Lessons From the Biven Conference

These are the learnings I gleaned from the Biven conference, but you may already know some of them.

1. The accepted order of the synoptic gospel origins are Luke, Mark, and Matthew. Just remember that they are in alphabetical order. John was written much later and is not a synoptic gospel.

2. Yeshua was the 5th most popular first century Jewish boy name.

3. There is no writing on the Sabbath, which is difficult for me to follow.

4. Jewish worship in the first century was primarily the reading of scripture and, to a much lesser extent, commentary. Compare that with most 21st century churches that have 10% reading of scripture and 90% commentary.

5. Stringing pearls is more correctly called “stringing beads”. This was the process of linking two different passages containing the same words to develop a new understanding.

6. According to Biven, 90%+ Jews spoke Hebrew in the first century. Teachers taught in Hebrew. Only a minority associated with outside trade spoke Aramaic. Hillel wrote some Aramaic, but he was originally from Babylon. All known parables were in Hebrew.

7. Called “dualism” or “parallelism”, this common Jewish technique repeats the same thought twice as in “He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good (1), and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (2)” and “I have sinned against heaven (1) and against you (2)”

8. In Jewish thought, if you see a person sinning and don’t tell him, you bear his sin with him. “Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God” (Acts 20:26-27). In Rabbinical thought, the Messiah will come if ever a generation comes that knows how to give rebuke and receive rebuke.

9. There is no early and no late in Torah, which is a way of saying Theology is more important then chronology. It is important for Greeks to have a beginning and an end, but God is without a beginning and end.

10. Jews pray after the meal. Yeshua prayed before the meal, He told the bread, broke it and blessed. The Jewish Sages blessed before and after the meal. In Jewish thinking, anything that is enjoyed requires a blessing.

11. The root word associated with “prayer” means “to judge”. Prayer should be a process of self evaluation judging oneself. “If we judge ourselves, we would not come under judgement” (1 Cor 11:31).

12. The disciples understood that Yeshua was the Messiah (Christ) early on so what makes the proclamation of Peter, “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20) so powerful? Biven believes the correct translation of Peter's statement from the original Hebrew is not “The Christ of God”, but “The Christ God”. If this interpretation is correct, this would be the first time the disciples realized that the Messiah was God. That is why Yeshua's response to Peter included the phrase, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 16:16).

According to Clifton Payne (Jerusalem Perspective), Jewish tradition holds three keys of heaven not available to man: The key of resurrection, the key of the barren womb, and the key of rain. Only the Almighty Himself held these keys which were not entrusted to any messenger of childbirth. The offering of the keys of the kingdom was a testimony that Yeshua was God since only God held the keys.