"The roots of Christianity run deep into Hebrew soil. Though the Hebrew heritage of the Church is rich and extensive, many Christians are regrettably uniformed about it. most of it has been treated either passively and superficially, or more often, it has simply been left unexplored.... Time has come for the Church to have a renewed biblical vision. It has sown the seeds of neglect long enough" (Marvin Wilson, p. xv).
Wilson has provided a remarkable introduction into the Jewish mind and culture behind both Testaments of Scripture. As his quote poignantly states, the average Christian is especially ignorant of the Book they supposedly revere as the "infallible Word of God." Much of this shame should blanket our "Bible" colleges and seminaries, so says Wilson.
I agree. From Liberals playing cut-happy with critical scissors, to evangelicals who are attempting to look and sound smart, to raving lunatic Fundamentalists who won't talk to anyone, contemporary Christianity has become a bastard step child of her Jewish cradle ... and "sho-nuff" proud of it. Liberals take great pride in surgically removing the supernatural from the Sacred. Afterwards they attempt to insert the botox of modern Secular-humanist philosophical and ethical ideals. From what I can tell the near absolute skepticism of mainstream Biblical scholarship falls like a house of cards when the Jewish mind and culture behind the Bible is seriously studied.
Many scholarly Evangelicals attempt to retain a certain measure of the supernatural, but end up undercutting the very foundation of their faith ... the Scriptures. A friend said to me in a parting shot from a conversation about Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, "My faith is not held captive to some dead book. Rather my faith is in the living Jesus." Yes, but the Jesus that lives in you may not be the living Jesus of THE faith, who was authentically Jewish. Another friend interpreted Jesus's sitting down on the mount in Matthew 5-7 as castigating hierarchical respect for Teachers of Torah. When I corrected him, he responded by saying that we had learned in seminary that it is impossible to get back into the minds of the writers of Scripture. While I understand his cautionary angst concerning "Authorial Intent," which is the call to either have "absolute" knowledge of the mind of the Biblical authors or none at all, I cautioned him that it is in fact possible to arrive at solid interpretations based on the cultural mindset at the time. Unfortunately, Asbury Seminary had failed to teach him this ... and even more unfortunate was the fact he was graduating soon from that institution with a Christian education Masters.
In wrestling around with commentaries on the Scriptures, I now see how much easier understanding the Scriptures are when read from the Jewish-interpretive-lens. Wilson's work is a must read. It is a phenominal introductory to the Jewish theological world, touching on the history of Jewish-Christian relations, the call to the Church to return to a place of humility as the wild shoots grafted into the Jewish Olive tree, the Jewish mind set and culture. Especially excellent is his treatment of marriage and family, the Passover and Communion, and education ... all from the Jewish perspective. If anyone is looking for a great place to start revisiting our Jewish heritage, Wilson's book is the place to start. It is easy to read and readily digestable, without being flaky or lacking in substance. Surely I felt as though I were attempting to sip from a fire hydrant.
"A Christian's frame of reference must be constructed of sound building blocks derived from Scripture. But God's people can scarcely be expected to heed Paul's admonition to "work out" their salvation (Phil. 2:12) within that biblical frame of reference unless they know how that frame is constructed" (Wilson, p. 5).
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