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Dr. Brad Young is head of the Gospel Research Center and author of several books on Jesus' parables and ministry in their Jewish context. In this lecture, Dr. Young discusses why rabbinic literature is, unfortunately, so often dismissed as a valuable source for understanding Jesus’ teachings. A common response
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I find the words of Psalm 27 comforting, and they always lift my spirit. God is my stronghold in so many ways. I pray that these words and music will lift your spirit as they do mine, and the deep awareness that God is our stronghold will never leave us.
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What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? In the area of biblical and historical studies, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time. That is not an exaggeration. The documents were awaiting the day of their discovery in 11 caves near the Dead Sea
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A while back, I was asked to teach a course surveying the prophetic books of the Bible to a college class. As I compiled my notes together, I wanted to present my students not merely the information about the ancient texts themselves, but to describe the world in which the
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Ancient Scrolls found in Israel, in the caves of the Qumran region near the Dead Sea in the 1940s, were the find of the 20th century. An impressive collection of ancient Jewish writings contained what is now the oldest known copies of Biblical texts. In this 1st session, I explain
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Some commandments in Torah are more elaborate and detailed, and others are somewhat straightforward and simple. Yet all of them teach how to apply wisdom in life in all situations. This week, I pondered over a commandment concerning the bird’s nest. Torah says if one comes upon a nest
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The Gabriel Revelation is an inscription on a stone found in Jordan dating back to around the beginning of the Common Era, roughly to the time of the birth of Jesus. It is the subject of a book by Israel Knohl, Messiahs and Resurrection in the Gabriel Revelation, published in
Over the years of teaching, I have often referred my students to the books of Enoch. But most of the time, I did so with some reservations. I knew that the broadly distributed copies they would likely come across would be littered with archaic and hard-to-digest language. Finally, between 2023
If you like perusing Pshir.com, then what are the odds you might enjoy my books? I invite you to consider the titles I highlight below in print, in digital format, or as audiobooks. Paid Subscribers can flip through full digital versions of all these titles inside the READ section.
Do you like to listen to your books? I am excited to announce that thanks to my partnership with Amazon and Audible, some of my new translations are now available as audiobooks! The Apocalypse of Abraham HERE and The Apocalypse of Moses HERE. I personally love holding paper books in
If you are looking for a way to dig into the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible and get access to great dictionaries and research tools I frequently use, I have just partnered with Logos - my favorite Bible Software. We share a common value of putting the Bible first,
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Prof. Israel Knohl shares curious evidence for a messianic precursor to Jesus who is described as the "Suffering Servant" in recently published fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Many scholars have long argued that the concept of a slain savior Messiah who rises from the dead, was alien
Thanks to everyone who supports the PSHIR.COM publication with a subscription! For only $7 per month, you help me develop and publish new learning resources week after week. I am excited that I finally finished the "World of Hebrew Prophets" series, which ended up being 15 hours.
The verses in the Prophets I want to highlight today, I like to call the divine promise of Israel’s salvation. Ezekiel is known to be the exiled prophet, and Chapter 36 speaks loudly and vividly about Israel’s salvation from exile, restoration through cleansing, transforming hearts, and filling Israel
What is this Sign of Jonah? The traditional thinking is that it's Jesus' resurrection, three days and three nights... But the passage may not be so simple as it appears on the surface. Interested in taking a closer look and discovering another way to read the text?
Psalm 139 meditates on God's pervasive presence in this world. There is no place where we can go that we escape God's presence, and there is no such place as too far away for God. Living with God in a world that He has made is
The 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av) stands as one of the key solemn dates on the Jewish calendar, marking a day when tragedies have repeatedly befallen the Jewish people throughout history. According to the Talmud, Ta'anit 29a, the origins of this day of mourning among Jews
If you have siblings, the odds are some of them, specific ones, would constantly take charge in any setting. Maybe you are the one who gave orders to everyone on what to do on the playground. Maybe you are the one who told all your schoolmates what the plan always
This conversation is a segment from the IBC course titled "Jews and Greeks on Life and the Afterlife." Yeshaya Gruber, Nicholas Schaser, Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg, and Pinchas Shir discuss the ways Greeks thought in a completely different manner than the Jews. Learn more about Jewish and Greek concepts of
What happens at a synagogue service? What are the rules for keeping kosher? How do I light the Hanukkah candles? What is in the Hebrew Bible? What do the Jewish holidays signify? I frequently get questions about Jewish culture and life, both ancient and modern, practical and theoretical. A general
Have you ever encountered a superhero story where a villain puts the hero in a very tough situation, an impossible choice even? The hero has to choose to do what is right at a great personal cost to save people in mortal danger. Creating scenarios like that is the trademark
Holy Spirit is a special term that arose and became common at a certain time in history. It is often associated with the New Testament and Christianity, and not with Judaism. But we know that God’s Spirit is simply inseparable from God, and it should not surprise us that