Many Christians believe that there was a great chasm between Jesus and his fellow Jews. This is far from the truth.
For many Christian Bible commentators, Jesus came to reject his Jewish heritage, the Torah, the Temple and the Synagogue. For them, Jesus is the replacement of a variety of other Jewish figures and institutions. What is wrong with this perspective?
John Atkinson demonstrates how the Gospels’ description of Yeshua’s relationship to the Synagogue contradicts the notion of replacement. Jesus’ exposition of Isaiah in the synagogue in his home town is just one example of his identification with the Jewish institutions of his day.
Edith Sher shows that as a Torah-observant Jew, Yeshua was fully part of his Jewish community, yet as God incarnate, he drew enmity from members of the religious and political establishment. The often misunderstood passage about old and new wineskins, and the healing of the man born blind shed new light on Yeshua’s relationship with the Synagogue.