（利23）圣经与我 (Leviticus 23) The Bible and Me
(ChatGPT was applied for translation from Chinese. 中文在后面）
Leviticus 23:36
“For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall hold a solemn assembly, and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is a solemn gathering, you shall do no laborious work.”
The Jewish people regard the solemn assembly of the eighth day recorded in Leviticus 23 (Shemini Atzeret, the twenty-second day of the seventh month of the sacred calendar—beginning from sunset on October 13 in 2025), or the day after it, as the Festival of the Rejoicing of the Torah (Simchat Torah, meaning “the joy of the Divine Teaching”), celebrating the completion of the annual reading cycle of the Five Books of Moses, and the beginning of the new year’s reading. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemini_Atzeret
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simchat_Torah
The Jewish “Torah,” in the narrow sense, means the Five Books of Moses in the Old Testament; in the broad sense, it means all the spiritual teachings developed from it. For Christians, the Bible includes both the Old and New Testaments. The function of the Bible is to reveal the Creator to humanity, and to teach people the Creator’s instructions for mankind.
I was born in China, where atheism was popular. Before going abroad, I had seldom heard of the Bible. But here and there, I also heard some similar concepts—that there is a Ruler in the unseen, who purposefully determines the initial conditions of life (as the ancient Chinese poet Li Bai said, “Heaven gave me talents that must be of use”), who plans the experiences of a person’s life (as Mencius said, “When Heaven is about to entrust a great mission to a man, it first distresses his heart, exhausts his body, and confounds his deeds, so as to toughen his will and increase his ability”), and who governs the laws of nature (as from the great physicist Einstein, who said, “God does not play dice”). These ideas, compared with atheism, were refreshing to me, and I longed for them in my heart.
I had a very unusual experience going abroad, and during the process I also met difficulties. At that time, I very much hoped for a personal God—one who rules over all things, and can also listen to my prayers. Therefore, after going abroad when I was invited to a Chinese church, seeing the God described in the Bible matched well with the kind of God I had longed for in my heart, I came to love the Bible. Especially when I faced difficulties in my career abroad and changed my major, I began my first complete reading of the Bible. Although I could not understand much of it, I was greatly encouraged by some of its verses. I remember that nearly eight years after going abroad, before I graduated and found a job, once I passed by a Western church and saw words carved on its wall in old English—it was from the Gospel of Matthew （11:28,30): “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Those words gave me much comfort.
After starting work, I again met difficulties in career and life, and also health problems. I sought out a local Chinese church and was baptized to become a Christian. Later, the Lord helped me resolve those difficulties. Afterwards, I read through the whole Bible for the second time. That time, I read very carefully and discovered many passages that seemed to have contradictions. I heard that the pastor of the Bible study group at that time even prayed for me—that I would not go astray in reading the Bible. Looking back now, I had many thoughts then that challenged traditional Christian understandings of the Bible. These included doubts about the doctrine of the Trinity, and doubts about biblical inerrancy.
Because of my doubt toward the Trinity, I began to study Hebrew to check the original text, to see whether the Old Testament indeed provides reliable evidence supporting the doctrine of the Trinity. I also compared it with Jewish exegesis that holds to strict monotheism, wanting to make a fair comparison. Thus, I came into contact with traditional Jewish methods of Scripture study. After many years of exploration, I discovered two things: first, that there are many fine details in the Hebrew text—for example, irregular grammar, or the sizes of letters—which the Jewish people have carefully preserved, making many marvelous explanations. This unexpectedly gave me much encouragement toward the traditional view of biblical inerrancy. On the other hand, I discovered that the Jewish exegetical tradition’s belief in the inerrancy of Scripture also helped me understand that the evidence for the Trinity which I had doubted actually fits the Jewish interpretive principles. For example, in Matthew’s Gospel, it says that one is to be baptized “in the name (singular) of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” I had thought that was merely an accidental grammatical error in singular and plural, but according to Jewish interpretive custom, even an unintentional grammatical irregularity may be something permitted by the Creator, possibly deliberately used by Him to express a theological truth. There are also many hints of the Trinity in the Old Testament, which are indeed consistent with Jewish exegetical standards. The Jewish rejection of the Trinity, therefore, probably is not for academic reasons, but more likely because they are unwilling to follow the example of Jesus—who, for the Creator’s love toward all humanity, was willing to humble himself (Philippians 2:8), and waive his own deserved privileges and interests.
On the other hand, when I studied the Jewish practice of repentance and self-examination, I realized that both before and after baptism I had done many things against conscience, many of which were hard to make up for. I also more deeply understood the necessity of the Creator’s Word becoming flesh to bear our sins, and recognized how precious the New Covenant of Christianity is to us. This reminded me of something many years ago when I was still a student—a pastor of a Chinese church once told me: the uniqueness of Christianity lies in its complete victory over sin, whereas other religions cannot completely solve the problem of sin. Sin is like a computer program infected by a virus; it can no longer carry out the programmer’s intent, and no matter how many times it restarts, it cannot cleanse itself. The programmer himself must intervene to disinfect it. Christianity believes that sin brings suffering and death, and that humanity cannot root out sin. The only solution is to accept the atonement arranged by the Creator—that His Word became flesh, suffered, and died in humanity’s place to redeem human sin, then resurrected and from Him gave Christians a new life. The original infected program is, in effect, completely replaced by the system administrator.
In summary, the Lord, in a very marvelous way, corrected many of my earlier doubts about the traditional Christian view of the Bible through my study of the Jewish language, interpretation, and repentance.
Because of health reasons, I keep the Sabbath, having a day each week when I do not work. Therefore I have more time to study and reflect on the Bible. I have been reading the Five Books of Moses according to the Jewish traditional reading schedule for many years now, and during this process the Lord has gradually corrected my views of the traditional Christian understanding of Scripture. This is the grace the Creator has given me. My life in this world, compared with the Bible, is brief and temporary—but in the process of studying the Bible, I have been drawn into eternity.
（利23）圣经与我
利未记23:36 “七 日 内 要 将 火 祭 献 给 耶 和 华 。 第 八 日 当 守 圣 会 ， 要 将 火 祭 献 给 耶 和 华 。 这 是 严 肃 会 ， 什 么 劳 碌 的 工 都 不 可 作 。”
犹太人把利未记23章记载的第八日严肃会（shemini atzeret，圣经历七月二十二， 2025年是从10月13日日落开始）或其后那天，当作读经节（simchat torah，意思是圣言之喜乐），庆祝每年摩西五经读经进度完成，和新一年读经的开始。
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemini_Atzeret
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simchat_Torah
犹太人的圣言（torah），在狭义上表示圣经旧约里的摩西五经，广义上表示所有从那里发展出来的属灵教导。对基督徒来说，圣经包括旧约和新约。圣经的作用是向人类启示造物主，学习造物主对人类的教导。
我生在无神论流行的中国，在出国以前很少听到圣经，但从这里那里也听到过一些类似的概念，有一位冥冥中的主宰，祂有目的地规定人生的初始条件，（比如中国古代诗人李白说的“天生我材必有用”，）祂有计划地决定人生的经历，（如孟子说的“天之将降大任于斯人也，必先苦其心志，劳其筋骨，行拂乱其所为，所以动心忍性，以增益其所不能”，） 并掌管自然规律（如从物理学巨匠爱因斯坦那里听到的“上帝不掷骰子”的观点），这些观念与无神论对比，让我耳目一新，心里很向往。我出国有很奇特的经历，也在过程中遇到过困难，当时就很希望有人格化的上帝，祂既掌管一切，又可以垂听我的祈求。所以出国以后被人邀请去华人教会，看到圣经描写的上帝和我心所向往的很契合，就很喜欢圣经。特别是我在国外事业遇到过困难，转过专业，那时开始第一遍读全本圣经，虽然读不太懂，但很受其中一些经节的鼓励。我记得出国近八年，毕业找到工作前，一次经过一个西人教会时，看到墙上用古代英语刻的字，是马太福音的（11:28，30），“凡 劳 苦 担 重 担 的 人 ， 可 以 到 我 这 里 来 ， 我 就 使 你 们 得 安 息 。”“因 为 我 的 轭 是 容 易 的 ， 我 的 担 子 是 轻 省 的 。” 这些经文也让我很受安慰。
工作后，我也遇到过事业上和生活上的困难，和健康上的问题。我曾寻找当地的华人教会，并受洗成为基督徒。后来主帮助我解决了困难。之后，我曾经第二次读过全本圣经，那次，我读到很详细，发现了很多看似自相矛盾的疑难。听说当时查经班的牧师还曾为我祷告，让我读圣经不要走偏。现在回过头来看，我当时有过很多想法，是挑战传统基督徒对圣经的理解的。其中包括对三位一体论的怀疑，包括对圣经无误论的怀疑。因为对三位一体论的怀疑，我开始学习希伯来语查原文，想看看旧约有关的原文是否真的提供支持三一论的可靠证据，我也对照持独一神论的犹太解经，希望作个公平的对比。因此，我接触到犹太人的传统读经方式，经过很多年的探索，我发现两点： 一，是希伯来原文有很多细致的地方，例如语法的不规则，字母的大小，犹太人都一丝不苟地保存下来，并作了很多奇妙的解释，这出人意料给了我很多圣经无误传统观念的鼓励。另一方面，我发现犹太人传统解经的圣经无误，也让我了解到以前我怀疑的三一论证据原来是符合犹太传统解经规则的。比如说马太福音说的奉父子灵的（单数）名受洗，我原来认为这只是偶然的单复数语法错误，但按犹太解经习惯，即使是笔者无意的语法错误也可以是造物主允许的，在造物主可能是有意用来表达一个神学思想的。旧约里也有很多三一论的影子，其实是符合犹太解经标准的，犹太人不接受三一论，应该不是因为学术原因，而更可能是不愿跟随耶稣的榜样为了造物主对全人类的爱而甘愿（腓立比书2:8）“自 己 卑 微”，牺牲自己本当拥有的特权和利益。
另一方面，当我学习犹太人的悔改省察自己的时候，发现自己在受洗前和受洗后都做过很多亏心事，很多很难弥补，我也更加理解造物主为我们道成肉身担当我们的罪孽的必要性，认识到基督教的新约对我们也是多么的宝贵。这让我想起多年以前我还是个学生，一个华人教会的牧师曾告诉我，基督教的特殊性，在于彻底地胜过了罪，而其它宗教没法彻底解决罪的问题。罪就像一个电脑程序染了病毒，就不能实现程序员的意图，反复重跑多少次也无法自己消毒，必须程序员自己介入消毒。 基督教认为罪带来苦难和死亡，人类无法根除罪，而唯一的办法是接受造物主自己安排的赎罪，就是祂道成肉身代替人类受苦受死赎了人类的罪，又复活并从祂那里为基督徒更换一个新的生命。 那个原来染毒的程序等于是被管理员彻底更换了。
总而言之，主以一个很奇妙的方式，让我通过对犹太人语言，解经，和悔改的学习，纠正了很多我原来对传统基督徒的圣经观的怀疑。
我因为健康原因遵守安息日，每周都有不工作的日子，所以有了更多的时间学习和思想圣经，我按犹太传统读经进度阅读摩西五经，已经很多年了，在这过程中主也让我逐渐修正对传统基督教圣经观的看法。这是造物主给我的恩典。我今世的人生，与圣经相比是短暂的，是临时的，但在学习圣经的过程中，我被纳入了永恒。