“Pious agnostic” Jew, Joseph Epstein: “faith envy”; an honest Jew, like Vitaly Ginzburg

         "faith envy"          ——           "I envy believers"

     A recent issue of the Wall Street Journal (Sept. 8, 2023, p. A13) published a 762-word essay by noted Jewish author Joseph Epstein. The essay was entitled “Pious Agnosticism as a Form of Judaism” under the category “Houses of Worship”. Mr Epstein is in many ways an honest Jew, as his comments about himself reveal. He is an aging man at 86. He says he has “faith envy” when speaking about a “serious Catholic” neighbor woman. This “envy” echoes the statement by the famous aging Russian Jewish scientist Vitaly Ginzburg when he stated "I envy believers".

      Epstein considered his Catholic neighbor to be a Christian believer. Whether she was or not would depend on whether she set aside the Romanist “grace and works” doctrine, also that Mary is a “co-redemptrix” with Christ, and so she only trusted in Christ’s all-atoning sacrifice, not her own works or Mary. — 

      Epstein further reveals what a true Jew is, in his account of a Polish Jew who had “memorized vast stretches of the Talmud” (a product of the Rabbis), yet was “an atheist”. That supports the title of his short essay, as Epstein calls himself a “pious agnostic”.  — 

      He reveals what he thinks of religion, that it “has been the font of morality, instructing humanity in what is right and wrong.” That confirms once again that Judaism is a religion of the Law, and Law alone.  This reminds one of a charge by Luther against not only the Jews, but Erasmus of Rotterdam, when he said [see this blog post] that Erasmus taught religion for “the sole purpose of instructing the people in a good external conduct and life and preparing them for worthy obedience and discipline.” [StL 22, 1082, #126]

      As stated about Mr. Ginzburg, so it holds true for Mr. Epstein: 

"The saddest part is that his unbelief was absolutely unnecessary for he too had a Saviour, a Saviour for whom God so loved the world (John 3:16), a Reconciler for him also (2 Cor. 5:19), even if he would not believe.  Jesus tells us about the likes of these when he answered the Jews who would hold up their heritage of "our father Abraham" before God:

John 8:56 – Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad."

May Mr. Epstein see the light of Day, the Daystar in the Savior from sin — Christ Jesus — and so face eternity with joy. (Num. 24:17, 2 Peter 1:19)