Big news…after fifteen years, the En-Gedi Resource Center has a brand new website at EnGediResourceCenter.com! (Please note the new URL.) The En-Gedi Resource Center is a ministry that I co-founded in 2001 to teach Christians about the Bible in its Hebraic cultural context. It’s where I got my start as a writer, when I began […]
About a month ago I spoke at a conference at Narkis Church in Jerusalem. I posted a link to my talk called Jesus’ Bold Messianic Claims on an earlier blog, but many of the talks there will be of interest to those who like to learn about Christianity in its historical, Judaic context. The entire […]
Yesterday I spoke on “Jesus’ Bold Messianic Claims” at a conference at Narkis Church in Jerusalem, Israel. You can watch the video below. My talk is about a half hour. (Note: The embedded video has now been fixed! – Sep. 1 2017) I share some of the story about how I got interested in the […]
I recently took over the ministry of the En-Gedi Resource Center, and wanted to show you one of our nicest resources. Along with books, we published audio and video. One of our best series was Insights into Jesus of Nazareth: His Words, His Wisdom, His World. A dozen of the finest scholars on the first-century […]
I have some happy news which long time friends and readers will especially appreciate. I was asked to take charge of the En-Gedi Resource Center, the ministry that I co-founded with Bruce Okkema back in 2001. En-Gedi is the name of a gorgeous oasis in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea. Springs gush out […]
Not long ago I got a lovely note from a reader with a question I had never been asked before. “Lois, I want to support your writing ministry. How best can I do that? Could I order your books in Christian book stores or should I go to your website, or to Amazon? How can […]
Even if you didn’t watch Star Trek, you probably know what Mr. Spock’s Vulcan greeting, “Live Long and Prosper” looks like. If you were a die-hard fan (like me) you might have heard that Leonard Nimoy was Jewish and invented it based on his recollection of synagogue services as a child. It’s traditional for the […]
Dear readers, Right now I’m working on my next book, called Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus. My goal is to help Christians think more like first-century disciples, and equip them to study their Bibles more effectively. I wanted to throw a question out to you, knowing that some readers have just started learning about […]
I don’t write many book reviews, but I wanted to share a new book that I’m really enjoying. It’s Seriously Dangerous Religion, (Baylor, 2014) by Iain Provan, Old Testament professor at Regent College. The subtitle is “What the Old Testament Really Says and Why it Matters.” In it he traces out the biblical story as […]
Drumroll… Here are the top 10 articles and posts of 2014 on the OurRabbiJesus.com website: . 1. Mr. Spock’s God: The Mistake of Western Theology The idea that emotions are irrational and unnatural arose from Greco-Roman philosophy. Many of our problems with God come from this unbiblical idea. 2. Does God Want Us to Fear […]
Many Christians right now are preparing for Christmas. Jews, on the other hand, are in the middle of the 8-day celebration of Hanukkah. For most, the two holidays seem to have little in common. But this is actually a wonderful time of year to consider Jesus in his Hebraic context. During Hanukkah, Jews celebrate their […]
Ken Bailey has written a number of fascinating books on Jesus in his Middle Eastern context. In his introduction to Finding the Lost Cultural Keys to Luke 15 (Concordia, 1992), he explains a key difference between how Westerners think and communicate and how Jesus did. Westerners primarily communicate in concepts, but Middle Easterners communicate in […]