The Book of Esther narrates the difficulties of the people of Israel during the Babylonian Captivity. Despite heavy persecutions, the Israelites kept alive their unique identify through their laws and customs, and through their trust in God. They provide Christians today with a proven method for surviving hostility: protect your traditions and laws, and have faith in the almighty power of God.
In Chapter C, Verses 27-28, Esther reminds the Lord that she has never disobeyed the laws of Moses, saying “You know that I hate the pomp of the lawless, and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised or of any foreigner…I, your servant, have never eaten at the table of Haman, nor have I graced the banquet of the king or drunk the wine of libations.” While not all of the laws and traditions of the Ancient Jews apply to Christians today, they are similar enough that we can still learn from their example. Practicing our laws and traditions, such as attending Mass every Sunday and Holy Days of Obligation, fasting on Fridays, and celebrating Feast Days in grand style, we learn from the Jews the value of observing them attentively, knowing that they were given to us, not as an old-fashioned encumbrance, but for our benefit. If we continue to keep our traditions, guarding them carefully, we are far more likely to succeed in the battle against evil one and the
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The Jews illustrate the importance of practicing the age-old traditions and laws and trusting in God despite terrible circumstances. Christians must realize value their own customs and protect them. The nature of the world is turning more and more against Christianity. With the coming election looming up before the eyes of all Americans, numerous ideas, which Christians believe, are on the brink of falling off a cliff into utter rejection. Therefore, we must prepare ourselves for a modern persecution, which may or may not
Having the privilege to serve in the military has allowed this writer the opportunity to be exposed to the pluralistic society in a way which has exposed him to the beauty of the diversity enjoyed in American culture. One aspect of said diversity is the interaction which has taken place amongst the Christian and various world religions who also wear the same uniform in defense of America. It was the pleasure of the writer to attend a local synagogue in which his Jewish brothers and sisters welcomed him with open arms. The local congregation of Jewish believers went out of their way in order to ensure their newest visitor understood the flow of service and the significance of the ritual which took place on the first Shabbat or Sabbath of the month. The following essay will serve to detail the worship experience as well as how it and other beliefs of Judaism compare/contrast with the Christian faith.
.Christian is one of the most popular religions in the western Europe that believe in Jesus Christ, but the Jews forged hatred with Christian since the ancient age by betrayed Jesus and nailed christian’s faith on the cross, which is reason why that only fewer christian are willing to save Jews
Levine’s book titled The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus proves to be a highly informative resource when trying to understand the intricate relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Levine’s primary objective seems to be a desire to address the idea that there is a vast, irreconcilable disparity between the beliefs and practices of Christians and Jews. Levine’s central argument focuses upon a common misperception of this dissimilarity: it is the result of Jesus being in direct opposition to Judaism. Furthermore, she contends that only a decided openness and interfaith dialogue between Christianity and Judaism can truly provide the most complete and compelling portrait of Jesus’s life and work. To me, the most edifying facet of Levine’s argument was her call to anchor Jesus within the historical and cultural context in which he was teaching in order to best understand his work and his message. Levine not only provides support for this idea throughout The Misunderstood Jew, but near the end of the novel also offers up ways in which both Christians and Jews can reconcile these two ostensibly conflicting perceptions of Jesus. Therefore, in this essay, I will analyze Levine’s arguments regarding the importance of historical/cultural context in Chapter One and Chapter Four while synthesizing it with her solutions presented in Chapter Seven.
Since the beginning of the Judaism, the Jewish people have been subject to hardships and discrimination. They have not been allowed to have a stabile place of worship and have also faced persecution and atrocities that most of us can not even imagine. Three events that have had a big impact on the Jewish faith were the building and destruction of the First Great Temple, the Second Great Temple and the events of the Holocaust. In this paper, I will discuss these three events and also explain and give examples as to why I feel that the Jewish people have always been discriminated against and not allowed the freedom of worship.
Judaism has great significance in our religions and history today. It’s interesting how each little thing can have such an important role in a whole religion. In conclusion, Jewish beliefs, customs, holidays, symbols, history, and the holocaust all play a crucial role in making Jews who they are
Throughout the history of Judaism, Jewish people have faced ongoing persecution and discrimination. Despite these conflicts, the faith remains alive, strong, and continuously growing. Like many religions faced with adversity, Judaism has had to assimilate its faith to survive in an ever-changing world. One significant moment of change in the Jewish history, the fall of the Second Temple, had the opportunity to destroy Judaism, but the Jewish people bonded together and reformulated their religion in order to save their faith. The falling of the Second Temple marks a distinct change in the Jewish faith through the modification of ritual practices to accommodate their new mobile lifestyle. This change would forever impact the Jewish
Centuries ago, the Jews hated living under the Roman rule. Christians formed a little group in which everybody was content; however, as soon as it became a new religion, “claiming universal validity and acceptance, it was set down as unlawful and treasonable.” This is where the Christians were now accused of doing everything including “preaching in their assemblies all acts of abominations, even incest and cannibalism.” People began making up false tales about the Christians and started “going strongly against the new religion because it started to affect mercenary practices.” The group was becoming so large that it was beginning to attract attention everywhere, even “in old Roman families”. Eventually, the Jews were kicked out of Rome because they were beginning to cause great problems “under the instigation of Chrestos.”
The book of Esther is full of mysteries that has grasped the attention of Biblical scholars and audiences throughout ages and still presents some challenges to the contemporary audiences. It is important to understand the purpose and theme of the book in order to better understand the text in its context. Many Christian scholars and audiences’ alike eisegesis the text instead of using exegesis therefore there have been many misconceptions regarding Esther. The book of Esther is a very important book for it is the only book in the bible to be without the name of God in its entire text. Though there is no reference to God or Torah in the text does not necessarily mean that God is not revealed through circumstances and challenges faced by His
Throughout the history of the world, the Jewish people have been persecuted and oppressed because of their religious beliefs and faith. Many groups of people have made Jews their scapegoat. Jews have suffered from years of intolerance because people have not understood what the religion really means. They do not understand where and why the religion began, nor the customs of it's people. For one to understand the great hardships, triumphs, and history of the Jewish people one must open-mindedly peruse a greater knowledge of the Jewish people and faith.
The book of Esther tells the faithfulness of one woman and her uncle. It is only one of two books that contain the heroism and bravery of a woman heroine. The story of Esther accomplishes two profound things, the first: “To demonstrate God’s providential care of his people, even those outside the land of Israel, and 2) to commend the observance of the feast of Purim by relating how it originated” (Breneman 289).Unlike the rest of the Bible the story of Esther does not directly state or talk about God, but instead shows God’s plans for all of our lives and how in all frightening moments of life, He remains faithful to those who trust and have faith in Him. “In spite of the omission of any name for deity, there is no other book in all the
At first read the book of Esther is a story of a Queen who was able to achieve a heroic act that saved her people from being destroyed. However as you examine the story it’s more than a historic story of triumph, but through the actions of the characters in the story it becomes a blueprint for many aspects of leadership. By examining the different dimensions of the leadership traits of King Ahasuerus, Haman, Mordecai and Esther will represent the different facet of developing into a leader.
Have you ever noticed that when people talk of Jews, at least in a protestant church, that the Israelite legalism, rituals, dress and hair standards are the first things to mind? The topic of Judaism may come with stereotypical opinions and “Christian Judgement” that are without merit or understanding. Judaism, by a Christian worldview, had to change after Pentecost, since the animal sacrifice to atone for sin Christ completed on the Cross. However, Judaism does not accept this truth of Christ and His work on the cross, but Judaism remains in the world. So, what was this change in Judaism and when did it take place? There have been numerous fluctuations within Judaism, only the theme constructed in this essay has its foundations around the most important facet of Judaism- the Temple. With the Temple in the forefront of this essay, we will discuss the modifications that Judaism went through, at what time, different perspectives that the destruction of the Temple had, and how the Christian sect views these vagaries. The Temple destruction of A.D. 70 converted the Jewish faith in its singular fashion, while, at the same point, the Jewish faith never had a total change by always changing throughout time.
“The entire realm of cultural viewpoint endeavor were values challenged by the radical demands that came from Jesus Christ teaching like what Christ must mean. Jesus call into question values of entire culture viewpoints because not ultimately important” to the true biblical message from God teaching in Old Testament. When Christ died on the cross the culture of the Jewish people changed forever by group, no bodies that share message of hope and truth that challenge culture viewpoint of the time. The church teaches instructs also equips believers in bibical doctrine, so their devotion to Christ is evident in their Christian walk throughout their cultural society when it comes to their worldview. As the church grew throughout human history, the responsibility of the church leader such as pastor, misters and deacon is to manage church culture also to managed the vision of the church in diverse culture world. “Christianity which has remained true to its unchanging core and has developed flexible practices that operate within our cultural environment and change with the passage of time.” Our unchanging core values from God is flexible helps Christian goes into culture rich society and effect change by engaging people in a personal relationship with God. The Bible shows that God engaged in relationship throughout scripture these relationships in the Old Testament change Jewish culture. As Christian, we need to engage people on a personal level by respecting their culture
Babylonian civilization is considered as one of the most important civilizations in the ancient world. The Babylonians took and developed everything after the Sumerians civilization especially in the spiritual realm and in the field of building an integrated civilization. The earlier civilizations had big role in the Babylonians civilization period when Babylonians took all the cuneiform writing, mathematical and astronomical knowledge, in addition to that the method of building cities, dams and etc. they improved all of them. The development of knowledge continued by Babylonian where the Sumerians stop, and the Babylonian built an empire for themselves on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the southern part of Sumer (Iraq). "The first Amuriyahian family has ruled over Babylon in the period (1830- 1530 BC), when Babylon was a mini-states at the time." Then the greatest king of Babylonian Hammurabi appeared in the seventeenth century BC. He established a famous group of laws known by (Hammurabi code).Also he was the king who united this petty States and achieved an important architectural movement in the city of Babylon.
Christianity and Judaism are major world religions which, though they worship the same God, have marked differences which have caused two thousand years of strife and animosity between the two religions. In his book We Jews and Jesus, Samuel Sandmel likens the link between Judaism and Christianity to a type of parent-child relationship, saying, “Early Christianity was a Judaism; within a century after the death of Jesus it was a separate religion. It was critical of its parent, and hostile to it, and elicited from its parent reciprocal criticism and hostility.”1 Opposing views of Jesus Christ caused the initial rift between Judaism and Christianity and is the primary source of the tension between