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INTRODUCTION
The Bible is God’s Word, but it’s also full of words. Unfortunately, most of us do not read the Bible in its original languages. The New
Testament was written in Greek, but many of the people whose
stories fill its pages spoke Aramaic or Hebrew. As anyone who has
read
The Little Prince
 or
The Brothers Karamazov
 knows, things can get lost in translation. Therefore, it is helpful to look at the original languages, as well as the historical and cultural context of those words, to give us insight into the intended meaning of the text.
 When trying to understand the New Testament, we must remember that Jesus and his first followers were Jewish. Jesus
was the Son of God, but he put on flesh as a Jewish rabbi in first-century Palestine. We must remember that context, and examine the text through that cultural lens.For example, just before his trial and death, Jesus told his dis-ciples: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going” (John 14:3–4). Of course, Thomas the doubter replies: “Lord, we don’t know where  you are going, so how can we know the way?” (v. 5). Jesus answers
 
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into the 
 WORD
with those famous words: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (v. 6).
These are verses I memorized as an obedient evangelical child
because they explain that Jesus is the only way to heaven—the
place he was going to prepare for us. We were told that we could use his words to refute moral relativism: If all roads led to God, then Jesus would have said, “I am a way,” or “I’m one of the ways.”
If I told my unbelieving friends this verse, they would immediately
fall to their knees in repentance and ask me what they must do to be saved, and I would tell them: Be born again (John 3:16). Or so my Sunday school teachers told me.
It didn’t always work out like that, despite my good intentions.  Just because something is true doesn’t mean it will be immediately
convincing to skeptics. I do think Jesus is the way; I’m not arguing
that point. But I never learned the cultural and religious context of
that verse, or what it would have meant to the people who heard it at that time. To the Jews who became his disciples, who gathered to hear his teaching or stood at a distance wondering who he was,
this statement had radical implications. But he wasn’t refuting
moral relativism. He was fulfilling prophesy. Understanding the
cultural context might actually make Christianity more interesting
to skeptics, I think. Jesus was a Jewish rabbi. The Jewish culture of which Jesus was a part absolutely revered the Torah, God’s law. They learned it, memorized it, debated it, and discussed it—not because they had to, but because they loved it. Here are some of the passages they would have thought of immediately when they heard Jesus’ words.
Look at Exodus 18:20: “Teach them the decrees and laws,
and show them
the way
 to live and the duties they are to perform”
(emphasis mine). God’s decrees and instructions referred to in
this verse were from the Torah. It showed the Israelites the way to live. They often referred to
Torah
 as “the Way.”

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