Clinging To The Words Of The King

Whatever is more than these is of the evil one". In Baba Bathra 15b it is said, "Do they say,
"Take the splinter out of your eye"? He will retort, "Remove the beam out of your own
eye.". And, in Mattityahu (Matthew) 7:3-5 Yeshua teaches us, "Why do you see the splinter
in your brother's eye but not notice the log in your own eye? How can you say to your
brother, `Let me take the splinter out of your eye,' when you have the log in your own eye?
You hypocrite! First, take the log out of your own eye; then you will see clearly, so that you
can remove the splinter from your brother's eye!".
The following are some quotes from a few witnesses who have also diligently studied these
subjects...In his book, Judaism And The Christian Predicament, Jewish Author B.Z. Bokser
(Alfred Knopf, York, 1967, pp. 208-209) states, "The attitude of Yeshua to the Torah is the
very same attitude one finds among the masters of halachah and aggadatta who followed in
the Pharisaic tradition."
In his study and review of the Apostolic writings, Orthodox Jewish scholar Pinchas Lapide
described Yeshua as a traditional, observant Jew (Pinhas Lapide, in Hans Kung, "Jesus in
Conflict," a dialogue between Pinhas Lapide & Hans Kung, in SIGNPOSTS FOR THE
FUTURE, Doubleday, York, 1978, pp. 74-75). In the book "Jesus In Conflict" he stated,
"Jesus never and no where broke the law of Moses, nor did he in any way provoke its
infringement—it is entirely false to say that he did...In this respect you must believe me, for I
know my Talmud more or less...This Jesus was as faithful to the law as I would hope to be.
But I suspect that Jesus was more faithful to the law than I am—and I am an Orthodox
Jew." Likewise, David Stern, translator of The Complete Jewish Bible and Author of the
CJB Commentary stated, "Based on all of my research, myself and my colleagues, have
found without any doubt, that Yeshua's teachings and life-style was closer to Chasidic
Judaism than any other form of Judaism."
On the other side of the spectrum, there is small segment of Jews representing maybe 2% of
Judaism today called the Karaite Jews. They are well-known for their rejection of all rabbinic
tradition, just as the Tzedukim (Sadducees) of Yeshua’s day did. In the book, “The Hebrew
Yeshua vs. the Greek Jesus, Nehemiah Gordon makes a point that Yeshua The Messiah
could accurately be understood as an early Karaite Jew. But, is this true? Did Yeshua reject
all the traditions and teachings of the Tzedukim (Pharisees)? Some in the Messianic
community have come to believe this, but I believe such a conclusion is not consistent with
the reality of scriptural truth.
In the book, “King Of The Jews” D. Thomas Lancaster (pg. 70) writes the following,
“Given the Master’s debates with the Pharisees over Sabbath restrictions, hand washing and
other matters, Karaitism seems to be a natural fit for Him. Based on a cursory reading of the
Gospels, it is possible to mistake Yeshua and His followers as early Karaites. But on closer
examination, it becomes clear that the Master had far more affinity with the Pharisees of His
day than He did with the Karaites of His day. A careful study of Yeshua and His disciples
reveals that they were scrupulously observant, traditional Jews, keeping Jewish customary
laws so long as those traditions did not contradict the written commandments of God.”.
We can see that even to the fourth century there were still groups of Jewish followers of
Messiah that had stayed faithful to his teachings. The following description of these
Messianic Jewish disciples of Yeshua was actually recorded by an anti-semetic "Church
Father" Epiphanius, as found in Panarion 29 where it states, "We shall now especially