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

Due to Rosh Hashanah on 9/26/2022 (we skipped studying together that day), JoAnn and Dan took their time getting the summary of what we discussed on 9/19/2022.  As usual, we had a lively discussion. Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, David, Dave, Merill, Jessica, Kim, Randy, and Robin attended.  It was the first time Kim joined us and we were so glad to have her join in! Below is a summary of what went on written by Dan: We studied Philippians chapters 3-4 and finished this letter. One thing is clear, Paul really disliked those who said gentile men should undergo circumcision, calling them "dogs". He again boasted of his Jewish credentials (born of the tribe of Benjamin, etc.), then said he considered what he was before he had his encounter with Jesus to be "rubbish". We don't know exactly what he meant by that, but it is sure those words would be part of the process of believers in Jesus becoming a separate religion from Judaism. Chapter 4 contained a notable order on ...

As always, Monday’s 9/12/2022 study and time of learning was so fun! Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Norky, Dave, Robin, Randy, and Merrill attended.   Below is a summary of what on written by Dan: The afterlife was our subject on Monday, September 12, 2022. Specifically, in response to Randy's question: is there marriage in the afterlife? We reviewed the reason for this question, namely a famous episode of Meet the Sadducees wherein Jesus was posed the riddle of a woman who was legally married to more than one husband due to their deaths. Who was she married to in heaven? Answer: there is no marriage in heaven.  The core of our conversation had to do with some of the experiences some of us had: out of the body experiences, simple experiences of communion with dearly departed ones, etc. To those who had such experiences they were compelling evidence of a continued existence after death, with reunion with loved ones.  Unlike questions like "how did the universe come into being?...

We met as usual on Labor Day 2022 and had a pretty good turn out!  Jo Ann, Dan, Steve, Karen, Amy, Norky, Dave, David S., and Lori attended. The small size of the group gave everyone a chance to share and talk and ask a lot of questions. Lori, aka, Dr. Lori Baron, was off from her teaching of New Testament Studies at St. Louis University for Labor Day, so her input was really much appreciated and very special! We read Chapter 2 in Philippians and also the grey box that goes with the chapter. Jo Ann asked Dr. Lori to help explain the chapter. Below is a summary written by Dan describing what went on:  We studied Philippians chapter 2, and spent a lot of time talking about the poem or song that Paul quoted in that chapter. In particular we discussed the phrase saying that Jesus always had "the very nature of God", trying to understand what that meant. Does this mean that Paul believed in the Trinity? Steve suggested that this could have meant that Jesus was made in the image of...

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...