Posts by Edjan Westerman
Suffering Israel: Sharing the Sufferings of God and Messiah
“In all their affliction” Marc Chagall (1887–1985) spoke of his bewilderment as a Jew being confronted with a world of pogroms, Jewish-Christian encounters, and antisemitism coming to its culmination in the Shoah. When he inserted into his paintings crucifixion scenes picturing a crucified Jewish Jesus amidst Israel’s sufferings, he wished to blend Jewish elements with…
Read MorePresence and Involvement: The Pre-incarnate Messiah in the History of Israel
For the interpretation and understanding of Scripture—both Tanakh and the New Covenant Scriptures—it is a hermeneutical prerequisite to be willing to think from within the Israel-centered revelation context and to think along with Israel, and its Messiah. Presuppositions tend to steer and limit our understandings, and results tend to strengthen our sets of presuppositions. To…
Read MoreFor Better and For Worse: The Faithfulness of God through the Exile and Return of the Shekhinah
This article addresses the faithfulness of God (toward Israel) and thereby confronts us with our understanding of him. The extent to which we have learned to understand God’s self-revelation through Scripture enables or hinders us to understand God’s faithfulness toward his people, and consequently toward the whole of his creation. This includes “us,” believers in…
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