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 […]
Forgive my enthusiasm, but I just got to see the full dust jacket for my upcoming book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus. It has the front, back and side flap text on it. Click on the image to look at it up close. More information about the book on this page. The book comes […]
Have you seen the news that evidence for the lost city of Bethsaida has been found? USA Today, Newsweek, National Geographic and the Today Show have all reported on it. I’m pinching myself. A student from my area took part in the dig, and I was there myself for a few days. Bethsaida, you may […]
Shalom friends – I’m happy to say that after three years of work, I finished the manuscript for my next book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus. Yay! It will be released by Baker Publishing in January 2018, so we still have a bit. Between now and then I’ll share some sneak previews and interesting […]
Have you ever wished you could have been nearby when Jesus explained the Scriptures to the disciples on the Emmaus Road in Luke 24? Wouldn’t it be great to just see where this road was? Believe it or not, scholars have known its location for decades now. The remains of the Roman road are visible […]
Have you ever dreamed of being an archaeologist? You’ll be interested in the project at the likely site of Bethsaida. This is the village near where Jesus fed the five thousand (Luke 9:12-17), and where three disciples called home (John 1:43). . . If you’ve toured the land, you may have visited a site that […]
I was recently interviewed on a podcast called “The Dust Cast: Exploring the Ancient Hebraic Context of the Bible.” I had a great conversation with the host, Jason Mahler, about the current book I’m working on, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus, as well as some questions from earlier books. We talked about the “two […]
For those of you who are traveling to Israel in the near future, here’s some news. Two of my books, Listening to the Language of the Bible and Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus are now printed in Israel and are locally available in Jerusalem. If you are coming to Israel with a group, […]
I just got news from friends about a prayer concern which I would like to share with you. Do you remember my telling about the heroic ministry over there called Shevet Achim? They are a Christian ministry that goes to Gaza, Iraq and Syria to bring children to hospitals in Jerusalem for lifesaving heart-surgeries. When […]
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 […]