The Revived Woman paired with the Resurrected Son

We have gone through portraits of Jesus presented in the Gospels by looking at him through his Jewish lens. In doing so we have seen two over-riding themes.

Jews have led in making contributions to mankind in many fields of activity. However, their story is mixed with immense suffering and sorrow.
Jesus has participated, even headed, this totality of Jewish experience. We see this in the numerous parallel patterns. We review and look at a few more, including the modern revival of Hebrew and the Festivals prescribed through Moses.

Jewish Contributions to Mankind’s Progress

Consider the following in light of the fact that the total Jewish population is 15.2 million, 0.19% of the 8 billion worldwide population.

From 1901 to 2021 Jews have accounted for 22% of all worldwide individual recipients for all of the Nobel Prizes. (summing all the chemistry, literature, physics, economics, medicine, and peace prizes of the Nobel Prize series)
Jews have been awarded 38% of the US National Medal of Sciences.
Japan’s coveted Kyoto Prize (both for arts and sciences achievements) has been awarded to Jews 24% of the time.
The Grande Médaille of the French Academy of Sciences has been awarded to Jews 48% of the time.
Of the members of the Scientific British Royal Society (wiki summary) 26% have been Jewish since 1901.

We have surveyed Jews who have significantly impacted modern society:

We learned how Jews led in the initial development of the first alphabet. Innovation on many fronts continues to overflow from them. They have blessed the world by being a light to the nations.

Jewish Sorrows

But it is not as though Jews have had an easy time riding the wake of success. The stories of Anne Frank, Simon bar Kochba, the Maccabees, Richard Wurmbrand, Natan Sharansky, and the repeated expulsions of Jews across Europe culminating in the Holocaust illustrate this. Humankind has been beset with many problems of racism down through history. However, Jews are the only people for which a term for unsuppressed hatred and persecution specifically against them needed creating (anti-Semitism). Along with their propensity for innovation, an adversarial principle seems to continually confront them.

In fact, Jewish success often raises the fears of others that they control society, harboring sinister intentions to take over. These fears, though unfounded, seem to spread through many social sectors. Many times they have been the cause of anti-Semitic outbreaks.

On other occasions, success for certain Jews has raised questions resulting in backlashes against Jews as a whole. The Russian oligarchs associated with Russian President Putin serve as an example. Of the 210 Russian oligarchs worth more than $1 billion, 20 of them, or 10%, are Jewish. This is far above the per capita Russian Jewish population at 0.16% of the Russian population. Prominent among these Russian-Jewish oligarchs are Roman Abramovich, Petr Aven, Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Fridman, Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Alexander Smolensky. Six of the top seven Russian oligarchs are Jewish. This weighting has started creating the impression that the oligarchs are all Jewish. Here again, Jewish talent has exerted a disproportionate influence. So with the scrutiny of the oligarchs, some fear a coming anti-Semitic backlash.

The Power Shaping Jewish Destiny

So how to explain Jewish ability as well as their history of sorrows? We explored an adversarial spirit pitted against them here. The Bible presents their complete situation as even more complex than that.

At the call of Abraham 4000 years ago, the One Calling him declared:

²“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.
³I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12: 2-3

Abraham and Moses in Historical Timeline with Jesus

Then five hundred years later (1500 BCE) this Same Presence, through Moses, pronounced Blessings & Curses. Moses predicted these would shape global history going forward, and they have.

Later (750 BCE), Isaiah, also in the name of that Same Power, predicted repeatedly that:

I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;
    I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
    to be a covenant for the people
    and a light for the Gentiles,
Isaiah 42:6

Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Isaiah 60:3

These pronouncements line up with what we see recorded in history, and also happening in the world today. History did not have to follow the path of these decrees after Isaiah wrote them down thousands of years ago.

But it did.

It still does.

We should take note.

This shows a single-minded Intent, Purpose and Power behind these statements demonstrating itself through history. Intent and purpose come only from persons. Since this intent and purpose spans thousands of years it cannot come simply from human purposes. God shows His Hand through these Promises.

Was Christ the Messiah? Christians and Jews Disagree - BahaiTeachings.org — Light to the Nations

Jesus leads the Jewish Experience

We also saw that Jesus participated with his fellow Jews in the totality of their experience. He did so both in its heights and its depths. It is not just that Jesus’ career has similarities with that of some well-known Jews. But his experiences match that of the Jewish nation. He typifies national Israel.

Jesus’ Resurrection & the Jewish Hebrew Revival

For example, Jews underwent a national death when the Romans expelled them from the Biblical land. They remained exiled for 1900 years, during this period, their national language, Hebrew, died. For hundreds of years, Jews ceased to speak Hebrew in everyday conversation. People cannot live without their native language, but the Hebrew language recently revived.

The revival of Hebrew began when the Russian-born Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, self-taught in Hebrew, chose to speak Hebrew with fellow Jews in Paris on October 13, 1881. This recorded the first time in hundreds of years that Hebrew had been spoken in everyday conversation. Shortly afterwards, moving to Jerusalem, Ben Yehuda tried to persuade other Jewish families to speak Hebrew. He developed dictionaries, wrote plays for children in Hebrew and published a Hebrew newspaper.

His efforts met with limited success since after ten years only four families spoke Hebrew conversationally. Obstacles loomed. Parents were reluctant to educate their children in Hebrew, an impractical language since no one spoke it. Hebrew schoolbooks did not exist. However, by the early 20^th century Hebrew began to gain traction. Today over 9 million people speak it. As Wikipedia says of the revival of Hebrew:

The process of Hebrew’s return to regular usage is unique; there are no other examples of a natural language without any native speakers subsequently acquiring several million native speakers,
Wikipedia

Jesus died and then rose from the dead, a one-of-a-kind event. In the same way, Israel died and then came alive again as a nation with the one-of-a-kind revival of Hebrew.

Jesus and the Torah Festivals

Jews, as a nation, celebrate the festivals prescribed through Moses 3500 years ago. As a nation they celebrate Passover, Sabbath, First Fruits and Pentecost. These festivals partly embody and define them as Jews.

Jesus underwent his:

Thus, Jesus embodies, represents, and experienced all the spring festivals as no other Jew, Moses included, has ever done.

Jesus’ career did not embody the remaining autumn Feasts prescribed by Moses. These occur in September-October: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. However, Jesus announced that he would return again and that the time of his coming would be precisely planned. His First Coming precisely matched the timing of all the spring festivals. So it stands to reason that his Second Coming will precisely match the timing of these fall festivals.

Revived and Returning

Here again, in the mere expectation of his Second Coming, we see Jesus’ career, viewed through the span of history, typifying that of national Israel. During their long exile from the Biblical land they celebrated the annual Passover in exile with the phrase that became a tradition: “Next year in Jerusalem“. As a nation, they anticipated a return to the Land. As a nation, they have returned within our lifetimes. Jesus, likewise, has left the Biblical land and has been absent for over 2000 years. But, like his nation, he has promised his return. He said that the return of the Jews to the Biblical land was a sign that his return was ‘near’. So he linked the two returns.

Reach Out to the Presence at Work

Many think of Jesus solely through the stained-glass window of Christendom’s history in Europe and the Americas. Therefore he is often seen simply as a dusty, (somewhat) historical figure who lived long ago. Perhaps he is a cultural relic that has some traditional value, but little potent relevance to our lives today.

But the Bible, from its beginning and right to its end, appended thousands of years later, presents him as the Offspring of the Woman (Israel). It also presents him as the Christ, destined to return and reign.

From the Beginning…

And I will put enmity
    between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:15 (in writing as far back as we know, more details here)

To the last pages in its final book…

A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. ²She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth…
Revelation 12:1-2

_{^{Bartolomeo Cesi , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons}}

⁵She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
Revelation 12:5 (written 1st Century CE)

We can see in the news headlines today that the ‘Woman’ is reviving. Since the Son is hers, tangibly linked to her, then we would not be foolish to reach out to Him. If we do, even without complete understanding, then we can experience his promise that

…he is not far from any one of us.
Acts 17:27b

and

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3: 9