Introductions, annotations, and a selection of handpicked digitized books for online reading. These titles were chosen to enhance the study of the ancient historical and cultural context of the Bible.
My friend Eli and I have just released a new and exciting book! We invite you to uncover the “Hebrew Visions in Revelation” with insightful explanations of key imagery from Revelation Chapters 6-14 of John’s Apocalypse. This book delves into the Jewish background and meanings of the visions that...
The Apocalypse of Abraham (התגלות אברהם, Hitgalut Avraham) is an ancient Jewish apocalyptic text believed to have been written between 70 and 150 CE. While the surviving manuscripts are in Old Slavonic, it is widely accepted that the original composition was in a Semitic language, evident from the presence of...
This book by Prof. Daniel Boyarin explores the popular topic of the parting of ways between Christianity and Judaism. Only instead of tracing the historical circumstances of how the Synagogue and Church slowly drifted apart, he proposes a completely different outlook on how it really happened. I was deeply intrigued...
Strack (1848-1922) was a Professor of the Old Testament at the University of Berlin. His classic introduction to Rabbinic literature was revised and updated by Gunter Stemberger, an established expert on Rabbinic history and literature. This book is the only comprehensive one-volume introduction to the subject that I know. I...
Geroge M. Lamsa was a native Aramaic speaker born in the Middle East. He translated the Aramaic Peshitta Bible, which means "simple" or "straight," into English. Without going into arguments of manuscript primacy, Aramaic was indeed spoken broadly in the first century across the entire Levant...
The Mishna is a collection of written traditions of the oral Torah in the form of discussion. These discussions were preserved by the rabbis of the first and second centuries CE. A number of English translations of this ancient document are in existence. This English translation of the Mishnah by...
Misconceptions about ancient Jewish sacrifice have led scholars to overlook the significance and symbolism of the Jerusalem temple to the ancient Jewish worshippers. The author of "Purity, Sacrifice, and the Temple," Jonathan Klawans, challenges the idea that the eucharist replaced ancient Jewish sacrifice and that these cultic rituals...
Aramaic language is much closer to Hebrew than Greek. And since a version of Aramaic was widely spoken in Israel in the first century CE many feel that its valuable to consider the NT message in Syriac to see the nuance of meaning. The presumption is that much more in...
Today, New Testament exists in many languages. But New Testament in Syrian Aramaic (Syriac) is a very ancient translation. Some Syrian Aramaic manuscripts even predate the copies of the Koine Greek New Testament used as a base of the original texts of the New Testament. Aramaic was widely spoken in...