Few words about me (or may be not so few)

I am Dr. Eli (Eliyahu) Girzshel, an Israeli American Jewish-Christian scholar of Russian Jewish heritage (how is that for a collection of backgrounds?!). It becomes even more complex if you read on. 😎

I believe God has called me to help believers, especially Christian leaders in the non-western world, encounter Scripture within its original Jewish context, culture, and language until they too can hear the soft sound of sandaled feet.

I serve as lead teacher at Jewish Studies for Christians and as Academic Dean of the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies. I also continue to oversee the Israel Bible Center, which I founded with several friends about ten years ago. Beyond this, I teach a wide range of materials rooted in the Jewish world of the Bible, and I mentor pastors, priests, missionaries, and other Christian leaders around the world.

I was born in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, back when it was part of the USSR, way before the flood. Remember those days? The Lord called me to Himself when I was seventeen. Since then I have lived in Tajikistan, Ukraine, Russia, the USA, and Israel, and I speak Russian, Hebrew, and English. I am married to the most wonderful person on God’s green earth, Natalia (Netalyah). Between the two of us we have six children and two grandchildren whom we dearly love.

You may also know me by my former last name, Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, since I published all my books under this name before. Girzshel is the name I was born with (our family has recently recovered its original Hebrew spelling, גירזשל, and after some 45 years I decided to return to it). It is a long story, and one for another time.

• Ph.D. in Ancient Cultures from Stellenbosch University (2011)
• Visiting Research Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2011)
• Visiting Research Fellow at W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (2011)
• Visiting doctoral student at Princeton Theological Seminary (2009)
• M.Phil. in Bible Interpretation from Stellenbosch University (2008)
• M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary (2001)

Academic Publications:

• Article (Living on the Borderline: Syriac Christianity’s Semitic Heritage and Anti-Judaizing Polemic) in the Oxford Handbook on Jewish Christianity and Messianic Judaism (Oxford University Press), forthcoming in 2027.
• A monograph (Aphrahat’s Demonstrations: A Conversation with the Jews of Mesopotamia) in Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO) (Catholic University of Louvain), 2012.
• Encyclopedia entries (Cyril Lucaris, Tertullian) in the Encyclopedia for Christian Civilization (Wiley Publishing), 2011.
• Encyclopedia entry (Tatian’s Diatessaron) in the Encyclopedia of Christian Literature (Scarecrow Press), 2010.

Popular Books:

• Jewish Gospel of John (2019) 
  4.7

  (1167 ratings)
• Hebrew Insights from Revelation (2021)
  4.7

  (900 ratings)
• Hebrew Visions of Revelation (2023)
  4.6

  (164 ratings)
• Read Hebrew in 22 Days or Less (2023)
  4.8

  (205 ratings)
• 40 Days of Hebrew Devotion (2021)
  4.8

  (603 ratings)
• The Jewish Apostle Paul (2023)
  4.6

  (430 ratings)
• The Jewish Roots of Mary (2024)
  4.4

  (94 ratings)
• The Hebrew Story of Abraham (2020)
  4.7

  (153 ratings)
• The Hebrew Story of Jacob (2020)
  4.6

  (538 ratings)
• The Hebrew Story of Joseph (2020)
  4.6

  (458 ratings)
• Inspirational Insights about Life (2021)
  4.5

  (21 ratings)
• Jewish Insights into the Scriptures (2020)
  4.6

  (586 ratings)
• Samaritan Woman Reconsidered (2019)
  4.6

  (465 ratings)
• 70 Daily Hebrew Musings (2022) 
  4.5

  (37 ratings)

A quick word about my name. Usually people call me Dr. Eli. Eli is short for Eliyahu (אֵלִיָּהוּ, Eliyahu), that is, Elijah the prophet. It is not the name of Eli the priest in 1 Samuel, as some assume. The two look identical in English but differ in Hebrew. The priest’s name (עֵלִי, Eli) begins with ayin, while mine (אֵלִי, Eli) begins with aleph. Mine is also pronounced “Elee,” not the usual English “Eli.”

Top 12 Life Quotes (there are more, but these are the top ten):

1. Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
2. Humility is not thinking less of yourself. It’s thinking of yourself less. (C.S. Lewis)
3. Loyalty to a petrified opinion has never broken a chain or freed a human soul. (Mark Twain)
4. Only those who risk going too far can find out how far they can go. (T.S. Eliot)
5. Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist. (Pablo Picasso)
6. You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. (Albert Einstein)
7. Ceaseless work, analysis, reflection, writing much, and endless self-correction—that is my secret. (Johann Sebastian Bach)
8. Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace. (Jonathan Lockwood Huie)
9. Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. (Mark Twain)
10. When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor. (Elon Musk)
11. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. (Martin Luther King Jr.)
12. Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. (Dr. Seuss)

Thank you to all my friends for your prayers, encouragement, and support!