top of page


Deferred Engagement
We are tracing messianic footseps in early rabbinic literature. We are curious how the messianic ideas developed and evolved. We found...
3 min read


Elephant in the Room
If you have lasted this long, and are familiar with Bar Kochva, you are surely biting your tongue saying, what about Bar Kochva? He was...
8 min read


Scarce Beginnings
Any word on messianism in the early rabbinic literature? Here is where it gets interesting. Let’s start with the translations. As...
8 min read


Rabbinic Literature
This next chapter in the evolution of messianism is an exciting one. We will enter the world of rabbinic literature, in lieu of what we...
3 min read


Trial and Crucifixion
We will look finally at the trial before the high priests and the crucifixion itself. In these famous parts of the Jesus narrative, we...
4 min read


Creeping Death
Chapter 14: The drama of the narrative of Jesus in the Gospel peaks at his death. All the previous content has led to this point, from...
5 min read


Political-Theological Clashing
As Jesus approached Jerusalem, he is associated by others as Son of David, and then he associates himself in effect by riding on the colt...
6 min read


Jerusalem Syndrome
We have a somewhat complicated and sensitive aspect to now introduce. This is a matter of self-consciousness, in the context of...
4 min read


Ascending Jerusalem
So far Jesus has been in the Galilee. His disciples and a following make their way through the Jordan valley en route to Jerusalem, and...
3 min read


Unfolding Career
So the special man who comes from Nazareth is of age and he has been baptized and somehow associated with or recognized by the famous...
6 min read


Gospel of Sonship
I want you to think of the Gospels differently. Instead of an early candidate of an existing clear concept of ‘Messiah’, whether false or...
4 min read


Spiritual Interests
My background is in Evangelical Christianity and traditional Judaism. I spent a good few years at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem...
3 min read


The Threshold
Speaking of this era and literature means after the biblical era, post-biblical literature , through the 1st century AD. Writings from...
6 min read


Son of Man
Before we cross the threshold of the Hebrew Bible into the New Testament and 2nd Temple Literature category, we complete the triple...
6 min read


Return from Exile
As the biblical narrator tells what follows the story of David, the kings and wars of Israel, through the Assyrian assault, the...
7 min read


Promised Son
There are threads in the Bible that we are pointing out - the word root, David the icon, and the Son of Man apocalyptic figure - these...
5 min read


Biblical Roots
Some historians, famously Graetz who we mentioned earlier, could only think in terms of Messianic hope, some sort of nationalistic hope....
3 min read


Before the New Testament
If someone were to come from a land where the Monotheistic religions were totally unknown, and this person was given the Hebrew Bible to...
3 min read


Theory of Messianism (Scholem) 3
Again continuing the famous points of Scholem re messianism: Acute Paradoxical Going deeper into theory of messianism, Scholem analyzes...
2 min read


Theory of Messianism (Scholem) 2
Scholem's famous points re messianism worth knowing continued: Historical Progression In a nutshell, Scholem laid out a historical...
2 min read
bottom of page