Judaism for beginners

I read something, which I can not now find, in a recent previous post. The post had a picture of a logos book about something about the messiah in the OT or NT. Someone replied back and said something to the idea that the OT concept of Messiah was/is much different from what most evangelicals believe today.

So that tweaked my mind to ask, is there a basic Jewish theology that explains what Jews believe? I think there are many forms of Judaism but maybe a primer?

Or is this something that doesn't exist. Is there something like a Jewish canon of theology? Or is what we (evangelicals) believe, basically the same as yesterdays or todays Jew?

I can't imagine that there would be many different ideas about what the OT teaches according to Jew. Or are there?

Just a thought.

mm.

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Dave Hooton

The top encyclopedias explore the topic of Messiah with insights from the OT. So run a Topic Guide on Messiah. Alternatively, perform a Basic Search of All Resources for {Headword Messiah}.

MJ. Smith

The Jewish Messiah: A Critical History of the Messianic Idea among the Jews from the Rise of the Maccabees to the Closing of the Talmud by James Drummond

The Concept of the Messiah in the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity by Shirley Lucass

The Messiah Texts: Jewish Legends of Three Thousand Years by Raphael Patai

and one by a local rabbi where I remember neither his name nor the book title ... book is probably 20 years old or so

Milkman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1069667#Comment_1069667

Ok,will do

The top encyclopedias explore the topic of Messiah with insights from the OT. So run a Topic Guide on Messiah. Alternatively, perform a Basic Search of All Resources for {Headword Messiah}.

Milkman

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1069671#Comment_1069671

The last book looks pretty good with some strong reviews.

The Jewish Messiah: A Critical History of the Messianic Idea among the Jews from the Rise of the Maccabees to the Closing of the Talmud by James Drummond

The Concept of the Messiah in the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity by Shirley Lucass

The Messiah Texts: Jewish Legends of Three Thousand Years by Raphael Patai

and one by a local rabbi where I remember neither his name nor the book title ... book is probably 20 years old or so

DMB

I read something, which I can not now find, in a recent previous post. The post had a picture of a logos book about something about the messiah in the OT or NT. Someone replied back and said something to the idea that the OT concept of Messiah was/is much different from what most evangelicals believe today.

So that tweaked my mind to ask, is there a basic Jewish theology that explains what Jews believe? I think there are many forms of Judaism but maybe a primer?

Or is this something that doesn't exist. Is there something like a Jewish canon of theology? Or is what we (evangelicals) believe, basically the same as yesterdays or todays Jew?

I can't imagine that there would be many different ideas about what the OT teaches according to Jew. Or are there?

Just a thought.

mm.

I'm still trying to see how you got from your para 1, to your para 2. And we're back to your singular jewish/jew, skipping over the big elephant ... the Talmud.

But an in-depth relative to your first paragraph:

https://www.logos.com/product/50102/this-world-and-the-world-to-come-soteriology-in-early-judaism

From John Collins: "They provide a fascinating window on the theological diversity of Judaism in the era in which Christianity was born."

Hamilton Ramos

Hi Milkman:

I guess you are entitled (God given right) to receive input from a non-expert also.

My go to resources for Judaism stuff:

https://www.logos.com/product/8537/the-jewish-encyclopedia

https://www.logos.com/product/9777/20th-century-jewish-religious-thought

Also got not long ago the following, but have not checked it yet:

https://ebooks.noet.com/product/152066/the-a-to-z-of-judaism

The Messiah topic is a very interesting one, I will mention some interesting venues that maybe will help you focus research:

If my memory serves me a dictionary talks about the common elements of all forms of Judaism: {could be AYD, or other]

1 The Temple. The temple was where the presence of God dwelled among the believers. Key point. All regulations, commands, etc. were for the protection of the people, because a person out of alignment with God's will would have as consequence death due to not aligning with His prescribed Moral order.

2 Scriptures. We all know how important this is, they make us wise for salvation, for growth in piety, for discerning good from bad, is a lamp that aids us in our way. They did not have the NT, but all pointed to the coming Messiah (we have the advantage of knowing this as He said it Himself).

3 Oral tradition: This is what seemed to be a problem for Jesus. It seems that a particular group of persons self-denominated as the "Living Torah", and started to make their teaching, opinions, etc. be at the same level as God's or sometimes even above His.

The group consisted of a particular kind of persons considering themselves "Wisdom sages", and when they met the real "Living Torah" [Jesus], they kept asking Him under what authority was He operating, because they devised a method to work power politics within their group [not sanctioned by God], and obviously Jesus was not a part of it.

Googling about some of this, at some point I encountered an article that explained the significance of Jesus giving sight to a blind persons born that way: The religious authorities had determined (on their own account, not ordered by God), that one of the signs of the Messiah would be to give the sight to a person born blind.

God never ordered that, expressed, or commanded such, it was a proof they themselves invented to be a telling sign of Messiahship.

Lo and behold, the real "Living Torah Jesus" did it, and they refused to accept the fact that He was indeed the Messiah, because He was not from their group [them just being infiltrated Tares, trying to do the work of their Father: deceive, lie, misguide, and kill when they deemed it necessary].

4 Eschatology: at the end, judgment, and those that transgressed God's moral order, or rebelled at heart against Him, will be punished, and the just will shine besides the Creator.

One of the main problems with the self-appointing group of leaders, is that Jesus was to become the New Temple of God, where the fullness of the Deity would dwell bodily.

We as living stones part of that New Temple (Body of Christ), must understand that being part of the New Temple, does not make us the Holy Spirit that indwells that New Temple.

So all groups that say that eventually humans (created beings) will have self-existence like God has, are way out of whack. Only God has self-existence (Aseity), that is what makes Him worthy of worship and sets Him apart as the Supreme Being above any created creature (including adopted children like us).

Now the conspiracy theory here is that the groups that think that a human through a process of deification or theosis can achieve self-existence, are the enemies of God and specifically those mentioned in John 8:42-44. [double check the leaders before you submit to them].

As a side note, BK a poster in the now discontinued "Christian Discourse" web site, being of Jewish descent, became a Christian by studying the Hebrew Scriptures, and drawing the conclusion that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Remarkable, so you may also want to check the OT for studying such.

Not sure if the following will help in that respect:

https://ebooks.faithlife.com/product/167403/handbook-of-basic-bible-texts-every-key-passage-for-the-study-of-doctrine-and-theology

The Logos pro team recommended the following, maybe it will be useful:

https://www.logos.com/product/27277/new-dictionary-of-biblical-theology

Vey important too:

https://www.logos.com/product/45638/lexham-theological-wordbook

Fascinating topic, if you discover good stuff, please share. If you have more questions that we can help with, feel free to ask.

Peace and grace.

Keep Smiling 4 Jesus :)

eBooks.Faithlife.com (insights from these ebooks are helping me Love God)

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler, Lois Tverberg (2018)
Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewish Words of Jesus Can Change Your Life by Lois Tverberg, Laan, Ray Vander (2012)

Logos.com

The Return of the Kosher Pig: The Divine Messiah in Jewish Thought by Rabbi Itzhak Shapira (2013 "Kosher Pig" title is enough to start a Jewish argument; content includes Rabbinic literature introduction)
Discovering the Mystery of the Unity of God by John B. Metzger (2010)
Logos.com search for Rabbinic Theology => https://www.logos.com/search?query=rabbinic%20theology&sortBy=Relevance&limit=60&page=1&ownership=all includes:
Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology by S. Schechter (1909)

My wish list includes:

Awakening to Messiah: A Supernatural Discovery of the Jewish Jesus by Rabbi K. A. Schneider (2012 ebook)
Jewish Roots: Understanding Your Jewish Faith (Revised Edition) by Daniel C. Juster (2013 ebook)
Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus: How a Jewish Perspective Can Transform Your Understanding by Lois Tverberg (2018)

Jewish Life calendar for 5780 (Sep 2019 to Sep 2020) uses Hebrew letters to count the days of the month from one to thirty, which has numeric values of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10+1, 10+2, 10+3, 10+4, 9+6, 9+7, 10+7, 10+8, 10+9, 20, 20+1, 20+2, 20+3, 20+4, 20+5, 20+6, 20+7, 20+8, 20+9, 30 (a bit different for fifteen and sixteen). Thankful for a Jewish friend explaining that Yud has a numeric value of 10 while Heh has a value of 5 and Vav has a value of 6 so letters different than Gd's name are used for counting 15 and 16.

Keep Smiling [:)]

Hamilton Ramos

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1070104#Comment_1070104

Thanks for sharing KS4J.

Just started to see:

https://ebooks.noet.com/product/80462/the-basic-beliefs-of-judaism-a-twenty-first-century-guide-to-a-timeless-tradition

So far very interesting.

Peace and grace.