Amy-Jill Levine
Marc Brettler
Although Jews and Christians share common books – the Jewish Tanakh and the Christian Old Testament – we read our shared stories in different ways. Differences in translation, punctuation, definitions, theology, emphasis and even canonical order all lead to differences in community self-definition. Marc Brettler and Amy-Jill Levine discuss what prompts these differences, and what they suggest about Jewish and Christian priorities, including the “virgin birth”; Isaiah’s “suffering servant,” the Deity who speaks in the plural in Genesis (“Let us make humankind in our image”), views of Adam and Eve, understandings of the land of Israel, the use of the last words of Jesus in relation to Purim, and the role of Law.
This program was recorded during our interfaith symposium on Truth, Difference and Loyalty in February 2021.
