What kind of wine would Jesus drink in his lifetime? Leonardo Da Vinci’s iconic painting, “The Last Supper,” missed a few marks, but it got the wine part right. Biblical historians have long pondered what dishes may have been on the table at the Last Supper. One thing that’...
The world of the Bible is full of symbolism that modern readers at times notice and do not appreciate, but very often miss entirely. People’s customs, traditions, and folkways about most ordinary matters of life often reflect deep into their spiritual thinking. But our own culture obscures that and...
An amazing discovery has been just recently unveiled in Jerusalem: a seal that possibly belongs to Isaiah the Prophet. Archaeologists have been digging south of the walls of old Jerusalem in the area known as Ophel. Though outside of the current walls of the city, this is one of the...
The “Kingdom of Heaven” (מַלְכוּת הַשָׁמָיִם, malchut hashamaim) is an ancient Jewish idea easily traced back to the Hebrew Bible, where the prophets speak of a coming messianic age when God will establish His kingdom on earth. Isaiah prophesied that “the government will...
The Book of Revelation mentions a mysterious group and decries the false teaching of Nicolaitans. There are many theories about who these Nicolaitans were, but research focused on the cultural, historical, and linguistic context of Revelation changes everything and challenges the traditional theories built on more dogmatic and theological interests....
From time to time, I hear people make references to the pearly gates of heaven, where St. Peter stands and admits people into eternity. I have seen all sorts of depictions of this scene. I never understood this tradition until I realized that it is a bit of Christian cultural...
There is an intriguing and cryptic text about Dan in the Torah. In Jacob’s final blessing on his sons, in Genesis 49, Dan is compared to a “serpent” (נָחָשׁ; nachash). Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent...
The worship of reason is arrogance and betrays a lack of intelligence. The rejection of reason is cowardice and betrays a lack of faith. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Anyone who reads Rabbi Heschel's writings knows that he was a man of reason, a truly deep thinker of his...
A buried treasure of nine well-preserved bronze Byzantine coins found by archeologists during an excavation near Highway 1 serves as evidence of the Persian invasion of Jerusalem at the end of the Byzantine period, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced. According to the IAA, the coins, from the 7th century AD,...