Answers to Your Jewish Questions

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, friends, to our Thoroughly Jewish Thursday broadcast. Today, we're just going to take questions. I posted on Twitter, so we've got a bunch of questions there, but phone lines are open. 866-34-TRUTH.

That's 866-348-7884. Any Jewish-related question of any kind, whether you agree with my positions or not, whether you want to probe, get information, whether it's regarding the Hebrew language or Hebrew Scriptures or Jewish tradition or custom or religion or the modern state of Israel or Jewish background to the New Testament or the Messiahship of Yeshua. If it's Jewish-related, we'll take your questions.

I'm already looking at a bunch of really interesting ones on Twitter as well, so we'll get to those in a bit. But again, the number to call 866-34-TRUTH. I just want to say one thing first, and then I'm going to go straight to the phones. So, last week, I had the joy of interviewing Rabbi Pesach Wallicki on the show. We spent the entire hour talking.

We've interacted afterwards since and want to continue to interact further and have further discussion. So, he's an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. I'm a Messianic Jewish believer in Jesus.

So, we have very profound differences, but then a lot in common and a lot of common concerns and a lot of things that join us in the middle of the Jewish and Christian world. What's interesting was I was looking at some of the comments afterwards on YouTube, and people were saying, oh, so you don't think he needs Jesus Yeshua to be saved or something. I think, where would someone get that idea? I was just looking at some comments to our show yesterday, Digging Deeper into CRT, and people were like, well, he has no sympathy whatsoever for the position of a black American.

I'm thinking, how could you have listened to the show and come to that conclusion? So, I love for folks to enlighten me. It's one thing to differ. In other words, if I say X and you believe Y, okay, so we have a difference there. That's clear. That's one thing. But it always boggles my mind that someone could listen or watch and come to the opposite conclusion of what was actually being said.

And I'd love for you to just clarify if you made comments about last week's video or thought I missed it with the rabbi, give us a call. And in this way, maybe it's just a misunderstanding on your end or something was said that wasn't clear. Look, I was looking at a headline on one website today, and it mentioned Australia, lockdown, et cetera. When I looked again, it was Austria. Ah, I misread it. I glanced at it, and because Australia has been so heavy-handed with lockdowns and vaccine mandates and things like that, I just thought it was more about that.

When I looked again or I clicked on the link, it was Austria. It's like, oh, okay, I looked at it quickly. That can happen. We can miss here. But let's not spread misunderstanding.

And I say that not because I'm concerned about me, but if I was serving you a healthy meal and you didn't eat it because you misunderstood it, or if I was giving you a healthy vitamin and you didn't take it because you thought it had rat poison, ah, all the more, then are we missing each other? So I'm here to help. I'm here to serve. I'm here to help strengthen you in the Lord. Okay, we go to, let's start in Canada with our old friend Ron.

Welcome back to the line of fire. Thanks for calling. Hi, thanks for taking my call. You're welcome. Well, actually, I made an assumption, Ron from Canada. There are many Ron's in Canada. So welcome to the broadcast.

I called you once a few years ago, so I am back. All right. Okay, well, great. I was having a discussion with a Muslim friend online about Song of Solomon 5.16, where it says he is altogether desirable. The Hebrew word according to Strong's is 4261, and on the Bible how it describes it as a masculine plural noun or something? Muslims believe that it is Muhammad being named in the Bible, and they use that as proof that Muhammad is in the Bible. I like the context, it's ridiculous, but this person I was talking to got into the grammar and things like that, and that's not really my strong point, so I wanted to talk about it. Yeah, it's one of the most unfortunate apologetic tactics of Islam.

It's basically saying, this is how weak our position is. This is how impossible it is for us to find Muhammad in the Bible that we come up with this. So the Hebrew is Mahmadim, right? So it's the same letters involved in the name Muhammad, same letters. But hey, the Bible prophesies me, because it mentions Michael. There's a name Michael in the Bible, so that's a direct prophecy that I would have a radio broadcast.

That proves it. In fact, we have Michael quite a few times, and there are endless, endless words in the Bible that have become names, right? You know, there's lahav flame. Well, that's the daughter of some of our friends named Lahav.

It's prophesied in the Bible. So the sentence, of course, has nothing to do with it, right? His mouth is delicious, and all of him is delightful, such as my beloved, such as my darling, O maidens of Jerusalem. So unless it's saying that Muhammad is someone of sexual desire to be married by this woman, it's so bizarre. So yes, a word using the same letters as the name Muhammad is in the Bible because it's the word for something desired. The root chamad means to desire in only a good way, not like a covening way, right? And makmadim, desired things in the plural. And by the way, if you click on it, right, and you get the actual singular word, it's not Muhammad.

It's not that at all. So it's not even there. The vowels aren't even there. It'd be makmad, and then makmadim would be the plural. So the name is not there in terms of the actual pronunciation. Same letters are used because that's where you get the names from. But to say you have Muhammad there, then again, well, every person who's named David, and David's name occurs over a thousand times in the Bible. That's a direct prophecy about them. So all you have to do is say, first, it doesn't say Muhammad. It says makmad.

That's the singular. Second, it's a love song between a man and a woman to be married. And third, you have all kinds of names in the Bible. How is it a prophecy of Muhammad? So again, it's one of those things that's really unfortunate. It's like, I'm going to give you my very, very best argument, and everyone bursts out laughing when it's given. That's how weak the position is to find Muhammad in the Bible. So you just have to push back with the complete utter absurdity of it on every level. And there's nothing grammatically to prove or argue.

The more you do that, the more you just dig a hole for yourself, you know, this gentleman would be doing. So that's as simple and blunt as I can be about it, all right? All right, thanks. Sure thing. Yeah, and there's a different Ron that I'd spoken with a bunch of times from Canada, so thanks to this Ron for the call, 866-34-TRUTH.

His mother had come to faith at the age of 97 reading Real Kosher Jesus in the nursing home, and then she used that book to evangelize her friends there. All right, let's go to Steven in Tampa, Florida. Welcome to the Line of Fire. Hey, Dr. Brown, how are you? Doing well, thanks.

Good. Hey, I wanted to get your opinion on a Jewish perspective. I found this—it's an Asian-based Christian religion called the World Mission Society, and the big controversy is they believe in God the Mother as well as the Father, and of course you probably know they interpret Genesis 1-26 when God uses the word us, meaning mother, in Revelation 22-17, the bride that is mentioned, they believe that is welcoming the mother of God, not the church. From a Jewish perspective, how—is that even heard of in that time? Is that forethought way later?

Okay, so yeah, so go back, if you go through our archives, just checked back a couple weeks ago, I did a whole broadcast where we focused on that, we started there. So it's probably two weeks back that we did this, the idea of God as mother, and we refute that. So number one, in Judaism, is God ever prayed to as Heavenly Mother?

No. He is alvino malchino, He is our Father, our King. He's never referenced as mother. Does God have qualities of male-female, of mother-father?

Of course! He likens Himself to a caring mother, just as He's also likened to a warring soldier. The Hebrew word for spirit or wind or breath is feminine, but you have to understand that every word in Hebrew has to be either masculine or feminine. So, as I always illustrate, the table on the desk on which my arms are sitting, that's masculine, okay?

The chair in which I'm sitting is masculine. But it's just a grammatical function, just like for the wind or breath to be feminine, there's nothing to it. So, Ruach Elohim, Ruach Hefed El Pena'imayim, that the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the deep, yeah, so that uses a feminine verb because it's with Ruach feminine, but it has nothing to do with femininity of God. And that's why God is always referred to as Father in the Bible. And that's why it says that God put the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, by which we cry Abba, Father, in Galatians 4 and in Romans 8. And it's why Yeshua directs us to pray to our Father in heaven. And Paul says in Ephesians 3 that he bows the knee to the Heavenly Father.

And on and on and on. Even in Psalm 2, God says to the king, you are my son, I have begot, you mean I have fathered you. So, that's the imagery of Scripture. And the bride in Revelation is clearly the church.

There's the idea that the Holy Spirit is the bride or that there's Mother God, absolutely categorically not. So, does God transcend gender? Yes. When He creates us in His image, male and female, does that mean that within God are all the attributes of male and female?

Yes. Does God care for us like a mother for a child? Well, Paul said that's how he cared for the believers.

He and the other apostles, they cared for the Thessalonians like a mother cares for a child, a nursing mother. He was not there for saying that he was female in gender or transgender. But over 6,000 times the name Yahweh occurs always masculine. The other terms for God that are used, be it Elohim, be it El, be it Adon, Adonai, all masculine every single time. There is never an explicit reference to God as God as Lord with a feminine verb or adjective attached to that. And He is revealed as Father, prayed to as Father. Now, as Judaism develops, it has the concept of the Shekhinah, the manifest presence of God on the earth, which is said to carry the feminine motherly aspects of God. That's a later tradition that develops in Judaism. But even so, it does not mean again that we pray to God as mother or refer to God as she that is not found in Judaism whatsoever.

You will not find that in the prayer book where God is referred to as she or his mother. So this is a cult with deceptive teaching, and it should be renounced and denounced as such. Hey, thank you for the call, Stephen.

Appreciate it. We'll be right back. It's The Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome, welcome to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, Michael Brown. Delighted to be with you.

The order call 866-34-TRUTH. You know something fascinating before we get back to the phones and get to some of your Twitter questions? When I had Dr. Michael Stangler on with me last Friday, he was talking about one of the things that can weaken someone's resistance to COVID or increase the negative symptoms associated with it or danger of it. And he mentioned certain physically related things like obesity or diabetes, but he also said this, anxiety, that medical literature is pointing to anxiety as something that can be a negative factor with COVID.

And then there are other health-related issues that come from that. I mentioned it reminded me when I was doing my doctoral studies and then followed up with my book, Israel's Divine Healer, that when you dig deep in Proverbs, there's a lot in Proverbs about the state of heart, the state of mind, and how that affects the body. And those that are peaceful and at rest, what that brings to the body. It's very, very interesting. So we are whole human beings, right? Not spirit only, not mind only, not heart only, not body only, but whole human beings. And you know, just like you can be kind of down and tired and then get good news, you're energized, you're feeling better. It's actually things are actually happening. It's not just when we say psychosomatic as if we dreamt it up.

It's psychosomatic in terms of the interchange between the two. Just another reminder, make sure you visit vitaminmission.com. Use the Dr. Brown code there. Get some of the best health supplements you can on the planet. Let's close out this year eating, living better so that we can be healthier and stronger as much as it lies on us, right? And these supplements will help you as well.

It's vitaminmission.com. Okay, I'm going to go over to Twitter and let's see here. Let me scroll down. Handsome Tom wrote this. Hi, Dennis Prager was recently interviewed by Jordan Peterson and said that salvation plays a mineral role in Judaism, that he knows biblical Hebrew very well and you can't even think of the term salvation. This sounds wrong.

Is it true? He said a number of other things like you were judged by your good works and Judaism is the only religion in the world that divides between good and evil, not believer and non-believer. So just being a good person is all you need for heaven. I like Prager but he seems way off here. Obviously he's a sophisticated thinker and I given the benefit of the doubt in terms of maybe there's more that he was saying that I missed. Maybe there, there was a point he was making that didn't come through in that tweet there, but just based on this, all right, certainly he knows the word for salvation is Yeshua. He certainly knows that.

It can have aspects of triumph, victory as well. He knows the root yasha means to save. Save me, oh God. Deliver me, oh God.

I'm trapped. The enemy, you are. He knows that God is our Mosheah. He's praised prayers.

God is Moshenu, our savior, our deliverer. All right, so he knows that. He absolutely knows that. He must have been saying something like the idea of individual eternal salvation for someone is not a common concept in Judaism. Judaism is thinking much more in a corporate level or God saving the nation or physical deliverance or salvation, but certainly he knows. He has to know because he knows Hebrew. He has to know the root yasha. He has to know the noun Yeshua. He has to know lahoshia, that form to save, to deliver.

He has to know that. He's encountered these words hundreds and thousands of times in his reading of the Hebrew Bible or if he said prayers when he says them. So whatever he was saying, so either it's being misunderstood or he made a big error. I'm assuming something's misunderstood because I'd given the benefit of the doubt there, but of course there's this Hebrew word for salvation. Of course, it's not primarily used again in terms of save me from hell because the orientation of the Hebrew scripture was more consequences in this world. And then in the intertestamental period, you know, towards the end of the Old Testament period, intertestamental period into the New Testament, then there's a much greater emphasis on eternal salvation and the implications of that. And of course, individually Daniel 12, two is already telling us some are going to rise to eternal life and others to eternal shame and contempt. As far as the idea that only Judaism speaks of good versus evil, well of course New Testament faith does, the Messianic faith does as well and does speak of the righteous and the wicked and does call us to live lives accordingly. However, we would say that we all fall short, that we all need redemption, that we all need mercy, and that therefore without a savior we are lost.

So that would be a difference. But the emphasis on good works is found throughout the New Testament. The emphasis on proving your repentance by your deeds is found throughout the New Testament. So it's not an either or. Either you divide between the saved and the lost, the believer and the non-believer, or you divide between the good or the evil. Those who've been living evil lives and become saved, non-believers, will no longer live evil lives. That's New Testament gospel. All right, back to the phones, then we'll go back to Twitter, 86634truth.

Let's go to Vadim in Mexico. Welcome to the line of fire. Hi Dr. Brown, thank you for taking my call.

You bet. The question I have is on Matthew 23 verses 2 and 3, I understand there's larger context to it, but if you take these two verses where it says that the scribes and Pharisees are experts of the law and Pharisees, they sit on Moses' feet, therefore pay attention to what they tell you and do it. But don't do what they do, for they do not practice what they teach. So I understand, don't be a hypocrite, obviously, don't say something, postulate something and then don't do it, but then it says do what they tell you. It is, you can make a good argument that today's Orthodox Judaism, the rabbis are spiritual heirs of the scribes and Pharisees, and therefore, what is then the level of authority that the rabbis have over, I would say, Jewish believers in Yeshua, because obviously Torah does not apply and all of its commandments don't apply to non-Jews, but the ritual commandments, you can make an argument they apply to Jews, especially the circumcision one, which we all know disciples observed and Paul observed and was actually asked to prove that he doesn't teach Jews to abandon circumcision and circumcise Jews and all that. So in this regard, what authority do the Orthodox rabbis have in terms of halakhah, in terms of postulating halakhah that is to be halved? Over the life of a Jewish believer? Over the life of a Jewish believer, correct. Zero, none whatsoever.

Absolutely none. How do you interpret the verse then? Oh, very, very simple.

Very, very simple. First, what's the whole purpose of Matthew 23? It's to say don't be a hypocrite.

No, no, no. The whole purpose is a rebuke of the traditions that had developed. It's not don't be a hypocrite. It is seven woes, seven woes on those teachers and leaders, okay, and showing how their tradition is undoing the Word of God. Those traditions have developed by the thousands, by the millions, if you take all the subdivisions and everything since then. And he's already told us in Matthew 15 and in Mark 7 that these traditions nullify the Word of God. So the last thing he's saying is submit to their tradition. And Paul, even though he refers to himself as a Pharisee in Acts, makes clear in Philippians 3 that that whole thing in his old lifestyle or the Judaism he was progressing in in Galatians 1 is no longer how he lives or the authority he's under. But that was also for that moment in terms of whatever authority they had because he's telling us at the end of Matthew 21 that it's about to be taken from them and given to the apostles, that God's going to take it from them in their rejection of the Messiah and they're making void the Word with their tradition and is going to give it to a people bearing its fruit. Now, Christian teachers have misinterpreted that to say that God's finished with Israel and gave the authority to the church. What he's saying is there's going to be new leadership who replaces them. And who is the leadership in Acts? It's these new messianic believers.

So they have zero authority. And not only so, the traditions that have developed since then are a fraction existing in Jesus' day. So for example, if you're a traditional Jew and you say a blessing before the lighting of the Sabbath candles, you say that God commanded us to kindle the Sabbath candles. That's false. That's adding to the law, which God forbids.

He says don't add. God never commanded that. That's a rabbinic tradition that was developed subsequently. So zero authority. And if you're going to give them authority, then the first thing they'll tell you is you're an idol worshiper by believing in Yeshua. The first thing they'll tell you is that you need to be actively submitted to living rabbis today and follow their guideline. And the first thing is renounce your belief in the New Testament. So it's quite the contrary. There is zero rabbinic authority over believers today.

If you live in Israel and have to abide by certain things that are national law, that's one thing. But the whole purpose is to rebuke the hypocrisy and to rebuke the destructive traditions, which he does plainly. And that's why there's so much conflict between them because of these traditions that had been developed that made void the word of God. And that's why the leadership was taken from them and given to the apostles. So zero rabbinic authority over the life of a Jewish believer in Jesus today.

And as I've talked to Orthodox rabbis about it, they said the idea is laughable because the very thing they tell you is any prayer that you're praying to Yeshua, you're committing idolatry, and therefore stop right there. And it goes on. So zero. I understand. But what I want to say is don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. And the traditions that Yeshua rebukes in Matthew 23 doesn't mean he rebukes all of the traditions.

But he rebukes their authority. What? Here. So you can—Vadim, you're free—stay right here. You're free to pick and choose what you want if you think, hey, this is a tradition I find beautiful, or this is a teaching I find helpful. You're free to do that. But I want to say again, there is zero. I want to be emphatic. Zero rabbinic authority over the life of a Messianic Jew in the Spirit. Zero.

To submit to that is a grave error. We'll be right back. Thanks for joining us on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday.

This is Michael Brown. Just taking your Jewish-related questions today. 866-34-TRUTH. After Yeshua gives a parable and an application in Matthew 21, therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit, and the one who falls in the stone be broken into pieces, and when it falls in anyone it will crush them. When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived he was speaking about them. The authority was taken from them and given to the Messianic Jews, to the apostles, to the followers of Yeshua, and those are the ones to whom the believers are submitted and honoring when you get into the rest of the New Testament. What's interesting is that from what we can reconstruct about the early Nazarenes, that's the name that was given to the Jewish believers in Yeshua that held to what we consider orthodox doctrine, is that they differed from many in the church in terms of them not recognizing that Jews could continue to live as Jews and observe the Sabbath and things like that. At the same time they separated themselves from rabbinic tradition. You can see Ray Pritz's book on Nazarene Jewish Christianity for more on that.

So back to Vadim in Mexico. Sir, what do you think is gonna be added to your life by taking on human traditions that have been developed in a religious faith that is very different from the Messianic faith in Yeshua? What will be added to my life is that people will be able to say that I'm Jewish, otherwise how do they know that I'm Jewish other than me showing them my Soviet passport or Soviet birth certificate that says Mother Father Jewish? Well, what does it prove?

So now you're a Shemot, now you're an apostate. No, what it proves is that I am Jewish and I'm proclaiming Yeshua as the King of the Jews. Oh, well, who are you proving that you're Jewish to? To whom are you proving that you're Jewish?

To a Haredi Jew? To a Jewish people I'm showing that I am observing the tradition... But you're not!

You're spitting on the tradition by believing in Jesus. To the extent that I can. I'm not throwing up a baby with the bathwater. You are! You are! You're... Vadim, I'm appealing to you. Vadim, I'm appealing to you. I'm appealing to you... Would you please let me speak to you, sir? All right? I'm appealing to you that it has nothing to do with rabbinic authority.

That's the point. You are not under rabbinic authority. How do you trim your beard? Do you trim your beard?

Yes, I do. Oh, based on what halakhic ruling? I use electric shaver.

No, no, no, no. Please give me the detailed halakhic rulings that you follow, which contemporary rabbi, which ancient rabbis, as to how you treat your beard. I don't follow a halakhic ruling. Oh, okay, but why not?

Who gave you the right to not do that? The Torah talks about trimming the beard, and it doesn't say common sense. There's rabbinic halakhah on it.

As far as your peyot, as far as the peyot, the side curls, tell me exactly how you wear them. I don't have peyot. Oh, well, why not? Now you just show it to a Haredi Jew that you don't care about their traditions. You see, it's... There's a bunch of Jews that don't have peyot. Exactly. So it's just... So look, a lot of Jews have big noses, like I do.

What does it prove? You are... You're barking up the wrong tree, sir. You are... You're mixing... It's an idiom. It's an English idiom. I apologize. It's not an insult.

It's an English idiom. Okay. The point of fact is your main message is that you're a follower of Yeshua.

That's it. You are not under rabbinical authority. You just proved it to me in two seconds that you do not see yourself under rabbinic authority, because the most religious Jews today live very differently than you. And they'd look at you and think, what kind of Jewish is this? And then the moment you tell them you believe in Yeshua, then you're telling them you do not respect rabbinical authority, because they would say every single traditional rabbi that they know and honor and esteem rejects Jesus, rejects Yeshua, rejects the New Covenant writings. In fact, many would argue that if you read the New Covenant writings, you are excluded from the world to come, that all Israel has a place in the world to come, except for certain ones, and people like me, according to some religious Jews, would be one of those people.

All right? But basically, they would say every traditional rabbi in our history, the Talmudic rabbis and the lawgivers and the codifiers and the kabbalists, they all rejected Jesus, and that's the mountain to them. And you say, yeah, but I have a beard. You see the point, sir?

I live in this world. I deal with these religious Jews all the time. And one of the things that they most appreciate about me is that I'm trying to put on airs. I know you're being sincere, and I'm all for messianic Jewish congregations, and I'm all for a Jew if they feel, hey, this is part of my people, part of my heritage, to live as a Jew, great, but you are not under rabbinical authority.

And you've told me already on the air that you're not, because you kind of pick and choose as you like. So hopefully, sir, you'll hear it. And Matthew 23, read it in the light of everything else in Matthew's Gospel. Hey, thank you, sir, for the call.

I really do appreciate it, but I'm trying to help, and I've seen many people really get tied up, confused, and even lose their faith entirely by mixing in rabbinic tradition with authority. To the extent you say, hey, look, I love Oran Atali when I pray. Praise God. Wonderful. Great. You know, we incorporate some Hebrew prayers in our messianic service. Beautiful.

Some beautiful prayers. Great. Yeah, I mean, Sabbath never changed to Sunday, so that's my day set before the Lord.

And I read a rabbinic book, and they heard some really interesting insights I found useful. Wonderful. All good.

But you're not under rabbinic authority. All right, there we go. And thanks, man, for the good, honest, candid conversation. Let's go back to Twitter, and then we'll go back to the phone shortly after that. Okay, let me get back to the questions that were posted.

Oh, let's see here. Terrence, which issues do you see as most hindering in terms of Jewish progress toward accepting Jesus? What are the most positive developments in which you see Israel moving toward their destiny?

Zechariah 12 through 14. A positive development is there has been a steady stream of evangelical Christian love for Israel, support for Israel that's been unconditional, whether Jews have believed or not. And that's been very, very positive. Very, very positive, because the stench of anti-Semitism in Christian history has been so steady and so great for so many centuries that it has driven Jews away from even considering the possibility of Jesus being the Messiah.

So that's a positive development that just puts down some of the walls and gets us in conversation together. The great hindrances are the ones that have been there otherwise, theologically and practically, in terms of things I've dealt with in answering Jewish objections to Jesus in five volumes there, those still remain the same. A positive development is some Jewish circles talking more about Yeshua as having a role of Mashiach ben Yosef, Messiah son of Joseph, the suffering Messiah, more eyes opening to that, more Hebrew speaking ministries that are reaching Jewish people like Shalanu TV and One for Israel and things like that.

Those are positive developments, the bodies growing in Israel, but it's still very small from, you know, under 25 at the founding of Israel, known Messianic Jews in Israel or Jewish believers in Jesus in Israel, 1948 to at least 15,000, some put it as high as 30,000, but 15,000 would be a more reliable number, but still a long ways to go. A Jeri is an ancient Hebrew cosmology consistent with the young earth view. I am not aware that an ancient Hebrew cosmology actually dated the earth.

You might say, well, based on the genealogies. Well, genealogies are not specifically cosmology, so the idea of the origin of the universe, the emphasis on God being the creator, of course, is there in God bringing order out of chaos and defeating the powers of darkness and so on. That's there in the cosmology.

Is it in harmony? It's certainly not against the young earth view. Certainly would not be against a young earth view, for sure. There was no concept like you might have in some of the ancient Greek world with the eternity of the universe or something like that.

So no, that did not exist. So it would certainly be in harmony with, but could it be in harmony with an old earth view in terms of just an antiquity with which things were created and possibly the genealogies would then tie in with that in terms of shortening the length of time potentially, but certainly not against a young earth. Alex, do you have any tips for researching Jewish lineage? I may have Jewish ancestry, but I'm not sure. Well, one thing is get a DNA test. Get a DNA test. And when you get a DNA test, that will indicate background and you'll see if you've got Sephardic, Ashkenazic background or other. So DNA test is one way to find out.

That's a very, very strong way. Otherwise, you know, you go to a website, you know, ancestry.com or something and whatever ones there are and you plug in all the information you can, go back as far as you can and see what you uncover. Michael, can you share the documented history and how the Ashkenazi Jews were forcibly scattered by captivity in tall nations as prophesied by the Messiah in Luke 21, 21? If you will look in my book, Our Hands Are Stained with Blood, the new edition, I do have some information there about Ashkenazi Jews because the lie is that Ashkenazi Jews, which are largely European and from that background and Caucasian.

So I believe my DNA is 90% Ashkenazi, 10% Sephardi. So I do have data and some good studies, some good information there, but basically as best as we can understand, the Jewish people scattered by the Romans with the destruction of Jerusalem and then the subsequent scattering after the failed Bar Kochba revolt in 135, that's when the greater scattering takes place. Jews displaced around the world after having been displaced through the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles centuries earlier. And as Jews found themselves in different parts of the world, be it Africa, be it India, be it China, be it Europe, many just assimilated and were lost to history. They married into other groups, they fell into other religions, they left their Jewish practices behind. Others continue to live as Jews and people converted and married in. So over a period of time, the Jews began to look like the different peoples there because so many converted and married in so that they looked African, they looked Chinese, they looked Indian, they looked European.

This is what happened. With Ashkenazi Jews, many scholars posit, and I can't give you the exact geographical details right here, but they got to a small number earlier in their history in Europe and then from there people began to convert in, intermarry, and then grew to the great numbers they have. The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of the Khazars is a myth.

It's just one of the contemporary anti-Semitic myths that keeps getting propagated. We'll be right back. It's the Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome back to our Thoroughly Jewish Thursday broadcasts. Be sure to explore the many free resources we have on our website, AskDrBrown.org, ranging from cultural issues to theology to debates to Jewish questions. Wealth of resources waiting for you. Make sure you sign up for our emails. AskDrBrown.org. Take a few seconds, put in your first name, last name, email address, your physical address if you want us to have that, and we'll send you a real neat mini-book ties in with Thoroughly Jewish Thursday, Seven Secrets of the Real Messiah, and then more about my own testimony background and how our ministry can serve you, all the resources we have waiting for you. All right, I'm going to go back to the phones in a moment.

866-34-TRUTH. Danish debater is asking about J.E.P.D., the documentary hypothesis. He sees Christians debating it, not Jews that much. Jews who are not traditional debate it or embrace it just like more liberal Christians do or critical scholars do.

No difference there. A traditional Jew, an orthodox or especially ultra-orthodox Jew, believes that God dictated the Pentateuch, the Torah to Moses. So there are no different four sources of things like that. I personally have never been impressed by the so-called documentary hypothesis, but it has zero effect on Jewish tradition ultimately or on views of Jewish authorship of the Pentateuch for a traditional Jew. For a liberal Jew, they'll look at everything differently and through that same lens very similar to Christian critical scholars.

Abolish Simo. With the Jewish texts you've considered, which I reckon be a lot, how would you describe the genre of the book of Genesis and Job? There's so much controversy around it, I really love to know. So I understand that the opening chapter of Genesis is theological intent. In other words, its purpose is to teach us about God the Creator and how we set everything up as opposed to teach us science in detail. That's my understanding. So it is an ancient cosmology.

And then the rest is history. Now it may be painted in Genesis 2 in certain ways, you know with the talking snake and things like that, some may want to find a, they call it a mythical character to the chapter, but in point of fact it's telling us what actually happened. So I read Genesis ultimately as history, even if it may have symbolism in it, the earliest chapters I read it as history and the opening chapter is cosmology. Job is poetry, wisdom, literature of course, and Job has a historical kernel. What actually happened to this man Job, which is truly recounted there, with insight into the spiritual realm and then the dialogue that takes place, is now an enhanced dialogue. In other words, we're not to think that they spoke to each other in this amazing lofty poetry, but rather the later author now takes the historical realities of what happened to Job and the conflict with him and friends and now fills it in poetically. So I believe that the events of Job literally happened, truly happened, that he is a historical figure, as Ezekiel references and Jacob James references them. There's a lot of discussion on the Talmud as to when he lived and was this actually a parable, did he actually live or not.

Actually lived, yes, but the account, the way it's laid out, is laid out with poetic embellishment, alright, to give us the fullness of the message in a beautiful piece of literature. Snags, what's the deal with non-Jewish believers blowing the shofar? Hey, why not?

Why not? It was used in ancient Israel, had certain symbolism and purpose, wake-up call and celebration and all that. I love when it's used, not just randomly, but when it's used well in services.

I've been in many a service where the shofar is blasted and the shout of triumph comes and rejoicing, yeah. Dunamis, are there any Negro bloodline tribes of Israel? So if you say going all the way back to the beginning of Israel, so Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then the earliest descendants, were they negroid as opposed to mongoloid or caucasoid or whatever the different subdivisions someone would give? No, no. However, was their negroid blood early on mingled in with Israel and part of Israel's history? Absolutely, certainly. Way ahead of there being Caucasian blood or caucasoid mingled in, okay?

Yeah, so that's been from the earlier part of history, but do the original tribes go back to negroid origins? No, no. All right, and one more question from Twitter and then I'm going to go back to the phones. Lior, coming from a Jewish background, I don't understand why God could not have been more clear with the Messianic prophecies. Why do we have only one prophecy of the Messiah dying for us since when we have dozens of clear prophecies talking about the Messiah ruling and reigning? Why God isn't clear about the deity of the Messiah, only a few hints, but nothing really substantial that the Messiah will be God incarnate. It's very hard to believe in these things when God didn't even say clearly, especially coming from an Orthodox background. Ah, but Lior, he did.

He did. How many passages say the Messiah will rule and reign in the Hebrew Bible? None, none. But because it references the son of David and things that David will do, etc., so we deduce those, but even so, there are not a whole lot. You have Isaiah 11, Isaiah 2, 1 through 4. Does it even mention the Messiah?

No. How long is the passage of the Messiah's death and our behalf in Isaiah 53? So it's 52, 13 to 53, 12. Fifteen verses. Go back to the 50th chapter where it talks about this same servant of the Lord being beaten, all right? Go back to the 49th chapter where it talks about the same servant of the Lord who is rejected by his people and yet becomes a light to the Gentiles.

That's just in those chapters speaking in that direction. The whole sacrificial system of life for life, the high priest's death freeing the person in exile for unintentional homicide, which the rabbinic tradition says it's the death of the high priest that atones. You have these, the picture of the binding of Isaac and what that points to and its significance in Jewish tradition, that's pointing in the same direction. You have Psalms like Psalm 22 that he brings to fulfillment, that he dies and is delivered, that he comes to the edge of death and is delivered, delivered from the jaws of death and his deliverance from death brings praise to the ends of the earth.

I mean, this is a major theme. The Messiah even being priestly in Zechariah 6, he's a priestly king. That ties in with everything having to do with atonement and sacrifice and priestly intercession. There's a massive amount about a suffering Messiah and they'll look to him with a pierce, Zechariah 12, which in Jewish tradition becomes a reference to Messiah's son of Joseph who suffers in the final war. So there is a rich, rich, rich tapestry about this Messiah's suffering and dying for our sins in the Hebrew Bible. As for his deity, of course it has to be hinted at because it's easily misunderstood. That's why the New Testament does not just say Jesus is God or he turns around and says I am God because of all the misunderstanding that could be with it.

And also, if God laid out clearly in advance the Messiah will be killed, rise a certain time, then people have tried to manufacture that. Once he does it, you look back and you say, wow, how could it have been more clearly laid out? Rejoice in how clear it is.

Really. All right, let's go to Sean in League City, Texas. Welcome to the line of fire. Hey, Dr. Brown. Real quick, Genesis 2, 9, it says the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I want to know, is the word midst, is there a possible definition of that word or the meaning of that word to mean that the tree was suspended versus just being in the middle? I heard a minister say this yesterday, and he said Hebrew scholars, and I'm like, well, I know of a Hebrew scholar, so I figured I'd give you a call. Yeah, can I be totally honest? Thank you for doing that. This is wonderful.

This is one of the reasons I love, love, love live radio. So I've been at this for a long time, right? And to my knowledge, I've never once ever been asked this question. So the Hebrew, I mean, I want to look like I miss something because it's Betoch. Betoch is in the midst. If you said to me, how do you say in the midst of in Hebrew, I'd say Betoch, right?

That's all it is, the idea that it's suspended or I mean, I'm trying to figure out where someone might get. So in the middle of, so they mean in the middle because it's like halfway between the sky. No, no, no. Betoch is in the midst. It's in the midst of the garden, in the middle of the garden. And if I just look here at a bunch of different translations, they're all going to in the midst of, in the midst of, in the midst of, in the midst of, in the middle of, in the middle of.

You're either going to translate in the midst of or in the middle of. So it's right sick in the middle of it. That's all it means. The idea that it's suspended. You know what's sad, though?

Okay, it's not a big issue, right? It's not like a salvation issue, but somebody will say that and then people will think it's accurate and then they'll repeat it. And the next thing, it becomes like the next internet myth.

Now, hopefully this'll just, it'll be put out right here, but where do people get this from? It's this honestly frustrates me because it's, it's just like, okay, you're calling from league city, Texas, and I'm telling you, I've been to Texas. There is no such city as league city. Like, bro, I live here. No, man. I'm telling you, I went to Texas once and I didn't see league city.

I got off the airport DFW and we drove for like an hour. I'm telling you, I know about Texas. Like, oh boy. So anyway, this is what I deal with all the time because of just the misinformation out there. So here's a good rule of thumb, everybody. Okay. And thank you so much for calling. You did the perfectly right thing.

So thanks man for doing it. So, so listen, listen, if something's really there and you read the top 10 different translations in English, right? Say Christian translations, Jewish translations, you read the top 10 and none of them say it the way the person's alleging and everyone says it the other way.

You can pretty well tell the person's got it wrong. With that, may you be blessed. May the smile of the Lord be yours. Be encouraged. God is our rock. He's faithful. Your program powered by the truth network.