Yesterday night, Jews around the world sat down to celebrate the Passover Seder meal. At the same time, they also began the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts seven days. Still today Jewish people make a great effort to observe the commandment to remove all leaven from their homes and eat only unleavened food for […]
The Wisdom of Hebrew Words
I love Hebrew words. I can’t count the number of times that learning a definition has deepened my understanding of not just one Bible passage, but many. Recently I’ve posted a couple examples to show you what I mean. In the article “Does God Forget Sins?” I explain how the words for “remember” and “forget” […]
Shema: To Hear is to Obey
Biblical Hebrew includes only about 8,000 words, far fewer than the 100,000 or more we have in English. Because Hebrew has so few words, each is like an over-stuffed suitcase, bulging with extra meanings that it must carry in order for the language to fully describe reality. Unpacking each word is a delightful exercise in […]
The Rabbis Actually Agreed with Jesus about “Corban”
Jewish law actually agrees with Jesus about declaring things “corban.” What was the issue involved? You need to know about this passionate culture where people often made rash vows.
Discipleship: What Sheep Can Teach Us
I used to think that Jesus’ command to make disciples simply meant teaching people certain beliefs about God, helping them to accept Christ as Lord, and then educating them in doctrinal truth later on. Though all these are important, this way of defining discipleship showed that I, like many westerners, approached the gospel primarily as […]
Can We Use Jewish Sources to Study Jesus?
How much can we really learn about the Jewishness of Jesus from Jewish sources? That’s a pretty fundamental question, since the goal of this website is to understand the Jewish background of Christianity. I’ve found some pretty important news about it, and wanted to share it here. A common approach to studying Jesus is to […]
Orphans, in this Day and Age?
The word for “orphan” in the Bible also referred to children who were fatherless, because having a single parent was a terrible fate too. Nowadays we don’t have many orphans, but we have a lot of single parent families.
How Can God Forget Sins?
You have to admit, some Bible passages are real head- scratchers. For instance, in several places God says, “I will not remember your sins.” But how can God, in his infinite intellect, forget something? And what does he expect of us, since we pray, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against […]
The Gospel in Deuteronomy
One hazy late August morning a few years ago, I nearly lost my way in the desert. I was so dehydrated, deflated and defeated, that I nearly gave up the hike. For nearly a year I had been trekking through the Torah week by week for my morning Bible study, taking part in the centuries-old […]
Peace Within Your Walls
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. Psalm 122:6-7 (KJV) Throughout the past several thousand years, Israel has often been the center of international controversy. It seems as if spiritual battles over that land are still triggering events in world […]
What was the “Good Portion” that Mary Chose?
Women have always cheered at the story of Mary of Bethany in Luke 10:38-42. Mary wanted to sit and learn from Jesus, in spite of Martha’s bossy reminders that a long list of chores had her name on them. Despite Martha’s protests, Jesus took her side. I’ve written before about how Jewish culture sheds light […]
Taking My Thumb Off the Scale
[An excerpt from Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus (Zondervan, 2012)] My keys clattered onto the countertop, a relieved sigh escaping from my lips as I slipped off my Sunday coat. The morning had been filled with small irritations: the coffee I splattered on my new sweater, the nosy prayer chain coordinator who grilled […]
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