This page is for communication to participants in a Sunday School class that Jack Townsend will teach inspired by the book Amy Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, The Bible
With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories
Differently. This page is solely Jack Townsend's page as teacher of the class and is not a sponsored page or otherwise affiliated with institution.
The Course summary is:
For four Sundays, beginning May 9, Jack will facilitate a Sunday School course based on the book Amy Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently. In the sessions, we will study Old Testament scriptures that are canonical to Jews and Christians but are interpreted differently. We will consider some New Testament echoes of the Old Testament scriptures. It will be helpful if participants read the selections in the book but doing so will not be required because we will focus on the text of the scriptures. Jack Townsend will guide the discussion drawing on his many years of attending Torah Study. On the third Sunday, May 23, Professor Levine (co-author of the book) will attend to answer questions. Professor Levine, a professor at Vanderbilt Seminary, is a force in the intersection of Christianity and Judaism and has written or contributed to many books on the subject including books such as Jewish Annotated New Testament and many books on Jesus and the Gospels. The course requires Zoom registration here. If you have questions or need help with the Zoom registration, please contact Jack Townsend jack@tjtaxlaw.com. Jack will offer the assignments and related matters for the class on this blog page.
A more fleshed out explanation of what we hope to offer in the class is:
In this class we will discuss different lenses or perspective for opening up the religious worlds of Jews and Christians through a common faith tradition. Jesus after all was a Jew. Jesus never affiliated with a "Christian" Church or call himself a Christian (neither of which were even categories while Jesus was on earth). Rather, a rag-tag group of followers, over time, a long time, coalesced into what we call the Christian Church (itself a ragtag group of people having different understandings) and separated itself from Judaism at least nominally while carrying forward the shared religious DNA through the common scripture, the Tanakh adopted by Christians as the Old Testament.
This class will focus on how the common scripture is interpreted by Jews and by Christians. We will necessarily focus on major themes of interpretations by the two broad groups, for within each group there are substrains of interpretation. Neither Christians nor Jews have a monolithic religion but there are certain major themes that can help us in our study.
By dealing with the major themes of interpretation, hopefully we can begin to understand differences and how they developed from a common scripture out of Second Temple Judaism. In our view, it is not sufficient to say that Christians see Jesus in their Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament whereas Jews do not see Jesus in their Tanakh (informed by postbiblical commentary such as the Talmud and rabbinical writings) that has sustained Judaism. Hence, the title and focus of this book: The Bible With and Without Jesus.
The focus will be on texts from the Tanakh / Old Testament that are central to Christians through the New Testament and to Jews through postbiblical commentary. How do the two faith traditions interpret those common texts differently? Why do they interpret those common texts differently? Do the answers to these questions inform our own faith tradition?
Lesson Plan:
Note that all links to scripture are to Bible Gateway's New Revised Standard Version (which Professor Levine said were appropriate for this class because the differences in the text and interpretation between the Christian Bible and the Tanakh are not material.
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Date |
Assignment |
Notes |
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5/9/21 |
For those
with the book (not mandatory):
Chapters 1-3 (reading Chapters 1 & 2 “lightly” although in the
opening discussion, we will discuss some of the highlights) |
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5/16/21 |
Binding of Isaac.
Genesis 22:1-19; Young woman or virgin? Book Ch. 8. Isaiah 7:10-23 (with focus on 7:14 also in KJV here); Matthew 1:18-25; Kugel on Isaiah 7:14. Jonah. Book Ch. 10. Jonah 1:17; Jonah 1-2; Jonah 2:9-10; Jonah 4:9-11; Matthew 7:1 |
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5/23/21 |
Special Class
with Amy Jill Levine, a co-author of the book. This class will be Q&A, so come prepared with your questions. Her bio is here. |
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5/30/21 |
Book Ch. 5 – Subsection on the Problem of Supersessionism in
the Epistle to the Hebrews; Hebrews
8:13; Wikipedia on Supersessioninsm. Book Ch. 6 – Eye for an Eye; Exodus
21:22-25; Matthew 5:38-42; Wikipedia on Eye for Eye Book Ch. 11 – My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken Me? Psalm
22:1-2;
Matthew
27:46; Mark 15:34;
Wikipedia My
God. |
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Other materials
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Text for
Class (not required) |
Amy Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, The
Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories
Differently (HarperOne 2020) |
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