If you’re in the Chicago area on Monday evening, May 4th, I’m going to be speaking to the Kesher Forum at Willow Creek North, 315 Waukegan Road, Northfield, IL.
My presentation will be called, “Jesus’ Bold Messianic Claims.” Here’s the description:
People often assume that the historical Jesus was a humble rabbi who made no pretense to be the exalted Christ that the Gentile church believed him to be. Upon closer examination, however, scholars are finding just the opposite. Jesus often made startling Messianic claims in a very Jewish way. Some of his “hints” are so cloaked in Jewish cultural expression that Gentiles read right past them.
I hope that you can join us! For more information on the venue and on Kesher Forum, see this link.
Lindsey Conference, Jerusalem, Israel
The talk that I’ll give in Chicago will be related to one I’m giving at a conference in Jerusalem, Israel, May 29-June 2 at Narkis Church.
The conference will be on the life and work of Robert Lindsey, the founder of a group of Christian and Jewish scholars who have deeply influenced my writing about Jesus in his context. I never met Lindsey, but a mentor of mine, David Bivin, was one of his closest students.
One of the most critical things I learned from Bivin was about how Jesus often made powerful claims to be the Messiah by alluding to prophecies and applying them to himself.
Lindsey had discovered many of these claims, and they challenged the notion that the historical, Jewish Jesus saw himself merely as a humble rabbinic teacher. I’ll be speaking about this at the conference. I’ll also be writing about this topic in my next book, Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus.
If you can’t join us, presentations will be recorded and available online. More information is available on my event page and at the conference page on the Narkis site.
Margaret Bosanquet says
Excellent. Go go Lois!
James Benko says
Hi Lois,
I hope that you will cover in your new book, “Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus” topics like the Sabbath, Prayer, the Jewish Scriptures called the TANAKH, the state of the dead and the resurrection, the Second Coming, etc. I think it is imperative that you show Jesus’ regard for the primacy of Scripture over the rabbinical writings of His day and over Jewish tradition.
By showing how Jesus’ teachings compared with the Jewish Bible, it will show that His claims were indeed prophetic fulfillments and worthy of serious consideration.
I hope you will explain to your readers that Yeshua is Jesus’ original Hebrew name and deserving of acceptance.
Yours truly,
Jim Benko
Mary says
Shalom, Lois! Be blessed with a wonderful time of sharing insights!
I have a very dear friend who has considered converting to Judaism from Christianity. Thinking I’d like to learn where she’s coming from, I spent hours listening online and taking notes from anti-missionary Rabbi information.
Specifically addressed was how Christians “twist” Scripture to find Jesus in the Old Testament. The Rabbi pointed out how our Messianic prophecies are not in the context of what various references are talking about. I’m sure you are familiar with their saying Isaiah 53 is talking about Israel, that everybody has been betrayed, virgin in the OT and NT are different words, and in the NT it is not necessarily an actual virgin.
What I need for somebody to address is – What are some “airtight” prophecies that an Orthodox Rabbi would not be able to shoot holes through???