Welcome to Jewish Roots Page iii - Minitestimony Now we are at the beginning of one of the most important studies you will ever undertake for Y’shua Hamashiach (Jesus the Messiah). The writer of Christianity-Its Jewish Roots is Dr. Jack Sternberg, an Oncologist from Little Rock Arkansas. His enthusiasm for the Messiah was found in a non-denominational church in Little Rock Arkansas. It led him to gather information from various sources so that he could understand the whole story of God and His Messiah. Dr. Jack discovered that knowledge in and of itself will not get you redeemed unto God. Instead it will puff you up and give credence to your reasoning to take offense to the beliefs of others. Judaism has its understandings and Christianity does as well. However, one thing stands out as Dr. Jack points toward FAITH. One of the blessings of this teaching that grabbed me is the intention not to offend anyone but to bring an almost unknown dimension of the Gospel to light; that of Jesus’ Jewishness. Most Christian seminaries pay little or no attention to Judaism as a source of New Covenant learning. From the Jewish point of view, a Gentile or the “Goyim” is anyone who is not Jewish. Even if you are a Jew who has accepted Y’shua as your Messiah, you are still labeled a Christian. Anti-Semitism has raised its ugly head many time in the world and continues to do so. However, it rarely raises its head from Christianity. More often it comes from the Gentile population that are basically the unredeemed people in the world. One area that is difficult to understand in the Catholic Church that has clearly taken an anti-Semitic view for years. In recent years, their stance has softened toward Israel especially after Pope John Paul visited Israel. Other groups such as the Lutherans of Martin Luther’s time followed suit. However, in this modern day, most hatred for Jewish people comes from without not from within. That is not to say that there are not pockets of anti-Jewish sentiment within the church (The Body of Christ), but Christianity has, in these latter days, become a friend of Israel and of most Jewish people. I do believe that Dr. Sternberg has produced a manuscript that gives glory to the Almighty God. He did it in the early 1990’s where I was able to gain access to it. It changed my life. I, Robert Brown, now the Rabbi/Pastor of Hope of Israel Messianic Synagogue in Terre Haute Indiana, found this writing and a set of cassette tapes through a friend in Arkansas in 1996. It floored me. I thought that my Jewish identity was gone forever, hearing virtually nothing from the pulpit about Judaism since I was redeemed unto God on December 31, 1983. I found Y’shua in a small Baptist church in Knox, Indiana on that New Year’s Eve. My life changed forever. It took many years of toiling in a secular job to finally realize the call upon my life. I can now say that I heard many voices try to wake me up to the fact that I was suited for the work of the Kingdom. However, it wasn’t until 2001 that I attended a service at a local Baptist church in Madisonville, Louisiana that I surrender to preach the Gospel. Immediately, our Lord intervened in my life and began to clean out the residue of sins that I had hidden away. Now, in 2007, my wife of 23 years, Delilah, who led me to the Lord in 1983, surrendered herself to leave the daily grind in the world and surrender herself to join me in the ministry our Lord has created. We will say now that we were obviously created for His service but only recently joined together as one to be His servants. Now, we find ourselves in Terre Haute Indiana leading a Messianic congregation and teaching the Jewish roots of our faith in Messiah Y’shua. We hope that your faith will grow as ours has from this teaching. We have worked diligently to add our insight to Dr. Sternberg’s manuscript. We have added more Scriptures, more research including Jewish Scripture interpretations, some Hebrew readings and comments from Hebrew scholars, if only to point out how Israel has missed the mark that is Y’shua, their Messiah. So. Lets get started. One note: wherever possible, I have used the King James Version of Scripture unlike Dr. Sternberg who chose the New American Standard Version. However, from time to time I will use other versions and make sure that I note what version of Scripture I’ve used instead of the King James Version. Page 1 There are two genealogies of Y’shua found in the New Covenant. The first is Matthew 1:1- 17 and the other is Luke 3:23-38. There is information in both of these for us to see Israel and the coming of its Messiah. In Matthew 1:6, we read, And Jesse begat David the king; and David the King begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; In Isaiah 11:1, we read “ But a shoot shall grow out of the stump of Jesse (Y’shai in Hebrew)” HET (this is the abbreviation I use for the Hebrew-English TaNaKH). This David, King of Israel is the last generation of the first fourteen generations. Therefore, from Abraham to David is fourteen generations that we’ll cal the Era of Promise. By the way, TANAKH is an anachronism for Torah, Neviim and Khetuvim. Torah contains the first five books of the Bible. Neviim are the prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and many others. The Khetuvim are the writings. They include the Psalms, Proverbs, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel and others. Therefore, we recognize the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, all 66 books. All of them are the Word of God and according to 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. King David produces King Solomon. In Matthew 1: 6-11 we see the next 14 generations, 6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; 7 And Solomon begat Rehoboam; and Rehoboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; 8 And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; 9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; 10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; 11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon: This era might be called the Era of Failure. The last era prior to Messiah’s appearance on the earth is called the Era of Preparation. From 586 B.C. until Messiah’s birth in approximately 6 B.C. we as Christians have only bits and pieces given to us. The Bible does record through Ezra and Nehemiah (found in the writings) the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem that was destroyed in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians. Of important note is that the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C and the Second Tewmple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. both occurred on Tish B’Av or the 9th of Av. This is a disastrous day for Israel. We’ll look into this important fact a little later in the study. But the Bible records almost nothing that happened from 400 B.C., the close of the Book of Malachi until the Messiah’s appearance. This can be called the Silent Years. From this date until now, no other Hebrew books became canonized. There were other writings, however, the process of canonization eliminated them. Some are found in the Catholic Apochrypha, but have not been found to be acceptable either by the Rabbis or the Christian leadership. Daniel’s writings were classified by the Rabbis as “writings”, no longer including these writings as belonging to the classification of Prophet. His writings had already prophesied about this period. Daniel’s prophecies became very controversial because he had spoken of Messiah in many different ways, much of which came to pass. Isaiah and Jeremiah also prophesied about events that would take place during this period of time as well. Page 2 Because we have learned little about these silent years, we are in the dark about events that occurred that had an impact on the coming of Israel’s Messiah. In about 400 B.C Israel was being ruled by Persia. It is easy to be idolaters when someone is ruling over you. If they don’t insist on your following their gods, they intermingle with you and breakdown your society. Similar to this was the slavery of black people who served others and had their society and therefore their natural growth as a people distressed and deterred.. It has been in the rebuilding stage for centuries. Judaism was different in that they had 1000 years of history through Moses and the Patriarchs. The Word of Adonai was given through them and there was always a remnant that God kept in play to protect His Word. To find out how Israel went from being an idolatrous society to a devout people who sought to follow God’s Word, we have to go back to their dispersion to Babylon that was finalized in 586 B.C.