Yes the Talmud was a later writing when it was written. My own perspective was that even though its time of writing was later it was still a record of what was oral traditions that spanned for centuries before. The Jews were quite good at keeping a record in one form or another right?
I always get a chuckle at the way you phrase certain questions. We also know, that just because it is "tradition", does not necessitate that it is so. <chuckle> The "Fiddler on the Roof" comes to mind.
but in any event this was just my first salvo. I have more cards to play so to speak. Here is the next card in reference to the unleavened bread and the keeping of the yearly festival;
1 Cor5:
6Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?
7Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Sin is the fermentation of our soul. Like mold to bread, associated with decay.
In 1 Cor 5, Paul is using Passover, the feast of Unleavened Bread as an example, it strikes me that Paul has a two fold reason for this.
Please pardon me if I skip some verses, for I gotta feeling this may get long.
1 Cor 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife.
Lev 18:8 "'Do not have sexual relations with your father's wife;
that would dishonor your father.
1 Cor 5:2 And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?
Lev 18:26 But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things
Lev 18:29 Everyone who does any of these detestable things-such persons must be cut off from their people.
1 Cor 5:5 hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
So that the fermentation may be destroyed.
This can be related back to Leviticus chapters 12, 13 and 14 regarding isolating things that are contaminated, so that the contamination is unable to spread. The reason I say this; is that
after isolation, some items were allowed to return, others were destroyed by fire.
1 Cor 5:6 Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?
Paul is using an earthly example, one that the people should be able to readily understand.
1 Cor 5:7 Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast-as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
Get rid of the filth, the malice, that which ferments your soul, so that you may be a new people. Without the fermentation that makes you bitter, or causes bitterness. (cf 2 Cor 5:17)
For Messiah, the Lamb of YHVH, has been *slaughtered*. As the blood of the Passover lamb was a covering unto those in Egypt, so that the destroyer would not strike them down, so too
is the blood of the Lamb a covering for us from our past sins.
Sorry, I am getting off topic...
1 Cor 5:8 Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.
And here is where I see the second side of Paul's reasoning, for he is demonstrating also the keeping of the feast of unleavened with purity, as we remove the yeast from our homes, let us also remove the sin from our lives.
1 Cor 5:13 God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."
While the following speak of something different, I feel the similarity of it is worth noting for the principle is the same...
Deut 17:7b You must purge the evil from among you.
Exo 12:15 For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through
the seventh must be cut off from Israel.
To sum up, yes, Paul is encouraging us to keep the "feast", but he is also using it as an example as I sort of laid out above. Paul was very proficient with regard to haTorah. I am so rusty that it is embarrassing.
Here is the second card;
1 cor 11:
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.
28Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup.
29For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.
30That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
What I discern here is that when the ritual is done correctly at its proper time then those who are not worthy to take it will become sick and could eventually die from it. Now we see the majority who now attempt to do the Lord's supper at every first day of the week being unaffected by their performance of the ritual even though we know that there are a great many who are not worthy to do it.
Here too I feel that what the many are doing is incorrect based on the narrow gate understanding and if their custom is to perform this at every meeting then it is likely an error of interpretation.
I do understand, been there.
1 Corinthians 11:20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat
Lets make a distinction here, the reference here is to the "Lord's Supper". The "Lord's Supper" is not Passover. It is separate and distinct from Passover. For upon the night that the "Lord's Supper" was shall we say instituted, it was not Passover that the Messiah and his disciples ate. The Passover seder would have been the following evening. One can not partake of the sacrifice before it is slain.
1 Cor 11:21 for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. One remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22 Don't you have homes to eat and drink in?
1 Cor 11:23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said,
"This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
1 Cor 11:27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
Now, take a look at John 18:28, 19:14, 19:31
John 18:28 They lead Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium: and it was early; and they themselves entered not into the Praetorium, that they might not be defiled, but might eat the passover.
John 19:14 Now it was the Preparation of the passover: it was about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold, your King!
John 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the Preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross upon the sabbath (for the day of that sabbath was a high day), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
1 Cor 10:15 I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.
As one knowledgeable in haTorah, Paul would have been all too aware that the "Last / Lord's Supper" was not the Passover.
So Richard just to be clear the HS has not stated directly yet what is correct and I still await that revealing thus, I could still be erring in understanding but, I am forming this understanding based on those things which I have already been confirmed of about God by the HS.
Fully understood and appreciated. As you have told others, do not listen even to me.
For all the "cards" that either of us can play, haTorah remains the "trump".
To be continued.