Jewish Religion anD Worship

Lesson:

Begin by asking students what they already know about Jewish worship in the 1st century.

  1. Judaism
    1. The Judaism as we know it came about during the Babylonian Captivity and Exile
    2. Basic Beliefs
      1. 4 Doctrines based on the Old Testament
        1. Yahweh (the LORD) is the only living and true God, Creator of all.
        2. Israel is God’s covenant nation
          1. God made His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He chose Israel to be His covenant nation. As such, Israel received the blessings of salvation and fellowship with God. This covenant also gave Israel the responsibility of worshipping only God and obeying His laws.
        3. Breaking God’s covenant brought judgment
          1. Breaking this covenant was sin, and was punished by God. When Israel continually ignored God but worshipped idols instead, it eventually was punished with 70 years of exile and captivity.
        4. God would send a Messiah who would usher in the Kingdom of God.
          1. The promises of the covenant were to be fulfilled in the new age when God would wipe out all sin and the consequences of sin. This age was connected with the coming of the Messiah, whom God would send to rule over the entire world.
    3. Faithfulness in keeping the law of God was central to the life of the Jews
      1. led them to emphasize rigorous standards of personal and social morality
      2. made the Sabbath worship in the synagogue and the study of the sacred Scriptures essential to them
    4. These factors made Judaism unique among religions of the time and attractive to many non-Jews.
      1. Some became proselytes, full members of the Jewish faith
      2. Others became God-fearers, accepting the moral teaching of the Scriptures (e.g., Cornelius, see Acts 10).
    5. Some of the Jews, extended the observance of the law in ways that the Old Testament did not intend
      1. Especially some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law (see Matthew 23)
      2. They had surrounded the law with a mass of rules and traditions 
        1. intended to apply the law to new situations 
        2. and prevent even accidental law-breaking.
      3. These had become a moral millstone to the pious rather than a gift of God
    6. The Jews expected the Messiah
      1. For most, this had a political meaning
      2. The Messiah would destroy the hated Romans and establish a kingdom in which the Jews would rule all the other nations
      3. Is it any wonder, therefore, that many Jewish leaders opposed Jesus who was in many ways the opposite of the Messiah they expected?
  2. Temple Worship
    1. The temple which had been rebuilt upon the return from exile was replaced by the magnificent structure of marble and gold.
      1. Begun by Herod the Great in 19 B.C. and completed in 64 A.D
        1. Six years before it was destroyed by the Romans
      2. Because the temple occupied a large proportion of the city (35 acres, about 25 percent of the city), Jerusalem was more like a temple with a small city around it, rather than a city with a temple in it (The NW Study Bible, p. 1499).
    2. The layout (similar to the temple of Solomon)
      [Picture on pg 1473 in Student NIV Study Bibles]
      1. an outer court for Gentiles
        1. a wall or partition separated this court from the actual temple
        2. Gentiles were forbidden on penalty of death to go any further
      2. The temple building, set on a raised platform, had in sequence:
        1. the court of the women,
        2. the court of Israel (for male Jews)
        3. the court of priests, with the altar and the bronze wash basin,
        4. the temple itself with the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
    3. Daily life in the Temple
      1. Priests offering personal sacrifices and daily communal burnt offerings, in conjunction with the burning of incense, prayers, and priestly blessings, accompanied by the blowing of trumpets, chanting and singing.
      2. In the colonnades, men could gather to listen to any teacher who wished to teach them.
      3. On the Sabbath, festivals and other holy days, additional ceremonies would take place.
      4. In the outer court of the Gentiles, a thriving business in sacrificial animals and money exchange for the temple treasury was conducted.
    4. Importance of the Temple
      1. The temple was extremely important to the Jews, 
        1. the focal point of every aspect of life, 
        2. the centre of every aspect of national existence.
      2. It was the place where YAHWEH, their covenant God lived and ruled, and where the important feasts and festivals were celebrated.
      3. Only at the temple could one bring a sacrifice to God and thus be forgiven for one's sin and reconciled with God.
  3. The Religious Calendar - Feasts and Festivals
    1. Temple worship was closely related to the Jewish religious festivals and holy days.
    2. Jewish Calender
      1. the Jewish civil year began approximately in September-October
      2. the religious year began approximately in March-April
    3. Six of the eight major festivals celebrated by the Jews in New Testament times were prescribed in the Mosaic law:
      1. Passover or Pesach,
      2. the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
      3. Pentecost (Feast of Weeks) or Shavuot,
      4. Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah,
      5. the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur,
      6. the Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot.
    4. The remaining two feasts were added later:
      1. the Feast of Lights or Hanukkah, (Maccabean Revolt)
      2. Purim (Esther)
    5. Especially for Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles, Jews from Palestine and the Diaspora flocked to Jerusalem to participate in the celebrations at the temple.
    6. Charts of the Jewish feasts and religious calendar can be found in The NIV Study Bible, pp. 176-177. 
  4. Jewish Law
    1. There existed in Jesus' day two kinds of law
      1. the written law (Torah, our Old Testament)
      2. the oral law or "traditions."
    2. Many in Judaism believed the oral law was also received by Moses from God at Mt. Sinai and was passed on orally from generation to generation.
      1. Centuries after Jesus, this oral law was written down as the Talmud.
    3. Jesus at times came into conflict with the Pharisees over their traditions because they used their traditions to get around the law of God
      1. see Matthew 12:1-13; 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23; including notes in The NIV Study Bible, especially on Matthew 15:2; see also Matthew 23:1-28
    4. The oral traditions laid a heavy burden on the people that was almost impossible to carry (Matthew 23:2-4).
  5. Synagogue Worship
    1. Synagogue worship rose out of the years of captivity, when there was no temple.
      1. Since sacrifices were no longer possible, a form of worship developed which had no place for sacrifice.
      2. Instead, the emphasis was now laid on those things that Jews could do anywhere: 
        1. prayer, 
        2. the reading of the Torah, 
        3. keeping the Sabbath day, 
        4. circumcision, and 
        5. the observance of the Old Testament food laws. 
      3. This worship became institutionalized in the synagogue
    2. The word synagogue means "assembly" and whenever ten adult Jewish men gathered together, synagogue worship could take place.
      1. This consisted of studying and interpreting the Old Testament laws to suit their circumstances in exile, without the priests to lead them.
    3. This worship was continued after the return to the Holy Land
      1. even the smallest community had a synagogue
    4. Typical synagogue structure
      1. consisted of a rectangular auditorium with a raised speaker's platform, behind which rested a portable chest or shrine containing Old Testament scrolls.
      2. The congregation sat on stone benches running along two or three walls and on mats and possibly wooden chairs in the centre of the room.
      3. In front, facing the congregation, sat the ruler and elders of the synagogue.
      4. Singing was unaccompanied.
      5. To read from an Old Testament scroll, the speaker stood. To preach, he sat down. For prayer, everyone stood.
    5. Typical synagogue service
      1. consisted of reciting Deuteronomy 6:4-9,
      2. prayer, 
      3. singing of psalms, 
      4. readings from the Hebrew law and prophets, 
      5. a sermon, 
      6. and a blessing.
      7. Any male member of the congregation was allowed to read and preach, as well as any qualified visitor (such as the apostle Paul).
    6. During the week, the synagogue was used as a community center
      1. social meetings, 
      2. funeral services, 
      3. the study of the Old Testament,
      4. the education of Jewish boys, 
      5. as a court of law for internal problems in the Jewish community.
    7. Gradually, the study of the Torah became more important than the bringing of sacrifices in the temple
    8. After the temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, the local rabbi became more prominent than the priest in the temple.

  1. Student Worksheet 
Complete the worksheet #1-3 as a class.

Have students complete the information on items 4, 5 and 6 as an assignment.