Seder 90: Leviticus 17-18 as Precursor of the Apostolic Decree in Acts 15

 At the Jerusalem Council described in Acts 15, the leaders of the early Jesus movement decided on basic requirements for Gentiles whom God had added to their ranks.  In a letter to congregations, the council stated, 

"For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:  that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.  If you keep these, you will do well.  Farewell" (vv 28-29).

The four basic requirements are stated in shorthand, and the Jerusalem church sent emissaries along with its letter to unpack for congregations what was entailed in these four items.  It seems that these requirements had two basic purposes:  

• to enable unified fellowship between Jewish and Gentile members, who would be eating meals together.
• to lay out basic moral principles, cautioning against sinful behavior that was considered to be acceptable in the Greco-Roman world.

Scholars have looked for antecedents of this list in biblical and Jewish tradition, as scholar David Instone-Brewer discusses in a 2009 paper.  One possible precursor comes from Leviticus 17-18, a section of Leviticus that lays out instructions for holy living for both Israelites and resident aliens in the land of Israel.  Those instructions include prohibition of 

• idolatry (17:1-8);
• blood (17:10-16);
• sexual immorality (18:1-20, 22-23);
• child sacrifice, a form of infanticide (18:21).

Instone-Brewer proposes that "things strangled" may refer to both improper butchering of meat and to infanticide, which was a common birth control practice in the Greco-Roman world.

Three of the four items---idolatry, bloodshed, and sexual immorality---are linked together in several contexts.  In Jewish tradition these are three things that one should not do even if one's life is in danger.  These are also three things that will defile the land in which they are committed:  

• sexual immorality (Lev 18:24-25)
• bloodshed (Nu 35:33-34; Dt 21:1-9)
• false worship, especially idolatry (Lev 19:31; Jer 16:18)

Seder 143/144: Deuteronomy 12---Worship Central and Local

 In Deuteronomy 12-26, Moses urges the children of Israel to seek righteousness (16:20) in all areas of life.  His instruction shows how the Israelites can carry out the principles of the Decalogue in their time and context.  Roughly speaking, he addresses the points of the Decalogue in order.  

Daniel Block sees Daniel 12 as organized into two sections:

• 12:2-14--an invitation to joy and satisfaction in God's presence.
• 12:15-27--an invitation to joy and satisfaction at home.

The first section begins with a charge to destroy all traces of Canaanite religion, which was pervasive in the land.  Pillars representing Baal and poles representing Asherah were to be destroyed.  Names of towns were to be changed if they had been named after deities.  And pagan worship practices like cult prostitution and child sacrifice were not to be emulated by the Israelites.  

Instead, Israelites were to worship at an as-yet-unidentified place that would be 

• chosen by God.
• located within the tribal allotments of land.
• stamped with God's name. 
• a destination of pilgrimages.

This would be a place for many activities, including

1. seeing the face of God.
2. public reading of Scripture--31:11.
3. learning to fear God.
4. celebrating before God.
5. eating meals hosted by God.
6. presenting sacrifices.
7. keeping the festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.
8. settling legal disputes--17:8-13.
9. service of the Levites
10. presenting firstfruits and thanking God--26:1-11.
11. giving charity to the needy.
12. demonstrating community solidarity by including everyone.

God would choose the place once the nation is established in the land (vv 10-11).  The fact that Moses issues a double invitation in verses 5-12 is indicative of God's great desire to fellowship with his people.

Block notes that our English translations tend to use language connoting a law or command in these verses.  But Deuteronomy 12 actually gives an invitation to exciting opportunities to celebrate in God's presence, worshiping as he authorizes.  

We know that the place ultimately chosen for Israel's worship was Jerusalem (2 Sam 7).  

The central sanctuary was intended to unite Israel as God's people, rehearsing their history and God's mighty deeds on their behalf.  From this place God's rule and blessing would extend throughout the land and, ultimately, throughout the earth.  The central sanctuary would also highlight the king's role as patron of national worship.

The establishment of this central worship location did not preclude worship at other locations.  After all, Levites would live throughout the land and were to fulfill a pastoral role. Any consumption of meat was an occasion to thank God, in a broad sense a form of sacrifice.  There was local worship as well as national worship.  

Moses in Deuteronomy 16:21  seems to be assuming that other altars would be built.  The altar at Mt Ebal in Deuteronomy 27:5-7 is one example of a legitimate altar not connected with the tabernacle.  A number of others are mentioned:

• Judges 6:24-27--Gideon was told to pull down an altar of Ba'al and build one to Yahweh at Ophrah.
• 1 Sam 7:17---Samuel built an altar at Ramah.
• 1 Sam 16:5--Samuel celebrated a religious festival at Bethlehem.
• 2 Sam 24:18-25---David built an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah.
• 1 Kings 18:30---Elijah rebuilt "the altar of the LORD that had been thrown down."

There are also, of course, references to illegitimate altars in the historical books, like the ones Jeroboam had built at Bethel and Dan (I Kings 12-13), and the ones used to Ahaz (2 Kings 16:4) and Manasseh.

Another thing that would not occur exclusively at the central sanctuary was consumption of meat--Dt 12:15, 20-21.  Block notes that the word for "slaughter" in Dt 12:15 is zabach, a word that usually means "to sacrifice."  (Some exceptions are 1 Sam 28:24-25; 2 Chron 18:1-2; Ezek 34:2-3.)  In some sense, Block says, any meal at which meat was consumed was a sacred event, a sacrificial moment.  The modern division of life into sacred and secular components is artificial.  

Moses gave lots of leeway to the Israelites in the matter of eating meat at home.  The major restrictrion was the familiar command to not eat blood (Dt 12:23-25; Lev 17:10-15).  This is a universal taboo (Gen 9:3-4), upheld in the New Testament (Acts 15:19-20).   

Seder 14: Sarah and Hagar in Gal 4:21-31

There are at least a couple of New Testament passages that refer to both a section from the Pentateuch and the corresponding reading from the Prophets in the Semiseptennial Cycle (see chapter 10 of  Lois Tverberg's Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus for further discussion).   One of those is Gal 4:21-31, where Paul presents an analogy involving Sarah and Hagar from Gen 16 and 21 and also quotes Isa 54, which is linked with Gen 16 in Seder 14.

To understand Paul's analogy, it will help to review the probable historical setting of the epistle to the Galatians.  Here I will follow the work of Mark Nanos and the insights of the scholars in the "Paul within Judaism" school of interpretation.

The primary venues for Paul's preaching of the Gospel were Diaspora synagogues (see Acts 13-14, e.g.).  These were the places where he could find the people who were most interested in the message of the Bible.  He announced in the synagogues that the promised Messiah had come and inaugurated the Kingdom of God.

His audiences consisted of (1) Jews and (2) Gentiles who were interested in the Bible, in adopting some parts of the Torah, and in supporting the synagogue.  These Gentiles were known as "God-fearers."  Synagogue communities didn't make great demands upon these Gentiles, but on the other hand didn't accept them as full-fledged members.  Socially they were on the fringes of synagogue communities.

After Paul visited a particular synagogue, a subgroup of Christ-followers---people who accepted Paul's Gospel message---formed within that synagogue community.  Within that subgroup the Gentile God-fearers were full-fledged members.  On the other hand, more was required of them by the Christ-followers.  They were expected to completely renounce the pagan activities that were expected of Gentiles in the Roman Empire, the everyday ways of honoring the many gods that were all around them in the Greco-Roman world.

Outside the community of Christ-followers, the Gentile Christ-followers didn't fit in.  They weren't completely accepted by other Jews in the larger synagogue community, and their Gentile friends and relatives didn't like the fact that they had begun ignoring their civic duty to honor the gods.

In Galatia, some Jews (Nanos uses the neutral term "influencers" to describe them) were promoting a way for the Gentile Christ-followers to resolve their precarious social situation.  Rather than sitting on the fence, why didn't they just go ahead and become full proselytes to Judaism?  (For males, this would mean, in particular, being circumcised.)  Then they would be fully accepted by the whole synagogue community and would have a legitimate reason to neglect the gods.  (In the Roman Empire, Jews were exempt from obligations to the gods.)

The influencers may have told the Gentile Christ-followers that in their present situation, they were sort of in the position of Ishmael in the family of Abraham---blessed to some degree, but outside of the chosen people.  Becoming full proselytes would give them the status of Isaac.

Paul strongly objected to the message of the influencers.  The Gentile Christ-followers were already full-fledged subjects of the Kingdom of God.  God had shown that by granting them the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:1-11).  They had been accepted by God on the basis of faith, as Abram had before the covenant sign of circumcision had been introduced (Rom 3-4).  For them to go on and become proselytes would be like denying what God had already done in their lives.  They were already part of God's New Covenant people.  They didn't need to do anything additional to earn covenant status with God.

Also, Paul believed that the days spoken of by the prophets had arrived when people from the nations would seek the God of Israel (e.g., Isa 2:1-4; Zech 8:20-23).  The prophets pictured people from all nations following God, not people giving up their national identities to follow God.  He wanted to follow God's will as revealed to the prophets.

In his analogy in Gal 4:21-31, Paul turned the tables on the influencers.  He told the Gentile Christ-followers that they already had the status of Isaac, the son of promise.  They were part of the New Covenant community, associated with Mt Zion and the future heavenly Jerusalem.

But if they through human effort decided to join the Sinai covenant, they would be like Ishmael, born through human effort, and connected to the present earthly Jerusalem, which was enslaved to Rome.

In Gal 4:27 Paul quoted Isa 54:1, seeing the prophecy as addressed to Sarah.  Just as Sarah could rejoice when Isaac was born, the Gentile Christ-followers could rejoice because they were the true children of Abraham through faith in Jesus the Messiah.     

In a sermon on Seder 14 on June 20, 2020, Kyle Kettering shared further thoughts on Gen 16, Isa 54 ,and Gal 4.