In Depth:  Daniel McIlhiney

Daniel McIlhiney

"Why are so many Jews atheists?"

I hear this a lot.

Daniel McIlhiney

I want to share a story with you that emphasises the importance of understanding Jesus’ Jewish context when speaking to your Jewish friends about Him.

I recently met with an elderly Jewish woman whose daughter was being baptised and she wanted to understand why. “How could she?” she asked me as I sat down. “How could she give up on her identity like that? I could never do that!”

Daniel McIlhiney

Two days before writing this from sunny North Carolina, a well-meaning friend asked me, “so, when did you convert?” This question still makes me bristle. Perhaps it shouldn’t.

I answer him, of course, and took it as the well meaning question that it was intended to be, but that word “convert” is not a word that I, or any other Jewish believers in Jesus that I know, feel comfortable with.

Daniel McIlhiney

In our Jewish scriptures, the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, we read about a series of men who speak on behalf of God. These are the prophets.

The prophets’ job was to communicate on behalf of God to people. A common motif at the start of these prophetic careers is the moment of commissioning - the moments when the prophet first encounters God in a unique way (often accompanied by a “vision”, e.g. Isaiah’s vision of God on His throne or Ezekiel’s vision of God on His chariot) through prayer. Each and every prophet spoke first with God before speaking with the people. Why was Isaiah in the temple after the death of Uzziah? To pray!

Daniel McIlhiney

Antisemitism is on the rise. We all know it; you know it and your Jewish friends certainly know it. In the first half of last year, there were a reported 1,978 antisemitic incidents (compared with 964 in the same period of 2023).

We have just had the festival of Hannukah, a festival which commemorates (amongst other things) the victory of the Jewish Maccabean rebels over the forces of the Seleucid Emperor, Atiochus IV Epiphanes. The revolt was prompted by the antisemitism of this deranged Emperor’s forces and, as Jews across the UK gathered to celebrate God’s provision in those days, conversations would have turned to antisemitism today.

Daniel McIlhiney

There are as many kinds of Jews as there are people. Some are religious and some are not, but like all other people Jews will bring assumptions to the reading of Scripture, to the concept of God and to the claims of Yeshua, Jesus.

For a Jewish person, religious or not, these assumptions are likely influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Tanakh, the Jewish Hebrew Bible. These are also the assumptions that Jesus Himself, along with His followers, held.