5# CHAYEI SARAH (THE BOSOM OF ABRAHAM: 'JESUS' USE OF ANCIENT JEWISH FOLKLORE)- (11-14-20)

**IS IT POSSIBLE? DID JESUS REALLY USE JEWISH LEGENDS AND FOLKLORE IN HIS GOSPEL NARRATIVE?**
(Chayei Sarah: ‘The Life of Sarah – Genesis 23:1-25:18’)
Ever feel strange or like you don't quite fit in? Well, you’re in good company. Abraham described himself as a stranger in a strange land. He lived as a nomad and a stranger in a land that did not belong to him.
God promised Abraham the whole land of Canaan, but the reality was that Abraham did not even own enough land to bury his wife. Abraham was a stranger in Canaan without any property of his own. He did not have a family tomb. He had to purchase property from the locals. Abraham approached the Hittites who lived at Hebron and said, “I am a stranger and a sojourner among you.”
But Genesis tells us: ‘Then Abraham Bought a Field With a CAVE in it from Ephron the Hittite as a ‘BURIAL SITE’.
(Genesis 23:17-18):
‘So the field of Ephron which was in ‘MACHPELAH’, which was before Mamre, the field and the CAVE which was in it’.
The name ‘MACHPELAH’ comes from the root word, (Kafulah), meaning (THE DOUBLE ONE). According to The Sages of Israel, it was a Double Cave, with ‘2 STORIES’; It also contained ‘PAIRS OF TOMBS’; therefore it had a Double Value in the eyes of people who saw it! Therefore, it was called: ‘MACHPELAH’ (DOUBLE), for it was a ‘PLACE OF 4 COUPLES’… At the time of Abraham, it was believed, and recorded in written form, that ‘The 1st Man and Woman, Adam and Eve were the 1st pair buried there, and therefore Hebron, bore the additional name of: (the city of 4); i.e., ‘THE TOMBS OF 4 COUPLES’:
(1st) ‘Adam and Eve’
(2nd) ‘Abraham and Sarah’
(3rd) ‘Isaac and Rebekah’
(4th) ‘Jacob and Leah’.
In the ancient Commentary, The Sages gives us an Inside View of ‘The Cave of Machpelah’:
(Zohar 1:127b)
‘The Cave of Machpelah has two chambers, An ‘UPPER ROOM’ and a ‘Lower Room’. They are the ‘DOOR’ between ‘EARTH and HEAVEN, between ‘THIS WORLD’ and ‘THE WORLD THAT IS COMING’! (Invisible and Physical)! Furthermore, the Cave (The Place of 4), will lead the righteous souls out of ‘THIS WORLD and into ‘THE HEAVENLY GARDEN OF EDEN’. Because of this Legend surrounding ‘THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH’, in the days of Abraham unto this day, it’s believed that this is ‘THE ENTRANCE TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN’!
The Sages compared Abraham’s ‘Field in Hebron’: (TO THE GARDEN OF EDEN), and ‘The Cave of Machpelah’: (TO DOOR INTO HEAVEN WITH AN ‘UPPER ROOM’)! They also go as far as in their Legend, that this ‘Field/GARDEN’, had a ‘SERPENT’ in it! The Hittite that Abraham was negotiating with was named: ‘Ephron’, which has the same Hebrew Root Word: ‘Aphar’, Meaning: (THE DUST CRAWLER/SERPENT or ONE WHO CRAWLS IN THE DUST)!
IS IT POSSIBLE? DID JESUS REALLY USE JEWISH LEGENDS AND FOLKLORE IN HIS GOSPEL NARRATIVE? Well, this Teaching Video Will Answer That Question!..