The gospels base their stories of Jesus’ nativity on Jewish ideas: Matthew’s Jesus is a new Moses; Luke’s Mary is a new Hannah; John’s “In the beginning was the Word” draws on Jewish theology; the “virgin birth” tradition begins with the Greek translation of Isaiah. How did the Christian Church adapt its Jewish roots, and how can Christians avoid the antisemitic teachings that occur when those roots are forgotten? 

This presentation is part of the 40 Days of Engagement on Anti-Racism 2024 series from the United Church of Canada and is hosted on CHURCHx.

Amy-Jill Levine (“AJ”) is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, and University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies Emerita and Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt.  

She is the author and co-author of numerous books, including The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus; Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi; six children’s books; The Gospel of Luke; The Jewish Annotated New Testament; The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently; The Pharisees; and 13 edited volumes of the Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Literature. Her Beginner’s Guide series includes Sermon on the Mount, Light of the World, Entering the Passion of Jesus, The Difficult Words of Jesus, Witness at the Cross, Signs and Wonders, The Gospel of Mark, and The Gospel of John. 

The first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute, an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the first winner of the Seelisberg Prize for Jewish-Christian Relations, and the 2023 recipient of the H. Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation from Archbishop of Canterbury, AJ describes herself as an unorthodox member of an Orthodox synagogue and a Yankee Jewish feminist who works to counter biblical interpretations that exclude and oppress.