At different times, the Jewish establishment confronted Jesus and disputed what he taught. The Pharisees were, of course, the ‘good people’ of Jesus’s day -- observant of the Law, righteous, keen that ...

Did you know there are over 1000 “commandments” in the New Testament? That is almost twice as many as the religious Jews identified from their Torah (first five books of the Old Testament – 613 of ...

It’s a new year, and with that comes the long-time tradition of making a list of resolutions and the relatively new advent of choosing a word of the year. Everyone’s resolutions and words are ...

This Sunday’s readings—from Deuteronomy and Mark—repeat the Shema Yisrael. That proclamation—“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our Lord, the Lord alone!”—is what every devout Jew declares every day. The ...

Author’s Note: Interested readers can find all previous volumes of this series here. When I started writing this study, I planned to avoid mentioning the election. Besides, my last pre-election ...

Once again, the Pharisees want to trap Jesus. Matthew 22 is full of controversies. After opening with the parable of the wedding feast and the man without a wedding garment, there follow four separate ...

In Mark 12:28-31, the Scribes asked Jesus, “What is the Great Commandment?” He responded, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the ...

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest ...

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor ...

People seem to have an innate desire to rank things. What was the best Star Wars movie? Who has New York’s best pizza? What was the worst television show of all time? What are America’s 25 best ...

On Oct. 20, I stood before the U.S. Capitol with other leaders of faith to highlight for Congress and other U.S. leaders a topic not too common on Capitol Hill and in our public discourse: the ...

Charles Beard was arguably the most widely read and influential American historian of the previous generation. He published alone or in collaboration something like 60 books and 300 articles. He ...