The link between the religion of biblical Israel and the religion we now identify as rabbinic Judaism is often controversial. The controversy is often linked to theological agendas rather than an honest approach to Israel’s history. The religion of ancient Israel is linked to rabbinic Judaism is many ways. The two are linked by a shared belief in the one supreme God who created the world, chose the the Jewish people to be His people.

The destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE, and the Babylonian exile that followed, could have spelled the end of Israelite identity. But the return of exiles, first under Zerubbabel, and again under Ezra and Nehemiah a generation later, resurrected Isra-elite identity and opened a new chapter in the history of Israel.

Why should any Jew in their right mind wish to consider or perhaps reconsider, Christianity from a different vantage point? It is a fair question. There are potentially many reasons. Intellectual honesty is an important one. This book seeks to explore alternative approaches to Christianity that permit Jews to consider it as something else besides idolatry without abandoning traditional Jewish theology.

Is there a type of thinking that can be characterized as Jewish? If so, what is the difference between the Jewish thought and non-Jewish thinking? Does the Bible reflect a type of thinking? Is it linear? Does it correspond to Platonic or Aristotelian thought? How does rabbinic logic work? Are there polarities in the Bible? Discover this and much more in this fascinating aspect of Judaism.

At first glance, the topics included in this volume may appear to be a series of disjointed and independent essays. These topics, in my opinion, cover recurring themes and questions that define much of Jewish theology. Any attempt to address Jewish theology comprehensively would require many volumes. This work is focused on a few key concepts only. It is intended for the beginner but hopefully contains sufficient information to also be of interest to the more advanced reader and prove the starting point towards greater study.

Derech Hashem (The Way of God) is a philosophical text written in the early 1740s by Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto. It is considered one of the quintessential handbooks of Jewish thought. The text covers a vast gamut of philosophical topics in the vast spectrum of classical Judaism's outlook on the world. These topics include the purpose of creation, the Creator, human responsibility, the spiritual realms, providence, Israel and the nations, astrology, the human soul, theurgy, prophecy, the study of Torah, prayer, and the function of mitzvah observance.

Why does the Bible depict a world in which humans, with surprising regularity, encounter the divine - wrestling an angel, addressing a burning bush, issuing forth prophecy without any choice in the matter? These stories spoke very differently to their original audience than they do to us, and they reflect a radically distinct understanding of reality and the human mind. Yet over the course of the thousand-year biblical era, encounters with God changed dramatically.

The modern apologetics classic that started it all is now completely revised and updated - because the truth of the Bible doesn't change, but its critics do. With the original Evidence That Demands a Verdict, best-selling author Josh McDowell gave Christian audiences the answers they needed to defend their faith against the harshest critics and skeptics. Now, with his son Sean McDowell, Josh McDowell has updated and expanded this classic resource for a new generation. This is a book that invites listeners to bring their doubts.

This audiobook discusses the inspiration, canon, transmission, translation, and interpretation of scripture. It answers questions such as: How do we know the Bible is God's Word? Does the Bible contain errors? and How can we interpret the Bible properly?

Are demons real? Are they red creatures with goatees holding pitchforks and sitting on people's shoulders while whispering bad things? Did a third of the angels really rebel with Satan? Are demons and "principalities and powers" just terms for the same entities, or are they different members of the kingdom of darkness? Is the world a chaotic mess because of what happened in Eden, or is there more to the story of evil? In Demons, Michael Heiser debunks popular presuppositions about the very real powers of darkness.

What used to be an exotic religion of people halfway around the world is now the belief system of people living across the street. Through fair, contextual use of the Qur'an as the primary source text, apologist James R. White presents Islamic beliefs about Christ, salvation, the Trinity, the afterlife, and other important topics. White shows how the sacred text of Islam differs from the teachings of the Bible in order to help Christians engage in open, honest discussions with Muslims.

A denial of the sufficiency of Scripture is at the core of almost every form of opposition to the Christian faith today. Scripture Alone is written to instill a passionate love for and understanding of the Bible. In this defense of God's inspired Word, listeners will comprehend what "God's Word" is, the nature of Scripture, the relationship of the Bible to tradition, how to apply Scripture to today's issues, and much more. Included is a faith-inspiring study of the canon - what it is and where it came from.

This is an academic work describing how the New Testament writers re-purpose Genesis 6:1-5 in their presentation of Jesus as messiah. Though every topic addressed in Reversing Hermon can be found in scholarly academic literature, Reversing Hermon is the first book to gather this information and make it accessible to Bible students everywhere. The book also includes lengthy appendices on the ancient debate on the inspiration of the book of 1 Enoch, New Testament allusions to the book, and academic resources.

In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.

Why were the early Christians willing to die rather than change a single iota of the creed? Why have the Judeans, Romans, and Persians - among others - seen the Christian creed as a threat to the established social order? In The Creed: Professing the Faith Through the Ages, best-selling author Dr. Scott Hahn recovers and conveys the creed's revolutionary character.

This audiobook explores the biblical conception of mystery as an initial, partially hidden revelation that is subsequently more fully revealed, shedding light not only on the richness of the concept itself, but also on the broader relationship between the Old and New Testaments. Exploring all the occurrences of the term mystery in the New Testament and the topics found in conjunction with them, this work unpacks how the New Testament writers understood the issue of continuity and discontinuity.

"Arguably the most distinctive feature of the early Christian literature," writes Bart Ehrman, "is the degree to which it was forged." The Homilies and Recognitions of Clement; Paul's letters to and from Seneca; Gospels by Peter, Thomas, and Philip; Jesus' correspondence with Abgar, letters by Peter and Paul in the New Testament - all forgeries. To cite just a few examples.

In this first volume of his magisterial study of the foundations of Mormon thought and practice, Terryl L. Givens offers a sweeping account of Mormon belief from its founding to the present day. Situating the relatively new movement in the context of the Christian tradition, he reveals that Mormonism continues to change and grow.

Winner of the John W. Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Human Sciences, Jaroslav Pelikan is Professor Emeritus of history at Yale University and past president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This examination of the history of the Bible reflects half a century of study and research by the author. In Whose Bible Is It?, Pelikan traces the transformation of the Bible from its earliest oral traditions to its modern forms.

When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the course of European history in ways that continue to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects of the religion that suited his purposes, he turned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant, and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority, whether that of the Bible, or the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine.

In a book that took eight years to research and write, leading Bible scholar Bart D. Ehrman explores how an apocalyptic prophet from the backwaters of rural Galilee crucified for crimes against the state came to be thought of as equal with the one God Almighty Creator of all things. Ehrman sketches Jesus's transformation from a human prophet to the Son of God exalted to divine status at his resurrection. Only when some of Jesus's followers had visions of him after his death - alive again - did anyone come to think that he, the prophet from Galilee, had become God.

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and it has preserved its distinctive identity despite the extraordinarily diverse forms and beliefs it has embodied over the course of more than three millennia. A History of Judaism provides the first truly comprehensive look in one volume at how this great religion came to be, how it has evolved from one age to the next, and how its various strains, sects, and traditions have related to each other.

Scott Hahn has inspired millions of readers with his perceptive and unique view of Catholic theology and worship, becoming one of the most looked-to contemporary authorities in these areas. In Letter and Spirit, Hahn extends the message he began in The Lamb's Supper, offering far-reaching and profound insights into what the Bible teaches us about living the spiritual life.

Most Christians would agree that the Bible provides a basis for mission. But Christopher Wright boldly maintains that mission is bigger than that - there is in fact a missional basis for the Bible. The entire Bible is generated by and is all about God's mission. In order to understand the Bible, we need a missional hermeneutic of the Bible, an interpretive perspective that is in tune with this great missional theme. We need to see the "big picture" of God's mission and how the familiar bits and pieces fit into the grand narrative of Scripture.

Many Christians mistakenly believe that their only choice is either to reconcile themselves to a fundamentalist reading of scripture (a "literal-factual" approach) or to simply reject the Bible as something that could bring meaning and value into their lives. In Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, Marcus Borg shows how instead we can freshly appreciate all the essential elements of the Old and New Testaments - from Genesis to Revelation - in a way that can open up a new world of intelligent faith.

The Septuagint, the name given to the translation of the Hebrew scriptures between the third century BC and the second century AD, played a central role in the Bible's history. Many of the Hebrew scriptures were still evolving when they were translated into Greek, and these Greek translations, along with several new Greek writings, became Holy Scripture in the early Church. Yet gradually the Septuagint lost its place at the heart of Western Christianity.

In Reasons to Believe, Scott Hahn, a convert to Catholicism, explains the "how and why" of the Catholic faith - drawing from Scripture, his own struggles, and those of other converts, as well as from everyday life and even natural science. Hahn shows that reason and revelation, as well as nature and the supernatural, are not opposed to one another; rather, they offer complementary evidence that God exists. He is someone, and He has a personality, a personal style, that is discernable and knowable.

The success of books such as Elaine Pagels's Gnostic Gospels and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code proves beyond a doubt that there is a tremendous thirst today for finding the hidden truths of Christianity - truths that may have been lost or buried by institutional religion over the last two millennia. In Forbidden Faith, Richard Smoley narrates a popular history of one such truth, the ancient esoteric religion of gnosticism, which flourished between the first and fourth centuries AD, but whose legacy remains even today, having survived secretly throughout the ages.

Historians know virtually nothing about the two decades following the crucifixion of Jesus, when his followers regrouped and began to spread his message. During this time the man we know as the apostle Paul joined the movement and began to preach to the gentiles. Using the oldest Christian documents that we have - the letters of Paul - as well as other early Christian sources, historian and scholar James Tabor reconstructs the origins of Christianity.

In this revised and expanded edition of The Last Word, Wright, Bishop of Durham, one of the preeminent Bible scholars of our day and author of such beloved works as After You Believe and Simply Christian, gives new life to the old, tattered doctrine of the authority of Scripture, delivering a fresh, helpful, and concise statement on the current battles for the Bible and restoring Scripture as a place to find God's voice.