The Christian concept of salvation is contrary to the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Jews don’t need saving.

It seems to me you misunderstand the biblical concept of salvation, be it “Christian” or “Jewish.” You probably think of salvation in the Hebrew Bible in terms of earthly deliverance and preservation, whereas you understand salvation in the New Testament in spiritual terms, referring only to the salvation of the soul.

Actually, the concept of salvation in the Tanakh and in the new covenant Scriptures is comprehensive, dealing with spirit, soul, and body, both in this world and the world to come—in other words, salvation from sin and its effects. In that sense, all human beings, sinful as we are, need saving.

We will discuss the question of original sin and the fall of man below (3.20). For now, let’s do our best to answer two questions: (1) What is the biblical concept of salvation? (2) Do Jews need to be saved?

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the Lord is praised for saving his people Israel, and over and over again, his people cry out to him for salvation. For the most part, however, the salvation spoken of seems to be earthly. For example, the Tanakh recounts how God saved his people from the Egyptians (see Exod. 14:30, “That day the Lord saved [Hebrew, y-sh-ʿ] Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore”). Just as he saved Israel from Egypt, so he saved them again and again throughout the centuries (e.g., Pss. 28:9; 107:13, 19, all with y-sh-ʾ). In light of these great, past acts of salvation, the psalmist cried out to the Lord to save him from his own, present enemies (e.g., Ps. 18:27[28]).

When we turn to the New Testament, however, the emphasis seems to have shifted from earthly salvation to heavenly salvation, in other words, from physical deliverance to spiritual deliverance. As the famous slogan says, “Jesus saves!”—meaning he saves people from sin and hell (see Heb. 7:25). But is there really a great difference between the Old Testament and New Testament concepts of salvation? In reality there is not.

We need to understand first that Israel’s conflicts with the nations were part of a larger cosmic battle, a fight for the supremacy of Yahweh above all other gods, a war for spiritual rule. And so, after the Lord saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, his people sang in praise, “Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exod. 15:11). There was no one like the Lord!

Notice here that God’s reign over the earth is connected with his holiness, the spiritual and the physical being interrelated. His rule is absolute, over all hostile forces, be they the chaotic forces of nature or the rebellious forces of the nations. Psalm 74 expresses this even more clearly:

But you, O God, are my king from of old;

you bring salvation upon the earth.

It was you who split open the sea by your power;

you broke the heads of the monster in the waters.

It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan

and gave him as food to the creatures of the desert.

It was you who opened up springs and streams;

you dried up the ever flowing rivers.

The day is yours, and yours also the night;

you established the sun and moon.

It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;

you made both summer and winter.

Psalm 74:12–17

In light of the Lord’s triumph over all hostile powers, natural and supernatural, the psalmist makes an appeal: “Remember how the enemy has mocked you, O Lord, how foolish people have reviled your name” (Ps. 74:18). Consider also Psalm 93, in which the unruly forces of nature are pictured as subject to the reign of God:

The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty;

the Lord is robed in majesty

and is armed with strength.

The world is firmly established;

it cannot be moved.

Your throne was established long ago;

you are from all eternity.

The seas have lifted up, O Lord,

the seas have lifted up their voice;

the seas have lifted up their pounding waves.

Mightier than the thunder of the great waters,

mightier than the breakers of the sea—

the Lord on high is mighty.

Your statutes stand firm;

holiness adorns your house

for endless days, O Lord.

As expressed by Professor Willem VanGemeren in his fine commentary on Psalms:

The Lord established his kingship on earth when he created the “world” (tebel; cf. 24:1). The doctrine of God the Creator stands in stark contrast to the pagan teachings on chaos, primordial forces, and random happenings. Yahweh is the Creator-God. He has “established” (tikkon) the world, and it will not reel and totter under the duress of hostile forces (10:6; 104:5), because Yahweh has established his rule over it. The nations may rage against his rule, but it will not fall (2:1–4; 46:6). His throne is “established” (nakon v. 6, from kun as is tikkon above). Yahweh is “from all eternity” (90:2), but his rule over earth has a historical dimension (“long ago”; cf. Isa 44:8; 45:21; 48:3, 5, 7–8). Therefore the psalmist associates the “throne” as established when Creation took place.³⁰⁸

Now let’s turn to Psalm 97, taking note of several important truths as we read: (1) God’s reign is based on righteousness and justice; (2) he brings judgment on the false gods (idols) and on those who continue to worship them; (3) he calls his own people to hate evil; and (4) he delivers his godly people from the wicked.

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;

let the distant shores rejoice.

Clouds and thick darkness surround him;

righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

Fire goes before him

and consumes his foes on every side.

His lightning lights up the world;

the earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,

before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim his righteousness,

and all the peoples see his glory.

All who worship images are put to shame,

those who boast in idols—

worship him, all you gods!

Zion hears and rejoices

and the villages of Judah are glad

because of your judgments, O Lord.

For you, O Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;

you are exalted far above all gods.

Let those who love the Lord hate evil,

for he guards the lives of his faithful ones

and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Light is shed upon the righteous

and joy on the upright in heart.

Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,

and praise his holy name.

The point I am making here is simply this: Israel’s deliverance from hostile forces (normally in the form of sinful nations) and the psalmist’s deliverance from hostile forces (normally in the form of human enemies, sickness, sin, or demonic attack) were not simply a matter of physical, earthly salvation. Rather, these saving, delivering acts of God were part of a larger spiritual picture of God’s reign over nature and of his reign over all competing spiritual powers. Just read Psalm 18, where David’s deliverance is viewed as a mighty triumph of God over evil men as well as over the forces of death and destruction:

For the director of music. Of David the servant of the Lord. He sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:

I love you, O Lord, my strength.

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.

He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,

and I am saved from my enemies.

The cords of death entangled me;

the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

The cords of the grave coiled around me;

the snares of death confronted me.

In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry came before him, into his ears.

The earth trembled and quaked,

and the foundations of the mountains shook;

they trembled because he was angry.…

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;

he drew me out of deep waters.

He rescued me from my powerful enemy,

from my foes, who were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my disaster,

but the Lord was my support.

He brought me out into a spacious place;

he rescued me because he delighted in me.

Psalm 18:1–7 [8], 16–19 [17–20]

Why did God grant this glorious and gracious deliverance? It was because David lived a righteous life, keeping the commands of the Lord and walking blamelessly before him (see vv. 20–24[21–25]).

“But that’s my point,” you say. “God’s salvation of his people was purely earthly. It had nothing to do with heaven or hell.”³⁰⁹

That’s where I beg to differ. Nothing that God did on behalf of his people was purely earthly. That’s the lesson we learn in these psalms, which are representative samples of similar texts throughout the Hebrew Bible. Israel’s earthly life was part of a larger drama, a drama involving visible beings (i.e., humans) and invisible beings (i.e., God, angels, Satan).

This drama was being played out here in this world, but it was not merely a worldly drama any more than the Book of Job was merely a worldly drama. Rather, Job, like Israel, was caught between a battle of good versus evil, of God versus Satan, with heavenly witnesses (the angels, called “sons of God” in Job) and earthly witnesses (Job’s wife and friends) looking on and at times participating.

The ultimate challenge was this: Would Israel as a nation (or Job or David or Jeremiah, etc., as individuals) maintain a right relationship with the Lord, gaining his favor and obtaining his reward, or would hostile forces, both visible and invisible, triumph over the people of God, seducing them into sin, wearing them out, and bringing them into bondage?

Could God deliver and keep his own, or would the forces of darkness dominate the day? Would righteousness triumph in hearts and lives, or would iniquity and evil win? Really, “salvation” was far more than a limited, earthbound, worldly concept. In fact, it often tied in directly with salvation from sin, be it Israel’s own sin (or the psalmist’s own sin), or the sinful attacks of the nations (or Satan).

In this way, the Old Testament concept of salvation ties in directly with the New Testament concept of salvation: The Messiah had come, and with him, the kingdom (or reign) of God. This was the beginning of the Messianic era, meaning that God’s Spirit was arriving in power, driving back hostile forces and setting captives free. And because this era was described in the Hebrew Bible, Jesus the Messiah quoted passages from the Jewish Scriptures that outlined the purpose of his mission:³¹⁰

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Luke 4:16–21

As I stated earlier, the biblical concept of salvation is comprehensive, affecting spirit, soul, and body, and this comprehensive salvation reaches its fullest expression in the New Testament.

“So you’re saying that the New Testament doesn’t just emphasize spiritual salvation?”

Exactly. In fact, if we focus on the primary word for “save” in the New Testament, the Greek term sozo, this will become perfectly clear.³¹¹ We can basically define sozo as “to rescue, save, deliver, preserve from danger,” including saving, delivering, or preserving from death, sin, sickness, demons, hell, peril, and so on. The usage is quite inclusive.

Interestingly enough, in the space of just two chapters in the Gospel of Luke, sozo is used in four different contexts: In Luke 7:50 it is used with reference to being saved from sin (see 7:36–50), in 8:36 with reference to being saved from demons (see 8:26–39), in 8:48 with reference to being saved from sickness (see 8:43–48), and in 8:50 with reference to being saved from death (see 8:49).³¹² Jesus is a Savior (Greek, soter) who forgives, delivers, heals, and resurrects, both temporally and eternally. This is in full harmony with the Hebrew Scriptures: The Lord was the Savior, Deliverer, and Healer of his people.³¹³

“That’s fine,” you reply, “but you still haven’t addressed the issue of salvation from hell. Where is that taught in the Tanakh? There still seems to be quite a contrast between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, regardless of your points so far.”

The issue is not one of contrast but of progress. The Old Testament shows the beginning of the journey; the New Testament takes us the rest of the way. What is touched on in the Tanakh—namely, the eternal destiny of men and women—is spelled out clearly in the New Testament.³¹⁴ It was the Jewish prophet Daniel, writing roughly one thousand years after Moses and approximately five hundred years after David, who brought the clearest message about heaven and hell in the Hebrew Bible, explaining that “multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2).

Then, in the centuries between Daniel and Yeshua, Jewish writings reflected much more interest in the afterlife, and by the time Yeshua came into the world, the Pharisees had a strongly developed view about the world to come. The Talmud, compiled in the following centuries, is filled with discussions about these issues.³¹⁵ In fact, one of the things that distinguished the Sadducees from the other Jewish groups of the day was their denial of a future resurrection.

What the Tanakh merely hinted at and touched on and what Jewish traditions wrote about and debated was fully illuminated in the New Testament. In the words of Paul, Jesus “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10). He revealed what was previously hidden and made clear that which was unclear in the past.

And so the salvation and deliverance spoken of in the New Testament develops the concept of salvation and deliverance spoken of in the Tanakh: Whereas the psalmist spoke primarily of being rescued from the jaws of death, the New Testament speaks of being rescued from the jaws of death and hell.³¹⁶ The Tanakh spoke primarily (but not exclusively) about how our actions and beliefs affect us in this world. The New Testament speaks primarily (but not exclusively) about how our actions and beliefs affect us in the world to come. But this is not a question of either-or; rather, it is a question of emphasis, a question of both-and.³¹⁷

Both traditions, Old Testament and New Testament, stress the importance of right living, of faith in the one true God, of repentance, of obedience. The former puts its primary emphasis on reward and punishment in this world while certainly not ignoring the world to come; the latter puts its primary emphasis on reward and punishment in the world to come while certainly not ignoring this world.

So we can answer the first of our two questions by saying that the biblical concept of salvation is a deliverance from present and future judgment, present and future hostile forces, and present and future sin. In this life, the deliverance is partial and temporary; in the life to come, it is total and eternal. If you’ll read through the Scriptures from beginning to end—both Tanakh and New Testament—keeping an open mind and a searching heart, you’ll find that it really is one Bible, one revelation, one truth.

What about the second question: Do Jews need saving? Obviously, based on the evidence we have just presented, the answer is a resounding yes. Do all human beings, including Jews, have the power to resist some temptations and say no to certain sins? Of course! Every day all of us make moral choices, and even a rapist may choose not to kill his victim—tempted as he may be to do so—while a liar may occasionally feel compelled to tell the truth.

We see this established already in the Book of Genesis, where God tells Cain that sin—here the sin of envy and murder—is lurking at the door, and Cain must master it (Gen. 4:7). As Rashi explains, “If you want to, you can overcome it.” But it is one thing to overcome a particular sin. It is another to be free from the grip of sin in general. As Proverbs expressed it, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin’ ”? (Prov. 20:9). Or as the psalmist pleaded, “Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you” (Ps. 143:2).

Yes, the Lord knows our nature all too well (see below, 3.21, for more on this), and through the prophet Jeremiah he said, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9). We don’t even know our own hearts! And because of our sins, we are totally dependent on the mercy of God: “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared” (Ps. 130:3–4). Without his forgiveness, we would be utterly lost.

Considering, then, that all of the verses we just cited—from Proverbs, Psalms, and Jeremiah—are taken from our own Hebrew Scriptures, the conclusion is unavoidable: Jews need saving. Sadly, as noted in volume 1, throughout our history we have fallen short, often suffering the fierce wrath of God in judgment. To this very day, we continue to fall short (see vol. 1, 1.10, 1.16; and note also below, 3.21). Does it mean nothing that for almost two millennia, most of our people have been in exile outside of the Land? Is there no significance to the fact that the Temple has been in ruins for more than nineteen hundred years? Surely this speaks to us about our sin, both past and present.

On a more individual level—I speak to you as a fellow Jew—when Dr. Baruch Goldstein gunned down dozens of praying Muslims in Hebron, we realized that we too had our murderous terrorists. When Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by a fellow Israeli, the entire country was in shock: “We thought we were different!” When we see the great city of Tel Aviv today infested with prostitutes, drugs, and pornography, we realize that we are just as sinful as any other people. When Sabbath means going to the beach for thousands of Israelis and when the high holy days mean happy holidays for thousands of others, we realize that we are just as worldly and careless as sinful Israel was in the Scriptures. When most American Jews are secular, we understand that the idols of materialism have gripped us as much as they have gripped anyone. And when a top religious leader in Israel (Aryeh Deiri) is convicted of crimes of fraud and deceit, then defended by the Sephardic Chief Rabbi (Ovadiah Yoseph) as doing nothing in violation of Rabbinic law and is still hailed by his political party (Shas), we realize that hypocrisy is rife in our midst too.

The bad news, then, is that Jews need saving as much as anyone else. The good news is that God has provided for our full salvation through Messiah Yeshua, the Savior of Jew and Gentile alike: “As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame’ [Isa. 28:16]. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” ’ [Joel 2:32] (Rom. 10:11–13).

How fitting it is that Paul, in making this statement about salvation to believers in Rome, saw fit to use two quotations from the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah and Joel). It made perfect sense to him, and I hope that now it makes perfect sense to you.

³⁰⁸ VanGemeren, “Psalms,” 608. For scriptural references to what have sometimes been called “chaos monsters” in the Hebrew Bible—representing the powers of darkness, earthly enemies, or the hostile forces of nature—see e.g., Isaiah 27:1; Psalm 89:5–12, along with Psalm 74, just cited.

³⁰⁹ See the article on “Salvation,” in the ODJR, 602; see also S. Daniel Breslauer and Celia Deutsch, “Salvation,” in Dictionary of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue, 179–85.

³¹⁰ As we saw in vol. 1, 2.1–2, the purpose of the Messiah’s first coming was not to establish worldwide peace or set up an earthly kingdom. Rather, that will mark the end of this transition era in which we now live.

³¹¹ Sozo is the verbal form; the noun soter means savior; soteria is salvation. Although it may not seem obvious to those unfamiliar with Greek, all these words are derived from the same basic root.

³¹² See my discussion in Israel’s Divine Healer, 212–14. W. Radl, “sozo, rescue, save, preserve, help” in Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 3:319–20, notes: “That from which one is saved … include [sic] mortal danger, death, disease, possession, sin and alienation from God, and eternal ruin.”

³¹³ I have written on these themes extensively; see Brown, Israel’s Divine Healer, Brown, “rapa ,” in Theologische Wörterbuch zum alten Testament, ed. H.-J. Fabry and H. Ringgren (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1991), 7:618–26 (forthcoming in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament); Brown, with A. Kam-Yau Chan and Thomas B. Song, “rp’,” in NIDOTTE, 3:1162–72; Brown, “Was There a West Semitic Asklepios?” Ugarit Forschungen 30 (Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 1999), 133–54.

³¹⁴ Cf. the insightful comment of Warfield, cited below, n. 416.

³¹⁵ See Abraham Cohen, Everyman s Talmud: The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages (New York: Schocken, 1995), 346–89.

³¹⁶ Note the Talmudic discussion about defiant sinners being punished in this world and in the world to come; e.g., see b. Sanhedrin 64b, 90b.

³¹⁷ As we will see below (3.25), traditional Judaism sees this world as the portal to the world to come but stresses the importance of life in this world. As for Christianity, while stressing the importance of the world to come, it has been responsible for the building of more hospitals, the feeding of more hungry people, and the establishment of more educational institutions than all other religions of the world combined. The difference between the two is not one of substance but of emphasis.

Brown, M. L. (2000). Answering Jewish objections to Jesus, Volume 2: Theological objections (186). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

The Christian concept of salvation is contrary to the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition. Jews don’t need saving.