Lesson Sixteen
Shadows and the Nature of Reality
You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.”
John 5:39
So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously." And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.”
Luke 2:45-50
Introduction
- Last week we looked in depth at Yom Kippur and the correlation to the Yeshua’s event in the Heavenly Tabernacle.
- We saw that it DID cleanse (physical) – but did NOT take away sin (eternal).
- We saw that Yom Kippur was never about eternal atonement – but temporal – to continue to have the Tabernacle as functional.
- Yom Kippur is a chukat olam – a statute forever.
- This week we are looking at the issue of ‘shadows’ and the nature of reality.
Platonism
- Plato was a Greek philosopher in the 4th and 3rd Century BCE. Like his teacher, Socrates, taught about the nature of reality.
- In Plato’s Republic, he used the “Cave Analogy” to describe reality.
- The “Cave Analogy” relegates man to a cave, with his only perception of what is true and real, represented as mere shadows on the cave wall – the shadows cast by “forms” of a higher reality. He concluded that man could never perceive truth until he perceived the forms. The shadows were a hindrance in this pursuit.
- Early church leaders like Martyr, Origin, and Augustine used Platonism to move the church away from a Hebraic understanding of Scripture. Christianity became a sort of Theistic Platonism, where thoughts superseded deeds.
- Shadows became relatively bad in theological terms.
- The Epistle to the Hebrews was not written by a Theistic Platonist.
A Mere Shadow?
- Col 2:16-17: A mere shadow? This is pure and unadulterated Theistic Platonism. Continue reading: vv18-23: man-made rules?
- Greek skia = Hebrew tzel, from root tzalal
- Gen 19:8: The shadow of a roof: under the protection of.
- 1Chron 29:15: Our days on earth are like a shadow.
- Ps 36:5-9: The shadow of HaShem’s ‘wings’.
- Is 4:5-6: Above every dwelling place – the Sh’kinah – a tabernacle for ‘shade’.
- Is 49:2-3: in the shadow of HaShem’s hand – the shape of that shadow is the outline of his ‘hand’.
- Is 51:15-16: Israel is under the shadow of HaShem’s hand – His outline defining them. A shadow reveals the Shadow-caster.
- Rom 1:19-20: The ‘shadows’ are the way of ‘seeing’ G-d’s invisible attributes.
- ‘Shadows’ are the visible of what cannot be seen in the physical world. Shadows are part of reality.
Translator Bias and Their Unapologetic Editing of G-d’s Word
- Col 2:16-17: Translators fiddled with the words, and the tenses. Present tense (“is coming”). Better: “a shadow of what is coming, and the substance is Messiah.”
- This fits with the practice of Paul [Sh’aul] who kept the Sabbath and the Feasts, like Messiah Yeshua did.
- Heb 8:4-5: The Tabernacle system - a perfect ‘shadow’ of the Shadow-caster Messiah Himself.
- Heb 10:1: Translators fiddled with the tenses. Present tenses. Better: “…has a shadow of the good that is coming – not a replacement for His work.”
Summary
- If we understand the Epistle to the Hebrews the way that the translators want us to, we will inevitably arrive at a disconnect from the rest of Scripture. Yeshua’s words can never equate to this biased view.
- We must understand that the ‘shadows’ are not bad, but the only way we see the spiritual while we are confined to the physical.
- If, as many theologians suggest, that the Temple system, the Feasts of HaShem, etc. are repugnant to G-d, then their theology is nothing more than a “mere shadow” itself. The reality is that Yeshua is revealed in them – and no amount of messing with the verb tenses, and perverting the words will negate this fact.