Who Ate Lunch with Abraham?

Book:

Heinrich asked, “How did your father become a believer in Jesus?” 

Rebekah said, “You don’t ask simple questions do you?” 

After some deliberation, she began, “My Father had questions coming out of his reading of the Torah and the Prophets. For instance, in Berasheet (Genesis) Abraham has a meal with three men and one name is spelled YHVH, the ineffable name of God. So here we have Abraham talking face to face with God who is supposed to be unseeable. And there are other such stories. Isaiah speaks of a child who will be born unto our people whose name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, almighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. My father knew very well that the Gentiles said this was Jesus. But the Jesus they demonstrated to us didn’t match the Messiah’s description. They claimed that Jesus, or Yeshua didn’t care about the Torah yet that contradicted what He said and what the real Messiah would embrace. My father was called a Christ killer many times. He realized he didn’t know anything about this Jesus who he was accused of killing and wanted to know more. But that meant he’d have to read the New Testament and where was he going to get one of those without anyone knowing? He definitely didn’t want to talk to a priest, so he asked a few people who were into books and they arranged for a meeting with someone who knew Gutenberg, because he was just starting to print New Testament texts from Erasmus. Erasmus had access to codices rescued from Constantinople before the Islamic hordes sacked the city. My father bought one anonymously and I read from it too.

In looking back on all this I can’t imagine where he got the time to do this because it had to be done behind closed doors. And he had his job as manager of the estate and occasional duties in the synagogue. I wonder also how he did this around my mother; but it’s fairly common for Jewish men to spend hours reading sacred texts."

Note: The post name and reference in the text is from Asher Intrater's book by that name. I highly recommend reading it. I have met Asher several times and he is the best example of the Apostle Paul that I have ever met.