From our mission to the Jews.
[by Daniel Landsmann] (concluded from Part 4)
The Rabbi, skipping to another subject, said, “Mr. L., Jesus' sacrifice does not count under the Mosaic Law! According to the Law, one had to slaughter a sacrifice on Mount Moriah, and all the sacrifices have been slaughtered. But Jesus was murdered, and not on Mount Moriah, but outside the city of Jerusalem. And when God would have tried Abraham our father, he commanded him to slay Isaac on mount Moriah, but not to murder him. —
Before I answered this pointed but also ignorant question, everyone shouted, as if from one throat: Rabbi, bravo! Bravo, Rabbi! At last we have caught him. They clapped their hands in triumph! My poor friends also looked at me pityingly and very suspiciously. —
I let them triumph a little. When they had finally calmed down, I said: “I must now give you another blow, I cannot help you, you yourselves are forcing me to do it! But do not get angry; I must defend myself. Do you think, then, that this childish and foolish question is anything new? No! Before I give proof from the Bible, I refer you to your own Talmud. Your Talmud says that the Messiah, Ben Joseph the son of Joseph, must be murdered as Korban, sacrifice, for Israel, and not slaughtered, and that too not on Mount Moriah, but outside Jerusalem! Who is the Moshiach [or Mashiach] who is supposed to be a son of Joseph? Did God then promise us two Messiahs in the Bible? No, the Bible only speaks of one Messiah. The Talmud got it right on this point. Jesus was also thought or reckoned to be a son of Joseph. That is what the New Testament says. I referred to the passage Luke 3:23.: wajachschebuhu [Hebrew for “son of Joseph”]: they took him for it or counted him for it, namely for a son of Joseph, because Joseph was Jesus's foster father. I further cited a piece of Talmud on Zech. 12:10.: “and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced”: that is, says the Talmud, the Messiah, who is the son of Joseph, who shall be murdered as Korban for the sin of Israel. So says your own Talmud, what more do you want? Yea, your own machzor [prayer book] says, his name is Yeshua, Jesus, and He is the Sar hapanim i.e. the prince of God’s countenance. And verily Jesus was David's son according to human nature, and as a foster son was also thought to be a son of Joseph. I took my Bible and showed them how the Yeshua hamashiach must suffer and die: Isa. 50, Isa. 53, Ps. 22, Ps. 69. etc. —
But as for the “out of the camp,” I showed them the Azazel [“scapegoat”], Lev. 16 [Lev. 16:8], who, as the Talmud relates, was bound, and hurled down from a high mountain far from Jerusalem, so that he lay dead. So also the red heifer, Num. 19 [Num. 19:2], had to be slaughtered outside the camp, and burned whole, not on Mount Moriah. — I explained to them what it meant, and especially what the red heifer represented, which made the clean unclean and the unclean clean. I showed the fulfillment in Christ. He that rejecteth Christ is unclean in the sight of God: but he that receiveth His blood for the remission of sins is clean in the sight of God, and shall be saved. I also mentioned the serpent in the wilderness [Numbers 21:4-9], and explained [col. 3] what it signified. Through all these examples the Messiah was portrayed, and all the prophets and believers in the old covenant had believed this, and they had become blessed through it.
At last I said to them: "The Talmud, which is the arch-enemy of Christ, and has blinded the whole people, has betrayed itself by its much gossiping. It admits that Jesus, who was thought to be the son of Joseph, must be murdered and not slaughtered on Moriah, as you think. Christ had to be put to death for our sins, that we might be justified and saved before God." — And now, my friends, yield yourselves to this Jesus by grace, confess your sins before Him, come to Him, as Joseph's brethren came to Joseph, and say unto Him, 'O forgive thy brethren their iniquity, and their sins that they have done evil in thee! O forgive now the iniquity of us, the servants of the God of your father' (Gen. 50:17), and Christ will accept you, as once Joseph did his murderous brothers, and forgive you from the heart, and you shall find rest and peace through the forgiveness of your sins in His blood. For He, and He alone, is He of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets have spoken, as the Talmud says, “All the prophets have not spoken otherwise than of the days of the Messiah.”
This conversation lasted three hours. At 5 o'clock in the evening I took my leave and went home, tired but happy and joyful. — May the faithful Yeshua sar hapanim bless His Word in the hearts. Amen.
D. Landsmann, missionary to the Jews.
95 Avenue D. New York.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - End of essay - - - - - - - - - - - -
What a Bible lesson by missionary Landsmann! It certainly strengthened my faith. As I concluded my translation work, I wondered that the remarkable Daniel Landsmann may be still honored by others today. An Internet search turned up much more information about him, giving details such as:
- he was a Rabbi himself in old Russia before his conversion, and a zealous Jew
- he endured much ridicule and torment for his Christian faith
- another Russian rabbi, Rabbi Nathaniel Friedmann, was sent to him from Russia to "win him back" but instead was converted to Christianity by Landsmann, and served until 1941 as a Missouri Synod pastor and Landsmann's successor as missionary to the Jews.
- LCMS missionary to the Jews Alan Butterworth gave a very informative 1/2 hour presentation on Landsmann to the 2007 conference of the "Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism".
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments only accepted when directly related to the post.