J-M's History Corner

  Today - October 31st - is Halloween.  A day when many children dress up as goblins, witches, and other horrid things and go about getting treats from strangers (although this practice is becoming dangerous ). What is the origin of Halloween? Here is an interesting article on the subject: Few pagan festivals have a history as strange as Halloween. This day is the eve of Allhallows Day (All Saints Day) and is one of the most solemn festivals of the Roman Catholic Church. Ironically it is also a day which commemorates beings and rites with which Christendom has claimed to be at war. The “superstition” of Halloween is that from sundown October 31st until sunrise November 1st is that the unseen spirit world is closer to our world than at any other time. This is supposed to create a special opportunity for interactions between our world, and the world of the dead. The origins of Halloween go back at least 4,000 years. The “holiday” comes to us from the ancient Celti...

G’day, and welcome to another installment of the Restored English Translation (RET) of the Bible, which I am working on.  Today, I present Beresheet ( Genesis ) chapter 20.  As usual, it contains the Hebrew names , with a glossary of them afterwards.  At the very end is a list of where the Aleph Tavs occur, as they are no longer included in the main text. (P.S. Please pray for my dad, Merv, who recently had a stroke and is very sick.) CHAPTER 20 1 And Avraham journeyed from there toward the country of the Negev, and lived between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. 2 And Avraham said of his wife Sarai, “She is my sister.” And Avimelek, King of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. 3 But ELOHIM came to Avimelek in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are about to die for the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 But Avimelek had not come near her; and he said, “YEHOVAH, will You even slay a righteous nation? 5 Did he not tell m...

It's been a while since I've last published a Canon of Scripture article.  For those who haven't read them, here are the 4 previous ones: The Apocrypha Enoch and Jubilees Jasher The Other Books of Baruch OK, so now that we're up to date, let's look at 3 more books not included in out Protestant Bibles: Book of Giants Secrets of Enoch (or 2 Enoch or Slavonic Enoch ) 3 Enoch (or Hebrew Book of Enoch ) Remember: the numbers were applied by MODERN scholars to distinguish the texts, and they should all be examined completely independently.  Let us do so. Book of Giants This text was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) - 10 manuscripts were found - and claims to be written by Enoch himself.  Like the Book of Enoch , this text expands upon the fallen angels and Nephilim giants prior to the Flood.  The fragments that survive particularly focus on the giants themselves (although some fragments remain to indicate that there was also some focus on the fallen a...

Here is my Feast calendar for the next year - containing the dates I will be celebrating the Biblical feasts, for those interested. Yom Teruah - Feast of Trumpets - evening of Friday 28th September to evening of 29th September 2018 (timezones east of Jerusalem); evening of Thursday 27th September to Friday 28th September 2018 (timezones west of Jerusalem). Yom Kippur - Day of Atonement - evening of Sunday 7th October to evening of Monday 8th October 2018 (timezones east of Jerusalem); evening of Saturday 6th October to evening of Sunday 7th October 2018 (timezones west of Jerusalem). Sukkot - Feast of Tabernacles - evening of Friday 12th October to evening of Saturday 20th October 2018 (timezones east of Jerusalem); evening of Thursday 11th October to evening of Friday 19th October 2018 (timezones west of Jerusalem). Channukah - Hanukkah - evening of Friday 21st December to evening of Saturday 29th December 2018 (timezones east of Jerusalem); evening of Thursday 20th December t...

Here is the Restored English Translation (RET) of the 19th chapter of Beresheet , known in English as Genesis .  As usual, it contains the Hebrew names , with a glossary of them at the end.  Also included at the end is a list of where the Aleph/Tavs occur (as they are not included in the main text). Chapter 19 recounts the famous destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (which when I was younger was one of my favourite Bible stories, and one of my favourite Superbook episodes). Chapter 19 ends when Lot’s daughters get him drunk and sleep with him – both becoming pregnant with sons.  As wrong an action as that was (although they thought they were the last persons on earth), it is interesting that King David and Messiah Yehoshua (Jesus) both descended from the resulting sons. This chapter also contains a serious lesson about obedience. CHAPTER 19 1 And the two messengers arrived at Sedom in the evening. And Lot sat in the gate of Sedom. And seeing them , Lo...

Shabbat shalom!  Today – Saturday, October 13th, 2018 – is the first day of Sukkot, otherwise known as the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths (which is one of the Torah feasts and still applies ).  It is described in Leviticus 23: And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, In the fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be a Feast of Booths seven days to Jehovah.  On the first day shall be a holy gathering; you shall do no work of service.  Seven days you shall bring a fire offering to Jehovah; on the eighth day you shall have a holy gathering; and you shall burn the fire offering to Jehovah; it is a solemn assembly; you shall do no work of service [translation correction: no work whatsoever].  ( Leviticus 23: 33-36, Green’s Literal Translation) You may have thought that Sukkot has passed.  For most, it has.  But I don’t follow the same calendar as most.  See my explanation of the calendar here . O...

G’day, mates!  This is my Restored English Translation of Beresheet ( Genesis ) chapter 18.  As usual, it contains the Hebrew names , with a glossary of them afterwards.  In another list at the end are the Aleph-Tavs (which are no longer included in the main text ). There is some controversy over the  last part of verse 22.  The Masoretic Text – the basis for most translations – reads “and Abraham stood yet before YEHOVAH”.  However, the Massorah – footnotes on the text by the Masoretic scribes – claims that the text originally read “and YEHOVAH stood yet before Abraham”, but that they changed it because they judged the original “irreverent”.  However, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Samaritan Pentateuch, Aramaic Peshitta and Greek Septuagint all agree with the Masoretic reading (“Abraham stood yet before YEHOVAH”), and there are literally no manuscripts supporting the Massorah’s reading, so I have followed the majority here. CHAPTER 18 1 ...