"Hearing Distant Echoes" by Pinchas Shir
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"Hearing Distant Echoes" by Pinchas Shir

This book captures many ancient voices, a collection of literary excerpts from ancient Jewish books: Jubilees, Josephus, 4 Ezra, Qumran Scrolls, Talmud, Enoch, Baruch, Maccabees, Mishna, Judith, Apocalypse of Moses, Philo, Mishna, Ben Sira, and many others, fifty passages to be exact. The excerpts are mostly short, sometimes even intentionally

You Are God's Temple: 1 Corinthians 3:16
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You Are God's Temple: 1 Corinthians 3:16

Apostle Paul was a first-century religious Jew, trained at the feet of the best rabbis of his time. Though he addresses primarily non-Jewish audiences, Shaul often writes as a rabbi, resorting to midrash and employing metaphors to illustrate his ideas. Sadly, his readers are not used to this

A Morning Prayer: May Your Will Always Be...
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A Morning Prayer: May Your Will Always Be...

I wanted to share with you a Morning Prayer and, more specifically, a musical piece I created based on it. The words of this song are inspired by the words of the traditional morning blessings found in the Siddur (Jewish Prayer Book). The person who is praying in the early

The Sign of Jonah and Something Greater (~3hrs)
>Seminars

The Sign of Jonah and Something Greater (~3hrs)

What is this Sign of Jonah? The traditional thinking is that it's Jesus' resurrection, three days and three nights... But the passage may not be so simple as it appears on the surface. Interested in taking a closer look and discovering another way to read the text?

Study the Three Visions of Enoch!
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Study the Three Visions of Enoch!

Over the years of teaching, I have often referred my students to the books of Enoch. But most of the time, I did so with some reservations. I knew that the broadly distributed copies they would likely come across would be littered with archaic and hard-to-digest language. Finally,

Ancient Texts in Original Languages

The Bible was not written in English. In fact, throughout history Jews communicated in multiple languages, Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and their ancient texts are a product of this multilingual mix. Of course, Classical Hebrew is the language in which most

Pinchas Shir /Articles

The Roots of Your Faith Go Deep

Do you know how deep? Somewhere inside you suspect there must be so much more. As you read the Bible some pieces of the puzzle are missing and some things just do not make any sense. The roots of your

Pinchas Shir /Articles

Looking for the bones of John the Baptist

Excavated from Bulgarian church ruins, remains are from the right time and place. Purported skeletal remains of John the Baptist have been dated to the first century A.D. and so could conceivably have belonged to the “forerunner of Christ,

Pinchas Shir /Articles

Can Jesus' DNA be found?

Apparently, some scientists are trying to find out if this is possible to find Jesus’ DNA. It was the first stop on an extraordinary journey. On a bright but bitterly cold January afternoon earlier this year, I found myself on

Pinchas Shir /Articles

Ancient Roman Road and 2,000-Year-Old Coins

Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered an ancient Roman road dating back 2,000 years ago. This impressive man-made structure had been beautifully preserved beneath the ground in Bet Shemesh, near the modern Highway 375. This ancient Roman road stunned archaeologists

Pinchas Shir /Articles