Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Holidays and Calendar”
In the infancy narrative found in chapters one and two of Luke’s gospel, Luke has provided excellent character references for Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Jesus’ mother and father show piety far beyond the usual, and the young Jesus is eager to be in the temple studying Torah with the teachers of Israel.
Today, public worship can take place in a synagogue only if at least ten adult Jewish males are present. Women do not qualify as part of this quorum. Furthermore, women are separated from men within the synagogue: women worship in an ezrat nashim, a balcony, or section with a divider, located beside or behind the men’s section. Things were considerably different in Jesus’ day.
The date of Shavuot was the focus of one of the fiercest of many debates between the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Common sense is connected to cultural expectations. What is understandable in one culture may be opaque in another.
We must be careful to maintain a distinction between a day of meeting and a day of rest.
Jesus’ observance of the commandments has been a topic of vigorous scholarly debate. However, when the Synoptic Gospels are carefully examined, one sees that Jesus never violated written or oral Torahs. But did his disciples?
The description of Jesus’ visit to the Nazareth synagogue found in Luke provides substantial information about synagogue life and customs in the early first century C.E.
During the Second Temple period pilgrimage was associated with the festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot.
The priestly division of Abijah was named after one of the priests who returned to the land of Israel with Zerubbabel and Jeshua (Nehemiah 12:4). This was the priestly division to which Zechariah, John the Baptist’s father, belonged.
