by admin | May 8, 2018 | Browse All, Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran, Scrolls from the Judean Desert
What was “the deep” over which lay darkness? How deep was it and what was it doing there before Creation? Good questions with surprising answers. It turns out that “the deep” was originally named after a goddess! Her name was Tiamat, and she was the goddess...
by admin | May 8, 2018 | Browse All, Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran, Scrolls from the Judean Desert
Fifteen of the 150 psalms found in the Bible — Psalms 120-134 — are labeled “a song of ascents”. The English translation accurately reflects the Hebrew שיר המעלות, which means simply a song of ‘going up’. The question occupying many commentators has been, going up...
by admin | May 8, 2018 | Browse All, Masada, Scrolls from the Judean Desert
There are some references, usually disparaging, to Bar Kokhba in the Talmud. They concern the proclamation of Rabbi Akiva, who seems to have been the spiritual leader of the revolt and who is credited for changing the leader’s name from Bar Kosiba to Bar Kokhba (in...
by admin | May 8, 2018 | Browse All, Masada, Scrolls from the Judean Desert
Who Was Bar Kokhba? Judea rose in revolt against Rome in 66 CE. That revolt was crushed by the Romans within four years, ending when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in the late summer of the year 70 CE. A few isolated places, most famously Masada, still held out. In...
by admin | May 8, 2018 | Browse All, Dead Sea Scrolls, Masada, Scrolls from the Judean Desert
The discovery of a room on Masada they could confidently call a synagogue caused great excitement in the scholarly world. It had long been believed that the synagogue, an institution in which Jews prayed, was a later invention, created after and because of the...
by admin | May 8, 2018 | Browse All, Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran, Scrolls from the Judean Desert
The mezuzah, contains the following verses from the book of Deuteronomy which observant Jews write on a scroll and affix to the doorposts of their houses and rooms. The passages are: ^4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ^5 Love the Lord your God with...
