MJ Only Leviticus

[Gregory Wilson]

If Jesus said those who teach and keep the least of the commandments will be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven ( Matt 5:17-19), wouldn't this include the commandments of Leviticus? I suppose the sacrifices are fulfilled in Jesus, but about the clean and unclean laws, in addition to the foods being clean or unclean... What do you all think?

 

[Soyeong]

If Jesus said those who teach and keep the least of the commandments will be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven ( Matt 5:17-19), wouldn't this include the commandments of Leviticus? I suppose the sacrifices are fulfilled in Jesus, but about the clean and unclean laws, in addition to the foods being clean or unclean... What do you all think?

Yes, Matthew 5:17-19 includes the least law in Leviticus, which does not exclude the sacrificial laws. Paul made offerings when completed his vow in Acts 18:18, and he was going to pay for the offerings of others in Acts 21:20-24, and when he kept the festivals of God that require them. Sacrifices didn't cease with the death and resurrection of Messiah, but rather they ceased because of the destruction of the temple and they will resume when there is another temple built during the Millennium (Ezekiel 44-46).

I think it's questionable whether Mark 7:19 correctly translated declares all foods to be clean considering that there is no "thus he declared" in the Greek, but even granting that is the correct translation, it is still not talking about God's dietary laws. Different people and cultures consider different things to be food. Michel Lotito has eaten a computer, but does granting that something can be ingested mean that is qualifies as food? Would a cannibal be correct in understanding that verse as saying that eating human flesh was now permissible? The context is one Jew speaking to other Jews, so what they considered to be "all food" would be all the things that God had given them as food in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14.

Jews weren't even allowed to raise pigs and would have had the same revulsion to eating pork as we do about eating rats or vultures, but even if I were to grant they were talking about pork as clean, the conversation is is about a man-made ritual purity law that undermined God's law by prohibiting eating kosher food with unwashed hands, so at most it would be saying that all foods were ritually clean. Every time that the Greek word used in Mark 7:19 for "clean" is used in the Bible it refers to ritual purity, not the kosher and non-kosher animals.

 

[corrientes57]

If Jesus said those who teach and keep the least of the commandments will be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven ( Matt 5:17-19), wouldn't this include the commandments of Leviticus? I suppose the sacrifices are fulfilled in Jesus, but about the clean and unclean laws, in addition to the foods being clean or unclean... What do you all think?

I think Acts 9 answers that when Peter has a vision about a sheet filled with animals coming from heaven and commanded to eat from it, and when he says he cant eat anything unpure or unclean and the voice says do not call impure anything God has made clean. Just as in Hebrews Christ is declared to have been made the mediator of a new covenant, his ministry he has received is superior to the old covenant and is founded on better promises. The commandments of Leviticus were designed to set apart a people Holy to the Lord a chosen race to purify them to become the means to the Messiah.

 

[pat34lee]

I think Acts 9 answers that when Peter has a vision about a sheet filled with animals coming from heaven and commanded to eat from it, and when he says he cant eat anything unpure or unclean and the voice says do not call impure anything God has made clean. Just as in Hebrews Christ is declared to have been made the mediator of a new covenant, his ministry he has received is superior to the old covenant and is founded on better promises. The commandments of Leviticus were designed to set apart a people Holy to the Lord a chosen race to purify them to become the means to the Messiah.

That is not a good verse to use for your side. Keep reading and
you will see it has nothing to do with food, but the rabbinic
laws about how Jews interact with non-Jews. The dream was
to prepare Peter to meet and deal with Cornelius

Acts 10:28-29
28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
29 Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for:

He didn't say that now God told him he could eat pork. Culturally,
he would as soon eat feces.

 

[visionary]

What was asked of Yeshua.

Mark 7:5 "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the Tradition of the Elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?"

From there you can see that the question is about "unwashed hands" which is the "unclean" part of the question. Here is how the whole question came up ...

Mark 7:2 Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. 2 And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen hands, they found fault.3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.

So what Yeshua is saying is that it is the dirt that the digestive system can handle and purge...

Matthew 15:20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Notice two things: first, the question isn't about the Torah ("Law"), but about a tradition. Second, its not a question about what may be eaten. It's about whether one may eat at all without a ritual hand washing.

 

[corrientes57]

That is not a good verse to use for your side. Keep reading and
you will see it has nothing to do with food, but the rabbinic
laws about how Jews interact with non-Jews. The dream was
to prepare Peter to meet and deal with Cornelius

Acts 10:28-29
28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
29 Therefore came I unto you without gainsaying, as soon as I was sent for:

He didn't say that now God told him he could eat pork. Culturally,
he would as soon eat feces.

what goes into a man's mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth that is what makes him unclean.

 

[Lulav]

Just a note, this is the Messianic Judaism forum and this thread is marked for MJ's only.

We do believe that the dietary laws are still in effect today so posting against that isn't allowed.