I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Carroll’s lecture on Monday. Being Jewish, I have absolutely no knowledge of the New Testament. Before giving his lecture, when I was reading the book of Mark, I did not even know this was the book where Jesus was crucified. Although i’ve been told by other people and learned from tv shows (like south park and robot chicken) that the Jews were kind of responsible for his death, I did not know what it is they did. Though I knew the Romans played a part in his crucifixion, I was also not sure of what they did either. Hearing Mr. Carroll talk about the importance of context really help to answer some of my questions. I had no idea that Jews for Jesus originated to that far back, and I was also unaware of the Jews rebelliousness during this time. The whole concept of the division between the jews after the temple was destroyed is really interesting to me. I liked Mr. Carroll’s explanation that while some Jews wanted to reain loyal to the laws and rules of the Torah, the other Jews felt at lost with their heritage when the temple was destroyed. Therefore, they felt they had to turn to Christ to be their new “temple.”

By the way, I would really like to hear from Mr. Carroll again in the future, I have many questions that I would find interesting to hear from a Christian’s perspective. Especially since he knows so much about the Bible.