Grace & Knowledge Blog

In chapter 1 of her new book, Lois Tverberg also points out how anti-Jewish prejudices and misconceptions can impede our understanding of the New Testament. 

For example, when the Gospel of John speaks of "the Jews", we shouldn't think of Jesus as a "Christian" in conflict with the whole Jewish world.  Instead, Jesus and his disciples were part of that Jewish world.  The references to "the Jews" in John's Gospel are often geographic--in these cases, "the Judeans" would be a better translation--or involve Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.    .  

it's important to remember that the conflicts in the Gospels are "family squabbles", and that it was customary in that culture to use strong-sounding language in arguments, following in the tradition of the Hebrew prophets.  When Jesus gave criticism, he was correcting friends, not condemning enemies.

As I mention in one article, 

"It is important for Christians to understand that the episodes recorded in the Gospels took place within the Jewish world of the Second Temple Period. This was a world in which people often engaged in passionate discussions about the Hebrew Scriptures, learning by debate with "iron sharpening iron." Thus when Jesus had occasion to correct...

Tags: lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

On p. 16 of her new book, Lois Tverberg comments,

"In just the the past fifty years, we have seen more advances in biblical archaeology and in the discovery of ancient texts than in all the centuries since the time of Jesus."  

As an example, she mentions the discovery of the location of the Pool of Siloam during the past decade.

Another familiar example is in Matt 5:43, where Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' "

This verse was a real puzzler until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, because we previously had no evidence of anybody saying this.  

But the Manual of Discipline found at Qumran does indeed speak of hating one's enemies, based on Nahum 1:2:

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
    the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
  The LORD takes vengeance on his foes
    and maintains his wrath against his enemies.

The folks at Qumran should have paid closer attention to passages like Exod 23:4-5:

"If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him.  If...

Tags: lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

At the beginning of her new book, Lois Tverberg points out that some of the details about Jesus can be obscured by our distance in time and culture from first-century Judea.

She mentions a familiar example, DaVinci's "The Last Supper", where we find on the table "a puffy loaf of bread" and "a shockingly unkosher plate of grilled eels garnished with orange slices" (p. 22).  

The Gospel is a message for the whole world, so it's natural that each culture adapts that message in its own terms.  But there is much to be gained by learning about the original setting of the Gospels.

in the case of the Last Supper, understanding that this meal was a Passover Seder adds much to our understanding of its significance.  

Tags: lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

Lois Tverberg's new book, Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus:  How the Jewish Words of Jewish Can Change Your Life, published by Zondervan, will soon be available. 

Lois has given summaries of several of the chapters during visits to the Church of the Messiah, so I've been looking forward to seeing the finished product.

She starts the first chapter, "Brushing Away the Dust of the Ages", with a quote from Song of Songs Rabbah 2:8::

" Just as the rain water comes down in drops and forms rivers, so with the Scriptures:  one studies a bit today and some more tomorrow, until in time the understanding becomes like a flowing stream."

She comments that learning little details about the historical context of the Bible can pay big dividends in understanding.  As an example, she mentions Gen 22:6:

"Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.."

Lois points out that since a burnt offering required completely burning up an animal, Isaac must have been a full-grown man to have carried the necessary amount of wood.  Since Isaac was grown up, he understood...

Tags: lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

There is a blog that provides frequent updates on the latest free Kindle Books. 

Its entry on March 26, 2010 mentions that Lois Tverberg's Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus is free for a limited time.  I hope that this promotion will serve to expand the readership of a very worthwhile book.

Tags: amazon kindle, books, lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

On October 10, the Church of the Messiah held its annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration at Beavercreek Church of the Nazarene.  

The festivities began at 9 AM with some worship music.  Then Dwight Pryor began a talk on the book of Ecclesiastes, a text traditionally read during the Feast.  Following Walter Kaiser's excellent commentary,  Dwight intended to explain why Ecclesiastes is a very appropriate book for a season of rejoicing, since it identifies the only source of lasting joy.  Unfortunately he wasn't feeling well and was not able to complete the remarks he had prepared. (He was taken home and felt better after getting some rest.)

Next Lois Tverberg gave a presentation on Jewish prayer in the time of Jesus, summarizing the material in Chapters 6 and 7 of Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus.  In particular, she discussed the meaning of the Lord's Prayer and explained the Jewish practice of saying short prayers of thanksgiving throughout the course of each day.

After eating a light lunch that we had packed, we took a walk around the neighborhood before the afternoon events.  After lunch, Keren Pryor talked about how the annual cycle of festivals helps us to walk in...

Tags: church of the messiah, dwight pryor, feast of tabernacles, lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

Malachi 4:2 has long been recognized by Christians as a messianic prophecy:

"But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings" (NIV).

In particular, this verse may be in view in Luke 1:78. 

One detail of this verse's connection to Jesus is not so widely recognized, however, outside of the Hebraic roots/Messianic community.  As Lois Tverberg explains in Chapter 11, footnote 8 of Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, the Hebrew word for "wings'' in Mal 4:2 (kanafim) also refers to the "corners'' of a man's garment, to which tassels (tzitziot) were attached.  And so when people received healing by touching the "hem" of Jesus' garment (Mark 6:56), they were being healed by his "wings".

I first learned about the connection between Malachi 4:2 and the tzitziot of Jesus from a Dwight Pryor tape in 1998.     

New Testament scholar Dale Allison has found that this connection is not a new development in Christian exegesis.  In a recent article, he reports that it is mentioned in the Testimony Book of Pseudo-Epiphanius, a Christian source that has been dated to the fourth century AD.  He has also found it in the...

Tags: lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

If you had asked me 30 years ago what the Kingdom of God was about, I would have mentioned the future reign of Christ over the whole earth.  I might have quoted Dan. 2:44 or Rev 11:15, as Herbert Armstrong did in his booklet on the subject. 

In those days in the old Worldwide Church of God (WCG), we placed a lot of emphasis on that coming kingdom.  We were adventists, and the reality of Jesus' second advent was very important to us.  And so in reading Jesus' teachings about the Kingdom in the Gospels, we tended to emphasize some verses and read past some other ones.

Later, when WCG instituted doctrinal reforms in the 1990s, it began to present a more complete teaching that recognized the Kingdom as both a present and a future reality.

In chapter 13 of Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg give a wonderful summary of Jesus'  multifaceted teaching about the Kingdom of God, enhanced by comparison with early rabbinic teaching. 

 Like the rabbis, Jesus seemed to see the Kingdom broadly in terms of God's reign.  And so to pray  "thy kingdom come" means not only  to pray for Jesus' return, but also...

Tags: lois tverberg, rabbi jesus, wcg

One important part of Christianity's inheritance from Judaism is the concept of discipleship.  As Lois Tverberg and Ann Spangler show in the fourth chapter of Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus, making disciples is central to both Jewish and Christian traditions--see Matt 28:19 and Pirke Avot 1.1.

Tverberg and Spangler explain that first-century discipleship was not just about conveying information; rather, it was about effecting a personal transformation.  Like an apprentice to a skilled craftsman, a disciple entered into a prolonged close relationship with a teacher, imitating the teacher's actions as well as drinking in the teacher's words.

The prototype for the teacher/disciple relationship is the relationship between the prophet Elijah and his successor Elisha.  When Elijah calls Elisha, Elisha puts his own plans aside to become Elijah's servant (I Kings 19:19-21).   Elisha's dedication to Elisha becomes the model for  the disciples of Jesus hundreds of years later--see e.g. Luke 5:1-11; 9:57-62.  

There are more parallels here.  Elisha will eventually see his beloved teacher ascend in a heavenly chariot after asking for a "double portion" of the spirit of Elijah (2 Kings 2), prefiguring the ascension of Jesus and the Pentecost event.

Tverberg...

Tags: lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

A few years ago, a Time Magazine article identified "Re-Judaizing Jesus"---especially, embracing the  principle that Jesus can't be properly understood apart from his first-century Jewish context---as a major trend.

On the level of scholarship, this trend means that the "Quest for the Historical Jesus" is at long last fully living up to its name. 

Originally, the  "quest" was about skeptics describing a Jesus they could believe in.  The goal was to separate the "Jesus of history" from the "Christ of faith".  For example, American President Thomas Jefferson admired Jesus as a moral teacher but didn't believe in the Virgin Birth,  the Resurrection, or Jesus' healing miracles.  He produced an edited version of the gospels, removing all traces of the miraculous.

Such efforts failed to pay sufficient attention to the historical background of the gospels.  As a result, their authors created Jesuses in their own image.  While critical of the gospel text, they uncritically passed along false negative stereotypes about first-century Judaism.  These defects persist right up through the work of the modern Jesus Seminar.

But in the recent "Third Quest", the emphasis has been on the Jewishness of Jesus.  There's been a great deal of fruitful interaction between Christian and Jewish scholars.  Scholarly commentaries from...

Tags: lois tverberg, rabbi jesus

Every year we look forward to the Feast of Tabernacles celebration in Dayton, Ohio, sponsored by the Church of the Messiah.  We began attending these events in 1998, and they have enriched our lives greatly.

 This year (on Oct 10) a featured speaker will be Dr. Lois Tverberg, founder of the En-Gedi Resource Center and author (with Ann Spangler) of a great new book called Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus:  How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform your Faith (Zondervan, 2009).

I have long been an admirer of Dr.  Tverberg, who gave up a career as a biology professor in order to pursue her passion, sharing the excitement of learning about Jesus in his first-century Jewish context.

Zondervan has generously sent me a review copy of Lois's new book.  Over the next few months I'll post comments on it from time to time. 

Tags: church of the messiah, feast of tabernacles, lois tverberg, rabbi jesus