Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View Class - March 6, 2023

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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 discussion was harmonious, except when it came to pronouncing the word “Melchizedek”. In the discussion of the passage speaking of the importance of Abram paying a tithe to Melchizedek, Dan spoke of a belief in something called an “amimalcules”, which was a tiny person who eventually would be born. The idea was the Levi was a little tiny person inside of Abram at the time. Dan called it a “homunculus”, can you believe that? 

We did not get into a discussion of the tricky problem of translating Genesis 14 and Psalm 110. Good thing, because it’s pretty hairy. We did briefly discuss the “new covenant” spoken of by Jeremiah. We discussed how the term “New Testament” came about. The Origin of calling the New Testament the “New Testament” was from a scholar named “Origen”. Anyway, someone spoke about a Christian missionary in Eilat who would show Jewish people the passage about the “new covenant” or “new testament”, and they would say “wow” (or maybe “far out” - it was the 20th century). 

Steve asked if this passage was saying that Jesus was Melchizedek? The passage does not, which means the author sidestepped the issue. Some people said Melchizedek was none other than Shem, son of Noah. The author of Hebrews probably thought, “this is getting weird, I’ll just ignore that issue”. 

We discussed how this whole thing about Melchizedek was a massive argument from silence, since Genesis has very little to say about him. But did that ever stop anybody?

On to chapter 10 and beyond.”

Addition from Jo Ann:

Below is a video of our group trying to pronounce Melchizedek:


We included several names in our Misheberach healing prayer time and we did okay even though Randy wasn’t there to play Sheri’s beautiful accompaniment. 

After our meeting, we left the Zoom room open for quite some time to just talk and do sort of a shiva for Dan since his mother died on Friday morning March 3, 2023. 

As always, if I missed anything that should be included in this summary, please add by clicking the comment button below.






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