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It interesting to me that when I was studying Judaism, Christianity and Early Church History I was never drawn to Messianic Judaism. I was told about it and invited to attend but didn’t feel a desire at that time to take part. I studied the Hebraic Roots of the Early Church but then sought out Jewish not Messianic books and sources. Before I became apart of Messianic I was a bit vexed by it. Now I’m a part of it but as we seek to define ourselves as a young movement we must look to the past. This phrase popped in my mind when meditating on the topic “Messianic: What Is It? A Solid Or Liquid?” Sounds funny but are we solid or liquid-fluid. What defines us. As a new and young movement what ancient and ancestral sources do we look to? Are we as pliable as Christian’s or as solid as Judaism? Let’s look into some things. First I want to share my testimony and how I’ve felt enigmatic towards the Messianic movement in the past, then let’s look at some historical movements and in the end let’s begin the discussion of how we define ourselves’. Here goes something.

I got saved and healed of a Torn Rotator Cuff at a Wyman Mitchel Healing Crusade at the Pier Amphitheater in Oceanside on August 17, 1996 at about 8:30 pm. I got connected, discipled and baptized at Family Fellowship Assemblies of God, that was experiencing and outpouring of the Holy Spirit after its leadership had went to the Brownsville Revival in Pensacola, Florida and came back and repented before the congregation. I hadn’t heard of it before, however the presence of the Spirit was strong, I received healing and was Baptized in the Spirit. I spent many days in service and stayed late for revival services. I began to work on staff at the Church and be involved in the youth. The pastor required that all the staff read Larry Lee’s book on “Could You Not Tarry An Hour” that teaches you how to pray and hour using the L-rd prayer as a pattern and required that we all pray for an hour before work. I started going to bible school at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in 1997 to study pastoral Ministries with a minor in Church Planting and Revitalization. In late “97 I read Ed Chumney’s Festival of Messiah. I wrote an article on the paganism of Halloween and another article advocating that Christians Observe the Biblical Festivals. I even started seeking out to take part in them and experience them for myself. I attended a Purim celebration held by some Jewish students at SAGU. I also attended a Yom Kippur service at a Jewish Synagogue that year in 1998. At this point it was mere Hebraic Roots study with a little exploration I hadn’t become a Messianic though I advocate their positions.

The summer of ’99 I found some interesting things about the revival at Brownsville Assemblies of G-d that have changed my life and perspective. I went to visit the Pensacola Outpouring myself in 1999. Upon going and reading the book “When The Heavens Where Brass” I found out that Pastor Kilpatrick credits Messianic Rabbi Dick Reuben for laying the foundation for the revival that happened there. While I was down there I picked up the Messianic Jewish Teacher Dick Rueben’s teaching on the Pattern For Revival, The Tabernacle, Our Priesthood, Our High Priest and Intercession. I also noted that their School of Ministry led by Messianic Jew Michael Brown taught courses on Messianic Judaism and the Hebraic Roots of Christianity. 

At that time I had also been listening to a teaching series from Tommy Tenney on the Tabernacle and the revival that he was experiencing. This was right before the God-Chaser phenomenon when he was preaching revival and the power of God split a pulpit in two in Texas. This really started to wet my appetite for studying the Jewish and Hebraic heritage of the bible. I started doing a lot of studying of the Temple, the Tabernacle and the Feasts of the bible. At this time I started to add the stations of the Tabernacle, as a process to praying through the L-rds prayer to go from the outer courts, to the inner courts, into the holy place and into the most holy place. This was a really good time in prayer.

On the way to Pensacola a friend and I attended the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. This stirred in me a desire to understand their concept of Restoring David’s Tabernacle. I kept meditating on this statement that Dick Reuben was saying “when the pattern is right the glory will fall,” I couldn’t get it out of my spirit. The “pattern” he was talking about was that of the “tabernacle of Moses.” Since then I’ve done a lot of study on the Tabernacle of Israel, the Hebraic Foundation of Christianity and Middle Judaism. In 2002 while I was in Europe on a missions trip I visited a Moravian Charismatic Monastery in Holland that had prayer services 24 hours a day for over 100 years that IHOP-KC was patterned after. Over time I grew tired of observing non-biblical feasts like Christmas and Easter and desired to Observe Passover, Shavuot (Pentecost), Sukkot and the other biblical festivals, more and more.

In 2005 I started to visit Baruch HaShem Messianic Synagogue. 2006 I started observing the festival’s regularly and attending BHS Messianic Synagogue. Between 1997 and 2006 I was a Hebrew Christian. Now I’m a Messianic believer in Messiah. I have done extensive studies in Church History, into the early pre-Catholic church, the early Orthodox Church Fathers, the long history of Charismatic-Pentecostal believers and very heavily in the Reformation, all the way to American Protestant Revivals of Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley and George Whitefield between 1996 and 2003. At one point I had amassed a large collection of books that I had studied. I went through a period of transformation leading up to our marriage in 2007 in which we had a Jewish wedding complete with Ketubah and stomping on a wine glass. In the past I had taught myself to read Koine Greek and Hebrew along with some Greek and Hebrew in bible school. In 2008 my wife and I started learning the Hebrew Aleph-Bet and the Hebrew Prayers and Blessings. My academic knowledge has now become experiential knowledge I went from Hebrew Roots Teacher to Messianic Believer. Many people said I should be Messianic or Jewish before but now I am. For at least five years now my family and I have observed what I believed and studied for years before that. For the past 15 years I have been on a quest to know. Now I’m on an experiential journey of discovery and doing. I’ve attended small Hebrew Roots bible studies and Hebrew Pentecostal Messianic Congregations. Right now we are having Torah Services after the Sidur from Baruch HaShem with a couple of additions one being Yeshua’s Teffilah (Yeshua’s Prayer) and the other being Ashrei Ha’Yeshua (The Beatitudes). 

I find names and titles to be useless to me as one time I’m under one and later under another. I do agree with the summation of congregations found here. I started out in a Messianic Synagogue who desired to seem more Conservative Jewish than Messianic Jewish, by fact that was their position. It’s a good strong Messianic Congregation but their goal was Jewishness for Jews. Then we moved and got involved in a Small Group that was in fact a blend between a Judaic Church Philo-Semitic Christian congregation and Hebrew Baptist yet some claimed they were “Orthodox” while not keeping all the Halacha, not keeping kashrut and allowing women to speak and teach. Which is not “orthodox’ some of the well-intentioned bible studies are not Messianic Congregations as they title themselves as more Hebrew Roots study groups. At times we have fellowshipped with a Pentecostal Messianic Congregation that came out of the Foursquare movement. I come from an Assemblies of G-d background personally I enjoy freedom of worship and praying in the spirit but in the context of Judaism it doesn’t have much of a place and Paul advocated moderation and control over free reign. So I am one Pentecostal, two Christian, but most Messianic and more Jewish day by day. I prefer Halacha and a Sidur to disorder and chaos.

Personally we follow a Sidur and I lead my family in Torah Service. We do prayers in Hebrew like the Messianic Jewish-Conservative Jewish congregation we attended and learned Hebrew and some of the Prayers from. I’ve also spent some time visiting a Hasidic Chabad fellowship, one for a connection to Judaism and to be more Jewish in practice by immersion-mikveh-baptism in the culture. You only learn by immersion in a culture. I spent two months in Western Europe on Missions and 6 weeks of that in Spain I learned more spanish in that time than during my year of Spanish in High School or even dealing with Spanish workers at fast food joints. You can’t take your culture and re-write a culture, it’s not right and Biblical-Jewish culture is the culture of both Old and New Covenants. Immersion or Baptism is the best way to learn any culture.

In the bible we have salvation through repentance, confession and faith that causes a circumcision of the goyim (the sinful worldly nature) of the heart, then when one is converted they are expected to follow that with a declaration of their conversion by immersion or mikvah in water. Mikvah in the new covenant community seemed to take the place of circumcision upon conversion for gentiles who it wasn’t compulsory that they take on the life of a convert or proselyte, it must be by choice not force. Following the baptism in water one should seek to be baptized in the spirit and seek to be sanctified by the baptism in fire. Then one must enter into the covenant of salt or the baptism into the Body of Messiah which at the time of Yeshua and Paul’s writings was culturally Jewish and religiously a form of Judaism. Therefore the baptism into the body is the immersion into the biblical Jewish culture of Yeshua’s time which at times is Pharisaic and other times Sadducees and at other times Essenes.

I’ve said I’m a Judeo-Christian before of a Pentecostal background but at this point. I’ve shed that and Judaism defines me, I am dedicated to the state and people of Israel. I am raising my son Jewish, he was circumcised, will be bar mitzvah’d, we do a child Seder because my son is under me until his bar mitzvah when its obligatory for him to take on Torah for himself. I find that the foundation of Judaism that Yeshua or Jesus lived is what I want to understand culturally as Jewish as possible on a natural level and spiritually as Judaism on a religious level. Yeshua was dedicated at the temple, circumcised and went through His bar mitzvah so shall my family and children. He is our Messiah and example.

Does my accepting Yeshua prevent me from being a Jew? If I fulfill what a Gentile must do according to Torah to become a Jew does that make me a non-Jew because Orthodox Jews won’t accept me due to my acceptance of Yeshua? If the Labavitcher movement can reverance Labavitch as a Messiah figure or other groups uphold others as Messiah figures, or almost as high as we honor Yeshua then we should be accepted. However since many in the MessyAntic movement aren’t Jewish and don’t seek to live a Jewish lifestyle or practice Judaism they make us seem not authentically Jewish. If we all embraced a solid form of Judaism, Halachah, Keshurut, Oneg, Chaveruh and Jewish life cycles then w would see more Jews feel comfortable in our midst. 

I’ve chosen the life of a proselyte or convert or G-dfearer. I don’t understand it all, I was born a wild branch and I must immerse myself in a culture that is not my own, the baptism into the body of Messiah which is Jewish, Christianity is a Judaism, Catholicism is not a Christianity, though it calls itself one and yet its purposely changes and did the opposite of Judaism intentionally makes it Anti-Messiah. Protestant follow Catholicism are the child of the Harlot in my opinion as the Catholic Church is the Harlot of Revelation. Not all protestants are bad, many are good-hearted and want truth but have been taught wrong. That doesn’t make it right or okay.

I’m probably Blended Messianic and Hebrew Pentecostal more than I want to be because those are my roots but my heart is Jewish in culture and Judaism in practice and that is what I am learning to do with respect for the Talmud, Mishna and G’morrah understanding they came as a response to the Gospels and Epistles. The Gospels and Epistles came first followed with the Jewish writings to preserve Judaism in the face of the feeling of loosing their Jewish identity during the early synthesis between Messianic and Jewish movements. After the failed Bar Kokhba revolt the Pharisee Rabbi’s decided to take back Judaism for Jews and kick out all non-Jews including the Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles who then no longer had a home.

Groups like the Montanist retained observance of Passover, and yet where decidedly Pentecostal, they retained more Judaism than other groups that embrace Roman Platonist ideals. When I read Church “fathers” say they believe Plato wrote his narratives under the gift of the Holy Ghost and yet Plato wasn’t Jewish or recognized by Yeshua I have a problem with those “Church fathers” and those who follow them.

Catholicism is complete tainted. Protestants that havent went the route of the Puritans, Quackers and Holiness movement that lead into the Pentecostal movement of the 1900′s who rejected all Catholicism sought in the own way to affirm scripture and return to biblical observance of course falling short but getting closer. Puritans tried to honor Sukkot as the foundations for what became Thanksgiving when the government changed the month. I’ve found the “Emerging Church” and its embrace of eastern mysticism, catholic prayer wheels and universal-ism as scary.

I did a blog on the Assemblies of G-d involvement in IAMCS and MJAA. The AOG is the only Gentile organization that actually has official ordained Messianic congregations that are apart of its fellowship and that is something that’s awesome to see AOG Messianic Congregation which are of course more Hebrew Pentecostal, however some are more Torah Observant, some reject Kippas but wear Tallits, others are just Hebrew Christians or Sabbatarian however its progress for a mainstream denomination. That is what I came out of was a group of Messianic-Hebrew Roots leaning AOG Revivalist.

Now I want to become culturally Jewish in practice of Festivals and Holidays and Halacha. I mean we don’t eat marshmallows or frosted flakes because pig bone marrow is used to make them unless we get Kosher marshmallows. We seek to eat Kosher, maintain Jewish Halacha and Festivals. We have a sidur for Shabbat and Torah service we follow that is more “Conservative Jewish” with sprinklings of NT readings and prayers Yeshuas’ Tefillah, Ashrei Ha’Yeshua (The Beatitudes) and Baruch ha’Mishpacha (The Prayer of Jabez-Joshuas Pronouncement 14:15b). On Shabbat we sing Ma Tovu, V’shamru and other Jewish songs like Shalom Alechiem, we also do a whole host of Jewish Prayers from the Shabbat Amidah, To Adonai Malkeinu, to Vai-Hi, to Sh’ma, to V’ahvta, to Bar’chu, to Baruch Cha’neem, to Ayshet Cha-Yil, to the Mourners Kaddish, to V’zot Ha’Torah, to Etz Chayim, to Bayom Hahu, followed by a Torah Service based in the current Torah-Parasha Cycle and finished with Kiddush, Ha’Motzi, and Birkat Kohanim.

My wish is to become culture assimilated baptized-immersed into Jewishness as a natural lifestyle. I’ve learned the spiritual implications, the messianic implications and the prophetic implications. I’m at the place I want to live as a Jew and do it whether we have a congregation to go to or not. I don’t mind attending a Chassidic Shul or a Conservative Shul.

Chassids and Lubavitchers are interesting they are evangelistic and because of the Kabbalistic leaning believe the more who practice Judaism release more righteousness in the earth which is magical so they don’t mind Gentiles observing amongst them. Even Reformed are okay with Gentiles I’m just not okay with their openness to anti-Torah lifestyles such as gay and eating non-biblical kosher foods.

The Karaite like rejection of Talmud (the wisdom of the Elders) is like putting your head in the sand. This is ancient wisdom written before the Catholic Church was institutionalized. I would rather read the Talmud over the Catechism. I like some of the Talmud’s answers for one that Jacob wrestled with Esau’s Angel is their explanation many Xian’s say it was Yeshua, the Angel of the L-rd or some Archangel. I find their explanation intriguing. I know that I have been saved, baptized in water, circumcised as a baby, baptized in the spirit and I seek to be sanctified, and baptized by fire into the body of Messiah that is Jewish in practice, origin and Halacha. If it’s not Jewish it’s not Jesus. He’s Jewish. He and His disciples were Jewish the entire bible is written by Jews in a Jewish context. That is the only culture I want to immerse myself in and understand more and more every day.

Forgiveness and Grace isn’t moral liberty from responsibility its freedom from condemnation and guilt with a responsibility to Adonai, Torah and the people of Adonai. Adonai is slow to anger, rich in grace, forgiving offenses not exonerating the iniquity, (Numbers 14:18-19). Your sins affect your children, don’t say do as I say not as I do. We are to remember to keep his commands, (Numbers 15:38-41). We are all under one law, the same law for the natural-born and the foreigner, (Numbers 15:15-16, 29). There are no two laws, no two houses, no Ephraimite error. There is no metaphoric psuedo-Jewish connection to those drawn to the Hebrew Roots of Christianity. It’s a spiritual yearning for trust in Adonai who reasons with us. It’s okay to make mistakes as you grow, (Numbers 15:22-26). However Intentional or Willful sin is not okay, (Numbers 15:30-31). You are to have the same law for the foreigners and natural-born. I’m tired of wild branches being left to build their own house without being grounded and rooted in Avraham’s household. For example Tzitzit are a reminder to keep the commands and not willfully sin, (Numbers 15:38-41). We are to be one in Messiah Jew and Gentile with one law, (Num 15:15-16, 29) one savior (Yeshua), one mediator (Yeshua), one High Preist (Yeshua), one Adon (Yeshua), one Elohim (Abba, Avinu Shebashamayim). We are to stay as we were when we were called, Gentile’s are not Ephraimites, were Gentile’s, saved in Messiah with one law, one Savior, one High Preist, one way, one G-d, one L-rd. Our hearts are circumcised of our “goyim, gentile” ways and should seek to go and sin no more, to learn to become sanctified and set apart, to be baptized into the body of Messiah through cultural immersion into our Jewish heritage in our spiritual lineage through Yeshua.

If Constantine institutionalized “Christianity” (a form of blended pagan-christianism, The Harlot of Revelation, which is part of the Mystery Religion of Babylon) by accepting a mocking term for early believers and as a Roman Byzantine religion and if you accept Rabbinic Judaism as binding together Jewish faith as a national identity then you may have issues with a Torah based Gentile community practicing cultural Jewish things and the Halacha of Judaism, but when you understand Paul’s teaching that we are one in Messiah, neither Jew or Gentile, then we can be one in Torah under Yeshua.

It has interested me how the statement “come let us reason together” in the Tanakh has defined my relationship with Adonai. I love how Judaism embrace’s intellectual debate and discourse and allows a multi-sided and multifaceted discussion. Christian’s many times are too dogmatic and some Messianics bring this Christian zeal over. Second temple Judaism and even early Rabbinic Judaism is not creedal or dogmatic. There are no creed’s in ancient Judaism just Midrash or discussion about how to apply scripture or what we call Halakhah. We are to make right rulings about law and purity and to not causes others to stumble in a matter of law or purity. There discourse are focused in Exegesis pulling out of the text what is there and not Esegesis searching the text to find support to your notion. Much of Judaism is focused on debate in Exegesis where many Christian debates are in Esegesis seeking to find support not pull out from the text its true meaning. There are literal and spiritual implications of passages, yes, both exist. To focus on one and to reject the other is unsound. This is why we find in Talmudic literature the full argument is recorded from all sides. Maybe the focus of unity after the Bar Kokhba revolt in rebellion to the early Messianism and Rome is the foundation but unity in diversity is essential. Uniting with the larger body in Judaism is.

For example most Jews are Conservative in practice, Karaite in Halakha, but Rabbinic in theology. If you talk to any Jewish person Rabbinic is right. But if you ask if they keep Kosher and most follow the Karaite Biblical Kosher abstain from unclean meat, pigs, fish and birds and you’re okay. In practice most are Conservative in Congregational style women may speak or pray but not teach. Liturgy is short not long. Etcetera… Reformed is popular and Orthodox or Rabbinic is a minority in actual practice. There are more Reformed, Conservative and Chassidic movements than Orthodox.

It’s interesting to me what some “Messianics” say have you guys ever considered what Orthodox or Rabbinic means. To have an Orthodox service requires all male leadership, women don’t get to play a prominent role. Men and women are separated by a partition wall. Conservative allow women to speak about as much as Messianics and Christians do maybe more. To be Orthodox you have to follow it fully or you’re not Orthodox. Believing Yeshua makes us non-Orthodox. Reformed is to not biblical period they reject the Law of Moshe. I believe that Rabbinic has the most right understanding. As Messianics who believe Jew and Gentile are one, and there’s neither male nor female in Messiah. When we veer away from Orthodox practice allow things that aren’t allowed in Orthodox practice we have to understand what we are defined as and not just our end goal or deeper values. At best Messianics are truly Conservative in practice. Most Messianics are one part Christian in which their Christian ideals trump their Jewish views and are secondly then with Messiah practicing a form or Judaism we are calling Messianic. Messiah and His priesthood does majorly impact our practice and our lack of need for a temple for Yeshua’s body is our temple, our sacrifice, and He is the head of our priestly order. We still practice the festivals as the Rabbinic and Pharisee’s did without a temple during the Babylonian captivity and post-temple destruction. We don’t have to make excuses for why we do the Halakha, Keshurut, the Festivals, for our Temple is heavenly and priesthood is eternal after Malki-tzedek. At the time that the Council of Yavneh was convened the Jerusalem Council also was convened during the same pre-post-temple destruction period. There are two branches of Judaism that mainly existed with their own separate bet din’s. We as Messianics stand by the last Bet din of Jerusalem as well as taking time to listen to and consider the ways of the Pharasaic and Rabbinic Council as well. We have the Gospels and Epistles and use the Talmud, Mishna and G’morrah to make informed discussion on Halakha.

The Messianic movement itself is immature and young. If you look at the lack of unity, splits and divisions. There are a lot and it is a very young group. We are apart of it. We must consider what we believe and do and how it would be seen by others. Titles have more to do with preparing people for what you do and are more than who you “want” to be. We as a group do not practice Orthodox or Rabbinic Judaism. We may believe its right but I don’t think we’re ready to have the women wait to speak til their home with the husbands. And I’m not saying we should. I am saying that our observance falls into what is called Conservative Judaism in the realms of Judaism. Should we seek to be a part of the Orthodox Minority or the Conservative-Reformed Majority. Or should we let the chips fall where they may that we are a cross-breed of Karaite-Conservative-Reform-Messianic Judaism at best.

Most Messianics follow the Karaite tradition which simply put is putting Torah first with some respect to Oral Tradition. Within the Talmud and Rabbinic writings there is much about the Karaite tradition. During the middle age’s the Karaite’s were the largest Jewish body due to the persecution of the middle ages. They we’re all but extinct by the time of the Reformation. The modern Karaites are not connected to the ancient Karaites and seem to be a small heretical cult that is anti-Christian. True Karaite faith started in the second century and peaked around 1,100. Modern Karaism is not connected to the ancient path’s. Karaite’s allowed women to have an equal place in prayer and worship unlike the Rabbinic and Orthodox. The Karaite’s are a branch of the Sadducees. The early believers we’re called Sadducees, Nazarenes and Karaites in Talmudic writings. This doesn’t mean they we’re because they allowed women to speak, upheld scripture they were labeled unorthodox.

The early believers were also called or believed to be Essenes who came from the community Qumran community from where we get the Dead Sea Scroll’s according to some Rabbinic assertions in the Talmud. The Essenes believed that Messiah would come twice once as a priest and secondly as reigning King. Those who greeted Yeshua at His circumcision who said they we’re waiting for Him most likely were Essenes. Historically that is the case. As I said we have to study out second temple Judaism fully. Paul was a Pharisee and wrote most of the New Testament. Understanding the Pharisee’s (who became the Rabainites or Rabbinic), the Essenes’ and the Sadducees’ (who became the ancient Karaites) and the Netzorim is key. The Ebionites believed Yeshua was Messiah but not God as did the Karaites in later traditions, some not all. The Sadducees and Karaites have been open to Messiah Yeshua where as Rabbinic or Pharisaic hasn’t. Paul was a Pharisee and believed in foreknowledge. The Essenes believed in predestination. The Sadducees’ believed in Freewill. This debate can also be seen played out amongst Armenian and Calvinistic Protestants (the Offspring of the Catholic “Harlot” Church). The Essenes and Qumran believed in two comings, one as a priest and the second as a king. The NT support Pharisaic and Essenes ideas more than Sadducees. Paul is more Pharisaic. Yeshua is somewhere in the middle. Yeshua even refers to a group of Essenes’ in one of his parables. Having said all that Rabbinic is the only clear line of connection to ancient Judaism today so we must respect them. Most Jews are mostly Conservative and only keep biblical Kosher not Rabbinic kosher, only 2 to 5 percent actually keep with Orthodoxy. Most Jews aren’t Orthodox. If you’re trying to reach Jews by catering to a select few we will marginalize ourselves. Just saying. They usually vote liberal more Jews are liberal than conservative. The world of Judaism is not ultra-Orthodoxy as in the time of Yeshua there are different branches and factions today. Kabballist, Chassidic, Lubavitchers, Orthodox, Yiddish, Conservative and Reformed among others.

Josephus was a Pharisee and he said the Sadducees were popular up until 70 AD at the destruction of the temple. In this internet age anyone can search to find support for what they believe that is called Esegesis. Exegesis is where you go into the text and pull out what is there. Christians mostly do Esegesis and Jewish scholars do Exegesis for the most part. The Sadducees controlled the temple during the period between 3 BC to 70 AD. Josephus (a Pharisee) and others say the Sadducees were more popular. Josephus is a credible and reliable Jewish source from that time period and such is more credible than any modern perspective. For every scholar saying one thing there are others debating against it.

The Essenes are most likely the group Christianity came out of, along with the Pharisees. The NT is mostly a Pharisaic document with some Essen influence Apocalyptic books like the book of Revelation and statements in Matthew. As Paul was a Pharisee. Yeshua seemed to agree with the Pharisees but at times also with the Sadducees. When asked about Resurrection of the Soul Yeshua said Adonai is Elohim of the living and not the dead which isn’t exactly an answer to the question. It’s obvious that Paul believed in the Resurrection, as do I. Yeshua would rebuke the Pharisees and Sadducees but then would be very enigmatic when questioned by them.

The Pharisees ran the Synagogues and by extension Rabbinic Judaism. The Sadducees ran the priesthood and the scribes. However there were also Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducees who were priests, scribes and rabbis. The Pharisee’s believed in the priesthood of the believer and through the Synagogue believed in educating the people. The Sadducee’s and Essenes’ accused the Pharisees of being Hellenistic. The Pharisee’s accused the Sadducees of being élite, rich and disconnected. They were political parties in a sense. The Pharisees were lawyers or teachers of the Law. The Sadducees were scribes and were in charge of the High Priest under Herod, Herod II and Pontius. The Pharisees became Rabbinic Judaism and the Sadducees became the Karaites. In the Middle Ages the Karaites where the largest group peaking around 1,100 AD. After that the began to diminish. Then during the enlightenment those who focused on education became more prominent.

All modern groups come from Rabbinic. Orthodox, Conservative and Reformed honor Rabbinic interpretation. Conservative is the most popular, the Reformed and then Orthodox is a minority of 2 to 5 percent. Reformed breaks Torah in things and I feel they are not credible. Most Messianics are Conservative in Observance in that they allow women to speak and pray. Messianics do the same but for other reasons because Paul said there is no male or female in Messiah. Most Jewish people keep the Biblical Kosher mainly abstaining from unclean meats in line with the Karaite tradition. Those who keep Rabbinic Kosher are a small minority. We as believers should study the Second Temple period mainly the Essenes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. In the post temple Period we should study the Netzorim, Ebionites, Pharisees, Rabbinic, Saducees and the early pre-Karaites.

In modern times Rabbinic is top dog. The modern Karaites are not connected to the ancient one’s. Pharisee’s in the Talmud called Christian’s Sadducees’ and Sectarians because they were of the Sect of the Netzorim. It obvious from Paul that the early believers considered themselves to be more Pharisaic. However that is not what the Pharisee’s believed. That is historically true and correct. The Essenes and Pharisees are the group the early believers came out of. I say more Pharisee but there is evidence that they were strongly Essen. The believers were associated with the Sadducees by the Pharisees and others. All three groups should be studied.

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