Getting a sense of readers’ interest in a guided study

Introduction: Time for Another Study?

Many readers came to this newsletter by way of a Lenten study we shared together with a text from Amy-Jill Levine. It’s been about four months after we wrapped up that guided, asynchronous study that included discussion prompts, weekly videos, and regular written posts. I’ve wondered if there is interest in taking on another study like this in the next couple of months?

Following is a short list of books that I’ve really enjoyed that fit the themes of this newsletter. I invite you to participate in this poll to signal your interest. I’ve selected books that focus on Jesus’s historical setting. Future study topics that I’ve considered include work on authorship/composition of the Torah (first five books of the Hebrew Bible) and scholarship about Paul, but for the next study I’d like to start with one of the following.

Check out the book summaries and cast your vote! The poll is open for three days. Regardless of the book study, I’ll continue to publish the Sunday Post weekly.

Brief summary of titles…

The Misunderstood Jew

By Amy-Jill Levine; Purchase

In the The Misunderstood Jew, scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the “Jewishness” of Jesus so that their appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine’s humor and informed truth-telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus, the New Testament, and each other.

Jesus and the Forces of Death

By Matthew Thiessen; Purchase

“Utterly fresh and innovative. . . . Thiessen summons his reader to nothing less than a radical reimagining of Christian origins.” –Paula Fredriksen, Review of Biblical Literature

Although most people acknowledge that Jesus was a first-century Jew, interpreters of the Gospels often present him as opposed to Jewish law and customs–especially when considering his numerous encounters with the ritually impure. Matthew Thiessen corrects this popular misconception by placing Jesus within the Judaism of his day. Thiessen demonstrates that the Gospel writers depict Jesus opposing ritual impurity itself, not the Jewish ritual purity system or the Jewish law.

This fresh interpretation of significant passages from the Gospels shows that throughout his life, Jesus destroys forces of death and impurity while upholding the Jewish law. Professors, students, and scholars of Jesus and the New Testament will value this work.

The Jewish Gospels

By Daniel Boyarin; Purchase

In July 2008 a front-page story in the New York Times reported on the discovery of an ancient Hebrew tablet, dating from before the birth of Jesus, which predicted a Messiah who would rise from the dead after three days. Commenting on this startling discovery at the time, noted Talmud scholar Daniel Boyarin argued that “some Christians will find it shocking–a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology.”

In this powerful, groundbreaking work, Boyarin guides us through a rich tapestry of new discoveries and ancient scriptures to make the powerful case that our conventional understandings of Jesus and of the origins of Christianity are wrong. Boyarin’s scrupulously illustrated account argues that the coming of the Messiah was fully imagined in the ancient Jewish texts. Jesus, moreover, was embraced by many Jews as this person, and his core teachings were not at all a break from Jewish beliefs and teachings. Jesus and his followers, Boyarin shows, were simply Jewish. What came to be known as Christianity came much later, as religious and political leaders sought to impose a new religious orthodoxy that was not present at the time of Jesus’s life.

When Christians Were Jews

By Paula Fredriksen; Purchase

A compelling account of Christianity’s Jewish beginnings, from one of the world’s leading scholars of ancient religion.

How did a group of charismatic, apocalyptic Jewish missionaries, working to prepare their world for the impending realization of God’s promises to Israel, end up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church? Committed to Jesus’s prophecy—“The Kingdom of God is at hand!”—they were, in their own eyes, history’s last generation. But in history’s eyes, they became the first Christians.

In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers this question by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life. Fredriksen offers a vivid portrait both of this temple‑centered messianic movement and of the bedrock convictions that animated and sustained it.

Cast Your Vote!

I’d love to see a big turnout for the voting—even if your response is “no thanks”! It’s nice to see reader interaction, so feel free