The scribes of ancient Israel proved to be real opportunists using their research and copyist skills to build great power alongside the Pharisees and Saducees of ancient Israel.
Before King Nubuchadrezzar's destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C. the focus of their work was transcribing portions of the Old Testament as well as business and government documents.
However after a remnant was set free by the Cyrus who defeated the Babylonians to establish a Medo-Persian empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the borders of India the Scribes assumed an ever more powerful role not just as copyists of the Law and rest of the Old Testament or Hebrew Scripturess, but also as interpreters and enforcers of that and other laws.
By the time of Jesus the Scribes had become a part of that elite group made up of the Chief Priest, priests, Sadducees, Pharisees and members of artistocratic families.
In small towns throughout Israel as well as in Jewish centres outside of Palestine these men secured positions as minor government officials and judges as well as the interpreters and enforcers of the Mosaic Law traditions.
Although they came from all walks of life: Some were priests, but others were originally fishermen, carpenters, and labourers, they studied hard from the age of 14 to 40 in order to be certified or ordained as Scribes.
They were highly revered by most of the common people because of their supposed knowledge of the Law Covenant and what it required of the people. This knowlege they jealously kept to themselves on the grounds the common people did not have the intelligence to understand why God required certain things from them under the Law Covenant. This was much like the clergy class in Europe during the Dark and Medieval Ages in Europe.
However, Most of the people never thought of questioning them and relatively few of the Biblical Jews ever realized that most of the traditions that they were forced to follow were nothing more than the creations of the Scribe brotherhood.
In Jerusalem itself the Scribes had even more power and prestige working closely with the Chief Priest and other Sanhedrin members. Many of them, in fact, became members of that supreme body which governed so much of the daily life of the Jewish people right up to and beyond the time of Jesus Christ and the Apostles.
Through their distorted interpretation of the Law Covenant and blind allegiance to those traditions they set themselves up as enemies of Jesus Christ.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Can You Make The Trip?
Can you make the trip? If you can and are interested in learning more about the Bible and the latest archaeological and other findings about the Bible you should really try.
The the BAR sponsored 15th Annual Bible and Archaeological Fest being held in Chicago this coming November.
For more information contact the Biblical Archaeology Review magazine.
You can pick up as print copy of this journal at most large book stores in Canada and the United States -- as well as other parts of the world.
If you prefer to go online just click on the title of course and you be whisked away to the Web site -- where you will find many different links to follow.
The the BAR sponsored 15th Annual Bible and Archaeological Fest being held in Chicago this coming November.
For more information contact the Biblical Archaeology Review magazine.
You can pick up as print copy of this journal at most large book stores in Canada and the United States -- as well as other parts of the world.
If you prefer to go online just click on the title of course and you be whisked away to the Web site -- where you will find many different links to follow.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Were Bible Miracles Impossible?
Many persons has dismissed miracles described in the Bible as being impossible and belong with all the other myths that ancient people created. But would they have really be impossible?
The word "impossible" is not always absolute as we saw in the case of the Titanic. This ultra-modern vessel for its day was considered impossible to sink because of the special construction of its haul. But that ship vanished in the ocean depths taking 1500 persons with it. So "impossible" is truly a relative term.
Actually many scientists are reluctant today to say anything is impossible -- maybe improbably -- but not impossible. This is because things we take for granted today -- because of advanced technology -- were inconceivable at one time. Examples of this include: sending a man to the moon; sending a space vehicle to Mars; mapping the human genome; and watching events happening on the other side of the world in "real-time" as they are happening such as the Gulf Wars.
Because of this Professor John Brobeck commented: " A scientist is no longer able to say honestly something is impossible.."
From his comments he also obviously feel that a God as portrayed in the Bible -- with far greater powers and energy than any scientist or other human-- would be able to accomplish things such as the as Creation, the Noachian Flood, and the parting of the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross, things that many persons today consider as impossible.
The word "impossible" is not always absolute as we saw in the case of the Titanic. This ultra-modern vessel for its day was considered impossible to sink because of the special construction of its haul. But that ship vanished in the ocean depths taking 1500 persons with it. So "impossible" is truly a relative term.
Actually many scientists are reluctant today to say anything is impossible -- maybe improbably -- but not impossible. This is because things we take for granted today -- because of advanced technology -- were inconceivable at one time. Examples of this include: sending a man to the moon; sending a space vehicle to Mars; mapping the human genome; and watching events happening on the other side of the world in "real-time" as they are happening such as the Gulf Wars.
Because of this Professor John Brobeck commented: " A scientist is no longer able to say honestly something is impossible.."
From his comments he also obviously feel that a God as portrayed in the Bible -- with far greater powers and energy than any scientist or other human-- would be able to accomplish things such as the as Creation, the Noachian Flood, and the parting of the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross, things that many persons today consider as impossible.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The Seven Species of "The Good Land."
When Moses was allowed to see from the mountaintop the land that Jehovah was going to give the people he had led out of Egypt and through the wilderness for over forty years it must have been an awe inspiring and promising view.
Laid out before him was a widely varied countryside with arid plains in the south and snow covered mountains in the north and also the many hills, valleys, coastal plains, and plateaus which resulted in a wide variety of climate zones and soil types.
Just how fertile this land could be was seen from the grapes that some of the spies had brought back to him forty years earlier as they were preparing to enter this" good land" promised by Jehovah God.
For centuries after this the Israelites enjoyed the agricultural bounty of these productive soils. These vegetables and fruits included the seven species mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:7, 8. as well as other fruits and vegetables, such meat such as lamb, and fish from the sea.
Wheat and Barley
Two of the big crops were wheat and barley. Barley ripened in time for the Festival of Unleavened Bread in March or April and wheat in May in time for the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost in May as described in Leviticus 23: 10, 11, 15-17. Bread made from these two grains were a staple food for people in this regions from Bible times to the present day.
Grapes, Figs, and Pomegranates
These three fruits were what the ten spies brought back from the excursion into the Promised land described in Numbers 13: 20, 23and were soon a common sight on Israelite tables.
Vineyards needed proper care, however. This included carefully designed terraces on a hillside with a protective stone wall and hedges, as well as proper irrigation, pruning, and harvesting in order to keep the vines productive. As Isaiah describes (Isaiah 5:1-7) Negligent farmers were soon faced with a vineyard of wild grapes, thorns, and weeds and dried up because of a lack of water.
Properly cared for vineyards provided an abundance of grapes at harvest time. These were used in three ways after the grapes were trampled in a vat or squeezed in a wine press: (1) to produce a delicious wine by allowing the juice to ferment (2) to produce a natural sugar by boiling the juice and extracting the sugar or (3) to produce raisins, used in baking raisin cakes, by allowing the grapes to dry in the sun as described at 2 Samuel 6:19.
The fifth food Moses mentioned, the fig when picked fresh was a mouth watering delicacy although most of us in Western lands are familiar with the fig only in its dried and pressed form.
In Israel and other Mediterranean lands it grew (and still grows) on the tree as a sweet and delicious reddish fruit surrounded by green leaves. but the Jews quickly learned that it had to be quickly sun-dried and turned into "cakes of pressed figs mentioned in 1 Samuel 25:18 in order to preserve it. And that is the way most of us know the fig today.
The pomegranate, which we often see on the shelves of our Western markets as a raw fruit, hid nutritious "minifruits" under the leathery skin. These could be eaten raw or turned into a refreshing, healthful and nutritious juice.
Likely because of this the pomegranate became very popular in ancient Israel. So much so that clothing designers even included representations of it on the garments of the high priests. According to the Bible account in Exodus 39: 24 The pomegranates were woven from blue thread, wool dyed reddish purple, and coccus scarlet material. These were interspersed with real gold bells along the hem of the high priests' sleeveless coats.
And in addition to this Jewish architects featured it in the decorations on the top plate of 50 cubic high pillars supporting Solomon's temple according to 1 Kings 7:20.
Olives and Honey
To see an entire family out beating the branches of olive trees to make the ripened olives fall to the ground where they could be harvested was a common sight in the Promised Land during October of each year. They would pick up the olives and store some away used in winter meals or taken to a communal press to be crushed and the oil used in the food, cosmetics, or as fuel for lamps. As it was crushed the pale green fluid was poured into containers for family use or selling at the market.
The honey Moses mentioned as the seventh species of food they could look forward to in the Promised came in two forms. Some of it came from the syrups extracted from dates and grapes ( a sweetener still used today) and the wild honey from the honey comb mentioned at Judges 14: 8,9 which describes how Samson scooped wild honey out of the corpse or a lion and 1 Samuel 14:27, a narration of how King Saul's son, Jonathan, ate wild honey from the trip of a rod after dipping it into a honeycomb in a field.
Exactly which type of honey Moses meant is not stated but archaeologists have discovered more than 30 beehives in northern Israel showing that beekeeping was practiced as early as Solomon's time.
These "seven species" are still found in the market of modern Israel -- along with a wide variety of other foods native to the land or introduced to Israeli farmers and grown successfully by them. All of this shows that Moses was not wrong in describing this narrow strip of land along the eastern end of the Mediterranean as the "good land."
Laid out before him was a widely varied countryside with arid plains in the south and snow covered mountains in the north and also the many hills, valleys, coastal plains, and plateaus which resulted in a wide variety of climate zones and soil types.
Just how fertile this land could be was seen from the grapes that some of the spies had brought back to him forty years earlier as they were preparing to enter this" good land" promised by Jehovah God.
For centuries after this the Israelites enjoyed the agricultural bounty of these productive soils. These vegetables and fruits included the seven species mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:7, 8. as well as other fruits and vegetables, such meat such as lamb, and fish from the sea.
Wheat and Barley
Two of the big crops were wheat and barley. Barley ripened in time for the Festival of Unleavened Bread in March or April and wheat in May in time for the Festival of Weeks or Pentecost in May as described in Leviticus 23: 10, 11, 15-17. Bread made from these two grains were a staple food for people in this regions from Bible times to the present day.
Grapes, Figs, and Pomegranates
These three fruits were what the ten spies brought back from the excursion into the Promised land described in Numbers 13: 20, 23and were soon a common sight on Israelite tables.
Vineyards needed proper care, however. This included carefully designed terraces on a hillside with a protective stone wall and hedges, as well as proper irrigation, pruning, and harvesting in order to keep the vines productive. As Isaiah describes (Isaiah 5:1-7) Negligent farmers were soon faced with a vineyard of wild grapes, thorns, and weeds and dried up because of a lack of water.
Properly cared for vineyards provided an abundance of grapes at harvest time. These were used in three ways after the grapes were trampled in a vat or squeezed in a wine press: (1) to produce a delicious wine by allowing the juice to ferment (2) to produce a natural sugar by boiling the juice and extracting the sugar or (3) to produce raisins, used in baking raisin cakes, by allowing the grapes to dry in the sun as described at 2 Samuel 6:19.
The fifth food Moses mentioned, the fig when picked fresh was a mouth watering delicacy although most of us in Western lands are familiar with the fig only in its dried and pressed form.
In Israel and other Mediterranean lands it grew (and still grows) on the tree as a sweet and delicious reddish fruit surrounded by green leaves. but the Jews quickly learned that it had to be quickly sun-dried and turned into "cakes of pressed figs mentioned in 1 Samuel 25:18 in order to preserve it. And that is the way most of us know the fig today.
The pomegranate, which we often see on the shelves of our Western markets as a raw fruit, hid nutritious "minifruits" under the leathery skin. These could be eaten raw or turned into a refreshing, healthful and nutritious juice.
Likely because of this the pomegranate became very popular in ancient Israel. So much so that clothing designers even included representations of it on the garments of the high priests. According to the Bible account in Exodus 39: 24 The pomegranates were woven from blue thread, wool dyed reddish purple, and coccus scarlet material. These were interspersed with real gold bells along the hem of the high priests' sleeveless coats.
And in addition to this Jewish architects featured it in the decorations on the top plate of 50 cubic high pillars supporting Solomon's temple according to 1 Kings 7:20.
Olives and Honey
To see an entire family out beating the branches of olive trees to make the ripened olives fall to the ground where they could be harvested was a common sight in the Promised Land during October of each year. They would pick up the olives and store some away used in winter meals or taken to a communal press to be crushed and the oil used in the food, cosmetics, or as fuel for lamps. As it was crushed the pale green fluid was poured into containers for family use or selling at the market.
The honey Moses mentioned as the seventh species of food they could look forward to in the Promised came in two forms. Some of it came from the syrups extracted from dates and grapes ( a sweetener still used today) and the wild honey from the honey comb mentioned at Judges 14: 8,9 which describes how Samson scooped wild honey out of the corpse or a lion and 1 Samuel 14:27, a narration of how King Saul's son, Jonathan, ate wild honey from the trip of a rod after dipping it into a honeycomb in a field.
Exactly which type of honey Moses meant is not stated but archaeologists have discovered more than 30 beehives in northern Israel showing that beekeeping was practiced as early as Solomon's time.
These "seven species" are still found in the market of modern Israel -- along with a wide variety of other foods native to the land or introduced to Israeli farmers and grown successfully by them. All of this shows that Moses was not wrong in describing this narrow strip of land along the eastern end of the Mediterranean as the "good land."
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Did Jesus Really Die on a Cross?
Look up at most Christian church windows or somewhere on the building and you will usually see a cross. This is a reminder of how Jesus supposedly died on behalf of mankind, but is this idea accurate? Did he really die on a cross?
Some Bible translations convey the idea that yes he did. Take Today's English Version for instance, say that the soldiers forced Simon from Cyrene, "...to carry the cross of Jesus. The word cross
however is translated from stauros. And that is a problem.
Greek scholar W. E. Vine tells us why. He says stauros "denotes primarily an upright pale or stake. One such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroo, which means tofasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross."
So what is it that Jesus was impaled on really an upright pole or a two-beamed cross? Another word Bible writers used when describing what Jesus was impaled on. They said it was a xylon which it t urns out meant a piece of timber or wooden stake that the Romans used to crucify criminals and those found guilty of sedition.
Although this picture of Jesus on a cross has been burned into our minds over the years it is wrong. This the conclusion of the editors of the Critical Lexicon and Concordance. Even The Catholic Encyclopedia admits: "Certain it is at any rate, that the cross originally consisted of a simple vertical pole, sharpened at its upper end."
Following the death of the last of the apostles apostates succeeded in getting church leaders to accept ideas adopted from Asian religions such as the Hindus and the Buddhists. According to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by the middle of the 3rd Century A.D. many such things had crept into the Christian church. Constantine, for example was one who encourage his subjects and followers to accept such symbols in their worship.
Historians, however, have found no evidence of the use of the use of a stake or a cross in the worship of early Christians. They used no idols. As a matter of fact Paul at 2 Cor 6: 14-16 asked: "What agreement does God's temple have with idols?"
And it does not make much sense, much sense as one 17th-century writer pointed out for Jesus followers to be worshiping the object on which such an agonizing death does it?
So those who promote cross worship have it wrong on two counts: First of all facts show that Jesus was impaled on a stauros (xylon) or stake not a two-beamed cross. Secondly the early Christians never used any such thing to commemorate Jesus' execution.
Some Bible translations convey the idea that yes he did. Take Today's English Version for instance, say that the soldiers forced Simon from Cyrene, "...to carry the cross of Jesus. The word cross
however is translated from stauros. And that is a problem.
Greek scholar W. E. Vine tells us why. He says stauros "denotes primarily an upright pale or stake. One such malefactors were nailed for execution. Both the noun and the verb stauroo, which means tofasten to a stake or pale, are originally to be distinguished from the ecclesiastical form of a two beamed cross."
So what is it that Jesus was impaled on really an upright pole or a two-beamed cross? Another word Bible writers used when describing what Jesus was impaled on. They said it was a xylon which it t urns out meant a piece of timber or wooden stake that the Romans used to crucify criminals and those found guilty of sedition.
Although this picture of Jesus on a cross has been burned into our minds over the years it is wrong. This the conclusion of the editors of the Critical Lexicon and Concordance. Even The Catholic Encyclopedia admits: "Certain it is at any rate, that the cross originally consisted of a simple vertical pole, sharpened at its upper end."
Following the death of the last of the apostles apostates succeeded in getting church leaders to accept ideas adopted from Asian religions such as the Hindus and the Buddhists. According to Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by the middle of the 3rd Century A.D. many such things had crept into the Christian church. Constantine, for example was one who encourage his subjects and followers to accept such symbols in their worship.
Historians, however, have found no evidence of the use of the use of a stake or a cross in the worship of early Christians. They used no idols. As a matter of fact Paul at 2 Cor 6: 14-16 asked: "What agreement does God's temple have with idols?"
And it does not make much sense, much sense as one 17th-century writer pointed out for Jesus followers to be worshiping the object on which such an agonizing death does it?
So those who promote cross worship have it wrong on two counts: First of all facts show that Jesus was impaled on a stauros (xylon) or stake not a two-beamed cross. Secondly the early Christians never used any such thing to commemorate Jesus' execution.
"A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey"?
What exactly did God mean when he told Abraham's descendants that they would inherit a land flowing with milk and honey?
There have been a number of explanations of this.Some of have suggested that the refrence was only to a sweet syrup from dates, figs or grapes or perhaps to the wild honey such as Judge Samson on one occasion scooped from the carcass of a lion he had killed as described in Judges 14: 8, 9.
But fairly recently archaeologists have discovered an ancient apiary at Tel Rehov in modern-day Israel which dates from the 10th to early 9th centuries B.C.E. Here they found over 30 hives in three rows and scholars estimate that "as much as half a ton of honey could be culled each year from these hives.
This discovery proved that that keeping busy was a highly developed industry by the time of Solomon. In addition to using the honey it itself the Jews used the beeswax in both the manufacture of metal and leather products as well as for writing boards with panels filled with the beeswax which could be written down and then melted down and reused in other boards.
So the description of the land as a land" flowing with milk (There was an abundant supply of wholesome milk from cows, sheep and goats as well.)and honey" was very true and and painted part of an accurate Biblical picture of The Promised Land.
There have been a number of explanations of this.Some of have suggested that the refrence was only to a sweet syrup from dates, figs or grapes or perhaps to the wild honey such as Judge Samson on one occasion scooped from the carcass of a lion he had killed as described in Judges 14: 8, 9.
But fairly recently archaeologists have discovered an ancient apiary at Tel Rehov in modern-day Israel which dates from the 10th to early 9th centuries B.C.E. Here they found over 30 hives in three rows and scholars estimate that "as much as half a ton of honey could be culled each year from these hives.
This discovery proved that that keeping busy was a highly developed industry by the time of Solomon. In addition to using the honey it itself the Jews used the beeswax in both the manufacture of metal and leather products as well as for writing boards with panels filled with the beeswax which could be written down and then melted down and reused in other boards.
So the description of the land as a land" flowing with milk (There was an abundant supply of wholesome milk from cows, sheep and goats as well.)and honey" was very true and and painted part of an accurate Biblical picture of The Promised Land.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Bricks Corroborate Accuracy of Moses' Writing
The making of bricks in the 15th-century B.C.E. illustrates again the accuracy of the Biblical record.
Exodus 1 :14 and 5:10-14 Moses described the ancient making of bricks by the Egyptians using captive Hebrews in the Nile River valley using clay mortar and straw is back. This account was accurate in all of its details.
According to the International Standard Bible Encylopedia the Israelite slaves in this case would have mixed water with this clay and then carried this to the spot where the brick maker was pouring this mixture into a mold on the ground.
When this had dried to a consistency where it would not run he would take this wooden mold or form away and leave the damp bricks to continue drying in the sun.
Further corroboration of both the Biblical account was found in two other sources, The first is a wall painting of the 15th-century B.C.E. tomb of Reckhmire in Thebes illustrating the manufacture of bricks during the era covered in the Biblical account. The second is the papyrus documents from the second millennium B.C.E. which describe the making of bricks in this way by slaves or serfs. including the daily production quota that they would have had to reach.
Exodus 1 :14 and 5:10-14 Moses described the ancient making of bricks by the Egyptians using captive Hebrews in the Nile River valley using clay mortar and straw is back. This account was accurate in all of its details.
According to the International Standard Bible Encylopedia the Israelite slaves in this case would have mixed water with this clay and then carried this to the spot where the brick maker was pouring this mixture into a mold on the ground.
When this had dried to a consistency where it would not run he would take this wooden mold or form away and leave the damp bricks to continue drying in the sun.
Further corroboration of both the Biblical account was found in two other sources, The first is a wall painting of the 15th-century B.C.E. tomb of Reckhmire in Thebes illustrating the manufacture of bricks during the era covered in the Biblical account. The second is the papyrus documents from the second millennium B.C.E. which describe the making of bricks in this way by slaves or serfs. including the daily production quota that they would have had to reach.
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