Biblical Heritage Center Blog

How important is it to have the correct meanings   of the words of your Bible? Rabbi Jeffrey Leynor   has added a new study in the "Meaning of Hebrew   Words" series -- The Hebrew Meanings of Sin.   The Hebrew Bible and the Jewish Jesus share   the culture, which makes it essential to discover   the Hebrew meanings of the most important   words.   Download the handout (PDF) and then view the short video (about 9 minutes).  For handout click on - http://www.biblicalheritage.org/BHC_Handouts/Hebrew_Meaning_of_Sin.pdf   To view the video click on -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWL45ctVolY   View all of Rabbi Leynor's teaching series at -- http://www.biblicalheritage.org/rabbi_leynor.htm  

The Indian website 'I Paid a Bribe' asks people to post their encounters with corrupt officials. Now reformers in other countries are following its lead. It puts a spotlight on government corruption – may become a model for rooting out corruption around the world. It began last August and invites people to post anonymous reports on instances in which they have had to bribe an official. They can also share ways that they have been able to avoid paying a bribe. The site has recorded more than 10,000 incidences of bribery. In Transparency International's 2010 survey of perceived corruption, India ranked 87th among 178 nations on the list and China ranked 78th. Denmark, New Zealand, and Singapore were listed as the least-corrupt countries. The United States ranked 22nd. Read entire article at –  'Rapture' real aftermath: Beheadings, shootings, mass graves http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=321837#ixzz1S5QcxiSL

Simcha Jacobovici, the “Naked Archaeologist,” responds to critics of his “Nails of the Cross” documentary that aired in the USA and Israel. His thesis, that two crucifixion nails, most likely those used to crucify Jesus of Nazareth, were found in a Jerusalem tomb belonging to the Caiaphas family in November 1990.  Dr. James Tabor has posted the response on his blog at – http://jamestabor.com/2011/06/22/simcha-jacobovici-responds-to-critics-of-his-nails-of-the-cross-film/

How would you like to use the same Bible reading schedule that Jesus used? The Gospel of Luke provides some very important clues that may make it possible for you to rediscover that ancient schedule. In chapter four those clues are found in the account about a meeting he attended at his synagogue. [i]   The account in Luke informs readers that Jesus was called upon to read from the scroll of Isaiah on one Shabbat. [ii] By the way, he went to services on Saturday, not Sunday. Shabbat, the Sabbath, began at sundown on Friday and ended at sundown Saturday. Being called to read from the scrolls was a very special honor that would have been bestowed only on a Jew. This also reveals that Jesus could not only read the Hebrew language in which the scroll was written, but that he was also very familiar with the Isaiah scroll. Unlike flipping pages in a book, he would have had to “roll” through a scroll that was 23.5 feet long [iii] to find the specific section he read. The scroll did no...

An under reported story about riots that have been taking place around the world is the role that rising food prices have played. According to the CNN report: "Another 44 million people worldwide were driven into poverty due to high food prices since June 2010 -- in addition to the 1.2 billion people already living below the poverty line of $1.25 a day," Read the complete report at -- http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/06/14/oxfam.food.prices/

Look at the growth in the number of Christian denominations over the past 2,000 years. ◊ 33 CE – 1 ◊ 1800 – 500 ◊ 1900 - 1,900 ◊ 1970 – 18,800 ◊ 2000 – 33,800 ◊ 2007 – 39,000 ◊ 2025 - 55,000 (projected) [i] Are you getting the picture? It seems that about all it takes to create a new Christian denomination these days is find some followers and a few Scriptures to base it on. The facts make it very clear that just about anyone can create a new Christian denomination in America, as well as in other parts of the world, today. How did a single Jewish sect -- led by the Jewish Jesus -- become a universal Gentile religion with approximately 40,000 denominations today? Prior to the founding of America the number was less than 100, so the real question is what happened in America. My thoughts on the subject are these. First, America provided an environment of freedom that individuals had never experienced before. This environment included freedoms of speech, the press, religion, economic o...

A meme is a unit of cultural information that exist in the mind and is successfully copied to other minds. Our memes combine to create our realities. We are made of genes and memes. To use a computer analogy, genes are like hardware and memes are like software. A meme that was created in the 1800s CE and changed the realities of millions of Christians is the "Rapture Meme." An allusion to the Rapture first appeared in a book written in 1788 by a Catholic priest named Emmanuel Lacunza and published in Spain in 1812 .  John Darby, a Brethren preacher, taught the Rapture doctrine in 1827 .  The evangelist, William Blackstone popularized Rapture doctrine in his best seller, "Jesus is Coming."  The Rapture doctrine entered mainstream Christianity with its inclusion in the Scofield Reference Bible.   There is no real history of the Rapture meme until the 1800's . [i]   [i] http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/08/08/234333/-History-of-Rapture-Doctrine

One of the most important lessons of the Bible is that “mankind is created in the image of God.” Rabbi Jill Jacobs, in her book There shall be no needy: Pursuing Social Justice through Jewish Law & Tradition , provides valuable insights into what this means. The biblical story of Creation twice asserts that human beings are created b’tzelem elohiym – in the image of God. While the Bible itself certainly describes God often in anthropomorphic terms, rabbinic and later interpretations understand the concept of creation b’tzelem elohim not as a description of the physical likeness between humanity and God, but rather as evidence of the divinity inherent in each human being. Thus, procreation perpetuates the divine presence, and injury to a human being diminishes God’s presence. (p. 159) The premium on human life translates also into the establishment of positive obligations to save life, even at the expense of other commandments. The assertion that human beings are created in the im...