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

Dan and Jo Ann were on the road on Monday, July 10, 2023, but we were still able to facilitate our class o Monday, July 10.  (We did not have a class session on July 4, 2023 since neither Dan or Jo Ann could get into Temple Israel’s Zoom account to hold our meeting.) Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Robin, Dave, and Merrill attended. Below is a summary written by Dan of what we discussed: Our last look at II Thessalonians 3 - a chapter which addressed people who were part of the church at Thessalonians who were idle. Regrettably we lacked much information about life in a first century Greek city and who these idle people were. We did discuss homelessness as it is now.  We did not solve the problem of homelessness in our day, alas. We begin I Timothy  on 07/17  which will have plenty of controversial subjects. Thanks to everyone who attended. Zoom Link - Temple Israel Long Beach’s New Testament From a Jewish Point of View - Mondays 9:45–10:45 am Pacific Standard Time New Te...

Jo Ann was finally back in the USA and was with us for our class even though she was very jet-lagged.  The summary below is written by Dan: In some ways, II Thessalonians sounds a lot like I Thessalonians. Some of the most interesting reading came from the “gray box” commentary (thanks to Jo Ann for screen sharing!). Whether II Thessalonians is a forgery or not, it does show signs of a change in the ideas about the return of Jesus that suggest Christians were questioning how long this return was supposed to take. Jews and Christians and Christians who retain a Jewish identity share that same long wait. This letter was an indication early Christians were becoming aware this wait going to be a long haul.  Finally, whether or not we are optimists or pessimists about the future, we are all committed to doing all we can to improve the present. As Karen says “it doesn’t have to be this way.” Thank you to everyone who attended. Zoom Link - Temple Israel Long Beach’s New Testament Fro...