Helping Christians Discover Their Roots
A Personal Perspective
By Ed Snitkoff, Licensed Tour Guide
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What kind of job is this for a Jewish boy?
I admit there is a dilemma concerning my role as a guide for Christian visitors to Israel. It is my job to bring alive the story of Early Christianity in a way that meshes archaeology, history, faith and texts. On the other hand, I am a believing, practising Jew who does not accept Christianity as my own personal faith. How then can I work with Christians and make their visit spiritually meaningful?
Well, I go back to the roots. It may sound like an over-simplification, but that is what I do. As I travel around this country with Christians, I am living in Jewish Antiquity, when Early Christianity and emerging Rabbinic Judaism were closely related siblings – each articulating its own unique claim to the Torah and the Covenant with Abraham. In short, I peel off 2,000 years of history and arrive at the kernel, the core, of what it is all about.
Kindred Faiths
At Capernaum, for example, the ruins of a synagogue stand across from the earliest site of Christian worship, the house of Simon, called Peter. There I tell of a story in ancient Jewish sources about Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus (one of the most important rabbis of the second century), who was arrested by the Romans on suspicion of being a Christian. Why was he arrested? Because one day in the market of Tsippori (Sepphoris) he met Jacob of Sikhnin, a known Christian believer, who told him a “word of Torah” in the name of Jesus. When the rabbi told Jacob that he liked the interpretation, he was overheard and promptly arrested.
Imagine a time when Christian interpretations could still be seen as part of the corpus of Jewish thought. What kind of discussions took place in Capernaum, on Saturday mornings, between the Jews who sat in the synagogue and the Jews who sat in Peter’s house? What were they saying to each other in their native Aramaic and Hebrew? Did they greet each other, on Friday night, with “Have a good Sabbath!”? Did they enjoy holidays together? Did they study together?
When we go to the ancient Jewish core of Christian belief, we are empowered to understand both Christianity and Judaism not as rivals but as kindred faiths.
Early Believers Were Jews
In Nazareth, I understand the Basilica of the Annunciation not because of a faith in Christianity, but by the fact that I am able to perceive the belief in the redemption of the world that lies at the core of the building. This church glorifies a Jewish woman who had a Jewish son whom some Jews saw as the Messiah. I do not agree with their conclusion, but I do relate to their desire to see the coming of the redemption and the end to suffering in the world. One should remember that the early believers who first honored this place were actually Jews who believed in a Judaism that was very close to that of their fellow-Galileans from whom sprang the Rabbinic Judaism we observe today.
So, when we strip Judaism and Christianity of 2,000 years of baggage (usually negative baggage with regard to one another), we arrive back at the market in Tsippori, standing with Jacob of Sikhnin and Rabbi Eliezer, who are trying to find ways to come to terms with one another. Ultimately, of course, they decide to separate and part ways, but this unique moment in time can and must be captured in order to understand our spiritual connection.
Everyone visits Israel for different reasons. Why are you coming? What do you want to get out of this trip? How will this visit alter your own personal narrative? I specialize in working with individuals, families and communities visiting Israel in order to explore the meaning of this place in their lives. Since taking my first youth group in Israel as a guide in 1980, I have worked extensively with Jews and Christians, as well as with people of other traditions from all over the world.
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