Ask a question. Dr. Eli will answer it.

Shalom, Dori!

My dear friends, God bless you for your prayers and encouragment!

Dear Mary Jane, great to hear from you! Genesis 1 and 2 are not two conflicting accounts of humanity’s origin. Genesis 1 gives the grand overview: on the sixth day God created ha’adam, “humankind,” male and female, in His image (Gen 1:26–27). Genesis 2 then slows down and tells the story in close detail.

The Hebrew word adam can mean “humanity” in general, but it also becomes the personal name Adam. Thus, Gen 2:7 describes the formation of the first man from the adamah, the ground. A little later, God forms the woman from his side (Gen 2:21–23). Together they are the male and female humanity announced in Gen 1.

So Adam was indeed the first human according to the Bible (at least he is featured as such). Genesis 1 tells us why humanity exists: to bear God’s image and represent His rule in creation. Genesis 2 shows us how God personally formed humanity, gave us life, work, relationship, and responsibility.

I trust this helps! Thank you for all you do! God bless you!

Thank you for this thoughtful question. From Paul’s Jewish and covenantal context, we should keep two texts distinct.

Galatians 3:13 does not say that “the curse of the Law was nailed to the tree.” It says that Messiah “redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us,” echoing Deuteronomy 21:23. In Galatians, this curse is closely connected with Israel’s covenantal failure and the problem of sin. Israel possessed the Torah, yet, like the nations, stood in need of redemption. Jesus, Israel’s Messiah and representative, bears the curse so that the blessing promised to Abraham may reach the nations through Him (Gal. 3:14).

The language of something being “nailed to the cross” comes from Colossians 2:14. There Paul speaks of a written record standing against us, not simply of the Torah itself. God removes the accusation and condemnation that stood over His people through the Messiah’s death.

This is why I would be cautious about saying, “Only the curses ended, while all the blessings of the Mosaic covenant simply continue unchanged.” Paul’s central concern is larger: through the crucified and risen Messiah, God has created one renewed covenant family. Gentiles do not need to take on Jewish covenant identity markers, such as circumcision, food laws, and calendar observance, in order to belong fully to Abraham’s family. They belong through faithfulness to the Messiah and the gift of the Spirit.

Paul certainly does not portray the Torah as evil. It is holy, righteous, and good (Rom. 7:12). But “works of the Law” in Galatians should not be reduced to generic good deeds in later Protestant-Catholic debates. They likely include the practices that marked out Jewish covenant membership. In Messiah, the family of God is no longer divided between Jew and Gentile, and its life is marked above all by Spirit-empowered love, which fulfills the Torah’s true aim (Gal. 5:13–23; Rom. 13:8–10).

On this site there is a whole section in articles dedicated to Paul - https://jewishstudiesforchristians.com/category/apostle-paul/ Enjoy it and let me know what you think!

Thank you for writing. I am a Jewish follower of Jesus who serves believers from many church backgrounds, and I want Scripture, not a denominational label, to govern my conscience.

We are saved by God’s grace through faith, never by earning our standing before Him (Eph 2:8–10). Yet grace does not give permission for willful sin. Paul rejects that plainly in Rom 6:1–2, and 1 John 3:4 rightly calls sin lawlessness. Genuine faith produces repentance and a growing desire to obey God.

“Nailed to the cross” in Col 2:14 most naturally refers to the record of debt against us, not to permission to disregard God’s moral will. Christians differ on Sabbath observance, often appealing to Rom 14 and Col 2:16, but they should not use grace as an excuse for rebellion. Jesus saves us from sin’s guilt and power, not for sin’s continuation.

Thank you, Dr. Eli, for your answers. I would like to ask you a few questions.

Do you believe that the Sabbath is still valid and should be kept together with the other nine commandments of God? Or do you believe that the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday)?

Does faith or grace lead us to disobey God, or does it lead us to love God and willingly obey His law?

Based on Matthew 5:17–19 and James 2:8–11, if even the least of God’s commandments should not be neglected, how can we neglect the Sabbath and still say that we are followers of Jesus? I would be very interested to hear your brief explanation of this.

Sin is a serious matter because it is what brought Jesus Christ to the cross. As you said, Christ saved us from our sins, not so that we would continue living in sin. Throughout His ministry, He repeatedly called people to turn away from sin. For example, He told the woman caught in adultery, “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11).

We proudly confess that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, and that we should follow Him in His righteous way. If sin is clearly defined as “the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), and all unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17), then how can we say that we love God while knowingly dishonoring His commandments, as Paul also addresses in Romans 2:23?

I would sincerely appreciate your thoughts on these questions, especially regarding the Sabbath and the relationship between faith, grace, obedience, and God’s law.

Thank you again for taking the time to respond.

Dear Trevor,

You are right to notice the -ayim ending. It often marks the Hebrew dual, but shamayim (שָׁמַיִם) functions in the Bible as the normal word for “heaven(s),” not as evidence for exactly two heavens. Its proposed singular, shamah, is not attested, so we should not build theology on it. In Gen 1:1, “the heavens and the earth” is a way of saying “everything,” while the chapter describes sky, waters, and lights without offering a modern atmosphere-and-space map.

Paul speaks from the rich Jewish apocalyptic world in which heavenly levels were often imagined. Enochic writings describe journeys through multiple heavens, though they give no single, fixed map. Significantly, 2 Enoch places Paradise in the third heaven, much like Paul’s connection of “third heaven” and “Paradise” (2 Cor 12:2, 4). Still, Paul’s main point is the reality of his revelation, not a technical cosmic diagram.

Blessings,

Eli

You said, “Most Christians worship on Sunday because Jesus rose on the first day of the week and because early believers often gathered then (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2).”

Did Jesus teach His disciples to establish the day of His resurrection—the first day of the week—as a Sabbath day and to worship on it?

Furthermore, does the event described in Acts 20:7 show that the believers regularly gathered together on Sunday? Does this passage indicate that they established Sunday as a Sabbath instead of the seventh-day Sabbath? If the apostles had already established Sunday as a new day of worship, why does Acts 17:2 describe Paul's practice by saying, “As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures”? Does this indicate that Paul continued to observe and use the Sabbath regularly, or was he simply going to the synagogue for evangelistic purposes? I think We have to clarify this point!

You also said, “Over time, church tradition increasingly treated Sunday as the Christian day of rest.”

If this practice developed from human tradition or the commandments of men, how can we follow a human tradition rather than God's command, especially in light of what Jesus said in Matthew 15:8–9 and Mark 7:6–7? Wouldn't our worship then risk becoming vain?

The Apostle Peter said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Therefore, shouldn't we teach and warn people when human traditions contradict God's commandments? And shouldn't we also warn believers about teachings that could deceive them and lead them away from God's truth?

Dr. Eli, I would appreciate your clarification on whether there is biblical evidence that Jesus or the apostles actually changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day of the week, or whether Sunday observance developed later through church tradition.

Thank you very much, Dr. Eli. Now I am happy with your answers, and I appreciate your emphasis. However, I am still not clear about Paul’s statement that says, “Do not judge one another regarding the keeping of sacred days.”

If breaking even a single law of God is sin, as we discussed earlier, should we not tell and warn others when what they are doing is sinful? Paul himself told his fellow Jews that although they possessed the law, they dishonored God by breaking it (Romans 2:23).

Furthermore, Ezekiel 3:18–19 states that God holds a watchman accountable for warning the wicked. If the watchman fails to speak up, the wicked person dies in their sin, but their blood is required of the watchman.

So, how should we understand the statement “Do not judge” in this context?

If sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), should we remain silent when someone knowingly or unknowingly commits sin? Should we not warn them and encourage them to turn away from their wicked ways?

Dr. Eli, I would really appreciate your clarification on how Paul’s statement about not judging others should be understood in light of these passages. Is Paul saying that we should never warn someone about sin, or is he addressing a different kind of judgment in Romans 14:5–6 and Colossians 2:16–17?

Shalom, I do not.

Rene, thank you. One day I will undertake this kind of study. Blessings!

Dee, in ancient times (and even today in many cultures), brothers and sisters could very well be cousins as well.

When Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the government moved many factories, universities, and, with them, many hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews away from the Nazi onslaught. Muslim Uzbekistan received a large number of Soviet Jews at that time and welcomed them (inland, far from the fighting zone). My grandfather Benzion Berdichevsky served for 30 years in the Soviet army. He was stationed in Samarkand, where I was born 50+ years ago. My grandfather on my father's side met my grandmother riding a donkey when he stopped to ask for a cup of water from my grandmother-to-be (I know why he stopped; :-) I saw the pictures!). About languages: I know too many native English speakers who speak both Russian and Hebrew, so I am hesitant to make statements like you have :-).