Video Transcript: Judaism Lecture 1

We now shift our attention to Judaism. And with this, we are introduced to a new schema of the relationship between the divine and the non divine reality, instead of a pantheistic idea, Judaism gives us the idea of a divine being God, who is  distinct from creation, but nevertheless sustains it in existence completely. So,  the Divine Being is one being and all of creation is something else. Instead of  creation being made out of the divine being, as we have in Hinduism and  Buddhism, we have the idea of a distinctly new reality, but not independent  reality. That's why the, the arrow here is also dotted, it is also something God  creates, he creates his own relationship to creation, in bringing creation into  existence, he brings in to existence, his relationship to it. So it's also created.  This, the schema is, is very different. And it avoids several difficulties that arise  with respect to Hinduism and Buddhism and or other pantheism pantheism. That is the identity of the Divine with everything always leads to inconsistencies. It's  unavoidable. The, the world that we experience is real, but it's not. It's not  nothing. And yet, it's being is really the being of Brahman Atman, or the  nothingness of something. And there has to do the same thing with evil with sin.  And we saw that in the Gita, when we read that section from the Gita. Krishna  tells us general who's having pains of conscience, conscience and doesn't want  to go out and slaughter people. This battle. Go ahead, it's, it's all. Maya, it's all  illusion anyway, real life can't be killed. So is sin real or not? Well, if it is, then  maybe it makes sense to say there's a law of karma that punishes you in the  next life for sin in this life. But then turns out sin is part of Maya, it's not real  anyway. So what am I being punished for in the next life? And how could it be  me who's punished in the life's life unless I continue to exist, and then reborn?  Hinduism at least says that much Buddha denied it. There's no fooling around  with this stuff in, in Jewish theology, sin is real? People are real. They are real  individuals that God deals with their creation as real. Creation is the arena in  which we live our lives and we either serve God or we serve a false god. And  there's no no third possibility. So in this schema, we, and all the rest of creation,  are real sin is real. punishment for sin is threatened is real. The reward for  serving God is real. This is the arena in which we meet God. And even it is the  arena in which we shall be forever with God. Judaism does not envision another realm called heaven, heaven, the heavenly is part of creation. So you if you  wanted to, you could divide creation into a heavenly and an earthly realm. But  it's within creation, that we meet God and the final kingdom of God is when God  restores life on Earth to what it should be raises the dead, and and is is there  God forever and ever had happens on Earth. Christianity teaches that too a lot  of Christians don't think so. We'll come to that when we get to Christianity. But  for now, this is a very different schema with very different consequences. It  represents the relation of the Divine to the non divine. Now, the rest of it all has  to do with how humans come to stand in proper relation to the Divine, and divine is God. We have this account that begins very early. In the, in the, in the 

Scripture, we have an official scripture, which is supposed to be inspired by God and authoritative for the religion. It's it is canon c a n o n not two Ns. It's not a  gun. It's a rule of the official rulebook. And the divine human connection has a  specific name that comes into play very early. The first contact of God with  humans isn't given this title, but all the rest are after it. It's called covenant. And  the covenant is a religious treaty that's established by God with his people. And  God swears to keep it. His people swear to keep it. And in this covenant is, is  unilateral. People do not get to bargain with God about what goes into it. But it is a treaty of salvation is a treaty of redemption. And first of all, and foremost of all,  is the Treaty of redemption from death. We have been created mortal, says the  Scripture but God has offered us everlasting life anyhow. So let's talk about that. It occurs here in the very early parts of the Bible, the first book is Genesis, which means beginnings. And the Genesis 1 tells us about God creating the heavens  and the earth, calling them into existence out of nothing. It's called Creation, ex  nihilo is the expression out of nothing. And nothing is an innate isn't a strange  name for some stuff. At that he he makes the world out of there is only God and  then he calls into existence, the creation, he calls into existence a space time  universe that has matter and energy and is governed by laws. And after  establishing the creation, he then creates humans. And Genesis 2:7 says, God  had created humans, of the dust of the earth. That's an expression in the whole  of the Old Testament. That means mortal is always associated with mortality. So  God had created humans mortal. And now he takes a particular human named  Adam, and breathes into him, his God's own spirit and gives him eternal life.  That's the beginnings of redemption. We know that because of the terms that  are used there. And because of the way the Jews themselves interpreted that  verse when they translated it into Greek, there's a translation of the entire Old  Testament into Greek that was done in the third century before Christ. And it's  usually referred to just this way, Roman numerals for 70. And it's known as the  Septuagint. Because the tradition was that 70 rabbis took part in the translation,  and they translated into Greek. And when they translated that verse they made,  created God men had made man they put that in a past completed action. So  the aorist in Greek, God has already made men, mortal of the dust of the  ground. Now breathed into him. And in the word isn't soul or spirit. It's Neshama. It's God's Spirit, when that's the term used when God inspires someone and  gives him his spirit. He gives, God gives him his spirit, and makes him really  alive, or able to be to live forever. So the these Adam and Eve are the first  people to be this the objects of God's love and redemption. My own view, the  text doesn't suggest that they're the very first people who ever lived it. They are  the first people to be to receive redemption to be bearers of God's law, and word and covenant. And then they are put on probation in a special garden of God  that He is made for their special protection. And of course, they fail this  probation, we're all familiar with that story, I'm sure of them being tempted to 

disobey. And they, they, they cave in to the temptation, and they do disobey. And they're exiled from that garden of special protection. But there's a strong  suggestion in runs all through that story, that had they succeeded, had they  passed that probation had they been faithful to God, commands and so on, that  they would have, that somehow that faithfulness, that forgiveness, that gift of  God's own spirit, would have been communicated to the rest of mankind. But  since they failed, it wasn't. And so then we get another story. God comes in, he  says, to Noah, now I'm going to establish my covenant with you. And it sounds  like you're the next one, I did it before and it didn't work now I'm picking you.  You're going to be see if you will be covenantly faithful. And the covenant always has main parts to it, the, the contents shift a little bit, but the main topics don't go away. One is God, issues a demand, he makes demands of faith and love, and  obedience, love, trust and obedience. And he promises His love, forgiveness,  and everlasting life. That's the two parts of every covenant that God ever made.  And this book that we have, is a history is a record of the covenants of God's  encounters with human beings, and making covenants with them. So the, the  first one follows immediately on the creation account, that God calls the universe into existence, he makes human beings, then we get a shift in the story. And we  get God picks two particular human beings makes covenant with them. And it's  not called a covenant there. But he makes, he lays his commands on them, and  duties on them and makes promises. So it's a kind of pre covenant probation  that they have. And then in chapter 3, he does make a covenant with them,  because he promises that one of their descendants will do battle with a tempter  with Satan, and defeat him. And that, that's a covenant forward looking promise.  This is all very different from what we found in Hinduism and Buddhism,  because this is as historical as it gets. This is supposed to be a record of God's  entering into his own creation, and encountering human beings in real historical  circumstances, real human beings who were alive, who met God, who had  dealings with God, who were made promises by God, who served God or failed  God or both. And we have this, this record of God's care and love for His people. Psalms even expressed this in one place. When I consider the sun or the moon, or the stars, and the work of Your fingers, what are humans, that you visit them? What are the children of men that you pay any attention to them? It's amazing.  But that's the story that this begins with God's care about people and his desire  to rescue them from death and make them his, his partners in his work. So this  is the way I read these first few chapters. I don't find here myself, that there's  anything about them, that needs to be reconciled with science, I don't find  there's certainly things about them that gives us science. I think, as I read them  that they're about redemption, and completely, that the early part tells us God  called into existence everything including people, he made the male and female, and then in second, in the second chapter, he really gives Adam His Spirit, and  then he lays on him duties and commands and then Sadly, in the next chapter, 

they disobey, and they break God's covenant. Well, this idea of covenant is  going to be loom large that as we move forward, there's going to be a number of covenant renewals. And God's got to make them with different people, and so  on. And, of course, in the Christian view of things, it was Jesus Christ, who  finally succeeded in being totally faithfully covenantly, faithful, and in fulfilling the  covenant on behalf of everyone else. And he succeeded, where Adam and Eve  and a whole succession of other people had failed. And it was his was the way  in which Israel fulfilled that covenant on behalf of all mankind. We'll come back  to this in the future and spend more time on it and look at specific forms of  covenants as they were made. But I want to emphasize before we stop here,  about the ministry of the prophets in Israel, the term Prophet literally means a  mouthpiece a spokesman. And it's supposed to be that the prophet is a  spokesman for God, he has a message from God for His people. The test for  whether someone was a genuine prophet was whether when he made a  prediction that came true. And now the the meaning of prophet has shifted to the test, right someone's a prophet if they can predict the future. But it was that  wasn't the main point. Being a prophet, originally, you know, the original  meaning it was to speak a message for God. And the prophets are constantly  calling people into covenant faithfulness, but they were always battling external  conformity. Battling, the replacement of genuine, heartfelt love for God with  external conformity, is God's not just looking for external conformity. He's just  looking for you to do this and not do that. Blah, blah, blah, it eat, what he's  looking for is your love and your devotion. And the prophets constantly called for that. I'm going to read you from one right now from the prophet Micah. This is  anticipating a bit but it's apropos here. How shall I enter the Eternal's presence?  And how shall I bow before the God of heaven? Shall I come to him with  sacrifices, with yearling calves to offer with the eternal care for Rams in the  1000s, or for oil flowing streams, shall I offer my firstborn son, for my sin, the  fruit of my body for the guilt of my soul? Oh, man, he's told you what is good.  What does the eternal ask from you, but to be just unkind and live in quiet  fellowship with your God? It's not the external. It's internalizing the love that God asked for, in return for the love he's already offered us in making a covenant in  the first place. So this is the account, we get enough already dealt, then all I'm  going to deal with Adam and Eve and that they are the account in Genesis 1-3.  And there's more to be said, and there's, there's a lot of reading you can do. And people do disagree about the it's the relationship of those chapters to science as to whether they need to be reconciled or whether we actually get scientific  information out of them. I've told you what I think but that's just my that's my  opinion about how to read this. And it's supported, I think, by the Jewish  translation and interpretation. But I'm not going to dwell on that. What we want  to do is trace the history of the covenants and see how that idea of covenant is 

developed and how it changes each time it's reiterated. And that's what we'll  begin with next time.