The Shema

1
The Shema

• The Creed of Jesus

2
(No Transcript)
3
The Apostles Creed (2nd Century)

• I believe in God, the Father almighty,
• creator of heaven and earth.
• I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our
  Lord,
• who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
• born of the Virgin Mary,
• suffered under Pontius Pilate,
• was crucified, died, and was buried
• he descended to the grave.
• On the third day he rose again
• he ascended into heaven,
• he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
• and he will come again to judge the living and
  the dead.
• I believe in the Holy Spirit,
• the holy universal church,
• the communion of saints,
• the forgiveness of sins,
• the resurrection of the body,

4
Nicene Creed (4th Century)
On the third day he rose again in accordance with
the Scriptures he ascended into heaven and is
seated at the right hand of the Father. He will
come again in glory to judge the living and the
dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver
of life, who proceeds from the Father and the
Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped
and glorified. He has spoken through the
Prophets. We believe in one holy universal and
apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for
the forgiveness of sins. We look for the
resurrection of the dead, and the life of the
world to come. Amen.

• We believe in one God,
• the Father, the Almighty,
• maker of heaven and earth,
• of all that is, seen and unseen.
• We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
• the only Son of God,
• eternally begotten of the Father,
• God from God, Light from Light,
• true God from true God,
• begotten, not made,
• of one Being with the Father.
• Through him all things were made.
• For us and for our salvation
• he came down from heaven
• by the power of the Holy Spirit
• he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
• and was made man.
• For our sake he was crucified under Pontius
  Pilate

5
The Shema (Deuteronomy 6.4-5)
?????? ?????????? ?????? ?????????? ?????? ?????
Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is
one!
??????????? ??? ?????? ????????? ???????????????
????????????????? ????????????????
You shall love the LORD your God with all your
heart and with all your soul and with all your
might.
6
Yahweh and I Am who I Am

• Exodus 3.14-15
• God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM" and He said,
  "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM
  has sent me to you.'" 15 God, furthermore, said
  to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of
  Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the
  God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
  Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name
  forever, and this is My memorial-name to all
  generations.
• NASB note
• The Hebrew word translated as I AM is related
  to the name of God, Yahweh, rendered LORD, which
  is derived from the verb to be (hayah)
• NET note
• The verb form used here is ??????? ('ehyeh), the
  Qal imperfect, first person common singular, of
  the verb ????? (haya, "to be"). It forms an
  excellent paronomasia with the name. So when God
  used the verb to express his name, he used this
  form saying, "I AM." When his people refer to him
  as Yahweh, which is the third person masculine
  singular form of the same verb, they say "he is."
  

7
Related Old Testament Scriptures

• Exodus 8.10 19.16-20 20.1-6 Deuteronomy
  4.35-39 5.1-7 6.4-5 7.9-10 10.17-21 32.12,
  39 1 Samuel 2.2 2 Samuel 7.22-24 1 Kings 8.60
  2 Kings 19.15, 19 1 Chronicles 17.20 Nehemiah
  9.6 Psalm 83.18 86.9-10 135.5 Isaiah 37.16,
  20 41.4 42.5-8 43.10-13 44.6-8, 24 45.5-7,
  12, 18, 21-22 46.9 Jeremiah 10.7-10 Joel 2.27
  Zechariah 14.9

8
Zechariah 14.6-9

• 6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or
  frost. 7 And there shall be a unique day, which
  is known to the LORD, neither day nor night, but
  at evening time there shall be light. 8 On that
  day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem,
  half of them to the eastern sea and half of them
  to the western sea. It shall continue in summer
  as in winter. 9 And the LORD will be king over
  all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one
  and his name one.

9
Jewish Traditions Related to the Shema

• Full Shema includes Deuteronomy 6.4-9 11.13-21
  Numbers 15.37-41
• Said twice daily when one rises and when one
  reclinesi.e. morning and night
• Children are taught the shema as soon as they are
  able to learn it
• Reciting the first verse of the Shema is called
  the acceptance of the yoke of the kingship of
  God

10
Jewish Traditions Related to the Shema

• Further, as written in a Torah scroll, the
  letters "Ayin" and "Dalet" of the first verse are
  enlarged -- encoded to spell out the Hebrew word
  Aid -- "witness." When we say the Shema, we are
  testifying to the Oneness of God.
• In other words, the Shema is a witness against
  anyone who may change this simple core truth that
  God is one.
• www.aish.com/literacy/mitzvahs/Shema_Yisrael.asp
  

11
Tefillin
12
(No Transcript)
13
Mezuzah

• The scroll contains
• Deut. 6.4-9 11.13-21

14
The Shema and Jewish Martyrs

• It is the last word of the dying in his
  confession of faith. It was on the lips of those
  who suffered and were tortured for the sake of
  the Law. R. Akiba patiently endured while his
  flesh was being torn with iron combs, and died
  reciting the "Shema'." He pronounced the last
  word of the sentence, "E?ad" (one) with his last
  breath (Ber. 61b). During every persecution and
  massacre, from the time of the Inquisition to the
  slaughter of Kishinef, "Shema' Yisrael" have been
  the last words on the lips of the dying.
• taken from JewishEncylopedia.com

15
The Shema and Jewish Martyrs

• The great second century Talmudic scholar, Rabbi
  Akiva (second century) loved God so much, that he
  taught Torah despite the Roman law forbidding it.
  When the Romans found out, they sentenced him to
  a painful death. They took a large iron comb and
  began to scrape off his flesh. When
  Rufus"Tyrannus Rufus," as he is called in Jewish
  sourceswho was the pliant tool of Hadrian's
  vengeance, condemned the venerable Akiba to the
  hand of the executioner, it was just the time to
  recite the Shema. Full of devotion, Akiva recited
  his prayers calmly, though suffering agonies and
  when Rufus asked him whether he was a sorcerer,
  since he felt no pain, Akiva replied, "I am no
  sorcerer but I rejoice at the opportunity now
  given to me to love my God 'with all my life,'
  seeing that I have hitherto been able to love Him
  only 'with all my means' and 'with all my
  might,'" and with the word "One!" he expired
  (Yer. Ber. ix. 14b, and somewhat modified in Bab.
  61b).
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akiba_ben_JosephHis_martydo
  m
• www.aish.com/literacy/mitzvahs/Shema_Yisrael.asp

16
The Shema and Jewish Martyrs

• Seth Mandel, spoke at the massive pro-Israel
  rally in Washington DC in April 2002. He told the
  following story
• In the Sbarro Pizza bombing which killed 15
  people in Jerusalem, five members of a Dutch
  family were killed. One was a 4-year-old boy
  named Avraham Yitzhak. As he was lying on the
  ground -- bleeding, burning and dying -- he said
  to his father, "Abba, please help me. Save me."
  His father reached over and held his hand.
  Together they said the words of the Shema.
• Taken from www.aish.com/literacy/mitzvahs/Shema_Yi
  srael.asp

17
Jesus and the Shema (Mark 12.28-34)

• Some Observations
• 1. The Jewish scribe did not believe that either
  Jesus or the holy spirit was God
• 2. The scribe plainly understands the Shema to
  mean, He Yahweh is one, and there is no one
  else besides him
• 3. Jesus agrees with the scribe on this
  understanding by saying to him, You are not far
  from the kingdom of God.
• Conclusion
• If the Jewish scribe did not believe in the
  Trinity and Jesus agreed with the scribe on his
  definition of God then Jesus was a biblical
  unitarianhe believed that Yahweh alone is God.

18
More on How Jesus Thought about God

• John 5.43-44
• 43 I have come in my Father's name, and you do
  not receive me if another comes in his own name,
  you will receive him. 44 How can you believe,
  when you receive glory from one another and you
  do not seek the glory that is from the one and
  only God?

19
More on How Jesus Thought about God

• John 20.16-17 16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!"
  She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!"
  (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her,
  "Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended
  to the Father but go to my brethren and say to
  them, 'I ascend to my Father and your Father, and
  my God and your God.'"

20
More on How Jesus Thought about God

• Mark 10.17-18 17  As he was setting out on a
  journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before
  him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what shall I
  do to inherit eternal life?" 18 And Jesus said
  to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good
  except God alone.

21

• More statements by Jesus
• Truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do
  nothing of himself (Jn 5.19)
• I can do nothing on My own initiative (Jn 5.30)
• I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak
  these things as the Father taught Me. (Jn 8.28)
• For I did not speak on My own initiative, but
  the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a
  commandment as to what to say and what to
  speakthe things I speak, I speak just as the
  Father has told Me. (Jn 12.49-50)
• The words that I say to you I do not speak on My
  own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does
  His works. (Jn 14.10)
• The Father is greater than I (Jn 14.28)

22
More on How Jesus Thought about God

• John 17.1-3 1 Jesus spoke these things and
  lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father,
  the hour has come glorify your Son, that the Son
  may glorify you, 2 even as you gave him
  authority over all flesh, that to all whom you
  have given him, he may give eternal life. 3
  "This is eternal life, that they may know you,
  the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have
  sent.

23
The New Testament on Gods Oneness

• The only God is eternal, immortal, and invisible
  (1 Tim. 1.17)
• There is one God and one mediator (1 Tim. 2.5)
• God is the only Sovereign who alone possesses
  immortality whom no man has seen or can see (1
  Tim. 6.15-16)
• for us there is but one God, the Father (1 Cor.
  8.6)
• God is one (Galatians 3.20)
• There is one God and Father of all (Eph. 4.6)
• Even the demons know that God is one (James 2.19)

24
The Challenge

• Why not adopt the creed of Jesus, the central
  creed of Israel, the Shema as your creed?
  Knowing who God is and loving him are the
  foundation of everything.
• Romans 3.29-30 29 Or is God the God of Jews
  only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of
  Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will
  justify the circumcised by faith and the
  uncircumcised through faith is one.

25

• Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is
  one! You shall love the LORD your God with all
  your heart and with all your soul and with all
  your might.