Part #2 Matthew 3-4 (Finding The Gospels in The Weekly Torah Portions)

Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3 that ‘You Must Be Born Again’! But Jesus or the writers of the Apostolic Scriptures did not invent the term ‘Born-Again.’ Rather it was a Rabbinic term for a Gentile who had entered the faith of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. As a sign of that faith, it involved a full body immersion into a ‘Mikvah’, i.e. (Baptism). Through the process of immersion, the Gentile was regarded as being re-created or ‘Born-Again’. But the term ‘Born-Again’ did not begin in the 1st Century, this Rabbinic term was accredited to ‘Noah’ in this Weeks Torah Portion ‘Noach’! Just as the message of Noah was ‘Repent, have faith and be saved’, John The Baptist preached the same message in Matthew 3 and 4: ‘Repent, have faith and be saved’! And just as the faithful believer of Noah’s day entered the Ark of Salvation and was Immersed, John was standing on the banks of the Jordan River saying to the faithful believers of the 1st Century: ‘Repent and enter into the Kingdom, meet the real Ark of Salvation, ‘Yeshua Jesus’, be Immersed in the waters as Noah did, and be ‘Born Again’!