The Eternal Life Series offers a look at eternal life based on John 17:3 and related New Testament scriptures.
Most or all of the New Testament was written in Greek, so Bible students often dissect scripture by minutely examining Greek words and philosophies. This is natural for Americans because the American education and culture is based on Greek ways of thought.
However, Jesus probably taught mostly in Hebrew, with some of his teachings in Aramaic. Jesus and his followers were well educated in the Hebrew Old Testament. For the first couple of decades after his death, the followers of Jesus were mostly practicing Jews. It seems likely that a better understanding of the teachings of Jesus can be attained by looking at them through a Jewish cultural viewpoint and a better understanding of Hebrew words.
The impetus for this series were some of the episodes of the Bema Discipleship podcast, along with personal study times with Hebrew experts Elle Grove Fricks and Brad H. Young. Working with them, we developed a dictionary of some Hebrew words that you can find in Reference 7 of the Reference section of this website.
Although each episode in this series can be approached individually, the Eternal Life Series is written for viewers to watch all of the episodes in the order in which they are presented.
Your browser does not support HTML5 video playback.
Many writers of the history of the Church emphasize God prepared the world for Christianity in a few primary ways: Greek was the international language understood by nearly everyone in the Roman Empire; the network of Roman highways allowed the swift dispersion of Christian evangelists; because there was peace throughout the Roman Empire, the Christians could travel with little hindrance; and, the Romans generally had tolerance of new religions and gods.
There were other important factors historians don’t emphasize. From the time of the Babylonian captivity, the Jewish people instituted rules and norms critical in the spreading of the Christianity. The creation of synagogues and their place as the center of Jewish communities ensured all Jews would be intimately familiar with the Old Testament, and their societies would be oriented to following God and his commandments. By the time of Jesus, Jewish communities and their synagogues were scattered around the Roman Empire. The book of Acts shows how Paul and the other early evangelists used the synagogues to introduce Christianity to small towns and large cities.
The Jews of Jesus’ time were ripe for change. They had intuited God would be sending a savior to save the Jewish people. They were ready for political and spiritual changes. Their political leaders were Sadducees who were more concerned with attaining wealth and political power than serving God. Their religious leaders were Pharisees who were so concerned with following their rules and understandings of God’s commandments that they neglected loving people.
