An academic understanding of scripture falls short with this and other important doctrines.
by Marty Smithhart—
When I became a Christian in my 30s, one of the questions I used to ask myself was, "Is the Bible really that confusing? There is no doubt that there are all kinds of views on Christianity, who God is, Islam’s view of God (Allah) and Judaism’s view of Hashem, etc. One thing that really captivated me when I first began to compare and contrast Christianity (the scriptures) with modern Judaism is this point: The scriptures, both Old and New Testament, were written before the Talmudic sages wrote. The Christian texts were written before Talmudic Judaism began codification. Therefore, if you want to know what the Bible says from its earliest point of view, before Talmudic Judaism and its sages, you must use the Christian New Testament.