Population Control

but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage; for they cannot even die anymore, for they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.   Luke 20:35-36  NASB Neither marry – Luke conveys Yeshua’s comment about life in…

Now, But Not Yet

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.  Revelation 22:20 NASB Come – Are you expectantly waiting for the ‘olam ha’ba?  You know, the return of the King, the new Millennium, the restoration of God’s purposes.  Oh, and don’t forget, the end of all your troubles.  Heschel noted that the Christian religion…

Hebrew Greek

because God did not make death nor does he delight in the destruction of the living.  Wisdom of Salomon 1:13  A New English Translation of the Septuagint Death – It’s fairly widely recognized that The Wisdom of Salomon was composed in Greek in the mid first century B.C.E. It contains many Hellenistic themes, most likely imported…

Yeshua’s Message (2)

Soon afterwards, He began going around from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God. The twelve were with Him, Luke 8:1 NASB The kingdom of God – “The kingdom of heaven [of God] resembles a concept in rabbinic Judaism called tikkun ha-olam, which literally means ‘mending the world.’ When one enters (or…

Recalculating

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.  Hebrews 11:13  NASB The promises – Is it really true that all the saints in the hall of fame, all those righteous Old…

What’s Next?

 “who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life”  Luke 18:30  ESV Age to come – While the ESV renders the Greek aion as “age,” the Hebrew idiom is more likely ‘olam ha’ba, the “world to come.”  The rabbis contrasted this with the ‘olam hazeh, the…

Heaven Above

Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth?  Ecclesiastes 3:21  NASB Ascends upward – “Ecclesiastes, alone in the Bible, is aware of the belief that at death the soul goes upward to the heavens, rather than down to Sheol.  This idea is not…