Did Jesus Point to Moses?

Exploring the Faith of Jesus Within the Religion of Moses

Who was Jesus—religiously? According to the earliest sources, both canonical and extra-canonical, Jesus of Nazareth continually directed his followers toward “Moses”—not a person alone, but a faith and practice embodied in the Torah. Long before Christianity existed, Jesus lived and taught as a Jew within the diverse Judaisms of the first century, embracing certain Mosaic commandments as foundational while sharply challenging other interpretations of Moses current in his day.

In this class, we will examine how Jesus is portrayed as both appealing to Moses and disputing with those who claimed to represent Moses. How did he understand the path to eternal life? What did he believe was the true “faith of Moses”? And why does he at times condemn the religious leaders who “sit in Moses’ seat” while seemingly affirming their authority?

We will also consider the ancient Ebionite understanding of Jesus—a portrait that preserves early views of a Torah-faithful teacher whose message stood in tension with other forms of emerging Judaism.

Join us as we explore a provocative question: When Jesus pointed his followers to Moses, which Moses did he mean—the Moses of his own reading, or the Moses presented by his religious opponents? And what might this reveal about the message he intended to preserve?

Tour the Holy Lands with Ross [⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠]

Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Did Moses Point to Jesus?

In the time of Jesus, the five books of the Torah were generally attributed to Moses, and the Gospel writers consistently speak of “Moses” or “the Law” when drawing on those narratives. In this class, we explore that world on its own terms.

We’ll consider how the evangelists—and at times Jesus himself—speak as though Moses wrote things that pointed forward to Jesus, even though they do not specify what those things were. We will also look at how the public reading of the Law and the Prophets shaped synagogue life, including the ancient triennial cycle, and how that rhythm might illuminate the way Gospel authors portrayed Jesus’ ministry.

Finally, we’ll turn to the Gospel of John, where the narrator preserves two intriguing moments—perhaps the only explicit examples in the New Testament—of Jesus identifying a Mosaic story as foreshadowing his own role. These brief references lead us back to the central question of the session: Did Moses Point to Jesus?

Tour the Holy Lands with Ross [⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠]

Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Ancient Immersion: The Beginnings of Baptism

In this session, we will immerse ourselves in the world that shaped baptism—exploring passages from the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Jewish practice, Qumran, Josephus, and early Jewish-Christian traditions. Together, these texts invite us to reconsider how baptism stands at the threshold of the Jesus story and what its earliest meaning may have been.

Tour the Holy Lands with Ross [⁠HERE⁠]

Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Was John the Baptist More Than a Prophet?

Before Jesus proclaims his message in the Gospels, another voice is already thundering across the wilderness. The sacred historians begin not with Jesus, but with John—a figure so enigmatic that the crowds asked him whether he was Elijah, the Prophet, or even the Messiah.

In this class, we explore why John provoked such questions. Why did Jesus say that “among those born of women none is greater”? And are those who are least in the kingdom greater than John? Drawing from the Hebrew Bible, Josephus, early Christian writings, and the earliest gospel traditions, we’ll examine the roles John refused, the roles others placed upon him, and the extraordinary role Jesus claimed for him.

Join me as we consider whether he was far more than a prophet—and why the answer still matters.

Watch the video [⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠]

Matthew's Prophetic Rebirth

How ancient prophecies were reapplied, reinterpreted, and born again in the Gospel narrative.

In this session of Sunday School with Ross, we’ll take a closer look at four prophecies that shape the opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel—Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2, Hosea 11:1, and Jeremiah 31:15.

Each of these texts once spoke to its own moment in Israel’s story—yet in Matthew’s hands, they take on new significance in his gospel. Is Matthew creating something new from old prophecies, or continuing an ancient interpretive tradition that sought contemporary meaning in timeless words? Together we’ll journey through the words of the prophets, the commentaries of Qumran, and the pages of the Gospel of Matthew to uncover an enduring method—one that discovers new meaning within old predictions and reads history itself as the unfolding of sacred patterns. Join Ross as he traces these prophetic patterns through the scrolls, the Scriptures, and the story that shaped a faith.

Watch the video [⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠]

The Predicted Prophet

Of all the prophets whose words fill Scripture, only one was expected to return.This class explores the closing promise of prophecy—the prediction of a prophet who was not finished, a messenger whose absence became the greatest expectation of all.

Watch the video [⁠HERE⁠]

The Gospel Before Jesus

Mark, our earliest gospel, opens with, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ…” — yet the story does not begin with Jesus.

After tracing the final forty years before the destruction of both the First and Second Temples, we now turn to the opening of the gospel narrative itself—a time every bit as prophetically charged. In this class, we’ll see that the gospel’s beginning is not Bethlehem or Nazareth, but the Temple, and with a priest.

Luke introduces the story “in the days of Herod, king of Judea,” when a certain priest named Zechariah, of the course of Abijah, serves in the Temple while the people pray outside at the hour of incense. The sacred historian assumes his readers understand these things. Most do not. Together, we’ll unlock this background—drawing from the Hebrew Bible, Josephus, the Mishnah, and the Talmud—to reconstruct what actually happened inside the Holy Place when Zechariah stood before the golden altar and the angel appeared.

We’ll explore the priestly courses, the incense ritual, and why being “righteous before God” meant something very different in its original Hebraic context. Finally, we’ll follow the narrative to Elisabeth’s miraculous conception and reflect on how her story continues the long biblical line of barren women blessed with promised sons.

This class bridges the world of the prophets and the Gospels, opening “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus” where it truly begins: before Jesus, with John.

Watch the video [⁠HERE⁠]

The END of the Second Temple

Forty years before the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, prophets warned of its impending fall. Could the same be said of the Second Temple? In this continuation of last week’s class, we explore whether history repeated itself—whether there were signs, sermons, or prophetic voices foretelling the end of Jerusalem’s sanctuary once again. Drawing from Josephus, Talmudic literature, and the New Testament, Ross examines the final decades before 70 CE to uncover a pattern of warning, witness, and fulfillment that may echo the days of Jeremiah.

Watch the video [HERE]

The END of the First Temple

Our opening class begins a guided look at a thousand years of sacred history—the Times of the Temples. Though centuries apart, the First and Second Temples share uncanny parallels: moments of glory, cycles of neglect, calls to repentance, and voices that warned of what was to come.

Class One begins the investigation by tracing the events leading up to the destruction of the First Temple—its reforms, its prophets, and the warnings that went unheeded. This first session sets the stage for what follows, laying the groundwork for the questions that will guide our next class:

◉ If the fall of the First Temple was foretold, can we show the same for the Second?

◉ If we can name the prophets who warned of the first, can we identify any prophets who warned of the second?

Watch the video [HERE]

In this final class of the Deciphering Deuteronomy series, we’ll explore a unique command found in Deuteronomy. Highlighting a lesser-known practice of Sukkot, this class will reveal how the Torah was originally designed to preserve freedom, not impose bondage. We’ll trace this ancient practice to show that true freedom comes from the Law.

Watch this Episode [⁠HERE⁠]