Biblical Heritage Center Blog

For the past 30 years I have been engaged in research about the Jewish Yeshua (Jesus) and the evolution of Christianity from a Jewish sect to a universal Gentile religion. The work of Dr. David Flusser had played an important role in my work. David Flusser (b. 09/15/1917 – d. 09/15/2000) was a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem where he taught Judaism in the Second Temple Period and Early Christianity. He was a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Flusser published over 1,000 articles in Hebrew, German, English, and other languages.   His work was rewarded by the State of Israel in 1980 with the Israel Prize. His famous book, Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (© 1988 Magnes Press, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel), is a valuable resource for anyone studying the Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity. I use it regularly in my work. Today, while working on something, I came across two passages that I believe are very importan...

The plaster casts of 86 agonized victims of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 AD will go on exhibit May 26, 2015, in National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy. People of Pompeii, a Roman city, were in their death throes when a cloud of gas from the volcano enveloped them, killing them. The gas was 300 degrees centigrade (572 degrees F). Clearly, from the expressions of their faces and their bodily contortions they were caught by surprise when the ash cloud finally consumed them. Harrowing image shows a child sitting on his mother when the ash cloud hit. See pictures and read article at -- http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/frozen-time-casts-pompeii-reveal-last-moments-volcano-victims-003117

The history of the name “ Jesus ” begins in the Torah in the account in which Yahweh commanded Moses to choose one man from each of the twelve tribes to spy out the land of Canaan. Of the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea [1] the son of Nun . . .   These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Hoshea the son of Nun Yehoshua . [1] The root word of Hoshea is HOSHUA , which means " salvation ." It is important to understand that "salvation" in the Hebrew Scriptures or the Jewish culture did not mean “ go to Heaven after death .” It meant “ being delivered from some danger or threat .” Read the complete blog at -- http://therealyesua.blogspot.com/2015/05/history-of-name-jesus.html

Shavuot began on May 23 and ends on May 25. In Judaism it is known as the " Feast of Weeks " and in Christianity it is called “Pentecost.” In The Torah Shavuot is mentioned in connection with Passover and with bringing offerings from the harvest.  “You shall count off seven weeks [from Passover]…then you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, offering your freewill contribution according to how Adonai your God has blessed you.” (Deut. 16:10). During the Temple Period, two additions were made to the observance of Shavuot.  First, the priests would make a special offering of two loaves of bread on behalf of the nation.  Bread was an unusual offering, since it is made by human hands.  In general, offerings were animals or grain, raw materials coming directly from the earth to God.  This offering of bread, representing a human-Divine partnership in giving food to the world, would soon become important in the rabbis’ radical re-interpretation of Shavuot. The secon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Samuel_Wise#/media/File:Stephen_Samuel_Wise.jpg Rabbi Stephen S. Wise gave this sermon in late December 1925 and it set off a storm of protests in Jewish communities.  Before you read the article, it is important for you to be aware of some of the accomplishments of Rabbi Wise. ● a founder of the New York Federation of Zionist Societies in 1897 ● first vice-president of the   Oregon State Conference of Charities and Correction in 1902 ● appointed Commissioner of Child Labor for the State of Oregon in 1903 ● co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) ● founding of American Jewish Congress (AJCongress) in 1918 ● founded the   Jewish Institute of Religion, an educational center in New York City  in 1922 ● founding president of the World Jewish Congress in 1936 (created to fight Nazism) ● co-chair of the American Zionist Emergency Council in WWII ● hel...

I was flipping through channels and came upon a program about Human Trafficking . We all hear about things like this, but after an initial shock, they are soon forgotten. Many of us " modern " people don't really think about " slavery ." That concept is relegated to Biblical times or before the Civil War -- but " slavery ", like so many other evils, never goes away . In the Hebrew Bible, Rabbinic writings, Jewish history and prayers - redeeming captives appears a number of times . It is a mitzvah (commandment) to redeem captives. Read Rabbi Leynor’s blog at -- http://tovcenter.blogspot.com/2015/05/redeeming-captives-ancient-tov-idea.html