Finding Jesus of the First Century

   I was destined to be different.  I could not help it, for you see I was born into a Jewish home.  And while Heinrich Heine said, "The Jews are like everybody else only more so," we all know this is not exactly true.  While I was raised in a home of faith I was always taught to question and examine the beliefs of my people in order to fully understand each concept.  In this way I learned my faith.

   One point in my faith which escaped me was how to know 100% for sure that my name was written in the book of life.  I learned a process of seeking to be right with man and with God, but still, assurance was lacking.  Christian friends tried to tell me of how Jesus died for my sins, but I pushed them away ... until ... I read Psalm 22.  Within the words of this Psalm I saw Jesus on the cross in my scriptures.  Then I understood His sacrificial death and resurrection were the assurance of forgiveness and acceptance by God that I sought.

   At the age of 17 I condemned myself to really be different: I joined (and remained in) the Baptist church.  It should be fairly obvious that Reform Jews and Southern Baptists are both different.  And while on the surface I created an image to seem like a Southern Baptist, I continued to follow in the pattern developed in me since childhood: question and examine to fully understand each concept.

   It is not that I lived two lives, I simply learned to fit into the culture of the people with whom I lived, whether Jewish or Baptist, or Floridian, or Midwestern, or Western or Southern.  Even when I go on mission assignments, I seek to relate to people according to their preferred style so as not to create barriers.  I listen a lot (in order to learn), and seek to communicate so people can understand.

   In matters of faith I sought to put together the parts of my old faith and my new faith.  I learned from the people I was around, so I could share in a relevant way as a Baptist, and understand both Old and New Testament against the background of my Jewish heritage.  I met many people along the way who sought to break out of their faith by destroying all they had learned in order to come to something new.  I continued in my faith, never really finding a reason to destroy the faith because it worked for me.  Both Jewish and Baptist where they agree and disagree, I continued to question and examine and learn.

   In the process of my learning I checked a book out of the library called the Mishnah.  This volume could be called a preservation of Jewish tradition from the times in which Jesus lived.  The book contains quotes of the Rabbis and detailed instructions for carrying out the rituals and traditions of the Jews. 

   I began to explore, for my faith is a twenty-first century faith, and their faith was a first century faith.  Some things from both parts of my faith practices I took for granted, like dreidels and latkes at Chanukah did not exist in the first century; neither did yarmulkes, or the hymns in the Baptist hymn book.  I saw in the pages of the Mishnah details I had never seen about the faith of Jesus.  I was fascinated.

   Through reading about the practices of the Levites in the Temple and the Pharisees in the Synagogues I began to enter the world where Jesus lived.  Jesus was Jewish, and the foundation of the Christian faith.  To Him they were not different, but the same.  Jesus came to provide the path of salvation and to lead us to become closer to God.  The words of our New Testament had their origins in the first century faith of Jesus.  As I questioned and examined the words of the New Testament against the culture traditions in which Jesus lived they became even more real.

   I write books to help people understand the world of the first century, and the faith of Jesus.  I want Jesus to become alive for people so they can share in the reality of His love.