The Name of God

Johnny posted a comment of clarification regarding the "Christian" name of God, Jehovah. Here is what he posted in case you did not read the comment.

The name Jehovah is actually not a name for God, but a protection against saying the name of God. It is literally the name Adonai and YHWH, superimposed to prevent anyone coming across the name YHWH from saying the name. This was done sometime after the exiles, when the Jews were fearful that their scrolls would be lost and someone may come across them and accidentally say God's name. The reason that it was not acceptable to say God's name came about after the exiles when the Jews began to take a literal rendering of the commandment to not take the Lord' name in vein. In the 16th century a scholar came across the name "Jehovah" and assumed it was another name for God. You can read about this at http://www.jerusalemperspective.com/ by clicking on articles and typing "Jehovah" in the search block. You will have to get a membership to read the entire article ($60 per year and worth it), but you'll still get the gist of the article.

Here is a link to the article he refers to that you can read without subscribing to the website.

"Jehovah" - A Christian Misunderstanding

Another really good article I found regarding this "name" of God is found on the Hebrew4Christians website (which I have found very useful since I found it!) It has quite a few other names of God explained as well.

The Sacred Name YHVH - The Unutterable Name

I find it so amazing what I'm finding out by digging into our Jewish Roots as Christians. My faith and relationship with the my Lord is becoming so much richer! I know different people have been worried about where this journey may lead me, but so far it has drawn me closer to Jesus and increased my desire to learn more about Him.

Did you know. . . ?

1. The Tanakh was originally written without any vowels and the Torah scrolls read in the synagogue today also contain only consonants.

2. Without the vowels, Hebrew words could be pronounced in many different ways which can mean different things (just like English, how would you pronounce st?) The reader would know how to pronounce the word and therefore the correct meaning by the context of the surrounding words.

3. When the Hebrew language started to fall into disuse, scribes called Masoretes developed a system in the 6th to 9th century for notating the correct vowels. Masoretes comes from the Hebrew word masoret meaning tradition.

4. The name of God given to Moses at the burning bush consists of four letters Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh (known as a tetragrammaton). Because the third commandment prohibits taking the Lord's name in vain, by Jesus' time on earth, no one ever spoke the name of God. Many times in Jewish writing instead of Jehovah (the English representation) you'll see J-H-V-H or you'll see God as G-d.

5. The word Adonai (meaning My Lord) is often used instead of the name of God when reading aloud the Torah.

6. Where the Hebrew text is translated as Adonai Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, it is read as Adonai-Elohim, to avoid repeating the name twice.

7. In ultra-orthodox Jewish congregations even the names of Adonai and Elohim are not used except in very specific religious situations. In some cases the names are intentionally misspelled and mispronounced. For example, Elokim instead of Elohim.

8. Traditional Judaism follows a yearly schedule of weekly Torah readings for each Shabbat (Sabbath, which falls on Saturday) followed by selected portions from the Prophets which have a related theme. This weekly reading is called a parashah. The following site has a really good explanation of these as well as a table detailing the weekly readings. Weekly Torah Readings. There are additional readings that are done for the Jewish Holidays.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Today we celebrate the life, accomplishments and the dream of a great man who changed our nation. The more I learn about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he did for our country, the more impressed I am with the changes he made, his character and his insistence that change be made in a non-violent way.

I also find it sad that so few people know or understand what he stood for and why we celebrate his life. I honestly don't know as much about him as I would like, which is why I am spending a portion of this day researching his life and accomplishments. I'm finding that our nation today does not understand quite a few of the holidays our nation celebrates. Many do not understand Veterans Day and what/who it honors, for example. I find this very sad, not only because those who should be honored are not, but also because we can learn so much if we bothered to understand them better.

The other thing I've noticed in our country is the use of violence to get ideas across or what has been labeled "reverse racism". I believe Martin Luther King would be just as disappointed and saddened by this as he was by what he dealt with during his life. He stood for equality, respect and honor for ALL races. We need to take the higher ground and not stoop to the level of those who have hurt us. I know that is sometimes hard to do.

I find it very sad that as humans we have a habit of taking something good to an extreme in which the underlying purpose is twisted to our own selfish purpose. We are all guilty of this to a certain extent and we need to constantly examine what we believe and how we live that belief in our lives.

Please take some time today to better understand this great man who loved the Lord and stood up for his beliefs in such an honorable way. We can all learn something from his example.

Jewish "New Testament" (B'rit Hadashah)

What Christians label (and separate out) as the New Testament is called the B'rit Hadashah. There are four different sections, the Gospels, the Acts of the Emissaries, the Letters and Revelation.

In the introduction to the Complete Jewish Bible, David Stern makes a good point (at least in my opinion). He has chosen to not separate out the Tanakh and the B'rit Hadashah into two distinct separate sections.

"The two parts of the Bible, the Tanakh and the B'rit Hadashah, form one Bible. These two parts deal with parallel material in complementary ways...the New Testament apart from the Old is heretical, and the Old Testament apart from the New is incomplete - two testaments, one Bible."

Due to this he has not divided the Complete Jewish Bible into the Old and New Testament, but rather into seven sections. The Torah, the Prophets and the Writings which I detailed out in my previous post and the four additional sections detailed below.

The Gospels (The Good News of Yeshua the Messiah as reported by . . .)
1. Mattityahu (Matthew)
2. Mark
3. Luke
4. Yochanan (John)

The Acts of the Emissaries of Yeshua the Messiah

Letters/Epistles

1. Sha'ul's (Paul's) Letters to Communities
a. Romans
b. 1 Corinthians
c. 2 Corinthians
d. Galatians
e. Ephesians
f. Philippines
g. Colossians
h. 1 Thessalonians
i. 2 Thessalonians

2. Sha'ual's (Paul's) Pastoral Letters (to Individuals)
a. 1 Timothy
b. 2 Timothy
c. Titus
d. Philemon

3. General Letters
a. Messianic Jews (Hebrews)
b. Ya'akov (James)
c. 1 Kefa (1 Peter)
d. 2 Kefa (2 Peter)
e. 1 Yochanan (1 John)
f. 2 Yochanan (2 John)
g. 3 Yochanan (3 John)
h. Y'hudah (Jude)

The Revelation of Yeshua the Messiah to Yochanan (John)

New Content on website

In case you are interested I've changed/updated the content on my website. If you want to check it out you can visit the sites below. They are listed on the sidebar of my blog as well if you want to visit them any other time in the future. I'll try to be better about keeping them updated.

Ang4him Website
Ang4him Reading Room

Things that make me go. . .HMM?!

While studying the Jewish roots of Christianity a couple of things have struck me recently as interesting:

1. While the entire Bible is God's Word and was originally a "Jewish" book (written by Jews with God's inspiration), nowadays you'll note many Jews (excluding Messianic Jews of course)deny what Christians call the New Testament or New Covenant as well as Jesus as the Messiah. On the other side you have many Christians discounting the importance of the Old Testament. I believe we need both to fully understand God and develop a deeper relationship with Him. One without the other gives us an incomplete picture of our awesome Creator.

2. Currently you find Christians trying to convert Jews to "their" religion of Christianity. Sometimes in doing so they are expecting them to give up their Jewish heritage/traditions/customs/culture. However, the question in the early church (which was originally 100% Jewish) was whether Gentiles (non-Jews) could be followers of Christ and if so, did they need to convert to Judaism in order to do so.

Maybe we should think about finding the true answer somewhere in between? Seems the church over time has gone from one extreme to the other. Just my thoughts.

What I’m learning – (Jewish) Books of the Bible

Below are my notes regarding what I’m learning about the contents of the Bible in Hebrew. I honestly don’t know how to actually pronounce all of these yet, but I want to and will work on that next.

Tanakh – What we Christians call the Old Testament. It is made up of three parts

Torah – The first five books of the Bible constitute the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moshe (Moses).
1. B’resheet (Genesis)
2. Sh’mot (Exodus)
3. Vayikra (Leviticus)
4. B’midbar (Numbers)
5. D’varim (Deuteronomy)

The Prophets are divided into two parts, the Early Prophets and Later Prophets

Nevi’im Rishonim (Early Prophets)
1. Y’hoshua (Joshua)
2. Shof’tim (Judges)
3. Sh’mu’el Alef and Bet (1 – 2 Samuel)
4. M’lakhim Alef and Bet (1 – 2 Kings)

Nevi’im Acharonim (Later Prophets)
1. Yesha’yahu (Isaiah)
2. Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah)
3. Yechezk’el (Ezekiel)
4. Shneim-‘Asar (The Twelve, known also as the Minor Prophets)

The Twelve include:
1. Hoshea (Hosea)
2. Yo’el (Joel)
3. ‘Amos (Amos)
4. ‘Ovadyah (Obadiah)
5. Yonah (Jonah)
6. Mikhah (Micah)
7. Nachum (Nahum)
8. Havakuk (Habakkuk)
9. Tz’fanyah (Zephaniah)
10. Hagai (Haggai)
11. Z’kharyah (Zechariah)
12. Mal’akhi (Malachi)

K’tuvim (The Writings)
1. Tehillim (Psalms)
2. Mishlei (Proverbs)
3. Iyov (Job)
4. The Five Megillot (Scrolls) - see below
5. Dani'el (Daniel)
6. Ezra-Nechemyah (Ezra-Nehemiah)
7. Divrei-HaYamim Alef and Bet (1-2 Chronicles)

The Five Megillot (Scrolls) include:
1. Shir-HaShirim (Song of Solomon/Song of Songs)
2. Rut (Ruth)
3. Eikhah (Lamentations)
4. Kohelet (Ecclesiastes)
5. Ester (Esther)

There are differences between the Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Tanakh which I will try to go into more depth on at a later time (when I understand them better myself), however as you can see from above, the order of the books is one of those differences. The number of books are also one difference because the Jewish Tanakh combines some books the Christian Old Testament separate out (ie The Twelve).

More to come. . . My next posting will be regarding the Christian New Testament.

Jewish "Engagement"

I rarely just post a link to someone else's blog, however I really find this blog informative and really liked this post.

It is discussing the Jewish tradition of what we would consider the engagement period. I found it very interesting and he makes a nice tie-in to our being ready for Christ's return at the end.

Enjoy!

Flock's Diner - Is the Bride Ready?

My Thoughts

Today I found some things I wrote a year or two ago that were good reminders. I thought they might be good to post and keep as constant reminders to myself, which means I get to share them with you as well!

In keeping with my last posting regarding the Holy Spirit, the following are things I wrote as specific steps I can take to live my life controlled by the Spirit.

1. Make sure to stay in the Word daily and memorize scripture (hide His Word in my heart).

2. Pray daily, spend quiet time daily in communion with my God.

3. Look to Jesus in times of temptation instead of trying to fight sin all on my own because I can not do it!

4. Make sure my motives are pure. I should obey God out of respect and love for Him, not to impress Him or gain His approval.

5. Realize I can do NOTHING without God. When I think I can do things of my own power I am only fooling myself.

* * * * * * * * *

This I wrote regarding being faithful in every job God gives us, regardless of how big or small those jobs may be in the eyes of the world.

There are no large or small jobs with God because His emphasis/concern is on you listening and obeying Him. Since this is His focus (and should be ours too) all jobs with God are equal. Sometimes for us the small jobs are harder because our ego and pride get involved.

Isaiah 11 – Holy Spirit (Spirit of God)

There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord
(Isaiah 11:1-2)

Christians believe these two passages are prophecies regarding the Messiah, Jesus Christ. They talk about how He will be from the line of Jesse and talks of how the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, will rest upon Him.

The amazing thing is that this same Spirit of God that rested on Jesus, is in each of us who have chosen to put our trust and lives in His hands.

If you keep reading, verse 2 tells you about this Spirit of God, it tells you his characteristics that will be given to the Messiah, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might and knowledge and fear of the Lord. These characteristics are available to us as well if we’ve accepted Jesus as our savior because God’s Spirit comes to dwell inside us.

However, these manifestations of God’s Spirit in our lives depends wholly on our response to the Spirit’s prompting. He does not “possess” us and take over. We must choose to listen and act in faith upon the promptings of the Spirit. He comes to live in us, but we choose how much of our lives to give over to Him.

Do you have wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and fear of the Lord apparent in your life? I know the fruit of my life often does not reflect these characteristics. I recognize though it is not because the Spirit is not in me, or because He does not want to give me these things. He gives me the choice to choose between controlling things myself or giving my life over the Him, every part of my life. That is my striving for this next year. To better understand and develop my relationship with the Spirit and to give my life over to Him. I truly believe the results will be amazing. Are you ready to walk with me in this adventure? How much control will you give Him?