Download or read book The Baptism of Jesus from a Jewish Perspective written by Tov Rose and published by Tov Rose. This book was released on 2014 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is missing in the "traditional" way Baptism is explained in a church? What do you know about the Jewish side of the story? What concepts intrigue you? Confuse you? One of the subjects including is, 'Why John?" What was it about that man in particular that made him the perfect prophet for the right time? (Bet you've not heard a sermon on that subject, have you?) Why was John considered a prophet and what does this have to do with Baptism? There are many misconceptions about Baptism of the believer. Some teach that Baptism is simply and outward expression of the internal spiritual commitment. Others teach that it is a requirement, a sacrament. While all of these may be true, there is a background story that is rarely taught, understood and mostly unknown to most pastors. You may have heard that John's baptism was for repentance alone, and this is true. However, what is missing from this simple description is the purpose and history of that specific form of baptism John was practicing and the authority, which he carried in Israel. In contemporary Judaic Religious tradition of the day those pagans (non-Jewish people), who wished to convert to Judaism have to go through a very specific ritual of Baptism. Moreover, this was the very form of baptism that John was using to baptize Jewish people-which is one of the things that made him a Prophet. In order to understand what John was doing you need a little more background and this work provides what is missing...
Download or read book What on Earth Is God Doing written by Renald Showers and published by Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walk from creation to eternity in a way guaranteed to change your view of the world. You'll finally understand the war Satan is waging against God and how that conflict has affected history, including the persecution of Jewish people and Christians.
Download or read book The Aryan Jesus written by Susannah Heschel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-03 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence on German Religious Life. In The Aryan Jesus, Susannah Heschel shows that during the Third Reich, the Institute became the most important propaganda organ of German Protestantism, exerting a widespread influence and producing a nazified Christianity that placed anti-Semitism at its theological center. Based on years of archival research, The Aryan Jesus examines the membership and activities of this controversial theological organization. With headquarters in Eisenach, the Institute sponsored propaganda conferences throughout the Nazi Reich and published books defaming Judaism, including a dejudaized version of the New Testament and a catechism proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the Aryans. Institute members--professors of theology, bishops, and pastors--viewed their efforts as a vital support for Hitler's war against the Jews. Heschel looks in particular at Walter Grundmann, the Institute's director and a professor of the New Testament at the University of Jena. Grundmann and his colleagues formed a community of like-minded Nazi Christians who remained active and continued to support each other in Germany's postwar years. The Aryan Jesus raises vital questions about Christianity's recent past and the ambivalent place of Judaism in Christian thought.
Download or read book Jerusalem written by Lee I. Levine and published by Jewish Publication Society. This book was released on 2002-12-02 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jerusalem in the Second Temple period experienced dramatic growth as it achieved unprecedented political, religious, and spiritual prominence. Lee Levine traces the development of Jerusalem during this time -- through its urban, demographic, topographical, and archaeological features, its political regimes, public institutions, and its cultural and religious life.
Download or read book Baptism in the Early Church written by Everett Ferguson and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2009-03-23 with total page 988 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive survey of the doctrine and practice of baptism in the first five centuries of Christian history, arranged geographically within chronological periods.
Download or read book How Jesus Became God written by Bart D. Ehrman and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2014-03-25 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times bestselling author and Bible expert Bart Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church. The claim at the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. But this is not what the original disciples believed during Jesus’s lifetime—and it is not what Jesus claimed about himself. How Jesus Became God tells the story of an idea that shaped Christianity, and of the evolution of a belief that looked very different in the fourth century than it did in the first. A master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, Ehrman reveals how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty, Creator of all things. But how did he move from being a Jewish prophet to being God? In a book that took eight years to research and write, Ehrman sketches Jesus’s transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus’s followers had visions of him after his death—alive again—did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God. And what they meant by that was not at all what people mean today. Written for secular historians of religion and believers alike, How Jesus Became God will engage anyone interested in the historical developments that led to the affirmation at the heart of Christianity: Jesus was, and is, God.
Download or read book John the Baptist in History and Theology written by Joel Marcus and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2018-11-16 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis that challenges the conventional Christian hierarchy of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth While the Christian tradition has subordinated John the Baptist to Jesus of Nazareth, John himself would likely have disagreed with that ranking. In this eye-opening new book, John the Baptist in History and Theology, Joel Marcus makes a powerful case that John saw himself, not Jesus, as the proclaimer and initiator of the kingdom of God and his own ministry as the center of God's saving action in history. Although the Fourth Gospel has the Baptist saying, "He must increase, but I must decrease," Marcus contends that this and other biblical and extrabiblical evidence reveal a continuing competition between the two men that early Christians sought to muffle. Like Jesus, John was an apocalyptic prophet who looked forward to the imminent end of the world and the establishment of God's rule on earth. Originally a member of the Dead Sea Sect, an apocalyptic community within Judaism, John broke with the group over his growing conviction that he himself was Elijah, the end-time prophet who would inaugurate God's kingdom on earth. Through his ministry of baptism, he ushered all who came to him—Jews and non-Jews alike—into this dawning new age. Jesus began his career as a follower of the Baptist, but, like other successor figures in religious history, he parted ways from his predecessor as he became convinced of his own centrality in God's purposes. Meanwhile John's mass following and apocalyptic message became political threats to Herod Antipas, who had John executed to abort any revolutionary movement. Based on close critical-historical readings of early texts—including the accounts of John in the Gospels and in Josephus's Antiquities—as well as parallels from later religious movements, John the Baptist in History and Theology situates the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism and compares him to other apocalyptic thinkers from ancient and modern times. It concludes with thoughtful reflections on how its revisionist interpretations might be incorporated into the Christian faith.
Download or read book The True Origins of Christianity and the Bible written by Andrew D. Benson and published by . This book was released on 1999-07-01 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Jesus Or Yeshua Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity written by Louis Lapides and published by Scripture Solutions. This book was released on 2012-09-28 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus or Yeshua: Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity It has taken 2000 years for the Jewish roots of Christianity to be yanked out of its Hebraic origins. The Jewish or Gentile follower of Jesus who reads Jesus or Yeshua: Exploring the Jewish Roots of Christianity will discover that much of the everyday Christian terminology is strongly connected to the original Jewish background of the establishment of Christianity. For the inquisitive seeker Lapides fills in many blanks to help gain a deeper understanding of the messinaic faith. Lapides takens into account typical Christian lingo can confuse both Jewish and Gentile newcomers to Christianity. His goal in compiling this brief 32 page guide is to help Gentile believers recognize certain "Christian" terms that have been historical stumbling blocks to Jewish seekers. In addition, Lapides aims to help Jewish people gain an appreciation for the deeper meaning of various Christian expressions.
Download or read book The Jewish Gospels written by Daniel Boyarin and published by New Press/ORIM. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[A] fascinating recasting of the story of Jesus.” —Elliot Wolfson, New York University In July 2008, a front-page story in the New York Times reported on the discovery of an ancient Hebrew tablet, dating from before the birth of Jesus, which predicted a Messiah who would rise from the dead after three days. Commenting on this startling discovery at the time, noted Talmud scholar Daniel Boyarin argued that “some Christians will find it shocking—a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology.” Guiding us through a rich tapestry of new discoveries and ancient scriptures, The Jewish Gospels makes the powerful case that our conventional understandings of Jesus and of the origins of Christianity are wrong. In Boyarin’s scrupulously illustrated account, the coming of the Messiah was fully imagined in the ancient Jewish texts. Jesus, moreover, was embraced by many Jews as this person, and his core teachings were not at all a break from Jewish beliefs and teachings. Jesus and his followers, Boyarin shows, were simply Jewish. What came to be known as Christianity came much later, as religious and political leaders sought to impose a new religious orthodoxy that was not present at the time of Jesus’s life. In the vein of Elaine Pagels’s The Gnostic Gospels, here is a brilliant new work that will break open some of our culture’s most cherished assumptions. “A brilliant and momentous book.” —Karen L. King, Harvard Divinity School “Raises profound questions . . . This provocative book will change the way we think of the Gospels in their Jewish context.” —John J. Collins, Yale Divinity School “It’s certainly noteworthy when one of the world’s leading Jewish scholars publishes a book about Jesus . . . Extremely stimulating.” —Daniel C. Peterson, The Deseret News
Download or read book Jesus the Jewish Theologian written by Brad H. Young and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 1993-11-01 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus the Jewish Theologian establishes Jesus firmly within the context of first-century Judaism and shows how understanding Jesus' Jewishness is crucial for interpreting the New Testament and for understanding the nature of Christian faith. Insights from Jewish literature, archeology, and tradition help modern readers place Jesus within his original context. Particular attention is given to the Jewish roots of Jesus' teaching concerning the kingdom of God.
Download or read book Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary written by Brant James Pitre and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2018-10-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Brant Pitre is one of the most compelling theological writers on the scene today.” –Bishop Robert Barron Bestselling author of Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist casts new light on the Virgin Mary, illuminating her role in the Old and New Testaments. Are Catholic teachings on Mary really biblical? Or are they the "traditions of men"? Should she be called the "Mother of God," or just the mother of Jesus? Did she actually remain a virgin her whole life or do the "brothers of Jesus" refer to her other children? By praying to Mary, are Catholics worshipping her? And what does Mary have to do with the quest to understand Jesus? In Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, Dr. Pitre takes readers step-by-step from the Garden of Eden to the Book of Revelation to reveal how deeply biblical Catholic beliefs about Mary really are. Dr. Pitre uses the Old Testament and Ancient Judaism to unlock how the Bible itself teaches that Mary is in fact the new Eve, the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and the new Ark of the Covenant.
Download or read book The Rise of Christianity written by Rodney Stark and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1997-05-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This "fresh, blunt, and highly persuasive account of how the West was won—for Jesus" (Newsweek) is now available in paperback. Stark's provocative report challenges conventional wisdom and finds that Christianity's astounding dominance of the Western world arose from its offer of a better, more secure way of life. "Compelling reading" (Library Journal) that is sure to "generate spirited argument" (Publishers Weekly), this account of Christianity's remarkable growth within the Roman Empire is the subject of much fanfare. "Anyone who has puzzled over Christianity's rise to dominance...must read it." says Yale University's Wayne A. Meeks, for The Rise of Christianity makes a compelling case for startling conclusions. Combining his expertise in social science with historical evidence, and his insight into contemporary religion's appeal, Stark finds that early Christianity attracted the privileged rather than the poor, that most early converts were women or marginalized Jews—and ultimately "that Christianity was a success because it proved those who joined it with a more appealing, more assuring, happier, and perhaps longer life" (Andrew M. Greeley, University of Chicago).
Download or read book Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist written by Brant Pitre and published by Image. This book was released on 2011-02-15 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revelatory exploration of the Jewish roots of the Last Supper that seeks to understand exactly what happened at Jesus’ final Passover. “Clear, profound and practical—you do not want to miss this book.”—Dr. Scott Hahn, author of The Lamb’s Supper and The Fourth Cup Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist shines fresh light on the Last Supper by looking at it through Jewish eyes. Using his in-depth knowledge of the Bible and ancient Judaism, Dr. Brant Pitre answers questions such as: What was the Passover like at the time of Jesus? What were the Jewish hopes for the Messiah? What was Jesus’ purpose in instituting the Eucharist during the feast of Passover? And, most important of all, what did Jesus mean when he said, “This is my body… This is my blood”? To answer these questions, Pitre explores ancient Jewish beliefs about the Passover of the Messiah, the miraculous Manna from heaven, and the mysterious Bread of the Presence. As he shows, these three keys—the Passover, the Manna, and the Bread of the Presence—have the power to unlock the original meaning of the Eucharistic words of Jesus. Along the way, Pitre also explains how Jesus united the Last Supper to his death on Good Friday and his Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Inspiring and informative, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist is a groundbreaking work that is sure to illuminate one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian faith: the mystery of Jesus’ presence in “the breaking of the bread.”
Download or read book Jesus A Very Short Introduction written by Richard Bauckham and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-07-28 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bauckham shows that Jesus was devoted to the God of Israel, with a special focus on God's fatherly love and compassion, and like every Jewish teacher he expounded the Torah, but did so in his own distinctive way.
Download or read book Esther and Her Elusive God written by John Anthony Dunne and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-02-12 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if the way the book of Esther has been taught to us in church and retold to us in films, cartoons, and romance novels has missed the original point of the story? Far from being models of piety and devotion, Esther and Mordecai seem indifferent to the faith of their ancestors. How then did this story become part of the Bible and gain the broad acceptance that it has? If the church should not neglect the story, how should it be read? Esther and Her Elusive God calls Christians to avoid the common attempts to make Esther more palatable and theological, and to reclaim this secular story as Scripture. Readers will be encouraged to see in Esther a profound message of God's grace and faithfulness to his wayward people.
Download or read book Jesus in the Targums written by Tov Rose and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-01-24 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Most people do not realize that the Apostle John was actually using terminology familiar to 1st Century Jewish people. It was familiar, because it was language read in the Targums in the Synagogue every week. What John was doing by stating his first sentence in the manner was very similar to the technique used at the time (and today in some Orthodox Jewish sects), whereby one person would recite the first verse of a Psalm, and the students (or members of the Synagogue), would begin to recite the rest of the Psalm. Jesus did this as is recorded in the New Testament. The hearers should have understood to recite the entirety of Psalm 22 in response, "And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'" Matthew 27:46 Using this technique, John the Apostle, was calling on Jewish familiarity with the Aramaic Tagums and calling them to apply what they learned from the Targums about The Word of the Lord, to Yeshua/Jesus himself. This study is simply highlighting all of those passages that would have been read in the Synagogue throughout the course of a year in 1st Century Judaism, calling attention to the passages mentioning The Word of the Lord. Jewish theology of the period understood that The Word of the Lord was a "lesser Yahweh." In other words, he was the God who interacted with humanity and creation directly, performing miracles, signs and wonders and simply speaking to humans. The "Greater Yahweh" was understood to exist in the Heaven. The "lesser Yahweh" did the will of and spoke the words of the "Greater Yahweh." This is the theological and social context of the 1st Century Jewish mind that first encountered the Apostle John's words: John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This work is a side-by-side comparison of passages in the various Targums showing that "The Word of the Lord" was considered an important person of the Godhead in the understanding of Judaism predating 3 AD/CE.
