Friday 25 March 2016

The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ by Daniel Boyarin

The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ by Talmudic Scholar Daniel Boyarin

Available on Amazon:   http://amzn.to/25sH4LV 

"In this powerful, groundbreaking work, Boyarin guides us through a rich tapestry of new discoveries and ancient scriptures to make the powerful case that our conventional understandings of Jesus and of the origins of Christianity are wrong. 

Boyarin’s scrupulously illustrated account argues that the coming of the Messiah was fully imagined in the ancient Jewish texts. Jesus, moreover, was embraced by many Jews as this person, and his core teachings were not at all a break from Jewish beliefs and teachings. 

Jesus and his followers, Boyarin shows, were simply Jewish. What came to be known as Christianity came much later, as religious and political leaders sought to impose a new religious orthodoxy that was not present at the time of Jesus’s life.

Published in hardcover to nationwide attention and now available for the first time in paperback, this brilliant work will continue to challenge some of our most cherished assumptions."

Why does Jesus say "My God, My God, Why have you Forsaken me ..." ?

Friday (Yom Shee-Shee)    --  יוֹם שִׁישִׁי
Matthew 27: 46  "And toward the ninth hour Yeshua cried with a loud voice in Aramaic "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" which means, “My God, My God, Why have you Forsaken me...?”


If Jesus is God, why does he call out to God ????  

Jesus is NOT calling out to God, he is not asking why God has forsaken him .... 

Jesus is fulfilling the Prophecy of Isaiah 53, and acting out the Passion we find in Psalm 22.

He is not calling to God, he is simply quoting from Psalm 22. So if you go now and read Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 you will see this Clearly. Not only that. Jesus points you to Psalm 22 so that when your read the very 1st line you will find his Name   ישׁוּעָ  .... go look. 

Psalm 22 (English and Hebrew)  The word YeShuaH / Salvation / Jesus is there in the 1st line .. ישׁוּעָ (Salvation) 

My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? [You are] far from my salvation [and] from the words of my moaning.באֵלִי אֵלִי לָמָה עֲזַבְתָּנִי רָחוֹק מִישׁוּעָתִי דִּבְרֵי שַׁאֲגָתִי:

Do you see it ? Read it again in Hebrew (right to left) :

My God, my God, why have You Forsaken me? You are far from " ישׁוּעָ / Y'ShuAH "
from the words of my moaning." 

Pslam 22:  http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16243/jewish/Chapter-22.htm


Isaiah 53: http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/15984

1Who would have believed our report, and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed?אמִי הֶאֱמִין לִשְׁמֻעָתֵנוּ וּזְרוֹעַ יְהֹוָה עַל מִי נִגְלָתָה:
2And he came up like a sapling before it, and like a root from dry ground, he had neither form nor comeliness; and we saw him that he had no appearance. Now shall we desire him?בוַיַּעַל כַּיּוֹנֵק לְפָנָיו וְכַשֹּׁרֶשׁ מֵאֶרֶץ צִיָּה לֹא תֹאַר לוֹ וְלֹא הָדָר וְנִרְאֵהוּ וְלֹא מַרְאֶה וְנֶחְמְדֵהוּ:
3Despised and rejected by men, a man of pains and accustomed to illness, and as one who hides his face from us, despised and we held him of no account.גנִבְזֶה וַחֲדַל אִישִׁים אִישׁ מַכְאֹבוֹת וִידוּעַ חֹלִי וּכְמַסְתֵּר פָּנִים מִמֶּנּוּ נִבְזֶה וְלֹא חֲשַׁבְנֻהוּ:
4Indeed, he bore our illnesses, and our pains-he carried them, yet we accounted him as plagued, smitten by God and oppressed.דאָכֵן חֳלָיֵנוּ הוּא נָשָׂא וּמַכְאֹבֵינוּ סְבָלָם וַאֲנַחְנוּ חֲשַׁבְנֻהוּ נָגוּעַ מֻכֵּה אֱלֹהִים וּמְעֻנֶּה:
5But he was pained because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his wound we were healed.הוְהוּא מְחֹלָל מִפְּשָׁעֵנוּ מְדֻכָּא מֵעֲוֹנוֹתֵינוּ מוּסַר שְׁלוֹמֵנוּ עָלָיו וּבַחֲבֻרָתוֹ נִרְפָּא לָנוּ:

Read Torah in Hebrew and you will find the Word "Yeshua"


Read the Torah in Hebrew !

You will see the Word "Yeshua" (Jesus) on every page.

It looks like this: ישׁוּעָ and it means "Salvation"

Peace be with you !


The first time you will see the Word "Yeshuah" is in the sefer ha Torah (Book of Torah) Genesis 49:18 (Bar-Ish-et)

18For "Yeshuah" (salvation),  I hope, O Lord!יחלִ  -- ישׁוּעָ -- תְךָ קִוִּיתִי יְהֹוָה:

Interestingly this is how Gen 49 begins ....
Yaakov (Jacob) called for his sons and said, "Gather and I will tell you what will happen to you at the end of days.....אוַיִּקְרָא יַעֲקֹב אֶל בָּנָיו וַיֹּאמֶר הֵאָסְפוּ וְאַגִּידָה לָכֶם אֵת אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָא אֶתְכֶם בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים:

Read more .... http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8244/jewish/Chapter-49.htm

Thursday 24 March 2016

The Jewish Gospel of John, by Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg

A Jewish Perspective of Jesus (Yeshu ha Notzri) "The Jewish Gospel of John: Discovering Jesus, King of Israel ... by Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg  
Available on Amazon : http://amzn.to/1UpZaKZ  
"Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg has demonstrated that the Gospel of John is not an anti-Jewish, but a thoroughly Jewish book." - Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, University of California, Berkeley.  
"Dr. Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg's new commentary on the Gospel of John, with its original outlook on the identity of the original audience and the issues at stake, is extremely refreshing." - Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Head of the Talmud and Late Antiquity Department, Tel-Aviv University. "The Jewish Gospel of John is not, by any standard, another book on Jesus of Nazareth written from a Jewish perspective. It is an invitation to the reader to put aside their traditional understanding of the Gospel of John and to replace it with another one more faithful to the original text perspective. The Jesus that will emerge will provoke to rethink most of what you knew about this gospel. The book is a well-rounded verse-by-verse illustrated rethinking of the fourth gospel."

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Reference to Jesus in the Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q451 ?

I was reading an article in the Times of Israel today from Canadian Archaeologist Simcha Jacobovici who believes that he has found a reference to Jesus in the Dead Sea Scrolls since it mentions "calming of the Great Sea, Parables, Nail, Crucifixion  .....   and that "He will make atonement for all the children of his generation."

Is this a reference to the Qumran/Essene  "Teacher of Righteousness" ?

Was Jesus ever called the Teacher of Righteousness ? A Priest of Righteousness ? King of Righteousness ? Righteousness is Tsadek .... and Jesus called himself a Priest in the line of Melkizadek - Melki-Tsadek .... A Priest in the line of the King of Righteousness.

Here is the latest Translation from the Fragment 4Q 451:  

Column 1
(Fragment 6) (1)... Dee[p things]... (2) who doesn’t understand. And he wro[te]... (3) and he stilled the Great Sea... (4) Then the books of Wis[dom] will be open[ed]... (5) his Word... 

Column 1 (Fragment 2) (1)... Wo[rds]... and according to the Will of (2)... to me. Once more he wrote (3)... I [sp]oke concerning it in Parables (4)... was near to me. Therefore, was far from me (5)... The visi[on] will be [profou]nd... .the fruit ... 

Column 2
(2) [from] God... (3) You shall receive the affli[cted ones]... (4) [You] shall bless [their] burnt offerings [and You shall establish for] them a Foundation of Your peace... (5) your Spirit, and you will rejoice [in your God. Now] I [am proclaiming to you parable[s]... rejoice. (6) Behold, a wise man [will understand that I am seeing] and comprehending deep Mysteries, thus I am spea[king...] in parable[s]. (7) The Greek (?) [will not understand. But the Knowledge of Wisdom will come to you, for you have received... [you] will acquire... (8) Pursue her (Wisdom) and seek [her and gain possession of] her to swallow (her) down. Behold, you will gla[dden] many... many (will have) a place... 

Column 4
(1)... his Wisdom [will be great.] He will make atonement for all the children of his generation. He will be sent to all the sons of (2) his [generation]. His Word shall be as the Word of Heaven and his teaching shall be according to the will of God. His eternal sun shall burn brilliantly. (3) The fire shall be kindled in all the corners of the earth. Upon the Darkness it will shine. Then the Darkness will pass away (4) [from] the earth and the deep Darkness from the dry land. They will speak many words against him. There will be many (5) [lie]s. They will invent stories about him. They will say shameful things about him. He will overthrow his evil generation (6) and there will be [great wrath]. When he arises there will be Lying and violence, and the people will wander astray [in] his days and be confounded. 

Column 5 (Fragment 5)
(1)... and those who are grieved concerning... (2) your ju[dgment] but you will not be gui[lty]... (3) the scourging of those who afflict you... (4) your complaint (?) will not fail and all... (5) your heart be[fore]... 

Column 5 (Fragment 1)
(1) [Behold] I saw one... (2) I saw seven rams... (3) Some of his sons shall walk... (4) They shall be gathered to the Heav[enly Beings]...

Column 6
(1) God [will set] right error[s]... [He will judge] revealed sins... (2) Investigate and seek and know how Jonah wept. Thus, you shall not destroy the weak by wasting away or by [Crucif]ixion... . (3) Let not the nail touch him. Then you shall raise up for your father a name of rejoicing and for all of your brothers a [firm] Foundation. (4)... You shall see and you shall rejoice in the Eternal Light and you will not be one who is hated (of God).







Wednesday 24 February 2016

Yeshu (ישו Hebrew spelling) in the Talmud



Yeshu (ישו in the Hebrew alphabet) is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in Rabbinic literature.


Modern scholarship generally considers the name Yeshu in the Talmud to be a reference to Jesus the Nazarene in the Talmud.


The name Yeshu is also used in other sources before and after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshu

Saturday 20 February 2016

Did Jesus exist ? Latest Research and Proof.


Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically. In a 2011 review of the state of modern scholarship,

Bart D Ehrman writes, "He certainly existed, as virtually every competent scholar of antiquity, Christian or non-Christian, agrees".

Richard A. Burridge states: "There are those who argue that Jesus is a figment of the Church's imagination, that there never was a Jesus at all. I have to say that I do not know any respectable critical scholar who says that any more".

James D.G. Dunn calls the theories of Jesus' non-existence "a thoroughly dead thesis". Michael Grant (a classicist) wrote in 1977, "In recent years, 'no serious scholar has ventured to postulate the non historicity of Jesus' or at any rate very few, and they have not succeeded in disposing of the much stronger, indeed very abundant, evidence to the contrary".

Robert E. Van Voorst states that biblical scholars and classical historians regard theories of non-existence of Jesus as effectively refuted. - Johnson Watts

[ Ehrman, Bart (2011).  Forged: writing in the name of God – Why the Bible's Authors Are Not Who We Think They Are. HarperCollins. p. 285. ISBN 978-0-06-207863-6. ]

[ Burridge, Richard A.; Gould, Graham (2004).  Jesus Now and Then. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8028-0977-3.]

[ Price, Robert M. (2009).  The Historical Jesus: Five Views. InterVarsity. pp. 55, 61. ISBN 978-0-8308-7853-6. ] "Jesus at the Vanishing Point". In Beilby, James K.; Eddy, Paul R.

[ Sykes, Stephen W. (2007).
"Paul's understanding of the death of Jesus". Sacrifice and Redemption. Cambridge University Press. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-0-521-04460-8. ]

[ Grant, Michael (1977).
Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels. Scribner's. p. 200. ISBN 978-0-684-14889-2. Van Voorst 2000, p. 16. ]

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Was Jesus a Magician ? A Sorcerer ? Able to change his Appearance ?

On the Life and the Passion of Christ: A Coptic Apocryphon’:

The ancient text explains why Judas used a kiss, specifically, to betray Jesus. According to the canonical bible, the apostle Judas betrays Jesus in exchange for money by using a kiss to identify him leading to Jesus' arrest.

This apocryphal tale explains that the reason Judas used a kiss, specifically, is because Jesus had the ability to change appearance.


"Then the Jews said to Judas: How shall we arrest him [Jesus], for he does not have a single form but his appearance changes. Sometimes he is ruddy, sometimes he is white, sometimes he is red, sometimes he is wheat coloured, sometimes he is pallid like ascetics, sometimes he is a youth, sometimes an old man ... "

This leads Judas to suggest using a kiss as a means to identify him. If Judas had given the arresters a description of Jesus he could have changed shape. By kissing Jesus Judas tells the people exactly who he is.

This understanding of Judas' kiss goes back to the first century . This explanation of Judas’ kiss is found in Origen, a theologian who lived 185-254 AD. In his work, Contra Celsum, the ancient writer, stated that "to those who saw him [Jesus] he did not appear alike to all."

The text is one of fifty-five Coptic manuscripts that were found in 1910 by villagers digging for fertilizer at the site of the destroyed Monastery of Archangel Michael of the Desert near Al Hamuli in Egypt. Apparently, during the tenth century, monks had buried the monastery's manuscripts in a stone vat for safekeeping.  The monastery ceased operations around the early 10th century, and the text was rediscovered in the spring of 1910. In December 1911, it was purchased, along with other texts, by American financier J.P. Morgan. His collections, and the text described, are now housed in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.

Essay : http://alinsuciu.com/2012/10/12/guest-post-roelof-van-den-broek-pseudo-cyril-of-jerusalem-on-the-life-and-the-passion-of-christ/

Saturday 13 February 2016

Was Jesus a Therapeutae from Egypt ? A Magical Healer ?

Much of the Gospel Narrative tells the story of how Jesus was able to heal the sick and raise the dead. 

What kind of strange Magic is this ?

No wonder they called him a Magician. A Sorcerer.... 

Was he a Shaman ? A medicine Man ? A Witch Doctor ? A Physician ? or in fact the One True God  ?



An exciting new discovery has been made of a very early image of Jesus in Egypt,

The depiction of Christ was found in a tomb wearing what appears to be the crown of thorns.
"Painted on the walls of a mysterious underground stone structure in the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, about 100 miles south of Cairo, the image shows a young man with curly hair and dressed in a short tunic.
“He raises his hand as if making a blessing,” said Egyptologist Josep Padró, who has spent over 20 years excavating sites in the area."   This is a very ancient image that has been painted over for thousands of years and could be the Earliest image of Jesus as a Theraputae (Physician) in Egypt . 

The Therapeutae were a Jewish sect which flourished in Alexandria and other parts of the Diaspora of Hellenistic Judaism in the final years of the Second Temple period. The primary source concerning the Therapeutae is the account De vita contemplativa ("The Contemplative Life"), by the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE)

Philo records that they were "philosophers" (cf. I.2) and speaks specifically about a group that lived on a low hill by the Lake Mareotis close to Alexandria in circumstances resembling lavrite life (cf. III.22), and were "the best" of a kind given to "perfect goodness" that "exists in many places in the inhabited world" (cf. III.21). Philo was unsure of the origin of the name and derives the name Therapeutae/Therapeutides from Greek θεραπεύω in the sense of "cure" or "worship" (cf. I.2).
The term Therapeutae (plural) is Latin, from Philo's Greek plural Therapeutai (Θεραπευταί). The term therapeutes means one who is attendant to the gods although the term, and the related adjective therapeutikos carry in later texts the meaning of attending to heal, or treating in a spiritual or medical sense. The Greek feminine plural Therapeutrides (Θεραπευτρίδες) is sometimes encountered for their female members. The term therapeutae may occur in relation to followers of Asclepius at Pergamon, and therapeutai may also occur in relation to worshippers of Sarapis in inscriptions, such as on Delos. (See Therapeutae of Asclepius)

The author described the Therapeutae in De vita contemplativa ("On the contemplative life"), written in the first century A.D. (C.E.) The origins of the Therapeutae were unclear, and Philo was even unsure about the etymology of their name, which he explained as meaning either physicians of souls or servants of God. The opening phrases of his essay establish that it followed one that has been lost, on the active life. Philo was employing the familiar polarity in Hellenic philosophy between the active and the contemplative life, exemplifying the active life by the Essenes, another severely ascetic sect, and the contemplative life by the desert-dwelling Therapeutae.

They lived chastely with utter simplicity; they "first of all laid down temperance as a sort of foundation for the soul to rest upon, proceed to build up other virtues on this foundation" (Philo). They were dedicated to the contemplative life, and their activities for six days of the week consisted of ascetic practices, fasting, solitary prayers and the study of the scriptures in their isolated cells, each with its separate holy sanctuary, and enclosed courtyard:

....the entire interval from dawn to evening is given up by them to spiritual exercises. For they read the holy scriptures and draw out in thought and allegory their ancestral philosophy, since they regard the literal meanings as symbols of an inner and hidden nature revealing itself in covert ideas. — De Vita Contemplativa, para. 28

The 3rd-century Christian writer Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263–339), in his Ecclesiastical History, identified Philo's Therapeutae as the first Christian monks, identifying their renunciation of property, chastity, fasting, and solitary lives with the cenobitic ideal of the Christian monks.

The 4th-century Christian heresiologist Epiphanius of Salamis (c. 315–403), bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, author of the Panarion, or Medicine Chest against Heresies, misidentified Philo's Therapeuate as "Jessaens" and considered them a Christian group.

The 5th-century Christian writer Pseudo-Dionysius, following Philo, interprets that "Some people gave to the ascetics the name 'Therapeutae' or servants while some others gave them the name monks". Pseudo-Dionysius interprets Philo's group as a highly organized Christian ascetic order, and the meaning of the name "Therapeutae" as "servants".


Among the Christian texts found at Oxyrhynchus, were fragments of early non-canonical Gospels, Oxyrhynchus 840 and Oxyrhynchus 1224 (1st Century). Other Oxyrhynchus texts preserve parts of Matthew 1 (3rd century: P2 and P401), 11–12 and 19 (3rd to 4th century: P2384, 2385); Mark 10–11 (5th to 6th century: P3); John 1, and 20 (3rd century: P208); Romans 1 (4th century: P209); the First Epistle of John (4th-5th century: P402); the Apocalypse of Baruch (chapters 12–14; 4th or 5th century: P403); the Gospel according to the Hebrews (3rd century AD: P655); The Shepherd of Hermas (3rd or 4th century: P404), and a work of Irenaeus, (3rd century: P405). There are many parts of other canonical books as well as many early Christian hymns, prayers, and letters also found among them.

The earliest Gospel Fragment from 30-40AD: Oxyrhynchus 1224 (P. Oxy. X 1224), now at the Bodleian Library, MS. Gr. th. e. 8 (P), consists of two small papyrus fragments. It contains six passages, each about a sentence. Two of the longer ones are parallel to Mark 2:17 and Luke 9:50, but the differences in phrasing show they are textually independent of the Gospels. A precise date for composition is unknown; John Dominic Crossan notes that the fragmentary text "does not seem to be dependent on the New Testament gospels.... As an independent gospel, it belongs, insofar as its fragmentary state allows us to see, not with discourse gospels involving the risen Jesus (e.g., the Secret Book of James and the Gospel of Mary), but with sayings gospels involving the earthly Jesus (e.g., Q document and the Gospel of Thomas). Crossan suggests that the document might have been written as early as the mid-first century.

Luke 9:49 “Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us. 50 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”