The Difficult Words of Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine Book Review

 

Examine the most difficult teachings of Jesus with Dr. Amy-Jill Levine.

Jesus provided his disciple's teachings for how to follow Torah, God’s word; he told them parables to help them discern questions of ethics and of human nature; he offered them beatitudes for comfort and encouragement. But sometimes Jesus spoke words that followers then and now have found difficult. He instructs disciples to hate members of their own families (Luke 14:26), to act as if they were slaves (Matthew 20:27), and to sell their belongings and give to the poor (Luke 18:22). He restricts his mission (Matthew 10:6); he speaks of damnation (Matthew 8:12); he calls Jews the devil’s children (John 8:44).

In The Difficult Words of Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine shows how these difficult teachings would have sounded to the people who first heard them, how have they been understood over time, and how we might interpret them in the context of the Gospel of love and reconciliation.

Additional components for a six-week study include a DVD featuring Dr. Levine and a comprehensive Leader Guide.

Amy-Jill Levine is a University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences. She is an internationally renowned scholar and teacher and the author of numerous books. She is also the co-editor of The Jewish Annotated New Testament. She has done more than 500 programs across the globe for churches, clergy groups, and seminaries on the Bible, Christian-Jewish relations, and Religion, Gender, and Sexuality.

My Thoughts:

The Bible can be a hard book to understand at times and rightly so as we try to comprehend our Master's words.

I’m always interested in reading books that come from a Jewish perspective.

I struggled after getting into this book in various aspects after I learned that I was wrong in assuming that the author was a follower of Jesus based on the title of the book.  I respect her thoughts and agree with her in many aspects of the culture and other things but for some Christians, some of her thoughts will go against what many believe. This will challenge you to know what you believe and why.  A few things that jumped out to me are: She looks at John 6:65 and “God so loved the world” and in a paraphrase that God calls everyone and that only we are to blame. Which she disagrees with because she has never personally felt called. She goes on to talk about predestination and free will and struggles with salvation for some and others oblivion. (page 140-141) and at the same time, she doesn’t believe in hell (page 101). She thinks the “Great Commission is ultimately wrong because Yeshua rejected the Jews and now they are doomed. She felt that it was un-Christian. She goes into other aspects of it and yes, sadly some Christians believe that. (page 82). Page 31 she talks about hating your mother and father and that the Bible is supposed to be about family values. There are several other references throughout that we can agree to disagree with.

This book has a lot of interesting information on Jewish culture and thoughts. However, know that it goes against many beliefs in the Christian faith.

I received a complimentary of this product in exchange for my honest review.