Torah Club
Working with the Rabbi
Last week I finished the monumental Gospel commentary Chronicles of the Messiah.
It was a great joy to spend the last 14 months immersed in the gospels. Before I started the project, I raided the First Fruits of Zion library for all the pertinent gospel commentaries I could find--three boxes of books! It ended up being far more than I could possibly read in a year, much less keep up with the writing. I had to choose a few favorites.
One of my favorites was the nineteenth century commentary of Rabbi Yechiel Tzvi Lichtenstein, aka the Even Zohar. Rabbi Lichtenstein was a late-nineteenth-century, Jewish believer from a Chasidic background. While still in Yeshiva, he became a disciple of Yeshua of Nazareth. He served at the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum as a professor of rabbinics and wrote several books and commentaries including refutations of anti-missionary works. He also assisted Franz Delitzsch in the revision of Hebrew New Testament, and as a part of that process, he created a Hebrew Commentary on the New Testament to accompany it.
A few years ago, translators with First Fruits of Zion and Vine of David translated the Hebrew commentary to English up through the end of the book of Acts. Initially, we planned on publishing it in English, but for various reasons, that project never came together. Instead, I decided to use Lichtenstein as a sort of co-author for Chronicles of the Messiah by incorporating a generous amount of his commentary into the project, both in the written materials and on the audio CD's.
Over the last year, I discovered that Rabbi Lichtenstein and I share a lot of perspectives. It often happened that I thought I had a particular unique angle of interpretation on a passage only to discover that Lichtenstein had already seen it and written about it more than a century and a half ago. We did not see eye-to-eye on everything, but I often let him voice his opinion even when I disagreed, and several times, he changed my mind about a matter.
I am pleased to announce that Rabbi Lichtenstein the Chasid will be joining me again this year for the sequel, Chronicles of the Apostles. Torah Club Volume Six will bring Lichtenstein's unique wisdom and sharp, rabbinic insights to the text of book of Acts. Part of the mission of Vine of David is to resurrect the voices of early pioneers of Messianic Judaism. FFOZ's Torah Club members are gratified to offer a venue for one of those resurrected voices.
We hope you can join us.
Chronicles of the Apostles Overview
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Visitor Feedback:
Thanks for posting this "behind the scenes" information. It is interesting and illuminating to understand what and who has been influential to you within your research and opinions. Transparency and disclosure is vital for the student and reader so that she can review sources and learn critical thinking and analysis--thereby growing to maturity in proper scholarship methods. What topic could be more important for this careful review than the Holy Scriptures and the original Way of our Messiah as He lived and taught it? Proper citation is critical as we dig back through the pages of history. Our opinions are formed from the facts at hand, as the facts change, our opinions change. We must know the source of any fact we choose to accept, and be ready to discard it again later if evidence proves it was not indeed true. I appreciate that FFOZ has shown a desire to be cautious and respectful of the Holy Scriptural Faith in this regard. Keep up the great work.
Lynn Job | September 15, 2011 1:15 PM
Thanks for your work on Volume 6 (as well as the earlier volumes). I greatly appreciated your book on Galatians as well and quoted heavily from it in my blog: www.luthersbaggage.blogspot.com
Blessings on you and FFOZ
Dennis Kananen | September 26, 2011 9:54 PM