Christian OT and the Jewish Tradition

[Chief117]

Hello,

I have had this particular question about the Biblical Old Testament for a while now, and thought to myself, "I bet that this would be a great place to ask about it."

I was just wondering how the Old Testament of a common Bible would compare to the Holy Book of a non-messianic Jew? If I were to have a discussion with a follower of Judaism, would I be able to use the Old Testament effectively? or would there be some division there?

Also, I've heard a few other things and would appreciate anyone who could comment on the accuracy of thise claims:

All Jewish children were required to memorize the first five books word for word. Those who showed potential could memorize the whole of Scripture, and possibly become a Rabbi.

Then, is it safe to say that the OT has stayed true to the original message? That it did not become "watered down" over the centuries because of "word of mouth" errors? Is this still done today? Do we know how long this has been the practice?

The Jewish Scriptures were written without vowels in it, so many Jews claim that the prophecies about Jesus of Nazereth as the Christ were false--being misinterpretations of Scripture. Is this true? to what extent?

Thanks, I appreciate your responses.

G-d Bless.

[Andyman_1970]

[list]
All Jewish children were required to memorize the first five books word for word. Those who showed potential could memorize the whole of Scripture, and possibly become a Rabbi.


If I may step in:

In Galilee yes, the majority of children in the 1st century attended school at the local synagogue. From the ages of 6-10 young boys would go through what is called Bet Sefer (or house of the book) and memorize the Torah. Girls would also attend school but they would memorize Deuteronomy, Psalms and the Proverbs (I may be missing on here) because as future wives and mothers they would be responsible as the worship leaders at home.

Education in the 1st century for a Jew was not a luxury or an option, it was the key to survival. In the 1st century the region of the Galilee was like the “base” of orthodox Judaism – they went to great lengths to ensure they did not “compromise” on their observance of Torah.

Now if a young boy at the age of 10 did very good in baet sefer he would get to move on to Bet Talmud (or House of learning) - the student would attend this phase from 10-15 and would memorize the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Oral Traditions and also learn the art of rabbinic questioning and answers (where we see Jesus at the age of 12 in Luke 2 in the Temple doing what???).

If a student was really bright and did really good during Bet Talmud, they could go to a rabbi and apply to that rabbi to be that rabbi's disciple - this was called Bet Midrash (or House of Study). A student would ask the rabbi "Rabbi I want to become one of your talmidim" then the rabbi would drill the student on the Torah, the Hebrew Scriptures, the Oral Tradition. The rabbi wanted a disciple that would take his yoke (the rabbi's interpretation of Torah) and go teach others his yoke - so the rabbi wanted the brightest smartest students to do this.

The interseting thing is, there are only 2 rabbi's in all of Jewish rabbinic history who called their own disciples rather than the disciples applying to the rabbi - one was Rabbi Hillel and one was Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth.

I hope that was helpful.