Summary of New Testament From a Jewish Point of View Class - April 17, April 24, and May 1, 2023

-


I haven’t been the best at putting these summaries together weekly, so below are summaries, written by Dan, covering the past three weeks:

April 17, 2023

(Unfortunately Dan didn’t put together a summary for that week.) 

April 24, 2023

We studied the second chapter of 2Peter last Monday. Much of the chapter was devoted to warnings against false prophets. As is usual we had a wide ranging discussion,  noting the many references to Tanach in describing these people. Unfortunately, we don’t know who these people were, what they taught or anything. It can be noted that opposing schools of Christian thought at that time routinely accused each other of immorality. 

Chapter 2 verse 19 “they promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption for people are slaves to whatever masters them.” Rabbi Jay of Temple Shalom in Colorado Springs was referring to the Exodus of the children of Israel, leaving Egypt, showing that they were still in a slave mentality, behaving in a similar way. He brought up a heartbreaking story of a victim of human trafficking who had a chance of freedom but elected to return to her way of life because it was all she knew. Like the best of the New Testament, this passage repeats this same concept. This is one of the ways that the teachings of Torah are transmitted to the Christian world though the teachings, the “lens” of the New Testament.

Looking on to chapter 3, the last chapter of this brief book, we look at how early Christians dealt with disappointment with promises that were (and remain) unfulfilled.

May 5, 2023

We are finished with IIPeter, now that we discussed the third and final chapter. I don’t remember how we got on the subject of what a golem is. Steve, thank you for mentioning the book “Snow in August”, which I, for one, plan to check out. Rabbi Loeb of Prague in the sixteenth century created one to protect his people from a pogrom. That still may come in handy.
Jo Ann mentioned a Christian movie called “A Thief in the Night” which had to do with the terror inspired by “the rapture” and the dread of being “left behind.” In the 1970s. 

Both Jews and Gentiles have had to deal with “cognitive dissonance” - dealing with events we are not expecting or desiring. In IIPeter 3 we came across the famous saying “with God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day”. In other words, the hope of an immanent return of Jesus with power and glory as promised in some of the Gospels had faded. It conjures the picture of Gentiles joining the Jewish people waiting for the Messiah. And waiting…


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 J...
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 imp...
Read more

Summary of New Testament From Jewish Point of View Class - January 30, 2023

-
Image
Our class was as lively and as fun as always!  Jo Ann, Dan, Ruth, Dave, Karen, Odette, Merrill, Norky, Neil, and Diann attended.  We missed Steve, David, Randy, Robin, Jessica, Kim, Patricia, and Jay and a few others that attend once in a while. Below is a summary written by Dan of what we discussed: We read Revelation chapters 21 and 22, and finished the book of Revelation. Jo Ann brought to our attention how part of the passage comprise part of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s’ Messiah. This passage describes the revelation of the new heaven and new earth, and the idea of eternity in a New Jerusalem where God and the Lamb (Jesus)  dwell with humankind. Forever. A couple of points: 1. The New Jerusalem lacks a temple, saying that the presence of God and the Lamb will be in place of the temple. This contrasts with the Book of Ezekiel, which describes a temple in the world to come. According to the Annotated New Testament some Christian interpreters say this is because ...
Read more