Page 165 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Student Textbook

Another major issue from biblical interpretation is what was discipleship in that time? How does that
understanding inform our reading of the Gospels, Acts and the epistles? All of these subjects are vital
snapshots of the world the New Testament was written in. They open our eyes to see the meaning of
the text of Scripture as the readers would have likely understood it. One of the most vital to understand
is the honor shame culture of Israel.

Exile and purity rituals in Jewish culture

The Jewish culture of Jesus time had survived the Babylonian captivity. Cyrus had sent them back to
Jerusalem. The Greeks had ruled them. At the time of Jesus, the Romans ruled Judea. They were
oppressed by Roman rule. The prophecies said that when the Messiah came, he would establish his
kingdom and rule on the throne of David from Jerusalem. At this time however Jerusalem was occupied,
and the Messiah did not rule, so in the Jewish mind the exile had not yet ended. This had led to an
earnest desire to understand what had led to the exile and what would need to happen to bring them
out of it. What they settled on was that they had gone into exile because of their sins. As a result of their
impurity God had left the temple and they had been taken captive. The Hebrew scriptures told them
that God had come to reside in the temple when it had been purified and made ready for God to come.
The seemingly obvious conclusion of this was that if God was to return, the people would have to purify
themselves so that God could dwell among them again. Reasoning in this way they concluded that to
entice the Messiah to come, they needed to purify themselves nationally. This gave rise to some of the
Jewish sects. Qumran was a community that
intentionally committed to developing themselves
in purity rituals in order to prepare for the return of
Messiah. It also gave rise to many of the distinct
rabbinic schools.

The Qumran, as well as other eschatological
groups, and the rabbinic schools were deeply
concerned with ushering in the Messiah through
corporate and individual purity. This drove the
Pharisees to develop many laws to ensure that
Torah was not violated. It guided the schools to
participate in ritual bathing known as “mikveh”.
The purpose of these washings varied. These were
daily washings to restore purity. The Mikveh pictured is from Masada. 200 Some of the washings were
initiatory. That means that they were public demonstrations that the person being baptized was
confirming that the rabbi in charge of the group he belonged to have the correct interpretation of Torah
and the correct purity rituals to bring about the coming of Messiah and the return from exile. It is
important to notice that the washing was normally not associated with conversion. The Jews did not see
the act of switching from one rabbi to another as a conversion to a new religion. It also was not seen as
the ritual that made you a member of the group. It was the action by which you demonstrated that you
were a member of the group in public and were received into the community. Many pastors are
unaware of this background and mistakenly assume that the act of baptism is the point of salvation. In
fact, if the purpose of baptism remains similar, the action of baptism is a proclamation that you are
already a recipient of the rabbi’s purity and are a member of the community.

200 Wikipedia Commons. Public Domain Image. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masada,_mikveh_-
_katsniffen.jpg

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