The Great Divide

Daniel Peek

It has been a token piece of conventional wisdom that Jesus was entirely rejected by the Jewish people. This “fact” has been taken at face value and repeated for so long that it bears investigation, namely for the following reason: if Jesus had been so completely ignored by His people, why does His name cause such consternation and emotion among the Jews? Why has He been so long remembered? In truth because He was not so completely rejected after all.

From the time of Jesus’ miraculous resurrection, the “Jesus Movement” exploded. Had Jesus not resurrected, the “Movement” would have died a quick death, as had all previous movements led by pretenders to the throne. “Christians” (Jewish believers in Y’shua) in the wake of the resurrection and after Pentecost were numerous. Acts 4:4 describes as many as 5,000 men coming to Jesus in one meeting. As the miracles that followed the Apostles increased, so did the numbers of believers. In Acts 5:14, “multitudes both of men and women” became followers of Jesus. They sat in synagogues shoulder to shoulder with Jews who did not accept Y’shua, in the same way that a church building might have saved and unsaved people sitting together in the same pews.
The Rabbis had a universal problem on their hands; hundreds of thousands of Jews were believing in Jesus. Messianic Jews were attending “every synagogue of the east” (Philip Moore, The Messiah Conspiracy).
The many Jews who were Jesus believers represented a huge threat to the status quo. Almost 40 years later, as their numbers continued to grow, the destruction of Jerusalem occurred. The Rabbi Johanan saw this as an opportunity to marginalize and ultimately eliminate these upstarts. After a startling escape from the besieged city, Johanan settled in the seaport of Yavne (Jabneh or Jamnia), where he grafted together a new form of Judaism. It was in this new rabbinical form of Judaism that the anathemas or curses of believers in Y’shua were written, forever dividing the Jews into two camps: those for Y’shua and those against Him.

A False “Resurrection”
During the final siege of Jerusalem, Rabbi Johanan escaped certain death by being spirited out of the city. Disguising himself as a corpse, the Rabbi’s followers carried him out in a coffin, ostensibly for burial, risking death if discovered by the Zealots still in Jerusalem who swore to die rather than surrender. Additionally, the “dead” Rabbi and his pallbearers faced certain death at the hands of the encircling Roman army, yet managed to get beyond the siege line, at which time the “corpse” got up and made his way to Vespasian, the Roman general leading the siege.
     Boldly Johanan ben Sakkai prophesied that Vespasian would soon be emperor, and in such an eventuality, would Emperor Vespasian grant him.... and a few of his disciples, permission to establish a small school of Jewish learning… Stunned by the prophecy and surprised by the modesty of the request.... he promised the favor would be granted provided the prophecy came true. The prophecy in fact came true: Vespasian shortly became the new Emperor of the Roman Empire.
     The astonished Vespasian was informed by the Rabbi that he wanted amnesty and safe passage to a certain place. Seizing an opportunity to pacify the moderate faction of Jews that Johanan led, Vespasian granted the strangely simple request of the old man. Johanan asked for safe passage to Yavne, a small village on the seacoast, and for a guarantee of amnesty as long as he remained there.
     Freed from the constraints of competing sects and factions, Rabbi Johanan set about to formulate a new Judaism, bereft of Temple and benefit of sacrifice, but one that would keep a form of Judaism alive and would persist to the present. At the same time, Johanan finessed a change in the “Shemoneh-Esrei” (the eighteen blessings), a recitation required daily of all Jews.
     Max Dimont in his book, Jews, God and History explains how the deception began. Rabbi Johanan was a shrewd leader obsessed with keeping Judaism intact in a form consistent with his own vision and certainly no longer vulnerable to the upstart followers of Y’shua.

A New Form of Judaism
After Rabbi Johanan had successfully escaped the siege of Jerusalem and settled with a handful of followers in Yavne, the task at hand was to forestall and eliminate the influx of “Christians” into Jewish society and the synagogue. But how to tell “Christians” (Jewish believers in Christ Jesus) from their Jewish fellow citizens? By disguising a curse as a blessing. The Birkhat ha-Minim was a curse written and inserted into the daily spiritual affirmation required of every Jew. The “Minim” are the Jewish believers in Y’shua. The “Birkhat” is the curse leveled upon them.
     Philip Moore, head researcher for Hal Lindsay, writes in his comprehensive tome, The Messiah Conspiracy the following:
     “The personal integrity of the rabbis at Yavne and their belief regarding what constituted Judaism was at stake. They had to find a way to stop the spread of Messianic Judaism from reaching world Jewry. They felt that Judaism should be remolded into a cultural cement designed to keep Jewish and Gentile identities separate for all time. They felt that Jesus was a common personality whose message might threaten Jewish racial purity because so many Gentiles were accepting Him along with their Jewish friends. They were becoming interested in Jewish feasts and traditions, because their (the Gentiles’) Messiah was Jewish.”
     He continues: “In desperation, the rabbis at Yavne came up with a benediction which could identify any secret Messianic Jew in any orthodox congregation at that time. It was called the Birkhat ha-Minim... as the Talmud reveals: ‘Said Rabban Gamaliel to the Sages: can any one among you frame a benediction relating to the MINIM? Samuel the Lesser arose and composed it. They then wrote letters which were circulated throughout the Diaspora with a copy of this malediction and instructions to add it to the Amidah Prayer, which was recited daily in all synagogues of that time.’”
      “Through their emissaries they propagated the idea that Messianic Jews were not legitimate members of the community, were not to be acknowledged, and in some cases, were even worthy of death. The first century patristic Father Justin Martyr noted: ‘But these Jews... consider us as if their enemies and adversaries, killing and punishing us... whenever they are able to do so. In the recent Jewish war, Bar Kochba (a false Messiah), the leader of the Jewish Uprising, ordered that only the Christians should be subjected to dreadful torments, unless they renounced and blasphemed Jesus Christ.’”
      “For there shall arise false Christs...” (Matthew 24:24). Jesus prophesied the coming of others who would proclaim their messiahship, and having come in their own names, would be accepted.

A House Divided
From Yavne the curse upon Y’shua followers spread like a cancer. The upshot was that whoever would not proclaim publicly this anathema/curse upon Jewish and Gentile “Christians”/Minim was obviously one of those being cursed. Spies were posted in every congregation to observe those attendees that remained silent during the recitation of the newly added curse. Those who did not roundly curse the Minim were routed out. Eventually the situation was untenable for those believers in Y’shua Messiah, Jesus Christ, and they simply quit the synagogues.
     Because Messianic Jews viewed the destruction of the Temple as proof of Jesus’ prophecy, there again was an upsurge in the movement, with many more Jews beginning to join it. Finally, the Rabbis decided to end contact with the Messianic Jewish community. Messianic Jews were to be expelled from the synagogue. Jesus had told his followers, “They shall put you out of the synagogues” (John 16:2).
     “It wasn’t until later that they were expelled from the community. The Bar-Kochba Revolt occurred between 132 and 135 A.D. It was the second Jewish uprising against Roman rule... Rabbi Akiba declared Bar-Kochba to be the Jewish Messiah. As a result, Jewish believers in Y’shua as Messiah pulled out of the revolt. They could not accept the false Messiah Bar-Kochba, and it created the final split between the two Jewish communities” (Messiah Conspiracy).
     Philip Moore continues, “At this time, Bar-Kochba began to persecute Messianic Jews because of their refusal to render him Messianic recognition. Johannes Weiss documents this fact when he tells us: ‘The fate of the Jerusalem church (believers in Y’shua Messiah) underwent a decided change... under the Messiah-prophet Bar-Kochba. Jerusalem fell into the hands of the rebels: and even during the Bar-Kochba revolt, the Christians had much to suffer at their hands....’”
     In 70 A.D., the destruction of the Temple of God meant the end of sacrificing to cover their sin. Because God mandated the exact location of His Temple upon Mount Moriah (the site of Isaac’s miraculous redemption from death), no substitute would do. “Without [the] shedding of blood [there] is no remission [of sin]” (Hebrews 9:22). And no other spot on Earth can be used to offer the blood sacrifice, which God required of the Jews.
     “For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). In God’s incredible mercy, He has made a way out for all mankind.
      The Jewish religious leaders were faced with a choice: accept Christ’s blood offering for their and their people’s sins, or ignore it and try to cobble together a “religious” system that would placate God. They tried, and as previously stated, this is impossible.
Note: Unless otherwise stated, historical information for this article was taken from The Messiah Conspiracy, Philip N. Moore, published by Conspiracy Inc., (c) 1996.

MidnightCall Magazine

March 2010

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March 2010

The Great Divide