First-Century Judaism

First-Century Judaism refers to the diverse forms of Jewish life, belief, practice, and identity surrounding the time of Yeshua and the early apostolic movement.

Important shared elements included:
• Israel's Scriptures
• covenant identity
• Temple
• Torah
• Sabbath
• festivals
• circumcision
• prayer
• synagogue
• hope for divine restoration

Jewish communities disagreed significantly about how Scripture should be interpreted.
Major differences involved:
• resurrection
• purity
• oral traditions
• Temple leadership
• relations with Rome
• Messianic expectation

Yeshua should be interpreted within this Jewish world.
He:
• attends synagogue
• visits the Temple
• celebrates biblical festivals
• debates Torah
• quotes Israel's Scriptures
• interacts with Temple period.">Pharisees and Sadducees
• teaches about Israel's God and Kingdom

The earliest followers of Yeshua were Jewish.
Acts portrays them continuing to function within Jewish communal and Temple settings even as the message begins spreading among nations or peoples outside Israel.">Gentiles.

Removing Yeshua and Paul from first-century Judaism easily creates distorted interpretations.
Their teachings should first be heard within the Jewish scriptural and historical world in which they were spoken.