Bible Study

Why begin with Genesis? Well, I suppose one could simply argue that one begins with Genesis because Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and therefore the logical place to begin. But if we’re actually talking about messianic prophecy, whether the Christian or Jewish understanding of it, then Genesis may actually not be the most lerwdogical place to start. Genesis is not normally considered by Jews to be a prophetic book – it’s a part of the Torah (which can be variously translated as the Law, or the teachings, or the instructions.) In Jewish faith, Genesis is largely seen as a book of allegory – which means that the real message of the Book of Genesis is deeper than simply what you read on the page; so Genesis is a Book that invites thought and speculation and debate – but it’s not prophecy. So, again, why start with Genesis? I wanted to follow up last week’s discussion about the nature of messianic prophecy, and how Jews and Christians have a different understanding of the very con...

     Messianic Prophecy. Or, maybe it’s better stated as “Messianic Prophecy?” There’s a certain appropriateness about making the term a question rather than a statement, because if you’re going to look at Messianic Prophecy then you have to define what, exactly, Messianic Prophecy is. Christians view Messianic Prophecy through a completely different lens than Jews, for example. For Jews, Messianic Prophecy is more a process of looking for someone who is going to do something about something. For Christians, messianic prophecy is largely about looking back and seeing something about someone who did something. So, for Jews, Messianic Prophecy is pointed toward the future – this is what we expect of Messiah; who’s doing it? for Christians, it’s oriented toward the past – this is what Jesus did; how does that fit what was written? Both are about fulfilment – how and by whom do certain Messianic Prophecies get fulfilled – but the difference is that Jews are still looking for ...