Hi
@moorea944
My wife has consigned me to hard labor in the Garden this morning so I wanted to make a quick note to you before I serve my time.
While I understand @Pearlseekers point that IF we limit the data only to the relatively modern first five books of the Bible (“Torah”), then of the promise of resurrection is difficult to clearly find in the "modern" versions of Torah that we have. However, limiting streams of historical data is not really how historical study happens. To find out HOW early Judeo-Christians believed and interpreted the Torah, then one must broaden the data streams as much as possible as opposed to limiting the data. Your claim that the early Patriarch were given knowledge of resurrection was taught in early Judeo-Christian literature, it's just more difficult to ferret out if one limits the data.
Non historians often have a difficulty wading into the Old Judeo-Christian texts (sometimes because the symbology and language seem disorienting and strange initially) however, early Jewish and Christian texts tell us much regarding how they interpreted the Torah in it’s various versions.
1) THE PROMISE OF RESURRECTION GIVEN TO ADAM
The early Judeo-Christians taught that even Adam was taught regarding his death, a mediator who would bring to pass an atonement and who would, ultimately bring to pass Adams own bodily resurrection.
“…Behold, thou shalt die from this day onwards, because thou art earth, and thou shalt return again to the earth. Thou shalt live in the world a life of nine hundred and thirty years, and when death cometh upon thee thou shalt turn to the earth again. Thy soul shall abide in Amente, (Hades, or the spirit world) and thou shalt sit in black darkness for four and a half thousand of years . . . (Discourse on Abbaton)
In such early descriptions, Lucifer is cursed, the earth is “cursed”, and God describes the vicissitudes and difficulties Adam and Eve will undergo as they gain wisdom after eating of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God continues to support them, to teach them, and, he promises them redemption, if they will repent and learn to live by the very moral laws they are now in the process of learning. It is not a curse per-se, but rather a description of conditions they will experience as they enter the process of acquiring knowledge of Good and Evil.
Thus, Jewish
Haggadah explains
“As it was, when God dismissed them from Paradise, He did not allow the divine quality of justice to prevail entirely. He associated mercy with it." In another example, Jewish Haggadah relates :
“Adam’s prayer, to be given of the fruit of the Tree of Life, was turned aside, with the promise, however, that if he would lead a pious life, he would be given of the fruit on the day of resurrection, and he would then live forever.
Upon realizing that he will die, multiple early texts relate Adams prayer to God to "give him from the Fruit of the tree of Life" so as to avoid death and to regain his immortal state. 1
“And the Lord turned and said to Adam, ‘From now on I will not allow you to be in Paradise.2 And Adam answered and said, ‘Lord, give me from the tree of life that I might eat before I am cast out.’ 3 Then the Lord spoke to Adam, ‘You shall not now take from it;...that you might not taste of it and be immortal forever, but that you might have the strife which the enemy has placed in you. But when you come out of Paradise, if you guard yourself from all evil, preferring death to it, at the time of the resurrection I will raise you again and then there shall be given to you from the tree of life, and you shall be immortal forever.’ (Life of Adam and Eve (apocalypse) 28:1-4) Several ancient texts confirm this promise.
2) ADAM WAS TAUGHT CONCERNING A REDEEMER
The earliest Christians taught that the core principles of Christianity existed in the very beginning. For example, that
Adam, after his fall was taught of the redeemer of the World.
For example, IN 2nd Enoch, the text relates God explaining to Enoch what he said to Adam :
“And I said [to him], ‘You are earth, and into the earth once again you will go, out of which I took you. And I will not destroy you, but I will send you away to what I took you from. Then I can take you once again at my second coming. And I blessed all my creatures….”2nd Enoch 31:2-8, 32:1
In the same way, Adam dispersed this knowledge to his children (and they to their children). For example, adam, tells the story of his fall and the promise of resurrection to his Son Seth as follows :
“Adam said to Seth, his son, “You have heard my son, that God is going to come into the world after a long time, (he will be) conceived of a virgin and put on a body, be born like a human being, and grow up as a child. He will perform signs and wonders on the earth, will walk on the waves of the sea. ...2 He spoke to me about this in Paradise after I picked some of the fruit in which death was hiding: ‘Adam, Adam do not fear. …. I am consigning you to death, and the maggot and the worm will eat your body.’3...But after a short time there will be mercy on you because you were created in my image, and I will not leave you to waste away in Sheol. For your sake I will be born of the Virgin Mary. For your sake I will taste death and enter the house of the dead....4'And after three days, while I am in the tomb, I will raise up the body I received from you.” Testament of Adam 3:1-4
Regarding this promise to adam, the Christian decensus literature also contains versions of the fulfillment of this promise to adam. Seth, the son of Adam is telling the story to others while in the spirit world, awaiting resurrection :
...Seth said: “Prophets and patriarchs, listen. My father Adam, the first-created , when he fell into mortal sickness, sent me to the very gate of Paradise to pray to God that he might lead me by an angel to the tree of mercy, that I might take oil and anoint my father, and he arise from his sickness. This also I did. And after my prayer an angel of the Lord came and asked me: ‘What do you desire, Seth? Do you desire, because of the sickness of your father, the oil that raises up the sick, or the tree from which flows such oil? This cannot be found now. Therefore go and tell your father than after the completion of fifty-five hundred years from the creation of the world, the only-begotten son of God shall become man and shall descend below the earth. And he shall anoint him with that oil. (The Gospel of Nicodemus- Christ’s descent into hell)
The claim that Adam is taught regarding his redeemer is another example where early Christian saw this doctrine as part of Torah tradition and it WAS clearly taught and believed by ancient Christians.
For example, in the First book of Adam and eve, after Adam realizes his fall from a prior state :
God said to Adam, "I have ordained on this earth days and years, and you and your descendants shall live and walk in them, until the days and years are fulfilled; when I shall send the Word that created you, and against which you have transgressed, the Word that made you come out of the garden, and that raised you when you were fallen. Yes, the Word that will again save you when the five and a half days are fulfilled." (First Bk Adam & Eve ch 3 :1-2)
When Adam does not understand, God explains : "
But when Adam heard these words from God, and of the great five and a half days, he did not understand the meaning of them. For Adam was thinking there would be only five and a half days for him until the end of the world. And Adam cried, and prayed to God to explain it to him. Then God in his mercy for Adam who was made after His own image and likeness, explained to him, that these were 5,000 and 500 years; and how One would then come and save him and his descendants. (First Bk Adam & Eve ch 3 :3-6
God makes at least three other references to the redemption in this book alone and this doctrine is reaffirmed many times in the Adamic literature.
For example, in the Testament of Adam, God reassures Adam specifically concerning this promise :
“God called Adam and said, “Adam, Adam.” And the body answered from the ground and said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “I told you that you are dust and to dust you shall return. Now I promise to you the resurrection; I shall raise you on the last day in the resurrection with every man of your seed.” (LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE (apocalypse) 41:1-3)
3) PROTO-CHRISTIANITY WAS THE ANCIENT JEWISH RELIGION IN THESE TEXTS
The christian claim was that the ancient Jewish prophets knew and taught all of these doctrines and the future redeemer/messiah would be the son of the LORD GOD, who himself possessed divine attributes sufficient to qualify to refer to him as a god or god-like (like god) . Thus, at the time of the appearing of Jesus incarnated, the Jews who believed in him felt they were accepting the truth the prophets had all taught in prior ages. They were not adopting a “new” religion, but recognizing a fulfillment of the old.
Thus the apostolic Father Ignatius taught
“It is utterly absurd to profess Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity,...” (Ignatius to the Magnesians 10:3) Just as Adam was taught in the future Messiah and resurrection, they taught that the earliest “Jews” were taught to believe in the future Christ. In this way proto-christianity was the first religion in this model.
However, the Christians believed that, Over time, the Jewish religion had corrupted many of the early doctrines and interpretations. Jesus did not, in the main, disagree with certain specific Mosaic laws. For example, Jesus' arguments with the Jews over the sabbath did NOT mean he did not agree with the law itself, but rather he disagreed with the jewish interpretation of and application of the law that had come to characterize his day. He was, I believe, trying to restore the true meaning and true application to the ancient law. In this same model, messianic Jews who have embraced Christianity may feel that they are simply returning to the older Jewish religion rather than adopting any “new” religion.
4) DECENSUS TEXTS RELATE HOW GOD MAKES GOOD ON HIS PROMISE TO ADAM
If you want, I can give you examples of how the mediator (Jesus) made good on his promise to adam in the early Judeo-Christian literature. Or you can look up ancient Decensus literature and read the early Christian traditions yourself.
At any rate, you are correct that, in historical ancient Judeo-Christian religion, Torah included the promise to patriarchs regarding the resurrection. Good journey Moorea944
Whoah!, I hear the guard coming, I have to go out to the garden and do hard labor now. see you...
Clear
ειδρνεσιω
