I Am Thankful For My Honors Research Project

Jonathan Sacks, the author of a book ‘The Home We Build Together,’ emphasizes that covenant is a core of the biblical politics, especially in such a way to make the Tabernacle, for us to make a society which respects each others in a diversity. Sacks said that the Tabernacle was made by all Israelites with their voluntariness, devotion, and equality as a common project through covenant regardless of any ethnicity, religion, and culture, which made them have the identity that they build it together and belong to it (Sacks, 138). Therefore, being left as a story to be commemorated to them and give them a gradual changes with personal and social creative constructions, covenant is not just a religious concept, but rather it is zeitgeist to lead

The book under review is titled, Reading Romans in Context: Paul and Second Temple Judaism, edited by Ben C. Blackwell, John K. Goodrich, Jason Maston with a foreword by Francis Watson.

Dr. Coleson’s, “More Than a Faithful Treaty Partner” offered a significant statement for church leaders of today. On the other hand, Dr. Coleson says “Protestant expression of the Christian faith has been enamored of covenant as the central theme of the Hebrew/Christian Scripture. Applying too broadly a select set of biblical passages, many preachers and popular writers have been content to see biblical salvation history as a series of covenants. The series usually includes the Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.” What Dr. Coleson meant by that statement. This statement was not just compare his view with Janzen but much broadly that that Dr. Coleson says that “covenant necessary, but

Busenitz’ article offers an in depth understanding of covenants and how they play a prominent role in the Old Testament life including social, political, and religious settings. The author brings to light the definition of the term covenant and provides specific examples of how the term is used within the 39 books of the Old Testament. Busenitz’ establishes the Old Testament usage of the term, covenant, including how it is phrased,

Nostra Aetate would also use the Apostle Paul’s letters to the Romans as a New Testament passage where he gives reverence to Judaism. Paul praises “the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised” (Romans 9:4-5). “The Jews viewed God’s choosing of Israel in the Old Testament as being like an adoption” (Life Application Study Bible, p. 2044). “They were undeserving and yet God adopted them and granted them status of calling them children of God” (Life Application Study Bible, p. 2044). These verses states that the covenant made between Israel and God has never been revoked even though some of them rejected the Jewish Messiah. This reinforces the churches idea that Jews should not be cursed and they are the people of God. Using this New Testament passage the church is repairing the wounds of centuries of Christian prejudice towards Jews.

The book of Romans 1-8 was written by Paul the apostle to the Jews and Gentiles. It talks about the Christian life. I will be discussing what it teaches about the natural world, human identity, human relationships, and culture as taught by Paul. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, it shows that we should not just strive to be a good person, but to always give in to God’s will for us in our lives.

Before Christ, Paul was a persecutor of Jews who followed Jesus. Zeal was the driving force behind Paul’s aggression “to protect the covenant by punishing the disobedient so the path to Israel’s glorious future could be realized and the covenantal blessings restored” (Capes, Reeves, & Richards, 2007, p. 85).

Historically, a lot of awful things have happened to Jews throughout history. From the exile in Babylonia to the destruction of Jerusalem and all the way to the Holocaust. From these tragic events, questions develop on if God is with them? Has God abandoned them and let the world persecute them? Are these just test? And the biggest question is how does this affect the Covenant? These events have greatly impacted Jews from their identities as humans to their religious identities and have impacted their relationships with followers of other religions. Although, I am not a Jew and I have some knowledge of Judaism I can only somewhat answer that with the bias of how I view God. This paper will mainly be Holocaust focused because I have more thoughts

Covenantal people of God: once again we gather here today to be reminded us God’s faithfulness, grace, and mercy upon our lives. Once again, we are reminded of our responsibilities as advocates for God’s kingdom, by caring for the widow, the alien, the orphan, and now, as our passage notes, caring also for the dejected man in the street. After all, we are called, as Christians, to exemplify the work God is completing in our world by serving the “other”. And, as can be recognized, the “other” is all around us. From the Syrian refugee crisis, to Palestinians on the West Bank, to the American perpetuation of slavery by way of incarceration against our African-American brother and sisters, to the surge in violence against members of the LGTBQ community, we recognize the “other”. The “other” is anyone who is not in power and is oppressed and marginalized by those who are in power. The systemic persecution against the “other” is as old as humanity itself. Nevertheless, we believe that God is working, through God’s people, to end this violence and put God’s world back to rights.

So it is clear that Pauls mission is spoken directly from this over piling up of texts Pauls strategy is to bring the gospel to all the nations, all the people for the glory of God. Not just Gods original chosen people the Jews. Pauls strategy is to start of where Jesus Christ left off, to bring the news of the saviour to the Jews first and thusly to the Gentiles second – fulfilling the Old Testament Prophecies.

In the year of 468 B.C., 50 years after the temple was dedicated to God and finished; a second group of exile Jews returned from Babylonia to their homeland, led by the scribe Ezra. It is said, that Ezra had a very eloquent character, when requesting to King Artaxerxes I, permission for him and a group of Jews to return to Jerusalem, and to grant him the necessary help for the temple. As a result, Artaxerxes I provided everything he asked for, because “the hand of the Lord his God upon him” (Ezra 7:6). God 's favor was upon Ezra for a number of reasons; he had prepared his heart leaving a life of obedience; he had prepared to inquire about the law as a scribe, he had prepared to fulfill it and to enforce it, and he had prepared to teach his statutes and decrees. The Bible teaches us that; “don 't just listen to God 's word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves” (James 1:22). This is what Ezra the scribe did for God. As a matter of fact, King Artaxerxes I decree displayed an awe and respect feeling towards God’s matters in spite of being a pagan king. As a consequence, Ezra had certain privilege. However, his main purpose was to bring to Jerusalem Artaxerxes gold and silver offered for the house of the Lord, return the remaining utensils and vessels that were still in Babylonia, in order to worship God. Correspondingly, Ezra blesses God for having been favored before the king. After these events Ezra finds a not very pleasant panorama in the

Paul’s interpretation of first-century Judaism which began in the 1970s started a scholarly debate that persisted in the twenty-first century, A “new perspective” on Paul’s seemingly negative attitude toward the Torah-observant Judaism which many scholars advocated and began the religion in which Paul was raised. Paul believed that some of the critics compared a legalistic view of Judaism which was law-keeping that was dominated by fear of divine punishment, against the Gospel of divine grace, faith, and redemption that was created by Paul.

The Old Testament prophets were the ones who stood for God when no one else, or almost no one else stood for God. Their focus was they warned “that while the covenant brought many privileges, it also brought many responsibilities, including justice, righteousness, and holiness” (Arnold & Buyer, 2008, p. 343). If we evaluate the spiritual condition of the Israelites in the days of the Prophets and we compare it to our spiritual condition in the church there are eerie similarities that need to be addressed.

Moreover, each of these covenants has “it’s own character and scope; and each prepares for and provides the found for, the next”. Alexander and Baker hold fast in agreement and proceed to say, “ Yet the faith and varied responses of the ancestors and Israelites are best grasped in relation to covenant making, covenant breaking and renewals of covenant”. The narrative of the Pentateuch has a progressive nature, as do the covenants made between people and God.

Introduction/Thesis: “People have called the apostle Paul’s great epistle to the Romans “the most profound work in existence” (Samuel Coleridge).”1 Imagine the great challenge the Apostle Paul faced to preach the Gospel and the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. During the times that Romans was written, Rome was the epicenter of the ancient world and contained a myriad of subcultures. One of the more recognizable verses in Romans; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16), proves Paul’s devotion his mission that everyone preach the Gospel to everyone who believes throughout the world.