Do You Know What Christ Is?

 

The words “Jesus Christ Son of God” are known globally. Therefore, of all the words in the New Testament, “Christ” one word people around the world immediately recognize. If there is any word Christians (Christ + ians) should have an accurate understanding of, shouldn’t it be the word Christ?

 

I have heard the words “Jesus Christ” all of my life. I guess I subconsciously thought “Christ” was the last name of Jesus. Jim Myers is my name, so wasn’t he Jesus Christ. Interestingly, I never thought of his mother as “Mary Christ.”  

 

The word “Christ” is an English word. The English language did not exist at the time Jesus lived and led his movement. Therefore, Jesus did not speak English. In my previous emails, I discussed how we know that Jesus spoke Hebrew. But the most ancient manuscripts of the books of the New Testament which contain his words were written in Greek. In order to understand how the Hebrew words of Jesus became Greek words and ended up in our English Bibles, we must discover the origins of the Greek manuscripts and become aware of how translators made their English translations.

 

1. Most of the time they translated Greek words. Translate means "transport the meaning of the Greek word over into the English language." 

 

2. Some of the time they transliterated Greek words. Transliterate means “reproduce the letters of a Greek word in the closest corresponding letters of the English language.” 

 

3. Some of the time they ignored Greek words and did nothing.

 

4. Some of the time they inserted English words in their transitions for which there were no Greek words in the manuscript.

 

Look at the Greek word in the graphic above and you will see the word the translators saw when they worked on their translations. Now look at “root word” part of the transliteration. It is “Christ.”

 

You now know that the word “Christ” is a transliteration – translators chose to reproduce the letters of the Greek word in the closest corresponding letters of the English language. The translators chose not to translate it -- “instead they transported the meaning of the Greek word over into the English language.”

 

Unless there are footnotes, readers do not know they are reading a transliteration. So, what does the Greek word behind that transliteration mean? That will be the subject of my next email.  

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

● Donate and to Help Fund These Emails -- Click Here.

 

● Subscribe and Receive these Email (FREE) -- Click Here.

 

● “Like” and Share our Facebook Page -- Click Here.

 

● Visit the BHC Bookstore & Shop

America Without the Declaration of Independence and Constitution?

 

It always amazes me at how many wisdom lessons are embedded in the Hebrew text of the Jewish Scriptures. When the teachings of Jesus are reconstructed and viewed through the Hebrew language he spoke, we discover stories related to situations we face in our lives. For many Christians today that sounds strange because the main purpose of the Bible is to prove their religious beliefs are right. Why is that important? Only people with the right beliefs will go to Heaven. What could be more important than that? So, most Christians would probably answer -- “Nothing is more important!”

 

But there is another question I believe everyone with a Christian Biblical Heritage should ask – “What is most important to God?” I was taught that “believing in Jesus” was most important. However, after thirty-five years of using science based linguistic models to understand what Jesus did and said, I know that what I had been taught was wrong. Instead of “believing IN him,” he wanted people “to believe him and do what he taught.”  

 

You do not have to learn to speak Hebrew or spend decades using science based linguistic models to understand what he taught. The most important thing you can do is become familiar with the sacred stories behind his actions and words. They are our Bibles. You will need some help to understand what they meant to Jesus and his Jewish followers, but you have “Google” and BHC to help you.   

 

The Loss of Two of Important Sacred Stories

 

The Romans executed Jesus (around 30 CE), destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem (70 CE), and the original Jewish apostles were executed or had died by 100 CE. Gentile converts became the majority in churches, and they filled the positions of bishops and leadership. The number of Jewish members decreased dramatically and the Jesus Movement became a Gentile religion. Gentile converts knew nothing about the Hebrew language, the Jewish culture and history, or the sacred stories Jesus and his Jewish followers had heard their entire lives at their synagogues. Understanding everything Jesus taught depended on being able to recognize the links between the sacred stories and his words.

 

Greek speakers were common in the cultures that made up the Roman Empire. Gentile converts were introduced to the Scriptures of the church be reading the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures called the “Septuagint.” They learned about Jesus and his teachings through Greek texts. Converts became Christians, but their meanings of Greek words came for before they became Christians. They didn’t understand anything about the Hebrew words behind the stories of the Septuagint or the teachings of Jesus. What else could they do? We do the same thing; except we use English words with American meanings. What else could any human do? And, unlike us, they didn’t have Google!

 

One very important sacred story of the Jewish people for the past 2,500 years has been “The Story of the Exodus.” It is retold every year during the Passover Ritual which begins on the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan. When the Second Temple stood, Jews from distant places traveled to Jerusalem to offer their Passover sacrifices. By the mid–2nd century CE, links to 14th of Nisan and the Passover began to be severed. Churches in and around Rome celebrated “Easter” on the Sunday following first Full Moon following the vernal equinox. They called it "the day of the resurrection of our Savior." This created a big controversy, and finally the 14^th of Nisan date was condemned by bishops.[i]

 

Another important sacred story was “The Story of the Shabbat.” This story is found in “The Creation Story” (Genesis 1:1-2:5a). It was a story that was part of weekly rituals in their homes and synagogues. Jesus, the apostles, and their Jewish followers all kept the Shabbat (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday) – as did Gentile converts. They all attended synagogues on Shabbat. On March 7, 321 – almost 300 years after Jesus -- Roman Emperor Constantine the Great issued a civil decree making Sunday a day of rest from labor, stating: “All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable day of the sun.” Shabbat became the Sunday Sabbath and the Story of the Shabbat was lost.[ii]

 

With the loss of Passover and Shabbat, Gentile Christians no longer heard and practiced two of the most powerful stories that were the center of the lives of Jesus and his followers. They lost the link generations who came before them that had done the same things. Those stories were embedded with layers of wisdom that included instructions about God’s relationships with humans, instructions about human relationships with God, and instructions about human relationships with each other as individuals and as members of the Creator’s community (kingdom).

 

So, how important was the loss of just two sacred stories to Christianity? How important would the loss of The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States to Americans? That’s probably how important the loss of the sacred stories behind the words of Jesus was Christianity. Without knowledge of those stories, accurately understanding the teachings and movement of the Jesus who lived in first century is impossible. One of most important questions people with Christian Biblical Heritages should consider is this question – How important are the words of Jesus to me? I will introduce you some of those sacred stories in my next emails.

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

● Donate and to Help Fund These Emails -- Click Here.

 

● Subscribe and Receive these Email (FREE) -- Click Here.

 

● “Like” and Share our Facebook Page -- Click Here.

 

● Visit the BHC Bookstore & Shop

---

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartodecimanism

[ii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_in_Christianity

There is a Limit to Evil Actions

 The first five stories in Genesis identify God in different ways. They also record interactions between God and people, and between people and people. These stories make it clear that there is a limit to how far people can stray from the path God created for them to follow. Below is a quick review of the stories.

 

In the first story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a), God is “ruach elohim.” He empowered humans fulfill this vision. Humans will reveal His image on earth by doing things that measure up to His TOV Standard (things that protect lives, preserve lives, make lives more functional, and/or increase the quality of life).

 

In the second story (Genesis 2:4b-3:24), God is “yhvh elohim.” He gave humans a commandment to protect their lives by not eating fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of TOV and RAH. They disobeyed, were driven out of the Garden in Eden, lost access to the Tree of Life, and became mortal.

 

In the third story (Genesis 4:1-27), God is “yhvh.” Adam and Eve created the next two humans on earth -- Cain and Abel. Cain murdered Abel and Cain was driven from his homeland. The hero in Cain’s line of descendants was Lamech -- the first man to commit a “recreational murder.” Lamech wanted to exceed Cain’s legend as a murderer!

 

In the fourth story (Genesis 5:3-32) God is “elohim.” Adam and Eve have a third son, Seth. The hero in Seth’s line of descendants was Enoch – the man who walked with “elohim” for three hundred years. The story ends with Noah becoming the father of three sons.

 

In the fifth story (Genesis 6:1-7:24) God is “yhvh” and “elohim.” In this story we discover there is a limit on how far humans can stray from the path God intended for them to follow. Ten generations after Cain murdered Abel, Genesis 6:5 reveals what life on earth was like.

 

1. The evil of humans was great on the earth. Many people were doing things that destroyed lives, harmed lives, made lives less functional, and decreased other people’s quality of life.

 

2. The thoughts and imaginations of people’s hearts were all evil people were hearing stories about evil, singing about evil, and talking about evil. People were hearing stories about TOV, singing about TOV, talking about TOV, mentoring their children about TOV or teaching their children about TOV.

 

In Genesis 6:11-12 we learn that “the earth was filled with violence,” followed by three appearances of the Hebrew SHACHAT to describe the conditions on earth. SHACHAT also appears in Exodus 8:20 (24), in which it creates a powerful image:

 

Great clouds of flies came into the house of Pharaoh,

into his servants' houses,

and all the land of Egypt was spoiled because of the flies.

 

Humans in Genesis 6 are presented as “being like great clouds of flies swarming to do violent and evil things to each other.” The earth had become like a place filled with “spoiled meat.”

 

In Genesis 6:6-8 we learn that “God regretted making humans, He was grieved to the heart and He had made the decision to wipe humans, animals and birds from the face of the earth.” However, one man had found favor in His eyes and God would show Noah how to build an ark that could save remnant of all animals and birds, as well as Noah and his family.

 

What happened that changed an entire human population? Based on what we learned from the five stories, we can determine what happened.

 

● Parents did not mentor the lifestyle God intended for them to live or teach their children the story of the creation of the Heavens and Earth or the stories about Adam and Eve, and their descendants.

 

● People stopped hearing about the Creator’s blessing and that they are created in the image of the Creator. They were not told they are the Creator’s Co-Shepherds or taught how do it. They were not taught that the Shabbat was the designated time for community members to gather and retell their sacred narratives.

 

● Slowly new stories that glorified evil people and evil things replaced their sacred narratives. Their acts of violence, evil, and oppression finally crossed a line. God decided to step in cleanse the earth of all evil.

 

● But one man did not follow the crowd. Noah walked with God and God showed him what to do to save remnants of all earth creatures, including humans.

 

Discussions about the Jewish Jesus must include

the Jewish paradox about God and the story of the Noah.

 

May Your Shalom Increase,

Jim Myers

 

● Subscribe to List & Receive these Email (FREE) by Clicking Here.

 

● “Like” our Facebook Page by Clicking Here.

 

● Donate and to Help Fund Our Work by Clicking Here.

 

● Visit the BHC Bookstore & Shop

Did You Know There Are Two Golden Rules?

 

Learning about the culture of the Jewish Jesus, the Jesus of history, is the key to understanding his teachings. One of the first things we must understand is this -- “Other people have conversations. Jews have arguments.” Judaism is unusual in that virtually all its canonical texts are woven through with arguments.

 

● In the Bible, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, and Job all argue extensively with God.

 

● In Midrash, rabbis argue with one another on the basis of the principle that there are seventy “faces,” or interpretations, of every text.

 

● In the Mishnah the rabbis argue about Jewish law.

 

● In the Gemara they argue about the arguments of the Mishnah.

 

● Every later text comes with its own commentaries and counter-commentaries.

 

In the twelfth century, Moses Maimonides did the most daring thing of all: he wrote a code of law with, all the arguments removed. This generated more arguments than any other text for the next eight hundred years until today.

 

Arguments For The Sake of Heaven

 

The rabbis came up with a major distinction, between “an argument for the sake of heaven” and other arguments.[i] The classic example was the relationship between the rabbinic schools of Hillel and Shammai. They had been arguing over something for three years when a voice from heaven announced:

 

“The words of Hillel and Shammai are the words of the living God,

but the law will be in accordance with the school of Hillel.”

 

Why did the voice from heaven rule in favor of Hillel? “Because Hillel’s words were kindly and modest. He studied his own rulings and those of Shammai too. Hillel was so humble as to mention the teachings of Shammai before his own.” The concept of “argument for the sake of heaven” allowed the sages to reframe disagreement – making it a unifying force, instead of being divisive. This is implicit in a radical new idea:

 

Two opposing opinions can both represent the words of the living God.

Both sides are doing their best to do God’s will.

 

When Jesus started teaching, he became part of arguments that had been going on for a long time in Jewish circles. One of those arguments was about how to keep the commandment in Leviticus 19:18:

 

“You shall love your neighbor, as yourself.”

 

The focus of the argument was about the meaning of the phrase, “as yourself.” Hillel’s position is found in one of his most famous stories.

 

“A certain gentile once came to Hillel and said, “I’m ready to become a Jew, but only if you can teach me the whole Torah while I stand here on one foot.” Hillel answered him, “What is hateful to you, don’t do to your fellowman; that is the whole Torah, and the rest… is just a commentary. Go then and learn it!” (Shabbat 31a).

 

Hillel’s interpretation of “as yourself” is the earliest, “Golden Rule” -- “What is hateful to you, don’t do to your fellowman.” [ii]

 

“You shall love your neighbor,

what you hate, do not do to him.”

 

Jesus added his interpretation to the argument – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Keep in mind that implicit in both sides of the argument is that both represent “the words of the living God.” Instead of “either / or” their positions can be “both / and”.

 

“You shall love your neighbor.

What you hate, do not do to him.

Do unto him as you would have him do unto you.”

 

Hillel, Jesus and other rabbis taught that love of man is a central pillar of the Torah’s teaching, but behind it there is something even more basic. “Love of neighbor” is itself derived from an even greater principle:

 

Humans are made in the image of God because God loves humans.

For humans to love God they must do it by loving what God loves.

When we love other people, we are loving God.

This is the only way to love God!

 

For Jesus, and the other members of the Jewish culture, love is much more than just “feelings and emotions” – love is concrete actions. Those action measure up to the Creator’s TOV Standard – they protect and preserve lives, make lives more functional, and increase the quality of life.

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

PS - Click Here to donate and help us do this work. Also, please “Like” our Facebook Page (Click Here).

---

[i] Morality: Restoring The Common Good In Divided Times By Jonathan Sacks © 2020; Basic Books, New York, NY; pp. 186-188.

[ii] The Life and Teachings of Hillel by Yitzhak Buxbaum © 1994. Jason Aronson Inc. Northvale, NJ; p. 95

What You Believe Is What You See!

 

What you believe is what you see! That is a scientific fact. We now know that the brain creates belief models from information received from its sensory organs, searches for information that confirms its beliefs, and generates individual realities from those beliefs.  In my last email I discussed two interpretations of the Garden of Eden story in Genesis. When we view it through the eyes of ancient sources, we see a wisdom text that taught this lesson.

 

Act together by following the instructions of your Creator,

be the “united image of the Creator” –

guard and protect each other’s lives --

instead of ignoring the Creator and acting like wild animals.

 

Earlier I discussed the salvation message of the Jewish Jesus. The nations that will enter eternal life did the following things.

 

They gave food to the hungry, drinks to the thirsty,

shelter to strangers, clothes to the naked;

they visited the sick and went to those in prison.

 

The message Jesus taught was based on the Creator’s blessing of the first two humans in Genesis 1.

 

The Creator blessed and empowered humans to represent Him

by acting together as His Co-Creators and Co-Shepherds

over all life on earth.

 

In the teachings of Jesus above, members of those nations did things that good shepherds would do for their flocks. In this case, instead of the Creator having a flock, He has a Kingdom of Co-Shepherds that focus on caring about and caring for each other’s lives.

 

Take a moment and let your brain absorb the last sentence.

 

It describes the message and movement of the Jewish Jesus, the Jesus of history who lived in Nazareth and taught in Galilee and Judea. Now let’s Augustine’s reinterpretation of the Garden of Eden story. This is what he taught.

 

● The serpent in the Garden of Eden was Satan.

 

● Satan is engaged in cosmic war with God for the souls of Mankind.

 

● Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and created a universal sin (Original Sin).

 

● Original sin is inescapable because it is passed down to their descendants.

 

● People are “sinners at birth” and condemned to Hell.

 

● Members in good standing of the universal church (Roman Catholic Church) will be saved.

 

Two different interpretations of one story in the Bible create two different realities in people’s minds today.

 

1.    People are the Creator’s Co-Creators and Co-Shepherds guarding and protecting each other’s lives.

 

2. Satan and God are involved in a cosmic war for the souls of mankind.

 

These interpretations produce different realities, which people use to view things that are taking place in their lives. What we view as the causes of things happening in our lives affects our decisions for responding to them.

 

Christians have been using Augustine’s interpretation for about 1,500 years now (Protestants changed “the Catholic church” part). There is a long paper trail that documents how that belief model has affected lives.

 

What would happen if Christians decided to switch realities and do what Jesus taught?

 

Think about it. Entertain the thought that people could do it. Visualize what your life would be like if you were surrounded by people doing what Jesus taught – “even if they didn’t believe Christian doctrines about him!” Talk about it with friends.   

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 PS - Click Here to donate and help us do this work. Also, please “Like” our Facebook Page (Click Here).

Using Beliefscapes to Make the Invisible Visible

 

Beliefscapes are like pictures or paintings we call “landscapes.” Instead of seeing trees, mountains, rivers, animals, etc., we are able to see belief models. Beliefscapes reveal belief models that exist at the subconscious level of the brain, an invisible environment that we are usually unaware of at the conscious level.

 

The brain uses belief models to make distinctions between things and assign meanings to them. Without belief models, the conscious level could not function as it does. Image life in world where meanings do not exist.

 

Creating a beliefscape begins with these two steps.

 

1.    Define the immediate context for the words we are reading.

 

2.    Identify “things” in that context. A “thing” is an object that one need not, cannot, or does not wish to give a specific name to.

 

Let’s create a beliefscape for the first verse in Genesis. Below are translations from different versions of the Bible. The “things” in the verse are underlined.

 

● In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. (King James Version)

 

● In the beginning God created heaven, and earth. (Douay Rheims Bible)

 

● In the beginning of God`s preparing the heavens and the earth. (Young's Literal Translation)

 

Take a moment to consider what these “things” mean to you.

 

● God –

 

● heaven –

 

● heavens –

 

● earth --

 

Below is a literal translation of the Hebrew words the translators above worked with.

 

At the beginning of a god creating

the solid dome-like structure and the dry thing.

 

The meanings of the underlined things are below:

 

● a god – The god is not named. The Hebrew word elohiym refers to a type of entity (a god); it is not the name of a specific god.

 

● solid dome-like structure – This is the thing the god made and placed beneath the surface of a shoreless body of deep water. It created a barrier that divided the deep water into “two separate bodies of water.” The solid dome-like structure was named “heavens.”

 

● dry thing – The water inside the solid dome-like structure gathered in one place -- a place that had previously been covered by water became “a dry thing.” The dry thing was named “earth.”

 

How did your beliefscape compare to the ancient beliefscape? If there is a difference, you have not be able to understand the wisdom the ancient text was created to teach. But now that you are aware of the ancient beliefscap take another look at the translation you normally read -- and if you pay close attention to the English words -- you will be able the see the ancient beliefscape in them.

 

So, did the ancient beliefscape above make it possible for you to see something that was invisible before? Seeing the ancient belief models behind the English words in our Bibles make it possible for us to learn from ancient lessons that have been invisible.

 

Thank you for exploring with us. Please share and discuss it with others.

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers

 

☼ Donate and help us provide much more information! Click Here to Donate.

 

☼ Like the BHC Facebook page so more people will explore. Click Here.

☼ Visit the BHC website to see previous emails and other information. Click Here.

 

☼ Subscribe so you will not miss future emails. Click Here.

 

☼ Contact Us – reply@biblicalheritage.org or use contact form Click Here.

Learning About Life and Realities from a Dead Sea Scroll

 The scroll in the picture above is “1QIsa^a” – “1Q” means it came from “Cave 1 at Qumran” and “Isa^a” means it is a scroll of “the Book of Isaiah.”  Scribes copied the scroll between 356 and 100 BCE (based on radiocarbon and paleographic/scribal dating). It is now housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

 

Please take a minute and think about the fact that “you and the 1QIsa^a scroll both exist now!” Now consider the following information related to the scroll in the picture.

 

● It existed about 170 years before the Second Temple was destroyed.

 

● It was about 100 years old when Jesus was born.

 

● It was about 400 years old when Constantine the Great lived.

 

● It was over 1,500 years old when Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther and Nicolaus Copernicus lived.

 

● It was about 1,900 years old when the United States became a nation.

 

● It was 2,100 years old when the first smartphones were sold.

 

The first time I saw pictures of 1QIsa^a I was visiting an archaeologist. He also taught Hebrew at a large university. He showed me the picture in the graphic above and asked me, “What stands out to you?” I told him it was the letters of the words.

 

He then told me that one of the first things he did when working with ancient scrolls was look at the back. Then he pointed to the dark stains on left and right side of the scroll in the picture. Those stains were oil and dirt from the hands of people who held the scroll as they read the words on the other side. By identifying the darkest stains on the back, he was able to find the sections of the scroll that were read the most. The section in the picture above was one of the most read sections of 1QIsa^a.

 

Next, we compared the Dead Sea Scroll to the Isaiah scroll that is found in synagogues around the world today. They were almost identical. Then he reminded me of the story in Luke 4 about Jesus reading from the scroll of Isaiah (61) at the synagogue in Nazareth. He found the photograph of that section of 1QIsa^a, handed it to me, and said:

 

“You are seeing the exact words Jesus saw!”

 

I still get cold chills every time I think about that experience. But today I know some things that did not exist when I first saw those pictures. One of those things is how to Explore Biblical Heritages and Beliefscapes.

 

The two largest biblical heritages today are Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.

Neither existed when 1QIsa was made.

 

Beliescapes are generated by human brains from their most trusted belief models -- mental images linked to things we sensory perceive that give them meanings.  

 

The scribes that copied 1QIsa^a had beliefscapes that did not include “Jesus,”

while Christian readers can’t imagine Isaiah’s words “without Jesus.”

 

Those are two very different realities that were created by different beliefscapes – both of which are part of the timeline of 1QIsa^a. Changes in beliefscapes reveal changes in the lives and realities of people who read the words of Isaiah. You will be hearing more about creating beliefscapes in future emails.

 

Thank you for exploring with us. Please share and discuss it with others.

 

Shalom,

Jim Myers 

☼ Donate and help us provide much more information! Click Here to Donate. 

☼ Like the BHC Facebook page so more people will explore. Click Here.

☼ Visit the BHC website to see previous emails and other information. Click Here. 

☼ Subscribe so you will not miss future emails. Click Here. 

☼ Contact Us – reply@biblicalheritage.org or use contact form Click Here.