Podcast appearances and mentions of judah maccabee

Palm Sunday unfolded against a backdrop of intense Roman oppression, where the Jewish people faced brutal taxation, public executions, and cultural suppression. Their desperate hope for a military messiah, similar to Judah Maccabee, led them to misinterpret Jesus' entry into Jerusalem as a political statement. However, Jesus consistently challenged these expectations by presenting a radically different vision of God's kingdom.Jesus demonstrated that God's kingdom operates contrary to worldly power structures. Instead of military might, He emphasized humility and peace. Rather than immediate revolution, He taught that the kingdom grows quietly like a mustard seed and transforms gradually like yeast. His teachings focused on serving others, loving enemies, and rejecting self-promotion in favor of lifting others up.This understanding of God's kingdom continues to challenge believers today. It calls for examining personal expectations about Jesus, seeking opportunities to serve rather than gain, and embracing the counter-cultural nature of divine love. The kingdom of God manifests not through personal empowerment but through self-emptying love that transforms both individuals and communities.Support the show

IT'S CALLED the world's oldest temple. While only a small portion of the site has been excavated, the clues point to one solid conclusion: It was built as a point of contact with the gods. Our usual Iron and Myth crew is joined by special guest Dr. Aaron Judkins (aaronjudkins.com, aaronjudkins.substack.com), co-author with Dr. Judd Burton (burtonbeyond.net) of the best-selling book Decoding Göbekli Tepe: Biblical Anatolia and the Watchers (https://amzn.to/4hcbvyX). Rounding out the discussion are Doug Van Dorn (douglasvandorn.com), author, pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado in Boulder and host of the Giant Steps podcast, and Brian Godawa (godawa.com), best-selling author and award-winning screenwriter, whose new novels Judah Maccabee, Part 1: Abomination of Desolation and Judah Maccabee, Part 2: Against the Gods of Greece will be the topic of next month's Iron and Myth.Our conversation digs into the significance of Göbekli Tepe, exploring its classification as the world's oldest temple and the cultural implications of its construction. The discussion highlights the mysterious influences that may have contributed to the site's creation, including supernatural elements and connections to biblical narratives. Recent discoveries at Göbekli Tepe, including evidence of habitation and the symbolism of the vulture stone, are examined, alongside the ongoing research and future excavations that may further illuminate this ancient site. Judd and Aaron explore the historical and spiritual significance of Göbekli Tepe, discussing its connections to biblical narratives, the influence of supernatural entities known as the Watchers, and the site's implications for understanding ancient burial practices and archaeoastronomy.  Finally, they share the links between Göbekli Tepe and the first humans, Adam and Eve, emphasizing the site's role in the broader context of ancient history and its relevance to modern biblical studies. 

IT'S CALLED the world's oldest temple. While only a small portion of the site has been excavated, the clues point to one solid conclusion: It was meant as a point of contact with the gods.  Our usual Iron and Myth crew is joined by special guest Dr. Aaron Judkins (aaronjudkins.com, aaronjudkins.substack.com), co-author with Dr. Judd Burton (burtonbeyond.net) of the best-selling book Decoding Göbekli Tepe: Biblical Anatolia and the Watchers.  Rounding out the discussion are Doug Van Dorn (douglasvandorn.com), author, pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado in Boulder and host of the Giant Steps podcast, and Brian Godawa (godawa.com), best-selling author and award-winning screenwriter, whose new novels Judah Maccabee, Part 1: Abomination of Desolation and Judah Maccabee, Part 2: Against the Gods of Greece will be the topic of next month's Iron and Myth. Our conversation digs into the significance of Göbekli Tepe, exploring its classification as the world's oldest temple and the cultural implications of its construction. The discussion highlights the mysterious influences that may have contributed to the site's creation, including supernatural elements and connections to biblical narratives.  Recent discoveries at Göbekli Tepe, including evidence of habitation and the symbolism of the vulture stone, are examined, alongside the ongoing research and future excavations that may further illuminate this ancient site. Judd and Aaron explore the historical and spiritual significance of Göbekli Tepe, discussing its connections to biblical narratives, the influence of supernatural entities known as the Watchers, and the site's implications for understanding ancient burial practices and archaeoastronomy.   Finally, they share the links between Göbekli Tepe and the first humans, Adam and Eve, emphasizing the site's role in the broader context of ancient history and its relevance to modern biblical studies. Our new book The Gates of Hell is now available in paperback, Kindle, and as an audiobook at Audible! Derek's new book Destination: Earth, co-authored with Donna Howell and Allie Anderson, is now available in paperback, Kindle, and as an audiobook at Audible! Follow us! X: @viewfrombunker | @sharonkgilbert | @derekgilbertTelegram: t.me/gilberthouseSubstack: gilberthouse.substack.comYouTube: @GilbertHouse | @UnravelingRevelationFacebook.com/viewfromthebunker Sharon's novels Winds of Evil and The Armageddon Strain are available now in paperback, ebook (Kindle), and audiobook (Audible) formats! Get signed copies of the first two books of The Laodicea Chronicles now at GilbertHouse.org/store! Thank you for making our Build Barn Better project a reality! The building has HVAC, a new floor, windows, insulation, ceiling fans, and an upgraded electrical system! We truly appreciate your support. If you are so led, you can help out at www.GilbertHouse.org/donate. —— Download our free app! This brings all of our content directly to your smartphone or tablet. Best of all, we'll never get canceled from our own app! Links to the app stores for iOS, iPadOS, Android, and Amazon Kindle Fire devices are at www.GilbertHouse.org/app. Please join us each Sunday for the Gilbert House Fellowship, our weekly Bible study podcast. Log on to www.GilbertHouse.org for more details. Check out our weekly video program Unraveling Revelation (unravelingrevelation.tv), and subscribe to the YouTube channel: YouTube.com/UnravelingRevelation. —— Special offers on our books and DVDs: www.gilberthouse.org/store. —— JOIN US AND SPECIAL GUEST CARL TEICHRIB IN ISRAEL! Our next tour of Israel is October 19–30, 2025 with an optional three-day extension to Jordan. For the latest information, log on to GilbertHouse.org/travel. Discuss these topics at the VFTB Facebook page (facebook.com/viewfromthebunker) and check out the great podcasters at the Fringe Radio Network (Spreaker.com/show/fringe-radio-network)!

IT'S CALLED the world's oldest temple. While only a small portion of the site has been excavated, the clues point to one solid conclusion: It was meant as a point of contact with the gods. Our usual Iron and Myth crew is joined by special guest Dr. Aaron Judkins (aaronjudkins.com, aaronjudkins.substack.com), co-author with Dr. Judd Burton (burtonbeyond.net) of the best-selling book Decoding Göbekli Tepe: Biblical Anatolia and the Watchers (https://amzn.to/4hcbvyX). Rounding out the discussion are Doug Van Dorn (douglasvandorn.com), author, pastor of the Reformed Baptist Church of Northern Colorado in Boulder and host of the Giant Steps podcast, and Brian Godawa (godawa.com), best-selling author and award-winning screenwriter, whose new novels Judah Maccabee, Part 1: Abomination of Desolation and Judah Maccabee, Part 2: Against the Gods of Greece will be the topic of next month's Iron and Myth.  Our conversation digs into the significance of Göbekli Tepe, exploring its classification as the world's oldest temple and the cultural implications of its construction. The discussion highlights the mysterious influences that may have contributed to the site's creation, including supernatural elements and connections to biblical narratives. Recent discoveries at Göbekli Tepe, including evidence of habitation and the symbolism of the vulture stone, are examined, alongside the ongoing research and future excavations that may further illuminate this ancient site. Judd and Aaron explore the historical and spiritual significance of Göbekli Tepe, discussing its connections to biblical narratives, the influence of supernatural entities known as the Watchers, and the site's implications for understanding ancient burial practices and archaeoastronomy.  Finally, they share the links between Göbekli Tepe and the first humans, Adam and Eve, emphasizing the site's role in the broader context of ancient history and its relevance to modern biblical studies.

In this conversation, Jenny Mire welcomes award winning author Brian Godawa to the show. Brian dives into the story of Judah Maccabee and the Maccabean revolt, exploring the historical context, the significance of the Apocrypha, and the prophecies in the Book of Daniel. Brian discusses how these elements intertwine to provide a deeper understanding of Jewish history and its implications for Christian faith. In this episode, Brian also discusses the historical and theological significance of the Maccabean Revolt, the origins of Hanukkah, and the implications of Daniel's prophecies. The discussion wraps up touching on themes of spiritual warfare and the divine council, emphasizing the interconnectedness of earthly and heavenly realms, and what the church needs to do to step into her authority.You can find Brian at www.godawa.com Click here for Judah Maccabee Part 1

In this conversation, Jenny Mire welcomes award winning author Brian Godawa to the show. Brian dives into the story of Judah Maccabee and the Maccabean revolt, exploring the historical context, the significance of the Apocrypha, and the prophecies in the Book of Daniel. Brian discusses how these elements intertwine to provide a deeper understanding of Jewish history and its implications for Christian faith. In this episode, Brian also discusses the historical and theological significance of the Maccabean Revolt, the origins of Hanukkah, and the implications of Daniel's prophecies. The discussion wraps up touching on themes of spiritual warfare and the divine council, emphasizing the interconnectedness of earthly and heavenly realms, and what the church needs to do to step into her authority.You can find Brian at www.godawa.com Click here for Judah Maccabee Part 1

In this episode of Bible Over Brews, the hosts and guest Brian Godawa delved into the themes of God's silence during the intertestamental period, the significance of the Apocrypha, and the role of the Septuagint in understanding scripture. They explore the Maccabean revolt, the spiritual warfare between heavenly and earthly powers, and the character development in Godawa's new novel, Judah Maccabee. The conversation emphasizes the importance of narrative theology and the intersection of faith and history. In this conversation, Brian Godawa discusses the interplay between imagery, storytelling and cultural narratives, emphasizing how these elements can convey truths within different contexts. He explores the relationship between paganism and Christianity in storytelling, the role of superheroes as modern deities, and the ideological shifts in media influenced by DEI. Godawa also delves into the significance of historical context in storytelling, the impact of nihilism on narratives and the creative boundaries that shape his writing. Throughout the discussion, he highlights the importance of engaging worlds and the theological implications of his work, particularly regarding the Watchers in his novels. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Bible Over Brews 02:03Brian Godawa's Writing Journey 05:53 Exploring the Maccabees and the Watchers 11:50The Intertestamental Period and God's Silence 17:59The Role of the Septuagint in Early Christianity 24:07 Theological Implications of the Apocrypha 30:00 Narrative Theology and Engaging with History 34:59 Understanding Territorial Gods and Their Influence 42:27The Abomination of Desolation: Historical Context and Prophecy 48:52Exploring the Book of Enoch and Its Significance 56:09The Complexity of Human Nature in Storytelling 01:03:10Imagery and Cultural Narratives 01:05:05Paganism vs. Christianity in Storytelling 01:06:25Superheroes as Modern Deities 01:08:48The Shift in Storytelling Ideology 01:11:09The Role of Banks in Media Ideology 01:12:19The Influence of Anti-Woke Sentiment 01:15:14Exploring Greek Mythology in Modern Media 01:18:51Nihilism in Contemporary Storytelling 01:20:55Creating Engaging Worlds in Storytelling 01:24:28The Allure of Time Travel Stories 01:27:46Exploring Time Travel in Storytelling 01:29:04The Role of Watchers and Angels in Fiction 01:30:52Prophecy and Time Travel: A Narrative Challenge 01:32:20Theological Boundaries in Creative Writing 01:34:41The Triumph of Christ Over Spiritual Powers 01:37:23Significance of Numbers in Biblical Context 01:41:45Crafting Engaging Narratives: Lessons from History 01:43:13Research and Creativity in Writing 01:48:31The Balance of Faith and Creativity 01:51:09Final Thoughts and Future Works

In this episode of Bible Over Brews, the hosts and guest Brian Godawa delved into the themes of God's silence during the intertestamental period, the significance of the Apocrypha, and the role of the Septuagint in understanding scripture. They explore the Maccabean revolt, the spiritual warfare between heavenly and earthly powers, and the character development in Godawa's new novel, Judah Maccabee. The conversation emphasizes the importance of narrative theology and the intersection of faith and history. In this conversation, Brian Godawa discusses the interplay between imagery, storytelling and cultural narratives, emphasizing how these elements can convey truths within different contexts. He explores the relationship between paganism and Christianity in storytelling, the role of superheroes as modern deities, and the ideological shifts in media influenced by DEI. Godawa also delves into the significance of historical context in storytelling, the impact of nihilism on narratives and the creative boundaries that shape his writing. Throughout the discussion, he highlights the importance of engaging worlds and the theological implications of his work, particularly regarding the Watchers in his novels. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Bible Over Brews 02:03Brian Godawa's Writing Journey 05:53 Exploring the Maccabees and the Watchers 11:50The Intertestamental Period and God's Silence 17:59The Role of the Septuagint in Early Christianity 24:07 Theological Implications of the Apocrypha 30:00 Narrative Theology and Engaging with History 34:59 Understanding Territorial Gods and Their Influence 42:27The Abomination of Desolation: Historical Context and Prophecy 48:52Exploring the Book of Enoch and Its Significance 56:09The Complexity of Human Nature in Storytelling 01:03:10Imagery and Cultural Narratives 01:05:05Paganism vs. Christianity in Storytelling 01:06:25Superheroes as Modern Deities 01:08:48The Shift in Storytelling Ideology 01:11:09The Role of Banks in Media Ideology 01:12:19The Influence of Anti-Woke Sentiment 01:15:14Exploring Greek Mythology in Modern Media 01:18:51Nihilism in Contemporary Storytelling 01:20:55Creating Engaging Worlds in Storytelling 01:24:28The Allure of Time Travel Stories 01:27:46Exploring Time Travel in Storytelling 01:29:04The Role of Watchers and Angels in Fiction 01:30:52Prophecy and Time Travel: A Narrative Challenge 01:32:20Theological Boundaries in Creative Writing 01:34:41The Triumph of Christ Over Spiritual Powers 01:37:23Significance of Numbers in Biblical Context 01:41:45Crafting Engaging Narratives: Lessons from History 01:43:13Research and Creativity in Writing 01:48:31The Balance of Faith and Creativity 01:51:09Final Thoughts and Future Works

The assassins used hostages to get away with their crimes: a cautionary tale re: Gaza?

The Jewish week-long festival will take place in just a few days. This year, Hanukkah falls on the night of December 25 and ends on January 2. Zach Benjamin, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Harrisburg and Marc Kline, Interim Rabbi of the Temp Ohev Shalom joined to the spark to share more information.The history of Hanukkah begins 2200 years ago.“The Syrian Greeks were in control of what we now call Israel Palestine, and they brought Greek culture, which was replacing the existing Jewish culture, and they trashed the temple and didn't destroy, but they trashed and were sacrificing pigs on the altar. And Jews said, we can't let this happen. And so Matthias and Judah Maccabee and their followers warred against the Syrian Greeks and they defeated the Greeks and rededicated the temple. The rest of the story becomes a matter of different versions of history. The story everybody seems to know is that when they went to light the lights on the altar, they had one cruise of oil that hadn't been destroyed. They thought it would last for one day and it lasted for eight. That story's first written about 500 years later. Many of the versions of the story, though, deal with the fact that we changed the practice from Pagan to to God at the altar, that people stopped the war to rededicate themselves to God. So whatever story you're looking at, we're looking at bringing the light of peace and faith over the ugliness of paganism and war, “said Kline.Zach Benjamin explained the significance of sundown and those eight days of Hanukkah.“Well, in at its most basic, the Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar, what we think of as our typical calendar, they're different in a number of ways. The Hebrew calendar has 13 months. The our Western calendar has 12 months. And another way that they are different is that the Hebrew day begins at sundown and goes from sundown to sundown. And thus Hanukkah, like all other Jewish observances, begins at sundown on the first day. And Hanukkah lasts eight days. And so it goes until sundown.” Also on The Program: Kwanzaa honors unity, pride, and African traditions from December 26 to January 1. This celebration brings people together by sharing stories, lighting candles, and community. Naaja Rodgers, Professor of Africana studies at Dickinson College says Kwanzaa is a Kiswahili word.“So it's actually a Kiswahili word, which means maternal, your Kwanzaa, which means first fruits. So essentially Kwanzaa means first fruit. And these are typically celebrations that are held throughout Africa.”Kwanza was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga. He was a part of a cultural nationalist group that promoted African culture.“The Watts riots in Los Angeles and just the racial tensions going on during the Black Power movement inspired him to think about what we can do to kind of help African people as a collective Pan-African. Keep that theme intact. How can we ensure that black people are able to reason to remember and prepare for the new Year as opposed to just like the commercialization of Christmas where it's like a hustle and bustle, you're shopping and then you give a gift and then you go on to the new year.”There are seven principles of Kwanzaa: Umoja (Unity) Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) Nia (Purpose) Kuumba (Creativity) Imani (Faith)Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 26, 2024 is: menorah • muh-NOR-uh • noun A menorah is a candelabra with seven or nine lights that is used in Jewish worship. // At sundown on the first night of Hanukkah, Elliott's father helped him light the first candle on the menorah. See the entry > Examples: "Rich with history and laced with just a bit of latke grease, Hanukkah is a time for Jews to gather with family and friends and retell a fabled story of resistance. While certain symbols of the holiday like the menorah (a decorative candelabra) and the dreidel (a four-sided spinning top) may be more easily recognizable in popular culture, there is plenty more to learn about Hanukkah and why it is celebrated." — Anna Kaufman, USA Today, 7 Dec. 2023 Did you know? In English, menorah was originally the name for the seven-branched candelabra used in Jewish worship. The nine-branched Hanukkah candelabra is called hanukkiah in Hebrew, but English speakers came to use menorah for this too. The Hanukkah menorah recalls expulsion by Judah Maccabee of invading forces from the Temple of Jerusalem. Maccabee and his followers sought oil for the temple's menorah so that the sanctuary could be rededicated, but they found only enough oil for a single day. Miraculously, that tiny amount of oil burned for eight days, until a new supply could be obtained. The Hanukkah menorah includes a candle for each day the oil burned, plus the shammes, a "servant candle" that is used to light the others.

The Jewish week-long festival will take place in just a few days. This year, Hanukkah falls on the night of December 25 and ends on January 2. Zach Benjamin, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Harrisburg and Marc Kline, Interim Rabbi of the Temp Ohev Shalom joined to the spark to share more information. The history of Hanukkah begins 2200 years ago. “The Syrian Greeks were in control of what we now call Israel Palestine, and they brought Greek culture, which was replacing the existing Jewish culture, and they trashed the temple and didn't destroy, but they trashed and were sacrificing pigs on the altar. And Jews said, we can't let this happen. And so Matthias and Judah Maccabee and their followers warred against the Syrian Greeks and they defeated the Greeks and rededicated the temple. The rest of the story becomes a matter of different versions of history. The story everybody seems to know is that when they went to light the lights on the altar, they had one cruise of oil that hadn't been destroyed. They thought it would last for one day and it lasted for eight. That story's first written about 500 years later. Many of the versions of the story, though, deal with the fact that we changed the practice from Pagan to to God at the altar, that people stopped the war to rededicate themselves to God. So whatever story you're looking at, we're looking at bringing the light of peace and faith over the ugliness of paganism and war, “said Kline. Zach Benjamin explained the significance of sundown and those eight days of Hanukkah. “Well, in at its most basic, the Hebrew calendar and the Gregorian calendar, what we think of as our typical calendar, they're different in a number of ways. The Hebrew calendar has 13 months. The our Western calendar has 12 months. And another way that they are different is that the Hebrew day begins at sundown and goes from sundown to sundown. And thus Hanukkah, like all other Jewish observances, begins at sundown on the first day. And Hanukkah lasts eight days. And so it goes until sundown.” Listen to the podcast to learn more about Hanukkah.Support WITF: https://www.witf.org/support/give-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Recounting the story of our people's unlikely endurance, Rabbi Ammi Hirsch reminds us that “a hundred generations of the descendants of Judah Maccabee have transmitted Judaism to you” and asks […]

A Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity by Matthew Colvin Matt. 5:20-26 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.      21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. Have you ever stopped to think just how unusual a sermon is in our day? Where else do you sit for half an hour and listen to someone talk in person, without interruption, applause, or any dialogue? Let alone, actually believe it. You were all kind to me last week as I filled in for Pastor Bill. Well, almost all of you. Luke Galloway wasn't having it. I don't blame him. But it raises the question of why you should believe any of what I say here at all. What authority is at work in a sermon? We mentioned last week that the authority of experts does not challenge us too much: experts put their knowledge at our disposal; they submit it to us for our consideration. It's true that some of what a pastor says might fall under this category: we are supposed to know the Biblical languages and to be trained in explaining the meaning of the Bible. But when I say, “The Greek word means this,” you should take that with a grain of salt unless I also show you how it fits and makes better sense of the Biblical passage. That is, when we preach the Word, we are following St. Paul's example, who urges the Corinthians, “I speak as to reasonable men; judge for yourselves the things I say.” (1 Cor 10:15) Why, then, do we wear robes? Why, in the words of one pastor who does not wear robes, does “someone important get to dress up like Saruman”? Ultimately, that is a symbol that the Reformed Episcopal Church has given the pastor to preach the word with their authority: that the church's bishops have examined a man and found that his doctrine is in conformity with the church's teaching. We are not lone rangers. We take ordination vows, and that means we are not free to teach our own doctrines, but those of the church. We subscribe to the Nicene Creed, which means that we are not free to to start teaching Arianism. We follow the 39 Articles in the back of your BCP, which means that we will not suddenly come into the pulpit and start teaching that you're going to Purgatory, or that you should bow down and worship the bread in Holy Communion. We are men under authority, and ultimately, that means we are under the authority of Jesus. Now what if I showed up on Sunday with my sermon engraved on two tablets? Not two iPads, but two actual tablets of stone. That would be sending a message about the authority of the sermon, wouldn't it, and it would be a very different message than is communicated by robes and stoles and appeals to Greek lexicography. But in our gospel lesson this morning, that, or something equivalent to it, is what Jesus has done: he sits down on a mountain, showing that he is about to fill the role of Moses, who went up on Mt. Sinai to receive the covenant God made with Israel after He brought them out of Egypt. The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus's most comprehensive and public announcement of his teaching about the coming kingdom of God — by which we mean, the coming day when Israel's God would be publicly acknowledged as reigning through the person of his anointed king, the Messiah. It is nothing more or less than the announcement of a new covenant, a new moment in the history of Israel as a people, right up there with the covenant with Abraham, the covenant at Mount Sinai, or the covenant with David. That is Jesus's message throughout his earthly ministry: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” The climactic moment in Israel's story was about to happen. What is at stake here is what it means to be Israel, to be the people of God. The Pharisees have one way of doing this; Jesus has another. They are not compatible. And Jesus does not mince words: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I often have to remind my high school students that the word “Pharisee” was a self-laudatory epithet: they called themselves the P'rushim, meaning “separated ones.” Separated from what? Well, to understand that, we need to go back to the time between the testaments, when the Greco-Syrian empire under Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to melt down Israel and amalgamate it with Greek culture. In order to make the Jews assimilate, Antiochus banned copies of the Torah, prohibited circumcision and sacrifices to the Lord, and compelled the Jews to eat pig meat and profane the Sabbath. In other words, everything that marked the Jews as separate from the Gentiles was targeted by Antiochus's laws. In reaction to this, the Jews rebelled under the leadership of Mattathias Maccabee and his sons, especially Judah Maccabee. With the help of an alliance with Rome, they eventually succeeded in defeating Antiochus and rededicating the Temple in Jerusalem which he had defiled by sacrificing a pig on the altar. And alongside this military victory, the Maccabees also used violent force to pressure Jews to keep the law. It was a really difficult time to be a Jewish mother: if you had your baby boy circumcised, Antiochus's officers would kill you and your baby. If you didn't have your baby boy circumcised, the Maccabees would do it by force. If you refused to sacrifice to Zeus, Antiochus's officers would kill you. If you did sacrifice to Zeus, the Maccabees would kill you. The operative word in the Maccabees' resistance to the Greco-Syrian empire was “zeal.” It did not denote a mere enthusiasm. No, it was a violent upholding of the Torah covenant against those who would annihilate it, against the Jewish renegades who were ready to lose their Jewishness and become part of the Greco-Syrian melting pot. In this, the Maccabees were following an earlier template: In Numbers 25, Balaam had a similar idea, albeit with a different method. After the king of Moab, Balak, hired him to curse Israel, and Balaam couldn't do so because God caused blessings to keep coming out of his mouth instead, Balaam decided that if he couldn't curse Israel, he would lead them into idolatry. And the best way to do that was sex: he got foxy Midianite or Moabite women to seduce the Israelites and lead them to worship Baal of Peor. And we're told that: …Behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 7 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand 8 and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. 9 Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand. (Num. 25:6-9) This is what is meant by “zeal.” We get a couple other instances in the NT. Saul of Tarsus, before he was stricken blind and came to believe in Jesus and became the apostle Paul, was full of zeal: he was “ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” (Acts 8:3) And again, Saul was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” (9:1) This is what zeal looked like: Saul being a good Jew was very concerned that other Jews were being unfaithful to the covenant of Moses, and the way to put a stop to this was to use violence against them, because that is what the Maccabees had done. Indeed, when we find Jesus described as full of zeal, he too is violent: flipping over tables. “Zeal for your house has consumed me.” The Pharisees The Pharisees were the spiritual heirs of the Maccabees. They looked around and saw Israel under the domination of the Romans. And they adopted the Maccabees' recipe for what to do when Gentiles were dominating you: namely, “obey the Torah even harder.” And especially those parts of the Torah that set Jews apart from Gentiles: keeping the Sabbath, observing Kosher food laws, circumcision, sacrifices at the Temple, and following the cleanness laws that were required for entering the Temple — but following them all the time, even when you weren't going to the Temple. These were the religious conservatives. They were the people who took the Bible seriously. They weren't like the Sadducees, working hand in glove with the Romans. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. They were looking for the arrival of the Messiah and the coming kingdom of God. All of which makes it all the more remarkable that Jesus says, “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Nowadays, if I were to call someone a Pharisee, it would not be a compliment. Sort of like how the popularity of the name Adolph went downhill after the 1940s. Except in this case, there is just one man who trashed the name “Pharisee” and turned it into an insult forever after: Jesus. We don't have time today to do a thorough survey of everything Jesus said about them, but just consider how effective his techniques were. Tell me the next word: “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, __________.” Or the unforgettable visual images: trying to do eye surgery with a railroad tie sticking out of your own eye socket; fishing around for gnats in your soup while balancing a camel on a spoon; absurdly washing only the outside of a bowl or cup and leaving the inside filthy. You have heard it said To combat the Pharisees' way of being Israel, Jesus sets forth his own teaching. He introduces it with one of the most provocative rhetorical devices: the contradiction. “You have heard it said…but I say to you.” Many people misunderstand this. You have heard it said (!!!) that Jesus is quoting the Torah and then correcting its teaching. But I say to you that in this same chapter, verse 17, Jesus has already disavowed any intention of changing or altering the law and the prophets. His intention is rather to attack the Pharisees and their interpretation. So how does it work? “You have heard it said” — in Judaism, the verb to “hear” (Heb. shama', cf. the Shema' in Deuteronomy 6:4) is closely associated with literal, or overly literal interpretation. Shamu'a and mishma'  are both abstract nouns that mean “literal meaning” as well as “that which is heard.” Likewise, hashshome'a, “he who hears” is often used in the sense of “he who sticks to the superficial, literal meaning of Scripture.” Jesus, then, in introducing his teaching on anger, opposes it to the simplemindedly literal interpretation of the Pharisees: In other words, “You have heard it said, you shall not murder, and you think wrongly that this commandment is just concerned with murder. It is not. It is concerned with the roots and causes of murder; likewise, with the effects and consequences of those causes, other than outright murder.” Or, “You have heard it said, ‘you shall not murder, and only he who murders is liable to the judgment,' but this is a misinterpretation, for many other offences than simple murder are liable to the judgment.” In every case where Jesus introduces some received interpretation of the Law with “You have heard it said”, he immediately juxtaposes, “But I say to you.” Here, Jesus gives his own authoritative exposition of the Torah. Note that he does not appeal to any other authority: There is no, “Rabbi Ela said that Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said that Rabbi Meir used to say…” That's an actual quotation from the Talmud, by the way. The sermon on the mount continues for three chapters, until Matthew 7:29. At at the end, we are told the crowd's reaction: “the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” That is, despite not having been trained by any rabbi, and despite not having authorization as a scribe to propound binding interpretations of the Torah, and without saying “Rabbi X said in the name of Rabbi Y,” Jesus was declaring, “But I say to you…” That is, on his own authority as the Son of God, not the derived authority of his doctoral dissertation supervisor. Jesus constantly warned against the Pharisees. Why? Because they represented a very real danger. It is a danger that is peculiarly powerful for people who love God and take the Bible seriously and feel culturally and morally besieged. We are in a very similar situation, brothers and sisters. You are in the REC. It confesses the Bible to be the inspired word of God; it recites the Creed on a weekly basis; it has bishops, conforming to the polity that characterized the ancient church and the vast majority of church history since then; it stands for orthodoxy and Biblical morality in the face of howling winds of cultural change and creeping sexual perversion and transhumanism, all encouraged by the false eschatology of progress and a false faith in technology. If we are not careful to obey Jesus's teaching, it will be very easy to fall into Pharisaism, and to pray like the Pharisee in Jesus's parable: “I thank you, Lord, that I am not like other men, leftists, weirdos with dyed hair, or those rainbow flag alphabet soup people. I attend church every week and give a tenth of everything I get.” The danger, that is, is to adopt a view of the church as the beleaguered remnant waiting for God to smite its cultural and political enemies, and to focus on performative acts of boundary-marking. In other words, to focus on being pure and separate, in the hopes that God will reward your heightened effort at boundary marking by destroying those on the other side of the boundaries and rewarding you. Jesus's teaches something different from the Maccabees, both about how to be Israel, and about how to relate to those on the other side of the boundaries of the faith. 23 - “If you are offering your gift at the altar” — even if you are in the middle of the most important performance of Israelite piety, the central act that enabled Israel's God to dwell with His people. This is a shocking inversion of how the Pharisees thought things worked: for them, if you declared some money “qorban”, then you were excused from supporting your aged parents with it; for them, if an apparently dead body were on the side of the road, a priest or Levite on his way to the temple would be fully justified in avoiding it in order to remain in a state of cultic purity so that he could do his work in the temple. The laws of purity and religion were thus exalted over the duties toward neighbours and other human beings. Jesus has the OT on his side on this point: the opening of Isaiah rebukes the Israelites for their chutzpah in offering sacrifices and celebrating new moon feasts and other religious observances while perpetrating the worst sorts of social injustice: “Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood…Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them.” The idea that you can please God by meeting the external requirements, while simultaneously engaged in the worst sorts of injustice toward your fellow men is formalism. Think of a mafia boss who orders a hit on his enemies or pulls out a tommy gun and mows down sixteen rival mobsters on Saturday; the following morning, he shows up at Mass, dips his fingers in holy water, makes the sign of the cross, receives a wafer on his tongue and a blessing from the priest. Mobsters trust in formalism. God is not fooled. It was easy for faithful and believing Jews in Jesus's day to fall into hating the Romans. They were polytheist Gentiles, sexually immoral, and overweening in their obnoxiousness toward the Jews. Jesus mentions “Those Galileans whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices.” The Romans had installed the wicked Idumean dynasty of the Herodians as rulers over Israel. Roman soldiers had the right to Shanghai any Jew and force him to carry his heavy soldier's pack for a mile. Against all this, Jesus tells his disciples to “put away your sword” and to “turn the other cheek” and “go two miles”. In the face of the power and authority of the Roman governor, he answers Pilate not a word. He does not compete on the Romans' level. He knows that their empire will be His whenever He wants. “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” The Sermon on the Mount teaches a different way of being the people of God: not the Pharisees' way of exaggerated purity, social pressure, and violent insurrection. It is a way that manifests itself in a totally different attitude toward the Gentiles: one of compassion, not hatred. Not endorsement of the Gentiles' sins or their idolatry or their sexual immorality or infanticide. But a willingness to lay down His life also for them. A crucified Messiah implies a crucified Israel. That, in fact, is what we are called to be: Israel for the sake of the world. And that is what we find in our Epistle lesson this morning, as St. Paul urges in Romans 6:  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.      5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Followers of the crucified Messiah are to be Israel for the sake of the world. Accordingly, we are to pray for the world — which we are about to do now.

Even in this difficult time for the Jewish people, we are blessed to bear witness to the lights of the soldiers of Israel—who testify to the living legacy of Judah Maccabee.

The Hasmoneans implement a "day-after" strategy

Jesus, the Son of God: The claim of Jesus to be the Son of God is a wild claim. If it were not true, Jesus would've been a fraud, and Christianity would have fallen apart. But if it is true, then it changes everything. If Jesus really was set apart by his Father and sent from heaven, he could be the rescuer and redeemer the world needs. Recorded on Dec 10, 2023, on John 10:22-42 by Pastor David Parks. Finding Life in Jesus' Name is a sermon series on the gospel according to John in the Bible. Have you ever felt unsatisfied with your life? Or, even when things were going well, something was still missing? Many people sense there must be something more. But what?? John, one of the closest friends of Jesus, believed that Jesus came into the world so that we may have life and have it to the full. Jesus turned John's life upside down, and John claims this new life — marked by God's power, presence, and purpose — is available for all who believe. Sermon Transcript We're working through the gospel according to John in a series called Finding Life in Jesus' Name. And today, we're in John chapter 10, considering a claim of Jesus that is either crazy or a great evil if it isn't true, but would be amazing and would be the great hope of the world if it is. And that claim is that Jesus is not just a human being but is, in fact, the Son of God, sanctified and sent from heaven. What does it mean for Jesus to be the Son of God? If you grew up in church, you might take this aspect of Jesus' identity for granted and lose sight of how radical this claim truly is. If you didn't grow up in church, you need to know that this is one of the most significant things Jesus says about himself. If it's not true, the Christian faith falls apart. But if it is true, then it changes everything. If you have a Bible/app, please take it and open it to John 10:22. John 10:22–28 (NIV), “22 Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon's Colonnade. 24 The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name testify about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” Let's pause here. So, John says our passage takes place during the Festival of Dedication, known today as the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. And Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Jewish people against the Greek empire about 200 years before the time of Jesus here in our passage. Hanukkah means dedication in Hebrew and refers to when a rebellion led by Judah Maccabee drove the Greek army out of Jerusalem and allowed them to remove the pagan alter the Greeks had set up in their temple and dedicate (rededicate) their temple for the worship of the one true God. Hanukkah is celebrated for 8 days with the lighting of the menorah and other traditions. And I really couldn't have planned it this way, but just as Jesus was all those years ago, so today, we're actually in the middle of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. Isn't that amazing? Happy Hanukkah! Anyways, this is the setting of our story, there in the temple courts of Jerusalem during Hanukkah. And it was then and there when the people confronted Jesus about whether or not he was the Messiah. Back at the end of October, when we were working through John 7, we considered this claim that Jesus was the Messiah or the Chosen One. And back then, and really throughout this whole middle section of John, we see that people are divided over this claim. Some believe in Jesus, that he is the Messiah that God promised to send, while others do not. Some recognize the signs he was doing as proof of this claim,

Theologydoctor - Posts about God and the Bible and HopeDashboardIsrael, a Cup of Trembling3 talks given at Calvary Chapel of Chapel Hill, NC on the evening of December 6, 2023ARTHUR P WOLINSKYDEC 7, 2023What About the Jewish People?Hi Folks. Many of you know that I'm Jewish, the son of two Jewish parents. In view of the October 7 massacre of many Jewish people in Israel, I want to share several things with you this evening.I want to talk with you about the root cause of antisemitism, about the root cause for the Jewish people's resistance to believing in Jesus, about whether the Law of Moses applies to Jewish people today, and about the future for the Jewish people as a Nation and for individual Jews today.I.             What is the Root Cause of Antisemitism?Remember how in the Garden of Eden the Lord gave Adam one commandment?  The Lord said to Adam “You may eat of any plant or tree in the Garden except for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  In the day that you eat of it you will surely die”.  Adam communicated this knowledge to Eve and she was tricked by the serpent who was inhabited by Satan and Eve ate of the fruit and shared it with Adam who also ate.  Right then, sin entered the entire human race and with sin came death.  Everything changed and everything was corrupted.  Right then God spoke to the serpent, the Devil:Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your head, And you shall bruise His heel."The Seed of the woman was and is the Deliverer.  He is the Messiah and this prophecy makes it clear that one day the Messiah will crush the head of the enemy of humanity, Satan.  That will be the end of him.As the story unfolds through Scripture we are told that God chose Abraham and his physical descendants including the 12 tribes of Israel to be His special people and we are told that the Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah and from King David.  As the enemy learned that the Messiah was to come through the Jewish people, the enemy tried to prevent Messiah from coming into the world through the attempted killing of all Jewish babies in ancient Egypt.  He was unsuccessful however.  Moses was born and survived to lead his people out of Egypt as a Nation.  Later the evil Haman in Persia tried to annihilate all the Jewish people and he also failed.  This is celebrated in the festival of Purim which Jewish people still celebrate today.  Later yet, in about 175 BC, a Syrian king named Antiochus tried to destroy all the Jewish people and he committed something called the abomination of desolation in the temple.  He too failed and the victory of the Jewish people over Antiochus is celebrated in the festival of lights, Chanukah.  And there were many more attempts, all of which failed.So the Messiah was born of the virgin Miriam, a direct descendant of King David,  in Bethlehem, and He was crucified in about 33 AD.  The Messiah was born to die, to be the ultimate blood sacrifice for His people and for all people, that whoever would accept Him would never die but would have eternal life.  He fulfilled the Law of Moses – by obeying it completely – and He promised that one day He would return.  Then Satan's head would be crushed.  The Messiah was and is Yeshua of Natzeret, or Jesus of Nazareth.So, Messiah came and He died.  What could the Enemy do to prevent the return of the Messiah?  Jesus said something to the Jewish people, from Jerusalem, several days before He went to the cross:Matthew 23:37-39 (NKJV) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! [38] See! Your house is left to you desolate; [39] for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'BLESSED is HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!' "So before the Jewish people can see Jesus again, before He can return, the Jewish people must say Blessed is He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord, a Messianic verse from a Messianic Psalm, Psalm 118.  The enemy knows this of course and so, ever since the cross, he has been systematically trying to totally annihilate the Jewish people, so that there would be not even one single Jew who could say this.  This is the root cause of antisemitism.  This has been brought into reality through many literal attempts to kill the Jews.  Hitler's Holocaust is a major example of this and all the wars against Israel since 1948 up to and including the massacre by Hamas on October 7 are examples caused by Satan trying to fulfill his strategy of total annihilation of the Jewish people.  He has not succeeded, and he never will succeed.We hear today of a New Antisemitism.  What is that?  The person or people who practice this new antisemitism say something like this: We hate Israel.  Although I'm not crazy about Jewish people, I wish them no harm, except for the ones in Israel because their country is oppressing the Palestinians and stealing their land.  The Jews have no right to Israel, and they are practicing apartheid.  What Hamas did is understandable!Folks, I believe that Satan has goals, strategies, and tactics.  I believe that his main goals are to be like God or even above God, to seek revenge against God for throwing him out of heaven, and to prevent the Messiah's return so that his, Satan's, head won't be crushed.  One of Satan's major strategies is to destroy Israel and all the Jewish people, for reasons we just discussed, and the October 7 massacre was Satan's latest tactic.  I don't think that Satan's goals and strategies change, but his tactics constantly change.  And he is relentless.  When one tactic is defeated, he comes up with 3 more.  We must fight him with all our strength, but this is a spiritual battle – we wrestle not against flesh and blood, Ephesians 6 - and only the Messiah can bring the final victory and He will.II.           What is the root cause for the Jewish people's resistance to believe in Jesus?The cause is supernatural.  Let me read you two Scripture verses from the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Romans in the New Testament:Romans 11:25-26 (NKJV) For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. [26] And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "THE DELIVERER WILL COME OUT OF ZION, AND HE WILL TURN AWAY UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB;Folks, that is the reason, spiritual blindness.  A partial spiritual blindness has happened to Israel.  A better translation is temporary blindness.  It is temporary and it has happened to the entire Nation except for a small number of people, the remnant.  Why has God done this?  So that the full number of Gentiles to be saved will be saved.  When this full number of Gentiles is saved, through the Messiah, then and only then will the entire Nation of Israel be saved – all at once.  It will be like life from the dead!  But please be very much aware that Satan is quite interested in killing Gentiles too, although they are not as high a priority for him as killing Jews is.If the Jewish people, as a Nation, had accepted Yeshua when He first came, He would have died then to pay the price for sin, He would have set up His Millennial Kingdom and perhaps the great mass of non-Jewish people would never be saved.  But this was never God's plan.  Let me read you another 2 verses:Romans 11:28-29 (NKJV) Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. [29] For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.These verses explain why Gentiles are spiritually indebted to the Jewish people.Now, how does this work itself out?  Two examples:Rashi (1040-1105) – a very famous French rabbi, revered by many Orthodox Jews today including members of Chabad, proclaimed that the famous Isaiah passage (52:13-53:12) describes a suffering servant, but not the Messiah.  Let me read part of the passage to you:Isaiah 53:3-5,7-10 NKJVHe is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. [4] Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. [5] But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. [7] He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. [8] He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. [9] And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. [10] Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.Rashi taught that this Man, despised and rejected, was the Nation of Israel.  He was not a man, according to Rashi.  He was not the Messiah.  Instead, he was the Nation of Israel.  To this day this faulty exegesis by Rashi leads Jewish people away from seeing that Yeshua is the Messiah.Maimonides (1138-1204), a very famous rabbi, philosopher, and physician, was born in Spain and had to leave, lived in Morocco and later in Egypt.  He was a leader of his people, and he suffered much persecution because he was a Jew.  He came up with The Thirteen Principles of Faith.  According to Maimonides, a Jew who denied any of these principles would be denied a place in The World to Come. Principle 2 says God has absolute and unparalleled unity.  Principle 3 says God is incorporeal – without a body.  Principle 2 rules out a God who is One but is comprised of 3 persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Principle 3 rules out the incarnation; there can be no God in the flesh.  Therefore, Maimonides principles rule out Jesus as Messiah and God. Maimonides is revered by Jews all over the world today.  If Maimonides' principles say there is no Jesus, then for most Jews there is no Jesus, even if the Bible – including the Torah – says otherwise.A great number of rabbis today stand on Rashi and Maimonides as pillars of the Jewish faith and they mislead their people.  I'm not saying they're doing it intentionally, but they are doing it, and it's a reason that Jews reject Yeshua.III.          Are Jewish People, or Any of Us, Under the Law of Moses Today?It was Maimonides, mentioned just a moment ago, who codified the commandments in the Torah, the 5 Books of Moses, and counted 613 commandments.  These are the commandments given by God and therefore found in the Torah.  Failure to keep these commandments was punishable by death.  No one with a sin nature – meaning all of us – could keep all these commandments.  That's why God provided an elaborate system of sacrifices, including blood sacrifices, to provide temporary atonement or forgiveness for sins.  God told the Israelites this through Moses:Leviticus 17:11 (NKJV)11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.'The life of an animal became a substitutionary sacrifice for the life of an Israelite.  These sacrifices had to be repeated over and over.  They provided no permanent forgiveness.  This sacrificial system was administered by priests who came from the tribe of Levi.Through the prophet Jeremiah, long after the time of Moses, God told the children of Israel that He was going to replace the Covenant of the Law, also known as the Mosaic Covenant, with a New Covenant:Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NKJV) "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— [32] not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. [33] But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. [34] No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."This word from Jeremiah was a prophecy of a future covenant to replace the covenant that the people continually broke.  They couldn't keep that covenant.  Nobody could.  This New Covenant would require a blood sacrifice that was perfect, unlike the blood from an animal.  A new priesthood would be required.  There would be one Priest and He would be from the tribe of Judah.  In fact, this Priest would also, Himself, be the Sacrifice.  This Sacrifice was Jesus, Yeshua, God in the flesh, and His sacrifice on the cross was enough to pay the debt for every sin that would ever be committed, past, present, and future.  Yeshua, the Messiah, God Himself in the flesh, and His sacrifice, was and is the basis of the New Covenant.  When Yeshua was crucified the curtain in the temple separating the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place was miraculously torn in two from top to bottom, symbolically opening the way for every believer to enter spiritually into the Holy of Holies.  Several decades later, in 70 AD, the Temple was destroyed.  Never again could a God ordained animal sacrifice ever be made.  God requires that His people worship Him through the New Covenant.  He loves His people, the Jewish people.  God restates the New Covenant in the New Testament in Hebrews exactly as He did in Jeremiah.Now what I'm going to say now is super important and very hard to grasp, especially for a Jewish person.  Please listen to me.  The Law of Moses shows us God's character and that's a very valuable thing.  And the Law is Scripture and all Scripture is profitable.  The Law is good.  But the Law of Moses cannot provide salvation – it never could.  The Law is no longer your master.  The New Covenant does provide salvation.The New Covenant has replaced the Covenant of the Law and with a New Covenant there must be a new priesthood. That priesthood consists of only one Priest,  Yeshua, Jesus.  He is our High Priest now.  How does a person access the benefits of that covenant, permanently?  You confess Yeshua, Jesus, as your Lord and Savior and you follow Him all the days of your life.  He will make you a new creation by filling you with the Holy Spirit, who will help you to keep the New Covenant.  If you are a Jew, you will still be JewishIV.         What is in the Future for the Israel and for Individual Jews Today?Daniel chapter 9 is a very pivotal chapter.  Daniel at this point is an old man, having been taken to Babylon as a teenager.  He is a very respected and very godly man.  He has been reading the scrolls of Jeremiah the prophet through whom the Lord said that the time of exile would be 70 years.  That time of 70 years is only about 2 years away.  Daniel must have thought that at 70 years, the Messiah would return and set up the Messianic Kingdom and bad things would all be over, because God sent the angel Gabriel to give Daniel understanding that this would not be the case.  Gabriel explained that it would not be seventy years until the time of restoration of all things for the Jewish people but seven times seventy years until this would happen.  After 69 sevens of years (483 years), the Messiah would come and would be cut off, killed, but not for Himself.  Then the final 7 years would come but only after a gap of time.  At the present time we are in that gap which is now about 2,000 years.  The final seven years, Daniel's 70th week, is what is known as The Tribulation.  It begins when the Coming Prince – the Antichrist – signs a 7 year peace treaty with Israel.  At the midpoint, 3.5 years, the Antichrist reveals that he is not a man of peace, he commits the abomination of desolation at the rebuilt temple – the Tribulation Temple or Third Temple – in Jerusalem, as did his predecessor Antiochus in 175 BC in the second temple.  That's the Syrian king who was defeated by the Jews led by Judah Maccabee and is celebrated at the festival of Chanukah.  That's past.  The Antichrist is future.  This second half of Daniel's 70th week is referred to by the prophet Jeremiah as The Time of Jacob's Trouble.  It will be a Second Holocaust, worse than Hitler's Holocaust.  Two thirds of the Jewish people will die, killed by the Antichrist.  Jesus spoke about this time:Matthew 24:15-21 (NKJV) "Therefore when you see the 'ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), [16] "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. [17] Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. [18] And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. [19] But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! [20] And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. [21] For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.Folks, God is in control of all things.  Why would God allow this?  Here is why.  There are six purposes that God must accomplish for the Jewish Nation for things to be put right and for the end of the age to come.  Let me read them to you from Daniel 9:24:Daniel 9:24 (NKJV) "Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.What are these 6 purposes?Arnold Fruchtenbaum in his Commentary on Daniel helps us here.  Here is a summary of what he says:1.    The first purpose of the seventy sevens is to finish a specific transgression of the Jewish people, namely, the rejection of the Messiah.2.    The second purpose is to put an end to daily sins.3.    The third purpose is to atone for the sin nature of man by accepting the sacrifice of Yeshua on the cross.4.    The fourth purpose is to bring in the age of righteousness which is the Messianic or Millennial Kingdom.5.    The fifth purpose is the final fulfillment of all revelations and prophecies. With the second coming of the Messiah, the function and purpose of prophecy will be completed.6.    The sixth purpose is to anoint the Millennial Temple.These 6 things are going to require the entire Jewish Nation to accept their Messiah, and plead for forgiveness of their sins, the sins of the Nation in rejecting Him 2,000 years ago.  God will pour out a spirit of repentance on them and they will be humbled more than ever before.  Daniel 12:7 explains this:Daniel 12:7 (NKJV) Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished.The Jewish people will do this at the end of the 7 year Tribulation.  They will cry out to Jesus as their Messiah and plead with Him to save them, and He will, right then, as prophesied in Zechariah:Zechariah 12:10 (NKJV) "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.What about Jewish people NOW, individual Jewish people.  What about YOU?  You might be in Israel, you might be here in Chapel Hill, or you might be someplace else.  I am speaking to both Jewish and Gentile people who don't have a relationship with Yeshua, with Jesus.  If you desire forgiveness of sins and you want to have eternal life now, Pastor Vince is going to give an invitation after he speaks.  Please accept it, tonight.  If you do this you will be placed by God into what is known as the Body of Messiah, the true Church, and you will not enter The Tribulation or The Time of Jacob's Trouble.  You will Raptured or resurrected to heaven before that time.There's one more thing I want to say tonight, primarily to those people who lost loved ones on October 7 and to those whose loved ones are still hostages.  What about them, you ask.  What is God doing about them?  Where is God?Do you remember Job in the Bible?  God allowed Satan to kill his children, to take away his material possessions, and to take away his health.  It was a series of terrible blows.  But Job never lost his faith in God.  He complained plenty and he criticized God, but he never lost his faith.  Then, after a period of time God spoke with Job and Job remembered just how great God is and Job said this:Job 42:6 (NKJV) Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."And the LORD blessed Job:Job 42:12-13 (NKJV) Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. [13] He also had seven sons and three daughters.Job 42:16-17 (NKJV) After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. [17] So Job died, old and full of days.Now, somebody may say this:  Well, that's just great!  God allowed all of Job's children to be killed and He replaced them with other children?  Does God think that's righteous?Folks, God is always righteous.  We don't always get to see that but we have to believe it.  And God loved Job and his children and he loves you.  So whatever happens to you or your loved ones, have faith in God and believe that he will make everything right in the end.Thank you for listening.2 Likes22SharePreviousNext2 CommentsViaVeritasVitaDec 8Liked by Arthur P WolinskyDear Dr. Arthur,A few thoughts thrown together here, from a septuagenarian cradle Christian.I heeded your advice and listened last evening to all 3 Calvary sermons. Yours, on the reason for anti-semitism really struck me. As making sense. Flipping through my Bible to follow you as I listened.From April to August I read the Torah in entirety--not just a verse here, a verse there, as always before. And found these books to be a really good read. Then on beginning Joshua, realized I had to read the first 5 again (a good thing too, as I must have slept through many verses). Much is much clearer now--and currently stuck in Leviticus 17, I'd been wondering what was behind all the required sacrifices? Before this last year or so I had not considered 'evil' to be more than an abstraction. Sed tempora mutantur, et nos in illis mutamur.Many thanks to you for what you are doing--and so very very very happy that you have accepted Yeshua.LIKED (1)REPLYSHARE1 reply by Arthur P Wolinsky1 more comment...TopNewCommunityWhy Lasting Peace In Israel Can Never Occur Until Messiah ReturnsA terrible thing happened on October 7. Why did it happen? The explanation is here.OCT 9 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY61Is Imminence Present in Matthew 24 and 25 and Does it Matter?The Pretribulation Rapture is real. This matters! An understanding of imminence will help you to understand this better.OCT 3 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY20:0042The TempleDid you know that there are 4 Jewish temples referenced in the Bible?JUL 31 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY48Who Is The Messiah?My dear Jewish brothers and sisters, I want you to know who your Messiah is. And to those of you who are not Jewish: He is your Messiah too.JUL 9 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY43Hebrews 1:3We continue on in Hebrews. This is part 3. You can listen or read or do both.OCT 23 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY29:3435The Goals, Strategy, and Tactics of the Enemy and How to Fight HimWe are in a war. We have an invisible enemy who is more deadly than any visible army or weapons of war.AUG 25 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY32Hebrews 1:2Join me as we continue studying this marvelous epistle which gives us a better and better understanding of Jesus' divine nature.OCT 16 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY22:3932Beyond The Shadow of a Doubt: The Rapture Comes Before The TribulationWhat is the evidence for this statement? Read on.....JUN 12 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY35What Is the Cause of Death?And is there a cure?JUL 17 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY36Hebrews 1:4-5How did Jesus, Who was always God, become even better?NOV 20 • ARTHUR P WOLINSKY23:312See all© 2023 Arthur P WolinskyPrivacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection noticeStart WritingGet the appSubstack is the home for great writing This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit awolinsky.substack.com

Merry Christmas everyone! December 8 marks the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. Most know that this involves lighting a menorah, but what are the origins of this festival? The last episode of Bible Backdrop for 2023 goes into the story and other details about Hanukkah. Why is it celebrated? How do Jews today celebrate? Why is it important?If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please leave a 5-star rating and review. You can also send a question to the e-mail address listed in the episode. Have a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

The rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem on November 21, 164bce (25 Kislev 3597) stands as a pivotal moment in Jewish history, marking both a spiritual and military triumph. This event, deeply entwined with the Maccabean Revolt, led to the establishment of Hanukkah, a festival celebrating Jewish resilience and faith. The Maccabean Revolt (167-160bce) was a Jewish uprising against the Seleucid Empire and the Hellenistic influence on Jewish life. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid king, imposed strict bans on Jewish religious practices, leading to widespread discontent. The revolt was ignited when a rural Jewish priest, Mattathias, and his five sons, including Judah Maccabee, refused to worship Greek gods. This act of defiance sparked a widespread rebellion. Under the leadership of Judah Maccabee, the Jewish insurgents waged a guerrilla war against the Seleucids. By 164bce, they had achieved significant victories, culminating in the recapture of Jerusalem and the Temple. The Temple, desecrated by the Seleucids who had converted it into a shrine to Zeus, was in dire need of spiritual cleansing and rededication to restore its sanctity as the heart of Jewish worship. The rededication of the Temple was a profound moment of renewal for the Jewish people. According to the Talmud, when Judah Maccabee and his followers sought to relight the Temple's Menorah, they found only a small flask of oil, enough for one day. Miraculously, this oil burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare more oil. This miracle underscored not just a military victory but a spiritual resurgence, symbolizing the enduring light of Jewish faith against overwhelming odds. In commemoration of this miracle and the rededication of the Temple, the festival of Hanukkah was established. Hanukkah, meaning “dedication” in Hebrew, is celebrated for eight days in honor of the miraculous eight days the Menorah burned. It is a time of joy and gratitude, observed by lighting the menorah, reciting prayers, and reflecting on the themes of freedom and resilience. The rededication of the Temple and the events leading up to it are more than historical events; they are embodiments of the enduring spirit of a people striving to preserve their identity and faith against formidable challenges. The story of the Maccabean Revolt and the miracle of Hanukkah continue to inspire, symbolizing hope, courage, and the triumph of light over darkness. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/plausibly-live/message

In the series finale following the life of Judah Maccabee "The Hammer", Gil Kidron joins me to discuss the Maccabean Revolt broadening from a religious conflict into a war of independence. With Judah reshaping his guerrilla force into a veritable Hebrew field army, daring to take on the superior armies of the Seleucid Empire in pitched battle. Initially meeting with a grave setback, followed by Judah's greatest battlefield victory. The prelude to his death in a heroic last stand that would inspire the revolt to continue beyond his lifetime, eventually achieving the dream of Judean independence in 140 BC.   If you would like to support my work directly, you can kindly do so here: patreon.com/warlordsofhistory  Check out A Podcast of Biblical Proportions: podcastofbiblicalproportions.com

Joined by Gil Kidron from A Podcast of Biblical Proportions, we continue with the incredible story of Judah Maccabee "The Hammer" and the early years of the Maccabean Revolt. Initially, a small rebel band, driven by religious zeal, bringing civil war to Judea. But with Judah assuming its leadership early on and transforming them into a fierce guerrilla force. Unleashing devastating ambushes within the Judean wild-lands to win a series of astounding battle victories over the Seleucid armies through 166 - 164 BC. Unexpected successes, greatly expanding the size of the rebellion, but also its ambitions.   If you would like to support my work directly, you can kindly do so here: patreon.com/warlordsofhistory  Check out A Podcast of Biblical Proportions: podcastofbiblicalproportions.com

Gil Kidron from A Podcast of Biblical Proportions joins me to bring you the incredible story of Judah Maccabee "The Hammer". A Hebrew priest, turned guerilla warlord, who would win spectacular battlefield victories in an unexpectedly fierce rebellion against the mighty Seleucid Empire in the 160s BC called the Maccabean Revolt. A conflict with its origins laying in bitter Judean factionalism, between those embracing Hellenism versus ardent Hebrew traditionalists. Smoldering resentment that erupted into bloody civil violence due to the meddling of the erratic Seleucid King Antiochus IV.    If you would like to support my work directly, you can kindly do so here: patreon.com/warlordsofhistory  Check out A Podcast of Biblical Proportions: podcastofbiblicalproportions.com  

Take survey here: https://jewishunpacked.com/jhusurvey Ah, Chanukah. That festive time of year where we light candles, indulge in fried foods, and celebrate… a brutal civil war? Join Yael and Schwab as they complicate the story we all thought we knew. What did the Maccabees really fight for? How should we feel about their legacy? And who is Helen? This episode was hosted by Jonathan Schwab and Yael Steiner. Our education lead is Dr. Henry Abramson. Audio was edited by Rob Pera, and we're produced by Rivky Stern. For more on Hanukkah, Judah Maccabee, and this episode: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19vHg-inRureVw3AlW2UA_uyUYMH12HH5qjvkXrMf_h4/edit?usp=sharing

His military victories and defeats; his controversial political policies

Happy Hanukkah Give Me That D listeners! This week we have our very own Leila Gorstein here to break down the Hanukah classic, Full Court Miracle! This film, based on a true story, asks a lot of important questions like; is this ex-college basketball star the ghost of Judah Maccabee? Is this dreidel rap the best thing you've ever heard? Can you imagine Jake playing basketball? Can any team get into a tournament even if they haven't won a game in 2 years? Does it take an entire year to learn the story of Hanukkah? It also flips the script with a bad mom and supportive dad- he even cooks! Can this Hebrew school basketball team find their angel? Will these dogs win the big tournament? Listen to find out! Have fun!!!

John 10:22-23. At that time, the feast of the dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was Winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple and the Portico of Solomon. In 165 BC, when Judah Maccabee recaptured the temple, after it had been desecrated by a Syrian king, he ordered it to be cleansed, a new alter to be built and new holy vessels to be made. After these steps, the temple was rededicated to the Lord. However, unadulterated, undefiled, pure olive oil from the seal of the high priest was needed for the menorah, or the lamp stand, in the temple, which was required to burn throughout the night, every night. Unfortunately, only one flask was found with only enough oil to burn for one day. Yet when the Jews poured in the oil, and lit the menorah, it burned for eight days. Well, of course, eight days is the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of kosher oil for the menorah. It is this miracle that is commemorated during the feast of dedication. It's also called the festival of lights or Hanukkah. Jesus went to the temple to celebrate this wonderful work of God. That's what love for God does. Plus He is the light of the world. Jesus has recaptured our temple that has been defiled and desecrated by the world. Let's celebrate the work of God today that restored His temple so that it could be a holy place of worship to God. We celebrate that by living to love with Jesus.

We talk about Erik's show Religious Wars. The first series is The Hammer of Hanukkah. A series about Judah Maccabee. Out wherever you get podcasts.   If you want to get in touch with me:   @theskullpodcast   thehistoryvoyager@gmail.com  

Judah Maccabee is on shaky ground. With a growing army of devoted fanatics, Judah has taken control of Jerusalem and cleansed the Second Temple of the ongoing abominations it suffered under control of the Hellenizers. But while his position looks stronger than ever, Judah's army was only able to withstand the wrath of the Seleucid Empire because of a crisis: the King is dead. In the last episode of the Hammer of Hanukkah, we find out how the Maccabees handle the next generation of Seleucid leadership. And, we learn the ultimate fate of Judah Maccabee. 

A century before the birth of Christ, the Hasmonean dynasty controlled the Jewish Holy Land for more than one hundred years. It was the first time Jews controlled the Promise Land in almost 450 years, and the last time they would control it for almost 2,000 years. The Hammer of Hanukkah tells the story of the Maccabees, the warlords who revolted, took back the Holy Land and made the Hasmonean dynasty possible. We focus this story on the violent and charismatic early leader in the revolt: Judah Maccabee. 

What would Judah Maccabee think of the commercialized, semi-assimilated, kid-friendly version of Hanukkah we celebrate today? R'Steven Philp takes us through the history behind our modern Hanukkah traditions.This sermon was from the Saturday morning service on December 4th. For full Friday services, click here. For upcoming Shabbat services and programs, check our event calendar.Learn more about Mishkan Chicago. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook.Be sure to like and subscribe to our podcast for updates on new episodes, and please leave a review. We want to hear from you!Produced by Mishkan Chicago. Music composed, written by Kalman Strauss.

Judah Maccabee's amazing "Entebbe" rescue campaign. Arab pogromists vs. Maccabeean veterans.

This week marks the Jewish observance of Chanukah, the so-named "Festival of Lights" in which candles are lit to commemorate an event that took place centuries ago. The hero of said event, Judah Maccabee, has become a legend in Jewish tradition and lore just as much as the enemy, Antiochus, has become a hated and despotic villain. But just who were these historical figures and what are the origins of the holiday Jewish people celebrate today? Tune in to this brand-new episode to find out! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/historylovescompany/support

For most Messianics I know who celebrate Chanukah, they hear a great deal about the military exploits of the Maccabees and the rededication of the Temple. Many of them honestly take the time to flip through the Books of 1&2 Maccabees in the Apocrypha, the principal historical record that influences our understanding of the wars fought by the Maccabees. When Jerusalem was recaptured and the Temple was rededicated, much more really did take place. This goes beyond the lives of Judah Maccabee and his brothers. Sadly, too many congregations and fellowships that honor Chanukah are not that familiar with this period of complicated history—not only for what took place in the Second Century B.C.E., but how it would influence the First Century C.E.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 28, 2021 is: menorah • muh-NOR-uh • noun A menorah is a candelabra with seven or nine lights that is used in Jewish worship. // At sundown on the first night of Hanukkah, Aaron's father helped him light the first candle on the menorah. See the entry > Examples: "The world's largest menorah went up in Manhattan on Tuesday and will be lit on Thursday after sundown…." — ABC7 (New York), 10 Dec. 2020 Did you know? In English, menorah was originally the name for the seven-branched candelabra used in Jewish worship. The nine-branched Hanukkah candelabra is called hanukkiah in Hebrew, but English speakers came to use menorah for this too. The Hanukkah menorah recalls expulsion by Judah Maccabee of invading forces from the Temple of Jerusalem. Maccabee and his followers sought oil for the temple's menorah so that the sanctuary could be rededicated, but they found only enough oil for a single day. Miraculously, that tiny amount of oil burned for eight days, until a new supply could be obtained. The Hanukkah menorah includes a candle for each day the oil burned, plus the shammes, a "servant candle" that is used to light the others.

A century before the birth of Christ, the Hasmonean dynasty controlled the Jewish Holy Land for more than one hundred years. It was the first time Jews controlled the Promise Land in almost 450 years, and the last time they would control it for almost 2,000 years. The Hammer of Hanukkah tells the story of the Maccabees, the warlords who revolted, took back the Holy Land and made the Hasmonean dynasty possible. We focus this story on the violent and charismatic early leader in the revolt: Judah Maccabee. 

Lucas and Jacob are ill-equipped to discuss the very normal DCOM topics of Jewish teens, basketball, and the reincarnated ghost of Judah Maccabee?! Full-Court Miracle is truly a Hanukkah miracle! Wikipedia plot synopsis of Full-Court Miracle

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Happy Hanukkah! Would you believe that Disney gave us the most in-depth backstory to this holiday we've ever had? Neither would we. Catch 14 year-old Alex teaching us about Judah Maccabee and how ball is life. Follow us on social media @ChowdyMedia on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Recorded at Good For You Productions.

A musical for kids & families about the story of Hanukkah! Judah and her siblings fight back after their right to practice Judaism is taken away from them by King Antiochus. Written, Composed, & Produced by Megan BagalaStarring: Nicole Weiss, Mara Jill Herman, Megan Bagala, and Evan Maltby Piano and Additional Arrangements by Sam Bagala Violin by Sem PetreyAssistant Produced by Chad ChenailExecutive Produced by Rebecca CunninghamArtwork by Mickey Lee NelsonOriginal Theme Music by Eli Denby Wood and Amy Gijsbers van WijkFor the Grownups!Patreon: https://patreon.com/girltalesHoliday Tales: https://girltalespodcast.com/holidaytales/Girl Tales Store: https://girltalespodcast.com/store-2/Rebecca’s Newsletter: https://girltalespodcast.us16.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=164c30f0c37a086fa0e32bb5b&id=bdacaecdddFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/girltalespodast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girltales/Girl Tales Grown-Ups Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2394948737386136

Great NT Profiles Part 14JUDAS ISCARIOTRelated Scriptures:Ø Matthew 26:14-16; 26:24; 27:3-10Ø Mark 3:19; 14:10Ø Luke 6:16Ø John 12:3-6; 6:70-71; 13:21-27, 29; 17:12• The betrayer of Jesus who either acted from greed or political revolution attempting to prod Jesus into wrestling control of the country from Rome.• The Gospels also portray him as a dupe of the high priest’s machinations.• The tragic figure that commits suicide as a result of his betrayal.The Name• Judas, meaning “Jewish man” (Hebrew: Judah), was a common name (for example, Judah Maccabee, Judah the Prince), with no fewer than eight New Testament bearers.• Iscariot possibly derives from Ish Kerioth, “man from [the village of] Kerioth.” The statement could suggest that Judas was the son of Simon Iscariot. (John 6:71).• Other possible derivations include the Aramaic saqor, “red” (thus, ruddy, or worker in red dye).• Sicarius, from the Latin and indicating “assassin”; sakar from the Semitic for “hand over”; and shaqar, Semitic for “fraud, deception.”Introduction• Mark’s first mention of Judas is at Jesus’ appointing of the Twelve; the reference is followed immediately by “who betrayed him” (Mark 3:19; see also Luke 6:16).• Judas took an active role as an apostle. He was that looked after the money box.• John 6:70–71 is harsher: “Did I not choose you, the Twelve, and one of you is a devil?” This reference to the “devil” associates Judas with “the Jews,” whom the Johannine Jesus states, “are of your father, the devil” (8:44).Vilification• The vilification of Judas begins through the stories of Jesus’ anointing.• In Mark 14:4–5, “One of the disciples” is upset by the “waste.” Mark juxtaposes the woman’s generosity to Jesus with Judas’s betrayal of him for money (14:10–11).• In John 12:4–6, “Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was to betray him, said, ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’ This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box he used to take what he put into it.”His Motive• In Mark 14:10–11, the financial incentive is offered by the priests.• Matthew offers greed as a motive.• In Luke 22:3–5, “Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the Twelve; he … conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and engaged to give him money.”• In John’s Gospel, Jesus says of the one to betray him, “‘It is he to whom I shall give this morsel when I have dipped it.’ So having dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after the morsel, Satan entered into him.” (See Ps. 41:9 for a possible proof text for the dinner scene.)The Kiss Symbolism• “We have all heard of the phrase “the kiss of death”.• It is clear that for the disciples, including Judas, violence remained a viable means through which the kingdom of God would finally arrive.• Was Judas trying to force Jesus take up violence? Was Judas trying to control Jesus with the kiss?His Death• Matthew has Judas’s death resemble that of Ahithophel (2 Sam. 15–17).• According to Matt. 27:6–8, Judas hangs himself. “But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since they are blood money.’ So they … bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in. Therefore that field has been called the ‘Field of Blood’ to this day” (Matt. 27:6–8).• Acts 1:18–19 offers an explanation presented in the context of Peter’s speech, “Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Akeldama, that is, ‘Field of Blood.’” (Luke matches Judas’s grotesque death with that of Herod Agrippa [Acts 12:23].)TheoriesJudas hung himself and left to hang long enough to decompose and fall to the ground.Matthew’s account is parallel to Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23).Papias in his Exposition of the Oracle of the Lord wrote Judas was cursed consequently his body was so swollen he was unrecognizable.In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Judas was so depressed killed himself.Questions of History• Paul states that Jesus was “handed over” (paradidomi), a term that can also be translated “betrayed” (Rom. 4:25, 8:32; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 5:2, 25; 1 Cor. 11:23).• Judas resembles the literary trope of the conventional “betrayer”.• Some scholars believe that Judas is an invented character designed to vilify Jews and decrease divine responsibility.Question to Consider• Is suicide an unforgiveable sin?

There was a boy named Sam who didn’t speak. His parents began to get very concerned as he passed all the developmental milestones and still wasn’t talking. They took to the pediatrician, to the speech therapist, to the neurologist—all the docs said the same thing: we can’t find any medical reason why he isn’t speaking. One night while the family was eating dinner, Sam looked up and said, “my soup is too salty.” His parents freaked out, and started yelling and crying with relief, and saying “we can’t believe it, Sam! You can talk! It’s a miracle. How did this happen?” Sam just calmly said, “Well up to now, everything has been fine.” Salt is used for so many things in our world. It is the most ubiquitous food seasoning on earth. From sea salt to kosher salt to pink Himalayan salt to Japanese moshio made from dried seaweed, every culture has its own unique forms of salt that people use to flavor cuisine. Salt is vital in the preservation process and was used to keep food safe to eat without refrigeration. Bacteria can’t survive without water so people figured out a long time ago that if they covered meats and other foods in salt, the salt would remove all the moisture, flavor the food, and keep the food from growing harmful bacteria. Salt has been used by many cultures for ritual purposes, often symbolizing purity or cleansing. Salt doesn’t just serve flavoring, preserving, and symbolic functions, however: it is actually essential to the functioning of the human body. It is necessary for nerve and muscle function, it helps regulate fluids, it plays a role in the body’s control of blood volume, and it provides electrolytes that regulate blood pH and pressure. We simply can’t live without it. The people of ancient Palestine couldn’t live without salt either. But in addition to the uses I’ve already mentioned, salt had another very important use for people in the ancient world. The Greek word translated as “earth” in the phrase “salt of the earth” from our passage gives us a clue. The word is “ges,” the root for English words such as geology. It means earth but most often in the sense of arable land, the ground we are standing on, the soil. Jesus is more accurately saying “you are salt for the land” or “salt for the soil.”[1] Salt was frequently used in ancient farming techniques as a fertilizer to be applied directly on arable land, and to keep manure from rotting until it could be transported to a field. The version of this teaching in the Gospel of Luke makes Jesus’s intended meaning clear. Luke 14:34-35 says “salt is good, but if it loses its savor, how can saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure heap.” Jesus is employing an agricultural metaphor, not a metaphor about seasoning food. This has been blowing my mind all week and for me, adds a lot to the conversation about what Jesus expects from his followers. We are not simply to add flavor to the world around us, or to preserve it, but to scatter ourselves into the world’s arid places and make abundant life possible. We should be integrated into the soil around us, providing essential nutrients and stimulating growth. We should be a transformative presence in our community. If a fertilizer sits in the shed until the nutrients in it break down and it expires, it does nothing for the soil and has to be thrown out. Fertilizer is meant to be used for the life of the land around it. You are fertilizer for the ground also fits more neatly with Jesus’s other metaphor in this passage—you are the light of the world. In the same way, fertilizer does no good if it sits idle and isn’t scattered, light does no good if it is hidden under a basket. Fertilizer must give life to arid ground, and light must illuminate darkness. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said “A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased the follow him.”[2] The metaphors of salt, light, and the city on a hill were not just general images Jesus pulled out of thin air to describe how his followers should live. These metaphors were Jesus’s response to a very real conundrum facing the people of Israel in his day: how do we remain faithful to God under the boot of the Roman empire? For some in Jesus’s day, the best way to be faithful under oppressive Roman rule was a kind of “circle the wagons” approach—keep to ourselves, try to follow the law and the prophets as best we can, and interact with the gentile oppressors as little as possible. Pharisees often fell into this camp. The people in this camp placed a high value on maintaining a distinct identity from Rome, on being holy, and they thought the best way to accomplish this was to focus their energy internally, bolstering the Jewish community’s knowledge of their faith and exploring how to fulfill the law in daily life. I call this option revolutionary withdrawal. It remains an appealing option for religious people of many faiths, especially those who live under a government that is hostile to their religious practices. You can see this tendency throughout the history of the Christian church from some forms of the monastic movement to the radical reformers such as the Amish to a recent dustup over a book by conservative evangelical author Rod Dreyer called the “Benedict Option,” in which he argues that the only way for conservative evangelicals to escape the increasing decadence and immorality of American society is to “embrace exile from mainstream culture.” The second prominent option for remaining faithful during Jesus’s day was to take up arms and attempt to drive out the Romans so that a kingdom faithful to God might be established in Israel. I call this option revolutionary violence. Two memories animated the draw to revolutionary violence: the memory of God defeating Pharaoh and liberating the Hebrew people celebrated at Passover, and the memory of the Maccabean Revolt, which happened just 150 years before Jesus was born, where Judah Maccabee led a briefly successful guerilla war against the Greek/Seleucid empire, expelling them from Jerusalem and re-dedicating the temple to the worship of the one true God. In Jesus’s day, people such as the Zealots preferred this option, hoping to lead an armed rebellion against the Romans, kick them out of Israel, and freely live and worship as they chose. Several of Jesus’s disciples were likely affiliated with Zealot groups before becoming his followers and found this option appealing.[3] It was into this climate, and in answer to this specific question, that Jesus is offering the metaphors of salt and light. Jesus is rejecting the path of revolutionary withdrawal and the path of revolutionary violence, and offering an alternative path to faithfulness in the midst of Roman oppression: revolutionary discipleship. “God’s people are salt for barren ground,” he says. Salt is meant to be scattered across the land, catalyzing growth and life wherever it embeds itself. But salt that doesn’t do what it is meant to do, that doesn’t perform this life-giving and transformative role for the earth, is useless. “God’s people are light for a dark world,” he says. Why would you go to the trouble of lighting a lamp in the darkness and then hide it, confining its impact by covering it up? You wouldn’t! Light must shine to be what it was meant to be! And it only takes a little to illuminate the deepest dark. A city built on a hill is meant to be seen not hidden! Revolutionary withdrawal hides the light of God under a bushel basket and leaves the fertilizer in the shed. Revolutionary violence destroys the image of God in the one you are called to love, and puts your own light out. But revolutionary discipleship allows the light to be seen, the salt to be used for the good of the earth, and opens up the possibility that even one’s enemies might glorify God in heaven. As a saying I came across this week says, “There can be no such thing as secret discipleship, for either the secrecy destroys the discipleship, or the discipleship destroys the secrecy.” Following Jesus in revolutionary discipleship cannot help but be visible. It cannot help but generate reaction from the world around it. Sometimes those reactions are positive—some will see our good works and give glory to God. Some will be drawn to the city on a hill, they will want the meaning and purpose that comes with fertilizing an arid earth. But sometimes the reactions revolutionary discipleship brings are negative. Jesus was killed after all and promised us that if we truly wanted to follow him, we will have to be prepared to share in his suffering. It takes courage to be salt and light in a barren and dark world. When I think of courageous people who embraced their calling to be salt and light come what may, the first person that comes to my mind is Ida B. Wells. Our youth learned about Ida B. Wells last year in the lead-up to the Freedom Ride, but I’d venture a guess that very few of us learned about her until recently (if at all). She is one of the unjustly forgotten Black women whose uncommon boldness and prophetic fire should be at the forefront of our national memory, and certainly at the forefront of the U.S. church’s memory. Wells was born a slave in Mississippi a few months before the Emancipation Proclamation.[4] She learned her courage from her mother and father, who fled their former slaveowner after they were liberated and made a life for themselves, including boldly participating in political meetings among freed slaves, even as White backlash to Black enfranchisement was heating up. Tragically, both her parents and her baby brother died of yellow fever when Wells was only 16. She took responsibility for raising her other 6 siblings and took a job as a schoolteacher among freedpeople in rural Mississippi before she had even finished school herself. Once her brothers were old enough to care for themselves, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee with her sisters in tow and got a job as a journalist. It was in journalism that Wells found her calling. She began reporting on and protesting the establishment of Jim Crow laws around the South. In 1883, after Tennessee had adopted segregated train cars, Wells refused to move from the ladies car to the smoking car, which was where Black passengers were told to go if a train did not yet have a segregated car for them. The conductor returned with more White men to forcibly remove her, but she chose to get off the train rather than move to the smoking car. She sued the train company and won an initial suit, before the Tennessee Supreme Court eventually ruled against her, chastising her unladylike “persistence.” In 1892, she launched the crusade that would occupy the rest of her life. A White mob lynched the three owners of a Black grocery store in town, including one of Wells’s closest friends. Instead of retreating in self-preservation, or lashing out in soul-destroying violence, Wells devoted her life to investigating, documenting, and exposing the brutality of lynching. She travelled around the South, by herself, interviewing witnesses and documenting thousands of lynchings that were intended to terrorize Black Americans into not exercising the freedoms to which they were entitled. Wells is the reason we know as much as we do about how widespread lynching was as a practice. She was tireless and fearless in her devotion to what was right, deconstructing the harmful myths and lies that were used to justify these murders. She once said, “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” Wells’s courageous devotion to what was right and good inspired many other freedom-fighters, including Frederick Douglass, who remarked about Wells, “brave woman! You have done your people a service which can neither be weighed nor measured.” She chose revolutionary discipleship, and because she did, her witness was compounded immeasurably. She was light and salt in the midst of a dark and barren world. Our world is not so different from Jesus’s or Ida B. Wells’s. The particulars are different, but cruelty and oppression still run rampant. Those who wish to be faithful to God in the midst of darkness and barrenness still face a choice. We can try to insulate ourselves from danger, from hostility, from loss. We can choose to try and ride out the storm from inside the safety of these walls rather than engage boldly with the world around us. We can try to eliminate all the threats against us. Or we can pursue a revolutionary discipleship that rejects the violence of our world and refuses to shrink back in fear or self-preservation. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, an author and activist, wrote a moving letter to those engaged in the fight for goodness, and truth, and justice in our world today. She said: “Mis estimados queridos, My esteemed ones: do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. Abject disregard of what the soul finds most precious and irreplaceable has become, in large societal arenas, the new normal. Ours is a time of almost daily jaw-dropping astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to visionary people. The lustre and hubris some have aspired to while endorsing acts so heinous against children, elders, the poor, the unguarded, the helpless, is breathtaking. Yet…I urge you: do not lose hope. We were made for these times. I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able crafts in the waters than there are right now across the world.  Look out over the prow; there are millions of righteous souls on the waters with you. One of the most important steps you can take to help calm the storm is not to allow yourself to be taken in a flurry of despair. Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. To display the lantern of the soul in shadowy times like these, to be fierce and show mercy towards others, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: when a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But…that is not what great ships are built for.”[5] Greenwood Forest, look up. Our beautiful ceiling resembles the underside of a ship, which has long been a symbol for the church universal’s journey in the world. Our challenge today is to see this place as the boat from which we leap like Peter to follow Jesus out on the water, rather than an ark in which we hide until the rain stops. We were made for times like this—to be salt for arid ground and light for a dark world. Let us stand up and let our souls shine for all those in our world who are waiting to see the light of other brave souls. If we can do that, then together, as the prophet Isaiah says our light will rise in the darkness, we will rebuild ruins, we will repair breaches, we will restore streets, and with the power of the God who made us salt and light, we will right the wrongs within our reach and be who we were built to be. Let us pray.   [1] See Anthony Bradley, “You Are the Manure of the Earth” Christianity Today October 2016; and Eugene Deatrick, “Salt, Soil, Savior” The Biblical Archeaologist 25 no. 2 (May 1962). [2] Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship [3] See Yoder, The Politics of Jesus [4] See Wells, The Light of Truth ed. Mia Bay [5] http://newstoryhub.com/2020/02/do-not-lose-heart-we-were-made-for-these-times-clarissa-pinkola-estes-ph-d-2/?fbclid=IwAR3cYRVVnTRluXE5tueMFj3inmS4dnYwguMOJqDN5akfM5S7oh8DOXa4-bw

How does the story of Joseph help us better understand the central theme of Hanukkah? How are Joseph and Judah Maccabee similar? What lesson should we learn from both of these men? Learn more in the 5 Minute Torah commentary on Parashat Mikeitz (Genesis 41:1-44:17).

Whether you spell it Ḥanukkah, Hanukkah, Chanukah, Khanike, or any other way, it’s that time of year for the Festival of Lights! Light your menorah & spin your dreidel while Talia & Yaakov reveal just how distant the modern holiday is from both earlier celebrations, when Judith was given pride of place alongside Judah Maccabee, and from the historical events surrounding the Hasmonean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire, which was a convoluted nightmare of shifting alliances with imperial backers, advances and retreats in guerrilla campaigns, and petty factional infighting. Spoiler alert: it’s neither the Zionist hasbara fantasy of Jews creating a nation for themselves nor the reductive “culture war” of Hellenism vs Judaism in which the Maccabees play the role reactionary religious extremists. It’s way way messier than that. Suggested reading: Cambridge History of Judaism Volume 2: The Hellenistic Age, The Book of Judith, The 1st & 2nd Books of the Maccabees, Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews." Intro Music by Eli Bertrum. Outro Music: "La Fiesta De La Chanukía" by Judy Frankel & "Oy Khanike" by The Klezmer Conservatory Band

Rabbi Seth Adelson joins Tim to talk about the story of Hanukkah, its history, its traditions and its meaning. Rabbi Adelson serves the Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh. https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Hanukkah_Episode.mp3 It's often called the Festival of Lights, and it usually happens in November or December each year. It's the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, and it takes place over eight days. Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the second century B.C. The story centers on the Maccabean Revolt, where the Jewish people had risen up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors. Hanukkah means “dedication” and it begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. It is often called the Festival of Lights, and it's celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional foods, games and gifts. History of Hanukkah This was during the reign of Alexander the Great. He had conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, but he allowed lands under his rule to continue observing their own religions. About 100 years later, a successor to Alexander was Antiochus II. He continued to allow the Jews who lived there to practice their faith. His son, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, didn't see it the same way. According to history, when he took control, he outlawed the Jewish religion and ordered the Jews to worship Greek gods. In 168 (or 164) BC, his soldiers attacked Jewish people in Jerusalem, killing thousands and desecrating the city's holy Second Temple. He erected an altar to Zeus and sacrificed pigs as further insult to the Jewish people. Around that time, Jewish priest Mattathias and his five sons led a full-scale rebellion against Antiochus and the monarchy. Mattathias died in 166 (or 167) BC, two years late, and his son Judah, also known as Judah Maccabee, took the lead. In the next two years, the Jews were able to drive the Syrians out of Jerusalem, using what we would describe as guerilla warfare strategies. Judah then called on the Jewish people to cleanse the Second Temple, rebuild the altar and light its menorah. The Hanukkah Miracle According to the Talmud, Judah Maccabee and the other Jews who participated in the rededication of the Second Temple saw what they thought to be a miracle. The temple had a menorah, but only one cruse of olive oil was left pure. The others had been contaminated by the oppressors. Once they lit the menorah's only cruse they were amazed. There was only enough oil to keep the menorah's candles burning for a single day, yet the flames continued flickering for eight nights. This provided time for them to create a fresh supply of oil. The event served as the inspiration for Jewish sages to proclaim a yearly eight-day festival. Links Congregation Beth Shalom The Modern Rabbi Hanukkah, History.com Hanukkah, MyJewishLearning.com History of Hanukkah, National Geographic Elite Milk Chocolate Gold Coins, Amazon About this Episode's Guest Rabbi Seth Adelson Hailing from Williamstown, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire mountains, Rabbi Seth Adelson's rabbinic work has focused on making connections, on helping people find meaning in Jewish text and tradition, and on demonstrating the value and power of living Jewishly. Rabbi Adelson has been in Pittsburgh since 2015, and has led the charge in re-fashioning Congregation Beth Shalom as an open, inclusive community that focuses on connecting Jews with their tradition and helping them to find the kedushah/holiness in their lives. He spent the previous eight years in Great Neck, New York, serving as Assistant Rabbi and then as Associate Rabbi of Temple Israel of Great Neck. During his tenure on Long Island, he crafted a range of new initiatives that engaged more people, strengthened the community through teaching, pastoring, counseling, and re-framed Temple Israel as a welcoming place. Prior to that, Rabbi Adelson served for four years as Cantor at the ...

Rabbi Seth Adelson joins Tim to talk about the story of Hanukkah, its history, its traditions and its meaning. Rabbi Adelson serves the Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh. https://traffic.libsyn.com/shapingopinion/Hanukkah_Episode.mp3 It’s often called the Festival of Lights, and it usually happens in November or December each year. It’s the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, and it takes place over eight days. Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the second century B.C. The story centers on the Maccabean Revolt, where the Jewish people had risen up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors. Hanukkah means “dedication” and it begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. It is often called the Festival of Lights, and it’s celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional foods, games and gifts. History of Hanukkah This was during the reign of Alexander the Great. He had conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, but he allowed lands under his rule to continue observing their own religions. About 100 years later, a successor to Alexander was Antiochus II. He continued to allow the Jews who lived there to practice their faith. His son, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, didn’t see it the same way. According to history, when he took control, he outlawed the Jewish religion and ordered the Jews to worship Greek gods. In 168 (or 164) BC, his soldiers attacked Jewish people in Jerusalem, killing thousands and desecrating the city’s holy Second Temple. He erected an altar to Zeus and sacrificed pigs as further insult to the Jewish people. Around that time, Jewish priest Mattathias and his five sons led a full-scale rebellion against Antiochus and the monarchy. Mattathias died in 166 (or 167) BC, two years late, and his son Judah, also known as Judah Maccabee, took the lead. In the next two years, the Jews were able to drive the Syrians out of Jerusalem, using what we would describe as guerilla warfare strategies. Judah then called on the Jewish people to cleanse the Second Temple, rebuild the altar and light its menorah. The Hanukkah Miracle According to the Talmud, Judah Maccabee and the other Jews who participated in the rededication of the Second Temple saw what they thought to be a miracle. The temple had a menorah, but only one cruse of olive oil was left pure. The others had been contaminated by the oppressors. Once they lit the menorah’s only cruse they were amazed. There was only enough oil to keep the menorah’s candles burning for a single day, yet the flames continued flickering for eight nights. This provided time for them to create a fresh supply of oil. The event served as the inspiration for Jewish sages to proclaim a yearly eight-day festival. Links Congregation Beth Shalom The Modern Rabbi Hanukkah, History.com Hanukkah, MyJewishLearning.com History of Hanukkah, National Geographic Elite Milk Chocolate Gold Coins, Amazon About this Episode's Guest Rabbi Seth Adelson Hailing from Williamstown, Massachusetts, in the Berkshire mountains, Rabbi Seth Adelson’s rabbinic work has focused on making connections, on helping people find meaning in Jewish text and tradition, and on demonstrating the value and power of living Jewishly. Rabbi Adelson has been in Pittsburgh since 2015, and has led the charge in re-fashioning Congregation Beth Shalom as an open, inclusive community that focuses on connecting Jews with their tradition and helping them to find the kedushah/holiness in their lives. He spent the previous eight years in Great Neck, New York, serving as Assistant Rabbi and then as Associate Rabbi of Temple Israel of Great Neck. During his tenure on Long Island, he crafted a range of new initiatives that engaged more people, strengthened the community through teaching, pastoring, counseling, and re-framed Temple Israel as a welcoming place. Prior to that, Rabbi Adelson served for four years as Cantor at the ...

Welcome to Blackbird9's Breakfast Club's Wednesday Podcast , Cowardly New World Of Gods And Monsters. Tonight we will look at the history of the jewish rise to Global Power. https://www.blackbird9tradingposts.org/2019/05/29/cowardly-new-world-of-gods-and-monsters-blackbird9/In the First Hour we cover the chaotic events brought on by the teachings of the Frankfurt School Marxists. Their mission has always been to establish a Greater Israel ruled by globalism under the direction of Talmudic Noahide Law and at the same time force all other nations to surrender their independent sovereignty.In the second hour, Cowardly New World Of Gods And Monsters, the host examined the jewish rise to Global Power. From the MASTER/slave systems of the earliest City State models of our T3-Copper Era (10,000-4000 B.C.), to establishment of the Torah/Pentateuch Systems of the early Hebrews, to the guerilla warfare tactics of Judah Maccabee in 166 B.C., to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D., to the rise of the Rothschild Banking Dynasty beginning in 1760, to the long series of jewish instigated Brother Wars that followed, to the use of both Hollywood Horror films and Disney Animation as War Propaganda against Germany, to the bloody founding of Israel as the jewish state in 1948, the host looks at the End Game PAXJUDAICA and New World Order objectives of these cowards that manipulate from the shadows and rule from their fortified holes and gated communities.

Welcome to Blackbird9's Breakfast Club's Wednesday Podcast , Cowardly New World Of Gods And Monsters. Tonight we will look at the history of the jewish rise to Global Power. https://www.blackbird9tradingposts.org/2019/05/29/cowardly-new-world-of-gods-and-monsters-blackbird9/In the First Hour we cover the chaotic events brought on by the teachings of the Frankfurt School Marxists. Their mission has always been to establish a Greater Israel ruled by globalism under the direction of Talmudic Noahide Law and at the same time force all other nations to surrender their independent sovereignty.In the second hour, Cowardly New World Of Gods And Monsters, the host examined the jewish rise to Global Power. From the MASTER/slave systems of the earliest City State models of our T3-Copper Era (10,000-4000 B.C.), to establishment of the Torah/Pentateuch Systems of the early Hebrews, to the guerilla warfare tactics of Judah Maccabee in 166 B.C., to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D., to the rise of the Rothschild Banking Dynasty beginning in 1760, to the long series of jewish instigated Brother Wars that followed, to the use of both Hollywood Horror films and Disney Animation as War Propaganda against Germany, to the bloody founding of Israel as the jewish state in 1948, the host looks at the End Game PAXJUDAICA and New World Order objectives of these cowards that manipulate from the shadows and rule from their fortified holes and gated communities.

So long Hanukkah and Hello Advent, Theophiloi! It's your humble Sons of Thunder on 2018's best podcast for news about Ahikar and St. Thecla's conflict with man-eating seals, and before we close out the Festival of Lights, we're going all in with 2 Maccabees. Things get buck wild as we hear about Judah Maccabee's exploits once again, now with roughly 1,000% more ghost warriors and magic swords. Seriously, this is the most action-packed part of Bible we have ever experienced, and you'll recall that we saw Judas exploding back in episode 1, so the bar has been set pretty high. We do, however, need to put a strong Content Warning on this one for some graphic descriptions of torture and martyrdom. Topics of discussion: The Murder That I Like The Most vs. The Apocryphamici, the Catalonian Poop Log, our local Holiday Parades, the Bangles, Jason of Cyrene, the Drizzt Do'Urden of Jewish history, "The Greek Hat," illegal tactics in the wrestling arena, dubious omens, wishing a happy monthday to Antiochus III, Ex Nihilo creation, our complicated relationship with military heroes, BFFLW, the wildest death scene in the entire Bible. Hymnal: "Not By Might, Not By Power" by Debbie Friedman Offertory: If you enjoy the show, head to ko-fi.com/apocrypals and send us a love offering! We absolutely appreciate it!

Chag sameach, Theophiloi! It's Hanukkah times, so we're diving into One Maccabees to learn the story of the Festival of Lights, and also get 16 full chapters of Jews just beating the ever-loving sugar out of everyone in the Levant. Light that Hanukkiah, sharpen that sword, and get ready for the most action-packed piece of Bible, ever. Plus, our suggestions for adding Judith and Matzoh-rella sticks to your holiday celebrations! Topics of discussion: Holiday scheduling, The Christmas Chronicles and the canonicity of St. Nicholas, Church cusses, Mattathias's large adult sons, Judah Maccabee the Hammers of History, Alexander the Great, dream casting the 1999 Maccabees movie, Antiochus IV Epiphanes getting dunked on so hard that he dies, War Elephants, Eleazar the Piercer, King Baby, the Hammer and the Diplomat. Hymnal: "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer Offertory: If you enjoy the show, head to ko-fi.com/apocrypals and send us a love offering! We absolutely appreciate it!  

Hanukkah is the most badass Jewish holiday this side of Purim. During Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, Jews recount the tale of Judah Maccabee, the warrior priest who led a successful rebellion against King Antiochus of the Syrian-Greek empire. Waves of troops attempted to put down Judah and his army, but their fighting spirit and faith in the Jewish people were so strong that the Maccabees liberated Jerusalem and the Temple from the forces of Antiochus in 164 BCE, ushering in a period of Jewish independence in Judea. This special episode features eight stories, as told by Miriam and Dan. Each story features one of our favorite Jewish warriors, from ancient to modern times, from the Middle East to the Caribbean. Get ready for some inspiration, perspiration and ass-kicking celebration! Edited by Jesse Ulrich, with music by Ryan J. Sullivan.

Welcome to Blackbird9's Breakfast Club's Wednesday Podcast, Violent Lions Struggle To Rule The World. Tonight we will look at the history of H.G. Well's novel The War Of The Worlds.https://www.blackbird9tradingposts.org/2018/08/22/violent-lions-struggle-to-rule-the-world-blackbird9/In the First Hour we cover the chaotic events brought on by the teachings of the Frankfurt School Marxists. Their mission has always been to establish a Greater Israel ruled by globalism under the direction of Talmudic Noahide Law and at the same time force all other nations to surrender their independent sovereignty. In our Second Hour, Violent Lions Struggle To Rule The World, the host will look at the history of H.G. Well's novel The War of The Worlds. From the early Absolute Authority of the Evil Queen archetype of our T3-Copper Era (10,000-4000 B.C.), to the early forms of The King's Word is Law of our T2-Iron Era (4000 B.C. - 2000 A.D.), to the origins of the first armies of WAR (1500 B.C.), to the story of Moses The Law Giver of a Chosen Elite in Hebrew Mythology (1400 B.C.), to the By Any Means Necessary military tactics of Judah Maccabee (166 B.C.), to the establishment of The House Of Rothschild or Red Shield (1760 A.D.), to the publication of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (1848), to the introduction of the word Intransigent into the English lexicon (1875-1880), to the publication of The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl (1896),to the first World Zionist Congress (1897), to the publication of H.G. Well's novel The War Of The Worlds (1898) which describes a global invasion from the Red Planet of Mars by a technologically superior alien species determined to subjugate all of mankind into a New World Order the host will examine the symbolism of this novel compared to the rise of World Communism in the 20th Century and its clash with Western White Civilization being like two Great Lions battling for dominance to decide who will control the jungle.

Welcome to Blackbird9's Breakfast Club's Wednesday Podcast, Violent Lions Struggle To Rule The World. Tonight we will look at the history of H.G. Well's novel The War Of The Worlds.https://www.blackbird9tradingposts.org/2018/08/22/violent-lions-struggle-to-rule-the-world-blackbird9/In the First Hour we cover the chaotic events brought on by the teachings of the Frankfurt School Marxists. Their mission has always been to establish a Greater Israel ruled by globalism under the direction of Talmudic Noahide Law and at the same time force all other nations to surrender their independent sovereignty. In our Second Hour, Violent Lions Struggle To Rule The World, the host will look at the history of H.G. Well's novel The War of The Worlds. From the early Absolute Authority of the Evil Queen archetype of our T3-Copper Era (10,000-4000 B.C.), to the early forms of The King's Word is Law of our T2-Iron Era (4000 B.C. - 2000 A.D.), to the origins of the first armies of WAR (1500 B.C.), to the story of Moses The Law Giver of a Chosen Elite in Hebrew Mythology (1400 B.C.), to the By Any Means Necessary military tactics of Judah Maccabee (166 B.C.), to the establishment of The House Of Rothschild or Red Shield (1760 A.D.), to the publication of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (1848), to the introduction of the word Intransigent into the English lexicon (1875-1880), to the publication of The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl (1896),to the first World Zionist Congress (1897), to the publication of H.G. Well's novel The War Of The Worlds (1898) which describes a global invasion from the Red Planet of Mars by a technologically superior alien species determined to subjugate all of mankind into a New World Order the host will examine the symbolism of this novel compared to the rise of World Communism in the 20th Century and its clash with Western White Civilization being like two Great Lions battling for dominance to decide who will control the jungle.

In the First Hour we cover the chaotic events brought on by the teachings of the Frankfurt School Marxists. Their mission has always been to establish a Greater Israel ruled by globalism under the direction of Talmudic Noahide Law and at the same time force all other nations to surrender their independent sovereignty. https://www.blackbird9tradingposts.org/2018/08/08/tikkun-olam-spawns-33-broken-classrooms-blackbird9/In our Second Hour, Tikkun Olam Spawns 33 Broken Classrooms, the host will look at the history of The Frankfurt School of Cultural Marxism. From the obsession with perfection of the Evil Queen archetype of our T3-Copper Era (10,000-4000 B.C.) symbolized by the Hexagram and the 7 Spheres, to the ancient symbolism of the Honey Bee Hive, to the story of The Tower of Babel in Hebrew mythology, to the war waged by Judah Maccabee and his zealots against Greek and jew alike in 166 B.C., to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., to the return of The Knights Templars from Jerusalem in 1026 A.D., to the rise of the jewish Messianic Tikkun Olam - Repair The World movement, to the first World Zionist Congress in 1897, to the establishment of the Frankfurt School of Social Research by Carl Grunberg in 1923 the host will examine the individuals, their work and their students of this (((Cultural Marxist))) Think Tank known as The Frankfurt School.

In the First Hour we cover the chaotic events brought on by the teachings of the Frankfurt School Marxists. Their mission has always been to establish a Greater Israel ruled by globalism under the direction of Talmudic Noahide Law and at the same time force all other nations to surrender their independent sovereignty. https://www.blackbird9tradingposts.org/2018/08/08/tikkun-olam-spawns-33-broken-classrooms-blackbird9/In our Second Hour, Tikkun Olam Spawns 33 Broken Classrooms, the host will look at the history of The Frankfurt School of Cultural Marxism. From the obsession with perfection of the Evil Queen archetype of our T3-Copper Era (10,000-4000 B.C.) symbolized by the Hexagram and the 7 Spheres, to the ancient symbolism of the Honey Bee Hive, to the story of The Tower of Babel in Hebrew mythology, to the war waged by Judah Maccabee and his zealots against Greek and jew alike in 166 B.C., to the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., to the return of The Knights Templars from Jerusalem in 1026 A.D., to the rise of the jewish Messianic Tikkun Olam - Repair The World movement, to the first World Zionist Congress in 1897, to the establishment of the Frankfurt School of Social Research by Carl Grunberg in 1923 the host will examine the individuals, their work and their students of this (((Cultural Marxist))) Think Tank known as The Frankfurt School.

Santa has his list of kids (creepy), Judah Maccabee had his list of Seleucid's to slaughter (slay all day, Judah), and the Dull Crayons have their holiday list: inductees to the Toy Hall of Fame. In this bonus holiday spectacular we also rhyme words, discuss sport halls of fame, and we unveil our new catchphrase: "Make Me a Pizza!"

Today’s podcast is a sample from a new Podcast that I’m doing with Jared Zimmerer on topics for men. In this episode we talk about the biblical Judah Maccabee and how his struggles and victories mirror those of men today. I hope you enjoy it. Godspeed, Taylor Marshall. #102: Taylor’s New Podcast for Christian Men: Maccabee Society [Podcast] If the audio player does not show up in your email or browser, please click here to listen. Announcements: The sequel to my novel about Saint George: Sword and Serpent will be released in 2016. Download the Sword and Serpent Study Guide at: http://swordandserpent.com Catholic Life Prep 2016: A new class for high school and college students equipping them to stay Catholic in College. 2015 Enrollment for New Saint Thomas Institute is now closed. If you'd like to join our waiting list for online Catholic classes, you can learn more by clicking here: Newsaintthomas.com I’d love to read your feedback: While you listen to today’s podcast, would you please take 30 seconds to write a review? Please click here to Rate this Podcast! Please Share Your Feedback: POPULARITY: 739,498 downloads on iTunes as of today. SHOUT OUTS: A huge “shout out” to all 441 (!) of you who wrote amazing 5-star reviews at iTunes. Please rate this podcast by clicking here. From there you can leave a review. I appreciate you for this! Thank you! Are you enjoying this podcast? Please share it on Facebook by clicking here. Subscribe to This Weekly Podcast: Apple/Mac Users: Please subscribe via iTunes by clicking here and then clicking on “View in iTunes.” Android Users: For listening to The Taylor Marshall Show on Android devices (free) using the Stitcher app. Android Users can also listen to the show with: Android Beyond Pod app from the Google Play Store. Android Pocketcasts app. SURVEY: Please view our Podcast Listener Poll by clicking here. You can leave a comment by

Adam Levin’s debut novel, The Instructions, published by McSweeney’s in 2010, arrived with a lot of buzz. An inventive, experimental book of over 1000 pages, its protagonist was Gurion ben-Judah Maccabee, a 10-year-old genius from Chicago, who may or may not be the Jewish Messiah. Levin’s short stories have appeared in Tin House, McSweeney’s, and Esquire. He […] The post Adam Levin : Hot Pink appeared first on Tin House.

Movie Meltdown - Episode 140 We’re back! With the ridiculous news we’ve all come to know and loathe. Plus the return of The Grind where we answer the question “What cliches in movies drive you crazy?” And as we coolly stride away from the explosion, we mention…Mel Gibson, Joe Eszterhas, it’s so Nabokovian, the fourth wall, George Foreman Grills, being a famous spy, hacking in movies, robots are the new zombies, kung fu vampires, Tom Sawyer, Judah Maccabee, charred by a fireball, alternate reality, hitting a fire hydrant, Bil Dwyer, jive-talking Jar Jar, falling off a building, Sucker Punch, The Dilemma, Mohicans with shotguns, poetry groupies, the least practical weapon, robot Zombie Aliens, what’s his name…John Updike, Shutter Island, the L-shaped sheet, Powder, the simultaneous orgasm, we’re almost in!, Diablo Cody, Aaron Sorkin, Kevin Williamson, Quentin Tarantino, Beetlejuice, the singing knife, evil twins, The Passion Of The Christ, Real Steel, switching bodies, Mean Girls, the relationship montage, Memento, cave chicks with shaved legs, walking away from an explosion, Chris Tucker’s 13 year run, Jamie Leigh Curtis IS The Cryptkeeper, Apocalypto, Michael Keaton, Huck Finn, Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots, Friday the 13th - The Series and getting mistaken for a God. “It’s our own fault if we keep buying the tickets. We keep fueling this bullshit…”