PART 4 LEAVING THE MYSTIC AND INTO THE WAY, THE TRUTH, & THE LIGHT PART

• In my traditional Jewish upbringing in Brooklyn, our family comfortably referred to our Scriptures as “the Old Testament”, although many other Jewish people prefer to call it the “Hebrew Bible” or the “Tanakh.” To me, the name “Old Testament” always implied something about the book’s grandeur and history.
• Calling it the Old Testament also suggests something of its connection to the New Testament. And the two books actually are very closely related. From start to finish, the New Testament contains quotations, references, allusions, and paraphrases of the Old Testament. This comes straight from Yeshua (Jesus) himself, who always demonstrated intimate familiarity with the Tanakh when he spoke, taught, and served—often drawing surprising insights from the Scriptures.
• Below, we list many references to the Hebrew Bible that Yeshua spoke in the gospels. They have been organized by the three divisions of the Old Testament: Torah (Five Books of Moses), Prophets (or Novum), and Writings (or Ketuvim).
• Jesus’ References to the Torah
• Jesus and the Ten Commandments
• The Torah is foundational to Judaism, and Yeshua quoted it often.
• In Matthew 19:16–20, Yeshua conversed with a young man who asked him the way to eternal life. He replied that he must keep the commandments: “‘You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘All these I have kept. What do I still lack?’ Yeshua told him to sell all he has, give to the poor, and follow him.”
• Yeshua clearly echoes Exodus 20:12–16: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

• The Sermon on the Mount contains a set of ethical instructions taken straight from the Hebrew Scriptures. Yeshua addressed a series of moral topics from the Torah to challenge some of the popular ways people in that time understood God’s instructions.
• For example, Yeshua upheld the command of Exodus 20:13 when he said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment’” (Matthew 5:21). This pattern is repeated when he quoted commandments concerning adultery (Exodus 20:14, Deuteronomy 5:18, Matthew 5:27), divorce (Matthew 5:31, Deuteronomy 24:1), and swearing falsely (Matthew 5:33, Numbers 30:2, Deuteronomy 23:21).
• Yet, Yeshua exhorted his audience to deeper obedience. For example, he called to mind Exodus 21:23–25: “If there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.” That commandment can be misused as an excuse for personal vengeance. To that, Yeshua said:

• “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other as well. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you (Matthew 5:38–42).

• Jesus’ Teaching on Honoring Parents
• Yeshua quoted from the Torah to make his point that many often neglected to keep the commandment to honor one’s parents out of self-interest. Instead of contradicting the Torah, Yeshua boldly cited Scripture to point out the ways that those who are condemning him had fallen short:

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If anyone tells his father or his mother, “What you would have gained from me is given to God,” he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God.” (Matthew 15:1–6)

• This echoed the command of the Exodus to “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12, Exodus 21:17).
• Jesus’ Temptation in the Wilderness
• After Yeshua’s baptism, he was taken into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan. He responded to each temptation by quoting from the Torah, showing the supreme value he placed on it for life, thought, and behavior.
• You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.
• When Satan tempted him with food, he responded: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,’” quoting directly from Deuteronomy 8:3 (Matthew 4:4). When Satan told him to jump from the top of the Temple, he quoted Deuteronomy 6:16: “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test’” (Matthew 4:7). Finally, when Satan told Yeshua to worship him, Yeshua quoted Deuteronomy 6:13, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve’” (Matthew 4:10).
• The Torah and Resurrection
• Yeshua challenged the Sadducees’ lack of belief that the dead will rise again with a quote from the Torah:

• And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:31–32, Mark 12:26–27, Luke 20:37–38)

• This was taken directly from Exodus 3:6 when God told Moses who He is:

• And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

• This kind of argument was known to rabbinic Judaism, too. In the Talmud (Sanhedrin 90b), as scholar Joseph Klausner notes:

• “It is written, ‘And I also kept my covenant with them (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) to give them the land of Canaan;’” it says not “to you” but “to them;” therefore we must deduce the resurrection of the dead from the Law—i.e., Abraham, Isaac and Jacob shall come to life again and to them shall be given the land of Canaan in the world to come. (Joseph Klausner, Jesus of Nazareth [New York, Macmillan, 1926] p. 319.)

• The Two Greatest Commandments
• Shortly after Yeshua’s encounter with the Sadducees regarding the resurrection, a lawyer put him to the test by asking what the greatest commandment of the Law is. Yeshua replied:

• And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37–40)

• Yeshua echoed Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. While the Torah has “all your might,” in Matthew, Yeshua said “all your mind.” Variations like that were common, especially in verbal conversation. The message Yeshua upheld the commands of the Torah and challenged those who listened to a deeper kind of love—the kind that he would soon show through his sacrifice