Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Acts of the Apostles”
Why would anyone in his or her right mind want to speak a “dead” language, a language that no one speaks? The answer: Because only by speaking a language does one internalize it, and it was high time, Randall and I felt, having tasted fluency in Hebrew, that we should gain an active knowledge of Koine Greek.
Jesus’ broadminded approach resonates with contemporary sages who belonged to the School of Hillel. In their opinion, it is better to leave God-fearing Gentiles in their blessed state with only the necessity of the moral laws given to Noah.
I applaud efforts to shake us from our stereotypes of Jesus. The attempt to reconstruct Jesus’ skin color and facial features is positive and laudable. However, I have strong doubts about the suggestion that Jesus collaborated with Judas to bring about his arrest and resultant death.
Would a Roman officer have had the means to finance the construction of a synagogue in the lakeshore town of Capernaum?
Recent research has shown that Sadducees, not Pharisees, were responsible for the death of Jesus. An incident recounted in the Book of Acts provides a glimpse of the Sadducean high priests’ corrupt behavior. Little wonder the Sadducees were despised by the common people.
The recent discovery of an ancient coin with a crisp imprint of Salome make this a fitting time to set the record straight—to rectify the public perception of this ancient Jewish aristocrat. Her image has been fictionalized to the point of grotesque caricature by writers of the past 150 years. Famous for her role in the execution of John the Baptist, Salome has been depicted repeatedly as morally depraved. Dilligent historical research, however, reveals a different story.
Did women play a passive role in the synagogue congregations of antiquity? Were they separated from male members of the congregation during prayer and study, as is the case today? According to Professor Shmuel Safrai, the answer to both questions is a resounding “No.”
Writings that were originally composed in Greek tend to have a higher ratio of de to kai than writings that have been influenced by a Semitic language.
There is evidence that Jesus adhered to the rulings of the Oral Torah in his use of various blessings.
