About the book:
"The Bible is an Eastern book. We see it through the colored glasses of Western culture. Much is lost. We miss the subtleties of humor and many of the underlying assumptions. . . . What lies between the lines, what is felt and not spoken, is of deepest significance."--Kenneth Bailey, The Cross and the Prodigal
What if you could sit down beside Jesus as he explained the Bible to you? What life-changing insights might emerge?
Vast treasures await us when we read the Scriptures as a native, through the eyes of one of Jesus's first-century Jewish disciples. Combining careful research with engaging prose, Lois Tverberg acts as a master guide, transporting us across the cultural divide between our world and that of the Bible.
As we begin to understand "how the Bible thinks," our own thinking will be transformed as well, and we will be able to approach God and the stories and teaching of Scripture with fresh insight. By opening our eyes to the way Middle Eastern people would have understood Jesus, Lois Tverberg takes us on a journey that will deepen our love of this very Jewish book, enriching our lives in the process.
My review:
This was an amazing book! It was eye-opening to see how different our Western culture is from so much of the world, even today. To realize that we have to overcome that, along with the difference in time periods, as well, was a lot to take in. She makes a good point that I'd wondered about, too, that much of the world has a lot easier time understanding the family, the agrarian, just trying to survive mindset versus the individual, industrial, rich mindset of the West. She had wondered why God had let the Bible become difficult for people to understand but she realized that for most of the world, it's not. She unpacked what the word "Christ" means, that to us we don't quite get it without knowing more about the culture and Hebrew language. She compared how the Hebrews and Greeks thought and how the Greeks influenced the West. It was fascinating to see how the Hebrew rabbis link different passages of Scripture together because of a certain phrase used in each and how Jesus used the same technique. We finally learn the importance of all the "begats" in the Bible; why do we really need to know the genealogies? There were wonderful questions at the end of each chapter where you can dig deeper. I have to read the other author's books; this one was just amazing. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the roots of our faith.
I received this book from Baker Books. I was not required to write a positive review and have not been compensated for this. This is my honest opinion.
The Author
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Lois Tverberg
Lois Tverberg has been speaking and writing about the Jewish background of Christianity for the past 20 years. Her passion is to translate the Bible's ancient setting into fresh insights that deepen and strengthen Christian faith. She is cofounder of the...
Continue reading about Lois Tverberg
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