant – at least of the letters to the congregations – and his name was actually Saul of Tarsus. He was both Jewish and a Roman citizen, not to mention a rabbi of the Pharisees. He studied under Gamaliel, one of the most respected rabbinical scholars of his day. He was so zealous for God and convinced that Jewish people who believed in Yeshua were deceived that he sought to arrest Jewish believers and even approved the stoning to death of Stephen, a leader among the first Jewish believers.”
"Acts 7:58 – 8:1 appeared, and I made a mental note to look it up afterward. Right now, I was hanging on the angel’s every word."
“However, on his way to Damascus to arrest Messianic Jews – Jews who believe in Yeshua – he was knocked to the ground and blinded by a great light. I remember that day! We angels weren’t too crazy about this guy. I mean, he was throwing Jewish believers in jail and even having some killed! But the Father said, ‘This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.’1 “At the time, I quietly thought He deserves to suffer alright, but couldn’t quite see how this guy would ever be preaching to the Gentiles. But, as always, Father knows best. “Yeshua had a little chat with Saul on the Damascus road and convinced him that he was on the wrong side of the issue. After this dramatic encounter, he became a believer and actually began to share the good news of Yeshua with Jewish people. In fact, he immediately went into the synagogues and began preaching.”
“Wait a minute! Are you telling me that the primary writer of the New Covenant was a Jewish rabbi,2 and that after persecuting Messianic Jews, he became one and actually went into Jewish synagogues preaching about Yeshua?”
“You’re starting to get it, David,” he said with a big grin. “This is what they didn’t teach you at your Hebrew school – and honestly, most churches don’t teach this either. Jews and Christians have been tragically blinded to the Jewish roots of the New Covenant.
“Well, why don’t Jewish people know this?” I demanded. “That is why you are here, David, to answer that exact question! But not quite yet.” He continued telling Paul’s story.
“Many years later, as he traveled throughout the known world seeking to help both Jews and Gentiles discover a dynamic, real relationship with the King of the Universe, the Bible refers to the fact that he had two names.” On my screen appeared: “Then Saul, who was also called Paul…” (Acts 13:9).
“Sadly, for centuries Christians have taught that Saul changed his name to Paul after he became a believer. In other words, he had to get rid of his wretched Jewish name and take on a Christian one.”
“But Paul,” I jumped in, “is a Latin name and was popular in Rome long before Christianity. If anything, it would be connected to Rome, which was pagan and polytheistic.”
“Right, David, and let’s not forget. At the time that Paul was preaching, Rome was anything but a friend to the believing community. In fact, Rome became the primary persecutor of the first-century believers, the Kehillah, for the first three hundred years.”
Just then, a gray-haired English vicar appeared on the screen. He was addressing his congregation:
“The Roman Emperor Nero had the believers tied to poles in the garden, covered with tar, and set on fire to illuminate his garden parties. And then he would take other believers and sew them into the skins of wild beasts and set dogs on them to tear them to bits to entertain his guests. And I have stood in that garden and wondered how many believers died a horrible death for his barbecue parties.”3
"“It is highly unlikely that Saul changed his name to reflect this barbaric culture. What’s more, if Saul truly changed his name from a Jewish one to a Roman one, then why did he wait so many years after coming to faith to do so?”
“Then why does it say he was also called Paul?” I asked.
“Let me ask you this,” Ariel replied. “Do you have a Hebrew name?”
“Of course. Anyone who grew up in a Jewish home outside of Israel knows that it is common for Jewish people to have two names, one that relates to the culture in which they live and a Hebrew name. Mine is Chaim.”
“Ah, Chaim, a great name. It means life,” Ariel commented, then continued. “When Saul was traveling in non-Jewish areas, he used his Roman name, Paul, and when in Israel or amongst Jews, he used his Hebrew name, Sha’ul. Saul is its Anglicized equivalent. Notice the passage doesn’t say, ‘Saul, who changed his name to Paul,’ but rather,‘Saul, who was also called Paul’… (Acts 13:9) – as, in addition to, not instead of.
“Some of the smartest Bible teachers in the world miss this simple fact. This pastor you are about to see,” a man standing behind a pulpit appeared on the flat screen but in pause mode, “is an excellent Bible teacher, and he loves Israel. He and his church have given sacrificially to Jewish believers. But listen to him in a recent message.”
Ariel played me just one sentence. I couldn’t tell you the context of his sermon, but I simply heard him say: “Saul was on the road to Damascus. That is what his name was then.”" “Here is another one. This man’s messages are listened to by millions every week online.” Another man appeared. “Paul," "his original name was Saul….” “This fine preacher, well-versed in the Scriptures, simply assumes that Sha’ul changed his name. If people so bright can miss this simple point,” Ariel noted, “how easy has it been for the enemy to rob Saul, one of the most prominent figures in the New Covenant, of his Jewish identity and thus confuse the nature of the New Covenant for Jewish people?” Ariel noted. “And what’s more, he continued to live as a Jew the rest of his days. At the end of the book of Acts – a book about the first followers of Yeshua – he is received in the last chapter as a Jewish rabbi, from other Jewish leaders!”
Ariel took a breath and gathered himself as if to say it was time to move on. “Earlier, I mentioned James to you,” Ariel said, switching subjects.
“You said his name was actually Jacob.”
“Good, you’re paying attention!”
Paying attention was an understatement. I just wanted to learn more and more!
“Well, I want you to meet Jacob, the physical half-brother of Yeshua.”
The screen of the massive tablet lit up again, and a handsome man in his thirties said to me, “Yeah, they sure did a job on my name.‘James,’ for Heaven’s sake! No one ever called me James growing up. If they had, you might assume I was the butler or the chauffeur!” James was laughing. “But nope, I’m Jewish and grew up in Galilee.”
“You…grew up…with…Yeshua?” I tentatively asked, making sure I used the name that Jacob would have known Him by. How surreal it was to be talking to someone who actually grew up in the same house as Jesus!
“Yeah, and it wasn’t easy. Try growing up in the shadow of the Ma-Sye-Ya! – I might as well have been the butler!” He raised his voice for emphasis but was smiling. “In all seriousness, it wasn’t easy. It took me a long time before I believed – imagine your half-brother telling you that His other genealogical half is God! But after His resurrection, there was no denying that, indeed, my brother was the Messiah. After I became a believer, others quickly looked to me for leadership simply because I grew up with Yeshua. I resisted this at first – I had doubted Him for so many years. However, to my surprise, that is exactly what He called me to do; to lead this new group of believing Jews in Jerusalem, along with Kefa and the other apostles, in following the Risen Messiah – my brother.
“I’ll let Ariel take it from here. I just wanted to meet you.” And he was gone.
Like Shimon Kefa, Jacob wanted to meet me? Who was I?
French, etc. – the word James is properly translated as Jacob or Yakov.”4"
“So why is it James in English?” I asked.
“Many have speculated that since King James authorized the English translation of the Bible, translators did this to honor him, but actually, the names Jacob and James had been synonymous for some time. The Latin name Iacomus (James) was very close to the Latin for Jacob, Iacobus, and it appears that it was just a linguistic corruption or confusion. Nevertheless, it has been a costly one.
“The problem, once again, with this mistranslation of Jacob is that it lessens the perception of the New Covenant as a Jewish document. If a Jewish person, like you, David, opened up the New Testament to the book of James, you would wrongly conclude that this James had no connection with Judaism or Israel. However, if the book, which was addressed to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered abroad, was properly entitled Jacob, your reaction would be just the opposite – you would instantly recognize that he is Jewish. It would convey and reinforce to you the Jewish context5 of the New Covenant.
“Moreover, most do not know the amazing story of how Jacob led the Jerusalem Messianic community for the next 30 years.The congregation continued to grow under the leadership of Jacob – again, there was no first-century Jews named James,” Ariel added with a smile. “The historian Eusebius recounts Jacob’s martyrdom.”
“Eu-who-bius? I’ve never heard of him.”
Ariel laughed and said, “Eusebius of Caesarea, also known as Eusebius Pamphili, was a Christian historian and exegete – and before you ask, that means he would study and interpret Scripture. He was also a skilled apologist for the faith. He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima about AD 314. And sadly, he too has some unsavory views of the Jews. That was what they were taught. But Eusebius got his information from Hegesippus, a second-century Messianic Jew from Jerusalem.
A man around 60 or 65 years old appeared on the screen.
“Hegesippus?” I asked.
“Correct.” Ariel tapped the tablet.
“Jacob, the Lord’s brother, becomes the leader of the assembly of believers, in conjunction with the apostles. He has been universally called Jacob the Just, from the days of the Lord down to the present time. For many bore the name of Jacob, but he was different. He alone was permitted to enter the Temple and could be found kneeling on his knees, begging forgiveness for the people, so much so that the skin of his knees became horny like that of a camel’s, by reason of his constantly bending the knee in adoration to God and begging forgiveness for the people. Therefore, because of this and of his pre-eminent justice, he was called the Just in accordance with what the prophets declared concerning him.
“Now some persons belonging to the seven sects of Judaism,” at that moment a list of these Jewish sects appeared on the screen:
Essenes
Galileans
Hemerobaptists
Masbotheans
Samaritans
Sadducees
Pharisees
“…existing among the people, which have been before described by me in the notes, asked him: “What is the door ofYeshua?” And he replied that He was the Moshia – Savior. Some believed, because of Jacob’s reply, that Yeshua is the Messiah. But the sects before mentioned did not believe, either in a resurrection or in the coming of One to pay back every man according to his works; but those who did believe, believed because of (the character and witness of) Jacob. So, when many even of the ruling class believed, there was a commotion among the Jewish leaders, and scribes, and Pharisees, who said: ‘A little more, and we shall have all the people looking for Yeshua as Messiah.’
“They came, therefore, in a body to Jacob, and said: ‘We entreat thee, restrain the people: for they are gone astray in their opinions about Yeshua as if he were the Messiah. We are asking you to persuade all who have come to Jerusalem for Passover, concerning Yeshua. For we all listen to your persuasion; since we, as well as all the people, bear thee testimony that thou art just, and showest partiality to none. Do thou, therefore, persuade the people not to entertain erroneous opinions concerning Jesus: for all the people, and we also, listen to thy persuasion. Take thy stand, then, upon the pinnacle of the temple, that from that elevated spot thou mayest be clearly seen, and thy words may be plainly audible to all the people. For, in order to attend the Passover, all the tribes have congregated at the Temple, and some of the Gentiles also.’
Ariel hit pause, “Let me jump in here for a minute. You may not have heard of this phrase, the pinnacle of the Temple. This was a post about 450 feet from the road at the southwestern corner of the Temple mount. This is where the shofar would be blown, announcing the beginning and end of the Sabbath, amongst other key moments. Archeologists in the late 1960’s found at the bottom of this southwestern corner, in the rubble from the stones that were hurled down during the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, an inscription that reads in Hebrew, ‘The place of the blowing of the Shofar.’ They have a replica of it next to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and the original is in the Museum of Israel just down the road.
“It’s also where Satan took Yeshua and tempted Him to throw Himself down to the ground, saying that if He was truly the Son of God that God would raise him up. Of course, Yeshua brushed him off. This is of particular importance because of what you’re going to hear next.”
Ariel tapped the screen.
“The aforementioned scribes and Pharisees accordingly set Jacob on the pinnacle of the Temple, and cried aloud to him, and said: ‘O just one, whom we are all bound to obey, in light of the fact that the people are in error, and follow Yeshua the crucified, do thou tell us what is the door of Yeshua, the crucified.’ And he answered with a loud voice: “Why ask you me concerning Yeshua the Son of man? He Himself sits in heaven, at the right hand of the Great Power, and shall come on the clouds of heaven.”
Ariel hit pause, “This was not the answer they were looking for. They were hoping that Jacob would denounce his belief in Yeshua, and because he was so trusted by the people, they, in turn, would also recant their faith. Anyone familiar with the last hours before Yeshua was crucified would recognize Jacob’s response. He is quoting his brother, Yeshua.”
Words appeared, and I read aloud when he was being interrogated by Caiaphas, the high priest.
“Again, the high priest asked Him, saying to Him, ‘Are You the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed?” Yeshua said, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Mark 14:61-62)
“So, they were not too excited about Jacob’s answer?” I asked.
“Let Hegesippus finish,” Ariel pressed play.
“And, when many were fully convinced by these words and offered praise for the testimony of Jacob, they said, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David.’ Then the Pharisees and scribes said to one another, ‘We have not done well in procuring this testimony to Jesus. But let us go up and throw him down, that they may be afraid and not believe him.’
“And they cried aloud and said: ‘Oh! Oh! The just man himself is in error.’ Thus, they fulfilled the Scripture written in Isaiah: ‘Let us away with the just man, because he is troublesome to us: therefore shall they eat the fruit of their doings.’ So they went up and threw down the just man and said to one another: ‘Let us stone Jacob the Just.’ And they began to stone him: for he was not killed by the fall; but he turned, and kneeled down, and said: ‘I beseech Thee, Lord God our Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.’
“That is also what Yeshua said when they crucified him,” I blurted out.
Ariel just looked at me with an acknowledging smile as the historian continued.
“And, while they were thus stoning him to death, one of the priests, the sons of Rechab, the son of Rechabim, to whom testimony is borne by Jeremiah the prophet, began to cry aloud, saying: ‘Cease, what you are doing! The just man is praying for us.’ But one among them, one of the fullers, took the staff with which he was accustomed to wring out the garments he dyed and hurled it at the head of the just man – Jacob.
“And so, he suffered martyrdom; and they buried him on the spot, and the pillar erected to his memory still remains, close by the temple. This man was a true witness to both Jews and Greeks that Yeshua is the Messiah.”
Hegesippus faded, and the screen went dark.
“What a story!” All of my emotions were fully engaged. I felt like I had just sat through a thriller. But Ariel was focused on moving on.
I want you to meet Jacob’s brother.
Yeshua!” I exclaimed, terrified.
“No, he had other brothers. David, meet Judas.
A shiver went down my spine. I was afraid to speak.
“Relax, David, I am not that Judas.”
“Who are you then?”
“I am Jacob’s brother, like Ariel just said, which makes me, yes, the half-brother of Yeshua. I know that Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Yeshua, is more famous, or I should say ‘infamous,’ than I, but I did write one of the books of the New Covenant, albeit a very short one, creatively titled after yours truly. The problem with the other Judas, in addition to the fact that he was a thief and a traitor, is that his name has become synonymous with ‘traitor’ in modern vernacular and in many dictionaries.”
On my tablet, I saw: “Judas: someone one who betrays under the guise of friendship, Webster’s Dictionary.”6
“But no one, thankfully, ever actually called me by that name. My name is Yehuda, or Judah in English, the same name as the fourth son of Jacob, of the tribes of Israel.”
Ariel took over, “As in the case of the name of Yeshua, had they skipped the Greek and simply transliterated from Hebrew to English, my friend here and his book should be known today in English by the name Judah.
“Judah, or Yehuda, means “praise,” from the same root word we get Judaism, the name of the Jewish religion. When ancient Israel was separated into two kingdoms, the southern kingdom was named Judah, after the larger of the two tribes, the other being Benjamin. Modern-day Israel still refers to the southern region of the territories that were recovered in the Six-Day War as Yehudah.”
“Ariel, it seems that there has been a concerted effort to make the followers of Yeshua look very non-Jewish. Not only has Yeshua’s identity been altered, but also His first followers; even His brothers appear to have undergone an extreme Gentile makeover. I didn’t know any of this! And I know that my Jewish friends and family don’t know it either.”
“David, we are just beginning. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Here, take my hand.”
We were flying again.
Notes
1. Acts 9:15-16.
2. Formal rabbinic ordination did not begin until about forty
years later, but rabbi was the term of honor given to a respect-ed Jewish teacher in Paul’s day.
3. Adapted from a message given by David Pawson at Brisbane Gateway Centre in April 1998 entitled, What Hope for the Millennium?
4. James appears in Spanish Bible as “Santiago”; it is derived from San (meaning, Saint) Diego, which comes from Jacob – but changed a lot along the way. Nevertheless, it has no connection to the English name James.
5. It is also interesting to note that in Jacob (James) 2:2, when it refers to the meeting place of believers, the Greek word that is translated meeting in the NIV and assembly in the KJV is synagog¯e, from which we derive the English word synagogue. This was not a blatant attempt to change the meaning of the word because synagogue, while associated today with Jewish houses of worship, does mean assembly. However, if the New Covenant translators simply used the obvious English equivalent, synagogue, it would have sent a different message to Jewish people.
6. Webster’s Online Dictionary, s.v., “Judas,” http://www.web-sters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/judas (accessed August 10, 2012).
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