Discovering the Roots of Christian Orthodoxy: Judaism

For some time now I've been trying to be consistent in my reading and studying on the Orthodox Church. And quite recently, I've been devoting some time to "Surprised by Christ:: : My Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity" by Fr A. James Bernstein, a Jewish convert to Orthodoxy. Coming from a Zionist Evangelical Protestant background, Fr A. James Bernstein's story on his journey to Orthodoxy has thus far been inspiring, and has helped propel me to continue on my exploration on Orthodoxy.

From a very young age, I was taught to have a respect for the nation of Israel; a love for the Jewish people was loosely instilled in me due to the facts that Jesus was a Jew and that Salvation comes from the Jews (John 4:22). Growing up, my mother was big on movies about Jews, especially films on the Holocaust. Messianic music was also something that tended to echo throughout the house; Joel Shernof was and still is my mother's favorite. At church, the emphasize of the nation of Israel still being God's chosen was not lacking. And while we weren't hard core Zionists (we weren't sending money for Zionist agendas, or mixing in politics), we definitely were encouraged to hold the view that Israel is God's chosen, that Israel has every right to the land of Israel (Israel, not Palestine) and that the Rapture is not the Second Coming, but a separate event in the end of times. There was a point in my life when I even wanted to live on a kibbutz and learn Hebrew.

As naive and young as I was, I kind of thought I knew enough about Judaism. I knew I didn't know all that is needed to know what Judaism is about (and I still don't), but I thought that my interpretation of the Bible and what I was taught at home and at church was enough justification for me to hold that view.  However, it wasn't until in the recent two years that I came to realize my perception of the nation of Israel and Judaism were extremely distorted. I was going through a spiritual crisis; I had come to realize that my view of Christian Zionism was a pretty double-standard theological view. I realized that there was something wrong with my theological view. I realized I wasn't satisfied for a reason, and from there I commenced to question my Zionist Evangelical Protestant faith, and I started searching for the Truth, on and off, until God brought to my attention Orthodoxy.

Now, by reading "Surprised by Christ", so far my realization that I don't know enough about Judaism has been accented. In his book, Fr James dedicates portions in which he describes how Christian Orthodoxy has its origins in Orthodox Judaism and how Orthodoxy is the fulfillment of Orthodox Judaism. In chapter 9, "Worship in the Ancient Church", he is descriptive of how the early Christians worshiped, citing various primary sources that were clear that worship in the Ancient Church was extremely different to how the many various Protestant churches worship today. In chapter 12, "Orthodoxy: Jewish and Christian", he goes into depth on how Scriptural worship in the Orthodox Church is and her roots in Jewish Orthodoxy. In these two chapters, he demonstrates the historical continuity of the Orthodox faith as well as her connection to Jewish worship, two points that as a Zionist Evangelical Protestant Christian have helped me to push me to keep exploring Orthodoxy.  

In chapter 12, Fr James writes,  "Jewish worship was always physical. The Old Testament people of God worshiped with music, with color, with light and candles, with sweet aroma and incense, with art, with rhythmic chant, with feasts and fasts, with cycles of holy days, and with godly order and liturgy. I came to realize these things were neither pagan in origin nor temporal in character . They were fulfilled in Christ and retained." When I first read that paragraph some weeks back, it stuck to my mind. And I contemplated how that could be true. As I continued reading chapter 12, Fr James gave Scriptural support of the things that the Orthodox Church practices because of her Jewish heritage, but are lacking for the most part in the various Protestant churches. I further realized that I was missing a lot of information that I had skipped over when reading the Bible; the ritualistic nature of worship, for instance. There were some things that I still wasn't sure about, like that of icons (which is the usual nemesis of the Protestant exploring Orthodoxy). But I was still intrigued and I decided not to give up; that with time I would come to understand more.

Quite recently, I came across a Youtube video, "The Liturgy: From the Ancient Israelites till the Messiah"; a comparison between practices of ancient and modern day Judaism and the Christian Orthodox Church. As I watched the video, Fr James' book came to my mind, and it clicked; from the veneration of icons to the Eucharist to the chants and EVEN the vestments. I saw the continuity of the ancient Jewish tradition in the Orthodox Christian tradition in this video. No one can deny the similarities between both traditions. One SHOULD note that despite the approximate 1,500 year-old schism between the Oriental Communion and the Eastern Communion, in this video it can be seen that BOTH churches continue with their Jewish roots.   

 As I continue my walk towards Orthodoxy, I hope that with time I will come to learn more about Ancient Judaism and how it shaped Christian Orthodoxy in contrast to today's Zionist Christian ideology that is lacking, to me, the depth that Christian Orthodoxy has due to the fact that Christian Orthodoxy is the fulfillment of ancient Judaism.   

- Kassia Diakonia 

Sources:

Bernstein, Fr. A. James. Surprised by Christ: My Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity. Conciliar Press.