Jeshua: Learning Our Savior’s Story in its Context

You are a Jew.”

Those words were spoken to Jesus by a Samaritan woman while they were standing at a well (Jn 4:9).

She wasn’t lying.

The prophets foretold that the Messiah would be a Jew (2Sa 7:12,13). His mother Mary was a Jew (Lk 1:26,27). He underwent the Jewish rite of circumcision (Lk 2:21). He attended Jewish festivals and made Jewish sacrifices (and eventually the once-and-for-all sacrifice; Mt 26:17; 1Co 5:7). He fulfilled the legitimate Jewish civil and ceremonial laws (e.g. Mt 17:24). He lived in a Jewish world and constantly interacted with the Jewish people and the Jewish leaders (e.g. Mt 12:38ff). When he interacted with non-Jewish, Gentile people, he did so from a Jewish perspective (e.g. Mk 15:21ff). As true man, Jesus is still a Jew at God’s right hand in heaven (Ac 1:11). His apostle Paul even wrote that the gospel of Jesus is the power of God for salvation “first for the Jew” (Ro 1:16).

Jesus was, and still is, a Jew. That’s a pretty simple truth, but it has profound implications for reading the Bible and thus for our Christian lives.

In this blog, Jeshua (the name Jesus in Aramaic; pronounced YAY-shoo-ah), I want to place you in the specific culture and context in which Jesus lived. I want you to experience an ancient Jewish festival. I want you to feel the restrictions of ancient Jewish laws. I want you to be sensitive to ancient Jewish biases. I want you to be familiar with ancient Jewish customs, from washings to weddings.

Every month, I will pick a Gospel text appointed for one of the Sundays in that month. I’ll either remind you of some Jewish tidbit you already knew or help you see one you didn’t know. In so doing, I pray that you’ll understand that Gospel text more clearly, and thus also God’s love for you and his power exercised on your behalf more clearly.
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Why is this blog a reliable source for such information?

I’m Nathan Biebert. I attended and graduated from Luther Preparatory School in Watertown, WI, Martin Luther College (Bachelor of Arts) in New Ulm, MN, and Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary (Master of Divinity) in Mequon, WI. From the seminary God called me to serve as a staff pastor at a Lutheran high school for one year before re-calling me to my current position as pastor of two rural churches in the Midwest.

Last year God joined me together with the love of my life, Katherine, in marriage. Her patience, encouragement, happiness, and support are constant examples to which I aspire.

Being a country pastor doesn’t give me a lot more discretionary time than an urban pastor, but it does give me some. Two of my favorite pursuits are translating German and Latin theological works (especially those of Martin Luther), and working with ancient Jewish rabbinical writings. God willing, the first pursuit will bear fruit in the near future in the form of a new book containing a series of Christmas sermons by Luther previously unavailable in English.

And now, God willing, the second pursuit will bear fruit in the form of this blog.

My prayer is that the triune God will multiply this fruit to his glory, and let you, the reader, richly share in it.