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In this Bridge Builders Forum episode, Ryan Lambert sits down with Rabbi Joe Charnes to explore one of the most important and debated questions in biblical interpretation:

How Jewish was the Apostle Paul, really?

This conversation comes from a recent Bridge Builders Forum Coffee & Connection live gathering, where Rabbi Joe and Ryan continued a thoughtful discussion that began in an earlier episode about Paul as a Jewish figure.

Both speakers approach Paul as Jewish interpreters who respect him deeply, yet they arrive at different conclusions about how Paul related to Judaism after becoming a follower of Jesus and the apostle to the Gentiles.

Did Paul move beyond Judaism?
Did he remain fully within it?
Or does the answer require more nuance than the traditional categories allow?

In this conversation, Rabbi Joe and Ryan explore questions such as:

• How Jewish interpreters understand Paul today
• Whether Paul continued to affirm Jewish practices such as Torah observance
• How Paul has been misunderstood by both Jews and Christians
• Why Paul still shapes modern Jewish–Christian relationships

Importantly, this discussion models something that is often missing in conversations about Paul: respectful dialogue between friends who share common ground but do not hold identical views.

At Bridge Builders Forum, we believe these kinds of conversations help Jews and Christians better understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

If you are interested in Paul, Jewish–Christian relations, or the historical context of the New Testament, this conversation will offer insight, nuance, and thoughtful engagement.

Bridge Builders Forum
An educational entity dedicated to helping Jews and Christians understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

Bridge Builders Forum Email News and Updates

Download the free PDF "Recovering the Jewish Paul: Three Keys to Understanding the Apostle and Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians"

The Weird Apostle
Ryan's book places the Apostle Paul in his Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

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In a time when the relationship between Jews and Christians is being tested, debated, and sometimes misunderstood, thoughtful leadership and meaningful relationships matter more than ever.

In this episode of the Bridge Builders Forum, Ryan Lambert sits down with Rev. Peter Fast, International President and CEO of Bridges for Peace, an organization that has spent more than 50 years building relationships between Christians and Jews around the world.

Peter joins the conversation from Israel to share his personal journey, the mission behind Bridges for Peace, and why fostering healthy Christian–Jewish relationships is so important in this moment. Together, Ryan and Peter discuss the rise of antisemitism, the challenges surrounding Christian Zionism, and why Christians who care about the Bible should also care deeply about the Jewish people and the land of Israel.

The conversation also explores practical ways Christians can move beyond good intentions and take meaningful action—supporting Jewish communities, learning from the biblical roots of their faith, and standing with clarity and compassion in a complicated world.

Peter also introduces a unique Bridges for Peace initiative called Ignite the Truth, a year-long Bible study journey filmed in the Land of Israel that helps Christians reconnect their faith to the biblical story and its Jewish context.

If you care about the future of Jewish–Christian relationships, the fight against antisemitism, and what faithful Christian support for Israel can look like today, this conversation will both challenge and encourage you.

Learn more about Bridges for Peace at - https://www.bridgesforpeace.com/

Learn more about Ignite the Truth at https://ignitethetruth.com/home-signup

Bridge Builders Forum
An educational entity dedicated to helping Jews and Christians understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

Bridge Builders Forum Email News and Updates

Download the free PDF "Recovering the Jewish Paul: Three Keys to Understanding the Apostle and Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians"

The Weird Apostle
Ryan's book places the Apostle Paul in his Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

Make a tax deductible donation to the Bridge Builders Forum

Send a text

What does it really mean for Christians to stand with the Jewish people — in a way that is biblical, honest, and free from hidden agendas?

In this episode of the Bridge Builders Forum, we share an excerpt from Session 3 of the Olive Tree Pilot Course, part of the Olive Tree Campaign—an initiative designed to help Christians grow in understanding what it means to stand against antisemitism and with the Jewish people.

In this session, Ryan Lambert walks through Olive Tree Affirmations 6–8, addressing three of the most sensitive and often misunderstood topics in Jewish–Christian relations:

• Should Christians evangelize Jews?
• Is this “dual covenant theology”?
• Do the Jewish people still have a covenantal bond to the Land of Israel?

Drawing deeply from Epistle to the Romans chapters 9–11, especially Paul’s olive tree metaphor in Romans 11, this session challenges replacement theology and zero-sum readings of Scripture.

You’ll hear a careful explanation of:

Why targeting Jews for conversion damages trust and misunderstands Paul’s covenantal language

How God’s faithfulness to Israel and Gentile redemption in Christ are not in competition

Why affirming the Jewish people’s covenantal connection to the Land of Israel can be rooted in the New Testament itself

If you care about the future of Jewish–Christian relations, this conversation will challenge and sharpen your thinking.

Learn more about the Olive Tree Campaign and the Olive Tree Affirmations at www.bridgebuildersforum.com/olivetree

Bridge Builders Forum
An educational entity dedicated to helping Jews and Christians understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

Bridge Builders Forum Email News and Updates

Download the free PDF "Recovering the Jewish Paul: Three Keys to Understanding the Apostle and Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians"

The Weird Apostle
Ryan's book places the Apostle Paul in his Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

Make a tax deductible donation to the Bridge Builders Forum

Send a text

In recent years, a growing number of Jewish scholars have begun engaging the Apostle Paul as a first-century Jew writing within the diversity of Jewish life and thought. But these scholars do not all reach the same conclusions—especially when it comes to Paul’s relationship to Jews and Judaism.

In this episode of the Bridge Builders Forum Podcast, Ryan Lambert sits down with Dr. Sarah Emanuel, associate professor of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University and author of Wrestling with Paul. Together, they explore Paul’s Jewish identity, the complexity of his writings, and the real dangers involved in how Paul has been interpreted and used in Christian history.

This is an honest conversation that wrestles with hard questions—about Paul, about Jewish-Christian relations, and about how our assumptions shape the way we read Scripture.

Topics include:

The idea of Paul as a “particularistic, ethnocentric Jew”

Paul as an “average Jew” within first-century Jewish discourse

Attempts to “make Paul good” after the Holocaust

The relationship between theological anti-Judaism and antisemitism

Why even responsible readings of Paul can carry real risks

Dr. Emanuel's Wrestling with Paul can be purchased at https://a.co/d/0gQKoAlY

Bridge Builders Forum
An educational entity dedicated to helping Jews and Christians understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

Bridge Builders Forum Email News and Updates

Download the free PDF "Recovering the Jewish Paul: Three Keys to Understanding the Apostle and Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians"

The Weird Apostle
Ryan's book places the Apostle Paul in his Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

Make a tax deductible donation to the Bridge Builders Forum

Send a text

In this episode, we continue the Olive Tree Course pilot by exploring Olive Tree Affirmations 3–5—three statements that challenge long-standing Christian assumptions about Judaism, the New Testament, and how authentic learning takes place.

For centuries, many Christians have inherited the idea that Judaism was a problem Jesus came to solve, that the New Testament stands in opposition to Jewish life and practice, and that Christianity can define Judaism without listening to Jewish voices. These assumptions have shaped theology, preaching, and imagination—often with harmful consequences.

This conversation offers a different path.

We explore why:

Judaism was not a problem Jesus or Paul came to replace

Using the New Testament to justify anti-Judaism contradicts the gospel

Authentic Christian learning requires engaging Jewish voices, texts, and lived experience

Along the way, we address how intra-Jewish debates in the New Testament have been misread as anti-Jewish critiques, how stereotypes about Torah and “legalism” persist, and why recovering Christianity’s Jewish context strengthens—not weakens—Christian faith.

The goal is not to blur differences between Jews and Christians, but to foster clarity, humility, and a relationship marked by respect rather than suspicion.

This episode is part of the Olive Tree Campaign—an initiative equipping Christians with a biblical and theological vocabulary for honoring the Jewish people, resisting inherited distortions, and building meaningful relationships rooted in the faithfulness of God.

Download the Olive Tree Affirmations at https://bridgebuildersforum.com/olivetree

Bridge Builders Forum
An educational entity dedicated to helping Jews and Christians understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

Bridge Builders Forum Email News and Updates

Download the free PDF "Recovering the Jewish Paul: Three Keys to Understanding the Apostle and Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians"

The Weird Apostle
Ryan's book places the Apostle Paul in his Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

Make a tax deductible donation to the Bridge Builders Forum

Send a text

How should the book of Acts be read? And what’s at stake in how we answer that question?

The book of Acts is often treated as the story of Christianity’s break from Judaism: the moment when “the Way” replaces “the Jews,” and Judaism becomes a problem the gospel has moved beyond. But what if that assumption is misplaced?

In this episode of the Bridge Builders Forum Podcast, Ryan Lambert is joined by Dr. Jason Moraff, Chair of the Department of Theological Studies at The King’s University, to explore a different way of reading Acts—as a Jewish text, written from within the Judaism of its own time.

Drawing from his book, "Reading the Way, Paul, and 'The Jews' in Acts within Judaism", Dr. Moraff examines how Acts portrays “the Way,” the Jerusalem Temple, the apostle Paul, and the Jewish people—challenging readings that turn Acts into a story of replacement or supersession.

Together, they discuss:

What Luke means by “the Way,” and why it should be understood as a Jewish subgroup

How Temple critique functions within Judaism rather than against it

How Acts portrays Paul’s relationship to Torah and the Jewish people

Why Luke does not construct a “true Israel” over against a “false Israel”

How the ending of Acts (Acts 28) should be read responsibly

What this approach means for today’s Bible readers—Jewish and Christian alike

This is an in-depth, historically grounded conversation about Acts, Jewish–Christian relations, and why how we read Scripture matters.

Check out Jason's book at https://a.co/d/0k1oFvL

Bridge Builders Forum
An educational entity dedicated to helping Jews and Christians understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

Bridge Builders Forum Email News and Updates

Download the free PDF "Recovering the Jewish Paul: Three Keys to Understanding the Apostle and Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians"

The Weird Apostle
Ryan's book places the Apostle Paul in his Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

Make a tax deductible donation to the Bridge Builders Forum

Send a text

What does it really mean for Christians to stand against antisemitism and stand with the Jewish people—in a way that is deeply biblical and faithful to the New Testament?

In this Bridge Builders Forum episode, you’ll hear an excerpt from Session One of the Olive Tree Pilot Course, a live Zoom teaching that introduces the Olive Tree Campaign and explores Olive Tree Affirmations 1 and 2.

Drawing on the Apostle Paul’s olive tree imagery in Romans 11, this session directly challenges Replacement Theology and addresses the widespread confusion many Christians feel about Israel, the Jewish people, and the Church.

In this episode, we explore:

Why Replacement Theology—often unintentionally—still shapes Christian teaching

How “fulfillment” and “expansion” language can obscure Israel’s ongoing covenant

Why Romans 9:6 has been widely misunderstood

How Paul’s olive tree vision affirms God’s enduring covenant with the Jewish people

Why Christian faith was never meant to exist apart from a positive relationship with Jews and Judaism

The Olive Tree Campaign is a Bridge Builders Forum initiative designed to give Christians clear language, biblical grounding, and theological confidence to articulate why standing with the Jewish people is an essential expression of Christian faithfulness.

Download the Olive Tree Affirmations at https://bridgebuildersforum.com/olivetree

Bridge Builders Forum
An educational entity dedicated to helping Jews and Christians understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

Bridge Builders Forum Email News and Updates

Download the free PDF "Recovering the Jewish Paul: Three Keys to Understanding the Apostle and Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians"

The Weird Apostle
Ryan's book places the Apostle Paul in his Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

Make a tax deductible donation to the Bridge Builders Forum

Send a text

Antisemitism is being talked about more than ever—but understanding it clearly remains a challenge.

Narratives move quickly. Headlines simplify complex realities. And ancient ideas often resurface in modern forms without being recognized for what they are. In this episode of the Bridge Builders Forum podcast, we explore how those dynamics shape attitudes toward Jews today—and why biblical interpretation and media narratives matter more than we often realize.

I’m joined by Tricia Miller, Director of the Partnership of Christians and Jews at CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis). Together, we examine the Book of Esther as a powerful lens for understanding how antisemitism forms, spreads, and is sustained—both in Scripture and in the modern media environment.

Our conversation explores:

How media narratives shape public perception of Jews—and sometimes Christians as well

Why Esther remains one of the most important and misunderstood biblical texts for understanding antisemitism

How misreadings of Esther have reinforced harmful ideas about Jews and Jewish power

The work of CAMERA’s Partnership of Christians and Jews in responding constructively to distorted narratives

What courage and responsibility look like today when confronting antisemitism thoughtfully and honestly

This episode invites listeners into a deeper, more careful conversation about Scripture, storytelling, and the responsibility we all share in responding to antisemitism with clarity, integrity, and courage.

Visit CAMERA's website at https://www.camera.org/

Visit CAMERA's partnership of Christians and Jews website at https://www.cameraspartnership.org/

Bridge Builders Forum
An educational entity dedicated to helping Jews and Christians understand their faith, the Bible, and each other.

Bridge Builders Forum Email News and Updates

Download the free PDF "Recovering the Jewish Paul: Three Keys to Understanding the Apostle and Building Bridges Between Jews and Christians"

The Weird Apostle
Ryan's book places the Apostle Paul in his Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

Make a tax deductible donation to the Bridge Builders Forum