Just an Update...

I have been quite busy for the past week and a half and have been doing many exciting things. I will offer a few of the highlights for you all to read if you so desire. I went to Tel Aviv again and relaxed on the Mediterranean Sea which was, once again, quite nice. It is very nice to simply sit on the beach and chill for a day. I have of course been going to class and studying. While all of my classes are very interesting one is probably my favorite so far and it is called "From the Jewish Jesus to Christianity." This course is basically a huge "text in context" course where we put Christ into the Jewish context in which he lived. The readings and lectures are absolutely fascinating! It is amazing how much we have westernized the text of the Bible or perhaps I should say how much we view the text of the Bible through our western/enlightenment/post-reformation lense. Christians today have taken Jesus almost entirely out of the context and culture in which he lived and I think that by doing so we oftentimes nearly miss the point of his message. I will tell you a few of the things I have learned in the class. First, as far as "Scripture" went for a 1st century Jewish teacher there was both the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. This meant that a 1st century Jew would not separate the two. Therefore both the first five books of Moses and the oral commentary on them were considered Scripture and inspired by God. This would imply that Christ (who, while the Son of God, was also a 1st century Jew) used both and, as we are discovering in class, it seems that he did! He spoke out of both and quoted both because if he didn't do so then no one would have listened to him. The very fact that he had followers shows that he taught both the Oral Torah and the Written Torah. Now what this means to Christians today I don't know...you tell me what it means. Another interesting tidbit for you is the text in the Gospel According to Matthew were Christ says "I have not come to abolish the Law (Torah) and the Prophets but to fulfill them"...or does he say that? Apparently the Greek text says this but early Church Tradition and Church Fathers taught that Matthew probably worked off of a separate Hebrew or Aramaic text. Papias, who was discipled by Polycarp and possibly knew John the Apostle, attests to this very fact. The word that in Greek says "fulfill" when translated into the Hebrew form would actually mean "to add to or possibly to interpret." Interesting. "I came not to abolish the Law and the Prophets but to interpret them." This is not what we are taught. Once again, what this means to Christians today I don't know yet...you tell me what it means. I will say that if Christ didn't come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets but to interpret them we probably need to rethink a few things in our understanding of the Lord. Anyways we talk about stuff like that in class and it is really interesting. I think every Christian would benefit from taking a class like this because doing so really helps us to know Christ himself better. By putting the Lord into the context in which he was incarnate and understanding his Jewish message in its fullness, because he came "first to the lost sheep of Israel," and then understanding his teaching to the Gentiles (us) and what that means we can truly come to a better understanding of him and the Kingdom of Heaven. I hope I didn't bore you with my ranting there but I simply wanted to give you all some new stuff I have been learning. Other than classes we also been continuing our field studies which have been great. Our most recent field study was called "Jerusalem Approaches" where we basically traversed around the areas/cities surrounding the city of Jerusalem. It was great. A very intersting part of the study was viewing the Mt. of Olives from a mile or two south of the city. A few days beforehand I had walked up one side of it and sort of thought it was a small hill. However, after viewing the Mt. of Olives from south of Jerusalem I got a fresh view of it and realized how bit the mountain truly is. Later in the day when we walked down it and explored it I grasped this even better. Studying this part of the land made me wonder why Christ spent so much time in prayer on this mountain. Since we know Christ had both a human and a divine will we know that he knew everything. Therefore, he could have theoretically chosen anywhere to spend time in prayer for Jerusalem and he could have chosen anywhere in the whole world to ascend to heaven. Yet, he chose the Mt. of Olives as a place to spend lots of time in dialogue with one other third of the Trinity. He chose the Mt. of Olives to ascend to the right hand of the throne of the Father. Upon his ascension the angels also said that he would return in the same way that he ascended. That is very interesting to me. Why the Mt. of Olives? My question may never be answered but it was awesome to be able to view and spend time on the very place where the Son of God chose to spend so much time. We also went to the city of Bethlehem which is majorly an Arab city today. While in Bethlehem we poked around a bit and then got to spend some time in the Church of the Nativity which is the site of the birth of Christ. The incarnation of the Word of God is a great mystery which I think I will probably never fully comprehend. Yet, I got the chance to spend time venerating the Holy Place where the Word took on flesh. As I was wandering the church I was thinking about the beauty of the incarnation itself. The fact the God the Word actually took on flesh and became man purely to die for sinful humanity is amazing to me! God loves us so much that he sent his only begotten Son purely to die for us. The love that was behind that act is greater and more powerful than I think I will ever be able to grasp. The Word became flesh purely to suffer and die so that we might be saved. When I think of that, all I can do is thank God for his grace and mercy. It is difficult to grasp the totality of it all. As I said the technicalities of the incarnation are completely beyond me but I am in awe of it even more because of it’s mystery. We also went to the Herodian which is a ruin of one of the many palaces of Herod the Great. It must have been huge! It was fun to poke around the ruins. A few months ago they discovered Herod's grave as well and we got to poke around there a bit too. His gravesite was demolished and desecrated very soon after his death which shows you how well he was liked by his subjects. One last thing. The other day a few friends and I went to the Temple Mount and walked around. It was interesting to get so close to the Dome of the Rock and the El Aqsa Mosque. The Dome of the Rock is a very pretty building but I have come to despise it. One of the reasons that it was built was to steal the skyline from the Christians. Prior to it's building the Church of the Holy Sepulchre dominated the skyline of Jerusalem. So, to take this away from the Christians, the Moslem rulers built the Dome of the Rock to override the Holy Sepulchre. I do not like this. Well anyways, as you all can see I have been quite busy but enjoying myself very much. Tonight and all day tomorrow is Yom Kippur. While in the U.S. this is just a word on the calender in Israel it is so much more. For one, all of the country shuts down. Literally. If you drive a car you will get stones thrown at you. If you want to open your business then you have to pay a gigantic sum of money to the government. This means nothing is open. As I said the entire country of Israel has shut down. There is one hospital per major city open. A few emergency vehicles roam the streets. That is all. It is a day of repentance where the Jews beseech God to write them in the Book of Life. It is interesting because the streets are literally empty. A group of us might end up going to the Western Wall tonight because it is usually wild on the Shabbat (Jewish Sabbath) and even more so on holidays. We shall say.
-Radcliff out.