Living in this comfortable common ground, one did not stick out so much. Therefore, they went back to this common ground to avoid persecution. Of course, these Jewish Christians did not want to abandon religion, but they did want to make it less distinctively Christian. “Part of the problem facing the Hebrews was the superficial similarity between the elementary tenets of Christianity and those of Judaism, which made it possible for Christian Jews to think they could hold on to both.” (Guthrie) Because Christianity did grow out of Judaism, it was a more subtle temptation for a Jewish Christian to slip back into Judaism than it was for a formerly pagan Christian to go back to his pagan ways. This was a safe common ground for these discouraged Jewish Christians to retreat back to. The foundation: In this case, the elementary principles to move beyond are all items in a common ground of belief between Christianity and Judaism. Bruce quotes Nairne: “‘Doctrines of washings’–how unnatural are the attempts to explain this plural as referring to Christian Baptism.”ĭ. The ESV translation has, instruction about washings. The New English Bible translation reflects this, translating “ doctrine of baptisms” as instruction about cleansing rites. Baptismos is the word used on three other specific instances to refer to Jewish ceremonial washings (Hebrews 9:10, Mark 7:4, and Mark 7:8). The specific ancient Greek word here translated baptisms ( baptismos) is not the word regularly used in the New Testament to describe Christian baptism ( baptizo). Of the doctrine of baptisms: Not even baptisms, as it is used in this passage, is necessarily Christian. Repentance, faith, resurrection, and judgment were certainly Jewish, and on this account the reference seems to be the Jewish foundation, and they are urged to avoid these elementary things which they are to leave for something higher and richer.” (Griffith Thomas)Ĭ. “It is profoundly significant to observe how little distinctively Christian there is in this statement. “When we consider the ‘rudiments’ one by one, it is remarkable how little in the list is distinctive of Christianity, for practically every item could have its place in a fairly orthodox Jewish community… Each of them, indeed, acquires a new significance in a Christian context but the impression we get is that existing Jewish beliefs and practices were used as a foundation on which to build Christian truth.” (Bruce)
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