Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View Class - 7/17/2022

-


Monday mornings are getting to be quite fun!  As usual, our class was great.  Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Merrill, Dave, David, Jay, Norky, and Jessica attended.  We missed Robin and Randy and Odette.

Below is a summary written by Dan of what went on:

NT from Jewish Point of View July 18, 2022 – Galatians chapter 5 and 6

In case we missed the message earlier in his letter, the Apostle Paul makes it explicit that gentiles (adults at least) may not allow themselves to be circumcised. Doing so would obligate a person to obey the whole of the law of Moses. He wrote that for such a person “Christ will be no value to you at all”, he will be “alienated from Christ” and “fallen away from grace”. Ouch. 

He goes on to say that all you need to do is love your neighbor as yourself. Then he lists a series of bad activities and attitudes to avoid and to instead exhibit the “fruit of the spirit”. Simple. David said later on the church came up with its own set of laws which included the “seven deadly sins”. 

Additions From Jo Ann:

After we were done reading Galatians, together we read a very though provoking letter from Norky about religion and discussed it.  She is on a spiritual search and wants to learn the New Testament from a Jewish perspective.  

We also, of course sang “Give Me That Old Time Religion” at the beginning of our study and sang the Misheberach healing prayer at the end.  We had a fun time just talking before and after the study.  

Merill asked if Jewish people pray and David and other explained Jewish prayers.

Next week, before beginning Ephesians, we will read the essay on Messianic Judaism that is the Jewish Annotated New Testament.

Again, please add anything that has been forgotten from this summary.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View Class - March 27, 2023

-
Image
Jo Ann was off in Europe the day our class met, so Dan was the host of our meeting. Below is a summary, written by Dan, of what went on: “We had Karen, Steve, Dave, Merrill and Randy and Robin join in today. Robin is recovering from her hip replacement, and Steve’s wife is recovering from a complete knee replacement. We sang our “Old time religion” and Mi Shebeirach as usual. I believe we settled on reading IPeter next week.  We read through chapter 13, and Robin pointed out the many exhortations in the chapter, like the one to visit people who are imprisoned are identical to some Jewish writings. Steve pointed out that Hebrews 27:13 referred to the story of the three visitors to Abraham in Genesis. We were a puzzled about Hebrews 13:10s’ assertion about Christians having an altar that the priests in the temple had no right to eat from. The commentary said this could be the heavenly altar. Dan thought it may refer to communion.  The book as a whole made the argument that for Jewish ins
Read more

Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View Class - 3/13/23 and 3/20/23

-
Image
Due to my husband Dan’s mother’s recent death, it’s been more difficult to get these summaries done, so this summary includes two weeks. On Monday, March 13, Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Dave, Norky, Merrill, Neil, Robin, and Randy attended.  We were glad to have Robin and Randy back after Robin’s hip replacement surgery. Below is a summary written by Dan of what went on on Monday, 3/13/23: We read Hebrews chapter 10, as well as some of the commentary from the Jewish Annotated New Testament.  As the chapter began, the author spoke of the “good things” that Jesus did that “The law” could not do, namely solve the problem of sin, “once and for all”. The author argued that the blood of animals  could not truly take away sin, because if animal blood sacrifice took sin away,  sinners would not feel guilty for their sins anymore. Because people had to keep coming back to sacrifice, it must not take away sin at all. Following that is a discussion about Jesus that seemed to imply that Adonai requ
Read more

Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View - 8/15/2022

-
Image
We are all beginning to look so forward to Monday mornings!  Not only is our class fun, but the group is really getting to know one another and enjoying one another even though we meet virtually.  It is always great when new people join us too. Dan, Jo Ann, Steve, Odette, Karen, David, Dave, Norky, Merrill, Robin, and Ginger attended. After opening with our usual “Give Me That Old Time Religion” (with Dan leading us) we read both Chapters 3 and 4 of Ephesians. When discussing Chapter 3, Dave brought up “The Mystery of Christ” in the notes.  Paul is saying the gentiles are now heirs to God’s covenant through Christ Jesus.” We talked about God and Jesus being a “He.”  For example “Father.” We talked about the definition of Gentile.  We realized that although Jews think of Christians as Gentiles, Paul is saying Gentiles are those who are not Christian. In Chapter 4, Paul gives guidelines for good behavior for Christians since they have been “changed” by their new beliefs. We spent some ti
Read more