Supposed that someone said this to you:

"There is a place where they have dope in gallon buckets, have 32 foot long joints, and trip out every 12 hours with a lot of these joints! Sometimes the joints are rolled up into one big coil!"

Do you want to go find that place?

What did you think I was talking about? What came to your mind?

What I was talking about was terms used in the well drilling industry!

If you misunderstood what I said in English, then imagine how you could misunderstand an ancient language and culture, such as the language and culture of the Bible.

When we talk about the Bible and its meanings, we have to gain a better understanding of a distant people who thought in much different ways than you or I do in this modern, western world.

BUT WHY SHOULD WE LOOK AT THIS ISSUE?
Many centuries of massive persecutions and slaughters of Jews by Christians and their leaders can be traced back to major misunderstandings on part of the early church leaders from gentile and pagan background and even those who followed in later centuries. Even the Nazis used some of the Church's teachings, especially of Martin Luther, in their literature and practices against the Jews. Most of Christianity has taught that the Jews were cut off from God and that Christianity is the "New Israel," the total replacement of the Jews for all promises and God's intentions. There is also the "Christ-killer" accusation against the Jews, which is contradicted by some Christian writings.

ROOTS AND BRANCHES:
But in the Christian book of Romans, the 11th chapter, there is a deep discussion about roots and branches. In Romans we see that only SOME of the branches were cut off, NOT ALL. Also, the Root existed before the Christians came along, and remains intact as did a number of the branches that existed before Christianity. Some people say that the Root is only the expectation in the past that people had in looking forward to Jesus. But a look at scripture shows that there are other references by God to a "root", which is not exactly what these Christian think. This has implications that most Christians cannot accept.

It is critical that if interfaith efforts are to succeed, people from traditional Christian backgrounds must come to a deeper understanding of the original Biblical culture and word meanings. After all, back in the early 1970s there were over 4,000 Christian denominations, groups, and divisions,, and now by some recent accountings there are over 7000. Why so many differences? Who is right?

When we look at the Christian books, such as the Gospels, we find some interesting statements. In Matthew 23:1-3, Jesus tells his disciples to do what the scribes and Pharisees tell them to do. He didn't like hypocrisies, but He did like their teachings. We even find that several of Jesus’ teachings match up not only closely to the Pharisees’ teachings that were recorded in writing (and available today), but some are just about word-for-word matched up to each other.

WHY IS THIS SO SIGNIFICANT?
Church leaders have taught that these Pharisees and scribes were bad, mistaken, evil, children of the Devil, etc. But Jesus, nearing the end of his life, tells his disciples to do what appears to be the opposite of what the Church says.

In another occurrence found in modern versions of Acts 26:14, Paul recounts his experience on the road to Damascus. He states that the heavenly voice spoke to him in the Hebrew language.

AND WHY IS THIS SO SIGNIFICANT?
The Church traditionally has taught that the language of Jesus was Aramaic or Greek or even Latin. Pastors and priests have traditionally learned Koine Greek as part of their training, but not Biblical Hebrew.

So what does it matter?

Greek is a western culture and language while Biblical Hebrew is an Eastern, Oriental culture. Greek and other Western languages tend to be very specific in the words and their meanings. Eastern languages are broader, often with a spectrum of meanings and expressions.

ARCHAEOLOGY:
Recent archaeology discoveries in Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt have shown that the common language of the Jews in Biblical times was more often Hebrew than other languages. Aramaic was used frequently, and there were some Aramaic words used in the everyday language of the Jews, just as we have Spanish and French words in our language. But the main language and thought was Hebrew. This difference is pointed out in 2 Kings 18:26, for example.

I remember when my stepfather was in a pastoral college in the Midwest. At this time, a number of these archaeological discoveries were being made in the early 1970s. The college teachers and leaders could not believe what they heard, and declared that their church had the right answers, since they really had the Holy Spirit. There was no real consideration of the value of archaeological sciences to Biblical understanding at that time.

Let's look at how this applies to Biblical and interfaith understandings.

CREATION:
The Biblical Hebrew word for day is "Yom," which is translated 53 different ways into English. Often the Semitic peoples could use "Yom" to describe one day within a complete time period, such as the reign of a king. So which meaning is the correct one to use in translating Genesis chapters 1 and 2? Remember that the solar sun and moon are not created until the fourth day, so how can there be evening and morning without the solar sun?

Even the English name of "Genesis" is misleading. Chapter 1, first verse, starts out with the Hebrew word "Beresheet" that literally means: "At first" or "When something started," but not necessarily THE absolute first time. Genesis may be a creation activity that occurred after some prior creation cycles. Also, a review of how the Semitic people tracked time is rather complex and not well understood by most pastors, priests, teachers, and theologians.

HEAVEN:
One commonly used word in Biblical Hebrew for "Heaven" is HaShamayim, which literally means, "The Waters are there." What is the real meaning of a place like that? I will let you ponder that, but now maybe you can see some deeper meaning to the Jewish practices of ritual immersion in water, the Mikveh. An official oversaw the people who walked in and out of the immersion Mikveh baths. Christians refer to this practice with the word "Baptism." Recently the archaeologists found many Mikveh at the Temple Mount, which would explain how the early Christian disciples baptized 3000 people at once in the book of Acts.

Another issue is that "heaven" was substituted for the name of God, since it was considered respectful to not explicitly blurt out the name of God. Thus the Kingdom of Heaven is an equivalent way of saying the Kingdom of God and His present-day rulership over people who submit to Him in this world. For Christians, the kingdom of Heaven has been the place you go to after you die.

LET'S LOOK AT THE WORD "LIFE":
There are both the single Biblical Hebrew words "Hai" and the plural word "Hayim" (think of the expression "Lechaim" in drinking toasts). So in the book of Psalms, in the few places where it talks about eternal or everlasting life (as we see it in English), the word is frequently in the plural use. Examples are in Psalms 21:4 where the king (as a singular person) asking the Lord for life, Psalm 34:12, and Psalm 16:11 where the Hebrew word for "life" is originally plural. What does it mean to receive eternal "lives"? In Biblical Hebrew, this refers to the many forms of life that God has created and also to the many different ways that He interacts with humans to bring His benefits to them.

A "BAD" TRANSLATION:
In Exodus 15, we read where Moses and the congregation "sing" a song. But in Biblical Hebrew, the English word "sung" is in the Biblical Hebrew future tense. Western Bible translators did not know how to handle this, and left it in the past tense for English. But the people of the Second Temple time saw this as a Midrashic hinting to the resurrection of the body in the Messianic times. Guess how Jesus' disciples and also Paul had some ideas about the resurrection?

AN UNUSUAL PHRASE CROPS UP IN A CHRISTIAN BOOK:
In Matthew 11, there is a verse where it states that the "Kingdom of God suffers violence." Recently scholars in America and Israel have reviewed the Hebrews' use of the Greek language when the Hebrews translated Biblical Hebrew books into Greek for recent converts. These scholars found that this should not be "violence," but more in terms of a "shaking" or "great moving." This verse in Matthew is a hinting based on Micah 2, verses 12 and 13, about the Messiah and the Breaker who proceeds the Messiah. In this reference, the sheep are penned up in a corral, usually in a cave with a rock fence. The Breaker comes to break down the fence and the Son of David (the Messiah) leads the sheep out. There is a lot of commotion and noise and the sheep jump throughout the break in the rock fence.

COVENANTS:
Then there are covenants, but what are these? Covenants (B'rit, b'ritim) are the bondings between two or more people or groups, with blood shedding marking the new common bond, such as marriage or peace treaties. In fact, the word for covenant, B'rit, literally means cutting. This cutting was usually in the flesh of the covenant partners, but sometimes an animal was substituted or used in addition.

Usually there was a lot of time spent preparing these agreements, working out the details of how the parties would share their strengths with each other, how each one received benefits, how they would defend each other and also what would happen if one of the parties violated the covenant. There are actually several covenants that God made with the Hebrew people, with more than one covenant made at Mount Sinai. Even today the Arabs continue these covenant practices, such as the Palestinian Covenant to destroy Israel.

ATONEMENTS:
Atonements (kippur, Yom Kippur) are part of covenants whereby two or more parties or entities come into personal agreements and become a new entity. Atonement can be rephrased as "At One Ment." Marriage is such a practice by which a man and a woman become "at one" with each other. Atonements were the ways of bonding persons or groups together for common good and making a new group. When these atonements are set up, then the parties or persons are said to have "died" to their previous status and are now "birthed" into a new covenant and position ("born again").

Usually Christians associate atonement with sin, but in the case of a marriage atonement, did the man and woman sin really bad before they had the marriage atonement? Hopefully not. So atonements have a much broader and richer meaning in Biblical Hebrew than what most people think today. Christians commonly point to the "old testament" sacrifices as the previous means for atonements and forgiveness of sins. I will address this issue towards the end of this review.

TESTAMENTS - WHICH ONE IS THE REAL "OLD" ONE:
The King James Bible word "testament" is another way of saying the modern word of "covenant". In the Christian Bibles, the books from Genesis to Malachi are referred to as the "old testament." But of the many covenant agreements (i.e., "testaments"), which one is really the "old" one and which of the others remain to this day? Christians point out to the time that the B'nei Israel (children of Israel) were at the foot of Har (mount) Sinai and Moshe made one of the covenants with them.

But what do we do with the other covenant agreements that God made with people long before Moshe was ever around, and even the other covenants make with Israel? For example, what about the covenants that God made with the Patriarchs, Avraham, Yitzchak, and Ya'acov (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob)? See Exodus 2:24 and 6:4-5. What about the covenant that God made with Noah after the Flood that still applied to all humans?

What about the covenants that God made with other individuals, such as David (2 Chronicles 7:18)? What about the covenant God made with "day and night" in Jeremiah 33:20 and 25?

What about the covenants that God made with the B'nei Israel at other times during the Exodus events, as listed in Exodus 24:6-8 and a subsequent covenant made in Exodus 34:10, and then covenants listed in Numbers 25:12-13, Deuteronomy 7:9, and Leviticus 26:9? What about the later covenants that God mentions in places like Jeremiah and other prophetic books?

Which one of these is the "old" covenant (or testament)? The principles of the messianic kingdom and of the messianic covenant are more easily understood when one sees these many other covenants and how the people of the second Temple times viewed the fruition of these covenants for the Malkut Mashiach (kingdom of the messiah).

IS IT A NEW COVENANT, OR A RENEWED AND EXPANDED:
One primary word for "new" in Biblical Hebrew is "hadash", which can mean both brand new or else renewed and expanded upon from previous things. So when Jesus and the epistle writers speak of the new covenant, which meaning are they using?

RIGHT HAND VERSUS LEFT HAND:
These ancient people used the Left hand for going to the restroom and cleanup. It is a sign of uncleanness and judgment. The Right hand is where marks of covenant cutting are made and was a reminder of the covenant oaths and provisions of blessing and vengeance. To this day the Orthodox Jews have the wedding rings on the index finger of the right finger. In the ancient times, a "ring" was cut into the flesh of the right index finger, and then the marriage partners joined hands at the index fingers to make a "common blood" of the new married life.

THE MANY HEBREW NAMES OF GOD:
There are over 160 different Hebrew names for the Creator. Some of these are masculine words and others are feminine words. For example, El Shaddai is a construct of a male word, El, and a female root word, Shad, with "dai" added on. Shad literally means a breasted person, such as a mother. But just as a mother is protective and also stronger than the child she bears, even so God is protective and stronger than His children. But without proper understanding of these different names and manifestations, it is easy to get into the pagan way of viewing the Eternal One. For Christians though, there are only three "persons."

BUT HOW CAN 160 NAMES FIT INTO THE CHRISTIAN TRINITY?
They don't. According to records not well publicized, the early Christians before the Nicene Council originally did not have a Trinitarian doctrine. This can be confirmed in the Book of Acts where no baptisms occur with the name of the Trinity - only in the name of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, or of Jesus. And don't expect your pastor, minister or priest to willingly address those issues. Christians often point to the "Us" of Genesis 1, but somehow skip over the intriguing interactions between the Eternal One and the various spirits in I Kings 22. Here the Eternal One asks for inputs from the spirits on how to achieve a goal. The issue of the nature and names of God is one of the major dividers between Jews and Christians.

Also another note that there is no "J" sound in the original Biblical languages, so "Jehovah" is something of a misnomer. Jesus' name was originally Yeshua (Hebrew for "salvation"), the third most common male name during the second Temple times.

IS IT THE SPIRIT OR THE FINGER OR THE HAND OF GOD?
In Luke 11:20, there is the incident of Jesus casting out demons. We also see the same occurrence in Matthew 12:28. In these references on the same occurrence, Jesus in one place says it's the "finger" of God that's casting the demons out, and yet in the other place he says it's the "spirit" of God that's doing the same thing. How can the Spirit of God also be the Finger of God and the Hand of God? We also see this parallel between the Spirit and the hand / fingers of God in Isaiah 11:15 and Ezekiel 8:3. See also Psalm 44:3, Exodus 31:18, and Jeremiah 16:21.

But is the third person of the trinity supposed to also be the finger of God or the hand of God? How does that fit into the Trinitarian thinking? And what about the ties of God's names to pagan practices?

STAR GODS / DEITIES OF ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST PAGANS
The star deities of the ancient Middle East were mostly tied to the characteristics of the planets (Mercury through Saturn). A very common planet made into deities was Venus. Its appearance above the horizon during its nine month cycle made a five-pointed figure (pentagram) at its high points of its orbit on one part of the day, such as evening times, and then another nine-month cycle during morning times. The timing of nine months reminded them of the time of human pregnancy, which started from something very small and brought forth human life. Thus Venus was the deity of spiritual power for making things happen from seemingly nothing when male and female deities came together. The ancient Mesopotanians and Babylonians made clay pots with pentagrams on them, and these items (and worship practice) make their ways around the ancient world. Venus was the "shining one" as often the brightest planet moving around, and another ancient word for Venus was "lutzefer" or Lucifer.

http://www.calendersign.com/en/cs_venuspentagraph.php

http://www.calendersign.com/en/aa_lucifersrock.php

Why is this important?

During the Middle Ages, the Church was at all-time highs of anti-Semitism, and many Church leaders and writers soon associated the star deities mentioned in the Bible with the Jews. The Church took Acts 7:42-43 and Amos 5:25-26 to apply to Jews for all ages and that any Hebrew teaching was to be viewed as occultism and teachings of Satan. With this reasoning, many Church Leaders led many European cities, rulers and church congregations to kill and persecute Jews in massive numbers, way into the millions. The problem is that these associations continue to this very day, not only among the neo-Nazis, but also within many groups claiming to be Bible-based and the "true" believers or Christians. And these bad associations were also made with a Jewish symbol that has been around for many centuries.

HEBREW STAR WITH FACES OF SON AND FATHER:
Given the 160 plus names of God in the Biblical Hebrew scriptures, there were attempts many centuries ago by the Jews to group these names together. These types of groupings go all the way back to the time of the Disciples. One of the most common groupings was to put these names into 10 primary characteristics of God. A further grouping was make into two major groups, or "faces". This condensing of the names brought the "face" of the father to look at the "face" of the son. And now you know what makes the Star of David from the many names of God. This further grouping often got Jews in the Middle Ages studying this deep knowledge to even convert to Christianity.

WHAT IS RIGHTEOUSNESS AND CHARITY:
In Biblical Hebrew, this is the word "Tzedakah." Tzedakah is very hard to translate into one English word. Tzedakah are those things that people bound by covenants were required to do to help out, support and defend their covenant partners. The correct way that husband and wife and their families interacted and supported each other was Tzedakah. It is also what a community should do in terms of both criminal justice and helping out those who are truly poor.

But, of course, how can our tzedakah compare to what the Creator can do?

HOLINESS:
We think we know what it is, but what you don't see in English is this: In a verse in Leviticus, God tells the people to be holy, just as He is holy. But in the Biblical Hebrew, the words for holy are spelled differently. The word for God being holy is spelled with full vowel letters. The word for the people being holy is spelled with a shortened "O" vowel, a short mark. God's holiness, Kedushah, is full and complete. Our holiness is on a lower level from His.

We must still do our actions in the way we were destined to perform. We can only do so much, and that was the way it was designed to be. But we must also know what the targets are! Some Christians seem to harp on the fact that humans can never meet God's holiness. In the Biblical Hebrew language, it was never set up that way!

KIDS:
Even before the time of the Second Temple and of Christianity, Jewish parents taught their kids the Biblical books at an early age. Kids at the age of 5 started memorizing the book of Leviticus (Vayikra). This was the book of purity. Kids were thought to be pure, since their parents had a covenant of holiness and purity with God.

Christianity has taught that we are born so much in sin that there is no purity in kids. Jews knew that the power to sin (yetzer hora) was resident in young kids, but that the sins and their accountabilities did not activate at an early age in Jewish children under the Biblical covenants. Also, kids did not take responsibility for their own until the age of thirteen for boys (the age of a Bar Mitzvah) and twelve for girls (Bat Mitzvah). Note that the Christian "confirmation" practices had their roots in the Jewish Bar Mitzvah practices. Also read Paul's description of the "yetzer hora" and the "yetzer tov" (inclination to do good) in the book of Romans, which Christians don't realize is really an exposition of Hebrew / Jewish knowledge.

SALVATION:
For most Christians, this is "fire insurance" to make sure you don't go to hell after you die. But if you take Strong's Concordance (a Christian book) and look up the words "Save," "Saved," "Saving," and "Salvation" in the Christian "old testament," you find that these words are used in the context of the here-and-now. In the Biblical Hebrew mind, salvation was a covenant benefit for deliverance from evils and from your enemies, whether physical or spiritual. Even healing from sicknesses and diseases was a part of God's salvation, the Children's Bread. More on this later.

HINTINGS IN MIDRASH:
Often there are hintings in Biblical Hebrew literature where a verse takes a word or phrase from a previous writing and builds up on it. We can see this practice even in the Christian books. An example is in Ezekiel 36, in which God talks about the leaders and people of Israel in terms of sheep and goats. The way that some animals butt into each other is the way that the people act. In the Christian Gospels, there is the parable of the sheep and goats. Guess where this parable came from?

PREVIOUS PAIN IN THE SIDE:
Another hinting is related to the Christian verses on Paul's "thorn in the flesh." But is there a previous place in Biblical Hebrew from which Paul could have gotten this type of speech? Yes, and it is in Judges 2:1-3. And when we follow the history of Israel afterwards, we find there are ways "out" of this pain in the side, such as in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and other references. What is hinted in Paul's writing is a pointing back to this history and to the ways that Israel overcame these issues and gained victory. Paul's statement was never meant to be a complete resignation to a sadistic and demeaning deity, as some Christians have painted Paul's situation.

"CHRIST-KILLER" CHARGE AGAINST THE JEWS:
Throughout most of Christianity's existence, there has been the trashy "Christ-killer" accusation against the Jews, which is contradicted by some Christian writings. In the book of Acts, chapter 4, verses 27 and 28, the early believers go through a list of those involved in the crucifixion. They list both Pilate, then Herod, and then they list the GENTILES before even mentioning the Jews. Now just why are the Gentiles part of "killing Christ", but NO Christians go around and persecute Gentiles using this type of accusation, the way that Christianity has done to the Jewish people?

CONGREGATIONS:
Speaking of people, the Congregations of the Second Temple were structured much differently than what we see in churches today. They were divided into groups, with usually a single president or ringleader. This person "shepherded" the groups into a unified flow, but was not the pastor, priest or even rabbi of today. This leader or sheepherder answered to the congregation and could be replaced if required. The groups of people were common everyday people who did the activities that most pastors and priests do today. There were the elders who directed the overall affairs of the congregation. Then there were those learned people who taught the Bible and prepared sermons. My step-father's work load as a pastor was overwhelming while the congregation just sat in their seats.

Charity was also handled by a dedicated group of people who made sure that charity, gathered at the beit kenesset (which is "synagogue" in English) in a private place, was distributed correctly. Imagine if the PTL people in the 1980s had done things like that.

SHAMEFUL FOR A WOMAN TO SPEAK (WAS BAD ON HUSBAND)
First Corinthians 14:34-35 appears in English to be a harsh condemnation against women and a prohibition against women preachers. But is that really what Paul really meant in light of the Biblical knowledge and culture of his time? There is an explanation from the Biblical practices of the congregations of believers ("minim") that gives a much better understanding of this, and brings a better view of women.

In Exodus 23:17 and Deuteronomy 16:16, all the men are supposed to show up three times a year for certain festivals before the Lord in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). In other verses, we see that the whole nation was commanded to celebrate these festivals also (children, women). The women could come to the Yerushalayim at these three times, but they did not have this commandment imposed on them like the men did.

And why is that?

Think about the other commandments specially direct at the men, such as the males being circumcised. The women didn't have to go through that commandment, which made the teachers in the Temple times to think about the special spiritual position that a woman really had. It appeared that the man had to do more special things than just what the general population had to. especially the women.

We also find directed responsibilities that men had to fulfill as in Deuteronomy 22:28-30 for single women and Deuteronomy 21:15-17 for when there was more than one wife. In places like Ruth 1:9, Ruth 3:1, and I Timothy there is the concept of the husband providing security to the home, while Proverbs 31 shows how a woman could be a businesswoman and still be a virtuous woman.

Thus the conclusion was reached that because the man had several other directed commandments to do, he was in reality "catching up" to the spiritual level of the woman, that the Biblical woman was more in line with the ways of God than the male. The male had to do this with special attendance to the convocations of the Lord, special practices, etc., which also included being "pushed" into leadership position and being the facilitator / mentor for the family.

A man might be thought of as the priest of the family, but was the function of a Kohen (priest) in Biblical times? A kohen in the Semitic areas was a "negotiator" of covenants and would bring the covenant parties together for certain purposes.

In Biblical times, the man was expected to lead by example in worship at the home, charity giving by the family, home prayers, Bible readings, etc. This was how the man not only would draw the family towards the Lord, but he could catch up to the woman.

In the congregations, the Torah (books of Moses) and other Bible books would be read through on a regular basis. Bible readings and services would occur daily, even outside the Temple in the congregations. Given the fact that Bible readings occurred in the home in addition to the congregation, a woman would have ample opportunity to learn about the Bible during the year. She would be involved in the studies at home, and would not have to bother asking lots of questions of her husband right in front of everyone during the services.

Thus if the husband was negligent of his household duties and did not much to enliven the home spiritual life, it would be shameful for a woman to speak loudly during services to ask questions of him. And now you can see the shame of a woman speaking in the Corinthian congregation -- it would publicly show how the husband was faltering and not doing his Biblical duties. It would show how far behind he was and how negligent he really was.

There is archaeological evidence that women served in the Temple activities, especially wives of Temple priests after the death of their husbands. There were cases documented when the husband was supposed to have fulfilled some specific function, such as incense burning, cleaning the altar. There is also evidence that women served in congregational leadership

It is a sad fact that a number of Church Fathers came from pagan spiritual backgrounds in which the woman was viewed as the evil force of the universe, the way of destruction, the source of all seductions, etc. There was nothing good in a woman in these teachings.

So now you know why the Church turned the shame completely onto the woman and disregarded the spiritual responsibility of the husband at home. After all, the new Christian priests now functioned as everything that the believers needed, with nothing done in the home. The cathedral replaced the home functions, while the spiritual needs still abounded.

PRAYER AND PRAISE - HOW MANY TIMES A DAY?
In Psalm 119:164, it talks about praising Him seven times a day. Praise in other Biblical references is associated with both prayers and sacrifices. So how many times should a believer be praying to Him each day? And think about the five times that Muslims pray each day. How about if every believer prayed seven times instead?

FAITH:
For most Christians and even secular people, the word "faith" often is viewed as a creed that one must spout out, a religious mindset, or something mysterious and ethereal that cannot be completely defined. But in Biblical Hebrew, the English word "faith" is what translators give for the Hebrew "emunah". Emunah means the persistence, stick-to-it-ness, faithfulness, actions, etc., which are based on God's Word, even if the "right feelings" are not there. Emunah is also the faithfulness that a married couple will exhibit towards each other through thick and thin, good and hard times. It is based on real and established principles and directions. That is why Christians really need to get themselves into the Word and just what God's covenants and promises and directions are about.

LUCKY 13 AND LOVELY 13:
Biblical Hebrew does not have number characters such as we do. The Hebrew alphabet takes up the counting system in that each letter also represents a numerical value. A good example is one of the Hebrew words for love, "Ahava", which has a numerical value of 13. Twice this value is 26. What is so significant about that? The numerical value of one of God's primary names, YHVH - the Christians' Jehovah, is 26. The lesson here is that true love (value of 13) from God only has true form when it flows both ways, especially from us to Him. The Jewish people also taught that true love between husband and wife only occurs when both have a true love for Him that then allows them to truly love each other. And on a side note, 13 is a "good" number for Jewish people, in contrast to the Europeans and Christian societies.

NOT SUFFERING QUITE LIKE JOB:
So many Christians say that their problems in life are because they are suffering like Job. But a good look at the ancient Biblical Semitic practices will show those claims probably are not true for them; rather a realization of a verse from Galatians.

In the Semitic practices of creating covenants, the covenant partners would expound on their strengths that they were bringing to the new relationship, peace treaty, or marriage. The strengths from each partner would be pledged to support the other partner or partners during times of trouble or for resolving issues. Later on as time went by, the covenant partners would met and often rehearse their strengths that they had initially pledged to each other, and also any new strengths that were available. This reminder would also be recited by the hurting or wounded partner to get the other covenant partner to help him/her during the troubles or attacks of the enemies.

So what the Eternal One is doing in Job chapters 38-41 is really a Semitic covenant-strengths reminder from Him to Job. He is trying to get Job to think about all the things that He can do for Job, so that Job can remember the covenant promises and evoke those promises. There are several places in the Scriptures where the Eternal One reminds His people to remember the promises and even to prod Him into fulfilling those promises (or even direct Him as to what to do, as in Isaiah 45:11).

What a lot of Christians really are going through is Galatians 6:7 being revealed in their lives. See also Proverbs 22:8, Obadiah 15, Malachi 3:8-12, Jeremiah 6:19 and 31:30, Hosea 10:12-13, and Isaiah 32:8. If these Christians were getting their noses into the written Word and talking to God about those promises and acting on His directions a lot more, they might see their lives turned around to the blessings that God promised in Deuteronomy 28 through Romans 15:4 and 11:17.

REPENTANCE:
In Hebrew, repentance is Teshuvah that has the deeper meaning of "turning around." Many Christians often think that repentance concentrates on seeking an apology. There is the emphasis on the feelings. But in the Hebrew mind, Teshuvah goes way beyond that. The changes must be real and effective.

FORGIVING AN "ENEMY":
In Biblical Hebrew, there are five (5) words that the translators translated into the English words "enemy" or "enemies". Here is a list of the Biblical Hebrew words for the English word "enemy": Tzar, Oyev, Koohm, Sahneh, Tzarah

So which one of these is the proper one to correlate with the words "enemy" and "enemies" of Jesus' words in the Gospels? There is also the Hebrew word for "adversary", which is "sa'tan". Ha'Satan is the great adversary "Satan" which Christians usually portray. But these five words for "enemy" could be at different levels and types than an "adversary."

One of the ways that an "enemy" was defined in Jesus' time was that he / she was a person close to you with whom you had an argument and had not spoken to for the past three days because of the argument. This could be a nearby neighbor or a family relation. In the case of a family member, though, if they were very evil and unrepentant and then split off from the family, they were no longer "close" since they were considered to have "died" to the family members and his / her relationships with them. Remember the parable of the son in Luke who deserted his father and ended up feeding the pigs? It's only upon complete teshuvah (repentance or really "turn completely around") that the son was considered "alive" again.

But for those attacking armies who were enormous "enemies" to a nation, there were the Biblical commandments for self-defense. These "enemies" are different from your neighbors with whom you had an argument recently. There are statements that Jesus makes which line up with this also (such as Luke 19:27).

There are three primary Biblical Hebrew words for the English "forgive," each having its own particular psychological aspect and viewpoint of activities. So which one is the Biblical Hebrew word that Jesus used when he said that we are supposed to "forgive" our enemies?

And why do so many churches and Christians not practice what is written in Matthew 18:15-17? Why have some denominations and many preachers denounced the principles of government given in Romans chapter 13?

Is it possible to do as is directed in the books of Moses and not bear a grudge against a close neighbor and not go beat up the person yourself and YET still pursue legal justice though the means of the government, as given by the Bible in Romans 13 and other Biblical places? So many preachers and ministers harp on the need to "forgive," but so few ever tell their members to do what is written in these sections for social justice for the oppressed. Why?

Back in the time of the early Christian believers, the courts of the gentile people (Greek, Roman) often were under the controls of the pagan temples. When these courts were not under the pagan temple controls, they certainly did not follow the Biblical principles for justice, since anti-Semitism, hatred of the Jews, and anti-Bible tendencies were rampant even in many places in the times of the Christians. It's no wonder Paul and other Christian writers told their followers NOT to go to the secular courts of those times. But here in America, our history reveals that the courts were initially based on the Biblical principles. Why didn't the Christians then see this?

GOD'S FORGIVENESS:
Let me address one of the most divisive issues between Christian and Jews. When you look at the early Church Fathers, you find that so many of them came from pagan philosophies and religions that painted different pictures of the physical world than what the Bible truly says. If you were one of the early Church Fathers who were raised in the neo-pagan / Gnostic philosophies most of their lives, and then converted to Christianity, you would view the sacred writings with those non-Biblical filters. Let me point out some details.

In the minds of many of Early Church Fathers, the physical world was evil and the soul was waiting to be "redeemed" into the realm of the "spirit." In other words, the only real goal of the Believer was to wait until he or she died and could go to Heaven. To show you what these Fathers believed, some of them stated that the "Original Sin" was sex and not just eating from the Tree of Knowledge! Around the time of the Nicene Council and Creed, the early Church forbade sexual relations, even between married husbands and wives. They said that sex was so evil that the Holy Spirit had to leave during marital intimacy. What a contradiction of Hebrews 13:4. And of course, that prohibition did not last long!

But even worse than that is how they viewed the true intentions of the soul and spirit, and the relationship between Heavenly things and this physical world. As mentioned, when you see the physical world as completely evil and something from which to escape, salvation only becomes an escape mechanism and your religion becomes a religion of death. You are just waiting it out down here so that eventually you can die and go to your home in Heaven.

The soul was viewed through the neo-pagan / gnostic "glasses" in which the soul was forced to come into a physical body and be purged through lots of trials and other bad things to be worthy to go to the spiritual realm, separate totally from the physical realm. The soul could not have any bad feelings in, so that is why the Church Fathers concentrated on forgiving people and not on Biblical justice, such as in Matthew 18:15-17. A woman who gets raped and beaten MUST forgive the perpetrator and NEVER take the guy to court, if her soul was to reach "salvation" from the neo-pagan / gnostic viewpoints.

But as pointed out earlier, a look at the "salvation" words in the Concordance gives a more comprehensive and down-to-this-earth viewpoint to salvation. One of the covenant benefits to having a real covenant with the Eternal One is the promise of having a place to go to after you die and step into the fullness of eternity. Even King David knows that he has a good place to go to after death in 2 Samuel 12:23, and this was before most of the Messianic prophecies of Daniel and other places. Most Christians argue that animal sacrifices were required in the "old testament" or else a person could not expect to ever be forgiven. Let me point out some things that most Christians don't even think of normally.

Think about two important books: Daniel and Ezekiel. At what time were they supposedly written? Remember when the first Temple was destroyed and the Judeans were exiled to Babylon? These people had both the Temple and its altar destroyed. If you read Daniel, you find him praying, but you don't find him going down to the local sacrificial altar in Babylon. When you read the books of Moses (Torah), people were not supposed to be setting up their own altars in any old place that they wanted to (and God did not command). Also think about these two Biblical books, Daniel and Ezekiel, being written in pagan lands without animal sacrifices and blood atonements on altars approved by the Lord. How could this be?

And then there were the people who lived before the Temple was ever build or before the Tabernacle was built during the Exodus. Think about the Children of Israel in their enslavement in Egypt. They were under heavy work loads and schedules, and the schedules got even tighter in Exodus. Now, how were they supposed to offer animal sacrifices for sins if they are feverishly slaving under the constant watch of the Egyptian taskmasters? There were many people who lived long before there were the "legal" requirements for the various animal and grain sacrifices in the books of Moses.

The point is that animal sacrifices were part of the ancient peoples' practices (not just Jewish), but the Eternal One had ways of compassionately dealing with these people and their sins in ways that most Christians ignore. Look at the prophet Jonah and how the Gentile people of Nineveh repented in sackcloth. These Gentile people were not required by the Eternal One to come to the altar in Jerusalem and offer animal sacrifices for their sins.

There are also various versus in the Scriptures that talk about the Lord providing atonement for them on His own, cleansing His people, washing them clean, etc. Go and look through the prophetic books. While Christians state that it is because of the Messiah that these promises have any reality, Christians must look at places like in I Corinthians 10:4. Why?

Here we see that the writer points to the Exodus time and states that the "rock" that followed the Israelites was the Messiah. But when you read the actual book of Exodus and those books afterwards, you do not find a place that states what I Corinthians says. What you see in this Christian reference is a repeat of a Midrash teaching people knew in Paul's time. What does this mean though? These ancient Jewish people were able to receive spiritual and physical benefits of their Covenants even though they didn't know everything. They didn't have to know everything, just as we don't. They just had to take the Eternal One at His word. Christians must also realize that these principles are still in effect, since His word is eternal.

PERSONAL WORKS VERSUS TEMPLE WORKS:
Back in the time of Paul and Jesus, the Biblical Hebrew word "avodot" was the word for the English word "works." Avodot (singular avodah) was primarily used for the activities done by the Levi'im (Levites) and Kohanim (priests). The messianic kingdom ("malchkut Mashiach") was known to be something that would be above what the Temple activities were, and not dependent upon the ritual activities that the Levi'im and Kohanim did. But the gentiles converts to Christianity came from the neo-pagan / gnostic backgrounds that taught through their special "knowledge" of the universe and through some rituals that they would become "elevated" spiritually and in some circles of belief would become demigods or exalted spirits on the level of deities. Christians point to scriptures that say a person is not "saved" by works, but Christians really miss what was intended by the epistle writers.

As a side note, the book of James was originally named the book of Jacob (Ya'acov), but to honor the English king, King James, it was renamed. And back when the Church Fathers were finalizing what books would be in the Christian Bible, they almost excluded this book. Many of the Church Leaders didn't like its emphasis on having to do anything as a believer and felt it was too "Jewish" for their tastes. Politics and anti-Semitism have tampered with the Biblical books occasionally.

THE ROOT BEFORE ROMANS 11
Previously I mentioned that most Christians believe the "root" of Romans 11 to only be the messianic expectations that people had before Jesus came. But there are some problems with this, as there were people of God who lived before the messianic prophecies of Daniel and the Psalms. Think about Noah being called a righteous man, long before Abraham existed, and the prophecies of Moses and prophets exists. Also, there are scriptures in which God points the people to remember the root / sources from which they came. Look at Isaiah 27:6 and 37:31, 2 Kings 19:30, Proverbs 12:3 and 12, and Jeremiah 12:2. The "root" is much more than some legalistic Christology.

PIGS NOT REALLY A GOOD FOOD TO EAT
Christians today think that Jesus and the book of Acts allowed for anyone to eat pork. But Christians don't realize that pigs in Biblical times were used as *vacuum cleaners* on the battlefields by the ancient empires. Pigs would eat up the human carcasses, and then the pagans would take those pigs and offer them in a sacrificial meals to the pagan deities. The idea was that the pigs consumed the energies and spiritual powers of the defeated humans and that by eating the pigs in the sacrifices, the conquerors would gain that spiritual strength from the pig and from the deities that came into the sacrificed pigs. The Easter ham meal was adopted from pagan European customs and made into a sacrificial meal for a spring time festival which matched up with the holiday made by the Church Fathers.

I remember as a kid seeing dead horses and other animals fed to pig herd in Illinois and Kansas. Even today there are occurrences in other countries where pigs feast on human corpses, and then the pork is sold on the international market (to come to your dinner table). There are many commercial products that use pork materials in their processing. See this about corpses fed to pigs in Europe:
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=348732006 (yum, yum???)

Animals that were kosher in general still could become unkosher through several problems in the animal, such as certain defects or when the kosher animal had died before the kosher slaughter. Look at the mad cow disease that makes a kosher cow inedible. In the Torah there are additional issues to address before consuming a kosher animal. Those additional items are the things that can make for a bunch of "unclean" animals, as seen in Peter's vision of the sheet coming down. The Jewish people who truly followed God's ways were considered to be like kosher animals, acceptable for sacrifices and the communion with the Eternal One.

Why is that view so important?

There were many non-Jewish people who were being drawn away from the many deities of paganism to the one God of the Hebrews and the Bible. These were "God-fearers" who were living a basic faith in God, but had not gone further to the level of the Jews, that is, they had not gone through complete conversion like Ruth did in the day of the Judges. They were considered to be something of a "kosher" being (like a kosher animal), but still had some things that needed to be dealt with before they were on the higher level the way that a completely kosher animal would be. Noah was considered to be a God-fearer, but he never got into the level that the Jewish people got, simply because God had not revealed those things to humans yet. But Noah as still called a "righteous" man.

In the culture of the messianic communities and of the second Temple, Peter's vision in Acts was showing that these not-completely kosher people were to be brought into the messianic kingdom. It also hinted that God would complete the processes of making them "kosher" as a people in the malkut Mashiach (messianic kingdom).

Some reference sites:
http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/15930/%26%2365279%3BKosher_Meat_And_Mad-Cow_Disease.html

http://www.aish.com/passlaw/passlawdefault/What_Makes_It_Kosher$.asp

A CULTURE OF WILD ACTIVITIES:
Have you ever noticed that Jewish festivals and marriages are more "vocal" and active than their counterparts in traditional Christianity? What's going on here? In the 10th and 19th chapters of I Samuel, we read about some rather strange occurrences that occur when the Holy Spirit comes upon people during their worship times, even in the field areas. To most people today, it comes across that people are going wild in very strange ways. For the ancient peoples though, when they had deep and personal encounters with the deity (or deities), very ecstatic activities would often occur with the people, with even prophecies occurring. It was a time of deep intimacy, equivalent to the intimacies between husband and wife. We see this in the rock graphics left around 4000 years ago by Indo-Europeans who came to western China and left rock pictures of people under the influences of the deities.

For most of Christianity's existence, Europeans and Americans have been taught that spirituality is so remote from this physical world and that true spirituality is through silent contemplation. This is based on the split mentality between the physical and spiritual worlds that the gentile converts brought into early Christianity in its development.

PENTECOST - LONG BEFORE THE BOOK OF ACTS:
Most people have not been taught this by their pastors or ministers or priests. But there are early occurrences in the Bible where people do some very strange things that are similar to those on the day of Pentecost (Shavu'ot). Take a look at 1 Samuel chapters 10 and 19, and see where during times of open worship, there are some very "unusual" happenings that the prophets and several other people experience out in the field. These occurrences of prophesying and other manifestations of the Spirit even occurred outside of the worship areas of the Tabernacle (beit hamikdash -- house of the Presence). Also there is another outpouring of the Spirit in Numbers 11:26-29 and in some of the prophetic books.

The concluding point is that the gifts of the Spirit and the "unusual" manifestations of the Spirit were NEVER just for some select apostles, but for all people open to the Lord and are willing to "let loose". These experiences as seen in 1 Samuel show that the Pentecostal-type of activities were to be part of the spiritual life of the believers, not just for a select few enshrined in some mystic church memory. This type of joy and experience could also be experienced by worshippers in the Temple times, such as during Sukkot, the feast of Tabernacles, the festival of messianic expectations.

CONCLUSION:
I could go on presenting the different ways Christians differs not only from the Jews, but also from the true Biblical Hebrew / Semitic language and meanings. But I can only encourage you to start a long, but bountiful journey of looking into a rich culture upon which the Bible can truly be understood. In presenting these differences, I do not want to be harsh against Christians, but harsh against blatant ignorance and arrogance and the resulting persecutions.

Just as recent archaeological discoveries and cultural studies have shown that the Ten Lost Tribes from the northern part of Israel are still around in Central and Southern Asia, so too must Christians review things from a deeper perspective of the Biblical language and culture. It does no good to remain in the centuries-long road under the directions and influences of the Mediterranean neo-pagan / gnostic / influences that the gentile Church leaders brought into the body of Christians and made them into autocratic beliefs and theologies.

If you don't know where you came from, just how can you ever know to where you are going?