The New Testament belongs to the world of ancient Judaism, its history, its culture, its faith. At times it offers our earliest witness to Jewish thought and practice not found in Jewish sources until centuries later. Its faith—spiritual practices, belief, and use and interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures—emerges from, belongs to, and interacts with the vibrant world of ancient Judaism. This requires the reader of the New Testament to gain a familiarity with the world of ancient Judaism, especially its faith.
A critical aspect of reading the New Testament within the faith of ancient Judaism pertains to how the New Testament utilized the Jewish Scriptures (the Hebrew Bible-Old Testament). New Testament authors did not interpret the Jewish Scriptures on their own, but rather, the interpretations found within the New Testament belong to the traditions, interpretations, and conversations taking place within ancient Judaism around the biblical texts. Thus, readers of the New Testament must be familiar with how Jewish interpreters read their scriptures, both interpretations and techniques of interpretation. The writers of the New Testament, Jesus also, used these interpretive techniques and participated within the interpretative conversations taking place within ancient Judaism.
To illustrate, we turn to John’s criticism of the community in Pergamum in Revelation: “But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice immorality. So, you also have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolatians” (Revelation 2:14-15). John’s chastisement relies upon two interrelated issues: food offered to idols and sexual immorality, and ancient Jewish interpretations regarding Balaam.
The question of non-Jewish Christ followers became an issue within the early Jesus movement. The Jewish followers of Jesus concluded non-Jews, who wanted to join Jesus’ movement, must abstain from “the pollution of idols (food offered to idols; 15:29), sexual immorality, and blood(shed)” (Acts 15:20). These practices continued to be a problem for non-Jewish Christ followers (see 1 Corinthians 8-10; Revelation 2:14-15, 20).
The worship of idols was absolutely prohibited for Jews (Exodus 20:3). The biblical commandments forbade Jews from partaking of sacrifices to other gods (Exodus 22:19; 34:16) and adopting customs typical of foreign worship (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 12:30-31; 16:21-22). Israelites were not to mention the names of foreign gods (Exodus 23:13); they were to destroy their images, altars, and shrines when they entered the promised land (Exodus 23:24; 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5; 12:2-3). The prophets considered idols impure; by extension, they rendered Israelites, their homes, and utensils impure (Isaiah 30:22; Jeremiah 19:13; Ezekiel 22:3-4; 36:25). Israel’s exclusive relationship with its god, regarding polytheistic idolatry and the practices surrounding it, became more acute from the second century BC into the first century AD. The Jewish identity that emerged with the rise of the Hasmonean state based itself upon commitment to the Torah and antagonism towards idolatrous non-Jews. This had a significant impact on Jewish relations with polytheistic non-Jews as can be seen in a Jewish work written in the second century BC, the book of Jubilees:
“And you also, my son, Jacob, remember my words, and keep the commandments of Abraham, your father. Separate yourself from the gentiles, and do not eat with them, and do not perform deeds like theirs. And do not become associates of theirs. Because their deeds are defiled, and all of their ways are contaminated, and despicable, and abominable. They slaughter their sacrifices to the dead, and to the demons they bow down. And they eat in tombs. And all their deeds are worthless and vain. And they have no heart to perceive, and they have no eyes to see what their deeds are, and where they wander astray, saying to the tree ‘you are my god,’ and to a stone ‘you are my lord, and you are my savior’; and they have no heart. But (as for) you, my son, Jacob, may God Most High help you, and the God of heaven bless you. And may he turn you from their defilement, and from all their errors. Be careful, my son, Jacob, that you do not take a wife from any of the seed of the daughters of Canaan, because all of his seed is (destined) for uprooting from the earth; because through the sin of Ham, Canaan sinned, and all of his seed will be blotted out from the earth, and all his remnant, and there is none of his who will be saved. And for all of those who worship idols and for the hated ones, there is no hope in the land of the living; because they will go down into Sheol. And in the place of judgment they will walk, and they will have no memory upon the earth. Just as the sons of Sodom were taken from the earth, so (too) all of those who worship idols shall be taken away. Do not fear, my son, Jacob, and do not be in terror, O son of Abraham. The Most High God shall protect you from destruction, and from all the ways of error he will deliver you” (Jubilees 22:16-23; emphasis added).
The Jewish followers of Jesus not only required non-Jewish Christ followers to completely abandon idolatry, but to abstain from “food offered to idols” and “prohibited sexual relations.” They imposed a more conservative and strict stipulation upon the non-Jewish Christ followers than Judaism expected of non-Jews who gathered on the fringe of the Jewish community. John’s chastisement of community in Pergamum reflects his expectation of adherence to the Apostolic decree (Act 15:20, 29; see 1, 2, and 3) by these non-Jewish Christ followers.
The two preeminent biblical narratives concerning Israel and idolatry were the “Golden Calf” (Exodus 32) and the incident with the Moabites and their women, which happened at Baal-Peor (Numbers 25). This incident connected idolatry with sexual immorality. For this reason, the Israelites were forbidden to intermarry with the Canaanites, which was seen as an extension of idolatry (Exodus 34:15-16; Deuteronomy 7:2-3). The event at Baal-Peor served as a warning to Israel to avoid idolatry (Deuteronomy 3:29-4:4). Psalm 106 remembers the incident at Baal-Peor:
“Then they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and interceded, and the plague was stopped. And that has been reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation forever” (106:28-31; emphasis added).
Ancient Judaism saw a connection already within the biblical text between idolatry and sexual immorality, both were prohibited for a Jew to ever practice (see b. Sanhedrin 74a; see also y. Shevuot 4:2, 35a) and both were wildly practiced within the polytheistic Hellenistic and Roman worlds. Ancient Jewish interpreters turned to Numbers 25 to address issues of idolatry and sexual immorality with their world and to warn their audiences of the dangers these practices held. They also ascribed the event of Baal-Peor to the instruction given to the Moabites by Balaam, which explains John’s attachment to Balaam and his instruction to Balak which caused Israel to stumble.
If we only know the story of Balaam and the donkey, Balaam does not seem “that bad.” The Bible describes Balaam as a true prophet of God, who “knows the knowledge of the Most High” (Numbers 24:16). Balak, king of Moab summons him to curse Israel. On his way to meet Balak, an angel stands in the way. Balaam cannot see it, but his donkey can. The donkey stops. Balaam strikes the donkey, but the donkey speaks telling Balaam what he sees, then Balaam sees. Instead of cursing Israel, Balaam winds up blessing Israel. So, all-in-all, not too bad of a person.
Ancient Jewish interpreters, however, read the text more carefully, and while they knew of Balaam’s refusal to curse Israel, they also knew the text of Numbers 31:16 and how, immediately after Balaam’s encounter with Balak (Numbers 24), the catastrophe at Baal-Peor occurred: “While Israel dwelt in Shittim the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab; they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So, Israel yoked itself to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel” (Numbers 25:1-3). The proximity of Balaam’s appearance to Israel’s sin with the Moabite women suggested to ancient interpreters that Balaam may have played a part in Israel’s harlotry and idolatry.
Numbers 31:16 further suggests Balaam had a role in Israel’s idolatry at Baal-Peor: “Moses said to them, ‘Have you let all the women live? Behold, these caused the people of Israel, in the matter [or, by the word] of Balaam (בדבר), to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord” (emphasis added). The Hebrew phrase can be read either “in the matter” or “by the word.” This interpretive possibility led ancient Jewish exegetes to suggest Balaam said something to cause Moab’s actions in leading Israel astray. This reading of the Hebrew text already appears in the Greek translation found in the Septuagint: “Moses said to them: ‘Have you let all the women live? For they were to the Israelites in keeping with the word of Balaam to turn astray, to show contempt for the word of the Lord with regard to Peor, and a plague came upon the congregation of the Lord” (Septuagint, Num. 31:16; emphasis added). The Aramaic Targum (which is part translation and part interpretation) also treated Numbers 31:16 in a similar manner: “They were a stumbling block to the Israelites at the advice of Balaam, to falsify in the name of the Lord in the matter of the idol of Peor (Targum Neophyti on Numbers 31:16; emphasis added).
The prophet Micah also suggests Balaam assisted Balak in Israel’s idolatry with Moab: “O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord” (Micah 6:5). Ancient Jewish interpreters, like John, would have read these texts together to conclude Balaam played a role in Israel’s idolatry at Baal-Peor. This even led some Jewish interpreters to supply “the word” of Balaam, which led Moab to place the stumbling block before Israel. The Jewish writer, Philo of Alexandria, provides this account of Balaam’s “word”:
“And Balaam replied: ‘All that I have hitherto uttered have been oracles and words of God; but what I am going to say are merely the suggestions of my own mind’: and taking him by the right hand, he, while they two were alone, gave him advice, by the adoption of which he might, as far as possible, guard against the power of his enemies (Israel)…Come, then, let us examine into his fine recommendations, and see how cunningly they were contrived with reference to the most certain defeat of those who had hitherto always been able to conquer. As he knew that the only way by which the Hebrews could be subdued was by leading them to violate the law, he endeavored to seduce them by means of debauchery and intemperance, that mighty evil, to the still greater crime of impiety, putting pleasure before them as a bait; for, said he, ‘O king! the women of the country surpass all other women in beauty, and there are no means by which a man is more easily subdued than by the beauty of a woman; therefore, if you enjoin the most beautiful of them to grant their favors to them and to prostitute themselves to them, they will allure and overcome the youth of your enemies. But you must warn them not to surrender their beauty to those who desire them with too great facility and too speedily, for resistance and coyness will stimulate the passions and excite them more, and will kindle a more impetuous desire; and so, being wholly subdued by their appetites, they will endure to do and to suffer anything. And let any damsel who is thus prepared for the sport resist, and say, wantonly, to a lover who is thus influenced, “It is not fitting for you to enjoy my society till you have first abandoned your native habits, and have changed, and learnt to honor the same practices that I do. And I must have a conspicuous proof of your real change, which I can only have by your consenting to join me in the same sacrifices and libations which I use, and which we may then offer together at the same images and statues, and other erections in honor of my gods”’” (Philo, Moses 1:294-298; emphasis added).
Pseudo-Philo preserves a similar tradition in which Balaam counsels Balak to use the Moabite women to seduce the Israelites into idolatry: “Then Balaam said to him (Balak): ‘Come, let us plan what you should do to them. Pick out the beautiful women who are among us and in Midian, and stand them naked and adorned with gold and precious stones before them. And it shall be, when they see them and lie with them, they will sin against their Lord and fall into your hands; for otherwise you cannot fight against them…’ And afterward, the people were seduced after the daughters of Moab. For Balak did everything that Balaam had shown him (Pseudo-Philo, Biblical Antiquities 18:13-14; emphasis added; see also Josephus, Antiquities 4:129).
The later Midrash Tanhuma makes the connection between Israel’s idolatry and sexual immorality explicit: “They called to the people and offered sacrifices to their gods” (Num. 25:2) for they followed Balaam’s advice…and set up tents and put prostitutes in them with all their finery…Whenever a Jew would pass by in the market place…a girl would come out in her adornments and her perfume and seduce him by saying, “Why is it that we love you and you hate us—here, take this piece of merchandise for free—after all, we are both descended from a single ancestor, Terah, the father of Abraham. Wouldn’t you like to eat from our sacrificial offerings?” (Midrash Tanhuma, Balak 18; emphasis added).
John’s rebuke of the community in Pergamum—“But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication” (Revelation 2:14; see also 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11)—relied upon post-biblical Jewish interpretations concerning Balaam and Israel’s idolatry and sexual immorality at Baal-Peor. Moreover, he connected it with the issue among non-Jewish followers of Jesus of abstaining from food offered to idols and prohibited sexual unions. The Apostolic decree in Acts 15 did not settle the issue, and whoever the Nicolatians were, they seemingly held teaching which permitted the consumption of food offered to idols and sexual immorality among the non-Jewish Christ followers. John equated the teaching of the Nicolatians with Balaam’s advice, which placed a stumbling block before Israel causing her to sin.
New Testament authors do not provide the interpretive traditions or techniques of interpretation they relied upon. This was part of the spiritual world of ancient Judaism, and as Jesus’ movement belonged to that world, they interpreted the Jewish Scriptures and expressed their faith as ancient Jews. As modern readers of the New Testament, we must explore the literary sources of ancient Judaism to enable ourselves to read the New Testament in the manner its authors intended. Part of this exploration requires us to learn how to read the Jewish Scriptures in the manner of its ancient Jewish interpreters.