Christian Reflections on a Jewish Messiah

Four years ago, I came across an interesting reference in the New Testament to a verse in the Hebrew Bible. At the end of Luke narrative of the birth and childhood of Jesus, he writes:

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

It almost a direct quotation of 1 Sam 2:26. But why would Luke quote this verse here? Why compare the childhood of Jesus to Samuel? The answer to these questions did not come to me until this past semester while taking the Dead Sea Scrolls seminar when my teacher (Dr. Curt Niccum) pointed out a peculiar reference in one of the scrolls. I spent three days listening to over 30 papers written by some of the mostpreeminent biblicalscholars in the world. It was quite an amazing experience. Hopefully, one day I will present something at that conference, but that a day at least several years away. For now I like to turn several of my favorite presentations into blog posts. Many of the presentations I heard were on magic, amulets, spells, and exorcism in the biblical world. Join me as we look at the first one: the exorcism of Jesus. (update: May 3, 2013: I never got around to writing the other two. Sorry. I have changed the title to reflect that this is no longer 1

A favorite teaching practice of many rabbis was www.officialcoltsnflauthentic.com/authentic-donte-moncrief-jersey.html the art of allegory. All of the most famous rabbis were masters of this practice, and of course Jesus and Paul are no exceptions. Paul used this technique often in his letters and knowing this is important to interpretation. However, what happens when a master like Paul blends solid teaching about salvation and an allegory that would make perfect sense to his original audience? We miss it, that what. The paper was called: Eschatology of the Old Testament: A Case Study in Ezekiel 40 48 If you don know, comes from the Greek word which means So is a theology of the end. What happens at the end? People have been asking this question for a long time. It a very interesting subject because thecanonizedHebrew Bible does not have the fully developed eschatologies that Judaism and Christianity would later see. I have posted my paper for you here if you are interested to read it. If you do subject yourself to it here is what I recommend: first read through Ezekiel 40 48, and then second, keep your bible out because you also want to read other passages to which I refer (Jer 31, Zech 14, etc).

If anyone is brave enough to Jack Mewhort Youth Jersey read it, I love to know your thoughts.

This past week at ACU was Summit, the event formally known as Lectureship. It was an exciting time where scholars from around the nation (and world) gathered for a forum on issues that are pressing hard against the Christian church (as a whole) in today world. Topics covered were in a wide range from worship, to biblical study, to social work, to recycling, and more. The following is a write up on one particular Summit class that I went to, called and Muhammad

If you were writing a letter to a friend, trying to convince him or her that some very supernatural events were real, what would you do? I think that a probable course of action is to link it to something in reality to make it more believable and understandable. You might also link it to the religion of your friend so that it fits into their worldview. When Luke tells about Paul (the text still refers to him as Saul at that point) vision of Jesus (Acts 9) this is precisely what he does. After I posted the shorter version of this post I called my friend Bryan Nix and we shot ideas back and forth and in the process came up with some very cool links in these two passages and I wanted to share them. In a nutshell, Singing School is a praise camp. We sing all week long and learn about music, especially from an a cappella standpoint. If you are curious about this place, I wrote this post a while back. Each year I write a song, and this year (as well as last year) I collaborated with my good friends Bryan Nix and Robert Nix. After I wrote the lyrics, I told Bryan that I wanted a contemporary sounding feel, like what you would hear on the radio today. The following is what we came up with, and I really happy with it. Disclaimer: this was done entirely without the use of professional equipment. The credits for the following song are as follows:

Lyrics: James Prather

Melody: Bryan Authentic Donte Moncrief Jersey Nix

Original a cappella arrangement: Robert Nix

Instrumental Arrangement: Bryan Nix

Listen to the song: My Eyes Are Forever On Authentic Jack Mewhort Jersey The Lord (instrumental) or My Eyes are Forever on the Lord (acapella).

This song is entirely rooted in scripture, so bonus points to anyone who can figure out where it from (there are at least 3 different places). What do you think?