We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

My first brush with viewing the bible through the ANE worldview was about a decade ago through an evangelical author Edward Vasicek, "The Midrash Key". He also wrote "The Amazing Doctrines of Paul as Midrash". 

He has a typical dispi view of Israel and the Jews which I found off putting so I never finished the former and hadn't even picked up the latter. Well I've recently finished reading them both and figured I'd mention them here. Like so much material out there you must filter it through the revelation and understanding you've received. Not a MH or even a Bailey level treatment of the subject but I certainly have a clearer picture of how scripture was treated and applied back in our Lords day.  

I've also just stumbled across a book by two authors who are focused on the ancient Hebrew/Jewish cultural context of the NT. They appear to be eva's as well and have several books on the subject each besides this coauthored book. I haven't picked this up but it's on the list for potential reading later.

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler, Lois Tverberg

I'm sure that poking around the organizations Heiser was involved with would provide sources of material a bit more scholarly. Nonetheless I figured I'd mention these books that are more "layman" oriented discussions of the type of source material MH so wonderfully shared with us.

There's a lot going on in this chapter. Translators note that this passage is loaded with ambiguous phrases, and too many English renderings follow a path that tends to obscure the depth of what Paul is saying.

As previously noted, the biggest issue is denying that Christ is the Son of God. Paul does not distinguish here between the Judaizer attack and the Gnostic one. It may well be that these two groups were working together in this particular region. Paul mentions Laodecia as part of the same community of faith. Even though none of these believers ever encountered the ministry of Paul firsthand, he still carries a heavy burden of concern for them simply because they belong to Christ.

He isn't arming them for debate. Rather, he is prompting them to make the familial unity of Christians their single greatest defense. Stand together in your faith in Christ! What is this "mystery of Christ"? He conquered the flesh, and passed on to us His power to do so in our own lives. There is no mistaking that the denial of the flesh and this world is crucial to everything Paul says here. This is the real treasury of divine wisdom, not the nonsense cooked up by the philosophers and teachers of Judaism and Gnosticism.

It's not about reasonable arguments; it's about taking up your own Cross. This life is one big lie, and we must dismiss it in order to walk with Christ. But having received His Holy Spirit in our souls, we have everything we need to stand firm against any human reason. Paul does not attack erudition itself, but encourages his readers to make sure that the content of that profound knowledge is the truth Jesus taught.

Both Judaism and Gnosticism were rooted in the flesh, and the assumptions that this world is all there is. This is at least part of what Paul means in referring to the Aristotelian logical foundation, using the term "elementary" or "rudimentary" principles of this world. It flatly denies that Jesus could rise from death, because there was no Spirit Realm in which He could wait to reclaim His body, and no spirits to inhabit such a realm.

Starting in verse 9, Paul hammers once again on bold and clear statements of doctrine. There is no useful distinction between Christ and God. When Jesus walked on the earth, it was as much of the very Presence of God as this world could have -- God in the flesh. And because He returned to the Father, His Spirit is able to live in all of us at the same time. There is no higher authority, so pay no attention to the Jewish or Gnostic appeals to lesser authorities. The God of Creation lives in us.

Then Paul refers to spiritual circumcision; not just a clipping of some small bit of skin, but detaching our spirits from our fleshly nature. The fleshly nature is not our real selves. The baptism ritual was a declaration of feudal submission to Christ; the symbol was that the flesh dies and our spirits are raised to join Christ in His resurrection.

His voluntary death on the Cross defeated the grip of flesh on our souls. He broke that power by His willingness to pay the awful price. We are no longer captives of our fallen natures. We participate in His life in Heaven. Then Paul shifts to legal terminology, referring to a writ of debt filed as a hostile action against us. That writ was nailed to the Cross and died with His flesh.

In so doing, He confiscated the weapons of every authority, in Heaven and on Earth, rendering them harmless against us. His victory over the fleshly nature put them to shame; all their claims on us were suddenly a laughingstock.

Now that our fleshly natures are dead, there is absolutely no sense in binding the flesh under all the legalistic rules of the Talmud or the ethics of Gnosticism. Why worship angels, when we have direct access to the Creator? This is what holds us together, a bond far stronger than the fleshly birthright claims of Jews. Their silly rules are nothing more than a racist ethnic pretense of belonging to a God that has disowned them. Their self-righteous attitude about their silly rules is all they have.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

At 8 PM EST, which is about 10 minutes, the post on my blog will have all the other photos, but here are three of them. I'd post all the photos but the way the forum software adds photos is a little tedious.

Edit: Post with all the photos is here: Photos: April 2024 Solar Eclipse

I became caught up reading JTMEE and set aside Pagueau's book (again) about half way through. Your commentary and analysis of TLoC will suffice for me for the time being. I don't feel inclined to pursue that path or tangent any farther. 

To say I'm excited to read your commentary on JTMEE would be an understatement! Having finished it I'm still digesting, ruminating, adjusting my thinking and searching my heart. Bailey is so much farther down the road of understanding the ANE mindset, yet, he is still a man of our western civilization. I found it edifying and I hope you and the readers will as well.    

Having a brothers and sisters who are following the same threads of truth, commenting on the same material I'm exploring is very encouraging, glad I found this assembly. Locally I have maybe one brother who is challenging his understanding of the faith in this way. 

Everyone is locked into their sectarian filters and templates, completely ignoring obvious inconsistencies, chugging along in cognitive dissonance. Gods cosmology and economy is so foreign to the modern church.

As an aside, I've read a couple of your (Eds) books and have been blessed, currently reading The Practice of Christian Mysticism.

Colossae was nestled in the Lycus Valley, running between two high mountain ranges, not too far from Laodicea. Paul passed through this area because the main highway ran through both, but didn't preach in any of the cities. One of Colossae's leading citizens, Epaphras, converted to Christianity in Ephesus. The man brought this gospel back to his hometown, and a church grew there. He came to visit Paul somewhat early under Roman house arrest. Epaphras eventually came back to his hometown with a letter for the church in the company of Onesimus with a letter for Philemon.

This was part of the old Phrygian Kingdom, and the Cult of Cybele. The temple of Diana in Ephesus was actually the new name for the old temple of Cybele. The worship there was little changed with the new name. The Greek invasion brought another layer of philosophical assumptions and religious belief to the Lycus Valley, but the old Phrygian scholarship was still very strong. The Jewish population wasn't that large, and they were known to be somewhat paganized. Despite this, the Judaizers were very active in the region once their campaign began. If not the birthplace of Gnosticism, the valley was certainly one of the strongest centers for it. The Judaizers contributed much to Gnosticism.

The biggest threat to Christian faith in Colossae was the many direct philosophical attacks on the divinity of Jesus, so Paul's letter seeks to more firmly assert it. The first half of this chapter is devoted to greetings, Paul's thanksgiving for the church and his prayer for them. This prayer ends with an emphasis on the centrality of Christ.

We note that verses 15-20 read like a hymn or poem, structured in Greek to be memorized and quoted often. It is a very dense statement of doctrine. The word "firstborn" is used twice. First, He was alive and mature before any part of Creation existed, and also had authority over it. Indeed, He was the agent of Creation. Paul pointedly declares that not a single authority in existence escapes Jesus' dominion, simply because He made them, and they exist only for His convenience.

Not only does He precede all of Creation, but He holds it all together. The system remains intact only as long as He wants it so.

It's only natural that He is the Head of His Body, the church. He is also the firstborn from the dead, the forerunner of the resurrection to come for all His saints. If we do not follow Him, we aren't even on the path. The Father was pleased for the fullness of His own power and authority to be expressed in the Son.

Finally, the Father chose Him as the agent of reconciliation. By embracing Jesus as Lord, we make peace with God from the Fall. And while we could not possibly comprehend what it means, Jesus is also the agent of peace for beings in Heaven who have offended God.

At the conclusion of this lyrical statement of faith, Paul goes on to remind the Colossians that the same reconciliation includes them. They were once completely off the rails morally, and their lives portrayed it. But because of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, the Elect can be presented before the Father as cleansed from the Fall. The Covenant is now open to them. They can exercise covenant privileges by remaining firm in their faith.

Paul refers to the mystery kept from the various authorities for centuries. This was God's plan to nominate and then call the Elect from every nation on earth, something of which the Elohim Council had no awareness. Once it was done via the Cross and resurrection, it was too late for them to protest. The power of Election and faith carries them through trials, same as Paul.

Linda mentioned to me she heard about some flooding in Pittsburgh. There was nothing bad on my bus route, so I don't know the details of anywhere else aside from some coworker stories. A coworker today, though, pointed out the Allegheny river levels rising pretty high, making her commute a little longer.

I took a photo this morning around 8, from my building windows facing northwest across the river. Right in front of the arches in front of PNC Park is supposed to be a trail (rather nice one), but it's underwater.

The second photo was taken around 3:30, and you can see some grass from the levels dropping.

To give you an idea of what the trail looks like normally, here's a good Google maps link with a street view. Judging by the people you see on the trail, I'm thinking the water levels here are maybe 15-20 feet too high? Hard to say. 

When I left work it was raining pretty hard again, so who knows what the water levels were at after all that.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

In honor of Good Friday, I'm posting this week's Bible lesson early. It's a review of a previous lesson on the Resurrection.

John 20 (Parallels: Matthew 27, Mark 16 and Luke 24)

Jesus lay in the tomb. As the Lamb, He died on the day of Passover, a High Sabbath. Then, there had been the regular Sabbath the next day. Finally, in the wee hours of morning darkness, the women who had been there when Jesus died, and had seen where His body was laid, left the place where everyone had been hiding. This was almost surely somewhere in Bethesda, the newer quarter of Jerusalem built north of the Temple plaza.

It was just a short walk to the memorial garden as the women carried their spices. John mentions only Mary Magdalene because she plays a central role in what happens next, but the other Gospels tell us at least three more came with her -- the other Mary, Joanna and Salome. They discussed how they were going to get that massive stone moved from the door of the tomb. The door was a large round slab requiring several men to move it.

The doorway was a bit low and required crouching to get through it, but it was also below the ground level, with the threshold even lower, enough so to capture that stone door. It would have to be rolled back up the incline to uncover the entrance. Upon arriving, it was just light enough for the women to see that the stone was completely away from the face of the rock where the tomb had been carved.

Matthew tells us that there had been an aftershock from the quake that struck when Jesus died. This put the guards on edge. Then an angel floated down from the sky, whose very physical form and clothing emitted light. This single being alone rolled the stone back from the door, breaking the seal in the process. All of the guards together probably could not have moved it. Nobody had to tell them this was not someone they could fight; the men nearly swooned. Who can guard against such a powerful being?

After removing the stone away from the face of the tomb, the angel rolled it a bit to one side, pushed it over on one face, and sat down on it. The guards felt utterly powerless, and probably fled almost immediately upon recovering from their shock. At some point, another angel showed up. Nobody could report how Jesus had risen and left, but He was already gone. The angels were waiting for the women to arrive.

As soon as they got close to the tomb, the angels met them and told them they were wasting time, because Jesus was among the living again. They told the women to go back and report that Jesus had risen, and that they should all go to meet Him where He had told them in advance, on some mountain in Galilee. The women hurried away. Near as we can tell, John and Peter were not in the hideout. Mary Magdalene got separated from the others, going to John and Peter, who likely had rented space for their fishing business. The other women headed for the larger group holing up, probably in the same home as the Upper Room. On the way, these others encountered Jesus Himself.

They fell at His feet, hugging His lower extremities in worship. He reiterated the angels' message, referring to the disciples as His brethren, and made sure to mention Peter, the one who would surely have felt he deserved to be written off.

The women ran on to where the disciples had been staying during the two Sabbaths. They told them everything they encountered; it took some doing to convince anyone that they weren't deluded, drunk or joking. Mary Magdalene found Peter and John in their separate hideout, who didn't hesitate to take off for the garden where the tomb stood. John was a faster runner, so he got there first. He stooped down and saw how the linen casing had collapsed inward without having been disturbed. He believed that Jesus had risen.

Peter was slower, but simply blundered all the way into the tomb. He noted the collapsed mummy casing that had not been altered in any other way, and the head wrapping folded neatly close to where Jesus' head had rested. He marveled at what he saw -- obviously the body had been removed without cutting the linen strips soaked in the now dried gum Arabic. After he came out, John went all the way inside, as well. Then they all went back to their hideout in Bethesda.

Somewhere behind the men, Mary Magdalene made her way back to the memorial garden. It would appear they were gone when she arrived. The angels' message had not yet sunk in with her. She stood outside the tomb weeping, fearing the worst had happened. Eventually she stooped down to see what was inside. Not only was the mummy case still there, but also the two angels sat there, one at each end. Again they asked her why she had not believed them the first time.

At that moment, Jesus Himself came up behind her. Being a dutiful Hebrew woman, she avoided eye contact with a man she didn't know. Assuming this was some hired keeper of the memorial garden, she asked about the missing body, willing to take responsibility for it. Without knowing much about Joseph or Nicodemas, she likely figured that the body had been placed there out of mere convenience for the timing with the approaching high holy days. Such a powerful and rich man probably wanted it moved now that the ritual observance had finished.

It took Jesus calling her name for her to realize who it was. She called Him "Master" and tried to hug Him. It was almost humorous how He told her He wasn't gone yet, and suggested they both had a lot to do right now. She could save the hugs for later. She ran back to the disciples' hideout in the Bethesda quarter and added her report to all the others. Most of them would be staying for the week of Unleavened Bread.

Meanwhile, the soldiers that had been guarding the tomb reported to the Sanhedrin, indicating that they had been detached from regular duty and temporarily placed under command of the Temple Guard. They told the whole story. The officials could not allow this to leak out into the public, so they bribed the guards to tell the story that they had fallen asleep, and that during their slumber, the disciples had stolen the body. Of course, this would be an admission of dereliction of duty, a capital offense under Roman military law. The Sanhedrin promised to cover for them by explaining the situation to their officers and to Pilate, but they wanted to keep everything as secret as possible. As the fake story was being repeated around town, it meant there was a warrant for the arrest of the disciples for breaking the Roman seal.

Two of the disciples decided to leave town, Cleopas and one other. They were hiking to Emmaus where they lived. On the way, Jesus casually joined them and asked about their discussion. They were kept from recognizing Him, and were naturally shocked that this fellow wasn't aware of all the noise about Jesus and His death. They mentioned their disappointment with how things turned out, and noted the unconfirmed claims of Him being seen alive. Upon hearing this, Jesus scolded them for being so slow to put the picture together.

Then He launched into a recitation of the prophecies that had indicated quite accurately how the Messiah would die and rise from death. He further reminded them that the Messianic Kingdom would have to be a moral empire of hearts, not some political entity. They must have thought He was a rabbi on the good side of things, and invited Him to stay with them. This was just common courtesy; it was late and time for dinner. They honored their fascinating guest by treating Him as a respected superior. As soon as He blessed and broke the unleavened bread, the Spirit allowed them to recognize Him. And just as suddenly, He vanished.

They immediately forgot the meal and rushed the seven miles back to Bethesda and recounted their experience. As they all were discussing this, Jesus materialized in front of them, greeting them with "shalom!" Most Jews believed in ghosts, and their presence was always bad news. Jesus sought immediately to calm them down, and warned them they had been too locked into their human expectations of a political reform, and never paid any attention to what Jesus had pointedly told them several times about the nature of His reign as Messiah.

While He was in a resurrected body, it was still fully manifested in solid form. He demonstrated this by eating food. He still bore the scars of His execution, and showed them as proof who He was. He began another lecture on the nature of His Kingdom. He was careful to bring it home to them, with none of His normal cryptic statements. He finished by telling them that they now had His divine authority to declare sins forgiven, as the means of demonstrating the new situation, under the New Covenant.

We learn that Thomas had not been present for this late Sunday evening meeting. When the others reported it to him, he showed his character. He was the first one honestly ready to die with Jesus, and was still committed to what he knew best. His commitment rested on what he could verify for himself. Not given to strong emotions either way, he dismissed the wild tales of Jesus alive again, insisting he needed better proof.

It came eight days later, as the disciples tarried in Jerusalem. It was the day after the end of Unleavened Bread. They met again, and this time Thomas showed up. The doors were locked because the warrant for their arrest was still a hot issue in town. Jesus materialized in front of them and turned to Thomas, inviting him to sate his curiosity. At this point, Thomas simply reaffirmed his former readiness to die for Him.

Jesus warned Thomas that the time for hard logical proof was passing. From here on out, Thomas would need to change things. Instead of forming commitments on hard proof, it was now time to let his convictions stand on their own to drive his choices. Taking this as his cue, John reminds his readers that he saw more than enough proof over the coming days with Jesus hanging around a while. People who need proof would never get enough. We will have to take it on faith.