Yeshua died as the Yom Kippur scapegoat

Each year, on Yom Kippur, the High Priest of Israel made atonement for the nation, enabling G-d’s presence to live in their midst so enemies couldn’t attack, crops would be plentiful, joy would abound, people would stay healthy, and justice would prevail.

At the heart of the atoning process was a ritual involving two goats, described in Leviticus 16. One goat was sacrificed in the Temple to atone for the nation’s sin and/or transgressions. The second, called the scapegoat, was sent into the wilderness to atone for iniquity, or the carnal nature.

Most people who read about the scapegoat in the Bible think it was the fortunate goat. However, Jewish sources explain that this goat was not so fortunate. Instead of being humanely sacrificed, it was pushed off a high cliff and died a painful death. Of all the sacrifices in the Bible, it was the only inhumane one and the only sacrifice made for iniquity, showing that, in G-d’s economy, iniquity required a greater price than sin or transgression.

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The Law is abolished! Really? Part 5

Yeshua’s blood atonement broke the enmity between Jew and Gentile and made the Oral Law unnecessary to keep (see previous “The Law is abolished! Really?” blogs). In addition, the priority of certain Jewish laws within the Torah changed. Eating a Biblically kosher diet is still a valid law for Jewish people to follow, but should not come in the way of fellowship between Jews and Gentiles (Jewish New Testament Commentary, pg.588).

The correct meaning of Eph. 2:15 is most clearly explained in the Complete Jewish Bible, a paraphrased translation of the Scriptures: by destroying in his own body the enmity occasioned by the Torah, with its commands set forth in the form of ordinances. He did this in order to create in union with himself from the two groups a single new humanity and thus make shalom.”

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The Law is abolished! Really? Part 4

In the previous blog, we explained how the Oral Law created enmity, or hatred between Jews and Gentiles.

Yeshua criticized the Oral Law and its value over the Torah during an encounter with the Pharisees and Torah teachers (Mark 7:5):

The P’rushim (Pharisees) and the Torah-teachers asked him, “Why don’t your talmidim (disciples) live in accordance with the Tradition of the Elders, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?”

Yeshua answered them, “Yesha`yahu (Isaiah) was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites — as it is written, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from me. Their worship of me is useless, because they teach man-made rules as if they were doctrines.’

“You depart from God’s command and hold onto human tradition.

Indeed,” he said to them, “you have made a fine art of departing from God’s command in order to keep your tradition!

“There is nothing outside a person which, by going into him, can make him unclean. Rather, it is the things that come out of a person which make a person unclean!”

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