Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar

Pearl in the Sand, by Tessa Afshar, is an incredible book!

Following the story of Rahab, Afshar gives the reader a beautiful glimpse into what it might have been for this woman, a Canaanite prostitute in Jericho, to betray her people by helping the spies of Israel and then joining the people of Israel... later to marry a leader in the tribe of Judah and give birth to Boaz, who is in the line of Jesus. What an incredible redemption of her story!

I was fascinated by the cultural elements of this story, and the in-depth exploration of Rahab's journey as a foreigner, a member of an enemy people, and a prostitute, to 'ancestor' of Jesus. In addition to her struggle, Afshar also gives insight to the current conflicts in the people of Israel, highlighting that this is not long after Moses has died, as well as the last of the earlier generation of people who escaped Egypt. This is a group of people—millions—who didn't know what it meant to stay in one place, to work the land, or to settle down. The psychological dynamics of that are so interesting to me! 

There were definitely physical, mental, and spiritual elements of this dynamic as well, as Joshua says to Salmone on page 100: "'I understand the root of your opinions; I know how you formed them. It's part and parcel of the way you young ones grew up. Your generation has had a hard lesson to learn. Your parents' and grandparents' lack of faith and disobedience changed your lives. Instead of being born and raised in homes of your own, you've endured the hardships of a meandering existence. You have never known the routine of a stable home life. The one security you young ones have known has been the Lord. It has made you cling to God in a way your parents weren't able to do. Perhaps your children's generation won't inherit your resolve either. Maybe that's why God allowed you to become wanderers in the first place.

But there is an underside to every strength, and yours is showing right now, Salmone. You have grown judgmental in your attempt at righteousness.'"

This book is obviously Biblical fiction, based on extensive research and also the author's imagination. But this paragraph really grabbed me, because it took me into the world of the younger generation of Israelites and their culture. Having lived with the consequences of their parents' and grandparents' sin in such a national way, it makes sense that it would greatly impact the younger generation in a powerful (and opposite) way. 

Was the problem described by Joshua (at Afshar's hand) a real problem? We might not know until Heaven, but I can't wait to find out! Let me know what you think in the comments below!

The Secrets of the Cross Trilogy by Elizabeth Musser

Last month, I read this fascinating trilogy by Elizabeth Musser. It doesn't directly touch on Jewish culture (though there are Jewish characters in the series), but I did see correlation as far as honor/shame cultures and the importance of family.

So, I wanted to share the Secrets of the Cross Trilogy with you!

Set primarily in the early 1960s (book 3 is set in 1994), the story follows characters in southern France and northern Algeria during the French-Algerian conflict, detailing the dynamics of racism and clashing cultures between Algerians loyal to their country, descendants of Algerian soldiers who are loyal to the French army and fought against Algeria in the war, Europeans living in Algeria as a result of the conflict, and all of those 3 also living in France. 

From a cultural standpoint, it's a fascinating story to explore, as I knew little of this dynamic. Combined with daring rescues, harrowing escapes, plots, and intrigue, it's a great read!

But what I wanted to share is what stood out to me on page 204, as the character of Ali, an Algerian socialist, vows revenge on his father's death against the descendants of the man who killed his father (who is also dead): "Ali spat. 'Captain Duchemin! You traitor. I'll find your daughter and granddaughter, and then I can draw the line through your family no one will remember them. My father will be avenged'".

This reminded of the blogs I wrote a few years ago about the importance of family, names, and the dynamics of honor and shame in Eastern cultures. This character is so focused on revenge that he wants to wipe out the whole family line of a man who is already dead (so he won't know it happened) in order to avenge his dead father.

He's focused on the name. He wants to completely remove the name. There is importance in names in Eastern cultures that we don't pick up on right away in Western cultures. As I stated in this blog, "The idea is so much deeper in Jewish culture, however. 'It's hard to overstate how important names were in Biblical times,' Lois Tverberg states in Walking in the Dust of Rabbi Jesus. 'In ancient thought, without a name, an object or being didn't even exist. Egyptian documents describe the time before creation as "when no name of anything had yet been named,' and it was only when God created and named things that they officially existed.

Names in ancient Near Eastern culture were more than just descriptive words. They were reputations... legacies... identities."

Wow! That's very different from Western culture. What other media (books, movies, tv shows, etc have you seen this)? I'd love to know in the comments below!

You can find the trilogy here on Amazon!

The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi: The First and Second Temples

Speaking of the importance of pictures and analogies in Hebrew culture, here's another one from The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi that really stood out to me:

The Temple Mount is the most contested piece of land in all of the world. I'm not going to go into all of it here, as this blog might take up the whole internet. So I'm going to quickly summarize the legitimate claim of Israel and the Jewish faith to it. 

The First Temple, built on Mount Moriah, was built by Solomon on the very mountain where God led Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. It was destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians, when the last of the Israelites were carried away into captivity. God allowed this to happen because Israel had turned away from their first love: YHWH.

In 538 BC, the Second Temple was built by Zerubbabel, who was allowed by Babylonian King Cyrus to do so (Ezra 2). However, it was much smaller, less ornate than the original temple. Then, God allowed King Herod to begin a large-scale renovation and expansion of it, which "was one of the largest construction projects of 1st century B.C. Because of the immense resources Herod invested, the Second Temple became one of the wonders of the ancient world [....] The Second Temple stood from 516 BC to 70 AD" when the Romans destroyed it (page 157). All that remains today is the most Western Wall, considered to be holy ground to the Jews, as it is all that remains from the Temple. Sobel says God allowed this temple to be destroyed because of the intense hatred Jews at the time felt towards their fellow man.

In fact, he says, "The choice of location for the temple was connected to—and symbolic of—its spiritual foundation, which was love. The First Temple was destroyed because of idolatry, and the second was destroyed due to a senseless hatred that the Jewish people had towards one another. 

Thus, the First Temple was destroyed when Israel broke the 1st and greatest commandment, which is, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength,' (Deut. 6:5). The Second Temple was destroyed when Israel broke the 2nd greatest commandment: 'Love your neighbor as yourself' (Lev. 19:18)."

WOW! Talk about a powerful picture. 

To this day, the Jewish people wait to rebuild the temple. Plans are already made and materials gathered for its construction. And the Bible says there will be one, because the antichrist will declare himself to be God, which will lead to the ultimate abomination that causes desolation. But honestly, I think that will be the 4th Temple, because of what Kenneth E. Bailey said here. According to him—according to Paul—we as believers are the Third Temple, with Jesus as the cornerstone. 

What do you think? What I do know is that watching for the rebuilding of the physical Temple is a key sign of the last days. Currently, it doesn't exist. But I heard that it could literally be rebuilt in as quickly as 90 days, because of the plans in place! WOW!

The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi: The Dead Sea Coming back to Life!

This is the last post from the series on The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have!

This last post is going to talk about the Dead Sea, and something incredible discovered in 2011. Actually called the Salt Sea, it was nicknamed the Dead Sea because nothing can live in it. The water is about 10x more mineral than an ocean, which means that you can float in it. It's literally impossible to drown. If you walk far enough out, your feet will just fly out from under you (this happened to me) and you will float. It's so trippy! At 2000 feet below sea level, it's the lowest place on earth, and believed to be the site of Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah. It's also evaporating at the rate of 1 meter a year. 

Many years ago, a tourist noticed freshwater pools along the shores of the Dead Sea with fish swimming in them! WOW! And then somehow they figured out how to explore the bottom in 2011 and discovered "huge craters on the seafloor, fifteen meters across and 20 meters deep, full of fresh fish and covered with mats full of microorganisms, with freshwater flowing from the craters" (page 165)!

WOW! This is especially incredible to me in light of Ezekiel's words about what will happen in the Millennial Kingdom: 

"He asked me, 'Son of man, do you see this?'

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, 'This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing'” (Ezekiel 47: 6-12)

SO COOL! This is what's coming—but it's already happening!

I hope this series encourages you to get this book (click on the picture below to get it on Amazon, or click here). Have you guessed the meaning of the title yet? The Rock is the Jesus, the Road is the Holy Land, and the Rabbi is the Word of God.

What did you think of this series? Let me know in the comments below!

The Rock, The Road, and The Rabbi: Faith as a Mustard Seed

This is probably my favorite scene from The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi.

Kathie Lee Gifford depicted a scene on top the Mount of Olives, which I can see clearly in my mind's eye. I remember being there. But her guide, Ray Vander Laan, took her to a specific place I didn't go. She describes her group being told to sit very specifically in front of some overgrown bushes, looking out over a beautiful view. Then Ray told the group that those were mustard plants, "the most feared plant in all of Israel [....] It's feared because once it takes root, it can't be destroyed. You can try to burn it, stomp it out, tear it out, but eventually, it takes everything in its way" (page 110).

All of this from the tiniest of seeds—and Jesus compares the mustard seed to the Kingdom of God! In fact, Jesus said, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

That's when Gifford says Ray pointed at the Herodium in the distance, quoting the verse above. The Herodium is one of Herod's 11 palaces, and the place he was buried. It symbolizes the evil and opulence found in this world, and the hardship the Jewish people found at Herod's hands. Then, Ray pointed in the other direction, in which the Dead Sea was clearly visible! This is the only place on the Mount of Olives on the where you can see mustard plants, the Herodium, and the Dead Sea—which means Jesus was standing in that very spot when He said those verses!

Ray said, "The kingdom of God is us! It is all of us as believers. If we just believe, we can say to that mountain—the world's way, Herod's way, Satan's way—be gone, into that sea, the Dead Sea, which is already dead!"

WOW!!!

Definitely another #micdrop moment!

The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi: Jesus Writes in the Dirt

In Hebrew culture, pictures and references are very important, like what was depicted in the last blog post by the significance of the number 153. 

The same is true for actions and even quotations. For example, in the Bible when Jesus said something and the people became so angry they wanted to attack Him, to the modern Western reader, it might not be obvious as to why. His words might even seem innocuous. But that's because the practice of this oral culture was for a rabbi to reference a passage from the Torah and let the audience finish it. So when Jesus made a reference, he often only said the beginning part and the part left unsaid was for the audience to know and understand—and that's what made them angry.

Here is another example of this, which I thought was so cool. On pages 79-81, Rabbi Jason Sobel talks of the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery in John 8, which I've talked about here and here. What caught my eye was Sobel's unpacking of Jesus writing in the dirt, of which none of us knows what He wrote (I hope to one day!). 

Sobel points out that:

• Jesus wrote in the dirt twice
• He wrote with His finger twice
• Jesus wrote specifically in the dirt, and 
• Jesus knelt to write (page 79).

Then, he ties that to:

• God wrote the 10 Commandments twice on tablets of stone with His finger.
• The second set of tablets was a sign that God had forgiven Israel, and Moses descended Mount Sinai with those tablets on the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year.
• When the Pharisees brought this woman before Jesus, they had literally just finished observing the Day of Atonement. "Jesus' action of writing in the dirt reminded these leaders that they, too, were guilty of breaking the 10 Commandments and needed atonement, for which they had just fasted and prayed for a week earlier" (page 80).
• Jesus writing in the dirt reminded them that they were formed from dust.
• Jesus kneeling to write puts Him on the same level as the woman—He meets us where we are.

WOW! These are things I never would have known without studying Jewish history and culture. What do you think about these connections?

The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi: The Hebrew Alphabet

Here's another moment that stood out to me from Kathie Lee Gifford's The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi:

Rabbi Jason Sobel explains how the Hebrew alphabet (which I am learning!) is alphanumeric, meaning each letter also signifies a number. There's great significance in numbers as well as letters, meaning you can even add up the value of the letters in a word or phrase and it will likely mean something. Cool! The letter hei, which makes the "h" sound, is the fifth letter of the alphabet, and is often connected with the divine breath of God that releases His creative power and potential (page 15). So when we see "5" in the Bible, like David picking up 5 stones when he only needed 1 to kill Goliath, it means something. 

Sobel says that in Genesis 2:4: "These are the genealogical records of the heavens and the earth when they were created, at the time with Adonai Elohim made land and sky", the word for created is bara, which means "created out of nothing". But it's written in a grammatically incorrect way, because it has the letter hei inserted in it. 

Why? Because of Who did the creating. 

This is also true for Abram and Sarai's story, who had their names changed by God, to: AbraHam and SaraH. There's only a 1 letter difference between their old and new names, and "the Lord added this letter to their names because it represented His creative power to accomplish the impossible!" (page 16).

WOW!

Here's another example of the alphanumeric quality of the Hebrew alphabet, from pages 54-55:

• The number 153 is the numerical value of the phrase, "I am the Lord your God" from Isaiah 43:3
• In Matthew 16, Peter says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God" is a reference to Isaiah 43:3
• In John 21, when Jesus tells Peter and the other disciples to cast his nets on the other side of the boat, they catch 153 fish.
• 153 is also the value of the world HaPesach, which is the Passover Lamb described in Ex. 12:21. Jesus was the Passover Lamb.
• So, the number 153 would have reminded Peter of ALL of the above things. 
• Jesus called Peter 2x in the Bible, "The son of Jonah", which has the same value. Peter acted like Jonah by denying the Lord and running away.
• "According to Jerome, an early church father, there were 153 species of fish at the time in the sea of Galilee, which ties back to the disciples being fishers of men" (page 55).

WOW!

Is this new information to you? What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi: Mic drop!

I loved reading Kathie Lee Gifford's The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi, probably because it reminded me of my trip to Israel in 2017. 

She went to a lot of places I went to, so I could see them in my mind's eye—but her tour guide was Ray Vander Laan, whose videos with Focus on the Family are incredible. I've heard there's a 3-year wait to get on one of his tours (probably longer now thanks to covid-19), but it's always good to dream. 

This book is an easy read, as each short chapter focuses on a different location, and then Rabbi Jason Sobel (pictured on the cover) often adds to the commentary. So I'm going to make this a series, because there were so many good things I picked up on in this book.

Here's some good stuff just from the opening chapters:

"All of Scripture is meant to point to the Messiah in some way. For example, as Rabbi Jason explained to me, the first letter of Genesis is the Hebrew letter bet, and the last word of the book of Revelation is the Hebrew word amen, which ends in the letter nun. The first and last letters of the Bible spell the Hebrew word Ben, which means 'Son'. From the very first to the very last letter, everything in the Bible points to the Son!" (page 5). This really struck me, because I am currently learning Hebrew, and of course, I started with the alphabet. How amazing! I love how things are hidden in Scripture like this!

Later, on page 8, Gifford describes her first few hours in the Holy Land, following guide Ray Vander Laan up a mountain to reach Gezer, an ancient Biblical city overlooking the Via Maris (the ancient trading road that ran alongside the Mediterranean Sea). Ray explained, "The problem with the Bible [...] is that the Bible was written by Middle Easterners for Middle Easterners. But we try to understand it with a Western mindset. We try to apply our own principles and our Western understanding to a culture that is completely foreign to us". As they gazed down on this road from above and saw how it connected the ancient world as nothing else could, the lesson hit home (described on page 10). 

Then, the commentary changes and Rabbi Jason Sobel adds his thoughts, and it is like the biggest mic drop of all:

"Israel's geographic position is key, since it functions as a land bridge between Asia and Africa. But from a spiritual perspective, there is even more. I believe the land God promised Abraham has the same geographic boundaries as the garden of Eden" (page 10). 

WHAT???

I've heard that it could be in Bahrain, or even Saudi Arabia. But Israel itself being the Garden? WHOA! That's especially interesting to me because as Ezekiel 36-37 predicted, the Land has come back to life in recent decades. The very desert is blooming—which is spoken of in Scripture. And later in Ezekiel, it talks about the Millennial Kingdom and how a river will flow out from the Temple Mount, in one direction to the Mediterranean and in the other, to the Dead Sea. It says that the Dead Sea will fill with life. Could Israel really be the setting for the Garden of Eden?

What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!

Mysteries of the Messiah: The Firstborn

While we could spend weeks talking about Rabbi Jason Sobel's Mysteries of the Messiah, I'm only going to focus on one more important thing he shared in his latest book: the importance of the firstborn in ancient Middle Eastern culture.

The 10th plague that God sent over Egypt in Exodus was the death of the firstborn son. As horrific as the thought of losing a child is, the significance of this cannot be ignored. Sobel explains that:

• The firstborn son was meant to lead the family after his father's passing, which is one reason he was given a double portion of the inheritance.
• Because of this, the destiny of the family depended on the firstborn son. "Destiny and identity go hand in hand. In fact, identity is destiny. The death of the first born, on a psychological level, represented the death of identity and hence a family's destiny" (pp. 107-108).

Pharaoh's son actually held the title of 'hereditary crown prince', as the firstborn son of a firstborn son, and "was meant to be the priest, protector, and primary leader of the family. The future of the family lay with the firstborn. The 10th plague struck at the heart of the Egyptians emotionally, economically, culturally, and spiritually" (page 112). 

So the enormity of the loss went beyond the depth of grief over each family losing a child (which is beyond what I can imagine). It also meant a loss of identity—and destiny—culturally and nationally.

I also find that interesting because the firstborn isn't always who God chose to lead. "The Lord hose Isaac over Abraham's firstborn, Ishmael; Jacob over his firstborn brother, Esau' Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, to be head of the 12 tribes, and David, the youngest of all his brothers, to be king over Israel" (page 112). So this doesn't matter as much to God as it does to man in this culture. 

But... Jesus, the Messiah, is the firstborn Son (the only begotten Son). Paul calls Him the first fruit of the the dead. 

For the firstborn to symbolize both identity and destiny... that is a powerful picture for those who follow the Messiah.

Mysteries of the Messiah: Aleph, Tav, and 14

Mysteries of the Messiah did not disappoint!

Honestly, there was so much in this book that it was like drinking from a firehose—which I think was the point! Rabbi Sobel was able to clearly explain so many deeper meanings than what non-Hebrew speaking readers will understand from first glance. And this is the stuff I LOVE!

The biggest thing I picked up is the importance of the alphanumeric nature of both Hebrew and Greek. Without knowing these things, there's so much that can be missed!

Here are some of my favorite examples:

• The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph, is the letter that represents God's name. And in Hebrew, there is only 1 letter's difference between "exile" and "redemption": the letter aleph (from page 6).
• The letter tav, which in ancient Hebrew was written in the form of a cross, was the sign of the doorposts. "This means that the cross, the symbol of Christianity, was originally a Jewish symbol.....The tav was used as both a sign and seal of ownership" (page 116). But then... it switched to a sign of freedom and redemption. In Ezekiel 4:9, God says, "'Go throughout the city, through the midst of Jerusalem. Make a mark on the foreheads of the people who sign and moan over all the abominations that are committed in it'. The Hebrew word here for 'mark' is tav. The tav was the sign placed upon the foreheads of the faithful—it was the mark of those who were sealed for life. The letter tav is the last letter of the aleph-bet and symbolizes the end. It points to everything in Israel's history culminating in the cross. Also, the Messiah is the Alpha and the Omega—in Hebrew, the Aleph and the Tav—the First and the Last" (page 117).
• The number 14 has so much significance that it is ridiculous. It is the number associated with royalty, because the Hebrew word for 'gold', zahav, adds up to it. There are 14 generations between Abraham and David, from David to the Babylonian exile, and from the Babylonian exile to until the Messiah. Sobel points out that when you say something 3x in Hebrew, it means the maximum amount, "By using 3 sets of 14, Matthew was communicating that the Messiah was the ultimate King of kings and Son of David." Also, one of the 3 wise men brought gold to Jesus. But there's more! (All of this is from pages 180-182):
• 14 is also the number of redemption and salvation. God redeemed Israel from Egypt on the 14th day of the 1st month, which is why it Passover is celebrated on this day.
• In the book of Esther, God saved the Jewish people on the 14th day of the last month.... The Jewish year begins and ends with God redeeming His people on the 14th!
• 14 is written in Hebrew with the letters yud and dalet, which also spell 'hand'. There are 14 bones in the human hand. God delivered His people from bondage by His mighty hand!
• The modern State of Israel was born on May 14, 1948.
• John 1:14 says, "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us."
• Isaiah 7:14 says, "Behold, the virgin will conceive. When she is giving birth to a son, she will call His name Immanuel [God with us]." Sobel notes that while there were no chapters and verses in the original texts, this is still too incredible to be a coincidence.

That's all for this post on Mysteries of the Messiah... check back next week for 1 more!

The Turned the World Upside Down by Charles Martin

 Finally, my review of Charles Martin's newest book, They Turned the World Upside Down!

I always need to start off talking about Charles Martin by stating that he is my favorite author, especially in the fiction world. His first nonfiction, What if It's True?, was incredible, and his second has not disappointed either. It felt very different than the first book, though still familiar, and it's clear why this book needed to be written and published as well. It's message is powerful, and one that needs pouring over instead of a quick read-through.

Since my focus on this blog is highlighting things about Israel or a culture connected with the Bible (first century or modern times), I'm going to focus on that for this review and specifically feature one insight that stood out to me. But I did want to say that these details are included to enhance the story and explain the context, not the focus—which is encouraging readers to live as Jesus charged His followers to. 

But here's what stood out to me as far as this blog's focus (and there were many moments like these with clear, cultural insights throughout the book):

In Chapter 9, "Willing to be Willing", Martin opens with the story of Peter and John going to the temple to pray in Acts 3. There, at the gate called "Beautiful", they meet a lame beggar who is asking for alms. He asks them for money, but Peter says, "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!" The Bible says that immediately, the beggars feet and ankles were made strong and he does: "leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God." 

This is where Martin says something I hadn't considered before: "Then he walks into the temple. Why? Because he's been lame since birth, and according to Leviticus, 'no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame.' Which means he was excluded from temple worship. For his entire life. No fellowship with God. He was born and has always been a complete and total outcast. But not any longer. Now he's included" (pages 138-139). 

WOW! Maybe I've heard this before in my life, but I can't remember if I had. The magnitude of that moment... not only the physical healing, but that it allowed the beggar to enter the temple for the first time... that can't be glossed over. His healing brought Him near to God. It brought him in fellowship with others, but most of all, the God of the universe. I'm going to be thinking on this for a while, and its wider implications of how our healing and freedom always brings us closer in fellowship with God. 

What do you think about this story? Did you know this before? And have you read this book? If not, I definitely recommend it! You can get it here on Amazon. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Have you seen Ep 1 of Season 2 of The Chosen yet?

Have you seen Ep 1 of Season 2 of The Chosen yet?

WOW!

I thought it was incredible... what did you think?

I'm not going to give any spoilers away because it just came out (we can save that discussion for the comments)! But I did want to comment on something that stood out to me that isn't a direct spoiler, and that is how the show deals with honor and shame.

As discussed in previous posts, honor and shame was big in 1st century Jewish culture (and still is today). Whereas Westerners from individualist cultures see the world through innocence and guilt, in this collectivist culture, the concept of bringing shame on one's family (or honor) is the most motivating factor. 

There were so many examples of this in Ep 1 of Season 2 (as well as in season 1), from the key dinner scene where Jesus extends grace and saves the man's honor, to the first time we see him angry. And then, a precious, beautiful scene with one of those he rebuked, where honor is restored. (I'm lower-casing 'he' here, because those are all fictional events thought up by the show's creator, but they 100% appear consistent with Scripture. It's just that we don't know if these actual events happened). 

Could you see the examples of honor and shame culture here? What did you think of the episode overall? I'm sure we'll continue this discussion in future episodes. Y'all know I'm gonna keep talking about the show because this is basically me:

I love this show and want to share it with everyone, because I think it has the incredible potential to bring people to Jesus. 

You can catch the show here on their website or, best of all, download their app, "The Chosen", from either the apple store or google play, and cast it to your tv that way. Let me know what you think!

From Nominal Muslim to Christian Author

 Last week, I heard an interview by Susie Larson of author Tessa Afshar, and wanted to share it with you.

The interview was about Tessa's book, Daughter of Rome, my favorite of hers, and the incredible couple of Aquila and Priscilla. I spoke more about them in this blog on July 27, 2020. It again really brought their story alive to me to understand with better context what was really going on in the lives of this couple in the Early Church.

But for the last 10 minutes of the podcast, Tessa spoke more about her story, being raised in Iran, moving to England, and then the US, and what it was like coming to Christ from a nominal Muslim context. How incredible! Her story is so good that I wanted to share it with you here. It was blown away by the goodness of God and the power of her testimony of this woman who now writes Biblical fiction. I think it will bless you too! You can listen here on Apple podcasts and here on Google Podcasts. 

Let me know what you think below in the comments!

Of Fire and Lions by Mesu Andrews

Of Fire and Lions, by Mesu Andrews, is a fictional depiction of what some of the Israelites could have experienced from the time of Babylon's first invasion of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. under King Nebuchadnezzar all the way to King Darius' allowance for a group to go rebuild the temple 70 years later.

But before we explore the book, can we talk about this GORGEOUS cover? #coverlove

Andrews chose a really interesting time period to explore in this book, focusing it around Daniel and his contemporaries, best known by their non-Jewish names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Told through the alternating view points of Daniel and a female character named Abigail/Belili, the reader travels with the first wave of Jewish captives from Jerusalem all the way to Babylon and beyond. 

For me, the best part is seeing the most well known stories of Daniel put into a narrative, from his friends being thrown into the fiery furnace, King Nebuchadnezzar's transformation into a beast, the lions' den, and the hand writing on the wall. Because this is the first novel I've read dealing specifically with this part of Israel's history, it was so fun to explore it all in story form. I found myself captivated by the story, looking forward to the events still to come as I turned each page. 

If you love Biblical fiction, I definitely recommend this book. Click here to find it on Amazon!

Seeking Allah, Find Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi

At first glance, it could seem like this week's book feature has nothing to do with Israel. But since 60% of the population of Israel is Arab, and Islam also claims Jerusalem to be a Holy City, there's a strong connection. 

In Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, Nabeel Qureshi describes his journey as a devout Muslim from a Pakistani American family who eventually came to follow Jesus as Lord. 

This book is incredible. Qureshi's writing drew me in, and his story is so powerful. But what I loved, almost as much as his journey to becoming a Christ follower, was how much I learned about Islam through this book—and Eastern culture as well. Through his story, I learned about what he believed and why, giving me a greater understanding of basic teachings and beliefs of Islam.

He also gave so many insights of being an Easterner in the West who is wrestling with converting to a 'Western' religion (hopefully this series on the global early church refutes that last claim) and I wanted to share a few of them here. The most heartbreaking were how he agonized over the affect his conversion would have on his family (and did have). While this is difficult to understand in an individualist culture, he does a great job of explaining this on a basic level with a simple example in Chapter 18: "Honor and Authority". 

"Islamic cultures," Qureshi explains, "tend to establish people of high status as authorities, whereas the authority in Western culture is reason itself. These alternative seats of authority permeate the mind, determining the moral outlook of whole societies.... Much of the West's inability to understand the East stems from the paradigmatic schism between honor-shame cultures and innocence-guilt cultures [the West]. This reliance on positional authority explains some characteristics in parts of the Muslim world that confound many Westerners, such as the continued practices of honor killings, child brides of 6 or younger, and blood feuds. For one reason or another, the prevailing sources of social authority in these regions deem these customs acceptable, perhaps even preferable. No amount of sheer reason is going to change these practices, nor will externally imposed prohibitions.... If there is no dishonor, it is not wrong" (pp. 108-109).

The example he gives is a simple one, where as kids, he and his friends would order water at fast-food restaurants, then go get soft drinks instead. But one day, a friend of his was caught getting Mountain Dew Code Red instead of water. An employee said, "You ordered water; you can't get soda!"

"At this," Qureshi says, "many people turned to see the commotion and my friend immediately blushed..... For my friend, this was the moment that made his actions a poor choice [not the actual stealing of the soft drink]. He had suffered dishonor in front of many. Stealing the soda was not the issue for him before being caught. In fact, it was still not the issue after being caught. As strange as it might sound to Westerners, it was more dishonorable for him to be called out by a minimum-wage employee than to be caught stealing soda. So he denied it, asserting firmly, 'I am getting water!' He filled the rest of the cup with water and walked away from the counter, as if were perfectly normal for water to be a deep, bubbly pink" (page 109).

This is fascinating to me, because it is such a different way of thinking than an innocence-guilt culture. It made me think of Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes' commentary on the story of David and Bathsheba (and confirmed this analysis of the story from an Eastern perspective). 

Anyway, exploration of Eastern culture is not the point of this book, but I picked up on it because it's something that I am learning more about—and it was impossible for Nabeel Qureshi to tell his story without incorporating it in. I loved every second of reading this book, and praise God for his testimony! 

I highly recommend this book! If you are interested, you can get it here on Amazon! And if you have read this book, I'd love to know your thoughts below!

*Nabeel Qureshi went on to teach with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and was diagnosed with stage 4 stomach cancer in 2016 and went to be with the Lord in 2017. 

**For more on honor and shame in Eastern cultures, please check out these posts!

A Multitude of all Peoples: the early church in Asia

For the last several weeks, we've peeked at the history of the early church in Africa and the Middle East, based on A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity by Vince L. Bantu. 

I say "peeked" because I just choose small things that stood out to me, in hopes that it inspires you to go read this book and fully explore Bantu's work. 

This week, we're going to explore his chapter on the early church in Asia. Like the previous posts, I'm just going to point out what stood out to me the most:

• Christianity entered Persia through Jewish communities no later than the 2nd century, and over the next 200 years, while Christians in the Roman Empire experienced severe persecution, this was not the case for Syriac-speaking Persian Christians. This means it was safer for Christians to live in places like Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan than in Greece or Italy! (pp. 165-167)
• As Christians from the Roman Empire fled east to the the Persian Empire, the government began to be suspicious of all Christians, connecting Christianity with the Roman Empire. "The Western cultural captivity of the Church began under Constantine, and the Persian Christians were the first non-Western Christians to suffer the consequences of this phenomenon" (i.e. people today thinking that Christianity is the 'white man's religion'). p. 170
• The Nicene Creed is written in the collectivist 'we' versus the Western "I", showing the Eastern influence of thinking in its creation (p. 172). To read more on this topic, check out this post. 
• In the 7th century, the Church continued to expand East, from Afghanistan and Uzbekistan to the earliest Christian mission to China (p. 177). 9th-century Syriac Christian manuscripts have been found in a monastery in China dating back to the 5th century! (p. 191)
• "In the medieval period, the Church of the East experienced some of the greatest missionary success and expansion of any Christian community in history, starting in Persian territory and extending all the way to the Pacific and Indian ocean" (pp. 179-180).
• Mongol leader Ghenghis Khan was tolerant of Christianity in the lands he conquered, including China (p. 212)
• The decline of Christianity in Central and East Asia began with Islamic persecution at the beginning of the 14th century (p. 216).

That's it for this series on A Multitude of All Peoples! What did you think? I'm purposely not covering the chapter on the Church in the Western world for one reason - I want to give full focus to how the church began throughout the non-Western world. However, I do want to leave this series with a quote from Bantu's conclusion:

"The tendency for Western culture to act as the barometer of Christian orthodoxy is a trend that reaches back to the Romanization of Christianity. It is important to recognize and lament the reality of the Western, white cultural captivity of Christianity, and for the people of God to take responsibility for the genocide wrought on countless millions in the name of (Western) Christianity. It is equally incumbent to recall that the Christian faith did not have its beginnings—nor the totality of its history embedded in white supremacy.....

This point is crucial, as contemporary non-Western non-Christians can easily dismiss the rapid growth of Christianity in the non-Western world as simply a function of Western colonialism and US American globalization.... 

Cognizance of Christianity's deep African and Asian roots dispels the common sense of indebtedness of Christianity to the Western world. Rather, early African and Asian Christianity provides an entry point free from Western dominance for a contemporary non-Western convert to Christianity" (pp. 220-221).

and

"The Western, white cultural captivity of the church [the belief that it is the 'white man's religion'] is the single greatest obstacle for people coming to faith in Christ....Christianity was expelled from China twice for cultural, rather than theological reasons....If it is the desire of the Church to exist deeply rooted for the long term for all nations, tribes, and tongues, it is necessary for the Gospel to be stripped of any geocultural association" (p. 225). 

My hope for every reader out there is what I experienced in reading this book: a greater appreciation and understanding of the history of the Church as a whole. It is so rich and way beyond the depths that even Bantu could plumb—although I know I'll be coming back to this book again and again to re-learn and gain greater understanding, as it was too much to take in for a first read-through. This book is definitely going on the shelf! 

I hope you enjoyed this series; I most definitely did! If you are interested in reading this book, you can purchase it here on Amazon!

A Multitude of all Peoples: the early church in the Middle East

For the past 2 weeks, we explored the history of the church in Africa, based on A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity by Vince L. Bantu. I hope those brief posts made you want to get this book and read more about the first African Christians.

Now, we're moving on to the early church in the Middle East!

Again, there's just so much that Vince L. Bantu shows the reader, and I feel the best way to go about this is to highlight some of the things that stood out to me. Hopefully this will continue to whet your appetite for this incredible book! So first, we're going to start with Israel's immediate neighbors:

• The term "Christian" was first used in Antioch, in Syria, but over the centuries, "there have been many Christian communities various ecclesiastical, national, and ethnic affiliations that shared a common heritage root in the Syriac-speaking world" (p. 119)
• Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic that began in Turkey, and became the dominant language of Asian Christianity, even until the medieval period. The Syriac Bible was translated no later than the 2nd century (could have been at the end of the first century). The Syriac Old Testament is unique because it was translated directly from Hebrew instead of the Greek Septuagint (pp. 120-121) 
• Arabia is one of the regions with the earliest presence of Christianity, because Paul went to what was likely northwest Arabia and Jordan.
• There were Syriac-speaking Persian Christians living in Qatar until the 6th century.
• Some of the earliest Arabic inscriptions date back to 340—2 centuries before the birth of Muhammed—and were Christian in nature. A few even had crosses, and this means the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed in some of the earliest words written in the Arabic language (p. 147).
• A decade before the "christianization" of the Roman Empire, the Armenian king Tiridates converted to Christianity (302 AD). He destroyed pagan temples and built churches; "it is noteworthy that Armenia, while wedged between 2 larger pagan empires, became the first Christian nation an a time when the notion of a Christian nation would have been inconceivable (p. 151)!
• Mount Ararat is actually in Armenia, not in Turkey like I thought.
• With Greek-speaking Roman Empire on the west, Syriac-speaking Persian Empire on the east, Greek was the liturgical language in Armenia until the 5th century. Armenian was spoken by the people but it did not have a written language—which meant that the majority of clergy were foreigners. Sensing the need for indigenous Armenian leadership and a written alphabet, the Armenian scholar Mesrop Mashtots created an Armenian alphabet and provided the first translation of the Bible in Armenian. He started with Proverbs, and the first words of Scripture written in Armenian were: "To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive words of understanding." Proverbs 1:2 (pp. 152-154)
• The Georgian king also declared his nation a Christian country in the early 4th century, and like its neighbor, Armenia, had an alphabet developed for the purpose of translating the Bible and composing original theological literature (pp. 157, 159).

Talk about a rich, beautiful history of the church in the Middle East! Were any of these facts new to you? How does this impact your view of the fullness of the Church and Christian history? I'd love to hear from you below!

A Multitude of All Peoples: the early church in Africa (Part 2)

Last week we started talking about the history of the church in Africa, based on A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity by Vince L. Bantu. 

I decided to end the post earlier than planned, because the final quote I shared was so powerful I wanted to leave it on that thought.

But now, I want to continue with the list I started, of sharing things I learned about the Church's rich history in Africa:

• The Ethiopian Church, which became strong and flourishing in the 4th century, were committed to the teachings of Scripture and willfully rejected traditional African religion. This is significant giving the commonly held assumption that Christianity's beginnings in Africa were by force and that all Africans who rejected their traditional religion did so by compulsion" (p. 106). This was still true as late as 1468 AD.
• Tertullian, of North Africa, was the first major figure to develop Christian theology in Latin (p.110).
• Perpetua, a noble woman from Carthage at the end of the 3rd century, wrote The Passion of St. Perpetua, St. Felicitas, and their companions, a story depicting the persecution and martyrdom of several North African Christians—including herself and her pregnant slave, Felicitas. "That Perpetua's husband is not directly mentioned, that she refuses the pleas of her father to apostatize, and that the central figures of this early Christian text are female challenged the male-dominant culture of early Christianity. Indeed, if the common proposition of Perpetua's authorship is correct, the Passion is the earliest Christian text written by a woman" (p.111).
• "However, Christianity in North Africa was in large part centered on the wealthy, educated, Latin-speaking, urban population.... Muslim sources in Arabic indicate continuing Christian presence in North Africa for centuries after the conquest... Interestingly, one of the most common terms for Christians in Africa in Arabic was afariqa—indicating a significant degree to which 'Christian' and 'Africa' were synonymous concepts" (p. 117-118).

Wow- these are all really interesting to me. Were any of these facts new information for you? I'm so thankful for the work Bantu did putting this history together! Please let me know below what stood out to you.

Next week, we'll explore the early Middle Eastern church!

A Multitude of Peoples: The early church in Africa (Part 1)

After discussing Antipas L. Harris' Is Christianity The White Man's Religion?, I knew immediately the next book I wanted to explore on the topic of reading the Bible in color: A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity's Global Identity by Vince L. Bantu.

Quite simply, this book took my breath away.

Bantu takes the reader through a thorough description of the history of the Church, starting with the issue of why Christianity is so often associated with the Western world, even "though the majority of Christians now live in the Global South" (page 1). But what I want to focus on are the next few chapters, because the wealth in them is incredible. 

Even just focusing this post on Africa is too much to really fit into one post, so I'm going to write in bullet points below. While I have known that truth behind the premise of this book (that Christianity is a global religion and the non-Western world had a big impact and presence on it throughout the last 2 millennia), I learned a lot. Here are just a few things I learned specifically about the early church in Africa:

• Alexandria and Egypt represent the gateway for Christianity in Africa, which attributes the spread of the Gospel to the Apostle Mark. "Alexandria was one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities of the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity—a meeting point of Hellenistic, Jewish, native Egyptian, and other influences. (pp. 72-73, 74)
• Among the Biblical fragments from 2nd-century Egypt is a fragment of the Gospel of John, which is the earliest material evidence of a canonical New Testament text (p. 73).
• Theologians Clement (Egypt), Origen (Egypt), Irenaeus (Libya), Tertullian (Libya), Augustine (Algeria), and so many more were from Africa.
• The painting of the nativity in the monastery at the capital of Dongola from the late 10th century "represents early evangelization efforts from the Nile Valley Christians of Nubia to cultures further south and west in the African continent. The Gospel had already been spreading along the Nile river from Egypt to Nubia and then Ethiopia. This painting represents the continued spread of the gospel from Africans to neighboring Africans. If the Western church had not condemned, oppressed, and isolated the early African church, leaving it open to Islamic domination, the Gospel may have continued to spread to the extremities of the African continent at an early period. Yet this painting raising the intriguing potential of Western and Central African Christians before the advent of Western colonialism" (page 95).

I'm going to stop here and continue this topic next week, because that's exactly what the above quote did to me when I read it: it stopped me in my tracks. It reminded me of Marvel's Black Panther*, and how it is a powerful, undeniable visual of how Africa's story was violently disrupted by Western colonialism in the worst way. This also includes the history of the African church, which is rich beyond what any of us can fully imagine.

What about you? Were any of the above points new information for you? Does it impact or change your understanding of the early church and the history of Christianity at all? I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments below!

*I wrote this post on Thursday, Aug 27, 2020, and in the writing of it, experienced a renewed desire to re-watch Black Panther. The next night, while staying with a friend, we made plans to watch it on Saturday. After that conversation, I opened my phone and read the shocking news that Chadwick Boseman, the actor playing BP’s main character, King T’Challa had passed away after a 4-year silent war with cancer. Since then, I’ve re-watched the movie 2x, and am still amazed at the incredible- and important- world of Wakanda.

Acts of Faith Series

Continuing with the theme of the Early Church, I want to share about this really cool series I read a few years ago. The Acts of Faith series is fiction, set in the time of the crucifixion and right after. It follows characters like a Roman-centurion-turned-Christian, the disciples, Stephen and so many more.

Essentially, it's a fictional retelling of the beginning of the book of Acts.

What I love about this series is how the authors brought that world to life. Suddenly, the reader is immersed in the culture and issues of the day. What does it mean for the Roman centurion who now is a follower of the Way? What is it like to be a Jew and suddenly also be a Christian—in a very Jewish culture? How does it feel to be "figuring Christianity out" in this world?

The scene that hit me the most in this series is with Ananias and Sapphira. The reader is right there, seeing Ananias bring his offering, lie, and drop dead, and then the same happening with Sapphira. To us, it's a retelling of a story we know—no big deal. But to the early church... wow. Can you imagine being there that day and seeing what happened? Or hearing about it after? What would your first thought have been after? Would you have been afraid? 

Obviously, the seriousness of what it meant to become a follower of Christ isn't lost on them, as so many were witnesses to Jesus' crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. But, the "stakes" don't stop there, as now they are trying to figure out what it means to be the Church... and it's not in a bubble, but right in the heart of the Roman Empire, where followers of Jesus are actively being persecuted and killed. 

Unfortunately, this series ends WAY too soon. I was SO EXCITED to get to Paul's story and his journeys, but it stops abruptly. It's still a wonderful read; I just hope that one day I can read the re-telling of the rest of the Acts story through this series!