THE ATONEMENT DECEPTION, explores the Christian theological fiction that belief in Jesus is the only way to receive divine forgiveness for ones sins. Biblically, both Jews and gentiles can receive forgiveness of sins through sincere repentant confessionary prayer directed to the God of Israel. This is true at all times and in all places. There has never been a need for the so-called intercession role Jesus is supposed to play in attaining atonement. The facts speak for themselves. There is no truth to the Christian contention that Jesus died for our sins and salvation is only through Jesus. Jesus death does not bring atonement from sin nor is it in any way a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
The interpretation of the Seventy Weeks passage of Daniel 9 has been the center of many discussions between Jews and Christians as to its meaning. These controversies have generally revolved around three areas of dispute: • The division of the weeks • The starting date of the Seventy Weeks • The number of “anointed” individuals mentioned in the text and/or his/their identification. In agreement with the Masoretic accents and textual indicators (e.g. verse 26), Jewish commentators divide the time period into three periods: seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and one week. The last week culminates with the destruction of the Temple, but with an addendum giving hope for the future. Christian renderings of Daniel generally follow the present-day King James Version’s division into two periods of weeks (sixty-nine weeks consisting of seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks and one week). This is also the position maintained by most Christian commentators in explaining this passage. What is the overall purpose of the Seventy Weeks passage? Is this passage messianic? Who are the two anointed individuals mentioned in this passage? How does its description of things to come and eventual fulfillment centuries later give proof of the eventual fulfillment of all God’s promises to Israel? What message does it hold for Jewish history past and future? Does it refer to Christian eschatological beliefs? Does this passage refer in any way to Jesus? To investigate these questions is the purpose of this volume.
Who is the servant of Isaiah 52:13-53:12? Answering this question is what this study is all about. Through the centuries countless commentaries have been written, tracts have been distributed, debates have raged over the identification of the servant in this passage. Here we investigate the evidence presented over the last 2000 thousand years for the two leading candidates for this role of servant of the Lord. The two are Jesus and the Jewish people. Christians see in this passage the literal fulfillment by Jesus of all it contains. Jews see it in its plain meaning as a historical overview of Jewish history and the suffering to be endured by the nation of Israel until the final redemption. Source materials used by opposing sides in discussing this passage are thoroughly reviewed. In particular, each verse in the passage is studied in depth. But, the purpose of this volume is not simply to have an intellectual discussion of the issues involved. Its intent is to make it an unavoidable issue for Christians that there are very real disqualifications of Jesus from being the suffering servant and to identify the subject of the servant passage as none other than the nation of Israel. Furthermore, we seek to educate Jews so they do not fall prey to those who would have them believe Jesus is the Messiah.
This volume is a systematic critique of the anti-Jewishness of the New Testament. Its primary purpose is to delineate what the New Testament authors intended to convey to their respective audiences concerning the Jewish people. That is, this volume is concerned with the initial meaning intended by the New Testament authors and how this intended meaning directly and with forethought contributed to Christian anti-Judaic1 thought and action. We will investigate how and why the New Testament authors created this anti-Judaic climate. Analysis of the Gospel stories demonstrates that anti-Judaism is woven into the fabric of a significant part of the New Testament narrative. This narrative has provoked bitter condemnation and persecution of Jews. The Jewish people were cast in the role of a dark satanic force as a systematic denigration and demonization of the Jews took place. It is to its harsh and bitter polemic against the entire Jewish people that one must ascribe the accusations of the Jews being Christ-killers and children of Satan and the later embellishments of Jews as host desecrators, ritual murders, and well-poisoners. Post-New Testament developments of Christian anti-Judaism are not central to this study. In pursuing our investigation we will make a distinction between what was originally intended by the New Testament authors and the usage made of their works to meet the anti-Judaic needs of the subsequent church. Conclusions reached by later interpreters that have often been attributed to the authors of the Gospels are not our primary concern. It is not a question of how, or to what extent, the New Testament passages concerning Jews and Judaism were misused or misread in later centuries, but of what they were meant to mean in the first place. Thus, our focus will be on what the authors meant to convey to their respective contemporary audiences about the Jews. What would the New Testaments audience have understood from the information its various authors provided? What meaning would a reader derive from a particular text? Is the New Testament anti-Jewish or is it merely an accurate report of events as they took place? Answers can only come through an examination of the relevant passages in their specific literary contexts, as well as in the context of the struggles, aspirations, and theologies of the early church. Special attention must be paid to the relationship between the church and the Roman authorities, on the one hand, and the synagogue, on the other hand, at the time the various books of the New Testament were written and to polemics within the early church community. The New Testament was not written solely to condemn the Jews. But, in the process of developing the several story lines that evolved into the four respective canonical Gospels, the early church adopted a decidedly anti-Judaic stance. Consequently, in its final form, instances of anti-Judaic sentiment are found in much of the New Testament, the Gospels in particular. This animosity has to do as much with politics as with theological doctrine, relations with the Roman imperial authorities as with displacing Jews and Judaism. If pre-Gospel traditions already included anti-Judaic elements, they were now systematically exploited. There was a growing need to explain why Israel, Gods chosen people, had rejected Jesus and the message of his disciples. How could this be reconciled with Gods will? In presenting Jesus as the Messiah and Christianity as superseding Judaism, Paul and the authors of the Gospels and Acts, in particular, indict the Jewish people for the death of Jesus and spread antipathy of Jews and Judaism as part of a program to achieve Christian ascendancy. The historicized core myths that provide the basis for the New Testament missionary program were shaped and reshaped to show that the church possessed full authenticity and validity contra Jews and Judaism. The New Testament auth
Some trinitarians explain the Trinity doctrine by reference to the three main colors united in one rainbow. Others explain how the understanding, the conscience, and the will blending together in one man illustrate the Trinity. Still others compare the Trinity to three lit candles in one room blending into one light. None of these illustrations satisfactorily offer an analogy of how three distinct almighty and eternal beings make one almighty and eternal being. The absolute uni-personality of God is the first principle of the Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament. Trinitarian Christians do not deny that there is one God, but differ as to the absolute unity of God. They speak of the Godhead as a Trinity composed of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarianism maintains that the term God includes not only the Father, but Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Yet, even the New Testament shows that Jesus was a person as distinct from God as the disciples were distinct from him.
The author of the Gospel of Matthew sought to portray alleged events in the life of Jesus as fulfillments of biblical passages. Ample evidence has shown that there is no validity to his claims. Lukes author merely states that a virginal conception took place. Both present a story their readers can relate to from the familiar Hellenistic worldview: a god impregnates a virgin thereby sending his hybrid son into the world to do a certain task. Matthew and Luke are not the originators of the core belief that a virginal conception took place. According to the Gospels, Mary conceived as a divinely impregnated virgin betrothed to a Davidic descendant named Joseph. If there was no biological relationship between Joseph and the child Mary bore, the story presented is not pertinent to the claim that Jesus is the Davidic Messiah on the basis of Josephs lineage. That Matthew and Luke solely through Joseph trace Jesus lineage in two variant forms becomes a meaningless exercise. As it became clear that attempts to connect Jesus to David through Joseph were futile, efforts were made to make the connection through Mary by claiming one or the other genealogy was really hers. It is to no avail. This too has failed. What most Christians do now is live in a theological state of denial maintaining that there are no real problems only unbelievers quibbling over minor points. Alas! What else can Christian believers do, but hide their heads in a theological sand box and blame quibblers?
Examine the evidence presented in the New Testament. It shows that the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus is not based on historic evidence. The New Testament evidence is contradictory in fundamental issues and events. Its most salient promise -- that of a return by Jesus within the lifetime of his contemporaries never occurred. Christian apologists have spent the last 2000 years devising many different and often contradictory explanations of what they allege the New Testament really means when it promises a quick return by Jesus. They cannot all be right, but they can all be wrong. When all the Christian theological myths are seen for the fantasies they are it comes down to this -- Jesus was never God's son, did not shed his blood on the cross, was not a substitute who took upon himself the punishment for the sins of others, did not die to save sinners and was not resurrected. And he is never coming back.
THE ATONEMENT DECEPTION, explores the Christian theological fiction that belief in Jesus is the only way to receive divine forgiveness for one's sins. Biblically, both Jews and gentiles can receive forgiveness of sins through sincere repentant confessionary prayer directed to the God of Israel. This is true at all times and in all places. There has never been a need for the so-called intercession role Jesus is supposed to play in attaining atonement. The facts speak for themselves. There is no truth to the Christian contention that Jesus died for our sins and salvation is only through Jesus. Jesus' death does not bring atonement from sin nor is it in any way a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Did you know that you can trust the accuracy of the biblical creation narrative, and still believe that the Earth is billions of years old? Yes, you can trust that God is the Creator of the universe and all it contains and you can still believe in evolution. There is no conflict between the non-speculative scientific description of creation, origin of life, evolution and the Genesis creation account. All one needs is to have a proper understanding of science and the Bible. To think that Genesis is a collection of Babylonian myths retold by Bronze Age shepherds is to distort history. It took almost 3,400 years but science finally began to catch up with the biblical creation narrative. From the Big Bang to the creation of modern humans it was there in Genesis the whole time. Some people outsmart themselves when they try to disprove the biblical creation narrative by appealing to unproven hypotheses. They grasp onto philosophical and scientific arguments that eventually are proven to be wrong. If you think that Genesis is simplistic and cannot stand up to the claims of evolutionary theory, this book is for you. Biblical Evolution: Answering Atheism, unfolds the wonders of God's cosmic creation and debunks the atheist's mythology based on speculative science. This book is not about classifying people as good or bad in accordance with their beliefs or assigning where they will spend eternity. Its goal is to correct the misconceptions concerning science vis à vis Genesis' creation narrative. It is to show that verified science parallels the early chapters of Genesis on the development of planet Earth, life and the eventual development of modern humans. How did a group of Bronze Age shepherds get this amazingly accurate record? If you said it was God who gave it, you are correct.
The interpretation of the Seventy Weeks passage of Daniel 9 has been the center of many discussions between Jews and Christians as to its meaning. These controversies have generally revolved around three areas of dispute: • The division of the weeks • The starting date of the Seventy Weeks • The number of “anointed” individuals mentioned in the text and/or his/their identification. In agreement with the Masoretic accents and textual indicators (e.g. verse 26), Jewish commentators divide the time period into three periods: seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, and one week. The last week culminates with the destruction of the Temple, but with an addendum giving hope for the future. Christian renderings of Daniel generally follow the present-day King James Version’s division into two periods of weeks (sixty-nine weeks consisting of seven weeks plus sixty-two weeks and one week). This is also the position maintained by most Christian commentators in explaining this passage. What is the overall purpose of the Seventy Weeks passage? Is this passage messianic? Who are the two anointed individuals mentioned in this passage? How does its description of things to come and eventual fulfillment centuries later give proof of the eventual fulfillment of all God’s promises to Israel? What message does it hold for Jewish history past and future? Does it refer to Christian eschatological beliefs? Does this passage refer in any way to Jesus? To investigate these questions is the purpose of this volume.
Examine the evidence presented in the New Testament. It shows that the Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus is not based on historic evidence. The New Testament evidence is contradictory in fundamental issues and events. Its most salient promise -- that of a return by Jesus within the lifetime of his contemporaries never occurred. Christian apologists have spent the last 2000 years devising many different and often contradictory explanations of what they allege the New Testament really means when it promises a quick return by Jesus. They cannot all be right, but they can all be wrong. When all the Christian theological myths are seen for the fantasies they are it comes down to this -- Jesus was never God's son, did not shed his blood on the cross, was not a substitute who took upon himself the punishment for the sins of others, did not die to save sinners and was not resurrected. And he is never coming back.
Some trinitarians explain the Trinity doctrine by reference to the three main colors united in one rainbow. Others explain how the understanding, the conscience, and the will blending together in one man illustrate the Trinity. Still others compare the Trinity to three lit candles in one room blending into one light. None of these illustrations satisfactorily offer an analogy of how three distinct almighty and eternal beings make one almighty and eternal being. The absolute uni-personality of God is the first principle of the Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament. Trinitarian Christians do not deny that there is one God, but differ as to the absolute unity of God. They speak of the Godhead as a Trinity composed of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinitarianism maintains that the term God includes not only the Father, but Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Yet, even the New Testament shows that Jesus was a person as distinct from God as the disciples were distinct from him.
THE ATONEMENT DECEPTION, explores the Christian theological fiction that belief in Jesus is the only way to receive divine forgiveness for ones sins. Biblically, both Jews and gentiles can receive forgiveness of sins through sincere repentant confessionary prayer directed to the God of Israel. This is true at all times and in all places. There has never been a need for the so-called intercession role Jesus is supposed to play in attaining atonement. The facts speak for themselves. There is no truth to the Christian contention that Jesus died for our sins and salvation is only through Jesus. Jesus death does not bring atonement from sin nor is it in any way a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Who is the servant of Isaiah 52:13-53:12? Answering this question is what this study is all about. Through the centuries countless commentaries have been written, tracts have been distributed, debates have raged over the identification of the servant in this passage. Here we investigate the evidence presented over the last 2000 thousand years for the two leading candidates for this role of servant of the Lord. The two are Jesus and the Jewish people. Christians see in this passage the literal fulfillment by Jesus of all it contains. Jews see it in its plain meaning as a historical overview of Jewish history and the suffering to be endured by the nation of Israel until the final redemption. Source materials used by opposing sides in discussing this passage are thoroughly reviewed. In particular, each verse in the passage is studied in depth. But, the purpose of this volume is not simply to have an intellectual discussion of the issues involved. Its intent is to make it an unavoidable issue for Christians that there are very real disqualifications of Jesus from being the suffering servant and to identify the subject of the servant passage as none other than the nation of Israel. Furthermore, we seek to educate Jews so they do not fall prey to those who would have them believe Jesus is the Messiah.
Gerald K. Stone has collected books about Canadian Jewry since the early 1980s. This volume is a descriptive catalog of his Judaica collection, comprising nearly 6,000 paper or electronic documentary resources in English, French, Yiddish, and Hebrew. Logically organized, indexed, and selectively annotated, the catalog is broad in scope, covering Jewish Canadian history, biography, religion, literature, the Holocaust, antisemitism, Israel and the Middle East, and more. An introduction by Richard Menkis discusses the significance of the Catalog and collecting for the study of the Jewish experience in Canada. An informative bibliographical resource, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of Canadian and North American Jewish studies.
Quantum mechanics and the theory of operators on Hilbert space have been deeply linked since their beginnings in the early twentieth century. States of a quantum system correspond to certain elements of the configuration space and observables correspond to certain operators on the space. This book is a brief, but self-contained, introduction to the mathematical methods of quantum mechanics, with a view towards applications to Schrodinger operators. Part 1 of the book is a concise introduction to the spectral theory of unbounded operators. Only those topics that will be needed for later applications are covered. The spectral theorem is a central topic in this approach and is introduced at an early stage. Part 2 starts with the free Schrodinger equation and computes the free resolvent and time evolution. Position, momentum, and angular momentum are discussed via algebraic methods. Various mathematical methods are developed, which are then used to compute the spectrum of the hydrogen atom. Further topics include the nondegeneracy of the ground state, spectra of atoms, and scattering theory. This book serves as a self-contained introduction to spectral theory of unbounded operators in Hilbert space with full proofs and minimal prerequisites: Only a solid knowledge of advanced calculus and a one-semester introduction to complex analysis are required. In particular, no functional analysis and no Lebesgue integration theory are assumed. It develops the mathematical tools necessary to prove some key results in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Mathematical Methods in Quantum Mechanics is intended for beginning graduate students in both mathematics and physics and provides a solid foundation for reading more advanced books and current research literature. It is well suited for self-study and includes numerous exercises (many with hints).
The purpose of these volumes is to provide a reference work for the methods of purifying many of the receptors we know about. This be comes increasingly important as full-length receptors are overexpressed in bacteria or in insect cell systems. A major problem for abundantly expressed proteins will be their purification. In addition to purification protocols, many other details can be found concerning an individual receptor that may not be available in standard texts or monographs. No book of this type is available as a compendium of purification procedures. Receptor Purification provides protocols for the purification of a wide variety of receptors. These include receptors that bind: neurotransmit ters, polypeptide hormones, steroid hormones, and ligands for related members of the steroid supergene family and others, including receptors involved in bacterial motion. The text of this information is substantial, so as to require its publication in two volumes. Consequently, a division was made by grouping receptors by the nature of their ligands. Thus, in Volume One there are contributions on serotonin receptors, adrenergic receptors, the purification of GTP-binding proteins, opioid receptors, neurotensin receptor, luteinizing hormone receptor, human chorionic gonadotropin receptor, follicle stimulating hormone receptor, thyro tropin receptor, prolactin receptor, epidermal growth factor receptor, platelet derived growth factor receptor, colony stimulating factor recep tor, insulin-like growth factor receptors, insulin receptor, fibronectin receptor, interferon receptor, and the cholecystokinin receptor.
Canada's Jews covers the 240-year period from the beginnings of the Jewish community in the 1760s to the present day, illuminating the golden chain of Jewish tradition, religion, language, economy, and history as established and renewed in the northern lands.
The courses given at the 1st C.I.M.E. Summer School of 1988 dealt with the main areas on the borderline between applied logic and theoretical computer science. These courses are recorded here in five expository papers: S. Homer: The Isomorphism Conjecture and its Generalization.- A. Nerode: Some Lectures on Intuitionistic Logic.- R.A. Platek: Making Computers Safe for the World. An Introduction to Proofs of Programs. Part I. - G.E. Sacks: Prolog Programming.- A. Scedrov: A Guide to Polymorphic Types.
The section of this handbook has been dividing into two volumes, the first volume contains information relating to purines, pyrimidine and nucleoside, oligonucleotide, polynucleotides, and their derivatives. Both ribo and deoxyribo compounds are listed also. The second volume will contain the remaining material similar to Volume 1 and material more relative to genetic and biological aspects such as enzymes involved in nucleic acid function, protein synthesis, linkage maps.
True American heroes need not have superhuman abilities nor do they need to act alone. Heroism in a democracy is different from the heroism of myths and legends, writes Gerald Pomper in this original contribution to the literature of U.S. politics. Through the remarkable stories of eight diverse Americans who acted as heroes by "just doing their jobs" during national crises, he offers a provocative definition of heroism and fresh reasons to respect U.S. institutions and the people who work within them. This new paperback edition includes photographs, an introductory chapter on American heroism after 9/11, a survey of the meanings of heroism in U.S. popular culture, and an original concluding theory of "ordinary" heroism.
New York remains the Empire State. Its trillion dollar economy makes the state a national-and often world-leader in banking, finance, publishing, soft services (law, accounting, insurance, consulting), higher education, culture, and the arts. With more than one in five of its residents having immigrated from elsewhere, New York State is an ethnic and social harbinger for an increasingly diverse nation. Recent years have found it, like many other big states, challenged to achieve effective governance. How is, can, or should such a state be governed? What is its history? What is its future? The Oxford Handbook of New York State Government and Politics offers an unusually comprehensive, detailed, and systematic study of this unique and influential state. The thirty-one chapters in The Oxford Handbook of New York State Government and Politics assemble new scholarship in key areas of governance in New York, document the state's record in comparison to other US states, and identify directions for future research. Following editor Gerald Benjamin's introduction, the handbook chapters are organized in five sections that look at the state constitution, state political processes, state governmental institutions, intergovernmental relations, and management and policy areas. Chapters address a wide array of topics including political parties, campaign finance policy, public opinion polling, elections and election management, lobbying and interest group systems, the state legislature, the governorship, the judiciary, the state's "foreign policy," education, health care policy, public safety, economic development, transportation policy, energy policy, and more. A final chapter, compiled by the state archivist, consists of a most extensive annotated bibliography of resources on state history, state political history, the state constitution, and state political processes. Chapter authors include both scholars of New York State and current and former state officials.
2008 Catholic Press Association Honorable Mention! For decades, the Catholic Church and historical peace churches such as the Mennonites have come together in ecumenical discussions about war and peace. The dividing point has always been between pacifism, the view held by Mennonites and other peace churches, and the just war theory that dominates Catholic thinking on the issue. Given the transformation of global relations over this period--increased interdependency and communication as well as the fall of the Soviet Union, emerging nationalism movements, and the slow development of international courts--the time is right to rethink the Christian response to war. Gerald Schlabach has proposed just policing theory as a way to narrow the gap between just war and pacifist traditions. If the world can address problems of violence through a police model instead of a conventional military model, there may be a role for Christians from all traditions. In this volume, Schlabach presents his theory and has invited a number of scholars representing Catholic, Mennonite, and other traditions to respond to the theory and address a number of key questions: What do we mean by policing? Can policing solve conflicts beyond one's own borders? How does just policing theory address terrorism? Is international policing possible, and what would it look like? Is just policing a Christian solution that meets the criteria of both traditions? This important volume offers a fresh and meaningful discussion to help Christians of all traditions navigate the difficult questions of how to live in these times of violence and war.
This book represents a broad integration of several major themes in psychology toward its unification. Unifying psychology is an ongoing project that has no end-point, but the present work suggests several major axes toward that end, including causality and activation-inhibition coordination. On the development side of the model building, the author has constructed an integrated lifespan stage model of development across the Piagetian cognitive and the Eriksonian socioaffective domains. The model is based on the concept of neo-stages, which mitigates standard criticisms of developmental stage models. The new work in the second half of the book extends the primary work in the first half both in terms of causality and development. Also, the area of couple work is examined from the stage perspective. Finally, new concepts related to the main themes are represented, including on the science formula, executive function, stress dysregulation disorder, inner peace, and ethics, all toward showing the rich potential of the present modeling.
In the past four decades, the United States has spent $85 billion pursuing the fantasy of an effective missile defense system to shield our nation against the threat of a nuclear attack. Recent public tests, while less exotic than some of the original Star Wars proposals, were spectacular failures and call into question the whole program's rationale. Neither the land-based system proposed by the Clinton administration, nor the alternatives proposed by earlier administrations, would ever work--regardless of how much R&D money is channeled into the project. Rather than enhancing national security, these doomed efforts would provoke a new arms race and alienate key allies. The authors apply their extensive insiders' expertise to argue that thoughtful diplomacy is the only real answer to meet America's national security goals. Like President Reagan with his Star Wars program, President Bush has again made national missile defense (NMD) a national priority at a cost which may exceed $150 billion in the next ten years. Defense experts Eisendrath, Goodman, and Marsh contend that recent tests give little confidence that any of the systems under consideration--land-based, boost-phase, or laser-driven--have any chance of effective deployment within decades. The interests of the military-industrial complex and the unilateralist views of the Bush administration are driving NMD, not a desire to promote national security. Rather than increase U.S. security, the plans of the current administration, if implemented, will erode it. NMD will heighten the threat from China and Russia, alienate key allies, and provoke a new arms race and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, all in response to a greatly exaggerated threat from so-called rogue states, such as North Korea and Iran. Thoughtful diplomacy, not a misguided foreign policy based on a hopeless dream of a Fortress America, is the real answer to meeting Americas security goals. Designed to stimulate interest and debate among the public and policy-makers, The Phantom Defense provides solid facts and combines scientific, geopolitical, historical, and strategic analysis to critique the delusion of national missile defense, while suggesting a more effective alternative.
Designed to address all aspects of shoulder reconstruction, this volume in the Disorders of the Shoulder series provides complete and practical discussions of the reconstructive process—from diagnosis and planning, through surgical and nonsurgical treatments, to outcome and return to functionality.
Gerald Sussman offers a detailed critical analysis of the political dimensions of 21st century communication/information technologies, mass media and transnational networks.
This volume is a systematic critique of the anti-Jewishness of the New Testament. Its primary purpose is to delineate what the New Testament authors intended to convey to their respective audiences concerning the Jewish people. That is, this volume is concerned with the initial meaning intended by the New Testament authors and how this intended meaning directly and with forethought contributed to Christian anti-Judaic1 thought and action. We will investigate how and why the New Testament authors created this anti-Judaic climate. Analysis of the Gospel stories demonstrates that anti-Judaism is woven into the fabric of a significant part of the New Testament narrative. This narrative has provoked bitter condemnation and persecution of Jews. The Jewish people were cast in the role of a dark satanic force as a systematic denigration and demonization of the Jews took place. It is to its harsh and bitter polemic against the entire Jewish people that one must ascribe the accusations of the Jews being Christ-killers and children of Satan and the later embellishments of Jews as host desecrators, ritual murders, and well-poisoners. Post-New Testament developments of Christian anti-Judaism are not central to this study. In pursuing our investigation we will make a distinction between what was originally intended by the New Testament authors and the usage made of their works to meet the anti-Judaic needs of the subsequent church. Conclusions reached by later interpreters that have often been attributed to the authors of the Gospels are not our primary concern. It is not a question of how, or to what extent, the New Testament passages concerning Jews and Judaism were misused or misread in later centuries, but of what they were meant to mean in the first place. Thus, our focus will be on what the authors meant to convey to their respective contemporary audiences about the Jews. What would the New Testaments audience have understood from the information its various authors provided? What meaning would a reader derive from a particular text? Is the New Testament anti-Jewish or is it merely an accurate report of events as they took place? Answers can only come through an examination of the relevant passages in their specific literary contexts, as well as in the context of the struggles, aspirations, and theologies of the early church. Special attention must be paid to the relationship between the church and the Roman authorities, on the one hand, and the synagogue, on the other hand, at the time the various books of the New Testament were written and to polemics within the early church community. The New Testament was not written solely to condemn the Jews. But, in the process of developing the several story lines that evolved into the four respective canonical Gospels, the early church adopted a decidedly anti-Judaic stance. Consequently, in its final form, instances of anti-Judaic sentiment are found in much of the New Testament, the Gospels in particular. This animosity has to do as much with politics as with theological doctrine, relations with the Roman imperial authorities as with displacing Jews and Judaism. If pre-Gospel traditions already included anti-Judaic elements, they were now systematically exploited. There was a growing need to explain why Israel, Gods chosen people, had rejected Jesus and the message of his disciples. How could this be reconciled with Gods will? In presenting Jesus as the Messiah and Christianity as superseding Judaism, Paul and the authors of the Gospels and Acts, in particular, indict the Jewish people for the death of Jesus and spread antipathy of Jews and Judaism as part of a program to achieve Christian ascendancy. The historicized core myths that provide the basis for the New Testament missionary program were shaped and reshaped to show that the church possessed full authenticity and validity contra Jews and Judaism. The New Testament auth
Karp’s Cell and Molecular Biology delivers a concise and illustrative narrative that helps students connect key concepts and experimentation, so they better understand how we know what we know in the world of cell biology. This classic text explores core concepts in considerable depth, often adding experimental detail. It is written in an inviting style and at mid-length, to assist students in managing the plethora of details encountered in the Cell Biology course. The 9th Edition includes two new sections and associated assessment in each chapter that show the relevance of key cell biology concepts to plant cell biology and bioengineering.
The author of the Gospel of Matthew sought to portray alleged events in the life of Jesus as fulfillments of biblical passages. Ample evidence has shown that there is no validity to his claims. Lukes author merely states that a virginal conception took place. Both present a story their readers can relate to from the familiar Hellenistic worldview: a god impregnates a virgin thereby sending his hybrid son into the world to do a certain task. Matthew and Luke are not the originators of the core belief that a virginal conception took place. According to the Gospels, Mary conceived as a divinely impregnated virgin betrothed to a Davidic descendant named Joseph. If there was no biological relationship between Joseph and the child Mary bore, the story presented is not pertinent to the claim that Jesus is the Davidic Messiah on the basis of Josephs lineage. That Matthew and Luke solely through Joseph trace Jesus lineage in two variant forms becomes a meaningless exercise. As it became clear that attempts to connect Jesus to David through Joseph were futile, efforts were made to make the connection through Mary by claiming one or the other genealogy was really hers. It is to no avail. This too has failed. What most Christians do now is live in a theological state of denial maintaining that there are no real problems only unbelievers quibbling over minor points. Alas! What else can Christian believers do, but hide their heads in a theological sand box and blame quibblers?
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