The Messiah

[SolaSaint]

I have a question for you all. When Jesus met the woman at the well in John 4, she stated she knew the Messiah was coming. At what extent did the non-Jews know about the prophecies concerning Jesus. It seems they were looking for him eventhough their religion didn't point to Him?

 

[OldRegular]

The woman at the well was a Samaritan. The Samaritans were descendants of people sent to the Northern Kingdom by the king of Assyria after he took the northern Tribes captive. The story of these people can be read in 2 Kings 17:24ff and Ezra 4:2. I suspect there was intermarriage between the imports and residual Israelites of the Northern Tribes. The information from Kings show they had some knowledge of God and apparently in time learned of the Messianic prophesies.

It is worth noting that this woman was the first person to whom Jesus Christ declared Himself.

 

[agedman]

I have a question for you all. When Jesus met the woman at the well in John 4, she stated she knew the Messiah was coming. At what extent did the non-Jews know about the prophecies concerning Jesus. It seems they were looking for him eventhough their religion didn't point to Him?

The wise men who came to the child in Bethlehem were not Jews.

Just because the Jews were charged with the keeping of the Scriptures did not mean that they kept the Scriptures to themselves, only.

 

[SolaSaint]

It just seemed to me the Samaritan woman knew more than I would have expected, but I guess you're right the northern tribes probably did influence these people a lot, just as Judah influenced Babylon in Daniels days.

So were the false religions of the Samaritans teaching the Messiah, or do you think she was just borrowing from the Jews?

 

[psalms109:31]

Matthew 23:15
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

Compass sea and land - A proverbial expression, similar to ours, You leave no stone unturned; intimating that they did all in their power to gain converts, not to God, but to their sect. These we may suppose were principally sought for among the Gentiles, for the bulk of the Jewish nation was already on the side of the Pharisees.

I do believe they were messengers of God to the world to win converts to the one true God. If they were doing what God called them to do their message and the prophesies foretold should of been heard from the people around them the Gentiles and those they traveled to convert as that scripture shows.

 

[JesusFan]

Do baptists Even Have a "Systematic theology" of the faith?

Disregard wrong posting
reposted as new thread!

 

[Grasshopper]

24 Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. 25 And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the LORD; therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the God of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and indeed, they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Send there one of the priests whom you brought from there; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the rituals of the God of the land.” 28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

 

[Scarlett O.]

I have a question for you all. When Jesus met the woman at the well in John 4, she stated she knew the Messiah was coming. At what extent did the non-Jews know about the prophecies concerning Jesus. It seems they were looking for him eventhough their religion didn't point to Him?

2 Kings 17:24 says that the king of Assyria brought in other people to populate Samaria when the Samaritans were taken captive: people from Babylon, Cutath, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim. Of course, these people brought their own gods and religious practices.

God sent lions to kill some of these people who inhabited Samaria and this frightened them. They sent a message to the king of Assyria and said, “We don’t know what the God of this land wants!” He sent word back to them that he was sending a Jewish priest back from captivity to teach them what God wanted. They adopted a religion that was part Judaism and part pagan. And that was unacceptable to God. (2 Kings 17:25-34)

So when the Jews came back and began to rebuild the Temple, you remember that the Samaritans offered to help and their help was refused because their religion was a hodge-podge of various beliefs. The Samaritans, insulted, even tried to stop the work. (Ezra 4:1-4) That's why the Jews and Samaritans hated each other so much.

It's also why the Samaritan woman at the well knew enough about Judaism to know about Messianic prophecy and not enough about God so that Jesus had to tell her that when it came to worship - she didn't understand what she was talking about.

Those Samaritans were as lost as one can get - possessing just enough head knowledge to falsely believe one is justified.

 

[OldRegular]

It's also why the Samaritan woman at the well knew enough about Judaism to know about Messianic prophecy and not enough about God so that Jesus had to tell her that when it came to worship - she didn't understand what she was talking about.

Those Samaritans were as lost as one can get - possessing just enough head knowledge to falsely believe one is justified.

In that respect were they much different than the Jews of that day and since then???? But then they did believe that Jesus was the Messiah, something that most Jews did not and still don't.

 

[beameup]

Wikipedia (for what it's worth):
The Samaritans (Hebrew: שומרונים‎ Shomronim, Arabic: السامريون‎ as-Sāmariyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously the Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by those returning from exile. It is commonly, though inaccurately, accepted that Samaritans are mainstream Jews.

Ancestrally, Samaritans claim descent from a group of Israelite inhabitants from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph) as well as some descendants from the priestly tribe of Levi, who have connections to ancient Samaria from the period of their entry into the land of Canaan, while some suggest that it was from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the Samaritan Kingdom of Baba Rabba. The Samaritans, however, derive their name not from this geographical designation, but rather from the Hebrew term Shamerim שַמֶרִים, "Keepers of the Law".
.........
According to Samaritan tradition, Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled the land. excerpt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritan

 

[Scarlett O.]

In that respect were they much different than the Jews of that day and since then???? But then they did believe that Jesus was the Messiah, something that most Jews did not and still don't.

In terms of knowing Messianic prophecy and yet not recognizing Jesus, they are and were similar to Jews. The Bible explains that the difference was that the Samaritans were polytheistic. But as you imply, as for many of the unbelieving Jews, believing in one God didn't/doesn't help if His Son isn't acknowledged for the Messiah.

 

[OldRegular]

But as you imply, as for many of the unbelieving Jews, believing in one God didn't/doesn't help if His Son isn't acknowledged for the Messiah.

Actually I believe many Jews of today are agnostic. If I am not mistaken a minority of the population of Israel are orthodox Jews!

http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/howrelisr.htm


"Israel's Jews are not divided into two groups but into four: ultra-Orthodox, religious Zionists, traditional Jews, and secular. Some 8 percent are ultra-Orthodox. These are the strangely (to Western eyes) garbed, black hatted Jews who are featured in all the pictures, despite the fact that they represent only 8 percent of Israel's Jewish population.

Another 17 percent are religious Zionists who normally are lost to view in the studies and the statistics because they are generally lumped with everyone else. The religious Zionists are similar to the modern or centrist Orthodox Jews in the diaspora, partaking of most or all aspects of modern civilization except that they maintain Orthodox observance of Jewish religious law and tradition."

 

[Scarlett O.]

Actually I believe many Jews of today are agnostic. If I am not mistaken a minority of the population of Israel are orthodox Jews!......

I think you are right about that.

 

[OldRegular]

I think you are right about that.

Even the orthodox Jews have denied God for 2000 years. Jesus Christ said of the Jews: Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.[color] Matthew 21:43]

Why do many people insist that the Jews are still God's chosen people?