Jesus: The Misunderstood Jew with AJ Levine

Dear Teddy and Karlen,
AJ should know as a scholar that the group of people who followed Moses out of Egypt were slaves from all over the world, and not one race. They were Hebrews (sharing a common belief) and not Jews (common ancestry). The distinction between spiritual (of the eternal spiritual world) and material (finite) has been the root of strife throughout the bible, and today.

With this understanding, it is clear that Jesus was born into a Jewish family, but he was a Christian who was baptized by John the Baptist; an outward act for Him to show His spiritual ancestry. When you read the bible with an open heart, you see that all the Prophets and Jesus criticized the Jewish tradition and power structure. They all abhorred the materialistic interpretation of sacrifice and the materialistic interpretation of the Word of God.

For me it is clear that the Jews were (are) not able to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, because they were expecting a material ruler and material peace. They could not see the Spiritual Ruler who brought peace to a Spiritual Place called Jerusalem. Jesus tells us that “His Kingdom is not of this world.” So this begs the question, “Where is His Kingdom?”.

It was not until the Third century that Origen of Alexandria brought these points all together and reconciled Jewish belief with the Christian belief brought by Jesus in his work Contra Celsum. Only with the broad view taken by Origen and with his exacting examination of all teachings (with what we would call to day the scientific method) is any scholar able to break free of a materialistic interpretation of the Old Testament and find the deeper spiritual meaning within it. This is personal process that each individual must go through, because without throwing aside our materialistic view point, a spiritual view is impossible. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Best regards, Shawn