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Showing posts from May, 2015

Relationships of the Israelite Religion, Rabbinic Judaism and Early Christianity

For the past 30 years I have been engaged in research about the Jewish Yeshua (Jesus) and the evolution of Christianity from a Jewish sect to a universal Gentile religion. The work of Dr. David Flusser had played an important role in my work. David Flusser (b. 09/15/1917 – d. 09/15/2000) was a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem where he taught Judaism in the Second Temple Period and Early Christianity. He was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Flusser published over 1,000 articles in Hebrew, German, English, and other languages.   His work was rewarded by the State of Israel in 1980 with the Israel Prize. His famous book, Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (© 1988 Magnes Press, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel), is a valuable resource for anyone studying the Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity. I use it regularly in my work. Today, while working on something, I came across two passages that I believe are very important. I

History of the Name "Jesus"

The history of the name “ Jesus ” begins in the Torah in the account in which Yahweh commanded Moses to choose one man from each of the twelve tribes to spy out the land of Canaan. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea [1] the son of Nun . . .   These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Y ehoshua . [2] The root word of Hoshea is HOSHUA , which means " salvation ." It is important to understand that "salvation" in the Hebrew Scriptures or the Jewish culture did not mean “ go to Heaven after death .” It meant “ being delivered from some danger or threat .” When Moses changed Hoshea to Yehoshua the meaning of the name changed to "Yahweh-is-Salvation." When the spies reported back to Moses ten of them delivered the following report: “The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature

Today is Shavuot aka Pentecost

Shavuot began on May 23 and ends on May 25. In Judaism it is known as the " Feast of Weeks " and in Christianity it is called “Pentecost.” In The Torah Shavuot is mentioned in connection with Passover and with bringing offerings from the harvest.  “You shall count off seven weeks [from Passover]…then you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, offering your freewill contribution according to how Adonai your God has blessed you.” (Deut. 16:10). During the Temple Period, two additions were made to the observance of Shavuot.  First, the priests would make a special offering of two loaves of bread on behalf of the nation.  Bread was an unusual offering, since it is made by human hands.  In general, offerings were animals or grain, raw materials coming directly from the earth to God.  This offering of bread, representing a human-Divine partnership in giving food to the world, would soon become important in the rabbis’ radical re-interpretation of Shavuot. The second special featu

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise’s Sermon at Synagogue on Jewish Jesus Causes a Storm

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise gave this sermon in late December 1925 and it set off a storm of protests in Jewish communities.  “Jesus of Nazareth is not a myth as He has been pictured in Hebrew teachings, but was a man . . . The very foundations of morality are contained in the unparalleled code of ethics which comprises the teachings of Jesus.” Read the complete article at -- http://biblicalheritagecenter.blogspot.com/2015/05/rabbi-stephen-s-wises-sermon-at.html

The Real Yeshua's Salvation Message

http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/

The Salvation Message of the Real Yeshua

What must one do to be saved? The answers to that question reveal the answer to another question – What does it mean to be a “Christian?” – that have been given over the past 2,000 years. Interestingly, the one answer that I have not been able to find among all of those is the answer given by the Real Yeshua. Why? Have you ever worked on your genealogy ?  I have been the family genealogist for a long time and love searching for and finding ancestors. I want to introduce you to a new term – memealogy or memeology . Remember this word because in the very near future it is going to revolutionize the way you understand Belief Systems . In 1976 Richard Dawkins introduced the world to “ memes ” in his book The Selfish Gene . To emphasize commonality with genes, Dawkins coined the term " meme ," which comes from a Greek word [i] that means " something imitated. " [ii] A meme is a unit of information in a mind whose existence influences events such that

How We Received the Words of Jesus

Jesus wasn't an American who lived in the 21st century and spoke native English to his audience. He wasn't a Christian and didn't attend a church every Sunday. Based on what we know from the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus was a Jew who lived in the 1st century, spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, practiced Judaism, attended a synagogue every Shabbat and engaged in rituals at the Jerusalem Temple. This is very important information to know when our goal is to linguistically understand the words of Jesus. Read the complete article at -- http://bhcbiblestudies.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-we-received-words-of-jesus.html

Accurately Understanding the Words of the Bible