Welcome to this week in the Messianic blogosphere, Super Fine Kineti reader.
- San Francisco to Propose Circumcision Ban – California, the left-wing experiment of the US, proposes anti-Jewish legislation designed to render illegal the biblical commandment of circumcision.
- Is Circumcision Really Important? – Dr. Schiffman responds to the news with a sharp reality check:
Banning Jewish circumcision on infants violates the separation of Church and State, which people are quick to quote when they don’t want religion to weigh in on social and moral issues, but conveniently forget when they want to impose their opinions on a four thousand-year old religion.
The bottom line is that no law imposed by the city of San Francisco will keep Jews from circumcising their sons. In the time of the Maccabees, the Syrians outlawed circumcision. Jews did it anyway, and they overthrew the Syrians and took back the Temple. That’s why we celebrate Chanukah. San Francisco can enact their laws, and who knows… it might yet fall into the sea.
- Cataloging the New Testament's Hebraisms: Part 5 (Parallelisms) – In investigating the possibility of a Hebrew or Aramaic original New Testament, David Bivin looks at synonymous parallelisms: repetition of a thought in different but synonymous, or equivalent, words, with examples from the Tenakh and New Testament.
- A Messianic Christmas Story – James encourages Messianics to treat Christians and Christmas kindly.
- Oh Tannenbaum Oh Hanukkah Bush – Dr. Schiffman looks at the Christmas tree, the Hanukkah bush, and the non-religious trees used in various cultures. He concludes that trees are neither here nor there, and that “Rather than worrying about trees and decorations, we would do better to do the things the Torah actually commands us to do, whether or not a tree is in the house.”
- MJ Passages – Man-who-does-nothing-but-blog Derek Leman announces yet another Messianic website, MJ Passages, with the intent to be “the intersection of good things Jewish, Christian, Messianic Jewish, Judeo-Christian, biblical, archaeological, and theological”.
Hrmmm, sounds a bit like the Weekly Bracha! Maybe Derek is trying to steal you fine blog readers from my cold, iron death grip. Whatever his eeeeeevil intentions, the only Messianic blogs it links to are those 3 or 4 blogs that agree with most everything Derek says.
That said, perhaps it will be a catalyst to get my Bracha Futures idea off the ground.
- Josephus on the Messiah Concept – Was there a strong 1st-century concept of a single Messiah figure who would save Israel and rule the world, or is this just a Christian invention? The author points to Josephus’ 2nd century writings, citing Israel’s desire to go to war with Rome,
Savor the bracha bits, fine Kineti readers! And stay away from the bracha competition, even if it exists only in my imagination!But their chief inducement to go to war was an equivocal oracle also found in their sacred writings, announcing that at that time a man from their country would become the ruler of the world.
