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Prof G dips into (grit your teeth Yoel)"Jew for Jesus" sources in an
attempt to rebut Yoel.
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Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 09:15:16 -0400
To: apologetics-list@mcu.edu
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Flour Power (Sacrifice repost)]
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From: greenew@netrunner.net (Bill Greene)
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At 06:41 PM 6/21/97 -0700, mwfisher@cts.com (Michael Fisher) wrote:
>BUT- contrary to Christian dogma, this is not the case. According to the
>Old Testament, the Jewish Bible which the Christians have adulterated-
>blood is not necessarily required for forgiveness.
The following is from http://www.jews-for-jesus.org/CASE/BIBLICAL/Sin.html
(one of many sites I have found useful in my recent training in Jewish
evangelism). This section is a response to the tape series, "Let's Get
Biblical! Nine Explosive Programs on the Jewish Response to Christian
Missionaries" by Rabbi Tovia Singer of Outreach Judaism.
ProfG
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3Dbegin=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Is a blood sacrifice necessary for the forgiveness of sin?
Rabbi Tovia Singer tells us that according to the Tenach (the Hebrew
Bible), not only blood but also repentance and charity atone for sin -- and
atonement by blood is the least important of all of them.
The Tenach does give a few examples in which atonement was procured apart
from blood sacrifice. There is atonement by a cereal offering designed for
poor people (Lev. 5:11-13); atonement by the burning of incense (Num. 16:46
[Hebrew 17:11]); atonement by gold (Num. 31:50). In the last two cases, the
actions are really to avert God's wrath and not to secure forgiveness for
sin; in the first case, an exception is made for a poor person who cannot
bring an animal. The general rule remained: atonement came by a blood
sacrifice.
In connection with this, Rabbi Singer questions the use of Leviticus 17:11
to demonstrate that a blood sacrifice was necessary. The verse reads, "For
the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the
altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh
atonement by reason of the life" (Jewish Publication Society translation).
Because the context of Lev. 17:11 is the prohibition against consuming
blood, Rabbi Singer argues that the point of the verse is: blood is
prohibited because it is used to atone -- but not that the verse teaches
that blood is the main or only way of atonement.=20
Traditional Jewish sources differ with Rabbi Singer:
Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 5a, citing Leviticus 17:11
Does the laying on of the hand make atonement for one? Does not atonement=
come
through the blood, as it is said: For it is the blood that maketh atonement=
by
reason of the life!. . .Does the waving make atonement? Is it not the blood
which
makes atonement, as it is written, 'For it is the blood that maketh
atonement by
reason of the life'?
-- Soncino Talmud edition.=20
Babylonian Talmud, Zevahim 6a, citing Leviticus 17:11
Surely atonement can be made only with the blood, as it says, For it is the
blood that
maketh atonement by reason of the life!
-- Soncino Talmud edition.=20
Similarly, modern Jewish commentator Baruch Levine
Expiation by means of sacrificial blood-rites is a prerequisite for
securing God's
forgiveness. As the rabbis expressed it, 'ein kapparah 'ella' be-dam,
"There is no
ritual expiation except by means of blood."
-- Baruch Levine, The JPS Torah Commentary: Leviticus; The Traditional
Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication
Society, 1989), p. 23, referring to Yoma 5a cited above.=20
Was sacrifice ever meant for intentional or only unintentional sins? If the
latter, how can the death of Jesus be an atonement for intentional sins?
Rabbi Singer maintains that sacrifice was only meant for unintentional
sins. For example, he cites Leviticus 4 which says that the sin offering
(the hattat) was for unintentional sins. Numbers 15 says that the person
who sins "with a high hand" will be cut off. The intentional murderer must
be put to death; only the manslaughterer who killed someone accidentally
can have atonement. How then, Rabbi Singer asks, could Jesus be a sacrifice
for all sins, including intentional ones?
The sin offering was only one kind of sacrifice. Though it was specified
for inadvertent sins, other sacrifices were not restricted in that way. The
full evidence includes the following:=20
Exhibit A: Modern Jewish commentators:
Jacob Milgrom
The function of the burnt offering as exemplified by the Hittite
sources, cited above, is clearly propitiatory and expiatory (for "wrath,"
"guilt," "offense," "sin"), a fact that accords with the purpose assigned
to the burnt offering in this chapter [Lev. 1].... "to expiate" (v 4)....
Some medieval commentators suggest the entire range of unwitting sins
(Bekhor Shor; cf. Shadal) and even brazen sins, if their punishment is not
specified (Ramban).
--Jacob Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16: A New Translation With Introduction and
Commentary (Anchor Bible; New York: Doubleday, 1991), p. 175.=20
Baruch Levine
The offenses outlined here [in Lev. 5:20-26] were quite definitely
intentional! A person misappropriated property or funds entrusted to his
safekeeping, or defrauded another, or failed to restore lost property he
had located....If, subsequently, the accused came forth on his own and
admitted to having lied under oath -- thus assuming liability for the
unrecovered property -- he was given the opportunity to clear himself by
making restitution and by paying a fine of 20 percent to the aggrieved
party. Having lied under oath, he had also offended God and was obliged to
offer an 'asham sacrifice in expiation....God accepts the expiation even of
one who swears falsely in His name because the guilty person is willing to
make restitution to the victim of his crime...
-- Baruch Levine, JPS Torah Commentary, pp. 32-33. Note: 'asham means a
"guilt offering."=20
Baruch Levine, again
[In Lev. 5:20-26], an 'asham is offered in expiation of any of a
series of deceitful acts involving an oath and the loss of property to=
others.
-- Levine, JPS Torah Commentary, pp. 25-26.=20
What then about the intentional sin in Numbers 15:30-31 (the sin "with a
high hand") which is apparently unforgivable? That verse reads "But the
soul that doeth aught with a high hand, whether he be home-born or a
stranger, the same blasphemeth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off
from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and
hath broken His commandment; that soul shall utterly be cut off, his
iniquity shall be upon him."
We present Exhibit B, the talmudic and medieval commentators. According to
the sages,
repentance could turn an intentional sin into an unintentional sin and so
be eligible for sacrifice. This is explained by the original sources and by
modern commentators on those sources:
Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 86b
R. Simeon b. Lakish said: Great is repentance, which converts
intentional sins into unintentional ones.
-- As cited by Milgrom, Leviticus, p. 373. The Soncino Talmud edition
translates: "Resh Lakish said: Great is repentance, for because of it
premeditated sins are accounted as errors."=20
Rashi (11th c.), on Numbers 15:31, explaining the phrase "his iniquity
is upon him"
Only at the time when (under the circumstances that) his iniquity is
upon him shall he be cut off, i.e., in the case that he has not repented
(Sanh. 90b).
-- Rosenbaum-Silbermann edition (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company)=20
Jacob Milgrom
This literary image [of the "high hand"] is most apposite for the
brazen sinner who commits his acts in open defiance of the Lord (cf. Job.
38:15). The essence of this sin is that it is committed flauntingly.
However, sins performed in secret, even deliberately, can be commuted to
the status of inadvertencies by means of repentance....
-- Jacob Milgrom, The JPS Commentary: Numbers; The Traditional Hebrew Text
with the New JPS Translation (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society,
1990), p. 125. See also J. Milgrom, "The Priestly Doctrine of Repentance,"
Revue Biblique 82 (1975): 186-205.
...I submit that the repentance of the sinner, through his
remorse...and confession..., reduces his intentional sin to an
inadvertence, thereby rendering it eligible for sacrificial expiation....
-- Milgrom, Leviticus, p. 373.
...The early rabbis...raise the question of how the high priest's bull
is capable of atoning for his deliberate sins, and they reply, "Because he
has confessed his brazen and rebellious deeds it is as if they become as
unintentional ones before him" (Sipra, Ahare par. 2:4,6; cf. t. Yoma 2:1).
Thus it is clear that the Tannaites attribute to repentance -- strikingly,
in a sacrificial ritual -- the power to transform a presumptuous sin
against God, punishable by death, into an act of inadvertence, expiable by
sacrifice.
-- Milgrom, Leviticus, p. 373.=20
Is unintentional sin the least significant kind of sin?
Rabbi Singer maintains that unintentional sin is the least significant
kind, implying that the sacrifices offered in the Tenach were for
insignificant transgressions; real sins would be atoned for in other ways.
In fact, the very opposite was true in biblical times: unintentional sin
was if anything considered more grave than intentional sin, simply because
one could never know if one had transgressed in such a case.
We summon to the stand:
Jacob Milgrom
Unwitting sin as the cause of disaster is widely attested in the
ancient world. The sin of unwitting sacrilege against the deity is
especially feared....In the early rabbinic period, the "suspended 'asham"
(5:17-19) played a more central role. It was brought frequently by the
pious, who were certain that they could deter conscious sins but were in
dread over the possibility of committing sins unconsciously.
-- Milgrom, Leviticus, pp. 361-362.=20
THIS COURT IS IN RECESS...TO BE CONTINUED
=A9 1995-1997 Jews for Jesus.
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