The Jewish Jesus: Conversation, Not Conversion

My reasoning for emphasizing the Jewishness of Jesus is straightforward and transforming: dialogue, celebrating uniqueness. As a practicing Jew who dialogues with Christians, I have learned to respect the covenantal role that Christians understand to be the way of the scriptural Jesus in their confessional lives. Also, Jew and Christian in dialogical encounter with select biblical texts can foster mutual understanding and respect as well as personal change and growth within their faith affirmation. Moreover, interfaith study of Scriptures respects differences, requires that the participants transcend the objectivity and data-driven detachment of standard academic approaches, and encourages students at all levels to enter into an encounter with Torah and Testament without paternalism, parochialism, and prejudice. Issues in Jesus education reflect the interweaving of theology and history. My dvar Yeshua responds to the “conversation, not conversion” imperative, in ways that are different from exclusively piloted agendas (such as those found in ecclesiastical outreach and synagogue separatism).