Targum

While reading Colossians Remixed with five of my favorite people in the whole world, we encountered the idea of a targum. To my best understanding, the rabbis in Jesus' day would take an Old Testament passage and relate it to the uneducated by means of targum. This was done by translating the meaning of the Old Testament by putting it into modern day terms and contexts so that the hearers could listen and understand what was meant by the Scriptures. This practice was so intriguing, i thought that are group should give it a whirl.

I picked out six passages and we each received one. I happened to receive Acts 2:1-21. And i threw in there verses 40-41 because i wanted to! Enjoy:

A great annual celebration was taking place in the midst of our people. Not only was it the Feast of Harvest, where we offer our finest of our first selections of our crops, but it was also the day we celebrated God’s presence descending mightily upon Mt. Sinai and administering the Law through Moses. Most of us grew up with the yearly reminder that this day marks God’s faithfulness to provide and our faithful response yielding back to Him the fruit He produced through us. We also knew that the only thing we had to govern us was the law and the hope that His glory would come again one day as it had on Moses.

After praying and praying and praying, fifty days since Christ died and forty days since last seeing Him (in resurrected form), giving up was certainly an option we were ready to mutiny with. But that is when all of history mightily changed in the midst of our group of nobodies.

A violent sound of rushing wind descended upon us, though there was no hole in the roof for it to do so. Miniature raging fires birthed themselves on our heads without the smell of fire or the yelp of branding pain. What had happened to Moses at both the burning bush (the bush aflame that didn’t burn down) and the Mount of Sinai (the writing of the law through more fire and storm) was happening to our very bodies. The letter of the Law was not being written on a stone however. The letter of God Himself was being fashioned to our hearts, to our souls. So much so that when we opened our mouths to praise God we couldn’t believe what we heard, even though we all still understood. We were praising God with languages we had only ever dreamed of learning. And because of the feast, our people from every culture were around. As people began searching for what was causing the commotion in our little upstairs apartment, they were amazed and disturbed. “They are clearly not from our nation. Look at their hair! Look at their clothing! How is it they speak in our languages? And why are they only praising God with their words?” And then the rumor spread, “These were those that followed Christ. You know how the wine always ‘seemed to disappear’ when they went to weddings. And how Jesus could change water to wine. Those drunkards. They’ve been sipping from ‘Jesus-water’ again.” Then, as a calm seemed to cover not only the house, but the whole town, Peter stood with a confidence, and yet a giddiness, I had never seen in him, even in all of his antics he showed with the Christ.

“Hey! It’s only 9 in the morning! We aren’t drunk! This ain’t Shippensburg! No! This is a result of the promise of Joel, the prophet from centuries ago who he himself could never have imagined this. It would be like asking your great-grandma to describe what an iPod would be like. Yet Joel said these words as if God were speaking right through his mouth like a puppet:

When the tide turns on satan, My Spirit will be infused, Matrixed, right into the core of all who follow Me. They all will encourage one another with words from heaven, with telling the future, and with details no human would normally know. The inexperienced believers will see Me in their hearts and I will tell them secrets because I’m their best friend, and they’ve considered me theirs. The older among you who normally have trouble sleeping because of the cares of this world will explain the deepest desires of my hearts because of dreams I give them, telling them all. I will shame the leaders among all of you when I give my secrets to janitors, bums, the mentally handicapped, left-handers and yes, even Yankees fans. The sky itself will begin to reveal the impossible, and the earth will seem to hate itself. The sun will seem to implode, and the moon will change its moods for all to see. Yet, even in the midst of the greatest strife, hatred, and darkness, anyone who as much hopes for Me to be there for them will find Me there fighting for them.

(skip to Acts 2:40-41)

Peter, as per usual, went overboard with his actions and sermons, but nevertheless his message was clear. “God will be yours, and what you see here today is also yours if you simply believe and not conform to the earth and the people who war amidst her.” You wouldn’t believe it, but in true God-fashion, exactly 3000 people asked to be baptized that day to symbolize their crying out for God and a new way to live. This is wild, because on the very day we celebrated the Law being given Mount Sinai, the very event that killed 3000 people, 3000 people experienced new life because of this mysterious Jesus who resurrects the dead and through His Spirit allows people to spew out languages they wouldn’t know, and secrets they shouldn’t know.