David Flusser

Insights into Jesus of Nazareth Seminar

Lois Tverberg

IJN-Set1Insights into Jesus of Nazareth

His Words, His Wisdom,
His World

Conference Seminar

Available as an 8-DVD set or mp3 CD (audio only). Order below. (Back in stock! – Aug 2024)

© En-Gedi Resource Center, 2006

15 hours of in-depth presentations by leading scholars on Jesus’ first-century context. Filmed at the Jerusalem Perspective 2006 Conference in Jerusalem, Israel, June 19-20, 2006. 

Presentations:

The Value of Translating Matthew, Mark and Luke to Hebrew
David Bivin, Editor of Jerusalem Perspective

A Hebraic Approach to the Resurrection of Jesus
Randall Buth, Director, Biblical Language Center

Is Jesus Superior to the Law?  -and-
Jesus’s High Self-Awareness and the Christology of Paul
Dwight A. Pryor, President, Judaic-Christian Studies Center

Why Rabbinic Literature Is Pertinent to the Study of the Gospels  -and-
Jesus Among the Rabbis: Spiritual Life and Leadership
Brad Young, Professor, Oral Roberts University

The Mikvah and Ritual Immersion in Jesus’ Day
The Recently Discovered Pool of Siloam (Audio online at link)
Ronney Reich, Archaeologist, Haifa University

The New Testament in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Hanan Eshel, Archaeologist, Bar Ilan University

Was Jesus Buried in the Garden Tomb? (DVD only)
Gabriel Barkay, Archaeologist, Bar Ilan University

Jeremiah’s New Covenant and Jesus’ Movement
Serge Ruzer, Professor, Hebrew University

Jesus, the Sin-Fearer
David Pileggi, Rector, Christ Church

Jesus’ Teaching Style Illustrated by His Response to Martha’s Anxiety
Lenore Mullican, Professor, Oral Roberts University

The Pastoral Relevance of Who Wrote the First Gospel -and-
The Importance of Bible Geography for Understanding Jesus
Halvor Ronning, Director, Home for Bible Translators

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IJN Cover+border

8-DVD Set: $59.99




Audio mp3 CD: $29.99



Both DVD & Audio: $79.99

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Also included on DVDs (not audio CD)

• A tribute to David Flusser by James Charlesworth
• A documentary about Robert Lindsey and David Flusser
• Baritone Horst Krueger performing songs of Jerusalem and conference music composed by Robert Lindsey.

© Produced by the En-Gedi Resource Center in cooperation with JerusalemPerspective.com. All rights reserved.

Inclined Toward God

Lois Tverberg

by Lois Tverberg

Count yourself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life. (Romans 6:11-13)

Yetzer

In Jewish thought, there has been a tradition that humans are ruled by two inclinations — the yetzer hara (YET-ser ha-RAH – evil inclination) and the yetzer hatov (YET-ser ha-TOVE – good inclination). Another way this was said was that man either obeyed his yetzer (inclination – his own will) or his yotzer (Creator – God).

One rabbi said,

Man, while he lives, is the slave of two masters: the slave of his Creator and the slave of his inclination. When he does the will of his Creator, he angers his inclination, and when he does the will of his inclination, he angers his Creator. When he dies, he is freed, a slave free from his master.1

This last statement means that in death humans are freed from serving their sinful inclinations, so that in the next life, they will be servants only of God.

This is fascinating because it seems to be the background of Paul’s words to the Romans. He speaks about being slaves to sin in our former lives, but when we were baptized in Christ, we were united with him in his death. He understands that just as Jesus was resurrected and now was living his eternal life, so are we.

When we were baptized, God made us new creations and gave us eternal life, which began right then and will extend into the world to come. God has freed us from slavery to our yetzer hara so that we can serve only our yotzer, Creator, the Lord.

1Rabbi Shimeon ben Pazzai, from the 3rd century AD, as quoted by David Flusser in Judaism and the Origins of Christianity, Magnes Press 1988, pp. 169-170.

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Further reading:

See Listening to the Language of the Bible, by Lois Tverberg and Bruce Okkema, En-Gedi Resource Center, 2004. This is a collection of devotional essays that mediate on the meaning of biblical words and phrases in their original setting.

For a friendly, bite-sized Bible study of five flavorful Hebrew words, see 5 Hebrew Words that Every Christian Should Know, by Lois Tverberg, OurRabbiJesus.com, 2014 (ebook).