Christianity is inherently a Jewish faith. It was founded by a Jew, Jesus of Nazareth, on the foundations of the Jewish Scriptures and in the ancient Jewish homeland of Israel. For its first decade, the leadership and constituency of the nascent church were exclusively Jewish. It is a glaringly obvious fact that the Bible of Jesus was the Hebrew Scriptures. And believe it or not, Jesus never once quoted from the New Testament! In fact, it can be rightly said that Jesus was a Jew, his religion was Judaism, and he never changed his ethnicity or his religion!
Over the centuries, much of organized Christianity has neglected—and even denied—these simple, irrefutable facts of history and theology, depriving its constituents of the richness of their heritage in the faith of Jesus and the apostles. Through those centuries, however, a continuing stream of voices has repeatedly called the church back to the “ancient paths wherein is the good way.”
In the fourth century A.D., St. Jerome even coined the term Hebraica Veritas (Hebrew Truth) to describe his efforts to employ the Hebrew texts of Scripture in his Latin Vulgate translation rather than being confined to the Septuagint Greek translation that had by then become the exclusive “Bible” of the church.
At the turn of the sixteenth century, scholars in various academic institutions across Europe who styled themselves as “Christian Hebraists” began to insist that the Holy Scriptures could not be rightly interpreted apart from understanding the Hebrew language employed in the Hebrew Scriptures (“Old Testament”) and the Hebrew thought underlying the Greek texts of the Apostolic Scriptures (“New Testament”).
These scholars laid the foundation for the emergence of the Protestant Reformation, and some of them were among its leaders. Together, they formulated the Grammatico-Historical Hermeneutic (aka “The Reformation Hermeneutic”), which maintains that Scripture can be rightly interpreted only when analyzed in the context of the grammar (Hebrew) and the historical setting of the texts themselves. In his Table Talk, Martin Luther famously summed up the relative importance of the Hebrew Scriptures when he declared, “The Hebrews drink from the springs, the Greeks from the rivulets, and the Latins from the puddles.” Many other scholars urged the church to return to the Hebrew fountain from which its truth emerged.
In subsequent centuries, various reformers continued to call the church back to its foundations. In more recent times, studies of the “Historical Jesus” and theological reconsideration of Christianity’s Jewish roots have reached a growing constituency of individuals and congregations that focus on Hebrew Truth.
Over the past fifty years, we have witnessed an international explosion of interest in restoring the Hebraic foundations of the Christian faith. It came as no surprise to us when Time magazine listed the “Re-Judaizing Jesus” as one of “10 Ideas that Are Changing the World” (Vol. 171, No. 12, March 24, 2008) and published a full page on this subject. As this article predicted, Christians of every race, ethnicity, and denominational background have been continuing to dig through the accumulated dust of ecclesiastical history in passionate efforts to rediscover the original foundations of their faith.When my colleagues and I formed Hebraic Christian College (HCC) some thirty years ago, our vision was simple: To employ the most advanced of modern technology to deliver the most ancient of biblical wisdom directly to a worldwide student population.
We focused first on creating a Hebraic model for Christian education in which our institution assumes the responsibility for the transfer of knowledge to our students in the most efficient manner possible. To do so, we developed our own student-friendly Learning Management System (LMS) that delivers multi-media academic content via the Internet, enabling our students to pursue academic degrees while studying in their own space, in their own time, and at their own pace.
We decided to spin off our LMS to a separate entity (now called DigitalChalk) to continue further cutting-edge software development and to manage HCC’s delivery systems. In doing so, we made it possible for other educational entities around the world to share the wonders of our educational development and delivery system in its ever-advancing iterations. DigitalChalk is now an innovative, award-winning LMS designed to make learning simple, meaningful, and rooted in understanding.
Hebraic Christian College is currently engaged in a massive Curriculum Development Initiative, in which new three-credit-hour courses are being created by some of the world’s greatest Christian and Jewish scholars who develop course content and then deliver lectures that are filmed in HCC’s studios in the U.S., Israel, and other nations.
When students access their virtual desktop in HCC’s LMS, they find an array of options with which they can customize their learning experience. The desktop focuses on the professor’s lectures in the Lecture Portal, accompanied by various visual aids in the Lecture Enhancement Portal. A third portal allows the student to return to any part of the lecture and review the experience as often as needed to absorb the material. Closed captioning is also instantly accessible for the student as needed. Finally, assignments are made, and all exams are administered through the same virtual desktop.
Because the Hebraic mindset that HCC embraces is “a challenge to think,” we have designed our LMS to make learning as student-friendly as possible so that instead of being just a means of memorizing facts it promotes understanding that leads to wisdom, thereby giving our students the tools that they need to shape their own learning experience and thereby perpetuate the divine progression of biblical education: making disciples who become teachers who make disciples who become teachers. . . .”
We invite everyone to sample our programs by visiting www.HebraicCollege.org and to evaluate our LMS by visiting www.DigitalChalk.com. We welcome your criticism and feedback as we constantly fine tune what we believe God has entrusted to our stewardship.
Over the centuries, much of organized Christianity has neglected—and even denied—these simple, irrefutable facts of history and theology, depriving its constituents of the richness of their heritage in the faith of Jesus and the apostles. Through those centuries, however, a continuing stream of voices has repeatedly called the church back to the “ancient paths wherein is the good way.”
In the fourth century A.D., St. Jerome even coined the term Hebraica Veritas (Hebrew Truth) to describe his efforts to employ the Hebrew texts of Scripture in his Latin Vulgate translation rather than being confined to the Septuagint Greek translation that had by then become the exclusive “Bible” of the church.
At the turn of the sixteenth century, scholars in various academic institutions across Europe who styled themselves as “Christian Hebraists” began to insist that the Holy Scriptures could not be rightly interpreted apart from understanding the Hebrew language employed in the Hebrew Scriptures (“Old Testament”) and the Hebrew thought underlying the Greek texts of the Apostolic Scriptures (“New Testament”).
These scholars laid the foundation for the emergence of the Protestant Reformation, and some of them were among its leaders. Together, they formulated the Grammatico-Historical Hermeneutic (aka “The Reformation Hermeneutic”), which maintains that Scripture can be rightly interpreted only when analyzed in the context of the grammar (Hebrew) and the historical setting of the texts themselves. In his Table Talk, Martin Luther famously summed up the relative importance of the Hebrew Scriptures when he declared, “The Hebrews drink from the springs, the Greeks from the rivulets, and the Latins from the puddles.” Many other scholars urged the church to return to the Hebrew fountain from which its truth emerged.
In subsequent centuries, various reformers continued to call the church back to its foundations. In more recent times, studies of the “Historical Jesus” and theological reconsideration of Christianity’s Jewish roots have reached a growing constituency of individuals and congregations that focus on Hebrew Truth.
Over the past fifty years, we have witnessed an international explosion of interest in restoring the Hebraic foundations of the Christian faith. It came as no surprise to us when Time magazine listed the “Re-Judaizing Jesus” as one of “10 Ideas that Are Changing the World” (Vol. 171, No. 12, March 24, 2008) and published a full page on this subject. As this article predicted, Christians of every race, ethnicity, and denominational background have been continuing to dig through the accumulated dust of ecclesiastical history in passionate efforts to rediscover the original foundations of their faith.When my colleagues and I formed Hebraic Christian College (HCC) some thirty years ago, our vision was simple: To employ the most advanced of modern technology to deliver the most ancient of biblical wisdom directly to a worldwide student population.
We focused first on creating a Hebraic model for Christian education in which our institution assumes the responsibility for the transfer of knowledge to our students in the most efficient manner possible. To do so, we developed our own student-friendly Learning Management System (LMS) that delivers multi-media academic content via the Internet, enabling our students to pursue academic degrees while studying in their own space, in their own time, and at their own pace.
We decided to spin off our LMS to a separate entity (now called DigitalChalk) to continue further cutting-edge software development and to manage HCC’s delivery systems. In doing so, we made it possible for other educational entities around the world to share the wonders of our educational development and delivery system in its ever-advancing iterations. DigitalChalk is now an innovative, award-winning LMS designed to make learning simple, meaningful, and rooted in understanding.
Hebraic Christian College is currently engaged in a massive Curriculum Development Initiative, in which new three-credit-hour courses are being created by some of the world’s greatest Christian and Jewish scholars who develop course content and then deliver lectures that are filmed in HCC’s studios in the U.S., Israel, and other nations.
When students access their virtual desktop in HCC’s LMS, they find an array of options with which they can customize their learning experience. The desktop focuses on the professor’s lectures in the Lecture Portal, accompanied by various visual aids in the Lecture Enhancement Portal. A third portal allows the student to return to any part of the lecture and review the experience as often as needed to absorb the material. Closed captioning is also instantly accessible for the student as needed. Finally, assignments are made, and all exams are administered through the same virtual desktop.
Because the Hebraic mindset that HCC embraces is “a challenge to think,” we have designed our LMS to make learning as student-friendly as possible so that instead of being just a means of memorizing facts it promotes understanding that leads to wisdom, thereby giving our students the tools that they need to shape their own learning experience and thereby perpetuate the divine progression of biblical education: making disciples who become teachers who make disciples who become teachers. . . .”
We invite everyone to sample our programs by visiting www.HebraicCollege.org and to evaluate our LMS by visiting www.DigitalChalk.com. We welcome your criticism and feedback as we constantly fine tune what we believe God has entrusted to our stewardship.
