I want to begin this morning with a quote that I found last week. The 5th century AD Biblical scholar, Jerome wrote: "To be ignorant of Scripture is to be ignorant of Christ. Hope you are regularly reading your Bible."
We are looking at the section that runs from John 8:31-59 which is the final dialog in the series of dialogs built around the Feast of the Tabernacles found in John 7 and 8. The focal point of this dialog is on who is Yeshua's Father, and more specifically who is the Jewish leader's father. In verses 31 and 32 Yeshua specifically addresses the ,Jews who have believed in Him. But then in verse 33 the subject and audience shifts back to the hostile Jewish leaders.
As this section unfolds the crowd, mainly the Jewish leaders, becomes increasingly hostile and defensive. They claim that Abraham is their father in verses 33 and 39. On the other hand they claim God is the their Father in verse 41. They accuse Yeshua of being both demon-possessed and a Samaritan in verse 48. The final expression of their anger comes in verse 59 as they take stones with the intent of killing Yeshua.
We ended last time with:
"I speak the things which I have seen with My Father; therefore you also do the things which you heard from your father." John 8:38 NASB
After talking about how He does His Father's work, Yeshua says to the religious leaders, "you also do the things which you heard from your father." So Yeshua is saying that they have a different father than Him, but He doesn't yet tell us who their father is. We find out in verse 44 where Yeshua says, "You are of your father the devil." That is pretty harsh language!
Because Yeshua's language is so harsh here, many liberal critical scholars believe that not only did John create dialogues that Yeshua never spoke, but in the process, he distorted and indeed falsified what Yeshua actually taught. The most burning issue for these scholars is what they would call John's heated anti-Semitism. They say that John distorted the portrait and words of Yeshua to demonize Jews in general. What we need to realize is that criticism of the Bible has become commonplace in university religion departments around the country. Richard Hays, Professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School, says: "Nowhere in John's Gospel does the superheated animosity toward the Jews come to more vigorous expression than in chapter 8… The dialogue [of John 8:39-47] is the most deeply disturbing outburst of anti-Jewish sentiment in the New Testament…"
Is Yeshua's statement that Satan is the father of the Jews anti-Jewish? No, it's simply a matter of recognizing the audience of His speech. In other words, Yeshua wasn't talking to all Jews, but specific individuals. He is telling those Jews who are trying to figure out a way to kill Him that their opposition to Him is because they have adopted a different "father." Neither Yeshua nor John were anti-Semitic, they were both Jews. The apostles were all Jews, Yeshua's mother was a Jew. It's really a foolish and liberal position to think that either John or Yeshua were anti-Semitic.
They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Yeshua said to them, "If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham. John 8:39 NASB
"They answered and said to Him, 'Abraham is our father'"—Alfred Edersheim writes, "No principle was more fully established in the popular [Jewish] conviction, than that all Israel had part in the world to come (Sanh. x. 1), and this, specifically, because of their connection with Abraham… Abraham was represented as sitting at the gate of Gehenna, to deliver any Israelite who otherwise might have been consigned to its terrors." (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, 1:27)
They were physical descendants of Abraham, Yeshua admitted this in verse 37, but they were not true descendants of Abraham, which only happens by faith. Notice what Paul says:
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED." That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. Romans 9:6-8 NASB
Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. They were children of Abraham but Sarah was not their mother, they were children of the salve woman Hagar.
"Yeshua said to them, 'If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham'"—this is a second class conditional sentence, "If you were Abraham's children, which you are not, then you would be doing what Abraham did, but you are not."
What were the "deeds" of Abraham? What did Abraham do? Well, when we think of Abraham the characteristic thing about him is what? That he believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. And that is why we are told by Paul that when we believe in Yeshua that we are sons of Abraham:
just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. Galatians 3:6-7 ESV
These Jews that were arguing with Yeshua did not have faith, so they were not true sons of Abraham.
We see from Genesis that Abraham received the messenger of Yahweh. In Genesis chapter 14, when a representative of the Most High God by the name of Melchisadek came to Abraham and blessed Abraham, how did Abraham respond to the representative of God? He gave him tithes. In fact, it is singled out in the word of God for special emphasis in the 7th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrew. So Abraham was an individual who believed God and who also responded to the representatives of God. The people with whom our Lord is dealing not only have not believed Him, but they have not responded to Him as the representative of God.
Do you remember in Genesis chapter 18 when Abraham and Sarah were at home one evening, and some angels showed up? And one of those angels turned out to be Yahweh. It was a theophany. This is Yahweh in physical presence. This is a Christophany. This is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. And what did Abraham do when the pre-incarnate Christ appeared? He received Him, embraced Him. They made a dinner. They had fellowship together. Read Genesis 18. Abraham actually received Yahweh into his house when God came down to earth.
So Yeshua is saying to His audience, "When God spoke, Abraham believed. I speak, and I speak the words of God. You don't believe. You're not like Abraham." You don't treat Me the way Abraham treated Me when I appeared at his house. You don't welcome me as a messenger that comes from heaven. You're not Abraham's spiritual children:
"But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. John 8:40 NASB
"A man"—Yeshua not only understood Himself as a representative of Yahweh, equal in divine essence with Yahweh, but also as a true human being. This assertion refuted the Gnostic false teachers' assertion of the eternal dualism between spirit and physical things.
"This Abraham did not do"—is a figure of speech called litotes, and it means: "to affirm something by denying the opposite." Not only did Abraham not do this, but he did the precise opposite of that. Abraham believed God and warmly welcomed His representatives, but they are seeking to kill Yeshua. They are not children of Abraham.
What prophet of God also accused the unbelieving Jews when they claimed Abraham was their father? John the Baptizer:
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Matthew 3:7 NASB
John called the Pharisees and Sadducees a brood of vipers. In other words, little snakes whose daddy was the big Snake-the Serpent Satan!
"You are doing the deeds of your father." They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God." John 8:41 NASB
"You are doing the deeds of your father"—again Yeshua says that they are acting like their father, but doesn't tell them yet who He is referring to.
They respond, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father: God"—There are several possibilities here as to what they mean by this. They may possibly be referring to the fact that after the return from the Babylonian captivity in which so many Jewish people intermarried, it was considered among them that if a person had married a heathen, then on one side those who were descended from them were of Satan. And they thought of them like that, and perhaps they are referring to that. They may be thinking that He's accusing them of having some other Gentile heathen blood in their veins. And so they say, "We were not born like idolatrous Gentiles; rather, as Jews, God is our Father."
Another possibility here is that the crowd's response to Yeshua that they had not been born illegitimate is a reference to Ishmael. Ishmael was the son born of the slave woman, Hagar. Isaac, the son born of the free woman and wife, Sarah, would be heir to the promises God made to Abraham. It was through Isaac that the Covenant was renewed.
In the Tanakh idol worship is compared to fornication or adultery. The Israelites who engaged in unfaithfulness through the worship of false gods were called "the children of fornication" in Hosea 2:4. Therefore when the Jews deny that they are "illegitimate," the children of fornication, they are also denying that they have strayed from the covenant. In arguing that God is indeed their Father they are restating the terms of the covenant with Moses where Israel became "children of God" (Exodus 4:22) and Yahweh became Israel's Father (Deuteronomy 34:6).
On the other hand, it could be a subtle slur against Yeshua's birth, alluding to the fact that His mother conceived Him out of wedlock. "We are not born of fornication as you were born of fornication." The later rabbinic literature is filled with references to the fact that the Lord Yeshua was the bastard son of Mary. They said that Yeshua was the illegitimate child of Mary and a man who was not her husband, perhaps not even Joseph.
Barclay writes, "The Jews put it about that Mary had been unfaithful to Joseph; that her paramour had been a Roman soldier called Panthera; and that Yeshua was the child of that adulterous union." (Barclay, 232-233)
So when they say, "We are not born of fornication," it could mean, "We were not born like you were born." In other words, a questionable birth. Yeshua was born of a virgin, we and John's readers understand that, but that being supernatural and miraculous, they accused Him of being born in an elicit relationship between Joseph and Mary.
So they say that God is their father but Yeshua says:
Yeshua said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but He sent Me. John 8:42 NASB
"If" here is a second class conditional sentence, "If God were your Father, which He is not, you would love me, which you do not." If God were their father, they would welcome His Son Yeshua rather than be trying to kill Him. They would acknowledge that God had "sent" Him. They would love Him, as they think they love the Father:
"Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. John 8:43 NASB
They are unable to hear what He is saying because their father is the devil, not God.
Yeshua tells them the truth, but they do not believe Him. Why do they not believe Him? Because He is God, and only He who belongs to God hears what God says. The natural man does not understand the things of God because to him they are what? They are foolishness. Notice that Yeshua doesn't say, "You will not hear My word, but cannot! They are spiritually dead and therefore unresponsive to the things of the Spirit.
"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44 NASB
This text clearly points out that our Lord believed in the existence and personality of the devil. J.P. Lang puts it this way: "This is the most important doctrinal statement of Christ concerning the devil, teaching soberly and solemnly without figure of speech: (1) the objective personality of the devil; (2) his agency in the fall of the human race, and his connection with the whole history of sin as the father of murder and falsehood; (3) his own apostasy from a previous normal state in which he was created." [Lange, J. P., & Schaff, P. (2008). A commentary on the Holy Scriptures: John (pp. 291-294). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.]
"You are of your father the devil"—finally Yeshua identified the "father" of these Jews to whom He had been alluding (vv. 38, 41). He is saying, "Your father is not Abraham and it is not God, your father is the devil. That's pretty strong language.
Here the Lord denies the doctrine of the Fatherhood of God of all men in the sense that we are all saved and all related to the one God in heaven. Our Lord makes a distinction among men. He affirms that there are some who are the sons of God, and there are others who are of their father the devil. Yeshua was not a universalist.
"Devil"—is from the Greek word diabolos, which is from diá, meaning: "through, between" and ballo, meaning: "to cast, throw." So it means: "a false accuser, slanderer one who utters false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another's reputation."
In order to understand what our Lord is saying to these Jews, we need to understand who Satan is. So let's do a little devilology. Who is the devil or Satan? Where did he come from? How is he the father of these Jews? Where do we first see Satan in the Scriptures? Genesis 3? That text doesn't say anything about Satan. But Lazarus, the author of the Fourth Gospel also wrote Revelation and there he connects the devil and Satan to Genesis 3:
And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Revelation 12:9 NASB
So here we see that the serpent of Genesis 3 is Satan. With that understanding let's go back prior to Genesis 3, back to the time of creation:
"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding, Who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? "On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy? Job 38:4-7 NASB
Here "morning stars" and "sons of God" are names of divine beings, they are members of the divine council. Some folks see "sons of God" as humans, but how were humans at creation? So before the creation of the earth and man you have Yahweh and other (lesser created) divine beings that make up the divine council. Yahweh always existed, He has no beginning or end, but at a point in time He created other divine beings as His council or family.
In Genesis we learn that the first man, Adam, was created by God and brought into Eden, the cosmic mountain, the dwelling place of Yahweh, the place where Yahweh holds council. How long after Adam was created was he brought into the Garden? We have no time line in the Scriptures but the Book of Jubilees says:
"And after Adam had completed forty days in the land where he had been created, we brought him into the Garden of Eden…" Jubilees 3:9
The Book of Jubilees, a pseudepigrapha work, sometimes called the "Lesser Genesis," was written in the 2nd century BC and records an account of the biblical history of the world from the creation to Moses.
So Adam was brought into the garden, into an intimate relationship with Yahweh:
They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8 NASB
Adam and Eve walked in the garden with Yahweh. They dwelt in His presence. Eden is where Yahweh lives and issues decrees. He is with His heavenly host, who existed before humanity did. This is the divine council, the family of God, and Adam is there with them.
At the end of the creation account what happens? God rests. What does that mean? Was He tired from creating? No, John Walden, in his book, The Lost World of Genesis One, writes, "The difference is the piece of information that everyone knew in the ancient world and to which most modern readers are totally oblivious: Deity rests in a Temple, and only a Temple" (page 71). And what we need to see is that Eden compares to tabernacle or Temple, it is Yahweh's dwelling where the divine council was. In ANE culture God dwelt in the best places, a lush garden, an oasis or a mountain top. So Adam was created and brought into Yahweh's dwelling with His council.
You know what happens next, man is tempted, and he sins. How long were Adam and Eve in the Garden before they sinned? Well the Bible doesn't tell us, but the Book of Jubilees says:
"And after the completion of the seven years, which he had completed there, seven years exactly, and in the second month, on the seventeenth 8 A.M. day (of the month), the serpent came and approached the woman…" Jubilees 3:17
Who tempted Eve and why? The text says it was a serpent, and Revelation 12:9 tells us that the serpent was Satan. They weren't tempted by a snake. I think in Genesis 3 we see one of the sons of God, a watcher, a council member, tempting man so he could get rid of him. God had made man vice regent with Him, and some of the watchers may not have been too happy about this.
So who tempted Adam and Eve and why?" Let's first look at the who:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" Genesis 3:1 NASB
So we see here that it was the "serpent" who tempted them. That we know, what we need to know is who or what is the "serpent." I believe that this "serpent" was a divine being, it is not a member of the animal kingdom, but a member of the divine council. This watcher chose to oppose Yahweh's plan for humanity by prompting humans to disobey Yahweh, so they would either be killed or removed from Eden, Yahweh's council and family.
Let's look at the text in Genesis 3:1, "Serpent" here is from the Hebrew word nachash (), which, according to Hebrew scholar Michael Heiser, "Is most likely a triple entendre, which is a word or phrase that has three different meanings at once. The root of nachash is(noon, het and sheen), which is the basis for a noun, a verb and an adjective in Hebrew. If you take nachash as pointing to the noun, the word here would mean: 'serpent.' This is a valid translation, but you must keep in mind that 'serpent' is not a member of the animal kingdom. If you were to take it as a verb, it would mean: 'deceiver' or 'diviner.' So nachash could imply a 'deceiver.'" This option also fits the story. As an adjective it would mean: "bronze," or "the shining one." In our text it is "ha nachash" (the Shining one). Luminosity is a characteristic of a divine being in the Hebrew Bible and in the ANE texts, luminosity is not the characteristic of an animal or a man. This is a divine being, not an animal or man. Would Eve carry on a conversation with a snake? I don't think so, but she would talk to a divine being. Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of God, they were very familiar with these divine beings. Look at Isaiah 6:
In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. Isaiah 6:1-2 NASB
The word "seraphim" here means: "the shining" or "blazing ones." But the Hebrew saraph as a noun means: "serpent." What we have here is a divine throne room and a throne room guardian (saraph).
So what we have in Genesis 3 is a divine being, not an animal, but a throne room guardian, a saraph, a serpentine being, one who was part of the divine council in Eden decides to deceive humanity to get rid of them; to get humans removed from Eden, from Yahweh's council and family. Why? Why does this divine being want man kicked out of Eden? I think the Scriptures hint at pride or jealousy. We'll look at that in a minute, but first let's look at the Pseudepigrapha work called, Life of Adam and Eve, which elaborates on the motive and role of Satan in the fall of humankind. In chapter 14 it states:
And Michael went out and called to all the angels, "Worship the image of God as the Lord God has commanded." And Michael himself worshiped first; then he called me and said, "Worship the image of the Lord God." And I answered, "It is not for me to worship Adam." And since Michael kept urging me to worship, I said to him, "Why do you urge me? I will not worship an inferior and younger being than I. I am his senior in the Creation, before he was made was I already made. It is his duty to worship me."
When the angels who were under me heard this, they refused to worship him. And Michael said, "Worship the image of God, but if you will not worship him, the Lord God will be angry with you." And I said, "If He be angry with me, I will set my seat above the stars of heaven and will be like the Highest."
Does that sound familiar to you? It sounds like:
"But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. Isaiah 14:13 NASB
Consequently, God expelled the devil and his angels from heaven onto the earth. The devil explained to Adam in chapter 16 of Life of Adam and Eve:
And the Lord God was angry with me and banished me and my angels from our glory; and on your account we were expelled from our abodes into this world and hurled to the ground. Straight away we were overcome with grief, since we had been robbed of such great glory. And we were grieved when we saw you in such joy and luxury. And with guile I cheated your wife and through her action caused you to be expelled from your joy and luxury, as I have been driven out of my glory.
In 1 Enoch the temptation of Eve is attributed to Gadreel, here it is attributed to Satan. The link between Satan and the serpent is also attested in the book, The Life of Adam and Eve (33,) and in the book of 2 Enoch (31). Both texts state it was the devil who led Eve astray. The Life Of Adam And Eve chapter 33 states:
Moreover the Lord God gave us two angels to guard us. The hour came when the angels had ascended to worship in the sight of God; immediately the enemy the devil found an opportunity while the angels were absent and the devil led your mother astray to eat of the unlawful and forbidden tree. And she ate and gave to me.
So the divine being Satan seems to have been jealous of man, and so got him to sin so Yahweh would kick him out of the cosmic mountain.
There are parallels between Genesis 3, Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19 . The passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel are about evil tyrant kings, whose pride is described in terms of an ancient story about a divine being who fell from paradise due to rebellion against Yahweh. These accounts reference Eden directly in Ezekiel's case, and indirectly in Isaiah's case.
In Genesis 3 the nachash (the serpentine, shining one, deceiver) was in the Garden of Eden where Yahweh walked. Notice what Ezekiel says:
"You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. Ezekiel 28:13 NASB
The gemstones are descriptors of luminescence. Fiery stones, shining stones, gemstones are stock descriptions of divine beings in the ancient world. The gemstones are about the divine council, luminescence is a characteristic of divine beings or divine presence across the ancient Near Eastern world and the Tanakh.
"You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. Ezekiel 28:14 NASB
"Anointed cherub"—anointed is the word mashach ,which may mean: "anointed," but it may come from a Semitic homonym, "to shine" (The shining cherub). Cherub and Seraphim are the same, in Assyrian it is a throne guardian. Brown- Driver- Briggs definition is: "an angelic being, a guardian of Eden." The "cherub" serpent figure is in "midst of the stones of fire," which is the divine counsel. In this text Eden is called a garden and a mountain:
"Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Ezekiel 28:12 NASB
Hebrew scholar, Michael Heiser, says, "Seal of perfection"—could mean: "serpent." In Semitic at times the "M" at the end of a noun is silent. It's called the enclitic mem. If that is the case here, we have het, vave, tav, which would be: "serpent of perfection." In Isaiah 14:12 we have:
"How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, You who have weakened the nations! Isaiah 14:12 NASB
"O star of the morning, son of the dawn"—is "Helel ben Shachar," which means: "the Shining one." Lucifer is the Latin vulgate translation of Helel (shining, a luminous being).
"But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north. Isaiah 14:13 NASB
The "mount of the assembly" is the home of Yahweh, the place of the divine council. This divine being seeks to usurp Yahweh. We already saw in Job 38 that the sons of God are described as the stars.
This being talked about in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 was in Eden, he was a member of the divine council. This being tempts man, and man sins, he falls and is removed from Yahweh's Temple. He is put out of the Garden. But then we have a promise from Yahweh:
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel." Genesis 3:15 NASB
Eve's seed, a human being, will come and fix what Adam has done. A deliverer will come. But for now man is banished from the presence of Yahweh. So that is kind of the who and why of Satan.
Back to out text. These children of Abraham who stand in opposition to Yeshua have become the "seed of the serpent" and the enemies of the "seed of the Woman" of Genesis 3:15.
"And you want to do the desires of your father"—in the Hebrew language and culture when you said someone was the son of someone, it meant they had shared attitudes, shared dispositions, shared desires, shared characteristics. So, your father is the devil, so you want to do the desires of your father.
Their attitudes and actions pointed to "the devil" as their father for two reasons. First, they wanted to kill Yeshua, and Satan was "a murderer from the beginning." He indirectly murdered Adam and Eve. And he killed Able:
not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. 1 John 3:12 NASB
Cain was of the evil one, so he was a murderer. How extensive was the murderous power of Satan? Hebrews says he has the power of death, and he exercised it in one act that literally killed the human race in the garden.
"A murderer from the beginning—notice that he was a murdeerr from the beginning. The beginning of what? His existence? No, from the beginning of human history:
And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, Matthew 19:4 NASB
The word "beginning" here in both of these texts is, arche. And in both text it stands for the beginning of human history. This is one of those texts that makes me believe that Adam was the first man.
Believers, we are image bearers of Yahweh. We should be doing the deed of our Father. Which is loving others. But often we act like Satan is our father:
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 1 John 3:15 NASB
First John 3:1-10, contrasts the children of God, to the children of the devil, by the things they do. Hatred is a characteristic of Satan, not our Father Yahweh.
So their attitudes and actions pointed to "the devil" as their father for two reasons. First, they wanted to kill Yeshua; Second, they had abandoned "the truth" for "lies," and the devil "does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him"—he had consistently lied throughout history. In Eden he told the woman:
The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! Genesis 3:4 NASB
He was lying, he was trying to kill them and he knew if they disobeyed God they would die.
These Jewish leaders were acting just like their father the devil in that they, like Satan, were seeking to keep men from Yahweh's presence. The system they supported and defended was a ministration of death. The Messiah had come to bring men back into the presence of Yahweh, and they sought to kill Him. They were murderers and liars just like their father.
In the book of Revelation Yeshua called the Jews "the synagogue of Satan." They were murderers and liars just like their father. While modern Judaism claims to be based on the Bible, sadly it is not. It is instead based only on the authority of men who can no longer abide by the Laws and regulations of the Old Covenant because there is no longer a Temple where the obligations of the covenant can be carried out. There isn't even a priesthood, God's representatives to the people, in Rabbinical Judaism. With the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in A.D.70 the Old Covenant faith came to an end and a fully established New Covenant Church took its place.