New Testament From Jewish Point of View - A Temple Israel Long Beach Zoom Class

We had one of the most fun discussions we’ve ever had on Monday, August 30, 2022! Jo Ann, Dan, Karen, Randy, Robin, Dave, Norky, Merrill, Jessica, and Amy attended.  We miss Odette and hope she can be back soon after making a film.  We also missed David and Steve.  It was Amy’s second time attending and we hope she keeps coming back. Below is a short summary of what went on written by Dan: We had a good morning, reading the Jewish Annotated New Testament from the letter of Paul the apostle to the Philippians, chapter 1 as well as the introduction from Dr. Cook. According to the introduction, scholars are not in agreement as to where Paul was imprisoned when he wrote this letter. Some places suggested are Rome, Caesarea and Ephesus, which means it's hard to say when this was written in the life of Paul. As we read the first chapter it was notable that Paul said all of the palace guard, the soldiers, knew he was imprisoned because of his teaching about Jesus of Nazareth. We...

We had a smaller than usual group today since Odette and Steve had other commitments and could not attend.   Jo Ann, Dan, Dave, Karen, Robin, Norky, Merrill, and Amy attended.  We began with singing our usual “Give Me That Old Time Religion” introduction.  Here’s a summary of what went on written by Dan: We read Ephesians chapters 5 and 6 to complete the letter. The major theme of these chapters was about household relationships, These included relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and slaves. We read in the commentary that similar ideas are spoken of in the Talmud. In this letter, Christ is mentioned in place of God. Wives were to obey their husbands, children their parents and slaves their masters. An important provision is that husbands are to love their wives, parents not be make their children angry and masters are not to threaten their masters. An interesting note in the commentary is that in the Talmud husbands were to be "tend...

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 b...

There are a lot of names for Jesus - Christ is just one of them  Of course we had a blast together on Monday, August 8, 2022! I’ve been opening up our Zoom room early and it is paying off.  Odette, who could not actually stay for our class, was able to get a good amount of visiting with us in before she headed off to a meeting. When the actual class started at 9:45 am, Odette was there to sing “Give Me That Old Time Religion” along with all the others who attended:  Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Merill, Ginger, Dave, Robin, and Norky.   It was Ginger’s first time joining us and we were glad to have her.  She is just checking out what Judaism and our class is about. We missed Jessica, David P., and David S.   We were able to read all of chapters one and two in Ephesians.  We also learned that the first edition of the Jewish Annotated New Testament is slightly different than the pages in the second edition. Our discussion got into whether Paul actually wrot...

It’s August already!  Time has flown by.  This group has been studying together since October of 2021. We began with Romans since the Tanach study group had already read the gospels and Acts, skipped to James, and then we did both 1st and 2nd Corinthians, and Galatians.  So…now it’s on to Ephesians.   (We did spent last week reading the essay on Messianic Judaism from the Jewish Annotated New Testament.) Again we had a lively and very fun time together!  Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Merrill, Dave, David P., David S., (THREE DAVIDS!), Odette, Norky, and Robin attended.  It was David S.’s first time joining us and it was great to have him with us! As usual, after visiting a bit before 9:45, Dan led us in our traditional opening song “Give Me That Old Time Religion.” Below is a summary, written by Dan, of what went on: We had a discussion of the introduction of the letter to the Ephesians from the Annotated New Testament. There was a discussion about whether the...