I have enjoyed Tverberg's book very much. She takes a look at Jesus teachings and gives good insights into some of the cultural and language implications that many of us miss because we don't know the idiom's of the Jewish Culture from the 1st century. She does a great job of explaining many of the Hebrew words that Jesus used and how they could be interpreted by his listeners because of the way they used the language. Her explanations are wonderful.
One of the main points she makes in the first part of the book is that the Hebrew language has a very small vocabulary. As such many words have multiple meanings. They are often used interchangeably and thus you have to look at the context of the teaching. Some of the idiom's are interesting because they made sense to Jesus listeners but not necessarily to us. As she points out we have a saying, "quit beating around the bush," that makes sense to us but would it have made sense to Jesus listener's? Well the opposite is also true. What made sense to them maybe confuses us.
If you went to Seminary and learned Hebrew much of what Tverberg says you will already know (most likely). But if you are a lay pastor, like me, or a layperson who doesn't have that language training then you will find this book very helpful. While it deals with language use it is written in a very straight forward easy to understand manner that you will be able to easily follow.
If you have loved the teachings of Ray Vanderlann or Kenneth Bailey then you are going to love this book.
I hope you enjoy this good new resource!
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