Matthew Chapter 22

Matthew Chapter 22 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 07-29-2011

Among the things which we spoke about last week, it was demonstrated from the parable of the vineyard workers, and from Leviticus, how hard it is for us to keep the letter of the law in this day and age. And while Yahweh's eternal morals are encoded into the laws found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, as well as the entire Bible, we easily lose sight of several Biblical truths. First, the law was created for the benefit of man, and not man for the sake of the law. Second, the Levitical laws were specifically given along with a priesthood to enforce them, for the purposes of the Israelite kingdom and its function in relationship to Yahweh its God. When Israel was divorced from God for its constant unfaithfulness, the entire nation being under the law was liable to the judgement of the law, and therefore the entire nation was liable to death. Yahweh preserved the nation according to His law, as He promised, by dying on behalf of it, thereby freeing the nation from the law of its (or allegorically her) husband! That is what Paul explains in Romans chapter 7. Now we live not under the law, but under the favor – the grace – of our God. We are told that if we love Him, we keep His commandments. Those commandments are not found in the Letter of the hundreds of old laws. They are found in the ten commandments, which encapsulate the Spirit of the Hebrew law, along with the few things which the apostles clarified and the admonition to love our brethren. The law was our – the Israelite nation's – tutor for Christ, as Paul explains in Galatians chapter 4. The Hebrew laws are our ideal, but since none of us can live in this world and strictly keep them, we do not judge our brethren by them. This is proven over and again in Paul and the epistles from the other apostles and the Gospels. 

It is a Catholic belief, that so-called “good” people go to heaven, and “bad” people go to hell, and of course by the measure of the Romish Church, and not by the measure of God. Yet Christ told us that every sin would be forgiven of men except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which can be demonstrated to be the purposeful violation of that Separation which the race of Israel was to have from the non-Adamic and also from disaffected Adamic peoples. Therefore Jude, Paul, and the apostles in Acts chapter 15 all warned Israel against fornication, which Jude defines as the “pursuit of different flesh” and which word Paul used to describe the seduction of Israel by the Moabites, and so it clearly includes what we would call race-mixing. Isaiah 45:20 promises that all of the offspring of Israel shall be preserved, without exception, and Jeremiah and Ezekiel that all of the sins of Israel would be cleansed, without exception. Therefore the apostle John tells us that if our seed is in us, in other words if we are indeed children of Israel, that we cannot sin, because even if we do, we have an intercessor in Christ. Paul quotes David in Romans where he tells us that blessed is the man to whom Yahweh will not impute sin, whose sins are covered. The only way for those sins to be covered is to be one of the lost sheep of Israel whom Christ died for in the first place. Those who rely on justification by the law, are in effect rejecting the mercy and sacrifice of Christ! Paul spent over seven chapters in Romans, and several in Galatians and his other epistles, explaining this very thing. The other apostles in their epistles in several places agree fully. So while it is fruitful to know the law, and to keep it, it is better to know that when we do sin, as the apostle John told us, we have an intercessor in Christ, who said that every sin will be forgiven men, except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. [It is not a mistake, that people who criticize me for this position on the law and the gospel even though it is spelled out clearly, have pictures of friends that are clearly negros and ladinos and ashkenazis on their Facebook and their business pages. Christ said He would forgive men of all sin, except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit – that Spirit of Sanctity demanding that Israel be a separate people. My critics would make friends of all the other races, and then boast that they should keep the whole law, criticizing me for recognizing the mercy of God that we Israelites have through Christ. How are my critics not as good as jews?]

There is a discourse in Romans Chapter 2 which reads thus: “17 But if you are called a Judaean, and depend upon the law, and boast in Yahweh, 18 and you know the purpose, and you scrutinize the things that differ, being instructed from the law, 19 and have persuaded yourself to be a guide of the blind, a light for those in darkness, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of the childish, having the semblance of knowledge and of truth in the law: 21 are you really teaching another, not teaching yourself? Proclaiming not to steal, do you steal? 22 Declaring not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? Loathing idols, do you commit sacrilege? 23 You who boasts in the law, through transgression of the law you dishonor Yahweh? 24 Indeed “the name of Yahweh through you is blasphemed among the nations”, just as it is written. 25 For circumcision indeed profits if you would practice the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. 26 Therefore if the uncircumcised should keep the judgments of the law, would his uncircumcision not be counted for circumcision? 27 Then the uncircumcised from nature who is fulfilling the law shall judge you who through writing and circumcision are a transgressor of law.”

First, if you claim justification from the law, that we are cleansed or damned by the law, then you had better be circumcised because the command to be circumcised is part of the law which is apart from and which preceded the priestly rituals of the law, which the law merely upheld. There is a greater message here in the fulfillment of the law being a part of the law itself, but what is more important here, is the lesson that keeping one law, and seeking righteousness by that, is to dishonor our God if we transgress any other law. Last week, in the parable of the vineyard workers, we saw that the workers were paid the very same evening to fulfill the law in Leviticus 19:13 that states thus: “Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.” This is only one example of a Hebrew law that is commonly broken today, that if one takes any goods or services they must be paid for that very day. Yet we all take many things each day and pay for them monthly, or not until the arrival of a bill or an invoice in the mail days or weeks later. Paul said, “every man getting himself circumcised, that he is obligated to do the entire law.” James said “he who should keep the whole law but would fail in one thing, has become liable for all.” If you seek righteous in the law, you had better be keeping and professing the entire law, without exception, or you are a hypocrite!

There is a certain individual who, along with some of his cohorts, has been insisting that those who are in marriages (meaning marriage by the unlawful standards of today) who did not initiate those marriages as virgins, must therefore terminate their conjugal relations lest they face eternal damnation. They profess this although this is not the example that we have in Scripture, rather it is contrary to the examples of Scripture. They are trying to uphold the letter of the law concerning marriages and virgins, and in an even stricter manner than the law itself explicitly dictates. Yet when confronted with the laws concerning usury, one of these same individuals recently attested to me that God will tell him if he was right or wrong, and that it's no one else's business. So he pretends to be a teacher of one law, while he himself finds it permissible to flaunt others. It is men like him whom Paul was talking about in Romans chapter 2. He is a hypocrite. I would pray that he repents. In the parable of the two sons at Matthew 21:28-32 we see one son who cared not for his father's demands, but his conscience weighed on him and he followed them anyway. The other son professed to keep his father's demands, but he did not. Such are those who would profess to keep the law, and then disregard the law. Christ Himself concluded that whores would enter into the kingdom of heaven before such hypocrites would enter into it. And if whores can enter into the Kingdom of heaven, who can so confidently guarantee eternal damnation to those among us who have transgressed in such a manner?

As Paul also had to confront the Pharisees of his time, there are those who would like to say that this understanding of our relationship to the law under the New Covenant is the promotion of sin. That charge, leveled at him by judaizers, is ridiculous. To that Paul answered in Romans chapter 3 “Do we then nullify the law by faith? Certainly not! Rather we establish the law.”and in chapter 6 “Now what may we say? Shall we continue in fault that favor would be greater? 2 Certainly not!” Each who professes to be a Christian seeks voluntarily to establish the law, but does not condemn his brother by the law – because Yahshua Christ Himself is not going to condemn the children of Israel by the law! Therefore James says in chapter 4 of his epistle “11 Do not slander one another, brethren. He slandering a brother or condemning his brother slanders the law and condemns the law. Now if you condemn the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one Lawgiver and Judge, He who is able to save and to destroy! Now who are you who is judging him near to you?”

Paul stated in Romans chapter 3: “21 But now apart from the law, the justice of Yahweh is made known, as attested by the law and the prophets; 22 but justice of Yahweh through the faith of Yahshua Christ, for all of those who are believing, for there is no distinction: 23 for all have done wrong and fall short of the honor of Yahweh; 24 being freely accepted by His favor, through the redemption that is at the hands of Christ Yahshua; 25 whom Yahweh set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, for a display of His justice by means of the pretermission of forthcoming errors, 26 by the tolerance of Yahweh; for the display of His justice in the present time; for He is just and is accepting of him that is from the faith of Yahshua.” Of course, Paul explains in Romans chapter 4 that such faith is the belief which Abraham had, that his offspring would become many nations, and that promise was carried down through Jacob Israel. Those who seek righteousness in the law, and who reject the immutable promises of salvation, who deny that cleansing granted to all of the offspring of the children of Israel, really do prove themselves to be jews, or no better than jews. I do not disagree with these fools over the content and importance of the moral laws of God. I do disagree with them over the implications for us when we who are weak fail to keep them to the letter. The jews face eternal damnation. There is no damnation for the children of Israel. (Other non-Adamic peoples are not even a part of the picture, nor will they be in the Kingdom to come.)

Matthew Chapter 22:

XXII 1 And responding Yahshua again spoke in parables to them, saying: 2 “The kingdom of the heavens may be compared to a man who is a king, who has made a wedding-feast for his son. 3 And he sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding-feast, and they did not wish to come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying ‘Tell those who are invited: Behold, my dinner is prepared! My bulls and fatlings are sacrificed and all things are ready, come to the wedding-feast!’ 5 But they being uncaring departed, indeed one to his own farm, and another to his business, [these are the apostates in Judaea] 6 but the rest [those who have killed all the prophets from the time of Abel] seizing his servants assaulted and killed them. 7 And the king being angered and sending his armies destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he says to his servants: ‘The wedding-feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Therefore go along the outlets of the roads, and as many as you should find invite to the wedding-feast!’ 10 And those servants having gone out into the roads gathered all whom they found, both the wicked and the good, and the wedding-feast had been filled with those dining. [These are the blind Israelites of the dispersion, who by the time of Christ had already come to dominate the inhabited world.] 11 Then the king upon entering to observe those dining saw there a man not clothed in a wedding garment, 12 and he says to him: ‘Friend, how have you entered into here, not having a wedding garment?’ [one of the tares sewn in among the wheat] But he was silent. 13 Then the king said to the servants: ‘Binding his feet and hands, cast him out into the outer darkness!’ There shall there be weeping and gnashing of teeth! 14 For many are called, but few chosen.” [Many are called by men, but few are chosen by God. Only Israel is both called and chosen!]

There are those who want to say that the wedding garment is one's character, or that it is somehow “spiritual”. If it is any of these, or anything similar, then all of those commentators attest that such things can be noticed on sight, although they would all also protest such a remark, in spite of the fact that when Yahshua first laid His eyes on Nathanael, as we see in John chapter 1, that He says about him: “Look! An Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!”

The guests who “did not wish to come “ were those people of Judaea who had the Law and the Prophets, and who should have known what time it was, that Yahshua was indeed that Messiah promised by so many Old Testament prophecies. It is demonstrable that many people did know that His coming had arrived, or at least that it was imminent, such as the Magi at His birth, the Woman at the Well in John chapter 4, and especially the apostles themselves, where we find in John chapter 1 that Andreas the brother of Simon Petros exclaimed to him that “We have found the Messiah!” (John 1:41). Yet these people should have known and should have embraced Him, and they did not. They were either uncaring, as we see described here, or some of them were even actively opposed to Him, as those who seized and killed His servants whom He sent to announce His wedding-feast. For all of this “the king being angered and sending his armies destroyed those murderers and burned their city” which forebodes the destruction of Jerusalem which was at that time still to come. And notice that the uncaring, those who would attend to their own business rather than the business of their King, they are judged along with the wicked who actively opposed that King.

Then the king tells his servants to go get anybody that they can, taking them right off of the streets, to bring them into the wedding feast. This is exactly what our modern day mainstream sects have done. It is evident that this parable is a prophetic parable. Now we must understand this parable in the context of the Old Testament prophets, and not – as the mainstream sects would interpret it - in spite of that context. The Old Testament prophets, such as Jeremiah at chapter 31, Ezekiel at chapter 34, or Isaiah at chapters 54 or 66, or Micah at chapter 4, or Hosea at Chapter 2, in addition to many other places, all tell about the dispersion of God's people Israel, their later return to Him – ostensibly through Christianity - and His regathering of them, and of them only. Yet,as can also be told at Matthew 13:47-50, Christ Himself foresaw universalism, and for that reason there are wicked among the just. There are wolves among the sheep. But the parable of the net, like several other parables, tells us that the wicked and the just are kinds – or races – and not individuals, and that the bad kind – or race (the Greek word being genos) - are taken and burned in the fire, with only the good kind being preserved.

After His servants had gathered all of these people, none of whom could possibly have been prepared for attendance at a wedding, there was a man found who did not have a wedding garment. Now some people would claim that the host had a responsibility to provide a garment. If that were the case, the king would have scolded the servants for not providing a garment for this man! If that were the case, the man would have insisted that he was compelled to attend this wedding by the servants, and he may have given am answer. But this man was silent. He had nothing to say. He had no excuse. And the King recognized this man's lack of a garment on sight, even though all of the guests had been hurried into the wedding under the same circumstances. The wedding garment could only be his skin. The wedding garment could only be that he was not of the “good kind” of fish. In the parable, he is only one man, but he serves as our example. The man's hands and feet were bound. He was cast into the outer darkness. There shall indeed be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (I must also add, that any day and every day is a nice day: for a White Wedding. In the end, only the children of Israel will have white robes washed in the Blood of the Lamb, because according to the law and the prophets His salvation is promised to them and to them alone.)

While it is indeed evident that this parable allegorically describes the as-yet-future wedding feast of the Lamb – the remarriage of Yahshua, who is Yahweh in the flesh, to Israel as promised in the prophets, many would then make the errant assumption that if Israel is the bride, then the other races must be the guests invited to the wedding feast. This is a foolish and sophistic argument which does not hold up to Scripture. Revelation chapters 19 and 21 describe the wedding feast of the Lamb. The picture drawn in those chapters – understood in the context of parallel prophecies in Ezekiel, Jeremiah and elsewhere - is quite different. In Revelation 19, we see that fine linen is the righteousness of the saints – Yahweh's sanctified ones, which in the context of Scripture can again only describe the children of Israel. All others, those who have opposed him, those Jeremiah 31 beasts which are also that Ezekiel 38 army which has surrounded and sought to mix in and destroy the children of Israel, they shall all go into the Lake of Fire. In Revelation chapter 21, we see that the bride is the city, which represents the nation of Israel and not each particular individual. Israelites as individuals are not the brides of Yahweh: Israelites as a collective nation are. On the gates of that city are written the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and nobody else will ever enter into that city! Those outside, we are told, “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”. For a time I myself imagined that may include those of the children of Israel who are unrepentant. But now I realize that position was an error. And I cannot imagine how any of the race of Israel could possibly be unrepentant upon looking their God, Judge, Father and Creator in the face! As Paul said of the unrepentant sinner, “deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh [in other words, put him out of the community so that he is exposed to the enemies of Christ – which was true when Paul wrote], that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 5:5, KJV).

15 Then going the Pharisees took counsel, how they may entrap Him in speech. 

There is no doubt, that when a man's words are righteous, that they are consistent, and they are consistent with the Word of God. But it is a method of the Pharisees to take the Word of God out of context, or to also take a man's words out of context, and then to condemn men by their own measure which they create by abusing context. Christ showed the Pharisees again and again that they did not truly understand the Word of God, and yet instead of seeking to understand Him, they hardened their hearts and sought reason to destroy Him. The Pharisees are still at it today!

16 And they send to Him their students with those of the partisans of Herodas [which may have been Sadducees, since the high priests of the day were also Sadducees – however at this time the high priests, according to Josephus, were being appointed by the Romans], saying: “Teacher, we know that You are true, and in the way of God You teach in truth and in You there is no thought for anyone, for You do not look at the stature of men.

The stature or the status of men, this word πρόσωπον reflects that same idea which Paul often refers to where the King James Version translates the Greek word προσωπολημψία [prosopolāmpsia, which is literally the receiving of a man's appearance] and related words and phrases as “respect of persons”.

2 Chronicles 19:7: “Wherefore now let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.“

Proverbs 24:23: “These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.”

Romans 2:11: “For there is no respect of persons with God. “

1 Samuel 16:7: “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

Many commentators confuse the idea of respect of persons with race, thereby seeking to surreptitiously include non-Israelites into the covenants of God, something which cannot ever be done under any circumstances. The same Paul who said that “Indeed the favor and the calling of Yahweh are not to be repented of [meaning that they can be retracted or modified]” (Romans 11:29) also added that “Yahshua Christ came to be a minister of circumcision in behalf of the truth of Yahweh; for the confirmation of the promises of the fathers [all of which include only Israel]” (Romans 15:8). James, in the second chapter of his epistle, clarifies the term respect of persons for us where he says: “1 My brethren, do not with respect of the stature of persons [as I more fully translate it] hold the faith of our Prince Yahshua Christ of honor. 2 For if perhaps a man should enter into your assembly hall with a gold ring in a shining garment, and a beggar should enter in a filthy garment, 3 then you should look upon he wearing the shining garment and say 'You sit here comfortably', and to the beggar you should say 'You stand there', or 'Sit beneath my footstool', 4 have you not made a distinction among yourselves and become judges of evil reasonings? 5 Listen, my beloved brethren: has Yahweh not chosen the beggars in society to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you dishonor the beggar? Do the wealthy not exercise power over you, and they themselves drag you into trial? 7 Do they themselves not blaspheme the good name labeled upon you?” So it is clearly evident that the term has only to do with the status of a man who in any case already deserves a place in the assembly, and one cannot attempt to force other races into the assembly by it, because that is an abuse of the meaning of the term, and a clear violation of the covenants of God which cannot be amended by men.

17 Therefore tell us, what do You suppose: is it lawful to give the tax to Caesar, or not?” 18 And Yahshua knowing their wickedness said: “Why do you try Me, hypocrites! Show Me the coin for the tax!” And they presented to Him a denarion. 20 And He says to them: “Whose image and inscription is it?” 21 They say to Him “Caesar’s!” Then He says to them: “Therefore render to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to Yahweh the things of Yahweh!” 22 And hearing it they marveled, and leaving Him they departed.

So many people even in Christian Identity simply cannot accept the precepts found in this passage. Yes, the taxes of imperialistic tyrannies are oppressive. In many ways, Imperial Rome was far more oppressive than Imperial America is now. But if you open your wallet and look at the bills it contains, they are all inscribed “Federal Reserve Note”. Therefore they really belong to the Federal Reserve – to the jewish bankers whom our fathers were foolish enough to grant such privileges as the ability to have them printed and put into circulation. So you pay your taxes. A Christian must realize that if he is blessed with having money, it will become a curse to him if he does not do right by his blessing. We cannot serve both God and Mammon, or riches. Therefore we should have no care for riches – money comes, and money goes, and there are times when we need it and when we need it we use it, but when we are attached to the material world and the riches of this world, we care too much for our money.

Likewise, in Matthew chapter 6 Yahshua said: “25 For this reason I say to you: Do not care for your life, what you should eat or what you should drink, nor for your body what you should wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of heaven, that they do not sow nor harvest nor gather into storehouses, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than them? 27 Who caring from among you is able to add one cubit to his stature? 28 And what do you care about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They do not toil nor spin yarn. 29 But I say to you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed as one of these! 30 Now if the grass of the field exists today and tomorrow it is cast into a furnace Yahweh clothes thusly, how much more you, you of little faith? 31 Therefore you should not have care, saying ‘What should we eat?’ or ‘What should we drink?’ or ‘What should we wear?’ 32 For all these things the heathens seek after. Indeed your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all of these things. 33 But you seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore you should not have care for tomorrow, for tomorrow shall care for itself. Sufficient for the day are its vices.”

23 In that day Sadducees came forth to Him, saying there is not to be a resurrection, and questioning Him  

At this point it may be meet to see in detail the beliefs of the Sadducees, and even to contrast some of the beliefs of the Pharisees, although the Pharisees will not be discussed at great length presently, from the pages of Josephus and then from statements which appear in the Book of Acts.

Josephus, Antiquities 13:173: “And for the Sadducees, they take away fate, and say there is no such thing, and that the events of human affairs are not at its disposal; but they suppose that all our actions are in our own power, so that we are ourselves the causes of what is good, and receive what is evil from our own folly. However, I have given a more exact account of these opinions in the second book of the Judaean War.”

Josephus, Antiquities 18:12-17: 12 Now, for the Pharisees, they live lowly, and despise delicacies in diet; and they follow the conduct of reason, and what that prescribes to them as good for them, they do; and they think they ought earnestly to strive to observe reason's dictates for practice [a glimpse of humanism]. They also pay a respect to such as are in years; nor are they so bold as to oppose them in anything which they have introduced; 13 and, when they determine that all things are done by fate, they do not take away the freedom from men of acting as they think fit; since their notion is, that it has pleased God to make a temperament whereby what he wills is done, but so that the will of man can act virtuously or viciously. 14 They also believe that souls have an immortal rigor in them, and that under the earth there will be rewards or punishments, according as they have lived virtuously or viciously in this life; and the latter are to be detained in an everlasting prison, but that the former shall have power to revive and live again; [so we see where the Catholic ideas of punishment and reward originated] 15 on account of which doctrines, they are able greatly to persuade the body of the people; and whatever they do about divine worship, prayers, and sacrifices, they perform them according to their direction; insomuch that the cities give great attestations to them on account of their entire virtuous conduct, both in the actions of their lives and their discourses also. [So we see a little about the Pharisees, who did not have it all wrong, although it is clear from the Gospel that they made many errors.] 16 But the doctrine of the Sadducees is this:--That souls die with the bodies [understanding this, we now have an understanding of Christ's interaction with them as recorded in the Gospel]; nor do they regard the observation of anything besides what the law enjoins them [today's equivalent is perhaps the expression 'I cannot attend your Thanksgiving feast, because it is not in the law that we should have such a feast' as if an additional day with your kin is a day spent in error], for they think it an instance of virtue to dispute with those teachers of philosophy whom they frequent; 17 but this doctrine is received but by a few, yet by those still of the greatest dignity [the Sadducees were the party of the wealthy]; but they are able to do almost nothing by themselves [there was not enough of them to administer government alone]; for when they become magistrates, as they are unwillingly and by force sometimes obliged to be, they addict themselves to the notions of the Pharisees, because the multitude would not otherwise bear them [there was not enough of them to force their convoluted opinions on the majority – since the Sadducees were the high priests at the time of the Passion, understanding this is important when it comes to scrutinizing who should bear the responsibility for the crucifixion of Christ].

Josephus went on to describe the Essenes – who seemed in many ways to most closely represent the true path of the Word of God and the common and simple people of Judaea, but they also had some errors, and he also described a fourth sect, very vehemently anti-Roman, founded by Judas the Galilaian some decades before the time of Christ. I am convinced that it is this sect which was responsible for what has become known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, but that is a topic for another time.

Josephus, Wars of the Judaeans 2:164-166: 164 But the Sadducees are those who compose the second order, and take away fate entirely, and suppose that God is not concerned in our doing or not doing what is evil; and they say, that to act what is good, or what is evil, 165 is at men's own choice, and that the one or the other belongs so to everyone, that they may act as they please. They also take away the belief of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades. 166 Moreover, the Pharisees are friendly to one another, and are for the exercise of concord, and regard for the public; but the behaviour of the Sadducees one toward another is in some degree wild; and their conduct with those who are of their own party is as barbarous as if they were strangers to them. And this is what I had to say concerning the philosophic sects among the Judaeans.

Acts 5:17 shows that the high priests at the time, who were also the high priests who condemned the Christ, were of the Sadducees: “Then stood up the high priest and all those with him, being of the sect of the Sadducees, filled with jealousy”. It is, however, obvious from the testimony of Josephus, that the Sadducees would not have had the ability to condemn Christ if it were not for the approval of at least many of the Pharisees.

At Acts chapter 23 we see that Paul was able to cause strife and a division between the Pharisees and the Sadducees at the council by loudly asserting that he was being tried for contention over the resurrection of the dead. 23:8 says: “For indeed the Sadducees say that there is not to be a resurrection, nor are there messengers nor a spirit, but Pharisees confess both things.”

Now that we have a fuller understanding of the beliefs held by the Sadducees, and to some degree by the Pharisees also, it may be evident why Yahshua is never found consorting with Sadducees, while there are times when He consorted with the Pharisees. Evidently, many Pharisees were indeed redeemable Israelites, while the Sadducees were absolutely beyond redemption! But here it is described, that they accosted Him in order to entrap Him.

23 In that day Sadducees came forth to Him, saying there is not to be a resurrection, and questioning Him 24 saying “Teacher, Moses said that if one should die not having children, his brother shall join in marriage to his wife, and raise up offspring for his brother. 25 Now there were with us seven brothers. And the first being married had died, and not having offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 Likewise also the second and the third, unto the seventh. 27 Then the wife died after them all. 28 Therefore in the resurrection, of which of the seven shall the wife be? For they all had her!” 

The Sadducees attempt to take advantage of the law found at Deuteronomy 25:5 because they think that they can use it to entrap Yahshua. It states that “If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her.”

But those who disbelieve the possibility of the resurrection to the Kingdom of Yahweh, how could they ever properly understand the Kingdom of Yahweh? Like the Pharisees, we will see that neither did the Sadducees know the Scripture. 

29 And replying Yahshua said to them: “Are you deceived, not knowing the writings nor the power of Yahweh? 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor do they give in marriage, but are like messengers in heaven. 

Yet nowhere, at least nowhere that I can imagine, in the Old Testament as we know it today, can this be found in Scripture. However there is a place where it is found, in writings that the Dead Sea Scrolls help to prove that at least a large portion of them as we know them now were indeed extant, read, and accepted in Judaea at the very time of Christ, and which the apostles themselves both quoted from directly or alluded to frequently in their epistles, and those writings are contained today in the book known to us as 1 Enoch. Here I shall quote from 1 Enoch 15:1-9, from the translation by R.H. Charles:

“1. And He answered and said to me, and I heard His voice: 'Fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and scribe of righteousness: approach hither and hear my voice. 2. And go, say to ⌈⌈the Watchers of heaven⌉⌉, who have sent thee to intercede ⌈⌈for them: "You should intercede"⌉⌉ for men, and not men for you: 3. Wherefore have ye left the high, holy, and eternal heaven, and lain with women, and defiled yourselves with the daughters of men and taken to yourselves wives, and done like the children of earth, and begotten giants (as your) sons? 4. And though ye were holy, spiritual, living the eternal life, you have defiled yourselves with the blood of women, and have begotten (children) with the blood of flesh, and, as the children of men, have lusted after flesh and blood as those ⌈also⌉ do who die and perish. 5. Therefore have I given them wives also that they might impregnate them, and beget children by them, that thus nothing might be wanting to them on earth. 6. But you were ⌈formerly⌉ spiritual, living the eternal life, and immortal for all generations of the world. 7. And therefore I have not appointed wives for you; for as for the spiritual ones of the heaven, in heaven is their dwelling. 8. And now, the giants, who are produced from the spirits and flesh, shall be called evil spirits upon the earth, and on the earth shall be their dwelling. 9. Evil spirits have proceeded from their bodies; because they are born from men, ⌈⌈and⌉⌉ from the holy Watchers is their beginning and primal origin; ⌈they shall be evil spirits on earth, and⌉ evil spirits shall they be called.”

Now we must be careful with the Enochic literature, especially since we have only a few copies of fragments that can be shown to be of great antiquity, which are those found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, and also because 1 Enoch is not even a single book, but several separate books which were written at diverse times and concatenated at a much later time. Yet here it is clear as to what Christ was referring to. The angels in heaven do not cohabit and multiply, even though they obviously have the ability, and once made a conscious decision to use that ability on earth – which led to sin because they were not supposed to do what they did – cohabiting with the daughters of Adam, the same events which were described in Genesis chapter 6 although our Biblical records there also have some imperfections. Here, according to the words of Christ, it is evident that those of the resurrection may also have that ability, as the angels do, but will not use it. (And here it may also be argued that Adam and Eve were indeed virgins in their own pre-fallen state, which other Scriptures indeed demonstrate.)

31 Now concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by Yahweh, saying: 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaak and the God of Jakob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living!” 33 And the crowds hearing were astonished by His teaching.

The response by Christ is attested to also in the Gospel of Mark. Yahweh professes to be “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” in Exodus chapter 3 at verses 6 and 15. We have seen from Josephus that the Sadducees believed that the soul died along with the body, Here we see that they were wrong. If Yahweh is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, it naturally follows that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not dead, but living – and living in the spirit! We will not find it expressed in this manner, as Christ said, that Yahweh “is not God of the dead, but of the living”, in the Old Testament as we know it. Yet we do find similar statements in certain Apocryphal books, such as 4 Maccabees which I will quote here:

4 Maccabees 7:18-19 [my own translation]: 18 But they who have thought for piety with all their heart, these alone are able to master the emotions of the flesh; 19 they who believe in God do not die; likewise neither do our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, for they live with God.

4 Maccabees 16:25 [my own translation]: And then they also saw this, that they who die on account of God, they live with God; just as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the patriarchs.

So also we have the event known as the Transfiguration on the Mount, which shows us this same thing, and the profession by Enoch which the apostle Jude quoted, that “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.” 0Yet those who are not of us do not have that Spirit, and these are those who are “twice dead”, as Jude calls them, and they have no hope to see the Kingdom of Heaven, as Christ explains in John chapter 3, because they are not “born from above”. We have life because we have that Spirit which is from of heaven which Yahweh imparted to Adamic Man, and which according to Paul's enigmatic description in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and according to John in the third chapter of his first epistle, is a part of our genetic heritage, which is what distinguishes us as being “born from above”. If one is born from above, he cannot die in the Spirit, because he has that Spirit of the Almighty God within him!

34 Then the Pharisees, hearing that He had silenced the Sadducees, gathered together at that same place. 35 And one from among them, a lawyer, making trial questioned Him: “Teacher, what is the great commandment in the law?” 37 And He said to him: “Love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 The second is thusly: You shall love him near to you as yourself. 40 By these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

If you keep the the commandments, if you truly seek to do these two simple things, then you cannot righteously be accused by men of breaking the law of God. And if you are not violating these basic precepts, then you are evidently keeping His commandments, and no Pharisee, either ancient or modern-day, can possibly judge you with righteousness. If you love your brother, you will not steal his goods, harm his children, or sleep with his wife. Neither will you lie to him about eternal damnation or seek to rule over him with the letter of the Old Testament law, as the Pharisees seek to do, and here and in chapter 23 Yahshua consistently scolds them for it.

41 Then upon the Pharisees’ gathering together, Yahshua questioned them, 42 saying: “What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is He?” They say to Him “That of David!” 43 He says to them: “Then how does David by the Spirit call Him ‘Master’, saying: 44 ‘Yahweh [Strong's # 3068, Yahweh] has said to my Master [Strong's # 113, adon (this word provides for us the Greek Adonis and the Germanic Odin)], sit at My right hand, until when I should place Your enemies beneath Your feet’? 45 So if David calls Him ‘Master’, how is He his son?”

This is a Christian paradox. Yahshua Christ is Yahweh, having come in the form of a man. He is the father, and He is the son, and that is the only way in which He could be both David's descendant and David's master! That is the only way, as the Revelation attests, where it also agrees with the prophets, that He could be both the Root and the Offspring of David (Revelation 5:5 and 22:16), or the future Root of Jesse long after Jesse had departed this world (Isaiah 11:10, Romans 15:12). That is the only way that He could claim to have been the planter of the Wheat in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. That is the only way that Paul could have asserted that the Rock in the Desert which followed the Israelites of the Exodus was indeed Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 10:4). The Pharisees obviously did not understand this, and therefore could not respond. The Dead Sea Scrolls version of Isaiah agrees with the Masoretic Text where it reads at Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” So the Pharisees were without excuse.

46 And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone venture from that day to question Him any longer.

They gave up trying to entrap Him. Rather, later they would seek false witnesses against him, taking His words out of context so that they could make accusations against Him. Today's Pharisees operate in this same manner.