Remember that time when a Canaanite mom was scrounging around Jesus to get a healing for her daughter–and then he called her kind "little bitches"?

Me neither.

You might need to brace yourself for a shock.
The gospels of the New Testament are usually explained and interpreted poorly by Christians because they scrub Jesus of his Jewishness.

Because of the influence of (non Jewish) Christianity over the last 2,000+ years, Jesus is routinely depicted out of sync and out of step with Jewish people of his day–leaving readers or believers starved of the deeper meanings of the text and stripped of the rich and unique Jewish cultural and religious context apparent to his Jewish followers of the time. (YES, all his immediate followers were Jewish.)

Once corrected, Jesus the Messiah of the gospels becomes a more riveting and complex Rabbi who typically makes listeners uncomfortable, invites people to notice the unnoticed, and turns everything upside down. Let's get started!

My guest today is renowned scholar and legendary professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt, AJ Levine, PhD.

Levine is the author of many books and the editor of the Annotated Jewish New Testament that helps Christians get a more accurate understanding of the cultural, religious, and historical context for those writings of the Bible. This invaluable resource comes out in a new edition this year!

Besides discussing the book, "Short Stories by Jesus" (on understanding parables from a Jewish and teaching point of view), we also cover some topics from "The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and The Scandal of the Jewish Jesus", Jewish–Christian interfaith dialogue, wise ways to read the Bible, and the two children's book publications on the parables.

BONUS AUDIO of me and AJ is available too (and delightfully funny).
Get started at $1 and support the show already! - Click here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/14235583 (There are also relevant links, books links and info, reflection questions, and access to material and EXTRAS from all the other previous shows.)

It is an honor to have AJ on the show and you will be able to tell what a fantastic teacher we have on tap today! ENJOY!

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Many thanks to the SPONSOR of this fantastic episode with AJ Levine!
GRATZ COLLEGE - @gratzcollege (on Twitter)
Find out more about what is available and programs at Gratz for online learning and fully accredited degree programs in Masters of Education, Jewish Studies, Jewish/Christian Interfaith Studies, Genocides Studies and much more. http://gratz.edu