In the midst of the worldwide COVID-19 crisis, the realization that Passover season is upon us feels foreign, kind of like a vague memory of a former life. But this food, family, and friend-filled holiday is intrinsic to the fabric of Jewish life. Even if celebrating it doesn’t look the same right now, we can still mark the occasion!
I googled “Christianity” and found the New Testament in Hebrew. I expected it to be an anti-Semitic book with stories about Santa Claus! But in the first pages, the Gospel of Matthew, I read the genealogy of Jesus and saw all these Hebrew names. It felt so familiar.
A look at the Jewishness of the authors, focus, language, and content of the New Testament.
Can Jewish people read the New Testament? Discover why the New Testament draws from Hebrew Scripture, the Jewish Bible. Read about why a rabbi who considered the New Testament to be anti-Semitic changed his mind.
Below the surface were the unanswered questions, “Who am I? Can I know God? What follows death? Can I have the positive assurance that my sins are forgiven?”
He asked if I wanted to pray. I replied, “Sure, where’s the prayer book?” “You don’t need one,” he explained. “Just talk to God from your heart.” I folded my arms across my chest, looked upwards, and said, “God, I don’t know who You are. But I’m tired of doing it by myself, so You have a go.”
The Torah is foundational to Judaism. That is why this article lists many references to the Old Testament found on the lips of Jesus in the Gospels.
As a young rabbi, Isaac Lichtenstein (1825–1908) reprimanded a young man for showing him a Bible containing a New Testament, took the book from him, and put it on a corner shelf. Thirty years later Lichtenstein opened the book… and it changed his life.
HAVURAH: The Jewish Annotated New Testament has made quite a splash in some circles. What were your expectations as co-editor in terms of its reception and impact among Jews and Christians? Have those expectations been met so far? AMY-JILL LEVINE: Rather than thinking...
Some efforts to resolve various difficulties the Bible presents have been simplistic, naive or sometimes even seemingly desperate.
A person is either Jewish or not Jewish, and few actually believe that Paul was not. Hyam Maccoby is virtually alone in his opinion that Paul was a gentile. 1 However, if we can speak of the extent to which one demonstrates Jewish identity as that person’s...
The New Testament–which simply means New Covenant–needs to be accepted for what it is, a Jewish book written almost entirely by Jewish people. Most of the concepts in the New Testament cannot be understood apart from their background in the Hebrew Bible....
The popular myth that Paul was deceptive is expressed by writers such as Gerald Sigal, Michoel Drazin, and Beth Moshe: In his overriding desire to convert the masses to his beliefs, Paul is guided by the dubious assumption that the end justifies the means…The...
Paul has been charged with deceit as he proclaimed the message of Yeshua. In 1 Corinthians 9:20-22, he wrote: To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those...
An answer to the allegation that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah.
(in German; Leipzig, 1895). Out of print, but available at some large libraries or through inter-library loan. One of the most intriguing eras in Messianic Jewish history is the 19th century, and one of its more fascinating characters was Jehiel Lichtenstein...
If you said to the average Christian, Isn’t it wonderful how God extends his grace to people in the New Testament?” you would probably get an immediate affirmation of, “Yes, it is!” But if you said to the same person, “Isn’t it...
In the past several decades, a particular program of reclamation has been undertaken by the Jewish people. It does not involve the rejuvenation of the land, nor the replanting of trees. Instead, it is the reclamation of one whom many regard as Israel’s greatest...
I was no longer able to discount the New Testament as “someone else’s religion,” for it spoke directly to the dry and barren areas of need in my life. My animosity toward Jesus had been replaced with respect, then love, and finally faith.
