The Jewish roots of Christianity

Home » Zola TV » Video Archives » ZLM Video

Bible teaching with an emphasis on Israel, prophecy and the Jewish roots of Christianity

This program is not available for playing in your browser (see below for alternatives).

Play video (28:30)

Note: You can control playback speed from the gear menu in the player above.

Episode: “Birth”
In first century Israel, a newborn was cleansed, rubbed with salt and olive oil, then wrapped in swaddling clothes (linen bandages). This birth brought with it the fullness of the covenant and redemption.
Series: “The First Christians (2019)”
The Life and Times of Those Who First Believed in Jesus
Originally produced in 1995, The First Christians series explores the background of the customs and manners of Jesus’ day, unearthing the Jewish roots of Christianity. God chose this one people to speak to all humanity for all time. This nine program series seeks to better understand the people with whom He chose to reside on earth. From the studio, David and Kirsten Hart talk with Dr. Jeffrey Seif about the importance and modern applications for each program.

Caption transcript for The First Christians (2019): “Birth” (1/9)

  • 00:01 Jeffrey Seif: Thirty years a Bible college and seminary
  • 00:03 professor, I've spent a lifetime looking at the early church.
  • 00:08 We're gonna spend a half an hour doing it now in this program
  • 00:12 and in this series.
  • 00:20 male announcer: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
  • 00:22 to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
  • 00:26 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek:
  • 00:29 for the same Lord over all is rich unto all
  • 00:32 that call upon him."
  • 00:34 "Zola Levitt Presents."
  • 00:40 ♪♪♪
  • 00:52 David Hart: We're so glad you've joined us on
  • 00:54 "Zola Levitt Presents" today.
  • 00:55 I'm David Hart.
  • 00:57 Kirsten Hart: I'm Kirsten Hart.
  • 00:58 Jeffrey: And I'm Jeffrey Seif, and we are going back
  • 01:01 in time to century 1, correct?
  • 01:03 Kirsten: We are and back in time with our founder,
  • 01:06 Zola Levitt.
  • 01:08 This first aired, and I think it was all taped, in 1995,
  • 01:11 but it's still good.
  • 01:13 It's all about 1st-century Christians and
  • 01:15 their everyday life.
  • 01:17 Jeffrey: That's right.
  • 01:18 Let's go to it. It's gonna be good.
  • 01:19 David: Actually, today we start with the birth traditions
  • 01:21 of the first Christians.
  • 01:23 Let's go to our expert in Israel with Claire Pfann.
  • 01:29 Claire Pfann: Most people in the time of Jesus came from an
  • 01:30 agricultural background and lived in simple dwellings just
  • 01:33 like this, one-room homes in which all of the activities of
  • 01:37 daily life were carried out, including cooking, sleeping,
  • 01:39 washing up and one activity which nowadays would be taken
  • 01:44 care of at a hospital but which in the time of Jesus was always
  • 01:46 taken care of in the home: childbirth.
  • 01:51 Childbirth was greeted with great excitement, and children
  • 01:53 were seen as a blessing of the Lord, but, of course, it was
  • 01:56 also the moment in a woman's life when she faced the greatest
  • 01:59 danger and the most anxiety, for very often in antiquity mothers
  • 02:04 and children died at this critical moment.
  • 02:10 We find that many young women were becoming mothers, having
  • 02:14 first children before they even reached their 20s.
  • 02:17 Childbirth was carried out in the family home and when a woman
  • 02:21 went into labor it was common practice to send for the local
  • 02:24 midwife to come and deliver the baby in the family home, with
  • 02:27 the assistance, perhaps, of the mother-in-law and other women,
  • 02:30 sisters, and aunts who might be sympathetic and
  • 02:33 able to help out.
  • 02:37 Water was heated both for washing the woman and
  • 02:39 for the child after the delivery.
  • 02:49 [speaking Hebrew]
  • 02:51 Claire: Certain items were assembled in order
  • 02:53 to take care of them.
  • 02:54 These included oil, both for anointing the woman in order to
  • 02:57 ease the delivery and also for anointing the baby after it
  • 03:00 had been washed.
  • 03:07 They also brought salt, which was rubbed into the baby's skin
  • 03:11 in order to toughen it.
  • 03:12 This was felt to be something that would be beneficial
  • 03:15 and perhaps help prevent infection of the newborn.
  • 03:23 Finally, the newborn child would be wrapped in swaddling clothes,
  • 03:27 bound from its shoulders to its feet, with its arms and legs
  • 03:30 extended straight.
  • 03:32 It was a common belief in ancient times that this would
  • 03:34 ensure that the arms and legs of the child would go straight and
  • 03:38 strong and be firm and have a good foundation.
  • 03:42 Children would be bound and left in their cradles.
  • 03:45 Maybe once or twice a day they would be taken out of the
  • 03:48 clothes, which by now would be soiled.
  • 03:51 They would be cleaned, anointed with oil again, and perhaps a
  • 03:54 crushed powder of dried myrtle leaves would be spread on them
  • 03:58 sort of as a talcum powder to protect their skin.
  • 04:02 Nursing was the main way of feeding a baby.
  • 04:04 There didn't seem to be any alternatives and if a tragedy
  • 04:07 struck, such as the death of the mother or her illness, it would
  • 04:11 be a common practice to hire a wet nurse, to find someone who
  • 04:14 could come and nurse that baby on behalf of the mother.
  • 04:17 We know, also, that with a boy baby there would be a
  • 04:21 celebration for about eight days following the birth of the
  • 04:24 child, when the home would be opened to guests who could come
  • 04:28 on a daily basis to visit the father, the mother,
  • 04:30 and the new child.
  • 04:31 At the end of these eight days, the child would be circumcised.
  • 04:34 In New Testament times circumcision was carried out
  • 04:37 by a physician.
  • 04:39 With the birth of Jesus we also see reflected the practice of
  • 04:42 announcing the baby's name at the circumcision, for it was
  • 04:45 when he was eight days old and they had him circumcised that
  • 04:48 then they announced his name would be called Jesus.
  • 04:51 We know that this is a very ancient Jewish practice which is
  • 04:53 still followed to this day.
  • 04:55 In addition to the circumcision of a boy baby and the announcing
  • 04:59 of his name, there was one other stricture from the Old Testament
  • 05:04 which all Jews felt they must follow.
  • 05:07 This was the command to redeem the firstborn sons.
  • 05:10 If you remember, during the first Passover in Egypt,
  • 05:13 the angel of death spared the firstborn sons of
  • 05:15 the Israelites.
  • 05:17 As a result, God commanded that the firstborn sons from then on
  • 05:21 belonged to him and every firstborn son in a Jewish family
  • 05:25 should be redeemed by paying 5 shekels to the priests.
  • 05:30 At various times in Israel's history this 5-shekel redemption
  • 05:34 price was paid either to the local priest or to the temple.
  • 05:38 In Luke chapter 2 we see Mary and Joseph going up to the
  • 05:41 temple to pay the 5 shekels redemption price for Jesus
  • 05:43 at his dedication.
  • 05:47 ♪♪♪
  • 05:57 Zola Levitt: Well, here is a cave very similar to the cave
  • 06:01 where Jesus was born, laid in a manger.
  • 06:04 You know, we make a wooden barn out of these things, when we
  • 06:08 make a nativity set, and then we have a nice clean straw
  • 06:12 and a wooden cradle and so on.
  • 06:14 I'm afraid it was more like this.
  • 06:16 They didn't have wooden buildings in Israel.
  • 06:18 They don't now.
  • 06:20 There's not enough trees for that.
  • 06:21 Animals are kept in cave sometimes, a fire built at the
  • 06:25 front to ward off predators, and back in there we got
  • 06:30 the Son of God.
  • 06:32 Babies are important to Judaism like they are anywhere mostly
  • 06:35 because they come into a covenant.
  • 06:39 Every baby since the birth of Isaac comes into the covenant
  • 06:43 that God made with Abraham, very, very important and
  • 06:47 everlasting covenant, a berith olam, and it's about the land.
  • 06:55 It's about the blessing to all nations.
  • 06:57 It's about so many things.
  • 06:59 The main thing is its immutable, unchangeable, doesn't depend
  • 07:02 on Jewish behavior, doesn't depend on anything.
  • 07:05 It's God's promise to Abraham and what's extremely important
  • 07:08 about is it runs right through the new covenant and the other
  • 07:12 nations of the Gentiles come to faith just by the same way,
  • 07:15 through the Abrahamic covenant.
  • 07:17 A baby born--any Jewish son, at least, has the berith,
  • 07:24 a circumcision ceremony.
  • 07:26 There is a new covenant enforced now, of course, but the berith
  • 07:33 goes on, the Abrahamic covenant into which the Jewish
  • 07:37 babies enter.
  • 07:39 And how much law do they keep, the Gentiles when they come?
  • 07:44 That's the question.
  • 07:46 Gentile babies don't have a ceremony particularly to go into
  • 07:50 the Abrahamic covenant, but when they come to the Messiah they do
  • 07:53 enter the covenant.
  • 07:54 Gentile salvation is all about Abraham.
  • 07:57 You know, the debate of the 1st century was, when it came
  • 08:00 to Gentile salvation, how much law should they keep?
  • 08:04 How much should they know?
  • 08:06 Can they really believe in the Jewish Messiah without
  • 08:08 understanding the Mosaic Law, without the circumcision?
  • 08:12 This was the debate and particularly the Galatians
  • 08:17 were concerned about it and consulted Paul about it.
  • 08:20 "How are the Gentile saved?"
  • 08:23 I can hear some people saying with Peter, perhaps,
  • 08:26 "Circumcision really is necessary and knowledge
  • 08:29 of the law really is necessary."
  • 08:31 And others saying, "If it is liberty, if it is grace, and if
  • 08:34 no works are necessary, then nothing else is necessary.
  • 08:37 No law."
  • 08:39 And that's, sort of, the side that Paul came down on.
  • 08:42 If I look in Galatians 2:15 and 16 he presents the problem.
  • 08:47 "We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
  • 08:51 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
  • 08:54 law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in
  • 08:59 Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of
  • 09:02 Christ, and not by the works of the law."
  • 09:05 He's saying, "We are Jews, but we understand we who have come
  • 09:07 to Christ, that we're not justified by keeping the law.
  • 09:10 We're justified by the faith we put in the Messiah."
  • 09:13 He says, "By--for by the works of the law shall
  • 09:17 no flesh be justified."
  • 09:18 Paul taught that the law did not bring anyone to salvation.
  • 09:23 He went on this way, "O foolish Galatians," he became
  • 09:28 exasperated with them in Galatians 3 with these
  • 09:31 questions, "who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey
  • 09:35 the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently
  • 09:39 set forth, crucified among you?
  • 09:42 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by
  • 09:45 the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"
  • 09:48 He challenges them who really knew no law.
  • 09:52 "Are you so foolish?
  • 09:53 Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect
  • 09:56 by the flesh?"
  • 09:57 And this is a discussion going on today.
  • 09:59 How much do-gooding and how much faith does it take
  • 10:04 to be a proper Christian?
  • 10:06 Shall I put on a pretense of a high moral standard if
  • 10:10 in my heart I feel wicked?
  • 10:12 Shall I--what is the correct thing?
  • 10:14 If I'm saved in the Spirit can I perfect myself in the flesh,
  • 10:17 is the question.
  • 10:19 He goes on, "Have you suffered so many things in vain?
  • 10:21 If it be yet in vain.
  • 10:23 He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh
  • 10:26 miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law,
  • 10:30 or by the hearing of faith?"
  • 10:31 So, he makes a very interesting contrast here.
  • 10:35 If miracles are happening, does that happen because people
  • 10:38 are keeping a law or because people have faith?
  • 10:41 And the answer is obvious and now here is the tie into
  • 10:44 the Abrahamic covenant.
  • 10:46 It is a thing you enter by faith.
  • 10:49 "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him
  • 10:52 for righteousness.
  • 10:54 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same
  • 10:57 are the children of Abraham.
  • 11:00 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the
  • 11:04 heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham,
  • 11:07 saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."
  • 11:11 It's a forecast, Paul teaches, of Gentile salvation.
  • 11:13 That God said to Abraham, "In you all nations
  • 11:17 will be blessed."
  • 11:18 Nations are, in Hebrew, goy, Gentiles.
  • 11:21 If other nations are blessed through Abraham,
  • 11:24 then they are not the Jews.
  • 11:26 They are other nations, and he concludes, "So then they which
  • 11:30 be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."
  • 11:34 ♪♪♪
  • 11:45 announcer: Our resource this week, the series
  • 11:47 "Divine Deliverance" on DVD.
  • 11:49 These 12 programs examine how the Lord offered a message
  • 11:52 of salvation through significant Bible characters, beginning with
  • 11:57 faithful Abraham and ending with the Messiah himself.
  • 12:01 Each program includes location teaching, discussions of
  • 12:05 applications, plus the music of Zola Levitt.
  • 12:09 Contact us for the DVD series "Divine Deliverance."
  • 12:15 announcer: For insightful perspectives on Israel and Bible
  • 12:17 prophecy ask for our free monthly newsletter,
  • 12:20 "The Levitt Letter."
  • 12:22 At levitt.com you can read the newsletter, watch the TV
  • 12:26 program, or visit our online store.
  • 12:30 Stay current with us on social media via Facebook and Twitter.
  • 12:34 Come with us on a tour of Israel or Petra or a cruise to Greece
  • 12:38 and Ephesus.
  • 12:40 Please contact us for more information.
  • 12:45 Kirsten: When this program first aired in 1995 there was
  • 12:48 not a thing called social media.
  • 12:50 I'm kinda really glad that we have all that now.
  • 12:53 We can get in touch with each other, we can share videos and
  • 12:56 share information so fast, and at "Zola Levitt Presents"
  • 13:00 we have a page on Facebook.
  • 13:03 We're on Twitter.
  • 13:05 We have a whole channel on YouTube.
  • 13:06 Find us--find wonderful, like, different new shows.
  • 13:10 We have this program, but we also have so much more available
  • 13:13 on social media.
  • 13:16 Join us.
  • 13:17 Now let's go back to 1995 with Zola Levitt.
  • 13:23 Zola: Well, as we think about Jesus's birth then,
  • 13:25 he was circumcised.
  • 13:27 He came to the temple.
  • 13:28 Simeon and Anna waited for him to come.
  • 13:31 He was the firstborn.
  • 13:33 Firstborns were important in Judaism, obviously, and they
  • 13:36 were considered already redeemed, an earthly kind
  • 13:40 of redemption.
  • 13:42 When Jesus came, of course, he presented a more excellent way,
  • 13:46 an eternal redemption.
  • 13:48 You know, where fertility is concerned, God's not against it.
  • 13:51 Now, the first page of the Bible, he says, Genesis 1:28,
  • 13:56 "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth."
  • 13:59 He's all for it, but in a spiritual manner.
  • 14:03 Unbelievers without this law have abused the privilege
  • 14:07 of fertility.
  • 14:08 One is reminded of the Babylonians with
  • 14:11 their goddess Ishtar.
  • 14:13 She was a goddess of fertility and every spring they held
  • 14:17 fertility rights to have more babies, to try to repopulate,
  • 14:22 because they weren't living according to this law.
  • 14:25 And every disease that came down the road, they got it,
  • 14:28 the people died and instead of living in a more continent way
  • 14:32 they thought they would fight it by having more births.
  • 14:35 It was hopeless.
  • 14:36 The Babylonians are extinct, along with their fertility
  • 14:38 rights, the worship of the things that were fertile
  • 14:43 in nature: the rabbit.
  • 14:45 The trees were putting on new clothes, so they
  • 14:47 bought new outfits.
  • 14:49 They painted eggs and played with them.
  • 14:50 All this stuff has come to us along with Ishtar in the word
  • 14:54 "Easter," and we've somehow laminated it onto the Lord's
  • 14:58 resurrection.
  • 14:59 The Festival of Firstfruits certainly doesn't belong there.
  • 15:03 We think of the Egyptians and their incontinent living.
  • 15:07 God promised the children of Israel when they came out in the
  • 15:11 Exodus that if they would live according to this law they would
  • 15:15 have none of the diseases of Egypt, and people who live other
  • 15:17 than of this law do get these terrible plagues, even today.
  • 15:24 God often promised children among the Jewish people.
  • 15:28 The Bible is simply full of that.
  • 15:29 One of the most important, of course, was the promise of
  • 15:33 Isaac through Abraham.
  • 15:35 God came to Abraham and said he would have this son and,
  • 15:40 you know, they laughed, Abraham and Sarah.
  • 15:43 They were old.
  • 15:45 He ended up being called Isaac, Yischaq in Hebrew, laughter, and
  • 15:49 the same name is Yitzhak Rabin, which we're familiar with.
  • 15:54 Isaac was, in effect, the first Jew, so God promised the birth
  • 15:59 of the firstborn Jew and, of course, Isaac entered the
  • 16:03 covenant and was circumcised and so on.
  • 16:06 At the time when God promised, Abraham wept, and he said,
  • 16:11 "Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee."
  • 16:14 And God said there in Genesis 17, "I remember Ishmael,
  • 16:19 and I'll make of him many nations.
  • 16:21 Twelve princes will come from him."
  • 16:23 But in Genesis 17:22 he said, "But my covenant
  • 16:27 I make with Isaac."
  • 16:28 That's extremely important today, because descendants of
  • 16:32 Ishmael are claiming this land, which the covenant is about,
  • 16:35 but God said, "I make the covenant with Isaac."
  • 16:38 The land covenant ultimately comes from Abraham to Isaac to
  • 16:41 Jacob to Judah and the 12 and so on, the tribes of Israel.
  • 16:45 Another forecast, extremely important, is the promise
  • 16:50 of the King of the Jews.
  • 16:52 Not just the first Jew, but ultimately the ruling Jewish
  • 16:56 man, Jesus, promised in Isaiah 7:14, "Behold, a virgin
  • 17:02 shall conceive."
  • 17:04 And, oh, we know and love this prophecy.
  • 17:07 His birth was something so special that people
  • 17:09 were watching for it, I suppose, for centuries.
  • 17:14 If you really could analyze all the prophecies in those days,
  • 17:17 Daniel's placement in time, it would be before the destruction
  • 17:21 of the temple.
  • 17:23 Micah's placement as to the town, "But thou, O Bethlehem
  • 17:28 Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
  • 17:31 out of thee will come he whose whose goings forth have been
  • 17:33 from everlasting," the ruler of Israel and so on.
  • 17:37 If you could put all that together, you would kinda know
  • 17:40 where and when to look, but, in any case, when our Lord was born
  • 17:44 in a cave like the cave here people then remembered
  • 17:48 about Isaiah, indeed.
  • 17:50 You know the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls felt that Isaiah,
  • 17:54 his prophecies, pertained to Messiah, although now it's
  • 18:00 argued sometimes Isaiah 53 and some of the other key passages
  • 18:03 really are about the land and so on as people read the prophet
  • 18:07 and try to escape the Messiah for whatever reasons.
  • 18:10 That prophecy of the King was intensified in Isaiah 9:6 and 7,
  • 18:16 "Unto us a child is born, a son is given."
  • 18:19 So very important in the Jewish parlance, so births of babies
  • 18:25 were everything to the Jewish people.
  • 18:28 You know, the seven feasts of Israel are powerful.
  • 18:31 They come in a peculiar kind of calendar.
  • 18:35 Passover is first the 14th day of the first month.
  • 18:38 Unleavened Bread starts the next night and goes on for a week.
  • 18:42 First Fruits is during that week, what we've come to call
  • 18:44 Easter but should really call First Fruits.
  • 18:47 Pentecost is 50 days later.
  • 18:49 The Feast of Trumpets is the first day of the seventh month.
  • 18:53 The Day of Atonement is the 10th day of that month.
  • 18:55 The Feast of Tabernacles is the 15th day and those are given
  • 19:00 in Leviticus 23.
  • 19:02 Now, if I take an average pregnancy, if I look at the
  • 19:06 development of you and me and every baby that ever was
  • 19:10 developed in its mother's womb, it works this way: all
  • 19:14 pregnancies begin on the 14th day of the first month,
  • 19:18 like Passover.
  • 19:19 I mean, all--on the average they do and then that egg that comes
  • 19:23 as the Jewish symbol of Passover is the egg.
  • 19:26 That egg that appears must be utilized in 24 hours.
  • 19:30 In other words, by the start of Unleavened Bread the next night.
  • 19:35 Then that egg travels, if utilized, to be implanted and
  • 19:39 sometime during that week, depending just how fast it
  • 19:43 travels, how long the tube, it implants, and so we have
  • 19:48 First Fruits, a festival of planting.
  • 19:51 And then, that little--what is called an embryo grows, and
  • 19:56 we've all seen those seven rows of seven pictures in the
  • 19:59 obstetrical books of a little tadpole-looking creature growing
  • 20:04 and generalizing and so on.
  • 20:06 And, finally and the 50th picture, becoming a new
  • 20:11 creature, a human fetus.
  • 20:13 That's the day you can get the heartbeat, the 50th day, and
  • 20:16 that is 50 days until Pentecost, where new creatures were made.
  • 20:20 Then there is a period of general growth for all of us,
  • 20:24 for every baby, and the senses then start to develop.
  • 20:28 Sight is not first because there's nothing to see there.
  • 20:31 Hearing is first and the hearing develops at the first day of the
  • 20:35 seventh month, just in time for the Feast of Trumpets.
  • 20:39 Then the blood begins to change.
  • 20:41 Fetal blood needs to change to adult blood so that the baby can
  • 20:45 take its own oxygen, breathe its own air when it's born, and that
  • 20:49 change occurs the--around the tenth day of the seventh month,
  • 20:54 the Day of Atonement, the blood acceptable.
  • 20:56 And then, on the 15th day of the 7th month, the tabernacles, the
  • 21:01 houses of the Spirit, the lungs, are finished, and that is the
  • 21:05 first day of a safe delivery, once the lungs are finished.
  • 21:08 If we go all the way to the other month and a half to get
  • 21:12 over--or on the Jewish calendar, over to the 25th day of the
  • 21:16 month of Kislev, we will get a full 10 Jewish months,
  • 21:23 ten 28-day months, 280 days, a full pregnancy.
  • 21:27 That day is Hanukkah, the Feast of Rededication, new life,
  • 21:32 and that is the birthday.
  • 21:34 Any pregnancy will fit on that calendar of the seven feasts as
  • 21:42 it is announced in Leviticus 23.
  • 21:44 This is one of the most fascinating Bible studies
  • 21:48 I've ever come across.
  • 21:50 So, when babies are born God knows it.
  • 21:53 He has a plan.
  • 21:55 He has--the Scripture is full of the idea of he promises a child,
  • 22:00 he sees it through.
  • 22:02 It's a continuous process to birth and a miracle
  • 22:06 in every case.
  • 22:09 ♪♪♪
  • 22:11 [singing in Hebrew]
  • 24:18 ♪♪♪
  • 24:31 Kirsten: That was the music
  • 24:33 of Zipporah Bennett and that was in 1995, but she's still
  • 24:36 singing, and she's very active in Israel and with the Messianic
  • 24:40 music that she brings, yeah.
  • 24:42 David: I've gotta say, too, there is something about putting
  • 24:43 Scripture to music.
  • 24:45 For centuries, people have been doing that and that's the way
  • 24:47 that I learned Scripture, through music.
  • 24:49 Kirsten: And that was Psalm 118, verse 15,
  • 24:52 so it was kinda new.
  • 24:54 It was ancient.
  • 24:55 It was a while ago now, but it was ancient music
  • 24:57 that she was singing.
  • 24:59 Jeffrey: And speaking of for centuries, for centuries people
  • 25:00 have been having babies and what's interesting is looking at
  • 25:04 the birthing traditions of Jews, I should say.
  • 25:09 That's distinct from--in Greco-Roman culture.
  • 25:12 In the Jewish world there was an undying love
  • 25:15 for children at birth.
  • 25:17 In Greco-Roman culture children were disregarded oftentimes,
  • 25:20 left at dumps.
  • 25:22 If someone had a child with a deformity, they were
  • 25:25 left at dumps.
  • 25:26 In fact, infanticide was a state policy, interestingly.
  • 25:30 By way of contradistinction in the Jewish world the children
  • 25:34 were loved.
  • 25:35 They were absorbed, they were taken in, but sometimes unwanted
  • 25:38 girls were left at the dumps and picked up as prostitutes later.
  • 25:42 It really happened a lot.
  • 25:44 That's not hype.
  • 25:46 When you look at the sources the ancients write about it often.
  • 25:49 Kirsten: And I love--there is something interesting that Zola
  • 25:51 taught on today.
  • 25:52 I mean, you know, we know the Christmas story, that
  • 25:55 Jesus was swaddled.
  • 25:57 I just didn't realize it was to help straighten them out
  • 26:00 and how tightly swaddled.
  • 26:02 I just think that's interesting. Never knew that.
  • 26:04 Jeffrey: It really is.
  • 26:05 It is, and I learn new things all the time and that was
  • 26:08 one of the things.
  • 26:09 I hope you learn new things as a result of your participation
  • 26:13 in "Zola Levitt" ministries.
  • 26:16 If you don't participate please prayerfully consider doing that.
  • 26:21 And why is that?
  • 26:22 Many people believe that Christianity began with
  • 26:24 Constantine in the 4th century.
  • 26:26 Not so.
  • 26:28 We're interested in the Jewish roots of the Christian faith,
  • 26:30 and we like to look at the Bible.
  • 26:32 We like to put Jewish views on these biblical views and explore
  • 26:37 Yeshua in his host culture.
  • 26:41 We think it's fascinating and if you do, too,
  • 26:42 help us do it, please.
  • 26:45 David: Next week, I believe we're talking about homes
  • 26:47 of the first Christians, living conditions.
  • 26:49 I don't think it was so great, how they lived back then.
  • 26:53 Kirsten: I think it was small, but come back
  • 26:55 and join us.
  • 26:56 Jeffrey: Next week.
  • 26:58 Until then, sha'alu shalom Yerushalayim.
  • 27:00 David: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
  • 27:04 [singing in Hebrew]
  • 27:22 male announcer: Our monthly newsletter, "The Levitt Letter,"
  • 27:23 is free and full of insightful
  • 27:25 articles and news commentary from a messianic perspective.
  • 27:28 Visit levitt.com to find our newsletter, along with current
  • 27:32 and past programs, our television schedule,
  • 27:35 and much more.
  • 27:37 female announcer: Don't forget to order this week's
  • 27:38 resource by calling 1-800-WONDERS, or you can
  • 27:43 purchase it from our store at levitt.com.
  • 27:47 male announcer: Your donations to Zola Levitt
  • 27:49 Ministries help these organizations bless Israel.
  • 27:52 female announcer: Thanks again for joining us this week.
  • 27:54 Zola Levitt Ministries and this television program depend on
  • 27:59 tax-deductible donations from viewers like you.
  • 28:04 ♪♪♪
  • 28:25 male announcer: This has been a paid program brought to you by
  • 28:27 Zola Levitt Ministries.

Episodes in this series

  1. Birth
  2. The Home
  3. Livelihood
  4. The Family
  5. Agriculture
  6. Government
  7. Religion
  8. Messiah
  9. Death

Links from this show

Guest organizations and links