This book is a fascinating detailed scriptural analysis of the latter-day restoration of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. The return of the Remnant of Jacob, prior to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, will be the most spectacular event the world has ever seen, rivaling the Exodus of Egypt in both wonder and might. The book should be viewed as a comprehensive study guide and includes approximately 700 scripture references and source material. The book provides an in-depth analysis of the Book of Mormon and Bible prophets who taught at length on the subject. This book will forever change the way the reader looks at the scriptures and the events immediately preceding the Second Coming. It is a must read!
Did Jesus claim to be the "bridegroom"? If so, what did he mean by this claim? When Jesus says that the wedding guests should not fast "while the bridegroom is with them" (Mark 2:19), he is claiming to be a bridegroom by intentionally alluding to a rich tradition from the Hebrew Bible. By eating and drinking with "tax collectors and other sinners," Jesus was inviting people to join him in celebrating the eschatological banquet. While there is no single text in the Hebrew Bible or the literature of the Second Temple Period which states the "messiah is like a bridegroom," the elements for such a claim are present in several texts in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea. By claiming that his ministry was an ongoing wedding celebration he signaled the end of the Exile and the restoration of Israel to her position as the Lord's beloved wife. This book argues that Jesus combined the tradition of an eschatological banquet with a marriage metaphor in order to describe the end of the Exile as a wedding banquet.
The Vision of Ezra appears to be either a prequel to the Greek Apocalypse, or possibly another reworking of material that served as a basis for both works. In the Vision, Ezra is taken on a tour of the underworld by angels of Tartarus and then is taken to heaven where he begs for mercy for those in the underworld. The text appears to have been written by a Coptic Christian or Gnostic, as the underworld is largely inspired by the ancient Egyptian underworld. There are several unique underworld elements in the Vision that support a Coptic origin, including dogs attacking the dead, two great lions, and an immense worm, all at the western horizon. While dogs devouring corpses is not unique to Egypt, it was a significant concern in Egypt. Dogs were so closely associated with the dead that the embalming god Anubis was pictured with a jackal’s head. In the ancient Egyptian religion, two great lions protected the sun as it traveled through the underworld each night. Depictions of the sun on the horizon, guarded by the two lions are common, although different Egyptian cults believed that the lions were different specific lions deities. The oldest version was likely the Heliopolitan theology, which taught they were Shu and Tefnut, the first created by Atum, the creator. In the Heliopolitan theology, Shu and Tefnut, which means ‘dryness’ and ‘moisture,’ were the two primordial elements that the universe was made from, who in turn created Geb (Earth) and Nut (the sky). They were also viewed as being the first male and female, something akin to Adam and Eve. They were often depicted as either a set of humans, lions, or a hybrid of humans and lions. Later in Egyptian history, alternative lion deities were said to guard the sun in the underworld, including Sekhmet and Maahes, who were also depicted as human-lion hybrids. It is unlikely that a non-Egyptian Christian would have conceptualized the underworld with two lions guarding it. The immortal ‘worm’ whose size could not be reckoned is either a unique element in Christian texts, or a mistranslation from a language in which the same word is used for ‘worm’ and ‘serpent.’ The Latin vermis, which means ‘worm,’ is most-likely a mistranslation of the Coptic word fnt, which means both ‘worm’ and ‘snake.’ While the terms for snake and worm are the same in many languages, they were not in Greek or Latin, supporting the text originated in another language, such as Coptic. The giant serpent in the underworld was Ôảpp in ancient Egyptian beliefs, who lived in the far western region of the underworld, near the place the sun set each evening. During the early Iron Age, he became known as Ảpảp, a demonic serpent of the underworld in Egyptian beliefs. The Greeks interpreted him as Apophis, an underworld serpent god. In the early Christian era, he was interpreted as Aphoph by Coptic Christians, the worm/serpent from the Garden of Eden who was sent to live eternally in the underworld. It is unlikely someone other than an early Coptic Christian would have written a vision of the underworld that included this giant worm/serpent.
Galatians is one of the earliest of the Pauline letters and is therefore among the first documents written by Christians in the first century. Paul’s letter to the Galatians deals with the first real controversy in the early church: the status of Jews and gentiles in this present age and the application of the Law of Moses to gentiles. Paul argues passionately that gentiles are not “converting” to Judaism and therefore should not be expected to keep the Law. Gentiles who accept Jesus as Savior are “free in Christ,” not under the bondage of the Law. Galatians also deals with an important pastoral issue in the early church as well. If gentiles are not “under the Law,” are they free to behave any way they like? Does Paul’s gospel mean that gentiles can continue to live like pagans and still be right with God? For Paul, the believer’s status as an adopted child of God enables them to serve God freely as dearly loved children. Galatians: Freedom through God's Grace is commentary for laypeople, Bible teachers, and pastors who want to grasp how the original readers of Galatians would have understood Paul’s letter and how this important ancient letter speaks to Christians living in similar situations in the twenty-first century.
In The Origins of the Canon of the Hebrew Bible: An Analysis of Josephus and 4 Ezra, Juan Carlos Ossandón Widow examines the thorny question of when, how, and why the collection of twenty-four books that today is known as the Hebrew Bible was formed. He carefully studies the two earliest testimonies in this regard—Josephus’ Against Apion and 4 Ezra—and proposes that, along with the tendency to idealize the past, which leads to consider that divine revelation to Israel has ceased, an important reason to specify a collection of Scriptures at the end of the first century CE consisted in the need to defend the received tradition to counter those that accepted more books.
The introduction, translation and commentary on the Temple Scroll by Johann Maier has been thoroughly revised and updated by the author for its English edition, taking account of improvements in readings, and, among other recent secondary literature, the English translation of Yadin's edition, to which cross-references are given. Students of Second Temple Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls in particular, will at last have a convenient English edition of this most important document from Qumran.
Fresh translations of early Jewish texts 4 Ezra and 2 Baruch, written in the decades after the Judean War, which saw Jerusalem conquered, the temple destroyed, and Judaism changed forever. This handy volume makes these two important texts accessible to students, provides expert introductions, and illuminates the interrelationship of the texts through parallel columns.
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