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

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 J...

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 imp...

This week we had such a fun time together!  Jo Ann, Dan, Karen, Neil, Dave, Merrill, Larisa, Ruth, Diann, and Norky attended.   Larisa just visited us before we started our learning, but it was fun to hear about her life in the Soviet Union before she immigrated to the United States in the 1970s.  We also learned about her great-grandfather who was a Jewish rabbi and how they had to practice Judaism in secret.  We saw some of her incredible art too.  Everyone was so welcoming and want to get to know Larisa more and we hope she can come back. We certainly missed having Robin and Randy, Odette, David, Jessica, and Jay E., and Jay A. and others who have previously attend with us.  Hope to see them next week or soon.. Below is a summary written by Dan about what we learned and discussed: “ Jo Ann and I really appreciate all the expressions of condolence regarding the death of my Mother. It’s always good to be with friends at a time like this.  Our discuss...

It was good to study together again since we did not meet the week before due to the President’s Day holiday.  Jo Ann, Dan, Karen, Dave, Randy, Robin, Odette, Norky, Jay, Merrill, Larisa, and Neil attended. It was Larisa’s first time with us, so she just listened in. Below is a summary written by Dan of what went on: Chapter 4 - The author of Hebrews talks about a Sabbath rest for the people of God. But who are the people of God? The author of Hebrews says it’s the church, not the Jewish people. So what is the sabbath rest? The sabbath rest is not the seventh day of our week but heaven.  Chapter 5 - The earthly priesthood of the sons of Aaron in Hebrews is replaced by the heavenly priesthood of Jesus, who is said to be a priest “in the order of Melchizedek”, drawing from an obscure reference to Genesis 14.  Hebrew’s author makes Jesus, who is not from a priestly line, into an eternal heavenly priest. The priesthood of Aaron is replaced by the priesthood of Jesus.  Ch...