At services the other day I had a thought. I realized that both Jews and Christians have a practice of publically reading the scriptures. Also, they both have a practice of praying before and after the reading. I wondered when these two religious practices began.
The practice of public Torah reading was established by Ezra and the "Men of the Great Assembly" after the Babylonian exile around 537 BC. Ezra the scribe played a great role of reintroducing the Torah to the Hebrews.
The event of the original "Great Assembly" took place on Shemini Atzeret, at the end of the 7th day of Sukkot, otherwise known as the Feast of Tabernacles. It is the 8th day of a 7 day holiday, which is supernatural in itself. The 8th day is considered the most joyous day of the year. It has been referred to as "the last day of the Great feast."
We know when the religious practice of reading scripture publically began. The practice of praying before & after reading the scriptures actually began much later.
The practice of reciting blessings before and after studying or reading the Torah evolved during the Mishnaic period (approx 50-200 A.D.) This period is characterized by the compilation of the Mishnah, a collection of oral teachings passed down through generations of rabbis. This time period is covered in the Book of Acts in Christian bible. Obviously, there were not Christian practices before Yeshua.
The Jewish practice includes actual prayers that have been handed down for nearly two-thousand years. The Christians don't have specified prayers for before or after reading that I am aware of. My sense is that the Christian is inspired by the "Holy Spirit" in the moment, although I imagine some do write something out in advance.
Since the practice of these prayers began at the same time, and since at that time, many of the religious leaders of the Christian "sect" of Judaism were Jewish Rabbis who believed that Yeshua was the Messiah, I wondered if their might be something about the Hebrew prayers that might relate to early "Christian beliefs."
What I found is pretty amazing, in my opinion. First we have to look at the Hebrew prayer. These are short prayers, and there are different translations. I focused in on this specific text and translation that I is found on multiple Jewish sources.
ברך אתה אדני, אלהינו מלך העולם אשר נתן לנו תורת אמת, ויחי של העולם נתָא בתוךנו
ברך אתה אדני, נותן התורה
Ba-ruch ata Adonai, Eloheinu meh-lech ha-o-lam, a-sher na-tan la-nu to-rat eh-met, v’cha-yei o-lam na-ta b’to-chei-nu.
Ba-ruch ata Adonai, no-tein ha-to-ra.
I am so used to hearing and reading this prayer in Hebrew, very fast as is customary, that I never stopped to think about what it meant in English. That is until now. That's when something occurred to me about a similarity between between the Jewish prayer translation and something Yeshua said.
Here is the English translation:
Blessed are You, Eternal One, our God, Sovereign of the world, who has given us a Torah of truth, and planted in our midst eternal life. Blessed are You, Eternal One, who gives the Torah.
Do you see it? I am referring to the correlation between those words and John 14:6. Here is that verse:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
I will point out the correlation that I see.
- "A Torah" is "The Way"
- "Of Truth" is "The Word"
- "Planted in our midst" is "The Messiah"
- "Life" and "Eternal Life" is the promise of not only abundant life, but life everlasting.
- "You, Eternal One Who Gives" is "No one comes to the Father except through me."
I appreciate that a Jew who doesn't believe that Yeshua died for them, would object to my observation from a personal belief's standpoint. But intellectually, if one is seeking a connection, I think this a fair analysis. It satisfied my curiosity which was the motivation that I spoke of at the start of this article.
In closing, I will share one other verse toward the beginning of the Gospels. It from the first book of the Christian bible and it is attributed to Yeshua.
Matthew 5:17 (ESV) -- Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
