[Magdalen] Seeing the Gospels through a Jewish lens: An interview with Amy-Jill Levine - On Faith & Culture

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

The christians really did no service to their cause.  Instead of reading
the sense of what Max said, they focused on a triviality of whether you
could call Paul a zealot or not, which was apart from the point being made.
 but it worked well. These folks kept saying Max was ignorant but never did
any of them actually present a basis for their allegation, and they
presented no sources.

Max was the straight-shooter, actually, but I suspect the others are so
inoculated with the assumption of christian privilege that they felt no
need to show why they said what they did.  The view of Paul is much like
the current viewing of David as more a thug than a monarch. (Not quite sure
how the humanity of Paul relates to Christianity) I think we can cut him
some slack, since a lot of good christians "knew" (and many still "know")
that Paul hated women, when all one had to do was read what the man wrote
to refute that.

I thought it was an unfortunate diversion from the discussion of how to
view Jesus through competent Jewish eyes. I've heard the good professor
speak, and she is very articulate and learned.  That is, she knows the
needed facts, has them at her fingertips, and she also is able to make her
position quite clear with minimum smoke and mirrors.

While she does speak in public, she will not generally speak to laity, I am
told. She has made some tapes for The Great Courses, however.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 10:12 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

> I went on down into the comments, and OMG.....that Atheist Max gives me a
> headache! He is out of his everlovin' mind. Claims, like so many of his
> ilk, that reading the scriptures leads him to the "truth", but he's got
> more twists and turns than a road in the Smokies. Oy vey......
>
> On Thursday, May 7, 2015, Lynn Ronkainen <houstonklr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I commend this article to your attention... important information, wish I
> > could still share these kind of articles with an EFM group.
> >
> >
> >
> http://jonathanmerritt.religionnews.com/2015/01/02/seeing-gospels-jewish-lens-interview-amy-jill-levine/
> >
> > Lynn
> >
>