Faith in Me

By Andrew J. Talon

The cultural contexts of the Bible have been forgotten over the years. For political reasons, for material reasons, for simple lack of the knowledge, how the events in the Bible times occurred within the framework of their culture is just as important as the events themselves. As I need to keep the essay coherent, I will focus on one aspect of the Bible, one that has huge ramifications for Christians everywhere.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus’s disciples pile into a boat and head for the other side of the lake of Galilee. During which time, they are caught in a storm and are threatened with sinking. They see Jesus walking on the water and are soon frightened out of their wits, thinking He’s a ghost until He calls out to them. Peter, a disciple, tells Jesus that if it’s really Him, to order him to walk out to Him. Jesus does so, and Peter steps out of the boat and walks towards Jesus. Halfway though, Peter begins to sink in his fear, and Jesus pulls him back out, telling Peter “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Some interpret this as Peter doubting Jesus and therefore sinking, but in the context of First Century Israel it takes a different definition.

In First Century Israel, all Jewish children (mostly boys, but girls too) went to school. They were taught the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers. The children often memorized these books, able to quote verses on command. This type of schooling was known as bet safra, and lasted until the children were eight or nine years old. After this, most of them went off to apprenticeships and learning the family trade. However, the best of these students went on to the next level, bet sefer, where they learned the rest of the Bible. Often memorizing everything from Genesis to Malachi.

This schooling would last until the age of fifteen or sixteen at most, and after that, the majority of the students went off to seek apprenticeships and learn the family trade. But, the best of the best would go on to bet rabban, which literally meant “house of the teacher”. They would seek out a rabbi, and ask to learn from the rabbi. To become this rabbi’s disciple, and therefore, eventually, become a rabbi themselves. The rabbis would quiz the potential disciple on the Bible, ask for how they interpreted different verses, and judge the background of the seeker. If the rabbi felt that the child could follow him, could do what he did with his knowledge of the scriptures and background, then he would tell the potential disciple to “Follow me.” Literally. If the rabbi felt that the child didn’t have what it took, he would send them back home.

This puts Jesus’s actions in an interesting light. Peter and Andrew, His first disciples, were fishermen, which meant that they had not made the cut. Maybe at bet safra, maybe at bet sefer, but needless to say no rabbi had ever considered them for discipleship. Yet Jesus, essentially a rabbi in his knowledge of the Bible, calls them as His disciples. He didn’t choose the up and coming students, the all-stars of Jewish education, but those who had not made the cut. People most rabbis would not have given a second glance to. Which shows that, in choosing his disciples, Jesus did not judge them by how much of the Torah they had memorized or their education. He chose them because He felt that they could do what He could.

Back to the walking on water story: With this in mind, we can see Peter’s actions in a different light. He asked Jesus to tell him to come out to Jesus, which meant that if He did, Peter could walk on water too. But halfway there, Peter begins to sink in his fear, and cries out for Jesus to save him. This suggests that instead of Peter doubting in Jesus, he was doubting himself. He doubted in his ability to do what Jesus did, despite the fact that a disciple of a rabbi back in those times was chosen because the rabbi thought that the disciple could do what he did. Jesus would not have called Peter out to walk on the water had He not felt Peter could do so. Which indicates that for all the faith God wants us to have in Him, God also has faith in us. A sadly overlooked fact in much of today’s Christian theology.