To start this off, I just want to say I am aware of the Michael Rood/Nehemia Gordon teaching on Mosheh's seat and the Shem Tov Hebrew Matthew. I am not discounting that teaching, I am simply trying to add meaning. I am not completely convinced that Shem Tov's Hebrew Matthew is completely accurate since the script found did have a lot of Shem Tov's own notes added to it. Additionally, I am no longer to access the copy on the internet and as such am unable to reference it.
Mosheh's Seat:
We have heard that each synagogue had a "Mosheh's seat" which a person of authority would sit in. I considered this to be a "Pharisaical thing" stemming from their supposed authority of oral torah interpretation until recently. Perhaps there was some validity in this seat (to a certain extent). In order to show this authority, let's go back to the Torah:
Exodus 20:18-21
And all the people saw the thunders, the lightning flashes, the sound of the ram’s horn, and the mountain smoking. And the people saw it, and they trembled and stood at a distance, and said to Mosheh, “You speak with us and we hear, but let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die.” And Mosheh said to the people, “Do not fear, for Elohim has come to prove you, and in order that His fear be before you, so that you do not sin.” So the people stood at a distance, but Mosheh drew near the thick darkness where Elohim was.
YHWH, the Creator of heaven and earth desired a personal relationship with His people. He literally spoke out loud the people from Mount Sinai. Sadly, we rejected this personal relationship with El Shaddai and instead asked for a mediator so that we did not have to speak with Elohim directly. We know as a result of this the priesthood was taken away from the firstborn and given to the sons of Levi, but there was also another mediatory role that was assigned - 'shapat'; i.e. to judge or right-rule. During the exodus, Mosheh was that judge, but afterwards there would be an assigned judge.
Exodus 18:13-16
And it came to be, on the next day, that Mosheh sat to rightly rule the people. And the people stood before Mosheh from morning until evening. And when the father-in-law of Mosheh saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit by yourself, and all the people stand before you from morning until evening?” And Mosheh said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to seek Elohim. “When they have a matter, they come to me, and I rightly rule between one and another, and make known the laws of Elohim and His Torot.”
As we know from Exodus 18, this mediatory role of judge was shared by Mosheh with able-bodied men to reduce the load on him. It can only be assumed that after Mosheh passed away that this system of a top judge and subordinate judges continued to settle disputes between people and to settle disputes with interpretation of the Torah. Here is a passage that shows the continuation:
Deuteronomy 17:8-13
“When any matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, or between stroke and stroke – matters of strife within your gates – then you shall rise and go up to the place which יהוה your Elohim chooses,and shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who is in those days, and shall inquire. And they shall declare to you the word of right-ruling, and you shall do according to the word which they declare to you from that place which יהוה chooses. And you shall guard to do according to all that they instruct you. “Do according to the Torah in which they teach you, according to the right-ruling which they say to you. You do not turn to the right or to the left from the word which they declare to you. “And the man who acts arrogantly, so as not to listen to the priest who stands to serve there before יהוה your Elohim, or to the judge, that man shall die. So you shall purge the evil from Yisra’ĕl. 13 “And let all the people hear and fear, and no longer do arrogantly.
Thus we see, that a legal system was established for judging conduct according to the Torah. Now of course YHWH did not give up on desiring a personal relationship with his people, so He promised that He would send His son to become that mediator for the people, thus eliminating the fallacy of a man being the mediator for the people:
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
יהוה your Elohim shall raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brothers. Listen to Him, according to all you asked of יהוה your Elohim in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of יהוה my Elohim, nor let me see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ “And יהוה said to me, ‘What they have spoken is good. ‘I shall raise up for them a Prophet like you out of the midst of their brothers. And I shall put My Words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. ‘And it shall be, the man who does not listen to My Words which He speaks in My Name, I require it of him.
So, based off this, it appears to me that this 'Mosheh's Seat' was intended to be a seat of right-ruling that was ordained in the Torah (for local authority of the synagogue). Now, with this in mind, let's look at the passage where Yeshua speaks of this seat:
Matthew 23:1-7
Then יהושע spoke to the crowds and to His taught ones, saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Mosheh. “Therefore, whatever they say to you to guard, guard and do. But do not do according to their works, for they say, and do not do. “For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but with their finger they do not wish to move them. “And they do all their works to be seen by men, and they make their t’fillen wide and lengthen the tzitziyot of their garments, and they love the best place at feasts, and the best seats in the congregations, and the greetings in the market-places, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’
Do what they say for you to do, but do not do as they do. They have the authority of judge in the synagogue; if they say that everybody has to hop on one foot to their seat in the synagogue, then by law you must obey that decree. But do not do as they do; do not follow after their halacha and become their disciples because they are boastful, proud men who put others down in order to elevate their own stature. Sha'ul said something very similar to this in Romans 13:1 - "Let every being be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from Elohim, and the authorities that exist are appointed by Elohim." Sha'ul was saying that whatever the Roman authorities decree as law, you must not obey. And as we all know, we should not do as the Romans do for they were pagans. Yeshua's statement about the seat of Mosheh was simply stating that believers have to follow the laws of the land (or synagogue), but are not to emulate those leaders because they are vipers.
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Mosheh's Seat and Colossians</strong
Colossians 2:13-14 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having blotted out the certificate of debt against us – by the dogmas – which stood against us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the stake.
This is of course the famous passage that most Christian denominations use to say that the Torah is done away with and that now we just make up our own laws according to what pleases us. Before I go into these specific verses, I want to list some other verses from this chapter to establish the context of the chapter (please note the bolded parts):
Col 2:8 See to it that no one makes a prey of you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary matters of the world, and not according to Messiah.
Col 2:15 Having stripped the principalities and the authorities, He made a public display of them, having prevailed over them in it.
Col 2:16 Let no one therefore judge you in eating or in drinking, or in respect of a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths –
Col 2:17 which are a shadow of what is to come – but the Body of the Messiah.
Col 2:18 Let no one deprive you of the prize, one who takes delight in false humility and worship of messengers, taking his stand on what he has not seen, puffed up by his fleshly mind,Col 2:20 If, then, you died with Messiah from the elementary matters of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations:
Col 2:21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle” –
Col 2:22 which are all to perish with use – according to the commands and teachings of men?
Col 2:23 These indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed worship, humiliation and harsh treatment of the body – of no value at all, only for satisfaction of the flesh.
These verses seem to clearly indicate that the subject of this chapter is the commandments of men - i.e. the Oral Torah. So what was it that was nailed to the stake that verse 14 talks about? Exactly what it states in the Greek: DOGMAS (traditions of men)!!! When Yeshua died for His Bride, He became not only the High Priest, but also the mediatory judge of men (which is why there are so many verses speaking of Yeshua judging the nations). With this knowledge, we can better understand verses 16-17. Let no man therefore judge you… that means no pagan man and no Pharisaical man and no Rabbinical Jewish man, only the Body of Messiah is to judge you.
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This is still a work in progress, so please give me feedback on this.
Shalom,
Ryan