New book: De Joodse Apostelen etc.

I’ve not been here for a while, but now a can present you a new book from my hand: De Joodse Apostelen en de eerste Christenen: Het onderscheid tussen Jood en niet-Jood.

It’s written in Dutch, but I included a chapter with an abstract in English. Here’s the abstract:

“The first part of this book comprises the establishment of Christianity from its Jewish cradle. The first Jewish ‘Christians’ (Christianity didn’t exist then) are examined related to contemporary Jews and non-Jewish (gentile) Christians. And how their Christian communities evolved among the established Jewish communities.

The second part shows that the apostles Paul, Peter, James and John kept living a Jewish life, according to the law. Not always is this as obvious in the New Testament scripture, but the other way around, scripture does not give any reason to think that the Torah law is abolished for the Apostles and all Jews. Gentile believers however ought not to obey the Torah as Jews do. Examining the apostle Paul gives clear evidence of Paul being a Jew obeying Jewish law and hence keeping his Jewish identity until the end of his life. The apostles James and Peter appear to live Jewish in the New Testament too. The apostle John is least clearly pictured in the New Testament about living according to the Torah, yet it arguably gives far enough reasonable confidence to believe this and it is very hard to reject.

During the development of the first Christian communities, a parting from Judaism occurred. This parting of the ways is difficult to understand because history tends to picture this as a parting of Judaism and Christianity. This book argues that the parting occurred within the new community of followers of the Apostles, between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. The parting between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians actually happened in the first and second century. And the Jewish Christians afterwards disappeared, at least after more than three centuries. In the second century the communities with a majority of gentile Christians took advantage of the situation and shaped their own religion: Christianity. 

Christianity (so to speak) in its beginning in the time of Jesus and the apostles, until the year 70, is not a religion apart from Judaism. There was no such thing as ‘Christendom’. Christianity became a religion in the second century, apart from Judaism. 

Meanwhile, in the time of the apostles, gentiles got a place within the Jewish religion and community, as there was always a place for non-Jewish righteous gentiles within Israel. This is made clear at the apostle convent in the 15th chapter of the book of Acts.

The church however, historically did not deal with the differences between Jews and Gentiles within Christian community. Jewish identity was gradually moved outside of the community. From the second century on, the church stressed the differences between Christian identity and Jewish identity. Jewish and Christian identity developed in contradiction. The result was and still is that Jewish Christians (and thus the apostles too) could not incorporate into either Christian or Jewish religion. This is an indictment for both religions.

The finding of the book is that there must remain a difference between Jewish believers and gentile believers. One religion can cover both. Christianity and Judaism essentially belong to each other. Moreover Judaism is the religion of the apostles. The difference between Jews and Gentiles was (and perhaps still is) an intra related matter within Judaism. Given the apostles being Jews within Judaism, then it could be argued that the gentile believers could fit in Judaism as well.”

You can buy this book here.
More about it on my Dutch blog.

Forgotten Origins – book

Forgotten Origins: The Lost Jewish History of Jesus and Early Christianity. Juan Marcos Bejarano Gutierrez, 2017, Yaron Publishing – TX

I just want to share with you what Juan M. Bejarano Gutierrez says in his Afterword. The writer is Jewish and has a refreshing clear picture of the time of the Apostles roughly between 40-70 AC. He calls this “the lost Jewish history”. This indeed should be called Jewish history and not Christian. After the destruction of the temple and the Bar Kochba revolt, Christianity emerged. And this Jewish history with Jesus at the center was purposefully moved away from history by rabbinical Judaism from that time on. Indeed: lost Jewish history.

Normally the Apostle Paul gets a lot of attention because he is the big shaper of christianity. But this writer’s journey goes with many other figures and historic events based on scriptures; the bible and many extra-biblical sources. And thus he made up a fair Jewish history from early christianity.

If you do justice to history, then unavoidable, one figure emerges quite impressive: Jesus. Especially for a Jew like this writer. The result is a nice Afterword.

In his Afterword he begins to quote Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, the grandson of Baal Shem Tov who established the Hasidic movement in the 18th century:

“The Mashiach will more than likely be very different than most of us expect. His ideas will even class radically with our own. Ideas about ourselves. About Jewishness. About God.” [1]

Two great challenges happened for the Jews. The delayed manifestation of Jesus’ restoration of Israel and that the number of Jews who believed in Jesus were outnumbered by sufficient numbers of Gentiles who interpreted the message of Jesus independently and even in conflict with Jewish identity. [2]

In the end, as Jacob Neusner asserts the effect is that Judaism and Christianity said different things to different people in different ways.[3]

The writer then says: “But this only partly addresses the issue of the relationship between Jews and Christians. There is something that continues to link Jews and Christians.”[4]

Then the writer mentions the Jewish mystical idea of ‘Tikkun Olam’ according to Lurianic Kabbalah. About the light of God in vessels, which vessels could not contain that light and therefore the light scattered and the vessels shattered. But the light was hidden. The task of humanity is to uncover this light.

He says: “Where the message of Christianity, as related by his followers, and perhaps even in the text themselves fail even to convey at times his message of redemption, we must consider the possibility that his real perspectives were effectively shattered. … Can the message of Jesus have been too powerful to withstand its transmission within earthly vessels?“[5] (Bold mine)

Then the writer ends his book with this sentence: “Perhaps the one thing both Jews and Christians can agree to is the idea that Jesus called Israel to repent. Whether or not Israel is represented by Jews alone or by a composite body of Jews or non-Jews, repentance applies to all. The presence of God among those who call upon the name of the LORD should be something all agree upon.” [6]

[1] Rabbi Nachman’s Wisdom #228. Yehoshua Starret, The Breslov Haggadah (New York: Breslov Research Institute, 1989), 82

[2] Forgotten Origins, 535

[3] Forgotten Origins, 536

[4] Forgotten Origins, 536

[5] Forgotten Origins, 538

[6] Forgotten Origins, 538