Assembly 12:17 is an online community dedicated to studying God’s word and living according to it. When we started we were friends in different states who did not have fellowships we could attend near us, so we got together online to read and discuss the weekly Torah portion, more on that below. Over time people invited people, who invited people, and now we have a small group of regular participants.
As we grew I started thinking about ideas for resources that would help others interested in going deeper into scripture. Assembly1217.org came from those ideas. The name for the group is drawn from Revelation 12:17 - “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.”
That verse always mystified me as a child. Who were those people following “God’s commands”, which even with my Baptist upbringing I never questioned meant the things in the Old Testament, but also following Jesus. As an adult I discovered more people who thought the same way. They go by different names. Torah Observant. Hebrew Roots. Whole Bible. Sabbath Keepers. Messianic. I prefer - Read the Bible, do what it says.
One thing those of us following this path often hear is, “Are you trying to be Jewish?” While I don’t consider the association negative, the answer is no. The Jewish religion adds a lot of commands that are not in the Bible, while most Christians ignore many. So we don’t eat pork or shellfish. But cheese burgers are definitely on the menu. The Jewish prohibition of mixing meat and dairy is a “fence rule” designed to make sure you never come close to boiling a kid in its mother’s milk, which is prohibited in the Bible. We don’t bother with fence rules and other similar things that are a huge part of being an observant religious Jew. We read the Bible and do what it says.
But traditions that complement the Bible, don’t contradict it, and are understood to be enjoyable and useful traditions rather than religious obligations can be nice. Hanukkah is not commanded anywhere. But menorah are pretty and I love focusing on the Maccabees and their amazing story. Purim is not a command. But Ester’s story is great and the traditional cookies are really good. Enjoy them if you want. Skip them if you want.
One of those useful traditions is the weekly Torah portion. In Acts 15:21, after discussing the rules that gentile converts to Christ should immediately follow, the apostle James discusses what they should do going forward and he says - “For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”
By this time the tradition of the Torah portion was well established and is exactly what he was talking about. The Torah, the first five books in the Bible, is divided into portions to be read each week. The divisions follow a plan to read the entire portion in either one or three years. Almost everyone today follows the one year schedule.
At various times in history public reading of the Torah was legally prohibited. During these times, the Haftara was developed. It is a series of readings from the Prophets that are designed to remind listeners of the message from the Torah portion that they match. When the Torah was banned, the Haftara was read in its place. Today we just read them both. Over the course of a year you follow a structured plan to read a good part of the Old Testament.
As followers of Jesus, or in Hebrew - Yeshua, we generally add a reading from the New Testament as well. There are different collections of selected readings that different groups follow. This year we are going to be working from our own portions that will have us read and discuss about half of the New Testament over the course of the year. Next year we will do the other half.
As this site develops, expect to find weekly blog entries with thoughts on the Torah Portion for the week and text of the portion so you can read it right on the site. Because some understanding of Hebrew is helpful in understanding text originally written in Hebrew, I have some Hebrew learning resources ready to deploy. I generally am not a fan of online challenges. But the Proverb of the Day is definitely an exception. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. There are between 28 and 31 days per month, with most having 30 or 31. Read the chapter of Proverbs that matches the day of the month. Every single month you will read all or almost all of Proverbs. I have an app that will soon be on the site to provide the text of that day’s chapter to help those doing the challenge. And we are always open to more ideas.
Finally, if you like what you see here and want to study the entire Bible and work to implement it in your life, I really encourage you to find a local fellowship and meet with other believers in person. But if for reasons of health, transportation, geography, or anything else a local in person fellowship is not an option, please contact us about getting on the weekly online meeting.
Thanks for taking the time to read through. Welcome to Assembly 12:17. Enjoy the resources.