The festival of Shavuot falls tonight on the Jewish calendar, observed through Monday sundown. Shavuot in Hebrew literally means “weeks” or “sevens,” which refers to the seven weeks between Passover and what was originally a harvest celebration on the 50th day–also called the “feast of firstfruits” (Exodus 34:22). In Greek…
The new revised and expanded 4th edition of my little book Restoring Abrahamic Faith is available now on Amazon in paperback as of noon EDT today. Here is the link: https://amzn.to/3F90SA7 I will be adding Kindle, Hardcover, and Audio at a later date, as well as translations into several languages,…
It is often said that the three “Abrahamic” religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam–and by some broad definitions that might be the case. However, the core Hebrew faith, as reflected in a critical non-fundamentalist reading the Hebrew Bible itself, has largely been lost, forgotten, muted, or outright contradicted by these…
This report from Israel introduces viewers to the basics on what we know and hope to soon learn about the skeletal remains of those Jewish men, women, and children who died at Masada under the Roman 10th Legion siege around Passover 73 CE. For the blog post I feature see:…
As many of you know I formed a “Tabor Research Community” in 2023 using Patreon…but my approach is different from most. Everyone who joins, at any level, gets the same materials–as I realize people have widely differing financial means, and I am not interested in “selling” my work to those…
In this video I examine two texts from Paul’s early letters (1 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians), that many scholars think are interpolations. Paul says harsh things about Jews experiencing soon the Wrath of God, , and demands that women be SILENT in the assembly and even if they have a…
This is a video recording of a LIVE video lecture on Zoom I did with my students today in my “Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls” class. This is deep and complex stuff, but utterly fascinating as you get into it. I Many of you are in the course, but…
Today is the biblical Shavuot as observed in late 2nd Temple times–not on a date of the Jewish month (Sivan 5th), which never changes, but a literal counting of days from the Sunday (“morrow after the Sabbath”), seven Sabbath will be complete untiil the “morrow” (Sunday) after the 7th Sabbath.…
The traditional translation of “Den of Thieves” is misleading both in the mouth of Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple–but more significant,–in the mouth of the Prophet Jeremiah whom Jesus quotes. Here is the back-story on what was really going on, both in the time of Jeremiah and of Jesus. Here…
I don’t know how many of you have heard this verse quoted over the years growing up but the ideas behind it, spread to the world by the apostle Paul–have done untold harm, and led to the anguish and suffering of so many millions. A Single verse of the Bible–Jeremiah…