J-M's History Corner

Here, at long last, is the article I promised you in  The Forgotten Jews almost 3 months ago. The Ashkenazis, otherwise known as the Ashkenazim, make up the vast majority of world Jewry.  They come from Eastern Europe, particularly (but not exclusively) Germany.  The second-largest group is the Sephardim, who come from Spain, followed by the Mizrahim, who stayed in the Middle East. However, there is a theory – founded in the 1800s, and holding some small degree of popularity today – that the Ashkenazim are not Jews; but rather, Gentile descendants of the Khazars.  The Khazars were a Turkish people whose empire, known as Khazaria, lasted from about 650 AD to 969 AD. Is this claim true, or false? THEIR NAME This argument is used fairly frequently for arguing a Khazarian (or at least Gentile) origin for the Ashkenazim.  It derives from the following passage: The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras....

  As many of you know, I have commenced a translation of the Bible, called the Restored English Translation (RET).  Here is my translation of Beresheet (Genesis) chapter 7.  As usual, it contains the  Hebrew names and the  Aleph Tavs (although I now seriously doubt them ).  A glossary is at the end for the Hebrew names.   CHAPTER 7 1 And YEHOVAH said to Noach, “You come into the ark, and all your house, for I have seen you righteous before Me in this generation. 2 You shall take of every clean beast to yourself by sevens, the male and female. And you shall take of the unclean beasts by twos, the male and female. 3 Also, of birds of the air by sevens, the male and the female, to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For after 7 more days I will cause it to rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights, and I will destroy את every living thing that I have made from off the face of the earth.” 5 A...

  The canon of Scripture is a settled issue, isn’t it? You’ve got your 66 books total, 39 in the Old Testament (24 by the Jewish counting) and 27 in the New Testament. However, when you do the research, things are not so simple. There are many “other” books claiming to be Scripture, a number of them accepted by various denominations and/or included in various Bibles over the years. Are they Scripture? Or just heretical additions? In  The Canon of Scripture, Part 1: The Apocrypha I established that the books of the Apocrypha are inspired Scripture, which I subsequently established for Enoch and Jubilees .  Now we move on to the Book of Jasher. Jasher is mentioned twice in the Bible, and was clearly highly esteemed: And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day....

  The next installment in my Restored English Translation (RET) of the Bible: Beresheet (Genesis) chapter 6.  As usual, it contains the  Hebrew names and the Aleph Tavs , even though I’m no longer certain about them .  A glossary is provided at the end for the Hebrew names. This chapter contains the account of the infamous Nephilim, the offspring of humans and (fallen) angels.  Some people try to push alternate theories that say, for example, that the “sons of ELOHIM [God]” who slept with the “daughters of men” were the descendants of Seth, and that the women were therefore the descendants of Cain.  Gary Bates, in his book Alien Intrusion: UFOs and the Evolution Connection , explains: The adherents to the Sethite view believe that the “sons of God” were a hereditary line descended from Seth, and that this was a God-fearing lineage.  The scriptural support for this idea comes from Genesis 4:25-26, which de...