RE-EXAMINING CHURCH HISTORY

UN-ROOTED...

 

Seeds of Separation (Part II)

By Tony Robinson

In the previous article¹ we examined the seeds of separation between the Jewish people and the emerging Western Roman Church².  We looked at numerous quotes from the early Church Fathers to demonstrate how they deliberately rejected beliefs and practices considered “Jewish.”  Most of the quotations pointed to a rejection of Jewish people and Judaism.  Furthermore, we saw that many of the doctrines were anti-Semitic in nature.  A cursory examination of the anti-Semitic doctrines of the Church Fathers may lead one to believe that the basis of their antagonism was a rejection of Judaism.  However, as we begin to analyze their writings, we find a consistent rejection of the Torah of Moses as the root cause.  In Dialogue with Trypho, Justine Martyr states emphatically, “For the law [Torah] promulgated on Horeb is now old, and belongs to yourselves alone; but this [new covenant] is for all universally.  Now, law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it, and a covenant which comes after in like manner has put an end to the previous one; and an eternal and final law--namely, Christ--has been given to us, and the covenant is trustworthy, after which there shall be no law, no commandment, no ordinance (italics mine).”³ In these words we see that the basis for the rejection of anything “Jewish,” was the premise that the Torah had been “abrogated” and superceded by the New Covenant.  In the minds of the Church Fathers, what further need was there for the Torah with its “old” commandments.  Since the Church Fathers also taught that the Jewish people were “Christ killers,” those who remained steadfast to Judaism were viewed as accursed by God, who had cast them and their Torah off to establish a “new Israel.”  This mindset, that the Torah had been abrogated (and replaced by the New Covenant), became the basis for the separation of the western Roman Church from the early Jewish believers in the Messiah.

 

The clearest picture we have of the actual faith and practices of the early Jewish believers comes from the book of Acts. A brief perusal of the book of Acts confirms that the early believers in Messiah understood that the Torah had not been abrogated.  Furthermore, their faith and practices were consistent with one based on the Torah-submissive lifestyle modeled and taught by Yeshua in Matthew 5:17-20.  This lifestyle was firmly rooted in the foundation of the Torah.  The book of Acts informs us that there were tens of thousands of Jewish believers in the Messiah (Acts 5:14; 21:20; 22:12) who zealously kept the Torah commandments of Moses.  These early Jewish believers met regularly in synagogues (Acts 9:2; 22;19), on the Sabbath (Acts 13:5; 17:1-4), celebrated the feasts (Acts 2; 18:21; 20:6, 16; 24:11; 27:9) and by their own sworn testimony confessed that they kept the Torah of Moses (Acts 24:14; 25:8; 28:17) even as Yeshua taught they should. These Torah-submissive Jewish believers, who were called Nazarenes (Acts 24:5), and their offspring were to become the victims of the seeds of separation sown by the western Roman Church.

 

One of the earliest records of the developing antagonism between Torah-submissive Jewish believers and non-Jewish believers concerns statements by Ignatius, Bishop at Antioch, approximately 98–117 CE.  Ignatius argued “against the Judaizing tendencies of his territory, which, not far geographically from Palestine, had suffered the influences of the synagogue and of the Judaeo-Christians (italics mine).”⁴ In this statement Ignatius is lamenting the fact that some of the practices in Antioch had been influenced by the non-Messianic and Messianic Jews.  With our knowledge of the Torah-based lifestyles of the early Messianic believers we should not be surprised that any customs, ceremonies or practices within the body of Messiah would reflect Judaism.  What is surprising however is the lament by Ignatius concerning the “influences” of the Jewish believers.   Elsewhere Ignatius writes “…if we are still practicing Judaism, we admit that we have not received God’s favor…” and “it is wrong to talk about Jesus Christ and live like the Jews…”⁵  In these statements Ignatius has certainly made “Jewish” practices and the Christian lifestyle mutually exclusive.  However, as we shall see, what Ignatius rejected as “Jewish” were actually the commands of ADONAI from the Torah.

 

Some of the most revealing statements concerning the Messianic Jewish believers of his time were made by the Church Apologist, Epiphanius of Salamis, 370 CE.

 

“We shall now especially consider heretics who… call themselves Nazarenes; they are mainly… Jews and nothing else.  They make use not only of the New Testament, but they also use in a way the Old Testament of the Jews; for they do not forbid the books of the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings… so that they are approved of by the Jews, from whom the Nazarenes do not differ in anything, and they profess all the dogmas pertaining to the prescriptions of the Law and to the customs of the Jews, except they believe in Christ…They preach that there is but one God, and his son Jesus Christ.  But they are very learned in the Hebrew language; for they, like the Jews, read the whole Law, then the Prophets…They differ from the Jews because they believe in Christ, and from the Christians in that they are to this day bound to the Jewish rites, such as circumcision, the Sabbath, and other ceremonies …Otherwise, this sect of the Nazarenes thrives most vigorously in the state of Berea, in Coele-Syria, in Decapolis, around Pella, and in Bashan…After they departed from Jerusalem, they made their start from here, as all the disciples dwelt in Pella, having been admonished by Christ to depart Jerusalem and emigrate because of imminent danger (italics mine).”⁶

 

From this quote we see that by the fourth century the relationship between the descendants of the original Jewish believers and the western Roman Church had deteriorated to one of overt antagonism.  By referring to the Jewish believers as “heretics” the Church clearly showed it had theological disagreements with them.  By stating that they are “mainly… Jews and nothing else,” the Church was clearly practicing anti-Semitism towards the Jewish believers.  More importantly, we can also see why the Nazarenes were viewed as heretics.  Twice Epiphanius mentions that the Nazarenes make use of the Tanakh.⁷ He also states that they continued to practice “customs of the Jews,” and “Jewish rites,” including circumcision and the observance of Sabbath. The Jewish people who practiced Pharisaic Judaism and those who were Messianic, both shared one thing in common.  In the words of Epiphanius they both “profess all the dogmas pertaining to the prescriptions of the Law and to the customs of the Jews.”  Thus, we see that the Nazarenes were viewed as heretics because they continued to uphold the Torah as the basis for their faith and practice in Messiah Yeshua and the customs of the Jews.  This aversion to the Torah as the “old” covenant that had passed away was the main factor motivating the Church to persecute Jewish people who practiced Judaism and those who believed in Yeshua as the Messiah.

 

The quote from Epiphanius demonstrates he knew that the Nazarenes of his time were the direct descendents of the earliest Jewish believers in the Messiah⁸.  It also provides evidence that the Jewish believers of his time (400 CE) continued to live Torah-submissive lifestyles as taught by Yeshua in Matthew 5:17-20, and demonstrated in the book of Acts.  In fact, we can continue to trace the presence of Torah-submissive Jewish believers through many centuries by examining the writings of their detractors who continued to ostracize and persecute them.  The Church Father Jerome (author of the Latin Vulgate) described the Nazarenes as “those who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the Old Law.”⁹  Once again, we see that it was obedience to the Torah that caused the Nazarenes to be viewed as different from the Church.

 

We have seen testimony from early Church history that the Jewish believers in the Messiah continued to observe the Torah.  There is also historical evidence that they existed well into the 13^th century.  The History of the Sabbath records for us, “As late as the eleventh century Cardinal Humbert still referred to the Nazarenes as a Sabbath-keeping Christian body existing at that time.”¹⁰  Furthermore, the author states, “And these so-called ‘Judaizing Christians’ were none other than the Nazarenes mentioned by Cardinal Humbert… the true Israel of God, who amid all the persecutions through which they had passed, bore the reproach of Christ more than any other Christian party, wandering about as ‘pilgrims and strangers’ to preach the faith of Jesus and the commandments of God.”¹¹  These Jewish believers in Messiah were called Pasaginians, who were “so named by the Italians from the Latin word ‘passagium,’ meaning ‘passage,’ because of the ‘wandering, unsettled life of these people.”¹²  Concerning the Pasagini, the Catholic writings of Bonacursus says, “Let those who are not yet acquainted with them, please note how perverse their belief and doctrine are.  First, they teach that we should obey the law of Moses according to the letter – the Sabbath, and circumcision, and the legal precepts still being in force.  Furthermore, to increase their error, they condemn and reject all the Church Fathers, and the whole Roman Church.”¹³  Furthermore, Gregorius of Bergamo wrote about the Nazarenes (Pasagini) in 1250 CE stating, “there still remains the sect of the Pasagini.  They teach…that the Old Testament festivals are to be observed, circumcision, distinction of foods, and in nearly all other matters, save the sacrifices.  The Old Testament is to be observed as literally as the New; circumcision is to be kept according to the letter.”¹⁴  All of these quotations show how the western Roman Church has reacted to the Jewish believers in Messiah. In all of the quotes above it is plain to see that hostility towards the Jewish believers had its basis in a rejection of the Torah of Moses.

 

This brief survey of the antagonism between the western Roman Church and the Messianic Jewish believers has shown us why the Church felt it necessary to sever it’s ties with the Jewish believers.  Not only had the western Roman Church rejected the Torah as “old,” they began to despise Jewish people, thinking themselves better.  It will be shown later that the seeds of separation were planted and nurtured predominantly by the western Roman Church (as opposed to the Eastern Churches, e.g., those of Asia Minor).  Therefore, it is very interesting, that of all the epistles Paul wrote, it was the epistle to the Roman’s where he wrote his most impassioned pleas to the non-Jewish believers, 1) admonishing them to not think ADONAI had rejected His people Israel and 2) not to arrogantly boast against the natural branches. Unfortunately, by their own written testimony, history has shown that the non-Jewish believers of Rome did not heed Paul’s admonition.

 

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid….Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee…Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee….For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”¹⁵

 

 

1.      Seeds of Separation, Bikurei Tziyon, Devarim 5761, page 26

2          “The Church” is the established entity that institutionalizes the Christian religion.  This is a distinct entity from the “Body of Messiah” which transcends the institution of the Church and more properly describes the body of believers that has existed both in and out of the Christian religion.

3          Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Tyrpho, A Jew

4          Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph.D., Andrews University, From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity

5          Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians

6          Epiphanius; Panarion 29

7          Tanakh, a Hebrew word designating the Torah, Prophets and Writings; equivalent to what is called the Old Testament.

8          The Nazarenes of Acts 24:5

9          Jerome; On. Is. 8:14

10      Andrews, J.N. & Conradi, L.R. History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week (4th ed., R&H, 1912 edition), p 545.

11      See ibid., p 547.

12      Richard Chamberlin, Article entitled, The Forgotten History of Messianic Judaism

13      Luana Fabry, Article entitled, How Long, O Lord, how Long?: A History of Anti-Semitism

14      See ibid.,

15      Romans 11:1, 18-21, 25