Survey: Christians Love Jewish Bible but Struggle to Understand the Prophets
Rabbi Tuly Weisz, director of Israel365 and editor of The Israel Bible, issues the following statement in response to a report recently released by Crossway that surveyed the Bible study habits of 6,000 American Christians:
“Christians today more than ever seek to uncover the Jewish roots of their Bible and their faith. The recent survey by Crossway is fascinating because it shows that Christians study Genesis and Psalms as much as, if not more than, they study Matthew or other books of the New Testament.
“Christianity grew out of Judaism, and Jesus and his Apostles were Jewish. As such, the study of the Tanakh—the Jewish Bible—is not only logical but appropriate for Christians who want to learn from the Bible that Jesus studied.
“Some aspects of the Bible address the past, while others focus on the prophetic future. Crossway also found that Christians find it most difficult to study The Prophets. The new Israel Bible, published jointly by Menorah Books and Israel365, addresses these issues by providing hundreds of study notes, maps, charts and the translation and transliteration of the Hebrew text.
“Forward-looking books of the Bible are harder to comprehend. But the diligent study of the Hebrew Prophets is an important ingredient in understanding what is to come in the period of redemption. The insights of the Prophets can also offer us wise counsel on how to live our lives today, and a greater appreciation of the happenings in the Land of Israel.”
