Meet my new mesharet, Madalyn Buursma. Moses had Joshua as his “mesharet.” Elijah had Elisha as his “mesharet.” The word is translated as “assistant,” but the relationship was an ancient model for how disciples studied with rabbinic teachers. Madalyn recently graduated from Calvin College with an English major and she’s aiming for a career in […]
Good news! In 2020 I will be authoring a bimonthly column for the magazine Premier Christianity, a popular Evangelical periodical in the United Kingdom. My first column will appear in the January 2020 issue. The overall theme of my series will be understanding Jesus as a rabbi, focusing on different aspects of his cultural background […]
Shalom, all – I have some great news – we’ve finished moving hundreds of articles from my first ministry website, the En-Gedi Resource Center, to their new home at EnGediResourceCenter.com. They have also been updated and reorganized by topic to make them easier to find. This has been months of work, so I hope readers […]
Did Jesus actually claim to be the Messiah and Son of God, or was the idea dreamed up by his fawning followers? Yes he did, and in a very Jewish way. So Jewish, in fact, that Gentiles have mostly overlooked his powerful claims. A few weeks ago shared a talk about this in Indianapolis. The […]
If you’d like to hear more about my life story and perspective, I did an interview in London with Sam Hailes on “The Profile” on Premier Christian Radio that aired Saturday, July 21, 2018. I thought it was a very good conversation. Listen to it at this link. This is their description of […]
Pastors, here’s a creative idea. Choose a Christian book to incorporate into a sermon series (4-5 weeks), and make copies available to church members. At the end of the series, invite the author to come and speak. After the service with the author, host a potluck with a Q & A discussion time about the […]
What a delightful time I had traveling to the UK and Netherlands June 7-21. I spoke to a total of nine audiences, around 80 – 100 typically, always a few more than the organizers expected. A few folks came from quite a distance. I hadn’t traveled in either country before, so I enjoyed encountering these […]
I’m excited that I’ve been invited to speak in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands this summer. I’ll be giving several seminars and talks about my new book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus (Baker, 2018). A prominent theme will be how Christians can be equipped to read the Bible more authentically by grasping its […]
Have you seen the Bible Project video series? I’ve been so impressed at this animated series that I just had to share. Their mission is to “show how the Bible is one unified story that leads to Jesus” and they do it very well. What I like the most is that these brief, 3-5 minute […]
With the release of Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, I’ve put together my responses to some interview questions about myself and my writing as it relates to the new book. You’ve written a couple of other books before this one that have similar titles – Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus […]
Hooray! My new book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus has now been officially released by my publisher, Baker. Every book is a lot of work, and there is much rejoicing when it is finally “born.” For more about the book, see this page. Some of you already ordered it from my office, so you […]
Right now, the season of Advent is upon us, and it’s one of my favorites. Our hymns have a much more Hebraic focus than the rest of the year. They are full of rich prophecies about God’s promises to redeem Israel, and through them bring redemption to the world. Listen to these lines from O […]