Archive for the ‘Christian Origins’ Category
Thirty-two years ago today, on “Maundy Thursday,” before Passover/Easter an ear-piercing dynamite blast shattered the morning’s peace, ripping through the rugged hills of Armon HaNatziv (i.e., the “place of the High Comissioner”) just south of the Old City of Jerusalem–today known as East Talpiot. Exposed on that day was the striking facade of what has now become known by many as “the Talpiot Jesus tomb.”
In the year 30 CE, also on this Thursday before Passover/Easter, the Galilean messianic claimant known as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” was crucified by the Romans just outside the Old City and put in a hastily chosen temporary rock hewn tomb that just happened to be near the place of crucifixion just as the time for the evening Passover Seder drew near.
Mt of Olives, Passover, 30 CE painted by Balage Balogh in 2005
Read more here:
http://jamestabor.com/2012/04/04/today-in-history-thursday-before-passover-a-double-anniversary/
Chag Sameach, early Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem
In today’s class Ross offers a view of life from the Torah. This reading is full of incredible insights. Today is the first of seven Sabbaths of consolation, known as Shabbat nachamu. Ross begins his teaching in the 40th chapter of Isaiah. This passage still speaks to us today – A Voice is crying in the wilderness to prepare the way! Ross offers his listeners a challenge to hear the voice. Working through what he calls “the Greatest Sermon of Moses” Ross shows that within these words we find the path to life. Drawing upon the words of Jesus and the frequent use of these texts by Christians, Ross challenges modern followers of Jesus to rethink their view of eternal life. Does the Torah really bring life? Is salvation based upon works? From the greatest commandment to a repetition of 4 Hebrew verbs, Ross expands our understanding of a life based upon God’s plan for mankind. You will not want to miss this teaching.
Follow this link to the archived class.
http://rootsoffaith.org/2011/08/13/do-this-and-live-a-path-to-life.htm
Tonight begins the Jewish festival popularly known Sukkoth, the “feast of huts” or booths. The King James Version translated it as the “Feast of Tabernacles,” and that is how many Christians who observe it in some fashion refer to it most often today.
What is all the more interesting about this day is that by some calculations (see Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology) Jesus was born on or very near the 15th day of the 7th month–based on the chronology given in the book of Luke. The calculations are complex but have to do with the time in which Zechariah, father of John the Baptizer, served in the Temple (Luke 1:8), as the “section” of priests in which he was part went on duty at a specific time of year. From that window calculations can be made as to the birth of John, followed by the birth of Jesus six months later. My own calculations based on a computer program I use puts the birth of Jesus in 5 B.C. very close to Sukkoth, or September 22nd on the Gregorian Calendar, corresponding to the Autumnal Equinox. It just so happens that today, in 2010, the 15th day of the 7th month, beginning Sukkoth, also corresponds to the Equinox–that is today, September 22nd/23rd.
There is a fascinating Roman civic inscription dating to the year 9 B.C. that was passed by the cities of Asia to celebrate the birthday of the Emperor Augustus. It reads in part: “Whereas, finally, that the birthday of the god (i.e. Augustus) has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel (euangelion) concerning him, therefore, let all reckon a new era beginning from the date of his birth, and let his birthday mark the beginning of the new year.”
It is surely more than ironic that the birth of Jesus, an insignificant Galilean peasant, living under the brutal boot of Roman occupation, just a few years later, did indeed lead to a new era, a kind of “birthday of the world,” that has paled into insignificance the birth of the celebrated Emperor Augustus.
So today in particular it seems has a double meaning, as the festival of Sukkoth for Jews and others who observe the Torah festivals, but for Christians, and really our entire society, the birthday of a new era, in that Jesus himself was born on or very near this day.
When I was at UNC Asheville last February, giving the lecture on “What Kind of a Jew Was Jesus” I did a fairly comprehensive interview for UNC Asheville TV on that topic but a wide range of related issues. You can listen to it or download at: