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Most believers need a clearer understanding of the Scriptures from a Jewish perspective. Explore more about our faith in Jesus from this angle and other topics, including evangelism, Israel, antisemitism, biblical festivals, the international Jewish community, Jewish roots of Christianity, personal testimonies, and prophecy.
(Abridged from Messiah in the Passover, Chapter 6: Passover and the Lord’s Supper) The context for 1 Corinthians 5:6–8, the first of three Passover-themed passages in this epistle of the Apostle Paul, is that the Corinthian church accepted with prideful arrogance the presence of someone in their…
The removal of leaven Before the beginning of the Passover, all leaven, which is a symbol of sin (1 Cor. 5:6-8), must be removed from the Jewish home. The house is cleaned from top to bottom and anything containing leaven is removed. Then, the evening before the…
There is a dark side to church history—a past that is not often revisited. Believers are generally shocked to hear that their theological heroes supported violence against the Jewish people
Charges of the New Testament and, particularly, the Gospel of John being antisemitic are nothing new. Many Jewish people grow up in neighborhoods suffering antisemitic attitudes from Gentile neighbors. It is assumed that they were Christian simply because they were not Jewish and went to church. We might reason that…
Are all Jewish people morally responsible for the death of Jesus?
For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us…
Matthew did not write in a vacuum. He communicated to and about Israel in a way that is consistent with what is found throughout the entire Bible. As with the prophets of old, Yeshua’s rebukes were either directed at individuals, at groups or at the nation as a whole. And…
We are about to observe the civil Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which literally means, “head of the year.” This festival is one of the seven great festivals of the Lord described in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is appointed by God to be celebrated on the first day of the…
For most followers of Jesus, their first trip to Israel will include visits to numerous biblical sites. If you are in Jerusalem, you will see the Old City or the Mount of Olives. Similarly, traveling through the Galilee, you will likely visit Capernaum. It would be hard to forego at…
Melchizedek, Abraham and Jerusalem We read in the book of Genesis that Abraham is approached by a mysterious priest of the most high God whose name means “the righteous king.” In itself, this is intriguing, but it is where he is from that is so interesting to us. He is…
Hanukkah is in the Old Testament, right? Actually, the only time Hanukkah is mentioned in the Bible is in the New Testament. Since Hanukkah took place after the Old Testament was canonized, it is not included therein. The story of Hanukkah takes place in 166-160 BC when the land of…
Jewish New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine writes, “[Neither] Jesus, Paul nor the New Testament is anti-Semitic.” She’s right! It’s illogical to think that a movement which was comprised originally of only Jewish Jesus-followers could be antisemitic. Historically, some followers of Jesus have combined the anti-Jewish sentiments of the times in which they…