Rebuilding Eden in the Land of Eridu

The site of Eridu had a special place in the Mesopotamian tradition. In Babylonian literature the relevance of Eridu was always more religious than political. For example, in the Sumerian King List the gods first handed kingship down to Eridu. In Babylonian mythology Eridu was founded by the god Enki/Ea, who warned Zuisudra, the Sumerian Noah, about the flood. Moreover, the central core of the site of Eridu, whose name became later interchangeable with Babylon, was Enki/Ea’s temple, called the House of the Aquifer. Our project on the Eridu Hinterland focuses on both the cultural and symbolic functions of the Holy Sanctuary of Enki in the Abu Shahrein landscape through more than eight millennia. See pictures and read the entire article at -- http://asorblog.org/2017/09/12/rebuilding-eden-land-eridu/

Thank God for Disasters???

Why is it that the best of humanity always seems to come out of a crisis, disaster, traumatic event?? Is this the only time we truly feel our connection to others, especially whole groups of people we “hate”, or hate us? Read Rabbi Leynor’s blog at --

https://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2017/09/thank-god-for-disasters.html

There are no “Judeos”

 A Misleading Hyphen

Some people, including American politicians who want to sound “inclusive” and do not want to offend Jews, have taken the Latin term Judaeus and melded it with “Christian” to describe a so-called “Judeo-Christian” tradition or heritage.

While there are many Christians in the world, there are no “Judeos.” The accurate phrase should be “Jewish and Christian” traditions or heritages, without a hyphen.

Each faith community has many religious streams; there is no one single “Jewish tradition” or “Christian tradition,” and there is certainly not a “Judeo-Christian” one.

Source: Christians & Jews Faith to Faith: Tragic History, Promising Present, Fragile Future

By Rabbi James Rudin © 2011; Jewish Lights Publishing, Woodstock, VT; p. 6.

Latest BHC Newsletter: The Forgotten Father: The Man that Raised Jesus

The July issue of the Biblical Heritage Center newsletter -- Creating Safer Better Lives By Discovering Ourselves & Our Biblical Heritages – is now online. It contains the following articles and July Memorials.

Once upon a time a minister, professor and rabbi took a journey. . .

The title sounds like the beginning of a good joke, but it isn’t. It is proof that people with different biblical heritages can work together to tackle religious issues that most people try to avoid. I am the minister, Ike Tennison is the professor and Jeffrey Leynor is the rabbi. I have been on this journey for over thirty-five years now. Ike joined it about thirty years ago when I enrolled in a course in Classical Greek he was teaching at the University of Texas at Arlington. Jeffrey became part of our journey a little over twenty-five years ago when I enrolled in a course he was teaching about the Prophets at the Jewish Community Center in Dallas.

The Forgotten Father: The Man that Raised Jesus

For most of his life, he was most likely known as “Jesus son of Joseph.” However, as a result of Gentile theologies that developed in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, in our opinion, the role of Joseph in the life of Jesus has faded into the distant past. It always helps to put subjects into a chronological context, especially when they are discussions about someone’s life. Scholars are divided about how long Jesus personally led the Jesus Movement; some say three years while others say one year. In either case, they pretty much agree that he began it when he about thirty years old. So, it was at least thirty years before anyone called him “The Son of God” or “The Anointed One” (Christ) -- until then people would have known him as Jesus son of Joseph.

The Importance of Creating Sacred Spaces in Life

“Holy places” and “sacred spaces” are important in the Bible. It could be “physical place” or “space of time.” In the Hebrew Bible “holy” does not mean “religious,” it means “set apart for a specific purpose.” The Hebrew word translated “holy” is QADASH and its first appearance in the Bible is Genesis 2:3.

To read or download the complete newsletter click on -- http://bit.ly/2uRTsun

God’s Love Isn’t About Warm Fuzzy Feelings

The opening chapters of Genesis reveal that the highest value and top priority of the Creator of the Heavens and Earth is human life. They teach that all people are created with the spirit of the Creator, meaning with the Spirit of the Creator. Humans reveal the Creator’s Spirit to members of their generation by doing thing that measure up to the Creator’s TOV Standard – acts that protect life, preserve life, make life for functional and increase the quality of life. Religious institutions disconnected from real life or salvation doctrines that require people to believe someone’s “right theologies” were not part of the Creator’s plan. See the complete blog at

https://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2017/07/gods-love-isnt-about-warm-fuzzy-feelings.html

The Unintended Consequences of Protestantism: Western Civilization as We Know It!

Historically, Protestant Christianity was decisive in forming western civilization as we know it, especially in the United States. You can’t imagine modern individualism, democracy, or freedoms without it – and it has given us some other legacies which we might not like so much. But it’s not just a subject of historic interest. There are a billion Protestants in the world today, and in Africa, China, Latin America and other places the numbers are rising fast. Protestantism is going to be one of the key forces shaping the world this century, and we’d better understand it.

The first Protestants didn’t set out to create the world we live in now, but some key features of that world come directly from them. The ideal of free inquiry and free speech; the assumption that we’ve got a right to challenge our rulers, and that in spiritual terms we’re all equal; and the notion of limited government, that there are freedoms of conscience over which no political authority has any jurisdiction. If you want, you can push that to say that Protestants created modern democratic capitalism, though they didn’t do it alone. More to the point, if you look at all the really decisive ideological conflicts of the modern age – for and against religious toleration, slavery, colonialism, nationalism, fascism, Communism, women’s rights, civil rights – in all of those you’ll find Protestants at the heart of the argument: and on both sides. Protestants love to argue. The world we live in is the world their arguments made.

Read the complete article at http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/165635

Rich Biblical history of Iraq

Many of us know that Israel is the nation most often mentioned in the Bible. But not many know that there is another nation that is also often mentioned in the Bible – though second to Israel only. I am referring to Iraq. In other words, no other nation except Israel has more Biblical history and prophecy associated with it than Iraq. However, Iraq is not the name that is used in the Bible. The names used in the Bible are Babylon, Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia -- The Garden of Eden was in Iraq; Adam and Eve were created in Iraq; Abraham came from Ur, which is a city in Southern Iraq; Jacob spent 20 years in Iraq and met Rachel there; and more. Read complete article at -- http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/06/03/rich-biblical-history-of-iraq/