What is Moses’ seat and should we follow the modern rabbinic Jews?

The seat of Moses in the Chorazin in Israel (bibleplaces.com/chorazin/)

The seat of Moses in the Chorazin in Israel (bibleplaces.com/chorazin/)

Yesterday, a well-meaning reader of this blog posted a question in the comments section. He wondered why I didn’t come to the “higher level” spiritually by following the oral traditions of the modern-day Jews who are the spiritual descendants of the ancient Pharisees of Yeshua’s day. As supposed proof that we should, he quoted Matthew 23:2 and 3 where Yeshua declares that because the  Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat, we will come to a higher level in our spiritual walk do whatever they tell us to do. (My short answer to this questions is this: If they haven’t discovered the most obvious truth that Yeshua is the Messiah, then…well, I’ll let you guess what the rest of my response would be.)

This is, in fact, a fair question, and is one that many who are leaving churchianity find themselves asking when they begin to explore the Hebraic roots of their faith.

Here is my long response.

Matthew 23:2, Moses seat. Here Yeshua is speaking against the leaven of the Pharisees and their non-biblical traditions and doctrines of men. They had omitted the weightier matters of the Torah. Moses’ seat in Matt 23:2 is easily misunderstood today when we don’t have all the facts. Because the Pharisees sit in Moses seat, Yeshua told his disciples to observe whatever they tell you to observe. The problem is that most people have no idea what Yeshua was really saying here. “Moses’ seat” was a colloquial expression that was understood by his listeners of that day, but the meaning is lost to most who read this passage today. Moses’ seat refers to a literal throne-like chair that sat in Jewish synagogues (where the Pharisees were the officiants) from which the religious leaders would make judgments concerning spiritual and civil matters. (One can type in “Moses’ seat” into an internet search engine and find actual photos of these seats that have discovered in ancient Jewish synagogues.) In a modern church, it would be like the pastors and board of elders making decisions for the church body they minister over. These leaders do not have the authority, however, to change the word or law of Elohim—only to administer it. Even the pope has a throne from which he makes rulings for the Roman Catholic Church.

Matthew 23:3, Whatever they tell you. The discussion that follows is in response to the idea that because the Pharisees (and the modern rabbinic Jews who are their spiritual descendants) sit in Moses’ seat, we should do whatever they tell us to do including following their traditions and oral law. Some even have embraced the idea that following rabbinic Judaism is to walk a higher spiritual road (because they ostensibly understand and observe the Torah. What is the truth of the matter and what is Yeshua really saying in this passage?

Admittedly, there is much we can learn from our Jewish brothers. If you have read my Torah study guides and commentaries and my hundreds of teachings, you would know that I draw heavily from the wisdom of the Jewish sages. My approach is very multi-faceted and my learning is very broad. In my mind, and in the mind of Yeshua and apostles (as we shall point out below) the sun does not rise and set on the Jewish sages. Moreover, the Judaism of today is not that of Yeshua’s era. It is true that the rabbinates of today are the direct descendants of the Pharisees of old, but their religion is as far removed from that of their predecessors as modern Christianity is from its originators. In fact, after A.D. 70, the religion of Judaism was virtually reinvented to accommodate the dual realities of the temple’s destruction and the cessation of the priesthood with the fall of the Sadduceean sect. To assume that what the modern Jews teach is an exact replica of the religion of the Pharisees of Yeshua’s day is very presumptive and ignores the facts of history.

Yes, Yeshua made a comment about Moses’ seat in Matt 23:2 that is easily misunderstood today when we don’t have all the facts.  Because the Pharisees sit in Moses seat, Yeshua told his disciples to observe whatever they tell you to observe. The problem is that most people have no idea what Yeshua was really saying here. “Moses’ seat” was a colloquial expression that was understood by his listeners of that day, but the meaning is lost to most who read this passage today. Moses’ seat refers to a literal throne-like chair that sat in Jewish synagogues (where the Pharisees were the officiants) from which the religious leaders would make judgments concerning spiritual and civil matters. (One can type in “Moses’ seat” into an internet search engine and find actual photos of these seats that have been discovered in ancient Jewish synagogues.) In a modern church, it would be like the pastors and board of elders making decisions for the church body they minister over. These leaders do not have the authority, however, to change the word or law of Elohim—only to administer it. Even the pope has a throne from which he makes religious rulings for the Roman Catholic Church.

When telling his disciples to observe whatever the Pharisees told them to observe, Yeshua wasn’t telling his disciples (and us) to mindlessly follow the religious leaders of his day (or our day), who were the same leaders at other times he referred to as hypocrites, serpents, devils and whitewashed tombs and who eventually nailed him to the cross. Not at all. Yeshua expected his disciples to follow the Word of Elohim. In fact, let’s make a bold, but scripturally-based assertion here. Toward the end of his ministry, Yeshua turned the ecclesiastical authority that the Jewish religious leaders had over to his apostles. He gave them the authority over his church to bind (to prohibit, forbid) and loose (to permit), and he said that heaven would  respect their decisions (Matt 16:17–19). They, in fact, exercised this divine authority in Acts 15 at the first Jerusalem counsel.

Some people even claim that Yeshua was sympathetic to or followed one Jewish religious sect over another. This is incorrect. In reality, he was his own man who charted his own course. He was, after all, the Word of Elohim incarnate. He didn’t need to find approval among men’s religious clubs! Sometimes he followed the teachings of the Sadducees, sometimes the Essenes, sometimes the Hillelites and sometimes those of the school of Shamai. The truth is that he didn’t follow any of them. In the areas where they lined up with him, he agreed with them. Nothing more or less. He was not partial to one sect over another. When they didn’t line up with the Word of Elohim, he was against their beliefs. He expects the same of his disciples. Let’s think this thing out critically and look at the big, big picture and not fall into the trap of just blindly following one Jewish religious sect over another based on a couple of comments Yeshua said and that modern readers pull out of context.

Having said this, I’m not against the rabbinic Jewish sages. If you were to watch any of the videos that I record in my home library for our YouTube channel, you would see behind me a large bookcase full of the classic works of the major rabbinic sages. I have read many of their works, prayed their prayers, memorized their liturgy, learned their language, put on their kippot, tied their tefillin, and worn their talit (both gadol and katon), blown their shofarot, waved their lulavim, celebrated their minor holidays, incorporated their traditions into the biblical feasts, and tied tzitzit according to their traditions. I still do some of these things to this day.

But is following rabbinic Judaims really coming to the higher level spiritually? The truth is that some of us are coming to the true higher level (and there are higher levels beyond that, but it ain’t rabbinic Judaism nor is it mainstream Christianity either!!!). That higher level does not revolve around a group of men Jewish (or Christian, for that matter) (no matter how learned and wise they may be) who have illegally misappropriated the title rabbi (which in Hebrew means “my great one” and only colloquially “teacher”)—a title that belongs to one Man only (see Matt 23:7–8). My Rabbi is Yeshua the Messiah. Period. His apostles who wrote the Testimony of Yeshua focused on him as the source of truth—not on men. I follow their example.

Now because the Pharisees sat in the so-called seat of Moses, and Yeshua told us to observe whatever they tell us to  observe, some people believe we should follow rabbinic Jewish halachah. The Hebrew word halachah is a noun that simply means “walk” and refers to how we walk out our faith and obey Elohim. The concept of halachah is rooted in the Torah, NOT in the oral traditions of the Jews. If it weren’t for the foundational halachic immutable principles of the Tanakh that tell us what the truth is and how to walk it out, there  would be no Judaism, much less all of their traditions. A wise person can learn truth from many sources, but the best source is that which is closest to The Divine Source of truth, and that is found revealed in Scripture.

Now let’s unpack Yeshua’s statement in Matt 23:2, to observe whatever the Pharisees tell you to observe. To understand the Messiah’s words here, this statement has to be weighed in the context of the rest of the passage and everything else Yeshua said. If we cherry-pick a verse out of its context and turn it into a stand-alone principle, then we can virtually make the Word of Elohim say anything we wish. At the very least, we do injustice to the one speaking the words and can end up making them say something they never intended.

Here are some points to consider when addressing Yeshua’s words in Matt 23:2 to observe whatever the Pharisees tell you to observe.

First, the word “observe” is the Greek word tereo meaning “to attend to carefully; take care of; to guard; to keep; one in the state in which he is, to observe; to reserve: to undergo something.” As one can see, “observe” is only one of the possible meanings of the word, and not even the its first or main definition.

Second, the context of what Yeshua is saying here is against the backdrop of the Pharisees’ hypocritical tendencies. In other words, he condemns them for saying one thing and then doing another. He also judged them for some of the things they did. Example? Calling men “rabbi”, omitting the weightier matter of the law, and their ostentatious religious show and pretense. Elsewhere, in the famous Sermon on the Mount, Yeshua flat out tells his disciples to NOT follow the unbiblical traditions of the Jews. This is evidenced in all of Yeshua’s “you have heard said…but I say unto you” statements of Matt 5. Then in Matt 15, Yeshua accuses the same Pharisees of transgressing the commandments of Elohim by their tradition (Matt 15:3–9). In Mark 7, Yeshua has more to say about following the so-called “traditions of the elders” (the Jews’ oral laws and traditions). He makes it clear that his disciples are in no way to check their brains at the door and to blindly follow Jewish traditions. What is the bottom line here? The disciples of Yeshua are to do only those things that line up with the written word and commandments of Elohim. Period. If the Jews’ traditions don’t, then ignore them (Mark 7:5–13). The apostles understood Yeshua’s commands and what he was really saying. When they were dragged before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish ruling elders) and commanded to stop preaching the gospel of Yeshua the Messiah, Peter made his famous rebuttal to them. He declared that we must follow Elohim and not men. In other words, he viewed as null and void any human commands that violate the written word of Elohim (Acts 4:18–19). When Peter stood before the same counsel again a little later, he reiterated his earlier statement when he declared to them, “We ought to obey Elohim rather then men” (Acts 5:29).

On the basis of points one and two, we now come to point three. Let’s think this issue out and analyze it critically. That’s what YHVH gave us intellect and reasoning capabilities for. The modern rabbinic Jews reject Yeshua as the Messiah. If we take Yeshua’s statement in Matt 23:23 to do whatever the Jews tell you to do, then we may as well forget about believing in Yeshua. Obviously this is not what Yeshua is telling us to do, and this is not what his apostles took his words to mean.

 

10 thoughts on “What is Moses’ seat and should we follow the modern rabbinic Jews?

  1. I would like to refer you to the Book Of Romans, chapters 9,10 And 11. Here is a little preview from Romans 11 written through the Apostle Paul by the uach Ha Kodesh; 24:”For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! 25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove godlessness from Jacob. ”

    And here is Romans 11:11
    11 “I say then, they did not stumble so that they fell, did they?[r] May it never be! But by their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles, in order to provoke them to jealousy.[s] 12 And if their trespass means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will THEIR FULLNESS mean? ”

    Our Fullness (the Jewish People…or true Israelites) why would our FULLNESS be more than that of the ‘wild olive trees’ (the gentile church ‘grafted in contrary to their nature’)
    Because it comes more naturally to us.Elohim married us during the Revelation at Sinai and even though we have been unfaithful many times, The Holy Creator will still not revoke the contract for ‘the sake of the fathers.(Avraham, Yischak,and Yakov)::

    Romans 11:27

    27″And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.” 28Regarding the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but regarding election, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. 29For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.”

    So with all due respect: you can cut all of your Pharaisees, Rabbis and Jewish Tradition bashing because it not of the LORD YESHUA (according to Romans 9,10, and 11.) and will lead you and many others into grave spiritual danger:

    I respectfully refer you t o Romans 11:20

    20″That is correct: They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either. 22Take notice, therefore, of the kindness and severity of God: severity to those who fell, but kindness to you, IF you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

    I don’t care how many tfillin you put on or how many jewish books you have in your library, or how many shofars you have blown….don’t knock it unless you have tried it. And it is obvioud you have never spent Any time in an authentically observant Jewish environment. It is simply awesome ! And having Yeshua as my Rabbi and Holy Spirit to confirm everything is OUT OF THIS WORLDLY while still being connected to this earth.

    Actual real Experience trumps dress rehearsals and masquerades. But even if you do get to experience a whole athentic Shabbat or a whole authentic observation of the fall holydays and festivals, i would pray that the Holy Spirit would deem you wothy to be sensitive of it . Then you would see and hear that all of these ‘so called traditions of men’ which many of you deem ‘hellish’ are in truth instruments of the Holy Spirit to raise the dead!

    Romans 11:14

    14″in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. 15For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches.”

    • You’re crossing a line in attacking me as you have in your post. Be careful. You can disrespectfully disagree with me, but personal attacks will not be tolerated. This is my last word on this discussion. This discussion is now closed. I have chosen to disagree with you without being disagreeable. I was hoping you could return the charity that you were shown.

  2. THINKING OF THE VERSES;;;MATHEW CHAPTER 5..MESSIAHS SERMON TO THE VAST MULTUTUDE…HAS BEEN CALLED THE BEATITUDES:.. ALL THE VERSES 1-20 WHERE YESHUAH REPLIED ” that except your ..(our) RIGHTEOUSNESS EXCEEDS THAT OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES we will in no way enter the kingdom of Elohim…the only way to the father is salvation in acknowledging the shed BLOOD OF HIS PRECIOUS SON (YESHUA)…THE DOOR
    .
    YESHUA ( THE LAMB) HAD TO FULFILL(he is the only one who could)… ALL OF THE LAW BECAUSE FALLEN MAN COULD NOT: HE FAILED IN MANY POINTS RIGHT THRU THE SCRIPTURES….

    READING MATHEW 23 VERSES 1 -5 ..ALL.AGAIN,,,,THEN SPOKE YAHUSUAH TO THE MULTITUDE AND TO HIS DISCIPLES VERSE 2 SAYING The scribes and pharisees sit in Moses seat:my king james version the words of Yeshua are typed in RED…

    .impressed on myself are the words of Yeshua….in verses 3 ALL therefore whatsoever they bid you observe,that observe and do;BUT DO NOT YE AFTER THEIR WORKS: FOR THEY SAY AND DO NOT.

    VERSE 4 FOR THEY BIND HEAVY BURDENS AND GRIEVOUS TO BE BORNE,AND LAY THEM ON MENS SHOULDERS;BUT THEY THEMSELVES WILL NOT MOVE THEM WITH ONE OF THEIR FINGERS.

    VERSE 5 BUT ALL THEIR WORKS THEY DO FOR TO BE SEEN OF MEN:THEY MAKE BROAD THEIR PHYLACTERIES,AND ENLARGE THE BORDERS OF THEIR GARMENTS,ETC ETC…

    ALLVERSES -6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 14 15 SCRIBES AND PHARISEES REPROVED BY YESHUA FOR DECEIT..SADUCEES AND PHARISEES SILENCED BY THE MESSIAH…CHECKING THEIR HEART ISSUES….verses 23 25 also…..thru to 39.i see all of these verses as a huge personal warning not to be like the scribes and pharisees.

  3. My friend Doran Maizel i LOVE you and i understand your frustration!!! I LOVE all people, regardless, of their gender, race, religion, nationality, background, preference!! And no im not going to bash you like so many other “Christians” do, and be angry with you with unkind use of scripture!! I LOVE you and yes the Hebrews are God’s people no doubt!! All i will have you do is look at one only one piece of scripture that sums it all up!! John 14:6!! Have fun with that and Warm Regards!!

  4. Shalom, and Tada. Learned a lot. Especially even though i knew how Mosheh judged people’s problems during the 40 year walk about; adding that the pictures of the seat is stone didn’t put that 2 and 2 together. Couldn’t picture that being carried. Can now see it being used as a judgment seat. Which also fits how i understood it. Mt verse showed me when they sat there they could only speak Mosheh Torah and NOT oral Torah. (Which of course fits with a judging seat).

  5. Yeshua himself was a transmitter of Oral Torah. This is why he never wrote anything down and why he gave the masses parables and explained the secrets of these parables, orally to his disciples only in secret. Mathew 13:10-13
    These Teachings are still hidden in veils of parable from the majority of Christians and Jews to this day. Why? Because they are not worthy yet to understand these mysteries and have not done ample battle with ha satan/ego which is blinding them. (“By the Breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked”) I. e. Oral Teachings that the Holy Creator gave Moses. Moses transmitted It to Joshua… >>>and then on down the line to the Prophets and the Sanhedrin, I. e. Gamaliel >Yeshua Ben Yosef>>all the way up into today. This the One Lineage of Transmission that still survives today. It wasn’t passed to Constantine or Luther. It was passed down through a small Remnant of Israelites who never got assimulated. This is why the High priest Caiphus prophesied that “one man shall die for the People/Israel, so that THIS NATION shall not perish….” John 11:50

    • Yes and no. Not sure if this is what you’re saying or not, but Yeshua didn’t put his carte blanche stamp of approval on the oral traditions (aka the oral law) of the Pharisees and Sadducees of his day. Neither did Paul. Yeshua clearly came against any of “the traditions of the elders” that made of none effect the word of Elohim. At the same time, Yeshua accepted some of these traditions if they didn’t violate Scripture. Take for example many of the elements of his last supper, Passover seder, which were additions to the basic Torah requirement of how to celebrate that event. Moreover, Paul referred to as “dung” much if not most of what he learned sitting at the feet of Gamliel, the grandson of Hillel, the leader of the School of the Hillel branch of Phariseeism. Moreover, Paul spent much of his time battling the unbiblical oral law tradition of the Jews that said that physical circumcision was a requirement for salvation and inclusion in the covenants of Elohim and for one to be considered to part of the Israel of Elohim. True, there are many things in the Mishnah, for example, that are very instructive. The Mishanh is the first written record we have of the oral Torah. But as you go further down in history and get to the Talmud, the ultimate codified version of rabbinic “oral tradition of the elders” or “oral law” much if not most of this is the humanistic ramblings of the so-called rabbis and point counter point opinions of men. Moreover it contains things that are totally anti-Yeshua, anti-New Testament and even anti-Written Torah itself. Thus, to say that what much later became known as the oral law came from Moses, in my opinion, and in that, more importantly, of Yeshua and Paul is incorrect. For these reasons, I DO NOT encourage or advocate people to look to the so-called oral law as being inspired of Elohim or as a basis for our instructions in righteousness. We can do very well without it. Sola scriptura! Blessings and thanks for your comment and giving me the opportunity to set the record straight on this. Shalom

  6. Hi Nathan,

    First of all, thank you for all of your hard work and dedication! Here are some thoughts I have had.

    [Edited out by Natan: First: This was obviously a copy and pasted article from someone. Who was the author of this? For righteousness sake, please make the proper attribution. Second: This section is only for comments that are in direct response to the articles that I post on my blog, and not for people to post their own articles that they a) either have written, or b) that others have written. For this, you need to procure your own pulpit or blog. If you have an article that you’d like to post on this blog, please first send me a copy of it for me to read, and I, as the owner of this blog, will decide whether to print it or not.

    If you have an article that you’d like to post here, you also have the option to summarize, in your own words, the gist of the article in shortened form the main points of the article and share that here if it’s relevant to the topic of the given blog post.

    Thank you for understanding and for respecting the rules and perimeters of this blog. Blessings!]

  7. Thank you for your post and insight in the matter of Matthew. 23:3, My interpretation is as follows: The Law, the commandments, the letters written in stone given to Moses and the 12 tribes have not changed or been removed. That communication, as Hebrews 1 declares, was in the beginning, and then YHVH gave us his only begotten son in the flesh. The living word, the fullness of the Law IN HIM, now the Son Of God, the living Torah in the flesh, with us, IN US, by way of the Ruach Hakodesh when we hear the word and believe IN HIM. In Matthew 23:3 Jesus was saying: Obey what ever Moses and the Law says, but do not do as the scribes and pharisees. They have seated themselves in a position of authority, but their judgements are wrong.

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