WHAT IS TISHA B’AV? My dear readers, with all my excitement about the Son of Man and the importance of this topic, with all my desire to show you the amazing parallels between the book of Enoch and the Gospels, I do need to pause and write about this special day in the Jewish calendar […]
SIMILITUDES By now we know that the Book of Daniel was one of the earliest apocalypses ever written and also one of the most influential. “Whenever in later works ‘that son of man’, ‘this son of man’ or ‘the son of man’ is mentioned, it is the quotation from Daniel.”[1] The later apocalyptic writings […]
A LESSON FROM SEMIOTICS We already know that “the Jesus folk were not alone on the Jewish scene”[1]. For the last several weeks, we’ve been trying to grasp the ideas and the concepts that were alive on this scene in this time – in order to be able to read the New Testament texts through […]
TIKKUN OLAM AND THE REVERSAL OF EVIL Following the wonderful study of Dr. Michael Heiser[1], we have seen that Second Temple Judaism understood Genesis 6:1-4 not only as the story of a supernatural rebellion, but as one of the central passages in biblical theology. We have seen that this passage significantly influenced the New Testament […]
THE REVERSAL OF EVIL We finished our last post with the thesis, drawn largely from the work of Dr. Michael Heiser, that Second Temple Judaism saw in Genesis 6:1-4, not only the story of a supernatural rebellion, but one of the central passages in biblical theology and in understanding God’s plan in history: “Yes, the […]
TL;DR The Book of Enoch’s ‘Book of the Watchers’ is an important piece of Second Temple Jewish literature that shaped the cultural and theological context in which New Testament writers lived and wrote. THE BOOK OF THE WATCHERS Last time we began by speaking about “the Jewish scene in the time of Jesus”[1] and the […]
THE JEWISH SCENE IN THE TIME OF JESUS Those readers who have followed my blog for a while, know that I love series. There have been many series on this blog already: As Though Hiding His Face (The Hidden Messiah), Biblical Portraits (of Rebecca and of Judah), The Bible Stories You Did Not Know, The […]
SERMON ON THE MOUNT AND TORAH PORTION Even among non-Christians, there is a general consensus that Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the greatest moral discourse ever given. Have you ever thought of the possibility that the Sermon on the Mount could have been a sermon on a specific Torah Portion – probably even […]
JUDAH AND HIS BROTHERS Last time, we left off our story just after the cup had been found in Benjamin’s sack. I suppose you understand that this already was a test. Theoretically, ten brothers could have gone home—they were absolutely free to do that, the steward was very clear: “he with whom it is […]
BACK IN CANAAN We are back to our biblical portrait – but before we arrive at that scene and the speech of Judah that not only precedes, but actually causes Joseph’s revelation, we need to stop for a moment in Canaan. We will pick up this story exactly where we left off—we left the […]
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