SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/7/2017
10:10 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Intro
to Colossians 2:8-10”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
2:8-10
Message of the
verses: “8 See to it that no one
takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the
tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather
than according to Christ. 9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily
form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all
rule and authority;”
Before we begin to look at this next introduction to
these verses I wanted to take the time to look up in my Greek/English
dictionary that is on my Online Bible Program the definition for the word “captive”
as it caught my eye as I was pasting these verses on this SD.
1) to carry off booty
1a) to carry one off as a captive (and
slave)
1b) to lead away from the truth and subject to one’s sway
Now as we look at this last part of this definition we
can see that this is exactly what the devil tries to do with every person in
this world, but it is not always successful and when a person becomes a
believer in Jesus Christ realizing that they were born a sinner and that Christ
took their place on the cross giving them His righteousness, and then receiving
His Holy Spirit they will not be led captive through this philosophy or vain deceit. Satan can make the false things seem like the
truth, but the truth is only found in the Word of God for the God of truth has
written it.
Now I mentioned that we would be looking at some of the
specific heresies that the Colossian church was being threatened with, but we
realize that Paul has not actually named it.
John MacArthur gives us some help when he writes “We can, however,
reconstruct some of its tenets from 2:8-23.
It contained elements of philosophy (2:8-15), legalism (2:16-17),
mysticism (2:18-19), and asceticism (2:20-23).
Because those beliefs were shared by the first-century Jewish sect known
as the Essenes, we noted in the introduction it is possible they (or a group
holding similar beliefs) were the ones threatening the Colossian
believers. This heresy also had
components that were early forms of Gnosticism, the belief that there was a transcendent
kind of knowledge beyond Christian doctrine know only to elite initiates who
had ascended to that level. Most
damning, though, was its teaching that Jesus was neither God nor the source of
all truth. That was the frontal attack
on His deity and sufficiency.”
Now I want to get a quote from an internet source that
talks helps explain the different Jewish groups that were around during the
time that Jesus was on the earth ministering as one is mentioned in this quote
from John MacArthur that is not widely known, the “Essenes.”
The Pharisees
The
most important of the three were the Pharisees because they are the spiritual
fathers of modern Judaism. Their main distinguishing
characteristic was a belief in an Oral Law that God gave to Moses at Sinai along with the Torah. The Torah, or Written Law, was akin to the U.S. Constitution
in the sense that it set down a series of laws that were open to
interpretation. The Pharisees believed that God also gave Moses the knowledge of what these laws meant and
how they should be applied. This oral tradition was codified and written down
roughly three centuries later in what is known as the Talmud.
The
Pharisees also maintained that an after-life existed and that God punished the
wicked and rewarded the righteous in the world to come. They also believed in a
messiah who would herald an era of world peace.
Pharisees
were in a sense blue-collar Jews who adhered to the tenets developed after the
destruction of the Temple; that is, such things as individual
prayer and assembly in synagogues.
The Sadducees
The
Sadducees were elitists who wanted to maintain the priestly caste, but they
were also liberal in their willingness to incorporate Hellenism into their lives, something the
Pharisees opposed. The Sadducees rejected the idea of the Oral Law and insisted on a literal
interpretation of the Written Law; consequently, they did not
believe in an after life, since it is not mentioned in the Torah. The main focus of Sadducee life was
rituals associated with the Temple.
The
Sadducees disappeared around 70 A.D., after the destruction of the Second Temple. None of the writings of the
Sadducees has survived, so the little we know about them comes from their
Pharisaic opponents.
These
two "parties" served in the Great Sanhedrin, a kind of Jewish Supreme
Court made up of 71 members whose responsibility was to interpret civil and
religious laws.
The Essenes
A
third faction, the Essenes, emerged out of disgust with the other two. This
sect believed the others had corrupted the city and the Temple. They moved out of Jerusalem and lived a monastic life in the
desert, adopting strict dietary laws and a commitment to celibacy.
The
Essenes are particularly interesting to scholars because they are believed to
be an offshoot of the group that lived in Qumran, near the Dead Sea. In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd stumbled
into a cave containing various ancient artifacts and jars containing manuscripts describing the beliefs of the sect
and events of the time.
The
most important documents, often only parchment fragments that had to be
meticulously restored, were the earliest known copies of the Old Testament. The similarity of the substance
of the material found in the scrolls to that in the modern scriptures has
confirmed the authenticity of the Bible used today.
Disputes Among the Three
Parties
|
|
Sadducees
|
Pharisees
|
Essenes
|
|
Social Class
|
Priests, aristocrats
|
Common people
|
[Unknown]
|
|
Authority
|
Priests
|
"Disciples of the Wise"
|
"Teacher of Righteousness"
|
|
Practices
|
Emphasis on priestly obligations
|
Application of priestly laws to non-priests
|
"Inspired Exegesis"
|
|
Calendar
|
Luni-solar
|
Luni-solar
|
Solar
|
|
Attitude Toward:
|
|||
|
Hellenism
|
For
|
Selective
|
Against
|
|
Hasmoneans
|
Opposed usurpation of priesthood by non-Zadokites
|
Opposed usurpation of monarchy
|
Personally opposed to Jonathan
|
|
Free will
|
Yes
|
Mostly
|
No
|
|
Afterlife
|
None
|
Resurrection
|
Spiritual Survival
|
|
Bible
|
Literalist
|
Sophisticated scholarly interpretations
|
"Inspired Exegesis"
|
|
Oral Torah
|
No such thing
|
Equal to Written Torah
|
"Inspired Exegesis"
|
Sources: Mitchell G. Bard, TheComplete Idiot's Guide to
Middle East Conflicts, NY: MacMillan,1999. Chart courtesy of Prof. Eliezer Segal
3/7/2017
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