Questions Anyone?

“Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.” John 16:30 This statement caught me off guard this morning – especially the phrase, “you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions.” Then it occurred to me (I believe through Divine Wisdom) that it would be helpful for me to know something about rabbis and their teaching styles.

I found a website put up by a Jewish rabbi that spoke to the teaching styles of Jewish tradition. It confirmed what I suspected – that students asking questions was an important part of the teaching methods used by rabbis. Rabbis would begin a discussion by stating a part of their law that maybe was difficult to understand. Then through a series of questions and answers, they would carefully define that piece of the law. Rabbis often sat in on the teachings of each other which created a strong check and balance and the idea of all learning together. They studied for years and years before they would be considered a teacher. And there were many levels – a tradition begun with Moses – where the younger students would gather in groups of 10 with their teachers and those teachers would be under another teacher who had a group of 100 and those under a teacher who was responsible for 1000, etc. Teachers and students would learn together in the larger setting and ‘drill down’ in the smaller settings.

Because of this system, the Laws in the Jewish tradition have come through thousands of years of ‘community’ studying and are not from a few individuals meeting together and then forcing the others to comply with their ideas.

This gives me great confidence in the accuracy of Scriptures – New Testament included – because the people took study of Scripture so seriously and worked so hard to learn and preserve it. The difficulties came when they were scattered in captivity and not allowed to gather to discuss the Torah. But even through that, there were those who held on to and preserved the Scriptures.

Understanding this about the Jewish people helps me understand what the disciples were saying here. By their saying that they did not need to ask Jesus questions anymore, they were moving him to a different class than the average rabbi. They were no longer trying to all come together on belief regarding a finer point through questions and answers and long discussions. He was indeed their Christ and what he had to say came straight from God and there was no questioning it.

Now Jesus’ response makes more sense – “You believe at last!” John 16:31 This isn’t the first time the disciples are acknowledging he is the Christ. But it is the first time that they truly understand the significance of who Jesus is. There is no longer a nagging question in their mind of whether he is the real deal. They know without a doubt.

To me, this is once again the awesome timing of God – to drop Jesus into the culture where:

· He would have the rabbinic platform to teach while allowing his followers to explore thoroughly their beliefs.

· What he said would be carefully preserved for future generations.

· The questions asked would also be carefully preserved for generations to come.

This last part is important because we all at some point in our lives have to question whether we believe what the Bible says about Jesus. If the disciples would not have been constantly questioning, and if their questions as well as his answers had not been carefully recorded, we may have ended up with a much sketchier picture of who Jesus was and why he was here. There was likely no other culture or time that would have given the gifts of questions and preserving the way the Jewish culture did at the time Jesus came.

I can hardly wait to keep studying the recordings of Jesus’ teachings and discussions! I have some questions to discuss with him.