Skip to main content

You Saw “Me”!


It’s a Shabbat morning in 27 CE and you are at the synagogue in Nazareth in the Galilee. You are attending the regular morning service when the leader of the synagogue picks up the Isaiah scroll and calls a young man from the audience to come up and read from it. You are familiar with the words because it is one of the scheduled readings. The man unrolls the scroll to find the section and says:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring the good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, sight to the blind, deliverance to the downtrodden and those overwhelmed with troubles; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”1

He then rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the leader, turns to the audience and says – “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” This was definitely something you were not expecting!

This reader had lived in Nazareth all of his life and his father was a carpenter. Everyone knew him. Stories had been circulating about him since his trip to Judea where he was baptized by a man called John the Baptist. Crowds of strangers had followed him back to Nazareth and they were excited about his announcement, but the people that knew him best were shocked – some wanted to stone him!

For Americans living almost 2,000 years later, trying to accurately understand that man’s life and teachings is a very difficult challenge. Almost everything we know about him comes from English translations of the Christian Bible, which is not like other books we read. It is like a mini-library with multiple books between its covers. Many were originally written on separate scrolls at different times and places by different people who spoke other languages.

Understanding the life, teachings and movement of Jesus begins with understanding what happened in the synagogue in Nazareth when he read from the Isaiah scroll. There were no Americans, English speakers, scientific thinkers, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants or atheists in the audience. So we must begin by finding out what Isaiah’s words meant to Jesus and his first century Jewish audience long before Christianity or the New Testament existed. Read the complete blog by clicking here.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why did they lay their coats at Saul's feet?

The witnesses, laying their coats at the feet of Saul, were the men that would cast the first stones at Stephen in Acts 7. Why did they all lay their coats at Saul’s feet? The Talmud contains a very interesting account of the act of stoning that may provide the answer. “When the trial was over, they take him [the condemned person] out to be stoned. The place of stoning was at a distance from the court, as it is said, ‘Take out the one who has cursed.’ [i] A man stands at the entrance of the court; in his hand is a signaling flag [Hebrew   sudarin = sudar , ‘scarf, sweater’]. A horseman was stationed far away but within sight of him. If one [of the judges] says, ‘I have something [more] to say in his favor,’ he [the signaler] waves the   sudarin , and the horseman runs and stops them [from stoning him]. Even if [the condemned person] himself says, ‘I have something to say in my favor,’ they bring him back, even four of five times, only provided that there is some substance to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Human Lives are Valued more than Religious Institutions and Rituals

Human lives are valued more than religious institutions and rituals by the unnamed god in the first account in Genesis . That message is repeated throughout the  Hebrew Scriptures  and the  teachings of Jesus  in the  Synoptic Gospels. Read the complete short articles at - https://mailchi.mp/2116c809b552/human-lives-are-valued-more-than-religious-institutions-and-rituals
Post a Comment
Read more

The Moment the Humans Created Shame in the Garden in Eden

For readers of most English translations, this is a story about two naked people who didn’t know they were naked until they ate the forbidden fruit . The reason God told them to not eat that fruit was because he didn’t want them to know they were naked or he was testing their obedience to him . As I pointed out in earlier emails, the serpent wasn’t Satan and this was not a battle between God and Satan over the souls of all people who will ever live. So what did the original author of the story want his readers to learn? Continue to read at - https://mailchi.mp/3e270c10e81d/the-moment-the-humans-created-shame-in-the-garden-in-eden
Post a Comment
Read more