Three New Articles Published by Jerusalem Perspective Online!

Jerusalem Perspective continues to publish new and important articles about Jesus, his words, and his life and times. During the last two weeks we have published three exciting new articles.

The new articles are available on line at no charge to Premium Content members (membership costs less than $0.15 per day), but also can be purchased as stand-alone electronic PDF files for a nominal fee. If you are not yet a Premium Content subscriber, you can purchase these articles individually as downloadable PDF files (for details, see below*).

“A Theology of Jewish-Christian Relations”


by David Flusser

This piece of writing is a rare glimpse of the legendary Hebrew University professor David Flusser as a theologian. Flusser, who died in Jerusalem in 2000, penned the article as an introduction to Israel, God’s Key to World Redemption, a book written in 1974 by Elmer Josephson.

Flusser begins his article as follows:

The “Jewish problem” should not be on the periphery of Christianity though there have been many Christians who were sure that they were good Christians, yet almost never thought about the Jews. In reality, the Jewish problem is one of the central Christian problems: a wrong position toward the Jews means a distorted approach to God and his Word and a misunderstanding of the very claim of the Christian message. This I say, not because I myself am a believing Jew, but because I have learned and have taught the New Testament and early Christianity many years at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. It would be easier for me to study and teach my subject as a detached, objective scholar, but when one is a serious scholar, such an attitude is false even when one occupies oneself with obsolete problems, for example, with the pagan Greek religion.

…So it became clear to me that both the teaching of Jesus and of his disciples had the power to change man and the world, but that that change did not occur. On the contrary, human history in the Christian age is very often a chain of crimes. If these crimes had been perpetrated only in the name of Christianity, this would mean that mankind was not in reality Christianized, but that would be too simple a solution. The fact is that crimes have been and are perpetrated, not only in the name of Christianity, but they are also very often what we might call “Christian sins.” In this aspect there is no difference between various Christian denominations. It is not possible to say that the Catholic Church is all bad and Protestant churches are all good. It is also impossible to say that the past was bad and the present is better for still today a famous German New Testament professor can say (as he did) to his students: “If you want to be a good Christian, you must kill the Jew in your heart.” I quote this professor’s words not because I am a Jew, but because he used the word “kill” as if it were a Christian virtue. Furthermore, the opinion that “you have to kill the Jew in your heart” is not unconnected with an important trend that existed in Christianity from its beginnings.

“Rabbinic Reflections on Living Sacrifices in Romans 12:1”


by David Instone-Brewer

Instone-Brewer writes:

Paul mentions the living sacrifices without explanation, as if the readers would be familiar with the concept. Similar early rabbinic vocabulary suggests that Paul is referring to sacrifices which were given to the Temple but which were inappropriate for offering, because they were female instead of male or for other technical reasons. They could not be un-offered so, although they were sacrifices, they were kept alive as temple property till they became blemished, and any profit from them was for the Lord.

About the author: David Instone-Brewer is a Research Fellow at Tyndale House in Cambridge, England. He is a engaged in a five-year project to identify and elucidate all the rabbinic traditions that can be dated before 70 A.D. Publication of his six-volume work, Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament, published by Eerdmans, began in 2004.

“The Approval of Abraham: Traditions of God’s Acceptance of Abraham in Early Jewish and Christian Sources”

by Joshua Tilton

In his article, Tilton discusses the following difficult questions from both ancient Jewish and Christian viewpoints:

When, in ancient times, people read the account of the life of Abraham, it was common for them to ask, “When did Abraham finally make the grade? At which point in his life was Abraham approved and accepted by God?” Already in the account of Genesis it is apparent that there were certain moments in Abraham’s life that were particularly important in his relationship with God. But was there an instance when, either through an act of obedience or a demonstration of faith, Abraham merited God’s approval? Was there a moment when Abraham was proved to be righteous, or acceptable, or favored once and for all? Was there a moment when God specially commended Abraham for his uprightness or his courageous trust?

About the author: Joshua Tilton studied Hebrew and Modern Jewish Studies under Dr. Marvin R. Wilson at Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, and Biblical Hebrew at Harvard Divinity School. He obtained his Master of Divinity Degree in 2005 from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, and in May will complete an MA in Religious Studies at the Rothberg International School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

*Purchase an electronic PDF of Flusser’s article for only $1.49, of Instone-Brewer’s article for only $1.49, and of Tilton’s article (16 pages) for only $2.99.

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