This book captures many ancient voices, a collection of literary excerpts from ancient Jewish books: Jubilees, Josephus, 4 Ezra, Qumran Scrolls, Talmud, Enoch, Baruch, Maccabees, Mishna, Judith, Apocalypse of Moses, Philo, Mishna, Ben Sira, and many others, fifty passages to be exact. The excerpts are mostly short, sometimes even intentionally
Apostle Paul was a first-century religious Jew, trained at the feet of the best rabbis of his time. Though he addresses primarily non-Jewish audiences, Shaul often writes as a rabbi, resorting to midrash and employing metaphors to illustrate his ideas. Sadly, his readers are not used to this
I wanted to share with you a Morning Prayer and, more specifically, a musical piece I created based on it. The words of this song are inspired by the words of the traditional morning blessings found in the Siddur (Jewish Prayer Book). The person who is praying in the early
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?
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,
I often explain how the culture we personally know best often shapes how we read our Bibles. Today, I have thought of a good example to illustrate this dynamic. In modern Western mindsets, at least in English, “fear” is typically
You may have heard about the Jerusalem council because the book of Acts describes this pivotal gathering. In Part 3 of our discussion about the ecclesia, the early Jewish church, Dr. Parker and Pinchas Shir discuss the significance of that
Large language models like ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini are so popular these days. They can do so much and so fast, compared to old-fashioned search engine queries. Millions of people use them because they are packaged with core services
When the temple fell into disrepair, thirty-year-old King Yehoash told the priests to take the expenses necessary for the construction from the non-obligatory donations that they received from the people and use them for the repairs. Simple.
Why Josephus Matters? I can’t think of many individuals who have preserved more information about the world of the Bible than Yoseph ben Matityahu, better known today as Flavius Josephus. For those who study early Judaism, Biblical Studies, and
This book captures many ancient voices, a collection of literary excerpts from ancient Jewish books: Jubilees, Josephus, 4 Ezra, Qumran Scrolls, Talmud, Enoch, Baruch, Maccabees, Mishna, Judith, Apocalypse of Moses, Philo, Mishna, Ben Sira, and many others, fifty passages to
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem has not been excavated in modern times. It's a political and religious powder keg. But archaeological artifacts from the Temple Mount are being uncovered by Israeli archaeologists. How? An illegal renovation was conducted
In the chapters we read this week, the prophet Jeremiah foretells disaster, a time of judgment upon Israel. We intentionally read this passage whenever we recall the destruction of Jerusalem and reflect on this hour of judgment. Yet even in
The Bible often speaks about salvation as something far more tangible and visible than we may imagine. In the Hebrew Scriptures, God saves Israel with an outstretched arm, through his mighty hand, and by revealing his salvation before the eyes
Like many others, Psalm 130 is full of deep emotion. What drew me to this particular psalm recently is the language of heartfelt confession and repentance, words spoken from a place of what I felt as seclusion and separation. Hebrew
Did you know that the New Testament contains the most intriguing statement that suggests the existence of multiple heavens? The reference appears in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. He writes, “I know a man in Christ who,
In our reading from Isaiah today, we encounter God’s message to a childless woman who symbolizes Israel. Israel lost much to war and exile. But now, she is promised to be blessed with many children, so she is told
