Taylor R. Marshall - The Crucified Rabbi: Judaism and the Origins of Catholic Christianity

The Crucified Rabbi

Judaism and the Origins
of Catholic Christianity

Taylor Marshall

Origins of Catholic Christianity Trilogy

Volume One

Saint John Press

mmix

Copyright 2009 Taylor Reed Marshall

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the permission in writing from the publisher or author.

Please visit The Crucif ied Rabbi on the web at:

www.crucifiedrabbi.com

- Deuteronomy 18:15

, . , ;

- John 5:46-47

Notus in Juda Deus : in Isral magnum nomen eius.

- Psalm 75:1-2 Vulgata

Contents

Acknowledgments

This book began as a collection of notes for a series of public lectures that I delivered at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C. during the Spring of 2007. I am grateful to the Rev. Msgr. William Stetson who encouraged me to organize these notes into the book that you now have before you. I would also like to thank Kevin Jones at the Catholic Information Center for his feedback.

I dont know how to begin thanking Jeffrey Morrow, Ph.D. Jeffrey is a Jewish convert to Catholicism and is one of the most gifted young theologians of our day. He read the manuscript and provided comments of incalculable wortheverything from theological observations to specifics regarding Hebrew grammar and vocabulary. Thank you Jeff. I am also grateful to Dwight Lindley who edited the manuscript. Special thanks are do to Albert Doskey for his edits and suggestions regarding the distinctions between Pre-Pentecostal Judaism and Post-Pentecostal Judaism, which are now found in the fourth printing of this book. Charles Page gave the manuscript an extra polish by correcting mistakes found in the first printing.

My thanks are also due to Bishop Kevin Vann to whom this book is dedicated, to William Cardinal Baum , Archbishop John Myers , and Bishop Kevin Farrell for their support and encouragement, to Rabbi Jacob Neusner for his earnest engagement with Christianity, to Mark Drogin , David Moss , Roy Schoeman for their perspective as Hebrew Catholics, to Douglas Greene and Michael Kelly at Westminster Theological Seminary for teaching me Hebrew, to Peter Enns , Peter Leithart , and James B. Jordan for opening my eyes to the Old Testament, to N.T. Wright , Scott Hahn , James Dunn , Michael Barber , Mary Moorman , Matthew Levering , Mike Aquilina , Brant Pitre and Pope Benedict XVI for their theological insights, to Thomas Howard , Marcus Grodi , Jim Anderson , Robert Barham , Robert Dunikoski , Dave Armstrong, Bill Soltesz , Christopher Malloy , Doug Pearson , Klemens Raab , Dave Palmer , Neal Judisch , Bryan Cross , Tim Troutman , Sean Dollahon , Tom Brown , Matt Yonke , Tom Riello , Andrew Preslar , John Kincaid , and Jonathan Deane for their friendship and encouragement along the way, and to David Mills and Raymond Arroyo for introducing me to the realm of publishing. I would like to thank the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal for their prayers. My gratitude is also due to my loving and supportive parents William and Jennifer .

Most of all, I thank my wife Joy who is for me the virtuous and noble wife of the Hebrew Scriptures:

Many women have done excellently,

but you surpass them all (Prov 31:29).

Her influence and advice are present on every page of this book.

With profound humility, I present this book to our Lord Jesus Christ and pray that every bit of chaff be disregarded and that anything of worth be attributed to His divine mercy.

xi

The Jewish Origins of Catholicism

A priest and a rabbi walked into a hospital

This is not the beginning of a joke, but the beginning of my journey to the Catholic Faith. I discovered the Jewish origins of Catholicism while I was still a Protestant clergyman, an Episcopalian priest to be exact. God quickened the process of my conversion to the Catholic Faith with an insight that I gained from a Jewish rabbi. Without his knowing it, this rabbi opened my eyes to a connection between biblical Judaism and Catholicism. As I pursued the matter, I began to see that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Old Testament by instituting the Holy Catholic Church. As a minister in the tradition stemming from King Henry VIIIs break from the Catholic Church (the Church of England), I realized that I had no other choiceI renounced my ministry and sought reception into the Catholic Church.

This journey began one morning as I sat at my desk in a black suit and white clerical collar. I had been ordained as an Episcopalian priest only a few weeks. The pastor of the parish came into my office with a smile on his face. Taylor, someone has requested a hospital visit.

This was my first official hospital visit as a clergyman. The pastor continued, Now when you get to the hospital, be sure to introduce yourself at the administration office. Tell them that you are a new minister and that you need clerical tags for your car so that you can park in the reserved for clergy parking spaces. This will save you time and you won t have to pay for parking.

Great. I m on my way.

One more thing. Always wash your hands before going into a hospital room, and be sure to also wash your hands when you leave the hospital. Make sure that you always wash. Washing protects you and it protects the patients.

Got it. Anything else?

Oh, and when you talk to people in their hospital beds, always be sure to stand at their feet so that they can see your face and hear your voice. Dont make the mistake of sitting next to the persons head, otherwise the poor soul must stretch his aching body to look you in the eye.

Get parking tags. Wash my hands. Stand at the end of the bed. I ll be sure to do that. Anything else?

Make sure you bring a prayer book. Sometimes a medical situation can become tense and you may not know how to pray. It s good to have a few standard prayers to which you can turn in a time of confusion.

Alright. I ve got it. Let me get my stole and I ll be on my way.

You ll do fine. Ill say a prayer for you, said the pastor. Do you have any questions?

Just one, I replied.

What s that?

Who am I going to see?

The pastor told me the name of a woman who would be receiving a surgery at 1:00 pm. I wrote down her name, and then grabbed my prayer book, stole, and holy oil.

When I arrived at the hospital I obtained my clergy parking tags, washed my hands, and went upstairs to surgery. The waiting room was packed with people waiting for their loved ones to return from surgery. I went to the desk, smiled at the receptionist, and said, My name is Father Taylor Marshall and I m here to see someone before she enters surgery. I reported the womans name.

Her fingernails stopped clicking on the keyboard. Great. You can just go on back there and see her.

I turned around and saw two swinging medical doors at the end of the waiting room.

Through there?

Yes, Father. Just go on in. She is already with the anesthesiologist.

It was clear that she believed that I had done this before, but it was my first time. As I came to the doors, I pushed the button and the automatic doors swung open. I walked forward and they closed behind me. Everyone beyond those doors seemed to be scrubbed and masked. I was amazed that no one stopped me. I expected someone to say, What are you doing here? or How did you get back here? The white collar around my neck opened door after door as I navigated my way toward the room where patients prepared for surgery. Finally, I came into a large room with eight beds. A nurse smiled at me.