Jesus: The Misunderstood Jew with AJ Levine
Based on her newly released book, "The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus" A.J. Levine, Professor of Divinity at Vanderbilt University addresses a myriad of misconceptions about New Testament Jesus, outlining the complexity and diversity of the Jewish community of the first century. An introspective look for Christians and Jews alike to note the commonalities, despite many differing interpretations of Jesus' teachings. This lively discussion is steeped in historical research and years of theological study conducted by one of the country's most preeminent New Testament scholars.
posted by Beyond Reason at 4:23 PM
4 Comments:
Dear Teddy and Karlen,
AJ should know as a scholar that the group of people who followed Moses out of Egypt were slaves from all over the world, and not one race. They were Hebrews (sharing a common belief) and not Jews (common ancestry). The distinction between spiritual (of the eternal spiritual world) and material (finite) has been the root of strife throughout the bible, and today.
With this understanding, it is clear that Jesus was born into a Jewish family, but he was a Christian who was baptized by John the Baptist; an outward act for Him to show His spiritual ancestry. When you read the bible with an open heart, you see that all the Prophets and Jesus criticized the Jewish tradition and power structure. They all abhorred the materialistic interpretation of sacrifice and the materialistic interpretation of the Word of God.
For me it is clear that the Jews were (are) not able to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, because they were expecting a material ruler and material peace. They could not see the Spiritual Ruler who brought peace to a Spiritual Place called Jerusalem. Jesus tells us that “His Kingdom is not of this world.” So this begs the question, “Where is His Kingdom?”.
It was not until the Third century that Origen of Alexandria brought these points all together and reconciled Jewish belief with the Christian belief brought by Jesus in his work Contra Celsum. Only with the broad view taken by Origen and with his exacting examination of all teachings (with what we would call to day the scientific method) is any scholar able to break free of a materialistic interpretation of the Old Testament and find the deeper spiritual meaning within it. This is personal process that each individual must go through, because without throwing aside our materialistic view point, a spiritual view is impossible. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Best regards, Shawn
What a delight to find a fellow Jew
that is able to connect with the real Jesus,to remain historically correct, he was named Yeshua which was a contraction of Yehoshua. I disagree with AJ that Jews can not practice Judaism and embrace Yeshua as Messiah. Outside the realm of Hebrew Cristianity (Jews for Jesus, Messianic Judaism etc.)there are Jews like our own synagogue that practice traditional Judaism. We use Orthodox Artscroll siddurim, Nussach Askanaz and are "flexodox" in our hallachic approach. The deviding line is whether ones Messianic belief is in a messiah as defined within Judaism ie. a man, annointed OF HaShem (G-d) or a deified god-man. Unfortunately there are the misconceptions and preconceptions of the early (non-Jewish) church fathers that set the dogma and creeds of Christianity. Because of this, Jewish scolars of the NT read the text through those overlays. Christian Hermenuetics and hence their exegesis and eisogesis is flawed because of pretext and historical presupositons. This, sad to say, make the Messianic Writings (New Covenant,) or as I prefer 'Renewed' Covenant, seem out of harmoney with the Tannach. We consider the Messianic Writings essential commentary to understand Torah and obviously the life and times of Yeshua. All of Jewish text is relevant for Jewish life and worship. If one has not sufficient knowledge of Jewish Mystesism you could never fully understand the writings of Yehochan (John) or Revelation. Incidentely the first verse of this book is enough to define and understand the relationship that Yeshua had with HaShem. It speaks of the revelation that God gave to Yeshua...I suppose that may confuse some people's theology...
Christianity moved away from its Jewish root when, through the various councils, it was decided to base soteriology (salvation) on Incarnation taking it away from the Jewish focus of Techeiyat Meitim, the belief in a bodily resurrection. Example the missionery mantra, (which I incidentaliy believe in, in context!)Romans 10:9 This 'confession' is part of Shacharit (morning prayer)and is the Jewish hope. Our website shomeryisrael.org has more info available for those interested.
B'shalom (in peace)
Aryeh Baruch
So who was the historical Jesus?
According to world-recognized authorities in this area Ribi Yehoshua was a Pharisee (a Torah-practising Jewish group - who according to 4Q MMT practised both written and oral Torah).
As the earliest church historians, most eminent modern university historians, our web site (www.netzarim.co.il) and our Khavruta (Distance Learning) texts confirm, the original teachings of Ribi Yehoshua were not only accepted by most of the Pharisaic Jewish community, he had hoards of Jewish students.
Anyone educated in this field knows that the only sect of Judaism that had rabbis was the Pharisee and even the Christian NT described him as a rabbi. Parkes, Bagatti, Wilson, Charlesworth; all world-recognized authorities in this area leave no doubt that Ribi Yehoshua was a Pharisee, of the school of Hileil - who was also Pharisee. There is no serious dispute about that among scholars in the field. Ribi Yehoshua taught in "synagogues"; which were a strictly Pharisee institution.
Finding the historical Jew, who was a Pharisee Ribi and following him brings you into Torah, which gives you a rich and meaningful life here on earth and great rewards in life after death (“heaven”)!
From Anders Branderud
Geir Toshav, the only legitimate Netzarim, which is in Ra’anana in Israel (www.netzarim.co.il) who is followers of Ribi Yehoshua – the Messiah – in Orthodox Judaism
I'd like to address the troubling assertions made by Mr. Murphy, with special regard to the nature of the distinction between Jews and Hebrews.
I am unfamiliar with any substantial source that would support your ethnicity versus volunteerism of belief formula for the division in Hebrew/ Jewish identity. This is, to me, a completely novel formula of differentiation, and one I'm curious to know more about.
I'm also not quite sure how Christ would have, in effect, been his own follower, the "Christian" of your argument. He worshiped, both before and after his baptism with his co-religionists, whatever you wish to call them .
My impression, from the tone of your comment, is that you have sought to justify through your "faith" a wooden and ,frankly, darkly ignorant understanding of the Jews and Judaism. You seek to draw artificial distinctions to reinforce your views and read scripture through the scrim of your preconceived notions. If this is mis-perception, I beg your pardon.
I've heard comments of the same kind, but usually from those who would deny the holocaust or morally degenerate so-called "Catholics" who break with their acknowledged conduit of salvation over their rejection of Vatican II and more specifically nostra aetate and its language rejecting the charge of deicide; or a type even more common these days, a sort of hybridised neo-nazi jailhouse lawyer type for whom terms like "scientific method" find their way into discussions of race and faith to further obscure the issues at hand.
I hope that I've misunderstood your comments. Perhaps I've read more into them than is there or perhaps I'm just plain dumb, but as a son of Christian Europe, though a shameful sinner and unworthy to represent myself as in some way connected to or representative of Christ, I feel a great responsibility to confront those who would deride or defame the Jews, especially when these attacks masquerade as scholarship.
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